Worst for Last

[Faustus Prewett]

Set near the end of the event.

Things had, in Faustus's opinion, gone very well; everyone seemed to have enjoyed the mixer and he had done all he could to win the election. There were so few days yet, and while he would make the most of them ... well, he was likely done with the big things. It was something of a relief.

"Thank you so much for your help, Franny," Faustus said fondly to his second-eldest sister. Florence had helped a great deal as well, but he had not managed to catch her to thank her. "Nothing would have gone near as smoothly without you."

  

[Frances Crabbe]

DATE: May 14th, 1884
TAG: Faustus
WORDS: 417
OUTFIT
NOTES:

Always glad to be of help to her older brother, she had jumped at the chance to help him with his campaign events since Jane was no longer around to do so for him. It was a tremendous pity she was no longer, Frances had thought Jane and Faustus were a lovely couple and well-suited to each other. She didn't even need to ask to know Faustus still missed her immensely.

Ichabod had wanted to attend too the moment he had heard she was going to be spending the better part of the day in the park and naturally, Frances couldn't say no to him. Thankfully his nurse had been present to make sure she could still carry out her duties. Now that those were over, however, the little boy had insisted on holding her hand and she obliged despite the fact his hands were rather clammy. "I'm glad I could be of help, who knows, perhaps I shall have to call you Minister soon?" She thought her brother the most competent and earnest of the line up for Minister, if he didn't win it would be a great loss for Britain's wizards and witches. Ichabod's hand slipped out of hers, which she didn't pay much attention to.

The little boy at her side whined and muttered something about Honeyduke's which he received a gentle shh-ing for. "I do hope you get it, Faustus," Frances looked for the little boy who was only a few paces ahead before looking back at her brother, "no one deserves it as much as you." She smiled at him warmly. "Ichabod, come back, you know better than to walk off!" She called, tearing her eyes away from Faustus again to seek him out. Where was he? "Ichabod?" Her heart skipped a beat as she realized he was completely out of her sight.

The sound of hooves on cobble didn't even register until the little boy came into sight having evidently been obscured from sight by the fencing and flowers. He was dangling a lost glove he'd found but it wasn't the glove Frances was looking at. "Mama, look wha-" The glove slipped out of his fingers onto the cobbles and Frances' stomach lurched as he ducked down to pick it up again. "ICHABOD, MOVE!" she shouted at him, watching in horror as the horses and carriage rounded on him. She let out a blood-curdling scream and ran toward him as fast as her dress would allow, which wasn't terribly fast.

  

[Faustus Prewett]

Ichabod. Faustus felt like his heart had stopped; not only was Ichabod his nephew, but he was Franny's only child. The split second that he stood frozen seemed like an eternity; later he would be ashamed, for Mrs. Mysterium thought him so brave and yet he had run towards her screams faster than he had run towards his own nephew.

He reached the boy ahead of Franny, but he didn't dare move him, didn't dare touch his little broken body. He pulled his wand, but only to cast a stunner. "SOMEONE GET A HEALER!"

Faustus turned towards his sister slightly, his eyes still trained on his nephew. If Ichabod died ... "He's still alive, Franny. I've stunned him. It will be better that way." Better because he would not move and make things worse, and better because -- hopefully -- it would keep Ichabod from feeling the worst of the pain.

  

[Vinzent Mulciber]

Vinzent was still not sure if he wanted to vote for Prewett or Lestrange - honestly it was a tough choice, and right now Vinzent had to be careful. The smaller inheritance had still cut deep in him, and it meant that he would have think more carefully about the vote, because it could be seriously important to him later who was the Minister. He still held his believes, he just had to think differently.

He was on his way home, when he suddenly heard someone call for a healer. Instinctively he quickly followed the sound and ran, excusing himself through the myriad of people in the way. He could not help it himself, he had a work mode and it had instantly kicked in when he heard that someone needed help.

As soon as he was in sight of the scene, he rushed to the stunned little boy and looked over him for the most important thing, life-signs. "It does not look good." he said quickly, honest as he was.

  

[Frances Crabbe]

DATE: May 14th, 1884
TAG: Faustus
WORDS: 219
OUTFIT
NOTES:

Faustus reached her boy before she could, something she was glad for; as a former Auror, Faustus was surely competent in dealing with injuries and she didn't want Ichabod being left alone a moment longer than necessary. That being said, she felt her knees going weak as she came to a stop, the sight of her little boy's crumpled body filling her with an overwhelming sense of despair and panic. She wanted to scoop him up and cradle him to her but he looked so fragile that she knew any such action would potentially make it a hundred times worse than it already was.

At least he was alive according to Faustus. Beside herself, she couldn't help falling to her knees in floods of tears - she hadn't even realized she was crying until then. Thankfully a healer was nearby and quickly came over to see to her little boy. Unfortunately his words did little to still her panic. "He can't die! Save him! Do something, please!" This was her fault. She'd looked away, she'd torn her eyes away for one moment and this had happened. What had his nurse been doing? Two pairs of eyes should have been on him. Frances glanced over her shoulder to see that the useless woman had fainted. "He's just a little boy!"

