Rory could see the way his sister was trembling and the anxiety churning in his gut only made him more uneasy. He wanted desperately to reach out and hug her, comfort her, tell her everything would be alright - because he would make damn sure it would be - but he couldn’t until he knew what was going on. Forcing himself to keep quiet despite the thousands of questions that all wanted to come tripping out of his mouth, Rory clenched his hands in and out of fists behind his back. Elsie said something then about exploring and for a moment Rory wanted to interrupt her and ask where. (And why, but the scolding could come later.) Was it something in this house? A neighbor’s? A friend’s? Then something about a book (his gaze followed hers to the bed where the offensive item lay) and then finally— the truth. Rory took a step closer as her arms came into view.
At first, he could see nothing wrong with them. Her little hands with slender, perfect pianist fingers seemed unchanged. He reached out to hold them and frowned. Then he saw it. Small patches of… what looked like metal or… gold? had formed and were glinting where her skin ought to be. Rory’s warm brown eyes widened. “What—?” He reached a gentle index finger as if to touch one of the patches and then didn’t, instead letting his hand linger just near. “Does it hurt?” was his first, most pressing question. Looking up at her and the tears welling behind her sweet face, Rory felt his heart stutter. Obviously it must, or the pain of being changed was too much for her— but somehow Rory doubted it. Elsbeth was strong. Stronger than most women he knew, certainly.
“It’s alright,” he said quickly. “We’ll fix it! I promise, we’ll fix it.” Another glance down at her arm and he tugged Elsie close, wrapping her in a hug but careful to avoid brushing against her— wounds. Rory had never been a stilted person, keeping others he cared about at arms length; it was inappropriate in all his cultures, he knew, but he didn’t care. “You’ll be back to normal in no time, Elsbeth. I swear.”
Sucking in a short breath, he released her and took a step back. His mind skipped into problem solving mode, immediately. “Do you still have the book? Where exactly were you exploring? Here or somewhere else?”