Chapter 8: Lexa
The next thing I know, I feel someone trying to pry my arms out from around Ash. I pull my knife and point it at the person trying to take Ash from me. Then I feel her hand on my forearm, making me lower my blade. Finally, she says, "Babe, it's okay. We are at the safe house. You passed out shortly after we left the cave. They are trying to help get us out of the truck, that's all."
I lower my knife but tell the guy, "Back the fuck off and do not touch her. I will take care of her." He just puts his hands up and backs away. Ash leans up, and I stand up behind her. I feel like I have been hit by a truck. It takes me a minute to get my balance, and it hurts to breathe. I walk to the tailgate and get down. I ask Ash if she can elevate her bad ankle and slide to the edge of the truck's tailgate. She nods and does it. I scoop her up and walk inside. I see Omar and ask where a bed is, and he points to a room. I carry her in and gently put her on the bed. I tell her that I will be right back and go to find Omar.
I look around the house for a few minutes but can't find him or anyone else I knew for that matter, so I find the kitchen and grab a couple bottled waters from the fridge and head back to the room where I left Ash. When I get there, I see a strange man walking toward the bed where she is now passed out. I pull out my knife and sneak up behind him, and put the knife to his throat. He squeals like a pig, which would have been funny under different circumstances. Ash jumps and in rushes Omar and two of his guys. Omar yells for me to put down the knife that this is the doctor from town, and he is here to help. I lower my knife and say that he isn't getting anywhere near her because I don't know him; therefore, I don't trust him.
I move so that I am between Ash and everyone else. No one is going to touch her without going through me! I look at Omar and say, "The only person that is going to touch her is Abby, the doctor from the clinic."
He replies, "You're nuts! That clinic is over five hours away and back the way we came. You both need rest and medical attention now."
I raise my voice, "I made a promise that I intend to keep, and that requires me getting her to Abby at the clinic. If I must kill every last one of you to do it, I will, do you understand?"
Ash speaks up, "Hey guys, can you wait outside and give us a minute, please."
They nod and walk out of the room. She pats the side of the bed, telling me to come to sit, which I do. She takes my hand and looks me in the eyes. I can't meet her eyes. It's my fault she is hurt. I didn't do my job, and now here we are. She says, "Babe, look at me, please." I think well, she sure knows how to get my attention, and I do as I'm told. She continues, "Talk to me, tell me what you're thinking. We have a lot to discuss, but not now. I need you to know that I trust you completely, so talk to me, okay."
I sit there stunned for a bit. Not only has Ash started calling me babe, which I can get used to, but she just told me that she trusts me completely. That is huge! She doesn't trust anyone. She has told me that at least fifty times since we met less than twenty-four hours ago. I shake my head and say, "No, you don't, you don't trust anybody. Even if you did, you shouldn't trust me. I couldn't even keep one promise." I feel a tear trail down my face. What the hell? I don't cry. What is wrong with me?
Ash puts her hand on my cheek and uses her thumb to wipe the single tear away, then says, "Lex, you saved my life not once but twice. You took a bullet for me; you kept your promise. You had my six and kept me safe, and I'm right here. So why wouldn't I trust you now?"
I look at the floor, "If I had kept my promise, you wouldn't be laying in this bed with a cut on your leg and a broken ankle. If I had kept my promise, you wouldn't have a scratch on you. So, all I can do now is get you to Abby so that she can fix you up good as new."
She raises my chin so that I am looking her in the eyes again, "You kept me as safe as humanly possible. I honestly believe had anyone but you been watching my back, I wouldn't be alive right now. So yes, I trust you completely more than I have ever trusted anyone in an awfully long time. So if you say we need to get to this Abby person at whatever clinic, I believe you, and we will. First, though, we should maybe let the doctor here look us over and get a good night's sleep before we get in a car for over five hours. Okay?"
I just nod, and she pulls me into a hug and tells me to go get the doctor. I do as I'm told and open the door and motion for him to come in. Omar follows the doctor in. The doctor gives me a scared look, and Omar asks me if everything is cool now. I nod my head, and he turns for the door, saying he will be back when the doc is finished.
As the doctor approaches Ash, I stay close behind him so that I am within striking distance. Ash seems to know what I am doing and smiles, telling me to relax, but I can't. I still don't trust this man. First, he examines her ankle saying that it is dislocated and possibly broken, but there is no way to be sure without an x-ray. He says that he can pop it back into place to stabilize it until we can get it x-rayed. He then moves on to the cut on her calf. He looks at me and says that it will require many stitches, and both procedures will be excruciating. He also said that he could give Ash some morphine to help with the pain, but it would most likely put her to sleep. I didn't know what to say because it wasn't my decision, it was hers.
She told him that she didn't want the morphine to just use a shot of lidocaine while stitching her up and just pop the ankle back in place. He nodded and then motioned for me to lay down so he could examine me. I shook my head no but received a terrifying look from Ash, so I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled up my shirt enough so that he could see where the piece of metal had been. The doc looked at me and said that I needed to take my shirt off.
I looked between him and Ash and shook my head no. I don't want her to see my scars. If she does, she won't look at me the same. She will see me as broken and pity me. I can't take seeing that from her. Ash says, "Lexa, it's okay. He needs to be able to examine all of you. You will also need to take off your pants so that he can check for shrapnel."
I shake my head no and say, "I'm fine. He can stitch up my side, but the rest can wait."
"What are you afraid of, sweetie? I won't let him hurt you."
"I'm not afraid of him. I just don't want you to see me."
"What?"
"I…I don't want you to see me. If…if you do, you won't look at me the same."
"Babe, I don't understand what you are saying. Nothing could make me look at you differently after everything you have done for me today. Please let him look at your injuries."
