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Hard Number
By Nessie
Theme #10: 10
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Julia could never quite manage to keep her hands from trembling whenever it was time for her to change Spike's bandages. Scarlet blood as dark as his eyes washed freely over her hands, and she shuddered. It wasn't cleaning the wounds that bothered her. It was seeing them defacing her lover's body. Her heart clenched as though squeezed by a human fist.
She counted ten major injuries in all. Not included minor cuts and scrapes that also decorated him, there were several bullet wounds and impalements…and, of course, there was his right eye, now gone and replaced with a prosthetic that wouldn't quite match his left.
Ten was a hard number.
He was unconscious now, as he had been for three days, and he couldn't feel any of her actions in comparison to the overall pain he was enduring, but as she worked to make him more comfortable, he groaned. Through his dry lips, one syllable emerged:
"Jules…"
Her eyes welled quickly, but she brushed the tears away just as fast. Bending over, she placed a gentle, almost a breeze of a kiss upon his stitched forehead.
"I love you," she whispered.
Spike relaxed into a more restful sleep.