The journey home seemed to take forever. As soon as the tube train pulled into Edgware Station, Norstara and Lucitana raced on ahead to inform Jennyanydots of the situation and to set out the necessary medical facilities. Munkustrap was limping heavily and clutching his side, the pain having flared up as the adrenaline had begun to wear off, but he refused to accept any kind of help. "I'm fine," he insisted grumpily.
There was no arguing with him, but that didn't stop Jazzie from keeping a stern eye on him at all times. Even though he seemed relatively well, she knew that anything could be going on inside his body. A myriad of possible problems were buzzing through her mind. He could be bleeding internally from a major blood vessel, or maybe suffering from peritonitis. If his intestinal tract had been hit then it's contents could be leaking into his abdomen! Or a vital nerve or organ could have been damaged. She had no way of knowing until she got him to the emergency room and could examine him. And the sooner the better. Suddenly she felt his paw on hers, bringing her out of her inner monologue. "Stop worrying, woman!" he reproved, squeezing her paw to try to reassure her.
"I can't help it!" she replied, grasping his wrist and feeling for his heartbeat. She felt relieved when she felt it beating steadily against her fingertips, not too fast, nor too slow, so at least shock could be ruled out, for now at least.
Munkustrap felt a paw touch his other arm, and looked down to see Demeter looking up at him with those wide, sympathetic eyes of hers. The ones he could never stay mad at. She looked like she wanted to say something but was struggling to find the right words. She opened her mouth as though about to speak, but no sound came out, so she closed it again. From his opposite side, Jazzie spoke for her instead, "You can wipe that piteous look off your face and replace it with one of shame Demeter!" she hissed. "It is your fault he is in this state! If you'd only had some common sense, razzer zan putting yourself in danger-"
"That's enough you two! Can't you at least tryto get along?" Munkustrap snapped. The queens glared at each other and then stared sullenly in opposite directions, but said no more to each other. Jazzie's resolve was bent on treating Munkustrap the minute they arrived at the Infirmary. Munkustrap, however, had other ideas.
"Must see Bomba…!" he insisted, trying to bulldoze his way through the barricade of nurses to get to her cubicle.
"Oh no you don't!" snapped Jennyanydots, placing a firm paw on his chest to stop him. "YOU are going to get those wounds seen to and then you are going to get some rest. Bombalurina is sleeping right now and she is not to be disturbed! Have I made myself clear?"
"But-!"
"No buts! Do as you're told!"
She was once again scolding him like he was a naughty kitten rather than the Jellicle Protector and he hated it! But only Jennyanydots could get away with talking to him like that and he knew it. He also knew that to disobey the Gumbie Cat would be extremely unwise. So he sighed, "Fine!" And allowed Jazzie to lead him into another cubicle, where he had to put up with being prodded and poked for the next half an hour.
Although he had to concede that it wasn't allthat bad, seeing as it was a sexy French nurse who was doing the prodding and poking, after all! As he lay on the table Jazzie removed his collar, the belt and blood stained scarf as delicately as she could and then gently applied pressure to the area around the stab wound in his side.
"Does it hurt when I press here?" She asked.
"No."
"Here?"
"Nope."
"Any numbness here?"
"No."
"What about here?"
"Mmmm."
"What's 'mmmm,' mean?"
"Um, it stings a bit when you press there."
"Where? Here?"
"Hell yes!"
"How much pain are we talking? On a scale of one to ten would you say?"
"About...five?"
"Don't underplay it Munk. It could be serious!"
"It doesn't hurt that much! I'm telling the truth!" he persisted when her face told him she was far from convinced.
"D'accord, if you say so," she shrugged. "Well as far as I can tell, ze knife doesn't appear to have hit anysing major, which makes you extremely lucky, I can tell you! Now I'm just going to numb ze area and clean ze wounds, zough I must warn you, zis will sting initially. I need you to keep still for me, ok?"
"I'll think of something else," he assured her with a sly wink.
Pretending to ignore him, she used a dispenser to flood the relatively small but deep cut with anaesthetic, grimacing sympathetically when he tensed, took a sharp breath in through his teeth and issued a loud, "Hiss!" and again when she repeated the procedure with the cut on his arm. She then flooded each wound with ample amounts of saline and closed the one on his arm and secured it with steri strips. After that, she very gently packed the knife wound with strips of antiseptic gauze using a cotton bud and applied antiseptic cream to both wounds before loosely applying adhesive bandages. "Zese will have to be changed twice a day," she explained as she worked.
He gave her an obedient salute as a form of reply. "So, what are you sinking about?" she asked him, unable to contain a wry smile.
He chuckled at that, "Oh, wouldn't you like to know?"
"It'd better not be rude, mister!" she said reproachfully.
"Depends what you think of as rude," he replied innocently, then whispered. "I was thinking about you!"
