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For as long as Bea has known her, Mae has been a ridiculous, clumsy dork with no sense of danger. Mae loves to climb things that really shouldn’t be climbed (such as the power cables all over the town, which Mae treats like tightropes in a circus), run all over the place, and trespass into deserted and often dangerous places like a character in a movie. And she manages to do all of this despite being a clumsy person who trips over her own feet when she walks.So, for as long as Bea has known her, she has seen Mae get herself hurt. The injuries are, thankfully, never too severe, but usually involve blood and cries of pain and Mae’s friends wondering what the fuck they’re going to do with her.Even after the terrifying events of a few weeks ago, when Mae fell a long distance and seriously injured herself (and they all got majorly fucked up down in the mine when they learned the truth about Casey and several of the townspeople), Mae still runs around like some sort of acrobat-wannabe and gets herself injured.Such as one day when Mae, Bea, Gregg and Angus are taking a walk through the town, and Mae decides to climb onto some parked cars and jump between them, either not knowing or not caring that she leaves muddy footprints over the roofs of the cars. And as Angus shakes his head and Bea tells her to get the hell down and Gregg laughs, Mae… slips.She slips and falls off of the bonnet of a car and hits the sidewalk with a rather loud thump. And then just lies there, breathing heavily. When they realise that the injuries are very minor (just a tear in the knee of her left pant leg and a slight trickle of blood from a small graze), Mae exhales shakily, and Gregg bursts into hysterical laughter.“Uh, bug, why are you laughing,” Angus says to Gregg.Fighting back the giggles, Gregg say, “Sorry, I just… I was worried she’d, like, broken her neck or something. But she’s fine and the relief just made me…”Gregg fails to suppress his laughter, and Angus puts a soothing arm around his shoulders. Bea stares at him, noting Gregg is in a severely manic mood today. At least Mae’s mental health seems stable today. After what happened, it’s rare for there to be a day when even one of them feels okay.Blocking out Gregg’s laughter, Bea crouches down beside Mae, who studies her knee with fascination. Mae’s eyes track the blood that bubbles through her fur, and she winces.“You okay there?” Bea says.Mae doesn’t respond, still staring at her knee.“Mae?”This… isn’t good.“Mae?”Grasping Gregg’s hand, Angus joins her on the sidewalk, studying Mae. His friend and Bea’s girlfriend sits too still, eyes focused on her minor injury and not responding to anything that happens around her.Gregg, managing to stop laughing but still jittering like a kid who had too much candy, kneels beside Mae and puts a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, Mae? You okay? Hey, that rhymes!”Angus and Bea share a glance.“Is she dissociating?” Angus asks.Bea takes one more look at her girlfriend, and gives a slow nod. Shit. So Mae is having a bad day.When Mae dissociates, they’re supposed to stay with her and help try to pull her out of her own head, but not startle her. They’ve discussed with her before the best ways to do this, and Mae said she likes it when Bea rubs her back and talks to her in a quiet voice.So that is what she does. Shooing Gregg and Angus back a few paces, Bea sits down beside her girlfriend and places a hand on her back. She rubs in gentle circles, and moves her mouth close to Mae’s ear. And she starts to talk to her.“It’s okay, Mae. I’m here.”She whispers the same basic words over and over, and, finally, Mae responds. Mae blinks slowly and turns her head, but her eyes are glassy and she’s still clearly dissociating hard.“Bea?”Bea nods. “Yeah, I’m here. Do you want me to patch up your knee?”Mae nods slowly, like her head has become very heavy.“Okay. Let me patch you up.”Angus, who seems to carry everything under the sun in his bag, rummages in his bag and pulls out a small first aid kit. He passes it to Bea, who opens it and locates an antiseptic wipe.“This’ll sting.”Mae nods again. “O-Okay.”Nodding back, Bea rolls up her pant leg and wipes around the injury, parting her bloody fur and cleaning the injury. Sure enough, Mae winces, but the sharp sensation seems to make her a bit more lucid. Once she has done that, Bea takes a small dressing and presses it to the cut, before getting Angus to help her wrap a bandage around Mae’s leg. Gregg hovers in the background, fidgeting nervously.When it is done, Bea smiles slightly and says, “Done. Are you feeling any better now?”“Yeah, think so,” Mae says, her voice still slow, but managing an actual smile. “Thanks.”“No problem,” Angus says, taking Gregg’s hand again and squeezing; Gregg smiles.“Hey, Bea?” Mae mumbles.“Yeah?”“Can you… kiss it better?”Bea stares at Mae, and rolls her eyes. “Just how old are you?”“Please,” Mae says, her grin looking more and more like her normal, dorky grin.Bea lets out a long sigh, but she’s not really pissed off. “Fine.”And, slowly, she lowers her head and presses a gentle kiss to Mae’s bandages. And when Mae returns the favour with a slightly clumsy kiss to her cheek, Bea smiles.