Chapter Text
It hurt.
Everything hurt.
White and black and red. A searing in the eyes that left an after-image imprinted under the eyelids and a burning sensation in the back. His mind, for the longest time, seemed to be nothing but pain – the world around him, his sense of identity and thought reduced to a blinding hot white.
"Oh God, is he ok?"
"That was quite the explosion!"
"Good going, Luckett, now one of us has to clean this up and it isn't going to be me."
His ears were ringing. He thought it was a sound like a glass bell.
Ring, ring, ring.
It drowned out most other noise. Everything else came from under an ocean – distant, faint, barely existent.
That was all he was really aware of. Ringing.
Ring. Ring.
Ring. Ring.
He didn't know why everything was ringing.
"Jasper! Can you hear me?"
One of those voices came again and, slowly, through the pain, his mind stirred slightly.
...Jasper...
...Jasper..?
Was Jasper ok?
He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if something happened to Jasper.
In pieces, the world around him seemed to fall a little more into place like one rousing themself from a dream.
He began to notice the craggy, bumpy surface he was lying on, edges biting into his back, the dust and smoke in the air that clogged up his lungs whenever he breathed. He began to recall who he was and where he was.
Finally, he began to puzzle over the rubble of memory, trying to pick out exactly how he had ended up in this situation.
Dr Henry Jekyll – leader of the Society for Arcane Sciences, well known philanthropist, gentleman, and self proclaimed rogue scientist – shifted.
This, as it turned out, was a mistake. Pain lanced through his back and he would have cried out if he hadn't gotten a mouthful of dust. Instead, his scream was choked off into a fit of coughing. Every cough shifted his body slightly, sending fresh waves of pain through his back but, although he tried hard to stifle it, he couldn't stop.
As he lay there, uncontrollably hacking up his lungs, he vaguely noticed that his back felt oddly sticky.
Bit by bit, he managed to still his choking, the back of his throat still tickling unpleasantly.
That didn't matter though. Was Jasper alright?
With great effort, one eye was forced open.
His vision was fuzzy at the edges, blackening with a strange flickering static and what he could see was grey and colourless.
The only noise ringing above the continued ringing was his own laboured breaths, shallow to his ears, and the occasional stifled cough.
"It's aliiiiive!"
"Too soon, man."
"Christ, Luckett, the guy's new here, you can't almost kill him on his first week!"
"It was an accident! How badly is he hurt?"
Across the room, mostly obscured by smoke and dust, was a crowd around one figure. Jekyll lay completely forgotten on the other side of the room. Nobody even seemed to have seen him.
It was fair, he decided hazily. They didn't like him anyway.
Dr Jekyll was always forgotten in the end. Always second fiddle to someone else. Never meant anything to anyone.
Maybe he even deserved it. It was his fault that all of this had happened to begin with.
He blinked, shaking off the delirious thoughts. It wasn't the time for self-pity, Jasper might be seriously hurt.
The room was, thankfully, coming into a lot more focus and he shifted, still feeling the pain, sharp against his back.
He gritted his teeth through it.
There was no way he was letting himself look weak in front of all of them.
As he stood, something sharp pulled out of his back with a wet sound, the noise lost to Henry's ringing ears and lost to the babbling crowd across the room.
Jekyll stumbled a little on his feet. Straightened himself, fixed his cravat, and put every inch of his gentlemanly charm into walking normally, doing his best not to wince.
The jagged edge of pipe that had been embedded in his back was left behind, still dripping red.
From the moment he had woken up that morning, Jasper's day had been completely normal.
Well, as normal as he life had been since moving to London. He was still adjusting to the new environment.
Most of his morning had been spent avoiding the other lodgers, staying in his room, and working hard on his presentation, determined not to let everyone down. Then Luckett had swung by his room to ask him if he wanted to see something cool. Unsure how to turn him down, Jasper had agreed to come with.
The cool thing, as it turned out, was a bomb and a massive explosion.
Now the lodgers were fussing around him because he had struck the wall pretty badly after the explosion. Aside from the ringing ears and bruised head, though, he felt mostly ok.
However, for all he tried, he couldn't convince them of that.
Living on a farm with horses, he had gotten plenty off kicks to the head far worse than this. Not to mention all the times he had fallen out of trees, fallen into ditches, or just tripped in general because the dresses and ribbons and long hair had gotten in the way.
