Chapter Three

Injured Major

Dorian had no idea how he got to the bottom of the steep incline. Perhaps he ran, perhaps he flew. Either way, he was at the Major's side in a blink. The officer's progress down the hillside seemed to have been halted by a large boulder, which had very likely caused serious damage at the same time. From his position, it looked like his left arm was broken. Possibly his leg, too. And there was blood all over him from various cuts and scrapes.

Dorian had to fight to stay calm. Don't panic. See to Klaus first, panic later, he told himself over and over. The first thing he did was make sure Klaus was still alive and breathing, which he was, although the breathing part was worrying.

Dorian tried not to move the officer too much as he checked him over, wracking his brains to remember his meager first aid training. One very useful piece of information made itself readily available. Keep him warm.

Dorian scrambled back up to retrieve the backpacks. His own heavier one contained the raft the pair were to use once they reached the river. The Major's pack contained, among other things, the reason for the mission in the first place. Dorian knew that if he left that behind, the Major would never forgive him. If he lived.

Dorian shook this thought from his mind and looked down at the unconscious officer. "You are not gonna die on me, Major! Do you hear me!" he said as he pulled out the contents of his backpack. "You are not gonna die!"

Suddenly Dorian felt woefully inadequate to the task at hand. He had basked in the part of superhero, but now he actually needed to be a hero. Here. In the middle of nowhere. With no photographers to capture his endeavors. Just the Major's life hanging in the balance.

Fabulousman didn't feel so fabulous.

He decided to take things one step at a time and covered the injured Major with an emergency blanket that he found with the hiking supplies. Thank goodness we needed this lot for our cover, he worry on his face deepened. He's so pale. He touched his hand to the unconscious man's face and then his head. His hand came away with blood on it. Oh, hell!

Forcing himself to concentrate, Dorian pulled one of his own bottles of water from his pack, a small smirk coming to his face at the same time. His own; no bubbles, no minerals, no additives, plain ordinary filtered water that the Major had told him was a foolish waste of space. A foolish waste that he could use to clean the man's wounds and then refill from the river.

Using the Major's pocketknife, Dorian carefully sliced open the officer's left shirt sleeve. The arm beneath was cut and bruised, but had no bones sticking through the flesh, thank goodness. The Earl wasn't sure he could have handled that.

Dorian found himself thankful the Major wasn't conscious and therefore unable to berate him using his super-strength to snap the branches that he used to make the splints for the injured arm. Or for slicing up his shirt sleeve to use to tie the splints into place.

Dorian switched positions in order to split the leg of the Major's trousers to get a closer look at what was causing the bloodstain that had been blossoming on his left thigh. Again, he was grateful to see it wasn't a bone sticking through flesh. It turned out to be a rather nasty looking deep gash, however. Dorian had to gulp a few times to steady himself before he could plow ahead.

A further search of the packs produced extra clothing that Dorian decided would make excellent bandages for the deep gash. He cleaned the dirt from the wound as best he could and was in the process of binding it when the Major gave a low moan and started to stir. The Earl wasn't sure if he should be happy or not that the officer was waking up. On the one hand, he was happy that Klaus wasn't so badly hurt as to be unconscious for hours; on the other hand, once he was awake, he'd be in a great deal of pain.

This last thought was verified when the Major gave a sharp cry. This was followed by his muttering something that Dorian could not quite understand. He stopped what he was doing to listen, the frown on his face deepening. This was not the time for his German to be failing him. Then he realized it wasn't his German that was failing. The Major was speaking Russian.

Great. Does he think he's being interrogated?

Considering the Major's obvious confusion, Dorian decided it best to stick to German. "All very interesting I'm sure, Major," he said in as calm a voice as he could manage. "But not the information I need at the moment."

The Major jumped at the sound of the familiar voice and struggled to open his eyes, to get his thoughts together, which was difficult while fighting the pain wracking his body. "Eroica…?" he said weakly.

"Yes, Major. It's just me."

"What…?" Klaus gave another sharp cry when he tried to move.

"Easy, Major. You've had a bad turn."

"Bad…turn…?" Klaus looked in the direction of the voice, suddenly realizing exactly where the Earl was positioned; feeling his hands on his thigh the same time. "Bloody pervert! Have you…no shame!" he said in as forceful a tone as he could manage.

Dorian heaved an exasperated sigh. "If you don't want to bleed to death, I suggest you let me finish," he snapped, returning his full attention to his half finished bandaging job. He winced himself when the Major practically screamed as he moved the leg to get the wrapping around it. "Sorry. I think this leg's broken, too," he said in as firm a voice as possible.

"Too?"

"When you fell." Dorian shifted position so as to look into the Major's eyes. He seemed unable to focus properly. Was it the pain, a concussion, or both?

"Did you push me?"

Dorian stiffened visibly. "No, I did not push you! Do you think I'd endanger your mission just because I'm angry with you?"

