Hello! *grins* I'm really happy, coz I just got a new cat^^

Anyway, I have all these ideas, and only first chapters... I'll update as the reviews come. Even if they're not nice, then I'll try and fix anything I did wrong. Enjoy!

Ezio slumped in his seat on the doorstep of Leonardo's workshop and home. He ignored the dull pain in his side. He probably just opened some stitches again. He sighed as he remembered how he got into this situation.

He was running from some guards after an assassination. That was routine. He got injured. Big deal. But the strange thing was, his wounds wouldn't heal. Every time he stretched, or made a fast movement, he would tear his stitches. That was something, since Leonardo was his doctor, and usually mended him in two minutes. Leonardo had said that the wound was poisoned, but couldn't get it cleaned. The poison ate the stitches like acid, and made them fragile, thus making him tear them all the time.

He returned to Leonardo's workshop. He was living there while he healed from his latest wound, as Leonardo refused to let him go away. He was only allowed short breaks to breathe some air in his front door, then was ushered back in again.

"Ezio! Come inside!" Leonardo called.

"Yes, mother." Ezio mumbled. He stood up from his seat on Leonardo's workshop step and stretched his limbs. He winced and grabbed his side. "Cazzo!"

"Dammit, Ezio, don't do that!" Leonardo fussed over him while he dragged him inside to his room. Ezio fell heavily on his bed and groaned. Leonardo peeked under the bandages on his side and tsked.

"You opened the stitches. Again." Leonardo was pocketing his money pouch.

"Where are you going?" Ezio said.

"I have a friend that can probably help you."

Ezio groaned. That never meant anything good.

"Rest, I will be back with her, then we can see if she can come up with one of her weird potions, I don't care if she has to..." Leonardo shut the door behind him before he finished the sentence.

Ezio sighed. Then he scolded himself for doing so, since the wound throbbed at his left side. He wondered what kind of 'friend' Leonardo meant. It couldn't be one of Antonio's thieves. Leonardo had said 'she'. Ezio discarded the option it was Rosa, she couldn't even clean a wound properly, much less heal them. The thought of Leonardo's other friends made him shudder (then wince). They usually had the intelligence of a fencepost. He contented himself in staring holes into the ceiling, and trying not to move.

Finally, he heard the door open, and two sets of feet walking to his room. Leonardo burst in, looking annoyed.

"Aww, Leony, don't be mad at me..." A woman entered behind Leonardo, carrying a basket. She had a weird accent. Ezio wondered where she was from.

"Stop giving me these stupid nicknames, Jacqueline!" Leonaro huffed.

"But it's so cute to see you flushed like that, mon chér." Aha. France.

Leonardo huffed and pointed at Ezio.

"This is the amico I was talking about. Can you help him?" He sat on the stool next to the bed.

"If I can help him?" She scoffed. "Bien sûr, of course I can help him, who do you think I am?" She sat on the side of the bed and put the basket down. The sudden movement of the mattress made Ezio groan.

"Not the impressive introduction I like to give, but I am Ezio. Jacqueline, is it?" He extended his right hand to her, so he could greet her properly, like he had been taught, kissing her hand.

"I know who you are, you self righteous assassin." She glared at him. "You fell through the roof of my shop, and brought those guards inside. Thank God I keep the wares out of sight... I should keep you suffering until that heals."

"Mi dispiacie..." Ezio grinned sheepishly.

"So it's not that serious? How can you know without looking at the wound?" Leonardo asked hopefully. He seemed to have practice ignoring her rudeness.

"Of course not, regarde-t-il, look at him. He's not pale, he's strong enough to talk and his voice doesn't seem strained. Maitenant, let's look at this, hm?" she slid to her knees on the floor next to the bed and opened her basket. She washed her hands with some hard liquor to clean them, took a tiny dagger, almost as long as a finger, out of its sheath, and cut the gauze. Then she cut the remaining stitches, and gently pulled them out with her fingertips. She put one hand on his side and one on his stomach. Then, she gently pulled at the skin, so that the gash opened and she could see inside. Ezio sucked his breath between his teeth. When she raised her dark eyes questioningly, Ezio gave her a crooked grin.

"Your hands are cold."

"Pardon. I must have died, but nobody seemed to be nice enough to tell me this." She stated coldly. Ezio looked puzzled.

"He's not used to sarcasm, Jacque." Leonardo muttered.

"The wound isn't deep." She ignored them both. "The poison used is similar to those I make, but obviously not in the same quality. Mon Dieu, who is the amateur (A/N: HA, it is a french word!) that attempted to make this?"

"Wow, thanks for the concern..." Ezio mumbled.

"Anyway, it should be fairly easy to clean this wound, but it will burn. I will give you something to numb the pain, then I will sew it closed." She rummaged in her basket. "Leo, mon chér, could you heat up some water, s'il te plaît?"

Leonardo exited Ezio's room. Jacqueline was mixing herbs and strange powders in a mug.

