I'm so sorry about how long it has been since I updated, I sent this chapter to my beta reader the same day I posted the last one and had hoped to have it up within a few days. Unfortunately my beta reader is in school and hasn't had time to read over it, so I'm going to go ahead and post it. There might be punctuation errors but I can't leave Ann bleeding to death any longer, I never would have ended the last chapter where I did if I hadn't thought I would have had this one up within a few days.
"She should be fine as soon as I get a healing potion on her foot. Go with Kreela and play with your friends until I get her taken care of." Zoc said as he strapped his staff to his back.
Lucas said, "Ok" and went to join his friends.
Zoc picked Ann up, headed into the nest and asked. "Other than your ankle, are you ok?
"My arms, back and half of my face feel like their on fire but other than that I'm fine.
So how long was I out there before the dragonfly attacked me?" Ann asked as she looked at one of her badly sunburned arms.
"It had been about an hour since we noticed you hadn't come back and found you out on that rock, so less than an hour and a half. Obviously long enough for you to get … what did Lucas call it, sunburned?"
"That's right." Ann said, laying her head on his shoulder as she started to feel tired from the amount of blood she had lost.
She woke up as Zoc laid her down on his bed and left the room then came back a minute latter with bandages, the healing potion and a second potion.
"What's the second potion?" she asked as she sat up.
"It's a more powerful healing potion, it will sting a little at first but it'll heal your foot faster and the bleeding doesn't seem to have slowed down at all, so I want to get it healed as quickly as possible."
"Sounds good to me, it should stop hurting sooner that way too right?" Ann said, fighting back tears from the pain as Zoc started to remove the blood soaked towel from her ankle and foot.
"Yes, a little extra pain when I put it on, but it will stop hurting a lot sooner than it would have with the other potion."
As Zoc put the potion on her foot Ann gasped as pain shot through her foot and ankle. Zoc bandaged her foot; once he was done with it he got the other potion and gently started to put it on her face.
"You know I could do this my self." Ann said.
"I know, but I've been waiting three weeks for a chance like this." Zoc said smiling.
"I still can't believe you where awake the whole time." Ann said blushing.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, there's nothing wrong with being curious as long as you don't do anything that could get you hurt, Hova had a habit of doing that. Although as long as you're blushing the other side of your face almost matches this side." Zoc said as he brushed her hair back from her sunburned ear.
When he was done with her face and arms he had her lay down while he put the potion on her back, by the time he was done she had fallen asleep.
"Ann, please Ann you need to wakeup." Zoc said, sounding worried.
She felt too weak to do anything, but she finally opened her eyes to see Zoc kneeling next to the bed and asked. "What?"
"Your ankle hasn't stopped bleeding; I don't know enough about humans, I don't know how to get it to stop." Zoc said, sounding desperate.
Ann thought for a second and then realized what must have happened, "It could have ripped through veins or arteries, I …"
"Keep her awake." Zoc said, rushed out of the room before she could finish.
Ann turned her head to see Hope standing on the other side of the bed.
"I haven't seen him this worried in years, I think…" Hope was cut off as Zoc came back into the room with another potion.
"I usually know what I'm doing. I knew humans where backwards but I thought something as important as veins and arteries would have been protected by bone not in the muscle where it could be so easily injured and you could bleed to death." Zoc said as he took the bandages off of Ann's foot. "This will probably hurt worse than the other potion, because I'll have to get it down inside the wound."
"Are you sure it will work if the other one didn't?" Ann asked.
"It should. It's made specifically for wounds that have gone through veins or arteries; it's solider, like a soft clay instead of liquid, so the bleeding won't force it out before it has time to work. Now brace your self this is going to hurt."
Hope took Ann's hand and said. "Don't worry about squeezing to hard I'm not as easily hurt as you are."
Ann smiled and said. "He's right humans are…" Ann gasped as Zoc gently started to pull the sides of the wound on her ankle apart to put the potion in. Ann squeezed Hopes hand until her knuckles turned white and buried her face in the pillow as tears started to run down her face. When he had finished with the back of her ankle and bottom of her foot he had her roll over so he could get the front of her foot and ankle.
