It was freezing cold, and Chelo "Ink" Alvarez hunched deeper into her jacket and pulled her scarf up higher. She was walking in between her twin brother Carlos, aka Cougar, and the teams transport specialist, Pooch. Chelo had already decided that she hated the Scotland wilds in winter. It was freezing, raining and everything was pervaded by a sense of dread and damp.
Suddenly, chaos broke out. Gunshots sounded, and someone screamed in pain. Everyone dropped to the ground, freeing various weapons and crawling for safety, behind a pile of boulders. Clay and Aisha were already there, the commander swearing as he pressed a hand to a gunshot wound in his upper arm, Aisha already trying to search out the enemies. Pooch arrived next, eyes wild.
"Colonel, it's J, he's been hit." He gasped.
Clay swore.
Chelo poked her head around the rocks, lying low to the ground. She saw Cougar leaning over Jensen, half carrying, half dragging him towards their hiding place. Her brother managed to get the wounded tech into the sheltered area, and Chelo pushed past Clay, handing a few bandages to Aisha so she could deal with him, and bent over Jensen. She swore.
The shot had got him in the ribs, and the bullet was lodged in there still. The tech was losing blood fast.
The young woman did what she could for the unconscious tech, and then they took stock of the situation.
"Where can we go?" she asked, "We have to get a Jensen stable."
Pooch agreed. Cougar also nodded, holding Jensen in his arms, pushing on the dressing to stop the bleeding.
Clay nodded, "There's a safehouse about 10 klicks away." he informed them. He turned to Chelo, "reckon Jensen can make it?"
"I will carry him." Cougar said, his tone broking no argument.
Chelo nodded, "If you can carry him gently," She said, turning to Clay, "we need to start now."
They began walking.
They reached the safe house by nightfall. Jensen regained consciousness not five minutes after they arrived. At first he cried out and sobbed in pain, but quickly realized that he was just doing himself more harm, and quieted. Cougar sat next to him on the cot, gently stroking his hair out of his face and murmuring to him. Across the room, Aisha was re-bandaging Clay's arm. Pooch was helping Chelo boil some water to sterilize the medical equipment they'd found in a storage cupboard. Despite the conditions, Chelo knew she had to extract the bullet from her team-mate before any healing began.
"Jake?" she asked, kneeling down next to him.
The tech looked up, his blue eyes slightly defocused due to having lost his glasses.
"Chel'?" Jensen asked, "Tha' you?"
"Si." The young woman murmured, "Shh, Jake."
Jensen mumbled something, and Chelo leaned closer, "Where's Cougs?" He asked, voice filled with pain.
"I am here." Cougar took Jensen's hand, his voice soft.
"Jake, the bullet is still lodged in your ribs," Chelo explained softly, "I have to remove it."
Jensen nods, his mind too blurred with pain to really understand,
Chelo nodded to Cougar, who gently took both of Jensen's hands to stop him striking out.
"Pooch. She called softly, "I need your help, please."
When her friend arrived next to her, Chelo got him to hold her instruments until she needed them. Then, she began to peel away the layers of bandages. Jensen hissed in pain, but he stayed still, his eyes stubbornly open. One part of Chelo did wish he would black out, at least that way she could remove the bullet without it hurting him so much. But she knew Jensen wouldn't let himself do that until he knew he was safe.
The wound finally uncovered, Chelo reached for her saline solution and cleaned away all the dried blood. Unfortunately, there was already a thin layer of clotted blood over the wound, and when she cleared it away, Jensen let out a small moan.
"Lo siento." She murmured an apology, continuing with her work.
Chelo reached for her forceps, using then to quickly locate and remove the bullet. Thankfully, it showed no signs of having fragmented. As she pulled it out, fresh blood welled up from the wound and Jensen let out a low cry, his hands tightening around Cougar's and his eyes fluttering closed. Chelo quickly bandaged the wound and sat back on her heels, wiping her hands on her thighs.
"That is all I can do for him." She said, "But I think it will be enough."
Cougar looked down at Jensen, smiled tightly, and embraced his sister, mumbling his thanks in Spanish.
Chelo and Cougar took turns watching Jensen through the night. At one stage things looked bad when the young tech was drifting in and out of consciousness, mumbling incoherently, but by morning he lay, sleeping peacefully, with Cougar resting against his cot.
Chelo knelt next to them both, leaning over Jensen to check the dressing on his wound, there wasn't as much blood on it as there had been at times through the night.
She was most of the way though changing the dressing when Jensen finally opened his eyes. He looked at her, and at Cougar, then back to Chelo. As she stuck the last piece of tape over the bandage, he caught her wrist and quietly murmured, "Thank-you."
END