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Moving his knight from B1 to C3, he switched sides and played from the other point of view. It was something he did from time to time when nobody was around to play but no sooner had he touched the pawn which stood in E7, did he hear a knock at his door. Looking up at the clock, it was too late for anyone other than family. Standing up from the board, he smoothed his sweater a bit and walked over to his door. Everything had its place and everything was in order as he unlocked each of the three locks on his door. There was no peephole because this was a door that was meant to be unbreakable. He’d taken extra measures given the nature of his work and the fact he sometimes had medications and chemicals here in his side room and basement for if he had to handle a family member as a patient at home. It was easier at times than heading to the clinic but it had required the extra steps and adjustments to his otherwise minimalist home.

What he was not expecting to see was Alexandre, making a mess of his porch. He didn’t bother turning the light on to see, he could smell blood on them. Hissing slightly through his teeth, he grabbed them by the arm and pulled them inside, he’d grab the bleach to clean up later after he found out what was going on. As long as it was gone before the sun rose there wouldn’t be a problem, his neighbors knew he was a doctor and even stopped by from time to time for help with things.

Dragging them past his furniture and carpeting to that side room that was a makeshift office, he sat his cousin down on the chair and turned on the overhead lighting. It hummed and buzzed for a moment before letting off its harsh cool white light to reveal the bloody mess his cousin was. Pressing his palm to his forehead he sighed, this was going to be another mess to clean up before any other patients stopped by.

“What happened? I highly doubt you went into the wrong part of town for a run because you’re not even in your jogging clothes or shoes.” Looking at the sweater, dress pants, and nicer shoes, they looked like they’d been out at an event more than anything else. Turning back towards the cabinets, he started pulling out a few different kits for stitching things up and disinfecting wounds. “Take your sweater off while explaining things, I want to get you patched up so you don’t bleed all over my home.” Tone flat but not wholly cold, they knew he liked keeping to a schedule even if he did offer his services whenever the family asked.

By the time turned back around, he heard the sweater falling to the ground. The wet sound it made sent him grumbling at the mess it made. Scars, burns, ink, all the things that scattered his cousin made him narrow his eyes. Pulling gloves on, he stepped closer and set the various kits on a small wheeled stand that stood beside the chair.

No wonder he stopped coming in for checkups….

Leaning in he took a look at the tear in their side, it was far from clean so it couldn’t have been a knife. There was serious doubt on his face as he looked at his cousin while he started cleaning the wound to get a better look at things. “Uh huh.. So you with all your infinite size and strength decided to play vigilant against things that go bump in the night? It wasn’t a knife was it? There are paint chips in the wound, try telling the truth this time or I will use the biggest needle to stitch you back up.” He wouldn’t abide by a lying patient even if they were his cousin, it got in the way of his work, of his process and he wouldn’t have that even if the queen of England knocked on his door.

Pulling a small wheeled stool over, he adjusted the height and sat on it so he could start picking things out with tweezers. Bits of the sweater, some strands of another fabric, and paint chips littered his side where it was open. It almost looked like there was a bit of rust but it was impossible to tell with the blood. Once it was picked clean and most of the extra blood wiped away with antiseptic, he leaned back up and grabbed for the next small kit. Holding up the biggest and the standard needle, he waved them by their face. He wouldn’t do anything extra to hurt a patient but scare tactics helped keep things running smoothly at times. He wasn’t as heavy-handed with them outside of his family though.

“Truth be told it looks more like someone got you with a ruined scrap of metal maybe from a road sign or old can. I should have a tetanus shot just in case for you. Last chance to tell the whole truth cousin. Choose wisely.” Watching them with a flat expression, there was a bit of annoyance on his face. Asking about the rest would have to come later and he would make sure of it, even if he had to adjust his schedule to accommodate for things. The weekend was coming so work could be left for the following week, and he could set aside his trips to the park for chess for another weekend.

Huffing for a moment he pulled the needles out of their line of sight and prepped the standard-sized one. “I highly doubt that from what I can see all over you. You look as if you’ve been sent through a wood chipper and then thrown into a house fire. If this is why you’ve been absent for a while, we’ve all noticed. I figured it was related to your classes or another one of those men you find yourself with although I guess you currently are without.” He’d seen a bit of it and noticed the cycle of appearances and disappearances over the years. It wasn’t his place to say things in public about it but this was his home and he was about to start stitching them back together.

That smile though, was one he knew all too well from looking in the mirror. It was self-satisfying if not a bit morbid to witness, not that it phased him much. If anything it made this all the more interesting. Eyebrow raised as they went on about souls and aliens, he couldn’t really believe it but he knew they weren’t really good at lying. “So did this alien just disappear after they died or are you the reason there have been bodies littering the alleyways around the jogging routes.” It wasn’t quite accusatory but he had noticed things as of late, it had been a point of his to keep up on crimes and disappearances in case they ended up in his clinic or the morgue that was next door. He’d made himself known to the kind young mortician since moving into the office space and she was quite loose-lipped on gossip.

Needle ready, he did one more good round of antiseptic before starting to stitch the wound closed. Offering up a wooden tongue depressor for them to bite on if needed, the walls were thick enough to keep the sound in but he preferred them not to make too much noise. It was something he’d done before, day in and day out after a weekend of drunks managed their way to his clinic. All of them were sons and daughters of the well-to-do who wanted to avoid being seen in an emergency room. “I still don’t believe you really, souls don’t exist it’s all folk tales like the witches that were burned at the stake.” It had been something his side of the family had a history of, before marrying into the larger Evans family. Magic and things like that fell away to more respectable and logical careers such as his position as a doctor or his father’s as an engineer.

