24 hours

There was blood everywhere, there was corruption in the air and the fog threatened to choke her.

She had been awake now for 23 hours, only taking during that time one half of an hour nap and a full meal. The blonde had always loathed coffee, not even using it during exams but these days it had became a necessity; she drank so much that her stomach was upset, and she had even thrown up in one occasion.

Maybe it had been the coffee, or maybe because that blonde girl who had begged her to save her mother had hit too close to home (had the girl really been blonde? Was she? Or was she just seeing little Rosalie begging for help)

The doctor had promised to retire long ago, but whenever she moved another emergency entered.

She patched wounds, treated fevers

The clock tickled, tears trickled down, mixing with sweat.

24 hours awake now.

It wasn't as if the Blight hadn't been real before now, when the Andefels were overrun Orlais had upped their recruitment because of the high chance that the darkspawn would head into Orlais next, but up until now Vincent had been solely focused on recruiting so any darkspawn he had fought had been small in numbers, stragglers from the main hoard. Now that the main hoard had taken over northeastern Orlais, it was time to take a more direct approach and take the fight to the darkspawn.

The fighting hadn't been easy, the last time Vincent had seen fighting like this had been when Warden Commander Clarel had put them through all the crazy and they'd ended up fighting the Inquisition as well as demons from the fade and who could forget the freaking dragon. Still, this is what he'd been trained for, to fight darkspawn. Men fell left and right, Vincent tired but fought on.

Eventually he and a couple of his men got cut off from the main group, with one of the men gravely wounded, their main focus was to get to the healer tents but to do that they had to cross a marsh and fight through some darkspawn. He was the least wounded of the three and as such was practically carrying one of them. In time, they finally made it to the healer tents, Vincent was covered in blood, both darkspawn and human. His arm was injured and his side but it was hard to see that without a closer examination.

Help! We need some help here!!!

Rosalie was about to go to bed when Vicent’s voice alerted her. She felt like an engine about to break but nevertheless she went over the wounded man, starting to fix his wounds methodically, trying to go step by step while someone went to fetch the healers to mend what medicine could not fix.
There was darkspawn blood everywhere and Rosalie put on the gloves while she tried to hold on the waves of nausea that wrecked her body, she couldn’t tell if it was a response to the stench of the cursed blood or pure exhaustion.

One of the men was healed, the other didn’t make it.

The vision of her family, the stench of darkspawn. Rosalie couldn’t see herself but her lips were white, there was sweat running down her forehead and the dark circles under her eyes made her soft features look sickly.

The blonde threw away the now drenched gloves, another wave of nausea

Before she could reach Vincent she threw up in a corner, only bitter bilis coming up; when was the last time that she had eaten? Her breathing accelerated, her heartbeat running like if she was hiking up a mountain.

She wiped her mouth and put herself togheter “Sorry” she said rushing towards Vincent, who had already another doctor fretting over his wounds “I can finish this, it was just a temporary indisposition. What happened, what do you need?”

Vincent had never fought darkspawn on this scale before, sure he'd fought some, but usually on patrols into the deep roads or the occasional place where they found their way to the surface like in the caves up on Storm Coast. The blight hadn't really seemed all that real until now, since he'd been tasked mainly with recruiting which kept him out of the skirmishes they'd fought before this big fight.

Vincent was relieved to see Rosalie, though also concerned for her safety, which felt quite conflicting.

We got cut off from the main force had to fight our way through a marsh to get to the healer tents. He wouldn't say the fighting was going well, but he wouldn't say it was going badly yet either. Him and the others getting cut off had been a bit of a fluke. He was still nursing injuries but as he felt they were relatively shallow wounds, he just hadn't thought to say anything, between that and the adrenaline that was currently keeping him standing.

Rosalie nodded “My coworkers are already treating your companions so I am going to help you okay? Lay down while I asses your wounds” they were quite obvious but she wanted to do her job properly, which involved a good exploration. In the end the only wounds were the ones that were obvious to the sight, so she started to clean stitch and bandage those. Her hand was shaking a little as she stitched “The healers are trying to save them but I can’t heal so stitches will have to do, sorry” said Rosalie as she looked down with a sad expression “I will try to do them as clean as I can but it will probably scar” said Rosalie shyly.