"Fine! But…please don't think that I am broken. I'm not! I survived! I won, not them."
She looks at me confused before saying, "I don't understand what you are talking about, but I don't think you are broken."
I gently remove my shirt because it hurts to move. I must have some broken ribs. I heard Ash take a deep breath from behind me when he took off my bandages. The doc said he didn't know how I was even conscious right now and that I would also require stitches on my side to close the wound but that I would need surgery to close the bullet wound, and while he did that, he would also need to remove the many pieces of shrapnel in my back.
I looked at him and said no. He could stitch up my side the same as Ash's leg, but the only person that would be performing surgery on me was Abby. He looked to Ash, and she said it was up to me. The doc said that I would risk getting an infection if I didn't have the bullet and shrapnel removed right away. I said, "the bullet is already out and you are not doing surgery on me, bandage me up as good as you can, and I will be on my way in the morning." He shook his head and said that I was an idiot risking my life when I didn't have to. He said he would be back in an hour with the supplies he needed, then he left.
When the door shut behind him, Ash started laughing hysterically. "What the hell are you laughing at?"
She shook her head at me and said, "I thought he was going to shit his pants. You scared him to death, putting that knife to his throat. I'm surprised he even agreed to help us."
"Well, he shouldn't have approached you while you were sleeping, and I wasn't here. Serves him right to be scared shitless." I handed her the water I had brought in earlier and told her to drink it and get some rest. I had no intention of sleeping until he was finished patching us up, and I could lock and barricade the door so no one could get in while we slept. She took the water and began to drink it just as Omar reappeared.
"What do you want now, Omar? I meant what I said. We are leaving in the morning and going to the clinic where Abby works."
He looked at Ash and said, "You need to talk some sense into this girl before she gets you both killed. That clinic is near the border of Tajikistan, which is back the way we came, and there is no telling what kind of forces you will encounter if you go back. So the best thing we can do is wait here a few days and then double back for the trucks and finish the relocation."
Ash replies, "I know another way around; if you just tell me where the clinic is and have a jeep loaded with fuel, food, and guns and both our backpacks from the van waiting once we rest, we will be on our way. Once we get medical attention from this Abby person, I promise you that we will meet you back at Ahmed's place in the mountains. Oh, and can we please get some food. I'm starving."
I smile as Omar throws his hands in the air as he walks out. I look at Ash and notice she is barely awake, so I gently lay down beside her on my back which is painful but right now, but I don't care. She rolls on her side and puts her head on my shoulder, and instantly falls asleep. So I just lay there holding her and replaying the night's events in my head until the doctor knocked on the door. I guess he learned his lesson about just walking into this room.
I kiss Ash on the forehead without thinking and gently wake her up before telling him to come in. When she opens her eyes, she looks up and smiles at me, and then says the weirdest thing. She says, " Oh, you are real and not a dream," But before I can ask her about it, the doc is bringing in all this equipment. I sit up and ask what he's doing. He looks me over and says that if I won't have the surgery now, he must give me IV fluids with a high dose of antibiotics to hopefully keep me from getting an infection.
Ash tells me to relax and let him put the IV in that I have lost a good amount of blood and need the fluids and the medicine. So, of course, I do as she tells me and let him start the IV and stitch up my side. It takes 96 stitches to close the wound on my side. Once he finishes up my side, he asks Ash to sit on the side of the bed with her dislocated ankle hanging towards the floor. He then squats down and says, this will hurt, so tell him when she is ready. She turns at the waist, looks me in the eyes, and takes both my hands before telling him to do it. I'm not sure if she took my hands so that she had something to squeeze or to keep me from punching the doc when she screamed. Either way, it was over quickly. He then made quick work of stitching up her leg. She only needed about 22 stitches. Before he left, he took out the IV and left some pain pills on the bedside table. We said thank you as he walked out.
As he was exiting the room, Omar was entering with our food. I told him thanks and that we were not to be disturbed until nine the next morning. It was just now around noon, so that should be plenty of rest for our journey. I also inform him that if I hear that door open at any point, I will shoot first and ask questions later. Again, he looked at Ash and called me a stupid idiot, and said I would be the death of both of us. She just smiled and said I may be an idiot, but I was her idiot, and with that, he left.
I thought to myself, what did she just say, but when I looked at her, she just shrugged her shoulders and pointed to the food. So I got up and brought the tray over to the bed so that we could eat before going to sleep. After we finished eating, I took off my remaining weapons and put them on the table by the bed within reach. Then I took off my pants and placed them on the chair. Finally, I walked over to the door and locked it and took the other chair, and wedged it under the doorknob for extra reinforcement. When I turned to walk back to the bed, Ash was just staring at me with this goofy look on her face.
"What?" I asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Those are my shorts," she said.
"As I recall it, you gave them to me. But I will gladly give them back if you would like me to."
She just laughed, "No, you keep them. They look better on you anyway. Now get over here and undress me, please."
Again, with the stuttering, "Wha…what do you mean undress you? I don't think that is a good idea right now."
Of course, she laughs at me, "You really are an idiot, but at least you are a cute one. I just meant, would you please help me out of these blood-soaked pants seeing how my ankle is killing me. It would also be nice if you would remove my disgusting shirt unless seeing me in my bra and underwear will give you a stroke or something. If that's the case, then I might need those shorts back after all!"
"What? No, I won't have a stroke on you, and yes, I will help you if you promise to sleep in the bed. I will sleep on the floor this time since there isn't a couch."
She shakes her head and says, "No deal. I'm sleeping wherever you are sleeping." I say fine and gently take off her pants and shirt, then turn off the lights and crawl in the bed behind her.
