When Draco's eyes opened, it was to florescent tube lights, weird textured ceilings and the smell of alcohol. He was in a wheelchair, someone pushing him down the hall at an urgent pace. 

"Granger! We need you, stat!" the person pushing him called out, turning into another hallway 

Draco blinked, his vision doubling and swaying. Granger. He knew that name from somewhere...

He was pushed into a large room, the walls and counters lined with tools and equipment. 'Granger' turned, and Draco's whole world came crashing down.

Granger.

Hermione blinked, clearly stunned to see Draco, but she turned her attention to the nurse pushing him. "What's going on?"

"Shotgun to the back. The pellets need to be removed and probably stitched up."

"Broken bones? Punctured organs?"

"Vitals are decently normal, so no, I don't think so. He came directly from a fight about thirty minutes ago."

"Thank you, Sarah. You can go."

Draco heard the door shut as Hermione sighed, pulling on a pair of latex gloves. "Can you move your fingers?"

Draco blinked before nodding dumbly, flexing his hands into a weak fist.

"Okay, good. Can you take off your shirt or do you need help?"

Draco moved to take it off, but he winced and let out a soft moan of pain. "Don't overwork yourself," She warned. "Here, grab on."

Draco slung himself around Hermione with much assistance, stumbling over to the table-bench-thing where she helped him sit before untucking Draco's shirt and carefully but swiftly undoing the buttons and peeling the soaked shirt off of his arms and back. 

She dropped it onto an empty tray nearby, prompting Draco to turn slightly. Hermione whistled under her breath. "Going by the spread, he was quite close. You're lucky your magic protected you, otherwise you could be dead right now."

"Magic? But-"

"Your inner core will always be magic, restricted wand or not. Thankfully, yours is quite powerful- That's the only thing that saved you. From that distance, you would've been dead almost instantaneously."

"Lucky me," Draco muttered bitterly before raising his voice slightly. "How long will this take? I have to get home."

"A couple hours, at most."

"A couple hours?" Draco shook his head. "No, my son- He's home by himself. I don't have time for this, I need to-"

"The officer that brought you in said he'll bring in- Scorpius, was it? Don't worry, your son will be here soon."

Tentatively, Draco finally gave in and nodded, letting Hermione clean up his back with a cloth and alcohol.

"What are you doing here?" Draco asked, looking over his shoulder to watch her work. "Last I knew, you were still in London."

"My mum has fallen ill, so I've been here for a few months. Figured I'd pick up a job in the meanwhile."

"I haven't seen you," Draco questioned cautiously. "I'm in here a lot, but I've never seen you."

"I'm worked back to back. I'm the only person in this shitty town- No offense- with surgical training beyond four months, so everyone immediately sends people to me. If you haven't had anything worse than stitches, you haven't seen me. Even broken bones- they have plenty of doctors to send you too."

Draco winced as Hermione started examining the wounds, seeming completely absorbed in her work.

"When did you get tattoos?" She asked, metal tools clacking against the table as she started prodding at Draco's wounds, making him flinch.

"After the war. I didn't want the mark to stick out so much, so I... Yeah."

"They're gorgeous."

"Thank you."

"Alright, so I'm going to start removing the pellets. If it starts hurting too bad, just let me know and I'll use some Lidocaine."

Draco nodded, lacing his fingers together as he leaned forward upon Hermione's ministrations. 

"Are you and Weasley still-?"

"Yes- Got married two years after the war. Have a few kids now. What about you? You have a son."

"I do, but his mother- Astoria Greengrass, Daphne's younger sister? She passed away during birth."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Draco."

Draco shrugged helplessly. "We weren't really in love- Pureblood arranged marriages and all. We fought all the time. As much as I wish she were still alive, I know what it's like to grow up around fighting, and I would never wish that on Scorpius."

"Yeah, I get it." Draco winced, feeling the tweezers dig into his flesh, feeling around for metal. "How old is he now?"

"Five- He turns six in a few months. Pansy watches him for me- Her and Blaise have their own daughter, Millie, so Scorpius spends the day with them."

"They live in town too?"

"Yeah. All of the Slytherins that survived basically moved here."

"And you became a police officer? That's impressive. Good for you."

Draco shrugged as the tweezers moved to another area, searching for more pieces to remove. "Went military in the US for a while, joined the Security Forces. I've been to four Combat Zones and all law enforcement swallows ex-military and veterans whole."

"Military? Combat zones? Christ, I didn't see that out of you."

Draco shrugged again. "Guess I was trying to find myself. I was so used to living as my father's shadow that when he was carted off to Azkaban, I didn't know who I was. Tried a bunch of things, but nothing quite stuck like enforcement and protection."

"Well, thank you for your service. Seriously. Surviving four combat zones, that's... Wow."