"You've screwed up…more than one…mission—"

"Not when I was being paid!"

This was enough to silence the Major. He closed his eyes and struggled to pull up any kind of information on what was going on. Nothing. Just pain. Dammit! I'm on a mission with the bloody thief and I don't remember shit!

"Well…?" came the Earl's voice.

"I can't…think," Klaus admitted reluctantly, gritting his teeth against the pain. "How long was I out?"

"I don't know. I haven't been keeping track. I've been trying to keep you from bleeding to death." Dorian sat back, admiring his handy work a moment before moving on to the next step. Splinting the leg. He got to his feet and went over to his collection of branches, picking out the best ones before breaking off what he needed. It was at this point that he realized there was more to the Major's injuries than he had first thought.

"You…idiot," Klaus admonished weakly. "You can't… use rotten wood…for a splint."

"What makes you say it's rotten?" Dorian asked as he returned to the man's side.

"I just…watched you…break it…"

"So?"

The Major struggled to focus on the Earl's face. "You're not…that strong—"

"Look, I know you said I shouldn't use my strength at the building, but I hardly think using it out in the middle of nowhere will be a problem."

"What?" The Major tried to move and was rewarded with shooting pains.

"Don't move, you thick-headed Prussian! You'll do yourself worse damage," Dorian scolded. The reply was a curse. "I'm glad you told me about the residue or I'd be flying you out of here and probably putting both our lives in danger."

"Fly? What the hell…are you on about, Eroica?" The Major closed his eyes but his mind was still aggravatingly blank of everything except pain. He put a hand to his left side and winched, wondering abstractly how many ribs he had broken.

A worried look came to Dorian's face. "Klaus, are you telling me you don't remember my being Fabulousman?"

"Fabulous what?" Klaus frowned. "And when…did you start…calling me by name?"

Christ, it's worse than I thought! Dorian had several conflicting emotions collide into one another at the same time, all of which would have to wait until the pair were safely back in civilization. He got down beside the Major and held out a smaller stick. "Here. I think you're gonna want to bite on something while I splint your leg—and tell you the rest of it."

By the time the Earl was finished, Klaus was sure he had left some of his teeth in the wood. The pain from his leg being moved was bad enough, but then he was being told that the thief had turned into a superhero, that NATO had done the same to him. That he and the Earl had become—

Klaus shuddered at the very idea that he would willingly get into the pervert's bed. That he would willingly do anything with the man!

Dorian reached for the mutilated stick between the officer's teeth, only to have it spit out at him. "You don't believe me," he said sadly.

"I don't!" Klaus growled. "I wake up…to find you…cutting my clothes off…"

"Major…"

"So now you make up… this cock and bull story…to cover your ass!"

"Do you remember the mission we just completed?" Dorian asked challengingly. "What we were after? What country we're in?" He had to remind himself to be gentle as he pulled the blanket over the injured man's leg. Don't get angry or you'll really hurt him.

The Major opened his mouth, only to close it again.

Dorian sat beside him, giving him a piercing look. "Do you even know what day it is? What year it is?"

"Taunting. This…is more like you," Klaus observed coldly.

Now it was the Earl's turn to be rendered speechless. He sat back a moment and then waved a hand in the air. "Truce, Major. Arguing isn't gonna get us out of here."

The Major closed his eyes and nodded. That is wasn't. After a short silence, he asked, "How were we to…?"

"To…what?" Dorian asked sharply. He saw a puzzled look come to the Major's face and suddenly realized what he was being asked. As always, the Major was focusing on the mission, probably grasping at something familiar in order to get his mind working. "How were we to get out, is that what you're asking?"

"Yes."

Dorian looked over at the river. "We were supposed to inflate that raft over there and paddle to a specific place—that only you know, by the way—several miles upstream."

"Upstream?"

Dorian nodded, "I rather think I was expected to do the paddling."

"Because…of your…super strength?"

There was only the slightest edge of disbelief in the Major's voice this time and Dorian couldn't tell if it were a challenge or partial acceptance. He chose to take the question at face value and just nodded. Then he looked at the horizon. "Too late for that now, even with me doing all the paddling. The sun's going down."

"No way…to call out?" Klaus asked logically.

Dorian shook his head. "No. You said that 'average hikers' don't carry satellite phones. And—" He broke off, wondering if the Major had brought his cell phone to use when they arrived at wherever they were supposed to be going by raft. A quick search of the pockets of the backpack produced the phone that made a cacophony of beeps and squeaks to indicate that no service was available in their present location. "Damnation!"

Although disappointed, the Major wasn't overly shocked to hear this. "Need…shelter," he said quietly.

"I know." Dorian turned back to look at him. "Major, I'm not…really cut out for this survival in the wild stuff, you know."

Klaus closed his eyes. He was already painfully aware of this fact. "Use the raft."

"The raft?" Dorian repeated. Then he listened as the officer told him exactly what he needed to do to get a make-shift campsite put together before it was dark.

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