"Go check the streets! If any others came, they may be hiding in the alleys!" I bark. People don't listen unless you yell at them, for some reason. Liam, Nicole and Beth scurry away immediately, knowing full well not to mess with me when I get into a mood like this, but the refugee girl stays still. Because for some reason, people lack competence. "You too!" I order. I don't like yelling at people. They just don't obey when you actually need them to.

Her eyes widen. "I -- I --" she whimpers. I've been doing this long enough to not let it guilt me.

"Go!" I snarl. Maybe a little too aggressively.

She runs away quickly, looking like a mouse being pursued by a cat. Nina sighs in relief and lets herself collapse into the dirt when they're out of sight. She would never let herself show that she got injured in front of them. She's stubborn as hell. Both an admirable and annoying trait about her. I prop her up onto the trunk of a tree with a grunt. She's heavier than she looks. My eyes flicker to a streak of red on her head. "You're bleeding," I say evenly. I keep my face blank, but I find myself checking her skin for a rash.

"Thanks for noticing, Captain Obvious," she grunts. "And I'm not Infected, idiot. I'd be in a lot worse shape if I was." She rubs her head and sighs.

"What happened?" I ask, focusing back on her face.

"Hit my head on the path when I was dodging," she says with a short shrug. "Nothing too bad.

I sigh and unclip the mini first-aid kit that I keep on my belt. Nina would say that she was fine if I broke her fingers off. "How do you feel?" I wet a cloth to clean the wound. The rubbing alcohol is cold on my fingers as it seeps through the fabric. I shiver a little, a small bit of the liquid dripping across my calluses.

"Bien." She averts her gaze. Her one tell, and it's usually more subtle than that.

I shake my head. As I said, stubborn. She winces as the cloth makes contact. "You're lying," I note.

She rolls her eyes. "Are you suddenly telepathic, Tristin?"

"I've lived through hell on Earth with you for eighteen years. I can tell." I rinse the cloth off with some water from a bottle I brought.

"Ever heard of sarcasm?" she snips.

I get out the antibacterial gel. "Ever heard of shutting up? Stop squirming."

Nina bears her teeth playfully. "Maybe I would if it didn't feel like hell."

"You get a deep wound in the head and shrug it off but start whining about some Neosporian?" I grab the gauze from the kit and press it against the flesh. She scowls, but I just roll my eyes at her, exasperated with her being so Nina.

"Actually, it's --" she grabs the gel container off of the ground "-- 'infection-reduction medical gel'," she reads off the label. I sigh.

"Stop being so Nina, Nina. No one cares, smart ass." I wrap the roll of bandages around her head.

"I care."

"As I said, no one cares." I tie the bandage off and cut it off from the rest of the roll.

"I'll take that to offence." Nina looks up at the sky. Her hands hug around her arms. I can guess what she's thinking of before she even says anything, but I hope that she won' task. She looks back at me. "Seventy six."

I know what she means, and I wish she wouldn't ask this. "Nina, you're only human. You're working yourself sick --"

"'Nina' isn't enough! You damn well know that." I flinch a little. She's too harsh on herself. It scares me sometimes. It worries anyone with common sense. "Dios, I've told you so many times. Everyone back home needs Demon, not Nina. Understood?" She clenches her fists. I don't look at her as she hisses the damn number again: "Seventy six."

I brush my hand against her arm and stay quiet for a little while. She trusts me with this. It hurts her, but she doesn't trust many with it. It would feel like a betrayal. I suck up my hesitation and nod. "Fine. Seventy six."

Nina hands me the bag at her waist. She smiles, and seeing it hurts. "Gracias."

"No problem." I pause, holding the end of her sleeve. "Are you sure?" I look her in the eyes.

"You ask every time. My answer hasn't changed."

I hold her gaze for a beat longer before I look down to her wrist. "Okay." I roll up her sleeve and begin my work in silence.