  

[Faustus Prewett]

With Ichabod in the hands of the insensitive healer, Faustus turned to his sister. He grasped her by the shoulders tightly. "Listen to me, Franny. I know it looks bad, but I'm sure that" -- he glanced down to see who had answered his bellow for help -- "Mr. Mulciber will do everything that he can. Ichabod is not going to die, but he needs you to be strong. You have to hold yourself together so that you're there for him when he needs you."

He was not near as confident as he pretended to be, but he could not let Frances know that. He needed to keep his sister from falling apart. Silently, he prayed that Ichabod would be fine; he was Franny's only baby! It would be every bit as bad as if Mrs. Mysterium's son had lost his mother.

  

[Vinzent Mulciber]

Vinzent knew that he could found quite insensitive, but in the case of a child, he did not wanted to give the parents unrealistic hope. The child would be another case, Vinzent knew that if you gave up hope of fighting then it would kil you. That was how he had responded to the knowledge of his inhertance. So now - now he was fighting and he would do what he could.

Quickly finding his wand, he focused on the worst damages, and muttered a few spells. It would not heal completely, but it should be enough for them to get him to the hospital. "Mrs. Crabbe, I assure you that I will do what i can to help your son." he said and looked up at her. "Mr. Prewett, we need to get him to the hospital. More privacy for the work, and for the boy, as well as any potion I might need nearby." he said. He was still not sure of how severe the injuries was.

  

[Frances Crabbe]

DATE: May 14th, 1884
TAG: Faustus
WORDS: 234
OUTFIT
NOTES:

Frances was calmed slightly by the physical reminder than her older brother was present. She wished her husband were there but she also wasn't sure she could look him in the face without feeling guilt-ridden that their only child had gotten so grievously injured on her watch. Slowly, she got to her feet. "I've failed as a mother," she murmured, unable to wrench her eyes away from his crooked little body. Clearly she couldn't be trusted with one child let alone more. If he died, she didn't know what she would do, facing her husband would be hard enough if Ichabod pulled through but if he didn't...

"What if he doesn't...?" she couldn't say it, saying it would make it too real a possibility. It's all my fault. Faustus was right though, she had to try and stay strong, he hadn't been lost yet. The hospital suddenly sounded highly ominous, she hadn't expected Ichabod would need to visit a hospital until he was much older and perhaps accidentally magicked himself into mutant state that needed professional reversing. "I shouldn't have let go of his hand." She could still remember the feel of his clammy, warm little hands, she wondered if they were still warm or if they felt cold and lifeless. Had any of her siblings ever been so neglectful with their children? None of her siblings seemed to have a problem conceiving either.

  

[Faustus Prewett]

Faustus squeezed his sister's shoulders reassuringly. "You brought his nurse, Franny," he said gently. "You knew that you were going to be busy, and so you brought his nurse." He was oddly, in the part of his mind not focused on his sister on nephew, glad that Mrs. Mysterium had left her son at home. Where was Ichabod's nurse? "You did everything that you could to protect him, Franny. Now he needs you to be strong for him, and I need to help the healer." He kissed his sister lightly on the forehead, then turned back to Mr. Mulciber.

"Just let me know what you need me to do, Mr. Mulciber." Ichabod was so small, and aurors this badly hurt out in the field frequently died before they could be gotten to help. "I can side-along, but I'm afraid to move him."

  

[Vinzent Mulciber]

Vinzent was used to people being emotionally touched when it was someone they were related to who had been ínjured - and as such, he was not letting anything touch him right now. "Do not worry Mrs. Crabbe. I will do everything I can for your son. No one deserves this fate, especially not a child at his age." he said professionally.

"Mr. Prewett, I have done what I can at present to avoid further damage, if you would side-along with him, then he will be fine until we have done more." he said calmly.

  

[Frances Crabbe]

DATE: May 14th, 1884
TAG: Faustus
WORDS: 204
OUTFIT
NOTES:

Frances found the calm tone of Mr. Mulciber rather infuriating as she thought it impossible to be so calm when a child was in such a critical state, be it her own child or someone else's. Obviously a calm attitude helped deal with things and Faustus was calmer than she but she couldn't find fault with him. She forced herself to trust the healer, between a professional and her brother, Ichabod was surely in the best hands he could be. If he was going to survive, this was surely the best chance for him, right?

She wiped the tears from her face and tried to convince herself things were better than they seemed, that Ichabod just had a couple broken bones that could be fixed easily and it just seemed a lot worse than it was. It helped a little but she wasn't about to fool herself completely. "Thank you, Mr. Mulciber. You too, Faustus, I don't know what I'd have done without you!" Despite her frustration with the healer's cool and collected manner, she was leaving her son's life in his hands and it was all thanks to Faustus, had she been on her own she didn't know how she would have coped.

  

[Faustus Prewett]

Carefully, very carefully, Faustus lifted his nephew in his arms. He was thankful he had stunned Ichabod; it would make it certain that the boy wouldn't move and get splinched. "Everything will be all right, Franny," he reassured his sister once more, then closed his eyes to concentrate and disapparated with his nephew in his arms.