Blaze
All Charlie felt was heat, like being eaten alive by fire, and it was extraordinarily uncomfortable. He had never felt anything this horrific in his life. His foggy brain tried to tell him to get up and move, but his body wouldn't listen to him, it just stayed still. He felt his chest rattle as he groaned, trying his best to sit up, and then buzzing and beeping.
People ran in, he could only hear them, and they began shouting and doing things to him that he didn't want. He felt his body slowly starting to relax again, his fight or flight instinct turning more towards sleep.... Perhaps, sleep wouldn't be too bad after all.
The next time he finally came to, he managed to actually open his eyes. That in itself felt like a feat, because they weighed a ton. To Charlie's horror, all he saw was darkness still. His eyes finally focused a little, he could tell he was in a room, with the lights off, and the only light was coming from a small window in the door. There was something on his face, and he tried to bat it away because there should be nothing on his face.
The next thing he realized was that there was someone curled up on the small couch.
“Mum?” He croaked out, not really recognizing his own voice that was still scratchy from the smoke inhalation. His arm hurt, like nothing he had ever felt before. The person on the couch moved, and he realized there wasn't any red hair, but a very long light colored braid.
“Charlie?” Iris asked as she stood up and walked over to him quickly.
“Iris?”
“You need to leave this on.” She told him, readjusting the mask on his face gently, trying to avoid the burns.
“I don't-”
“I don't like it.” She imitated his voice. “Tough. You inhaled a ton of smoke, and your lungs aren't doing well. You need the oxygen. This is the least invasive option, so unless you want a tube up your nose or down your throat, I would keep the mask on.” She picked a few pieces of his hair out from the burn paste on his face and smoothed them back as best she could away from his face. “I need to go let a Healer know you're awake, ok?” He managed to nod, his eyelids feeling heavy. “I'll be right back.” She assured him as she quickly exited the door.
Despite what he wanted, he ended up with the tubes up his nose, but in exchange, he was able to stay awake. The tubes he actually got used to, the face mask was worse in his opinion. The one bad side of staying awake was the physical therapy and his therapist relished in making his life miserable. His muscled had atrophied slightly, and the pain of having to move his sore muscles, the skin on his arms and legs were so tight as the skin healed. Then there was the matter of his broken leg, the skelegrow was working but the break had been significant, and he was almost having to learn to walk again. Just sitting up was exhausting and painful, but he still had to scoot, painstakingly and painfully to the edge of the bed, and somehow stand up.
Through it all, to his shock, was Iris. She would help him stand, learned how to change bandages and treat his burns, and would even challenge the therapist if she thought he was pushing Charlie too hard. He was relieved to have her on his side.
“You know, if I didn't know any better... One would think that you care about me.” Charlie smiled a little, the skin was still very tight, so he couldn't smile like normal. He was only five days post burns, and was assured the skin would heal.
“What gave you that impression?” Iris asked with a smirk, flipping open her book in a moment of down time.
“Well, going to Romania, searching for me, facing dragons and fire, sleeping next to me while I'm in the hospital. Helpingme... Just a thought.” He smiled towards her gently. Her eyes looked up over her book and he saw the corner of her mouth turn up.
“You must have got a concussion too.” She retorted, a smile playing at her lips. “I'll have to tell the healer, wouldn't want that.”
“Mhmm.” He hummed. “Do you know if the reserve is under control?” Charlie asked her.
“I don't know, I've only went home a few times. Most of my time has been spent here.”
“Do you think you could try and find out?” He asked her. His eyes looked heavy, and for the first time he just looked fragile and puny. Iris found herself unable to tell him no.
“It may take a bit.” She informed him as she closed her book and placed it on the table near the chair she sat in. “Do you want me to have them contact your Mum so you're not alone?”
“I'll be ok.” He assured her, but Iris decided to tell the nurses to contact Molly on her way out. Iris stepped outside the hospital, and apeprated to the Dragon Reserve.
She apperated near the front office, where she and Bill had floo'd. The place was in shambles, smoke still lingered in the air, burned remnants of buildings and fields smoldered, and people wondered about attempting to fix what they could with magic.
“Excuse me.” She called, approaching one of the closest workers. “I'm Iris, Charlie's... Wife.”
“You're Iris! Nice to finally put a face to a name.” He greeted. “I'm Rupert, I work with Charlie a lot, we're the only two English blokes here.” He held out his hand and greeted Iris.
“Nice to meet you too.” She shook his hand.
“How's he doing? I heard he was knocking on Death's door.”
“He was. He's ok, if you know him you know how stubborn he can be. He's fighting the physical therapy, he hates the oxygen up his nose constantly. He's doing as well as can be expected.”
“They think he'll be... Back to normal?”
“They are cautiously optimistic.” Iris nodded, “he actually asked me if I could find out the status of the Reserve, always thinking of Dragons.”
“Oh jeeze, that's the last thing he should be worried about, but it makes sense. It's... Going. We're getting the fire under control, but it's hard to control dragon fire.” Rupert told her, putting his hands on his hips. “We are still trying to account for all the dragons, it's hard because you have to make sure you don't the same one twice, Charlie was about the only one that could tell all the dragons apart.”
“That sounds like him. This might be an odd question, but has his bag been found?”
“His bag?” He asked, “huh, now that you mention it, he does that that with him all the time. Did he not have it on his person when you found him?”
“No, it wasn't.”
“I'll keep an eye out for it and owl you if I do.”
“Do you mind if I poke around a little bit? See if I can spot it?” Iris asked, and he loudly told her,
“THAT WOULD BE AGAINST THE RULES!” But he winked and mouthed I won't tell.
Thank you, she mouthed back, understanding he had to keep a facade even if only a little.