He winked at her again and she cast her eyes down, feeling her ears growing hot. "How is your lip?" She asked.
"Sore. Expect me to mumble more than I usually do for the next few days!"
"Does zat mean I cannot kiss you?" She looked sad.
"Sorry what was that?" he asked.
Keeping a perfectly straight face she repeated in her own language, "Est-ce que cela signifie que je ne peux pas vous embrasser?"
He carefully sat up, drew her close and gently kissed her. "Over my dead body, nurse!" he whispered, and he had a distinct gleam in his eye.
Her eyes met with his and it was like her lungs had forgotten that they were supposed to breath. How was he managing to look so darn gorgeous even with his face streaked with dried blood and mud? Suddenly her paws went behind his head and she was kissing him passionately as though she had never kissed him before or ever would again. Then, before she knew it, she was on top of him.
"Oh gosh! I'm so sorry!" she gasped, feeling mortified. "Zis is most unprofessional of me!"
She had no idea how she got there, but when she tried to move off, he immediately clamped his paws on the base of her thighs and held her fast. "Shhh!" He placed a finger to her lips. "How did you know what I was thinking?"
She began to protest, "Munkustrap! We mustn't…!"
But he shut her up by kissing her again and pulled her closer. She inhaled sharply as she felt him enter her and felt powerless to resist (not that she wanted to!) She had to smother her face with his dusty fur to cover her moans of pleasure, feeling like she could happily die in those strong arms that gripped her so tightly. When she finally collapsed onto him he held her close, purring quietly as his eyelids grew heavy and he at last felt content. He chuckled quietly to himself, causing her to raise her head and nuzzle his face with her nose. "What's so funny?" she asked sleepily.
"Well…" he replied thoughtfully. "I was just thinking that I've had sex in some interesting places, but this is definitely up there!"
"Well just so you know, I do not make a habit of attacking my patients," she giggled.
"I expect they'd be most disappointed about that, my dear!" he joked. "Well just so you know, you can attack me anytime you like!"
"I'm surprised you're able to do anysing after being stabbed with a two inch blade!" she whispered.
"All the more reason to take the opportunity while I still breathe!" he argued. "In fact if I was to die, I'd have no problems with going out after what you just did to me!"
"You're not going to die! Not on my watch!"
They were lost in their own thoughts for a few moments, before Munkustrap asked, "Do you know what my final thought was? You know, after the Ball?"
"I don't know how you can bare to sink about it!" She shuddered.
"Well it may surprise you, but it was not: 'Shit! I'm dying!' But Rather: 'I never got to make love to her. Damn!' A fact that Macavity was only too happy to taunt me with."
"Mon Dieu…!"
"You see, my dear Jazzie, where there is a will there will always be a way. And the day I cannot make love to you will be the day that I die."
He grinned, "It is no coincidence that mother nature put us toms on this rock for no other purpose than to fight and to fuck. And I certainly have no qualms about that!"
"I sink you are crazy," she told him, shaking her head.
"It certainly helps," he confessed.
They were silent once again. Then she murmured quietly, "You killed all zose cats-"
"Who would have done far worse to us if I had not," he promised her. "I know that gang from way back. For them depravity is the name of the game and they take no prisoners. Trust me. I only kill when I have to. Only to keep you safe, Jazzie. I will personally kill anyone who so much as thinks about trying to hurt you."
As he said this he stroked her head and then began to sing quietly to her as she drifted off to sleep in his arms,
"We'll do it all
Everything
On our own
We don't need
Anything
Or anyone
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel
Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life
Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads
I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life
All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see
I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all
If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?"
(Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol)
"I love you," she whispered.
"I love you too," he murmured.
"Plus I really needed...zat!" she sighed.
"You and me both," he whispered back. "But shush now! Matron's coming!"
"Oh my God…!"
"Shush! Quick! Start snoring!"
Jennyanydots had just finished attending to Rum Tum Tugger and left him to sleep off the effects of the alcohol in one of the beds. Humming cheerfully to herself, she began to potter about, tidying beds and positioning tables.
"Hmmm, it's gone a bit quiet," she thought to herself.
"Er...Jazzie?" She called.
She bustled over to her cubicle, gently pulled back the curtain and peeped in. "Have you nearly…Oh! Aw! Won't you look at those two love cats!" she tutted, shaking her head at the sight of the little Snowshoe snuggled up fast asleep with her injured Silver Tom on the rather narrow examining table.
They both looked so adorable that she didn't have the heart to disturb them so instead, she placed a blanket over them and quietly crept out again. "Ah! Such love!" she sighed and went to relieve Jellylorum of her babysitting duties in the neighbouring creche.
Luckily, she didn't hear the ill concealed giggling or the guilty "Shhhhh!" coming from within the cubicle!