All the wounds were treated and stitched, and another hour had passed; was now she closer to 30 slepless hours? She felt sick, feverish as she tried to stand up after her job was done. Rosalie walked two steps before tripping with something, a bottle that someone had discarded on the ground.

After falling she looked at the healers; one of the wardens had survived and the other had not. The healer was doing his best but she could tell the signs of death, the lack of breathing and the distinct pallor

And the blood, the blood everywhere. Black charcoal blood, cursed blood
Tainted blood

“Too late, check vital signs before using more magic” she mumbled, sounding feverish.

Vincent didn't say too much while Rosalie was seeing to his wounds, it was good to see her though, a light in the midst of a storm. He wasn't sure if she'd ever looked more beautiful than in that moment. Sure she was exhausted and covered in various fluids, but for him, in that moment, she was just beautiful. He smiled as she mentioned it would scar.

Ah, well, aren't scars supposed to make a guy more attractive? Sometimes he wondered what Rosalie thought of him, but for fear of hurting their friendship, he was too scared to ask, perhaps one day he'd find the bravery he needed, but today was not that day.

In a perfect world Vincent would have been devastated by his friend's death, but in reality a Grey Warden just didn't have a long life expectancy, especially during not one, but two blights. Another soldier fallen while in service to the people of Thedas, more would be dead before all was over and he hadn't even put much thought into the archdemon yet.

I should get back out there, my men need me. He said as he winced from moving. The wounds weren't bad per se, but he was also exhausted and after finally having sat down for more than a minute, his body was screaming out in aches and pains.

In her exhausted state Rosalie was utterly unable to filter her words and she just chuckled “Personally I think that it’s inhumanly impossible for you to be more attractive” she said as she worked before realizing what she had said. Rosie opened her mouth to fix what she had said but merely closed it again afterwards, knowing that she could not undo a comment like that, specially when she was as brain dead as she was right now.

“You won’t, these wounds aren’t super deep but the cuts are a bit too deep for the stitches to hold fine if you leave to swing your daggers around and no one can heal you right now because the healers are almost out of mana; lyrium potions are very well rationed and they are holding what they have left of magic for today just in case someone comes in the verge of death” said the blonde as she guided him to a bed, picking a blanket on the way.

“You rest and sleep a bit; in the morning when they heal you you can go back” she barely stifled a yawn as the emergency was solved. Everybody who was alive was under control and she just sat on the corner of Vincent’s bed massaging her temples.

Vincent wasn't sure what he was expecting her to say in response to his comment about scars and attractiveness, but what she did end up saying was far from anything he would have guessed. He was far too tired to blush from the comment, but he did grin a bit sheepishly and sort of chuckled. He imagined it had something to do with her being utterly and totally exhausted, which he could hardly blame her, she might not be fighting on the front lines, but her work was no less serious and appreciated, as well as hard. He wasn't even sure what to say to what she'd said without sounding like a total dork, but he did his best.

Well, that's sweet of you to say, especially considering I'm covered in blood and darkspawn guts right now... He definitely didn't feel attractive at the moment. He wasn't all that happy with the diagnosis that he wouldn't be able to go straight back to the fighting, then again he wasn't all that sad either. He let her lead him around and did his best to get comfortable in the bed, though it was easier said than done. He was exhausted, but he was also running on pure adrenaline still and was not going to fall asleep easily, so instead he turned his head towards Rosalie.

How are you holding up?

Rosalie picked up a clean rag with some water and cleaned a bit gently his face “Well, now it’s a bit better. I like you both ways but it is true that darkspawn blood does not suit you” said the blonde with a bit of a hollow laugh. Because scars were the least of her worries, her main one was to not have him back from one of these battles.

The blonde found some solace in having here back, and in how she could show some of her love in the simple but tender gesture of cleaning his face so she kept going. Normally she would have stopped already, but sleep deprivation was doing a wreck on her composture and awareness of how she was clearly looking with devotion in her eyes to the soldier in front of him

“I…I am holding, I lost it after 20 hours awake, but I am no longer sleepy” she said with a shrug “And even if I was when I close my eyes I go back to Honnleath, to the blight and then I can’t just stay still” she admitted, her voice low and trembling. “But I am a doctor I can do this. I have to do this”

Vincent wished he could just say fuck it all and take Rosalie somewhere safe, though he wasn't sure if anywhere in Thedas fit that description these days, especially in the south, and Tevinter was still magically walled off, there was no getting in there even if he wanted to. Still, he hated seeing Rosalie like that, though at the same time he admired her even more for watching how she handled things.