"So, what are you going to give me?" Ezio started small talk. Her dark brown eyes studied him from under long lashes.

"You look strong. And even with the low quality of the poison, it has been there for quite a while, from what Leonardo tells me. The main ingredients were not properly diluted, so their natural effect is still present, but the way the poison was applied to the blade that cut you was wrong, the person probably didn't know it's reactions to certain qualities of iron, so it started corrupting the material, giving the liquid a physical quality of gel, or cream, so it will be difficult to clean it out, plus all the pus that has accumulated in the gash." She said all this very quickly, making Ezio a bit dizzy. "So I'm making your tea extra strong, it's composure is very simple, you will feel dizzy, but try not to sleep, I need to keep track of your heart rate, and I'm putting a few extra herbs in here, to strengthen your immunological system, in case I oversee any drop of poison, but that won't happen, since the salve I will apply to clean the wound colors the poison purple, so it should be easy to clean."

"Do you trust her knowledge now?" Leonardo entered with a mug of hot water, looking smug.

"Pretty much, yeah." Ezio inhaled the scent of the tea Jacqueline made for him. He felt light headed already. He sat up with the help of Leonardo, and sipped the hot beverage. He managed to drink half of it before he plopped down again.

"Ugh, it's strong..." He slurred.

"Boire, drink, Ezio, or else the effect will not last enough until I finish. You will feel pain if that happens." Jacqueline said softly, nudging the mug to his lips.

"I knew you were nice deep down inside..." Ezio drank the last of the tea, before Jacqueline decided to drown him in it. 'Her frown is cute though', Ezio thought.

"Ezio, remember, try not to sleep. Do you feel this?" Jacqueline nudged his wound.

"Feel what?" Ezio slurred.

"Don't sleep. Tell me something." Jacqueline started cleaning the wound with a strong smelling, yellowish liquid. Ezio started to babble about one of Leonardo's paintings resembling him sleeping, and accused the artist to stalk him on hot summer nights, when he tended to sleep naked under the white cotton sheets. Leonardo actually had the decency to blush.

Eventually, Jacqueline cut the line when she finished the last stitch. She started cleaning her things and packing them up.

"He should sleep now. I'll come back tomorrow to see how things are going, but I don't think there are going to be any problems. The tea should lose its effect by tonight, but he needs to stay in bed until at least tomorrow afternoon. Give him lots of water, and don't let him move too much." She gave him three glass vials with corks and liquids in them. "Give him one spoon of each, each hour, then lots of water again. He should be back in perfect shape in about two weeks."

Leonardo held the vials in his hands and smirked at her.

"You're going to forget that, aren't you?" She eyed him suspiciously.

Leonardo kept smirking.

"I'm not staying here for two weeks, I have the shop to take care of."

Leonardo blinked.

"Ah, mon Dieu, je sais pas pourquoi je fais des choses comme ça." She sighed.

"Grazie, mi amica, I will set up a room for you." Leonardo dashed off to make room for her in another part of his house.

"Just put a mattress here in Ezio's room. If I'm staying, I might as well treat him with intensive medicine, he should be fine in five days, but I'll have to wake up during the night, I hope he is a heavy sleeper, if he wakes up too much it will make him tired, then..." Jacqueline kept talking about the possible ways of caring for Ezio.

"You know, Jacqueline, if I didn't know you were a genius at medicine, I would find your rambling creepy and disturbing." Leonardo dropped the extra mattress on the floor next to Ezio's bed, but far away enough that they both could stand between them. He tucked the sheets neatly around the mattress and laid an extra-fluffy pillow down for her.

"I take that as a compliment, mon chér." She set her basket near her new bed and followed him to the kitchen.

"Jacqueline, may I ask for that wonderful calming tea you make? Taking care of Ezio is very tiring..."

"I can tell... He seems a handful..." Jacqueline started rummaging through the shelves, starting to make tea with the non medicinal herbs normal people like Leonardo had in their kitchens.

"You should visit more often. It seems you could make a fine friendship with him." Leonardo pointed to a cupboard when Jacqueline started to swear in French, not finding the mugs.

"Pour quoi do you say that?" She asked. "You aren't implying I'm one of those useless women that need a husband before they turn twenty, right?"

"By all means no!" Leonardo sat by the table. "I mean, some of those herbs you used today are very rare, and some others are even illegal, aren't they?"

"Et pour quelle raison est-ce que tu dites ça?" She poured the tea into two mugs.

"You already know his profession. So you could send him to run errands for you. I'm pretty sure he can do the job well."

She looked thoughtful, nodding at herself.

"But I warn you." Leonardo continued. "He is difficult."

To emphasize his point, Ezio came stumbling shirtless into the kitchen. Jacqueline swore in French and dragged him back to their shared room.

"You need to stay put."

"But I smelled tea, and I wanted some more, the one you gave me made me numb, it was so good..." Ezio let himself be seated on the bed while she checked the stitches.

