"Ow." Sofie swatted the paramedic's hand. "Stop it."
"Sofie, let the man do his job." Said Mike.
Pete, the medic who travelled with the company, was trying to clean up the blood on Sofie's forehead without success. Around them were Calvin, some of the equipment people and the four men involved in the fight.
"I can't, this is making me uneasy." She sat moving her head out of Pete's grasp.
"Stay still." He said gently.
"I'll be fine, just let it go." She said trying to stand up. All men stepped towards her and made her sit. The blood was still gashing from her head and it seemed that although small, the cut had been a deep one.
"If you don't let Pete take a look at your cut, I'm going to tie you up and gag you." Mike joked.
Randy and Adam were both standing across from Sofie and she could see they were both feeling guilty. Adam was clutching his stomach and Randy was rubbing his stiff shoulder, the two shaken up. They were both surprisingly quiet whereas Chris Jericho looked at once angry and calm. When Sofie had fallen he had taken control of the situation, pushing the two men aside and delegating orders. He had sent Adam for a paramedic and let Mike care for Sofie, pulling Randy aside. Jericho spoke firmly to Randy which seemed to have calmed him down, but the look in his eyes were still angry and fearful. After Sofie had waken up she wasn't sure how much time had passed, she had completely blacked out and Mike informed her it had only been a few seconds.
"All right, Sofie, we're going to have to give you a little stitch or two, but you're going to have to cooperate." Said Pete pressing a gauze pad to her forehead. "We need to get you out of this parking lot and properly clean your cut so we can close it up."
"Oh no, no way, I have to leave with Calvin, and I'm fine!" She exclaimed.
"Sofie, we have lots of time, we will wait for you." Said the young manager. Calvin was in his early 30's and his mixed roots make him extremely attractive. He looked half Filipino and half European Caucasian and for some reason that made Sofie smile.
"Calvin, you look like Dave Batista!" She said.
"Sofie, you're delusional, how hard did you hit your head?" He said smiling.
"All right, we need to fix that wound." Adam said picking Sofie up in his arms and when Randy protested Jericho put his arm on his chest, stopping him from losing his temper.
"Where to, Pete?" Adam asked carrying Sofie gently.
Pete led them back inside to a clean room and he pointed to a big chair, showing Adam where to put Sofie down.
"All right, let's leave this to the professional and give him some space." Jericho said attempting to kick out the other men of the room.
"I'm not leaving." Said Randy.
"Neither am I." Adam added.
Jericho looked at Mike and when he shook his head, Chris sighed. "Fine, can we just make this quick?"
Sofie's eyes were closed and her head was resting on the back of the lounge chair she was placed in. She was so tired and she didn't want anyone to fight anymore, she wished she could be in her bed in her own apartment in Queens and sleep for at least 40 hours.
"Sofie, I need you to keep your eyes open, sweetie. Just until I am done this, than you can rest." Pete said sterilizing her wound. He looked at the men around him and gestured for help. Randy sat beside Sofie and held on to her hand, smiling when she opened one eye to peek at him. "Is it done?"
"Almost, Sof."
When Sofie saw the needle in Pete's hand she shrieked and attempted to stand up but Mike and Randy held her down.
"No way. That weapon is not coming near me!" She said trying to escape the men's grasp. Pete tried to keep the bandage on the wound but it fell off causing another stream of blood to run down her face.
"Help! They're trying to kill me!" She shouted as Randy, Pete, Adam and Mike tried to calm her down.
Jericho walked up to Sofie and touched his hand to her face, wiping the blood that was trickling down her forehead to her cheek. He showed her his hand which was bloodied and said, "This is yours. Do you want Pete to stop it?"
It took less than 5 seconds for Sofie to faint again and Pete took the opportunity to once again clean her wound and quickly stitch it while Mike held on to Sofie.
Randy shoved Jericho back, "Was that necessary? We could have calmed her down; you didn't have to scare her."
"It worked." Jericho said and scoffed. "I'm leaving. When Vince hears about this I don't want my name to be attached because I value my job."
When Chris walked away Adam approached Randy and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Randy, fuck, I never wanted her to get hurt."
"I'm sorry too. We shouldn't be doing this, we're not teenagers any more." Randy said.
"Truce?"
"Truce." Randy and Adam shook hands and both looked down guiltily.
"I better go. You'll take care of her?" Asked Adam.
"I will." An unspoken understanding passed between the two and Randy was thankful Adam was letting Sofie go.
When Pete was done Randy picked her up and cradled her, saying sweet nothings in her ear until she woke.
"Wha'sa happenin'?" she murmured.
"All right gentlemen, I have to go. She's lost a lot of blood so she needs to be eating properly and drinking a lot of water. She also is sporting a nice little concussion so she needs bed rest and again, drinking a lot of fluids. Make sure she rests. The fainting was pretty harmless but she should rest until she recoups. Sofie, I am going to check up on that wound tomorrow night, please keep it clean." Pete continued to give Randy and Mike instructions and the two men nodded in full understanding. Pete supplied the men with extra gauze and packed up his things, throwing out his gloves and the material he used and left the room. Sofie was dozing off in Randy's arms when Calvin walked in the room looking worried.
"How's our gal doing?" Calvin asked.
"She's doing well, resting now." Randy said.
"She was going to drive with us, but if we don't leave now we're not going to arrive on schedule."
"I've already got a car rented, you guys go ahead and I'll drive Sofie down. Can you set up without her?" asked Mike.
"Yeah of course, give me a shout when you arrive, I'll handle the superintendent until Sofie gets there." They shook hands and Calvin left.
"I'm going with you guys." Said Randy.
"You don't have to be there tomorrow, it's okay. I will take care of her." Mike stared at Randy and tried to think of what Sofie would want.
"Mike, I know you are her friend, but I have to stay with her."
"All right. Let's get our stuff. It's going to take about 15 hours to get there." Randy carried Sofie and Mike led the way to his rented car.
Randy opened the door and carefully laid Sofie in the backseat of Nissan Altima, letting her lie down comfortably.
"Want me to drive? We can take shifts." Randy asked.
"Fine, but I'm still listening to the songs I want." Mike said throwing the keys to Randy who caught them in mid-air.
"This should be fun." Randy said sarcastically as he got into the driver's seat.
"Yeah." Mike said closing the passenger seat. "Let's do this."
They looked at each other and than to the sleeping Sofie. Randy threw his seatbelt on and revved the engine. "Let's do it."