Zhyan woke up that morning to a loud shattering sound and a scream. Turning around, he noticed he was alone in the Fire Room.

“Spark?” He was immediately out of the bed and left the room, running in his pajamas to the nearest bathroom.

Swiftly, he opened the door and gasped at the sight in there. The shower sliding glass door was shattered around the wet floor and between the splinters was a moaning figure.

“Spark!” The archangel ran to her, not minding if he stepped on the door pieces. Spark laid curled on the floor among the shattered glass. She moved slowly, obviously in lots of pain by the time Zhyan knelt at her side. He saw a dark stain growing beneath her. Blood.

“Spark?” very gently Zhyan touched her and frowned when she moaned louder. His touch had hurt her. Softly, he turned her towards him to expose her to his sight. Several splinters of different size were incrusted in her body and right arm, many of them visible thru her dark bathrobe. Her arm had protected her neck and face but lot of her blood was pouring down to the floor. Instinctively, Zhyan started to gather up his energy to heal her wounds, holding her as close to him as he dared.

“Wait!” Zhyan looked up to see Peachyra rushing to their side. “We should remove the splinters first… can you take her to the infirmary?”

Zhyan nodded and took Spark in his arms to teleport both of them to the medical room, leaving Pechyra staring at the damage for a moment before she ran to meet them.

By the time she was there, Zhyan was helping the shivering aztec to lay on her good side while he cleansed the blood from her wounds.

Peachyra sprayed some analgesic on them. It was a special mix from her garden, it would work fast. She grabbed some tweezers from a cabinet and started to extract the splinters very carefully.

“What happened Sparky?” She asked.

Despite the analgesic, Spark was hissing and her left hand held one of the bed rails with a force that made her knuckles turn white. She was observing how Peachyra grabbed splinter after splinter with the tweezers and slowly retrieved them from her flesh while Zhyan applied dressings to the cuts after washing them. So far they were working on her flank.

Gently, Zhyan took her chin and made her lift her head so she was looking at him. It diverted her attention from Peachyra, who in that moment was extruding a very long and thin splinter from the side of her abdomen.

“Spark? What happened?” he asked, fixing his eyes on hers.

“I... I do not know!” she stuttered “I was going to take a shower… ssss!!” The girl gasped deeply.

“Sorry, Sparky.” Peachyra said. That splinter had been weirdly twisted deep inside her flesh.

Zhyan had placed his hand on the rail, pressing her fingers and offering his support. Spark was panting in obvious pain. He quickly placed a bandage on the wound. Luckily, none of the splinters had damaged any important organ and seemed that the important blood vessels had been spared; just skin and deep flesh had suffered the cuts and hard bruises. Zhyan trembled. It had been luck indeed. She had been hurt only on her left side and not on her front, while the arm had protected her neck and face. He wished that Peachyra would finish quickly, so he could heal her. He was not sure how much blood she had lost by now, but he knew they had to stop the bleeding fast.

“Did you slip against the door?” He asked, so she would not notice what Peachyra was doing. He would flinch for both.

“N –n –no” Spark said, turning her attention to him, as he wanted. “I opened the faucet... sss! And waited for the water to run warm….sss!”

“I am almost finished here, sweetie, hang on…” Peachyra murmured.

Zhyan nodded. He knew Spark used warm water to have a shower even if they were in the middle of the summer. “Did the water scald you?” He kept asking, trying to hold the aztec’s attention.

“No! the door exploded !! SSS!!” Spark wiggled involuntaryly.

“What?” Even Peachyra stopped what she was doing to look at Spark.

“I closed the door while I was waiting… when I turned to check the water, it exploded on me!” she said panting.

“Zhyan…” Peachyra looked up to the archangel who appeared lost in inner thought. “Zhyan?”

“... yes?” The archangel blinked and watched Peachyra.

“Please, check if I did not miss any splinter here." The avatar said, signaling Spark's flank. "I will move to her arm now.”

Frowning and thinking on what she had heard, Peachyra used more analgesic on Spark's arm. That made Spark feel better and she relaxed a little. Meanwhile Zhyan passed his palm over her flank, caressing her softly and taking care to not press hard with his hand.

“It is clean.” He said.

“Good,” said the avatar, “now the arm… I think I took them all off.”

Zhyan repeated his caress on her arm and noticed a small shard. He pointed it out to Peachyra, so she could take it off of Spark’s flesh. Then the avatar signaled the archangel to proceed with the healing.

Spark relaxed more deeply as Zhyan’s glowing hands closed her injures. He retired his hands and observed the healed wounds. The skin was of her normal bronze color. He was shaken but not much; his energy had flowed easier on her this time. He observed his work a final time before lowering himself to kiss Spark gently. He smiled as she kissed back.

Peachyra left the infirmary a bit amused, smirking and rolling her eyes lightly, closing the door as she left. Walking back to the bathroom, she found Chanur there. He was very careful to not step onto the pieces of glass, even if his feet were not as fragile as human's were.

“Watch it, Chanur. The floor must be slippery.” Peachyra said as she leaned on the door.

“Slippery? Why? What in the Gods' name happened here?” asked the hani. "It looks like a battlezone..."

“Spark got injured. She says the door exploded on her when she was getting ready for a shower.” Peachyra answered, crossing her arms over her chest.

“What? Is she ok?" Chanur looked at Peachyra before turning his attention to the splinters on the floor: what remained of the metal frame and the door glass, all of it now shattered. "Wasn’t the glass tempered? She would need to hit the glass very hard! And she is not that strong nor heavy... is she?”

“She is fine and resting in the infirmary room." Peachyra answered. "And no, she is not that strong, much less heavy enough. Why, she isn't even too tall! But that is what she said to me. If that is what happened, my guess is that the water pressure was some how too strong. You should be careful with the water around there. Slippery, remember?” pointed out the blonde avatar.

“But… there is no water around here." Replied the golden felinoid. "Just pieces of glass and metal scrap.” Chanur knelt to look closer.

“There isn’t?" Peachyra approached carefully, a deep frown on her face. The hani was right. The dor was dry, and there was not even blood on it. “But it was flooded some minutes ago!”

“It must have been the pixies, while you were with Spark.” Chanur said. “At least Tygris and Seko are not around, they could get hurt if they enter here before this problem is fixed. I will warn them.”

“Yes.” Admitted Peachyra. “Now, come and let the pixies pick up this mess. I will order a new door.”

Nodding, he followed her as she left the room. But Chanur glanced back once more. His spacer training asked him to clean that mess immediately but as soon as he saw some pixies starting to pick up the pieces under Dave’s supervision, he left the bathroom, still with an uneasy feeling on the nape of his neck.