He would live.
With such a large crowd making him feel claustrophobic, it was a relief when someone yelled out and the crowd began to part to allow a new person in there, giving him brief breathing space.
"Dr Jekyll!"
Jekyll, as he strode in, thankfully seemed almost unscathed from the explosion. There was a sprinkling of dust and plaster in his hair and his clothes were perhaps a little skewed but he still had the air of a leader to him, his eyes glittering with determination, back perfectly straight.
Finally, he reached Jasper and knelt before him, staring him worriedly in the eyes.
"Jasper, are you alright?" Jekyll asked.
"I've had worse." Jasper tried to say, coughing as he inhaled some of the smoke.
Jekyll's eyes narrowed to see it.
"We should get everyone to evacuate this area." Jekyll spoke. He didn't yell in any way but his voice was clear even above the shifting of rubble and the ringing in everyone's ears. "Luckett, Sinnett, can I trust you to carry Jasper out?"
"Leaving the hard work to other people as usual, I see." Someone in the crowd mumbled.
It was uncertain who had spoken but there was some grumbling of agreement amongst the lodgers. Jasper thought he saw Jekyll wince.
"...Fine." Jekyll said.
In an instant, the wince was gone so fast that Jasper could almost think it had been his imagination.
"Luckett, you know most about explosions." Jekyll continued, "While Sinnett and I get Jasper out, can I place you in charge of the rest of the evacuation?"
Luckett nodded and the grumbling was over.
On the count of three, cued in by Jekyll, Jekyll and Sinnett both lifted Jasper from the ground. The doctor grimaced a little as he did so which wasn't lost on Sinnett.
"What's wrong, doctor?" Sinnett said, jovially, "Not used to hard work?"
"I'll confess," Jekyll replied, his face twisted in... Pain? "My upper body strength isn't as good as most of the lodgers here."
"Shouldn't have let them pressure you into helping Jasper."
"You know... I think you're right."
Jasper stared worriedly at the drop beneath him, uncomfortable at the attention and the distance between him and the ground.
"I can walk, sir." Jasper protested.
Sinnett glanced expectantly at Jekyll, waiting on his answer.
"You're the most injured here. Until we know how bad the damages are, it's not a good idea for you to move too much." Jekyll responded apologetically, "Head injuries can be a lot worse than they look."
"Unless they're bleeding." Sinnett pointed out, "Then they bleed so much that they look worse than they are."
A sigh from Jekyll.
Jasper awkwardly tried to make himself comfortable, hanging between the two of them, being carted along. He busied himself watching lodgers pass by, darting about in the chaos. Some were evacuating, some were looking for lost stuff in the rubble, others were stood around chatting excitedly about what was going on against Luckett's instructions. Despite what had happened, most of them seemed more thrilled than anything at the turn of events.
It was a little unnerving to Jasper to consider that this might be considered normal around there.
Just then, a new scent reached his nose through the burning smell. A coppery smell that put him on edge.
Frantic, he tried to sit himself up, causing the pair carrying him to stumble with the unexpected shift of weight.
"I smell blood," Jasper said quickly, looking around hurriedly for the source, "Is someone injured?"
There seemed to be nobody else looking particularly hurt in the crowd but he was starting to worry that they had missed someone. Maybe they were buried in the rubble, forgotten to everyone.
At that phrase, Sinnett paused, suddenly looking concerned. Like before, he looked over at Jekyll for guidance.
"Depends how sensitive your nose is, Jasper." Came Jekyll's casual reply, “I’m sure plenty of people got scratched or grazed by the explosion.”
Jasper sniffed again and, to his surprise, the scent seemed to be coming from Jekyll. Except, Jekyll looked perfectly fine.
“...Are you hurt, Dr Jekyll?”
“Mm? I’m not sure, I haven’t had a chance to check yet. Maybe there’s a cut or scrape somewhere.”
Slowly, Jasper let himself settle back down.
It didn't smell like just a little cut to him but, then again, he wasn't used to his new werewolf senses. It would probably smell worse than it actually was.
That was what he told himself.
Once the last of the lodgers were dragged from the wreckage, Rachel was waiting, knife in hand, to chew out every last one of them.
It was a lot of "What on Earth were you thinking?!" and "One of you should have stopped them!"
Jekyll, as the leader, got it the worst. Particularly when Rachel found out the circumstances of the explosion.