"I think it would have been less painful if I had just bled to death." Ann said as she turned.
"Who would help Hope in the nursery and tell me about humans then? Lucas is just a child, he can't tell me as much as you can." Zoc said.
"You could have had my collection of books. I'm sure you could have found answers to all your questions in them." Ann said.
"I would much rather have you around to talk to, but I would love to see these books sometime if you wouldn't mind."
"Remind me next time you're at the house, I'll show you where they are and you can borrow any that you want to read. Now let's get this over with, I need more sleep."
When Zoc had finished with her leg he had Spindle stay with her incase she would need anything and he and Hope left her so she could get some sleep.
Ann woke up as Zoc gently picked her up.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Lucas's parents could be home any minute. He's going to tell them you aren't feeling well and went to bed early but you need to be there incase Doreen would want to check on you."
"Ok." Ann said, wrapping her arms around Zoc's neck and laying her head on his shoulder as she fell back to sleep.
The next time Ann woke up she was in her own bed. She looked over at her nightstand and smiled when she saw Spindle sitting next to her clock. She was shock when she realized that it was already ten a.m. she had to have been sleeping for about eighteen hours.
"So if you're here does that mean Zoc's still here too?" she asked.
Spindle buzzed and nodded his head yes.
Ann gasped as she tried to get up and fell back to the bed when pain shot through her foot and ankle.
Spindle started to fly towards the door.
"Spindle its ok you don't have to get Zoc. I'm ok; I just didn't realize it would still hurt so much." Ann said, standing up again and trying to ignore the pain.
Spindle flew over to her and stayed right with her as she made her way to her dresser and closet to get clothes. After convincing Spindle he couldn't follow her in to the bathroom she quickly changed out of her swimsuit and into a comfortable skirt and t-shirt.
As she came out Spindle was still hovering right out side the door.
Ann smiled and said. "See I really am ok."
Spindle buzzed and stayed by her shoulder as she headed out of her room to see where Zoc was.
When she got to the doorway to the living room she stopped. Zoc was reclining on the couch reading one of her books; the look on his face seemed to be a combination of shock and horror. As she quietly limped closer to the couch she nearly started laughing when she saw what he was reading.
As she sat down on the end of the couch Zoc jumped, looked up at her and said. "How long have you been awake?"
"Just long enough to change cloths and come out here." Ann said, then smiled and added. "Isn't that a fascinating book?"
"Also disturbing and horrifying, some of this would probably give every male in the colony nightmares. Is it really true that colonies of normal ants are all female and when there are males their entire purpose in life is to mate once and then die?" Zoc asked.
"Yes, everything in that book is true. Aren't you glad you're not a normal ant?" Ann asked trying not to laugh at the horrified look on Zoc's face.
Zoc shuddered and said. "Yes. Lucas told me we weren't like normal ants but I never knew how different we where. Normal ants don't even have lungs; they breathe through holes in their abdomens and I don't know which is more disturbing the fact that the queens rip their own wings off and eat them or the ones the book says are honeypot ants. How can their abdomens be filled with that much food and not crush their internal organs?"
"That's a good question I don't remember ever reading anything that explained that. We can check the other books I have later, right now I'm starving." Ann said, she started to get up then gasped and squeezed her eyes shut for a second as pain shot through her ankle. When she opened her eyes Zoc was at her side.
"There's no way your ankle has healed enough for you to be standing on it. What are you doing?"
"I was just going to the kitchen to get something to eat."
"You shouldn't be walking that far."
"How else am I going to get there?"
"I'll carry you." Zoc said, picking her up
"Well you may be a lot different from normal ants, but you definitely still have the strength of one." Ann said, amazed at how easily he had picked her up.
Zoc carried her out to the kitchen and set her in one of the chairs at the table then had her tell him what she wanted to eat and how to make it.
Zoc stayed with her the rest of the day. Lucas came to check on her once but other than that she and Zoc spent the day together talking and she taught him to play some of the games that she had found in her family's stuff. By the end of the day Ann was beginning too think that getting to spend the whole day with him was worth the pain she had been in.
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