“Now stay still.” Working through their skin, he went about things in the same order as always. Like a well-oiled machine, his hands worked through the task steadily and quickly. The whole process only took a few minutes and he checked the tension as he went along. With luck, it wouldn’t scar like the other ones that littered his cousin’s torso. Whoever had patched him up had done a s**t job and he hated to see work that wasn’t up to his standards.

“That or a blender perhaps? I would hope you weren’t involved with the burning of the sleep clinic. I had referred a few people that way who were more inclined to seek less… scientific solutions to their sleep issues.” That next answer stirred something in him, it was sloppy to leave things like that behind though he couldn’t outright say things like that. Even if picking off those less likely to be cared about by society, someone always noticed in the end. The thought of it bothered him if only a little.

They’d stayed mostly quiet even if they started to shake a bit as he neared the worst part of the job. With everything done, he’d rolled back with the stool to remove his gloves and put the kit in the sink to rinse off and dispose of later in the biohazard sharps bin. Ears perked up at the mention of Hudson, it had been a bit since he’d seen them as well but their disappearances were farther and fewer between. Turning back around, Alexandre didn’t look like himself anymore. It was odd and he held his scalpel tightly in his grip and pointed towards them as a weapon appeared, family or not the appearance of magic set off long-standing habits from his heritage.

As whatever trick they’d done ended, he stared at the crystal that seemed to almost glow and hover above their hand. A question began to form as that deep hatred for magic started to show as disgust on his face as they mentioned magic users. Standing up, still holding the scalpel, he walked over to the starseed thing and examined it carefully. It made no sense, had no exact correlation with anything he knew of in a logical or scientific sense yet he had also just seen his cousin change into and back out of another form as easy as breathing. It had been an odd feeling, as his mind tried to separate them as two different people until logic forced the two images on top of each other to reassert they were both the same person, his cousin.

“So the witch hunts are back out of the dark ages?” His voice dripped with cold and icy poison as a small and terrifying smile crept across his face. “I guess legacies are harder to kill than I thought, though it was a Cosgrove one not one of the Evans family. So are you in need of a better medic, because whoever patched you up did a s**t job and shouldn’t be anywhere near wound care, or is there an opportunity to pick up a family tradition?”

Setting down the scalpel, he started going through the pros and cons of things from the information he’d just been presented with. It was a quick bit of work with some of his own assumptions thrown in. Jaw working as he stared at the starseed for a moment more before looking back towards Alexandre. “I feel conflicted about bringing witches into the fold but if there is a good enough leash on them maybe I can tolerate it. It sounds interesting and I feel like I have a duty to make sure you get treated properly and not by some charlatan.” Tone falling flatter at that last bit, his disgust over a job done poorly very apparent.

“Family is family though and secrets are things that need to be kept close just as weaknesses are. Power may not be as attractive to me but I can’t turn down an offer from you Alexandre we both know that. As long as I can continue keeping things to a standard that I prefer, as well as keeping my schedule running smoothly, you can rely on me to be there and discreet.” Corpses spoke more than he had when it came to secrets but he wouldn’t allow his schedule to be interrupted by what he’d consider a hobby.

“I feel like pain just makes someone stronger so that doesn’t bother me but are you sure that you are up for something like that? You still look rough, almost like your legs are still deciding if it’s worth it to hold you up.” Sitting back down on his stool, he raised it up so he was still almost at eye level with his cousin. “Though if you have doubts I can understand that as well. I think I have enough information between you and what I’ve noticed over the years to make an educated decision so I don’t see a need to delay the inevitable.”

“I think I would prefer to serve family than some planet or space object. Something tangible and grounded to reality.” Looking at his cousin he nodded, they’d drifted apart a bit over the years but he’d always tried looking out for them. “It gives me more ways to keep tabs on you too and I think I would prefer that. You always seem to be getting in trouble and it’s bothered me over the years. Especially now that I can see what you’ve put yourself through”

“You’ll have to introduce me to him then, I enjoy meeting other professionals and exchanging information. It helps both parties improve and gain new viewpoints on how to practice medicine as it can always get better. As for keeping me safe, I appreciate things but it might be the other way around?” He knew his own work was good but there was always room to improve and he knew it, even if he didn’t show it to anyone else.

“Let’s begin?” Offering his hand to shake as if they were fulfilling a verbal contract, he let out a deep breath as he cleared his thoughts to prepare for whatever pain was coming.

It sounded like a good plan and he’d hold them to that promise. A warmer smile spread as they mentioned him being a nanny, it would be like old times indeed. “I’ll accept that apology if you continue to be transparent about things going forward.” The rest of that was a moot point, he’d never bothered with any relationship outside of his work and his family. That had been enough for him as both were fulfilling in their own ways. That and he didn’t want to deal with things getting in the way of his schedule so far. It was something that was an impossibility but he’d accepted it and moved on back in college.

Looking down because of his own morbid curiosity, a hiss escaped between his teeth. It felt wrong but he couldn’t place what it felt like. Was this like a heart attack? Or something more akin to the wind being knocked out of him? Either way, he couldn’t take any more breaths as he stayed as still as a statue. His clothes seemed to fade away as another outfit took its place, it felt different, stronger, and right. Then the moment and the pain was gone and he took a slow and metered breath before looking back up to Alexandre.

“Didn’t even flinch, see?” Smiling just a bit at his joke, he stood back up and looked down at his attire. It looked… militant. It was clean and without any flair much as he was in his day-to-day choices of attire. “I assume you can’t call me by my name when we are like this can you?” A new identity and a level of anonymity to pursue some things he’d considered but not acted on. Placing his hand on his cousin’s shoulder he squeezed it firmly for a moment. “I think I am going to enjoy this.”