August 19th, 1894 - Padmore Park Sinkhole

Jack had picked a hell of a time to start studying muggle medicine. Inspired by his conversation with Mrs. Rowle at the flower show back in May, Jack had spent his summer volleying between spending time with Emerson and falling down the rabbit hole of recent medicinal discoveries in both magical and muggle settings. He'd started with basic muggle medicinal textbooks, helpful in that he already knew all of the anatomy; incredibly informative in what one could do without magic to help save a life. The understanding of different strains of viruses and bacteria; the sterilization of their medical instruments; breakthroughs in preventing certain illnesses from rabies to different kinds of pox; it was all utterly fascinating. He'd taken to subscribing to modern muggle medical journals and read articles in their libraries in his free time.

Never in his wildest dreams did he think his new knowledge would be of immediate and necessary use.

Then a sinkhole opened up in Padmore Park where magic was useless.

His ward was of no particular use, but he had dispatched healers along with the rest of the hospital while he himself had gone to London and back to get as many supplies as he could that he thought might be of some use. Mostly he just hoped his knew knowledge would be able to help down in the hole. He'd done his best to give as many of his colleagues and co-workers as much useful information as he could, but Jack knew he couldn't sit by idly and let everyone else take the risk. By the second day a better plan to help had been figured out and Jack had volunteered to head down into the sinkhole armed with his new knowledge, a heavy satchel of what he hoped were useful tools and medicines and the smallest, most informative book he could carry.

What he didn't have, was any idea as to what to expect at the bottom of the rope.

---

Evangeline Rowle

  

---

The good news, Evangeline thought, was that her children had not been with her. They were safe at home, and Eva didn't have to worry about them. She could use all of her energy to focus on not dying, which was much more useful for everyone.

Not that she was going to die, of course. Evangeline had survived three years under an Unbreakable Vow all but specifically designed to kill her, she wasn't going to die to a damn hole in the ground.

But that didn't stop it from hurting. It hurt to breathe, and when Eva had pulled herself up into a sitting position, she found that her right arm was useless, and although she didn't think she'd broken anything below the waist--probably? Her legs hurt less than her arm did, anyway--getting up required leverage that she just couldn't manage on her own. Though she did try. She had one not-useless arm still, and Eva tried to push herself up into something better than a half-lying, half-sitting position, only to be stopped by a jolting pain through her shoulder. "Fuck!"

For added misery, her head hurt. Which wasn't surprising, given the circumstances. But Eva was not sure how long she'd been like this, which was not the greatest sign.

---

  

---

Set by Bee <3

The initial descent felt like a slow descent into some sort of madness, both metaphorically and physically. There was a lot going on at the base of sorts that had been established near where he had been lowered in. Jack checked in, figured that the people they had immediately nearby were well-taken care of and he moved further into the chaos. Jack had been forced to negotiate his way in where they were predominantly letting in the medi-witches and wizards who were more used to keeping people pieced together in order to get the patients to actual healers, but his overwhelming knowledge of muggle medicine had gotten him down the rope.

Jack had set out trying to sort of manage the injuries and figure out those who were worse off and categorize who needed more immediate help. He hadn't met anyone yet who strictly needed his attention, until he turned down what appeared to be a little side-tunnel and heard quite the expletive from a female voice; a rather familiar female voice.

It didn't take him long to find her and though his first instinct was to panic, for over the course of their letters he had grown to admire Mrs. Rowle greatly and seeing her in such a state, this confident, capable woman, rendered immobile on the floor, was jarring. Fortunately for both of them, his healer's instincts kicked in and he was better able to assess the information. "We need to stop meeting like this." It was a terrible attempt to break the ice and this was the first time he had seen her injured, but hopefully she wouldn't hold it against him. Carefully he knelt down next to her, taking in her awkward position and the listlessness in her limbs. That she was conscious was good, but he worried about broken bones and injuries he couldn't see. "What hurts the most?" He thought her arm was dislocated and so he gently started prodding to see what got a reaction.

---

  

---

Oh. Oh, Evangeline didn't think she'd ever been so happy to see a familiar face. A familiar, friendly face, who looked like he was here to help and not like he was in a similar state to herself. "Mr. Collins," she said, and tried not to think too much about how his name came out like a wheeze. Her whole right side hurt.

"My arm," she said in answer to his question. "And... my ribs?" The second came out as a question. That... made the most sense, inasmuch as anything was making sense just then. She thought she'd landed on her right side when the ground opened up beneath her, but it was hard to tell from feeling alone like this. "What's happening?"

---

  

---

Set by Bee <3

Hesitant to move her at all, Jack set his things down and started prodding gently. "A sinkhole collapsed a large section of the park. Magic doesn't work down here." Why was that always the case? How did an all-magical town often get rendered inert all of the time? Regardless, it was not the time.

"Didn't think all of that reading I've been doing would come in handy so soon, your arm is dislocated." He'd seen it a time or two, knew a spell that would fix it, but had only read about how to do it manually. "I'm going to need to set it and it's going to hurt, but it's going to feel a hell of a lot better after." It was going to look ridiculous and he felt like it would be too aggressive, but it took a lot of force to pop a joint out and it took an equal amount of force to get it back in.

"Once we do that I would like to check you for internal injuries." Jack worried if her ribs hurt there could be cracked bones or something worse under there.