When Jekyll had come in and seen Luckett showing off what was very clearly a bomb to Jasper, Jekyll had intended to stop them right there and then before things went too far. However, since Frankenstein had showed up, the lodgers had lost most of their respect for him. The moment he had entered, he had gotten a few jabs at how he was ruining their fun, being a stick in the mud, and similar insults.
Desperate to prove that he was one of them, that Frankenstein was wrong about him strangling their creativity, he had let them do what they wanted to do.
Like an idiot.
He had seen when Luckett had joked about juggling the literal bomb and done nothing because it was just a joke, it was harmless.
He had seen when Luckett had bounced it in his hand, testing its weight and done nothing because it was Luckett's own home-made bomb. Surely he was allowed to hold his own creation.
He had seen when Luckett had thrown it in the air and he had still done nothing because Luckett knew more about bombs than he did, he knew the limits.
Then, he had seen it drop and he had been too far to get there in time.
There had been a bang, a searing white light, and the feeling of his body striking the wall with a pain that almost felt like he had been pierced through.
Overall, it was his own stupid fault for not doing his job.
"Other than Jasper, are there any other injuries?" Rachel asked, finally done with her tirade against them all.
Lodgers glanced between each other. A couple of words were exchanged.
The consensus was: "No, just Jasper."
"Oh good." Rachel sighed out, relieved, "Well that's a lucky break at least."
Jasper, sat over by the side, opened his mouth to protest but fell into a fit of coughing instead.
"I'll just check over Jasper for any worse injuries," She continued as Jasper frantically tried to speak, "and then-"
Desperately, Jasper's hand shot into the air between hacking, silencing Rachel.
Everyone watched expectantly as he recovered enough to speak. It was silent other than his choking and having everyone's eyes on him like that made him feel pretty self-conscious about it.
"Actually," Jasper gasped out at last, voice raw from coughing, "Jekyll was injured too."
A pause.
Then, Rachel slowly and threateningly turned a hard stare to Jekyll.
Jekyll quickly raised his hands in surrender.
"It's just a scratch." He protested, looking rather embarrassed, "I'm certain other lodgers got little scratches as well – Nobody's claiming they're injured!"
A long suffering sigh from Rachel.
"I'm deal with Jasper first, then I'll take a look over your injury."
"But-"
"It could get infected." She said sternly. Her eyes drifted across the crowd and the lodgers cowered under her gaze. "I'll deal with Jasper first since he's the most urgent but anyone else with scratches, even if they seem pretty small, should see me after. We have no clue what could be embedded in those scratches, after all."
"I think Dr Jekyll is the most urgent, though. He should go first." Jasper cut in hurriedly.
Even with everyone in one room, the scent of blood was strongest on Jekyll and it was continuing to make him uneasy.
Jekyll glanced over at him, looking a little touched by Jasper's concern. He shook his head gently and knelt before him, meeting his eye straight on.
"Jasper." Jekyll said softly, "It's admirable for you to put others over yourself like that but you could have a serious concussion. As Sinnett said, it's more difficult to tell with head injuries, therefore any head injury takes first priority."
He paused thoughtfully.
"I think the other lodgers should go before me, as well." Jekyll finished, "I'm a doctor, after all, I should be able to treat my own injuries."
"Are you sure?" Rachel broke in. "You might not be able to deal with all of it alone."
"I promise you, Rachel, it's just a scratch. There will be time afterwards for you to look it over."
She nodded and Jasper's protests were lost to "Jasper's just being selfless".
As he was lead away to have his injuries looked over, all he could do was stare wildly after Jekyll.
The doctor was wincing, as if in pain.
The first thing Henry did after the incident was to head back to his office.
Rachel would need medical supplies for the lodgers and it just so happened that he had plenty in his office for Hyde's constant bruises and scrapes.
When he got in there, he locked the door behind him and carefully stripped off his jacket and shirt.
As much as he wanted to get to treating the others now, Rachel was right. Infection was a risk and he needed to make at least a quick effort to protect against it before he got to everyone else.
It wouldn't be the first time he had quickly fixed up an injury by himself.
He couldn't see the injury that Jasper had been fretting over but, based on the pain he was experiencing, it seemed most likely that it was on his back.
There was no telling how big it was or even the precise location. Every time he tried to feel it out with his hands, it stung too much to continue and his awkward attempts to see it in the mirror failed.