Draco chuckled. "It wasn't fun. Let me tell you, during operation Desert Storm, you had to check your boots every morning for Scorpions. We moved a bedroll and there were snakes, scorpions, and centipedes- Inside the tent and everything. All poisonous, of course. Hendrick got bit by a Centipede and swelled up so bad he couldn't move his fingers at all. Oh god, don't even get me started on the spiders- Have you ever seen Camel Spiders? They're fucking huge."

Hermione shuddered, shaking her head. "I can't imagine. Sounds awful."

"Oh it was bloody miserable," Draco grinned, "but I wouldn't change it for the world. Johnny got a sun blister so big it wrapped around his entire head like a giant bubble. It popped and exploded all over a rookie- Poor guy screamed like he saw a ghost. Then there was the time we put a Camel Spider in his boot... He turned it upside down, pat the heel and it just fell into his lap. Never heard a man scream so high-pitched. You'd think he was Moaning Myrtle."

Hermione laughed, shaking her head. "Poor guy."

"Honestly. I don't remember why we picked on him so much- I guess he was just small. Always ended up laughing about it with us later, though. He is- was. He was a great guy."

Draco pursed his lips, rubbing at his eyes to clear the moisture he hadn't noticed gathering. As much as he loved serving, the adventures he went on and the friends he made, it was always painful to remember those he lost, and those of who he had taken lives from.

Hermione squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. "Seriously, Draco. Thank you. And I'm sorry. About everyone you've lost."

"It's alright," Draco forced out, clearing his throat. "Thank you."

There was a silence for a short while before there was a knock on the door. "Granger? I have a Scorpius Malfoy here, he's in the waiting room at the moment, what would you like me to do? He's a young-"

"Bring him in," Hermione called, drawing a curtain around Draco's back but leaving his face exposed from the top, letting him adjust so that he could face the door. A few minutes later, there was another knock before the door creaked open.

"Daddy!"

Scorpius rushed forward and Draco grinned, giving the best one-arm-around-the-back-of-the-neck hug he could, squeezing gently. "Hey Score, how you doing buddy? Sorry daddy didn't come home, I got a bit hurt."

Scorpius suddenly looked worried. "Owie? I can kiss it all better, then we can go home and watch the movie you said we would, right?"

Draco sighed, running a hand through Scorpius' white blond hair. "I'm sorry, Scorpius, but I don't think I'll be able to tonight. Daddy got hurt pretty bad. I'll be okay, but I'll be here for a few hours- maybe overnight. Do you wanna stay with auntie Pansy or uncle Blaise?"

Scorpius stuck his bottom lip out in a pout, large silver eyes watering. "Daddy be okay?"

"Daddy will be fine," Draco promised, feeling his heart break over his son's sad gaze as he drew him closer, leaving a small kiss on his forehead. "Remember to be strong for me, right kiddo?"

Scorpius sniffed, puffing out his chest a bit, but his bottom lip still trembled and his bottom eyelid wasn't doing a promising job of holding back his tears. 

"Your father will be just fine," Granger spoke up, peeking around at Scorpius. Suddenly realizing there was another person, Scorpius shrunk down and hid behind Draco, making him chuckle softly.

"It's okay Score, this is my doctor- and an old friend from school. She's fixing me up so that I can go home soon. Isn't that nice of her?"

Scorpius nodded timidly, still using Draco's arm as a sort of shield. He chuckled softly, stroking his son's hair. 

"Can I see your owies, daddy?"

Draco hesitated. "Score, you know how I feel about that. Not until they're more healed, okay?"

"Speaking of-" One more clink and Draco felt a wave of cleaning magic wash over his back. "You, Draco, aren't allowed to work until these are healed. Understood? I'm prescribing painkillers and antibiotics to ensure they don't get infected. No body washes or soaps on your back for at least a week- four is the safest you're going to get. Understood?"

"How long will it take until I can go in again?"

For the ordinary person, four or so weeks, but for you... I'd say 3-6 days."

"Thank Merlin," Draco groaned, letting Hermione help him up into a sitting position. 

"Thank Merlin indeed. Those 3-6 days have to be intensive rest though, understood?"

Draco made a tch noise, waving her off. "Of course. Sheesh, you're still just as bossy as school. Poor Weasley."

She scoffed, smiling slightly. "I'll go get you a shirt and the rest of your belongings. Wait here."

After much insisting, Draco finally got into a wheelchair (with Scorpius' help, of course- The one finger he held to guide him made all the difference in his eyes) with a new shirt and his old uniform and tactical belt in a box in his lap.

"Alright bud, let's go home," Draco smiled gently, swooping Scorpius up onto his free leg, making the mini-Draco giggle and cuddle into his dad's side.