---

  

---

Evangeline huffed a little laugh--oh, that was a bad idea. Gritting her teeth against a fresh wave of pain from her side, Eva said, "I'm glad it's you that found me, then." She leaned her head back, resting it against the dirt wall behind her. Eva thought that she didn't feel like she was dying, but Merlin, everything did hurt. She imagined whatever wasn't broken was likely at least bruised, and it wasn't as though she'd been able to check herself for bleeding.

"Do what you need to," Eva said. She closed her eyes and braced herself. It was fine. This was fine. It was very much not fine, but sometimes lying to oneself was a solid way to stave off unhelpful panic. And anyway, she had survived deadlier than this, technically, hadn't she?

---

  

---

Set by Bee <3

Jack went about getting out the things he would need for after fixing the dislocated shoulder. He had only read about this and hadn't even had to attempt it magically before now. Fortunately it seemed pretty straightforward. Positioning himself somewhat to her side, Jack moved the arm as gently and as quickly as he could into position. Without giving either one of them too much time to stress it, he pulled it up and away from the joint, trying to be as quick and as efficient as possible. He felt the bones move against his leg as he steadied her, folding her arm back against her body as he reached for the muslin he had that would serve as a sling. "I'm so sorry," he had never had to perform much rescue-work and never without the benefit of pain potions or magic. He knelt next to her and tried to gingerly get her all wrapped up. "Is it better?" Merlin if he'd fucked it up and made it worse, he was going to be disappointed in himself. "Let's give that a minute to relax and I'll check for anything else of concern." Jack sat close rummaging through his bag for some gauze to press to the cut near her temple.

---

  

---

Evangeline had surprisingly good self-control when she really had a mind to--if she didn't, she might not have survived this long--so she did not scream when her shoulder popped back into its socket. She did make a very unladylike, pained noise, but she would consider her dignity at least partially saved. She didn't answer Mr. Collins right away, taking a moment to control her breathing as the pain lessened. "Better," she said at last. It was already easier to focus, and Eva opened her eyes again to look up at Mr. Collins. "Thank you."

---

  

---

Set by Bee <3

Jack waited her out, letting her settle, but he blew out a breath of relief when she said it was better. From what he read, the relief, once the joint was back, was pretty immediate. Still, it had to be pretty jarring and he hated that it had to get worse before it got better.

Easing himself onto the ground next to her fully, he gave her another full evaluation. He'd found some gauze and wanted to get a look at the cut on her forehead, along with anything else that was bothering her. "Can you look my way so I can clean that up next." He reached out gently to tip her face up toward him. "Do your ribs still hurt?" He asked as he dabbed some tonic on the gauze before pressing it gently to the cut. It looked deeper than upon inspection and he knew he couldn't stitch it now, but he could get it covered up. He'd been hoping any ache in her ribs was an extension of the shoulder, but it wouldn't be hard to guess she had fractured a rib or two in the fall.

"Tell me if I need to slow down or ease up," Jack didn't want to press her. She was obviously in bad shape and he would make sure he fixed her up to the best of his ability before he got her out.

---

  

---

Evangeline turned her head to look directly at Mr. Collins. He was certainly a more pleasant sight than the dirt walls around him, she thought, a little hysterically. It's all right, I'm all right. Seemingly of it's own volition, Eva's hand found its way to gripping the edge of the healer's clothing, like a tether. "Yes, my ribs. Do what you need to." She smiled, though it was a wobbly, fragile thing. "I'm a survivor, don't you worry."

---

  

---

Set by Bee <3

"Let's get this covered up and then I'll take a look." Jack pressed gently against the cut. It hadn't been bleeding too badly, so he wasn't too concerned, but he didn't want any dirt to get into it either. "I wasn't worried in the slightest." Jack offered, trying to be optimistic, the wry smile not quite meeting his eyes. If he had magic available to him, this would be a lot easier, but as it was, he could only go off the muggle medicine he'd learned.

He was concerned about the pain in her ribs, but without his usual diagnostic spells at his disposal, he was at a bit of a loss. He couldn't go poking and prodding too hard, lest he make things worse, and for that reason, he also didn't want to try and remove any layers that happened to be providing some helpful constriction. "I'm afraid there isn't much I can do for it, until I get you to the hospital. Without magic, I don't want to exacerbate anything." Jack rummaged through his bag for a moment. "I don't know if this will work, but why don't you try, hopefully it'll help." The pain potion might be as useless as the rest of his normal supplies and if it was, he had another thing he could try, but he was a little hesitant. If nothing else he could make her more comfortable before he started to attempt to get her out of his Merlin forsaken hole.

Jack uncorked the potion and held it out to her, moving to get the canteen of water he had as a chaser.

---

  

---

Eva was willing to try anything, so she dutifully drank the potion and waited to see if the pain abated. It didn't, and she wasn't surprised. "Not much good," she said, and had the wherewithal to not sound as disappointed as she felt. It wasn't his fault, and he was helping and Eva was not currently capable of expressing how grateful she was. The least she could do was not complain.

"How do we get out?" She assumed it was the way Mr. Collins had come in, and she didn't much like the idea of moving, but that was just lunacy not worth entertaining.

---

  

---

Set by Bee <3