As it was, he chose to just clean and bandage the entirety of his back. The entire area was wrapped in bandages several times over to ensure that nothing was missed.
It was somewhat embarrassing to look at. His torso was practically mummified, a textbook example of overkill. However, it wasn't like he knew exactly where it was and it was better to be safe than sorry.
It couldn't have hit anywhere too close to his spine or he would have been paralysed which also meant it couldn't be that large. That was the extent of what he knew.
His heart told him it was too painful to be anything except large but the more logical part of him told him that, if it was serious, he would be paralysed or dead already.
He went to pick up his clothes. Proving that the injury was on his back, there was a decent amount of blood on the shirt and, presumably, on the jacket as well but it was difficult to tell considering the jacket was brown. It was kind of a concerning amount and, for a second, he considered it.
No, the lodgers took first priority.
Besides, how humiliating would it be if he went to Rachel claiming it was worse than it appeared just for her to turn him around and tell him it was actually pretty small? How could he ever look at the lodgers or Jasper knowing he had taken up their time? Time that could have been spent treating bigger, worse injuries?
Again, if he wasn’t paralysed, if he could still walk and even pretend that everything was ok, how bad could it really be in the end? Certainly it would be fine enough to wait now that he had treated it.
Perhaps this blood was from someone else. If he knew the lodgers as well as he did, any one of them could be hiding a pretty nasty wound out of pride or spite. All the more reason to check them first.
The clothes were placed to one side to be washed later and he put on fresh, clean clothes.
Satisfied that it was fine for the time being, he headed to the medical room to help Rachel and Lavender treat the lodgers.
A lot of the lodgers wouldn't let Jekyll treat them.
They were a stubborn bunch, claiming that he wasn't a real scientist and, therefore, couldn't treat them. Henry just rolled his eyes and took out another roll of bandages.
He practically had to pin them to the bed to treat them, his back protesting every time he did. The worst of them were flat out sedated.
It was a lot of small scratches, not anything to worry over, but the occasional cut would contain tiny bits of shrapnel from the explosion and Jekyll would have to get out the tweezers.
This was when the mule-like stubbornness of the lodgers became really annoying.
It was difficult to pick out the pieces as his patients shifted, deliberately messing up his attempts. On occasion, the piece would even be pushed deeper in and Jekyll had to take a deep breath to keep his frustration in check.
By the end of it, he was exhausted.
Rachel had only fared a little better. Obviously none of the lodgers held a particular grudge on her like they did to Jekyll but she still wasn't a scientist. She wasn't even trained in this sort of thing like Jekyll was.
Jekyll was actually surprised at how well she did but, as she explained, her little brother had gotten into a lot of scraps before. She had gotten used to dressing injuries quickly before their mother found out, even when he was being a little menace about it.
"Is that all of them?" She asked, the lodgers mingled together, chatting and laughing like the building hadn't been blown up recently.
A twinge of pain in his back caused him to hesitate. He looked over Rachel's pale face and the way she struggled to stand.
"...Nothing that can't wait until tomorrow."
She blinked and looked up at him with frown.
"Really? I thought we did everyone." She said, puzzled, "Who did we- Oh! Your injury!"
"Scratch." He corrected.
"Scratch. Surely we should do it today?"
"We're both tired. I've already washed and bandaged it so the only thing left would be shrapnel and I don't think either of us have enough energy to do that."
Besides, he was used to it from Hyde. By this point he was better at treating himself than he was at treating other people.
He was so used to it that it didn’t even feel right to have someone else treat it.
On that note, he kind of worried what else Rachel might find if she looked back there. It looked to be unavoidable that she would check eventually but maybe he could at least get a little bit of extra time to think up some excuses for the myriad of scars on his torso.
"But it could get infected."
He raised a hand to silence her.
"And in our states, trying to get anything out could just end up pushing it further in. Safer to leave it for now." The hand dropped. "Hopefully it won't get infected between now and tomorrow."
Rachel looked unconvinced.
"I'm a doctor, Rachel." He insisted. "You have to trust me to treat myself. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Fine. First thing tomorrow, though." She pointed a finger at him sharply, "First. Thing. The moment the sun rises."
"Of course, of course."
"And if there are any changes between now and then – any weird colouration around the area or... Or..." Exasperated, she threw up her hands, "Or anything at all! You come straight to me!"