"If you drink too much of that tea you die." She said flatly. Ezio blinked. "You need to sleep. I will give you something else to calm you, and I need to wake you every few hours to medicate you."

"You talk too much. You know no one understands what you say when you ramble, right?"

"..."

"Aww, come on, it's true!"

"I have half a mind to let you drink something lethal."

"Thank god the other half disagrees, right?"

Jacqueline sighed and took another vial from her basket and opened it. She told Ezio to lay back down and spread a white salve on his stitched up wound. It smelled fresh, and was very cold.

"Do you have some problem with warmth?" Ezio quiered.

"It will keep your bloodflow around the wound to a stable level, or else the chemicals would... Oh, pardon, you don't understand me when I ramble, right?"

"Don't be like that with him, Jacque." Leonardo stood by the door. She sighed and put everything away, then sat at her bed.

"Only until he is healed, Leo I'm not staying any longer than that. And tomorrow I have to go back to the shop to get a few of the stronger stuff, he will be better sooner."

"Good night, Jacqueline." Leonardo closed the door before she could start talking too much.

She kicked her boots off and laid back on the mattress.

"Weren't you going to dope me again?" Ezio looked at her through the darkness.

"Later. Go to sleep." she mumbled.

"Join me." Ezio grinned.

"If you weren't delirious because of the tea, I would give you the wrong medicine on purpose."

"I'll keep my hands to myself. But you can watch if you're into that."

Ezio received a pillow to the face. He heard movement and peeked from under the offending object. Jacqueline was pouring something on a spoon. She held it out to him.

"There. Now you can sleep and let me sleep."

Ezio took the spoon into his mouth. The medicine was not bitter like all the others he had taken. It was very sweet, and left a pleasant taste behind.

"Hmmm" he approved. Immediately, he felt the room spin. Jacqueline held his shoulders and laid him back carefully. She checked his wound again and covered him with the thin sheet. His breathing evened out and he started snoring lightly. Jaqueline was not used to the heat, so she slipped out of her dress and into a nightgown Leonardo had lent her. She didn't bother with sheets, so she just laid down again.

"Merde." Ezio still had her pillow. She stood up again and tried to tug it from his embrace. No such luck. She swore again. Whatever. She plopped down again and fell asleep. The medicine she decided to give Ezio was strong, so the next dose was only in the morning.

Ezio woke up with the soud of someone calling his name. He groaned and hugged his pillow closer.

"I think he needs a bit more time" He heard Leonardo say.

"I need to go back to the shop, I'll be back in an hour or so, give him this when he wakes up." Jacqueline said.

"I'm awake." Ezio mumbled but didn't move.

"Then get up." He felt Jacqueline sit on his bed.

"No." Ezio covered his head. "OW!" He sat up. "Why did you poke my wound?"

"To see if the effect had worn off. Here." She held another spoon for him. The liquid was clear, and smelled like herbs.

"Woah." Ezio almost gagged. "What is that?"

"The tea you drank yesterday had too many chemicals, it could have poisoned your body. This makes it loose its effects."

"You sure know your stuff..." Ezio was starting to get out of bed.

"You. Stay." She pointed at Ezio. "You. Keep him there." She pointed to Leonardo.

"Yes, mother." They both said in unison.

Jacqueline left and Leonardo sat next to Ezio.

"What are we doing today?" Ezio swung his legs off the bed. Leonardo pushed him back.

"You will stay here. I will finish that painting downstairs."

"No, you can't be serious!" Ezio protested. Leonardo left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Ugh, I can't believe this!" He slumped in his bed and started staring ahead. 'I wouldn't be surprised if I stare a hole in the roof' he thought bitterly. Out of curiosity, he peeked at his side. His skin had absorbed the salve Jacqueline had applied the night before, and the stitches were all still there. He could even see the edges of the gash had already started healing.

"Girl's got talent." He said to himself.

"So nice of you to say so." Jacqueline had come in.

"Damn, I was enjoying the quiet."

"You're welcome." Jacqueline sat next to him again and took his wrist to move his arm away from his wound. She ran her fingertips softly over the stitches and nodded in approval.

"How fast do you want this to heal?" She asked.

"As fast as possible."

"You have to do everything I say, understand? Everything."

"Yes, mother."

Jacqueline huffed and proceeded to tell him what he had to do and when. During the next few days, Ezio was only allowed to stand to go to the bathroom, and to eat. Jacqueline breathed down his neck at all times, then ushered him to bed and doped him again.

Finally, one day, Jacqueline told Ezio he was healed. She made him sit in one of the chairs in the kitchen, and took the small dagger out. She cut the stitches and pulled them carefully out.

"You need one more day for the holes to close, then you're free again." She said.

"Finally." Ezio breathed. "I'm gonna miss you doping me."

Jacqueline had become used to Ezio's flirting nature, so she didn't pay attention.

"Leo, merci for the hospitality, I'll be going now."

"Visit, will you." Leonardo held the door open for her.

"I will."

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