Hey just remember, self care is important, you're no good to anyone if you push yourself too far and before you say it, I realise the same goes for me too. Not that he was sure she was going to turn it around on him, but he knew the advice could easily fit him, and Rosalie was smart enough to see that, especially since he was warden-constable.

Rosalie looked down as she leaned against Vincent “About that, my brother has written to me recently; he’s worried about how I am doing” said the blonde as she looked down “And don’t worry I won’t take his offer of him taking me back, I am here until the ends for the wardens…for you” she said placing her hand on his

“But I have to admit that there are things that are getting harder” she said quietly “Sleepy doesn’t come to me as easily, it’s not only about the hours I am awake, it’s also because when I close my eyes like it’s like being back in Honnleath and it’s even worse than here because here I can heal and help but in Honleath I was so little, so unprepared…” she said not realizing that a couple of tears were starting to fall “and I wake up and here I am more prepared but it’s never enough, and then I feel guilty because I went to sleep and Vincent people is dying and I was sleeping” and the wall broke, and she tried to stifle the sobs that threatened to escape her because she was a damn doctor, she was the healer and she could not break, she had to be strong for them.

Vincent wanted to just bundle Rosalie up into his arms and tell her everything was going to be OK, but he really didn't know that. The Blight wasn't going as well as the Grey Wardens wanted, lines were being overrun, villages evacuated, people dead. Things weren't going well, and he could only imagine what it was like to be in the medical tents, trying to heal the sick and wounded, especially when many of those wounded were blighted and beyond hope. He put his hand on Rosalie's shoulder and squeezed lightly.

Hey, hey it's going to be OK. I mean, I realise I can't promise that, but I have to believe it, otherwise what's the point in fighting, but you can't keep going like this, you're going to drop from exhaustion. Maybe you should just go home for a bit, I mean from what I've been told it's safer there any way right now, their warden-commander has wards up around Amaranthine, and you could probably still help while you're there.

On one hand hearing Vincent say that it was okay if she left felt as if someone had taken a stone off her chest. Rosie felt validated, as if leaving didn’t mean that she was a coward but on the other after seeing how bad things were here she felt guilty about leaving. It was a hard choice with no easy answer. “What if something happens to you while I am away” she said with teary eyes as she tried to fight the sleepiness. She felt so safe around him, Rosalie couldn’t help but lean on his shoulder, feeling the warmth and comfort of having the man she loved close. “Like something that I could have prevented; a big wound or an infected one” said her stifling a yawn “I couldn’t bear to lose you. I don’t want to lose more people Vincent”

Rosalie stirred a bit, trying to not openly fall asleep on Vincent's shoulder, but the temptation of taking a small nap with him was admittedly quite overpowering.

Vincent wasn't entirely sure that there was something he could say that would take away all of Rosalie's fears and doubts, they were in trying times and death was all around them, he couldn't exactly promise he wouldn't be injured, but he wanted to say something, anything, to her to make her feel better about it all. He brushed a stray hair behind her ear and looked at her as seriously and warmly as he could.

Are you saying you don't trust the other healers and doctors? I mean, don't get me wrong, you're important here, you do good work, but you aren't the only one and you won't be the only one that needs a break so they don't go crazy or drop from exhaustion. Admittedly he would miss her when she went, he'd miss her like crazy, but right now that wasn't important, right now what was important was her health and well being.

“Don’t be mean, of course that I trust them! I am afraid of being the one that is not good enough and is crashing, my issue is not with them” she said grumpily. “but you and Cullen are right, maybe it’s my time to take a break, I can maybe further my research and help a bit from out of the frontlines” she said finishing her sentence with a yawn

“Stay with me Vincent, just for five minutes please” she said almost half asleep, nuzzling his shoulder. She was so tired that she was out like a light in less than a minute.

But what else could you expect after 27 hours awake?