The Reverse (A YJ Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven

A/N I got the inspiration for this from a writing prompt, so yeah. I hope that you like it!

Lawrence Crock stabs the dagger into the little girl's stomach and promptly yanked it out. She screamed and grabbed her stomach, which was bleeding heavily. "What the h***?!" Jade yells at her father, grabbing her crying little sister and pulling her onto her lap, shushing her.

Crusher only rolls his eyes, and noticing the heavy flow of blood from his younger daughter's gut, he stabs her again  in the same spot, but leaving the weapon in this time, holding in some of the blood. Artemis sobs in pain.

Jade glares at her father, but opts to ignore him for now, and carries her sister to their room. She sets her down gently on a chair, and hurries to the bathroom where she grabs a bloodred sheet and a first aid kit. She quickly takes the sheets, blanket, and pillow off of Artemis' bed and puts on the bloodred one. She puts the pillow back on the bed.

Jade picks Artemis up and gently carries her to and sets her down on the bed. "Sh**," Jade whispered to herself, but Artemis still heard.

"What's wrong? Is it really bad?"

Jade smiles at her. "No, sweetie. I can fix it, I promise. It's just that I have to pull down your overalls and pull up your shirt in order to fix the wound, and I can't do that while the dagger is still in, and I was trying to leave it in for as long as possible."

"Why?"

"Because it's stopping a lot of the bleeding."

"Oh," After a second she adds, "So it will be bad when you take the knife out?"

"Not really. But it'll bleed more, and faster. But you'll be fine. I promise." Jade slips out the dagger as gently as she can. She unhooks Artemis' overalls and pulls them down, and slips up her shirt. She checks for internal injuries, and, finding none, places gauze over the injury and applies pressure while grabbing a disinfectant wipe and the already-threaded medical needle. She quickly pulls off the gauze and wipes the wound with the disinfectant wipe. She then stitches up the wound and wipes it off with a new disinfectant wipe. She pulls an ace bandage out of the kit.

"I thought that we were only allowed to use those ones in the first aid kit from broken bones," Artemis says, confused. "My tummy isn't broken."

Jade laughs at the idea. "Of course it's not, Alice Silly. But the bandage will make it so the gauze doesn't come off."

"Isn't the medical tape for that?"

"It is, but adding the bandage makes it better, and we want your tummy to get better as fast as possible, right?"

"Right," Artemis says, nodding. She yawns. "I'm sleepy."

"Well, stay awake for a couple more minutes, so I'll know that it's not from blood loss." After a few minutes, Jade gives the ok, and Artemis dozes off almost immediately. A few more minutes later, there's a knock on the door, and their father walks in. "What do you want now?" She asks irritably. 

Crusher smirks. "I came to see how the little b**** is doing."

"And it doesn't bother you at all that you nearly killed her?" Jade had drastically downplayed the injury to her little sister. She was sure that she could fix it, so she didn't tell her how bad it actually was.

"Not really. I knew that you could handle it."

"And if I couldn't?"

"Well then, I'd still have you, wouldn't I?"

"You're disgusting. She's only eight!"

"Your opinion of me and her age doesn't matter, Little Girl."

Jade rolls her eyes. "Whatever."

"That's what I thought," Lawrence says and leaves the room. 

Artemis squirmed in her sleep. Jade gently stroked a lose strand of her sister's hair behind her ear. "It's alright, Arty," She whispers. "It's alright." Artemis' eyes fluttered open.

"Jade?"

"It's ok, Arty. You'll always be ok. I love you and I always will, and I'll be here to stop him from doing stuff like this to you ever again. I promise. I'll always be here to protect you."

Artemis gives her treasured older sister a small, sweet smile. "I love you, too, Jadie." She closes her eyes and drifts back off to sleep. Jade grabs Artemis' blanket from the floor and slips onto the bed and pulls the blanket over both of them. Jade drifts off, too.

Jade woke up with Roy's arms wrapped around her. She snuggled closer to him,seeking the warmth and comfort that he brought. He tightened his grip on her. "It's ok, Jade," he said. She hadn't even realized that he was awake. "It was just a dream."

"More like a memory," Jade muttered.

"Well, it's over now, remember that. Now, gorgeous, cuddle me."

Jade chucked and rolled over, wrapping her arms around him. Roy looked down and Jade looked up, and their lips met. They kissed for a while, said their "I love you"s, and then they went back to sleep. Bad dreams didn't visit Jade again that night, only good ones, good memories. But as she drifted off, the only thing that she could find herself able to think about was her broken promise to her beloved little sister.