SKIN (WATTYS UNDISCOVERED GEM)

Chapter Thirteen: Promises We Can't Keep

"Didn't mean t-"

"To be so stupid, I know, Lenny," She finishes for him, the needle is expertly strewn through his shoulder, and he flinches as he feels it. But she is quick, she was a nurse for thirty years, she knows more than just the basics.

"Quinn, I-"

"Stop it with those green eyes, you chased after that Seely man without even a game plan, because that is exactly what he wanted you to do- right? And when you go off running, Giles always has to run too- all sudden, my two boys became wolves and before I can even completely take this all in- thirty seconds later you're being ran over by a semi-truck," she pauses, eyes going into slits, "a literal semi-truck. How can you even miss that?"

He shrugs, "I'm sorry, I was just kind of focusing on how the pack's biggest threat was literally two feet away from some of our weakest links," he growls out, his words were drowned in utter sarcasm.

"You giving me sass- you are in no position to give me anything but damn gratefulness. Could've had you fully babied in front of your pack and Alpha Dillon's, but I sent away Mrs. Stefanni, and I scraped you off of the road like damn road-kill, and kept your integrity in place."

Lennox doesn't say anything, just whistles through his teeth as the last stitch on his arm is tightened and tied, Quinn breaking it off with her kitchen scissors and dabbing it again with her soap-sopped rag.

"You're an Alpha, Lennox," but her tone is lighter this time, "you set an example, we follow it. Showing that you can't hold back- that ain't a good example, right?"

He nods, agreeing because she's right. She's always right. "No, ma'am, it isn't."

"I'm all for you ripping off this guy's head, do it all you want- but do it without getting yourself killed too," Quinn reaches for his knuckles, unfolds his hands and almost winces at the bone she can see, it's poking out of his skin like a twig.

"I'll try, ma'am," Lennox agrees.

"Now, this'll hurt, baby, on the count of three," She positions her hands over the bone, feels for where it's supposed to go so she can set it in place, and pushes.

She never counted to three, and maybe the star-bursted pain that snared into the veins of his arms should've been a bad omen.

But Lennox grits his teeth and presses his hand back into her fingers.

*

There is a knock on the door at twelve o'clock; Giles is barely awake- in fact, he was just about to fall asleep to the sound of Bones cracking a murder that has been unsolveable for three years, with Booth hanging around as the shining knight in armor.

He walks- actually does a weird-skipping thing where his left heel barely touches the ground- and looks into the eye of the door. He switches the light on with his good arm- he'd like to say he was surprised at what he saw, but he wasn't.

Giles turned on the light to see her wrapping a jacket closer to her chest, teeth chattering as she hugged her own arms to herself, "Schuyler, what are you doin-"

Schuyler almost whips past him, but she stops after she realizes he is heavily leaning on the front door for support.

"What's the matter with you?" She asks, taking a step to give him enough space without pushing him down.

"Just got in a little scrape-of-a-fight, again, what are you doing here?" He pegs, asking the question and easily dodging the answer.

She pauses, and her eyes widen as if she just realized just where she was.