Meant For Another (4): A Bad Hair Day

Writers: Bree, Eimi
Date Posted: 5th January 2007

Characters: M'galec, Abrei
Description: M'galec has to stitch up Abrei's hand when she takes it into her head to cut her hair. By herself. And probably not using scissors.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 1, day 26 of Turn 4

Abrei

Abrei arrived in the infirmary stiff-backed and angry, with a bleeding hand wrapped in a tunic cradled against her chest. It was not the expression on her face or her injury that drew blank stares from the first two healers to catch sight of her, however. It was the fact that uneven, bluntly chopped off pieces of hair tickled her cheeks and neck, making her look like an entirely different person.

She was obviously in no mood to be stared at. "Find M'galec," she snapped to the journeyman on duty, and strode past him without giving any indication that she noticed the slack-jawed stare she was getting.
She moved into one of the small rooms set aside for sterile procedures and slammed the door rather loudly behind her.

The bronzerider had been just about to leave. With an annoyed sigh he stopped at the summons. "Sir? M'galec, sir?" the apprenticed panted after him. "Yes, what is it?" he asked tolerantly. What was it now? He was supposed to find a chilled bottle of wine to take back with him to his weyr. Seducing Lenala had turned into a full time chore...

"Master Abrei, sir. She needs you."

Well, now, that was different. "Where is she?"

By the time the apprentice led him back to the room where Abrei had sequestered herself, she'd already pulled supplies out of cupboards and set them on the small table next to the cot. Her eyes found the apprentice and narrowed. "Out. Now." She didn't even look at M'galec as the apprentice fled, closing the door behind him. "I need stitches."

M'galec took one look at the the shredded hair and blood soaked bandage and he knew something terrible was wrong. "What happened, Abrei?"

"I cut my hand," she replied evenly, holding it out to him. "It's not that bad, but obviously I can't afford to lose dexterity in my hand if I ever want to perform surgery again. So please take care of the stitches."

"And your hair?" He began unwrapping her hand carefully. M'galec had a feeling her hair cut and her hand cut were related.

"I cut my hand before I could finish it." She hid a wince as the cloth peeled away from the cut in her hand, which was deep enough to be worrisome. "I'll get someone to take care of it later. Obviously it's not my priority." He poured redwort on the wound to clean it. "But why did you do this yourself?" She pretended not to understand the question. "Obviously cutting my hand was an accident."

"Yes, I could assume that much safely." He carefully examined the freshly cleaned wound. "Well, it does not look like it is deep enough to reach bone. Now why were you cutting your hair by yourself?"

"Because I wanted to," she replied without looking at him. "It's not really important at the moment. Can you please just take care of my hand?"

"Will just let me do my job? I will fix your hand and if you follow my directions it will be perfect." M'galec had very little doubt of his skill, but her ability to follow his instructions was another matter. His tone softened a bit now that he had laid down the rules of her recovery. "Now what brought this about, Abrei. Is this because of your moving to the nursery?"

Abrei glared at him. "I cut my hair because I wanted it to be shorter,"
she said coolly. "And it's not relevant. Can we stop talking about it now?"

M'galec sighed as he reached for the numbweed. "If you are not happy, Abrei, it is all right to say so. I am your friend and I am worried about you."

"Do you have this discussion with everyone who changes their hairstyle?"
she snapped, resisting the urge to yank her hand away from him. She wasn't ready to risk damaging it, no matter how angry she was with him.

"Do you think I just met you yesterday? I know you are upset, and not about your hand or your hair. I will not ask anything more. But you must remember that I care, and if you decide you want to talk about why you were upset enough to try to cut your hair yourself, if you want to tell me what led you to such drastic measures, then I am here." He poked her hand with the back of the needle to make sure it was numb and then set to work.

Abrei watched him critically, but there was nothing to complain about.
He dealt with the cut swiftly and without error, which perversely only made her more upset. It would have been nice to have something to yell at him about.

"I am going to wrap your hand to make sure it is immobilized and clean for a while. We would not want you to lose any mobility." Her silence was rather annoying. Mysteries did not intrigue a man like M'galec. They were an irritation. "I know," she replied, trying to make her voice biting. "I may not be Weyrhealer anymore, but I'm not stupid."

"Have I ever said otherwise?" He checked his wrapping job once more and gave it a satisfied nod of approval. "I am sure you already know what tea you should drink to ward off infection."

"Can you get me a supply of it, please?" Abrei didn't feel like rummaging around in the storeroom or asking anyone else to do it for her. Her best hope to minimize gossip was a quick escape.

He slowly nodded his understanding. Of course she wouldn't want to go out with her hair like that. "Yes, I can get the tea for you. While I do that," he walked over to the cupboard, pulled down a surgical cap and handed it to her. "Use this. People have seen you enough times with one of these on they will not look twice."

She held the scrap of cloth in her hand, staring down at it and struggling against tears. It was a simple gesture that spoke of understanding her too well, and the last person she'd expected it from was M'galec. "Thank you," she replied quietly.

M'galec touched her cheek briefly, knowing how hard this was for her. "I will get that tea for you."

Last updated on the January 6th 2007

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Meant For Another (4): A Bad Hair Day