"Geez, Rachel, it's a scratch."
She scowled at him. "There was an explosion. It's a miracle that most of the lodgers managed to get off as well as they did."
"How's Jasper doing, by the way?"
"Resting." Her face softened into one of relief. "Thankfully, he was right, it wasn't that bad."
Jekyll smiled. "I'm glad."
"You and me both. See you tomorrow morning?"
Henry nodded and the pair parted ways.
What worried Jekyll the most in the situation was appearing weak.
The lodgers already didn't respect him, if he showed weakness in front of them, who knew if he could ever regain their trust?
In his mind, he could already hear the mockery.
"All of us were injured, Jekyll, you're not special."
"It's just a scratch. What, have you never been hurt in your life?"
"Can't the good doctor treat himself or is he not a good enough scientist for that?"
Without thinking, his fingers brushed the heavy padding under his shirt.
God, it felt like an awful attempt. Obviously, better safe than sorry but it felt like an amateur's work.
He was supposed to be a leader and his authority was already being challenged. How could he complain about a tiny injury, knowing that?
Not to mention, putting himself before anyone else wasn't what a leader would do. That would be burdening the people he was trying to lead rather than helping them.
That was what kept his head high and a confident stride in his step as he made his way through the society, ignoring the burning in his back and the heaviness in his limbs.
He was honestly quite proud of himself. His facade barely slipped for a moment.
Before he went to bed, he wanted to check every lodger just once more to make sure nobody had been missed or, God forbid, one of them was undoing their bandages just to spite him.
Frankenstein was last. Technically, she should have been the first with her pre-existing condition but Jekyll, although he would never admit it, was afraid to face her.
He was dealing with so much already to put up with her goading.
She hadn't been involved in the explosion. For once, her odd choice of room had come in handy and she had missed it entirely. In fact, as he quickly found, she had slept through the whole thing, only to learn of it from the excited lodgers later.
When he came into the room, she was nothing but smug.
"I heard about the explosion." She preened, "Having trouble controlling your lodgers, doctor?"
Jekyll just rolled his eyes.
"...Frankenstein. I'm not in the mood for this. I just wanted to know if you're ok."
She didn't respond. With an air of petty spite, she cocked her head at him rather pointedly.
"Creature?" Henry turned to the only one there willing to answer him.
Thankfully, Creature pulled through.
"She wasn't affected by the explosion, if that's what you're asking. I wouldn't say she's ok."
Jekyll nodded once.
"That's all I needed to know. Good night, Frankenstein."
With that, he turned to leave. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, there was a sudden yell from behind him, stopping him. Startled and a little confused, he turned around to look at the source of the voice.
Frankenstein's smug look had slid off her face like snow off glass and, if he was crazy, he could almost call her look concerned. She was staring not at his face but down at his...
"Jekyll, what's under your shirt?"
He looked down to where her eyes had landed. With his usual layering of clothes, the heavy bandaging had been covered up rather nicely just as he had hoped. The misshapen padding wasn’t visible unless someone was looking for it.
He wasn’t certain why Frankenstein of all people had been the first to spot it.
"Nothing of concern. Now, if you don't mind-" He went for the door again.
"Were you involved in the explosion?"
"Yes but I'm fine. Thank you for you your... Deep and sincere concern though." He snarked.
"There's blood on your jacket."
Completely taken off guard, he couldn’t help a brief hesitation.
He had replaced his bloody jacket, it made no sense for there to be more. Neither could he see any blood looking down at himself from where he was.
"Must have come from one of the lodgers." He said, still looking for this illusive blood. It was nowhere on his front…
Then, he looked up, seeing Frankenstein’s face, and a chill went down his spine.
Her expression felt completely out of place with her usual behaviour. It was something he hadn’t seen on her before, something he couldn’t recognize and a coil of paranoia dug itself into his stomach.
Weakness, something cruel hissed in his head, She's noticed a weakness – Another method of questioning my authority for her to exploit.
Taking a deep breath, he made one more effort to distract her.
"The lodgers are fine by the way."
"I'm not asking about them." She examined his face closely. "Dr Jekyll, what's under your shirt?"
"Nothing. Good night."
This time, he ignored her attempts to call him back. When he was alone in the hallway, he took a moment to tentatively brush his back with the tips of his fingers.
They came away bloody.