Callie wasn't sure how long she had been lying there when she heard a moan coming from the woman's mouth. Callie sat up quickly, and again felt her body ache in places she didn't know you could experience pain. She realized she hadn't eaten or drunk in quite a while. She took a bottle of water and drank half of it. She panted as she put it back down on the ground, and then she looked up and met the eyes of the blonde woman. Callie froze at first, but then looked down at the bottle and held it up to the woman. It looked like she was making an attempt to nod. Callie scooted over to her, and held her head as she tilted the bottle to give the woman a chance to drink out of the bottle. She tried to pour slowly so the woman wouldn't choke. She managed to drink one third of what was left of the water and then turned her face away, signaling she was done.
Since the woman seemed a bit more conscious now than she had before, and adding the fact that she wasn't bleeding out of her throat anymore, Callie offered "So, can I drive you to the hospital now?"
The woman gave her a stern look that could not be a more clear: No!
"Well, what do you expect me to do? Leave you here?!"
The woman didn't look at Callie. Then she made a movement with her hand towards the parking lot, suggesting Callie indeed leave her there.
"You expect me to just walk away and leave you like this?" Callie shouted. Her anger came a bit quickly. Probably a mix of shock and fatigue.
"You don't want me to take you to hospital, and I can't leave you here. I can't exactly take you home, now can I!?" Callie concluded, in a slightly less angry tone.
When the woman heard that last comment she looked up at Callie and for the first time this evening, Callie thought she saw a trace of a smile on her face.
Callie opened her mouth in disbelief "You can't be serious. Firstly, I don't know who you are, and secondly, I have to say meeting like this doesn't exactly give a good first impression." Callie made a pause, and then added "I don't even take first dates home. Usually." At the last word she shrugged.
Callie sighed and looked at the injured woman again, and this time there was no mistaking her smile. Callie relaxed when she saw that poor woman, all pale from blood loss, smiling at her ranting. Like before when she had looked into her eyes, it had a calming effect on her, like everything was going to be fine. She had a gut feeling she could trust this woman.
"Alright. I can't believe I'm going to say this. You can come to my place. But only for the night!"
The woman put her right hand on her chest, like she wanted to say Thank you.
"First thing's first" Callie said. She got up, collected all of the stuff on the ground, and threw it into the container. She kept the first aid kit, she realized she might need it to redress the wound later. Callie figured it would be easier to bring the car closer to the woman, than trying to get her all the way across the parking lot. "I'm going to bring my car over here, OK!?"
The woman slowly blinked her eyes as an affirmative.
As Callie was walking over to her car, she remembered she hadn't locked the store after running in to get all those things. She ran back and made sure it was locked.
She drove up as closely as she could get to the containers, and opened the back seat door. She tried to help the woman up, but it was really difficult without the woman having to exert herself; to the extent that her wound started bleeding again.
Callie finally managed to get her into the back seat. There was a red spot on the compress now. I can see to that when we get back to my place, she thought.
After struggling to help the woman out of the back seat, and subsequently acting as a human crutch as they made their way to Callie's front door, she finally put the woman down on her couch. Callie sat down in the chair beside the couch and panted from the effort of getting the unknown woman into her house. A strange woman in her house, whom she had just rescued from bleeding to death. Callie was so tired it almost felt like she indeed was dreaming all of this.
The red spot on the compress had turned into a full on red blotch that was almost covering all of the white compress. The woman had closed her eyes the minute she hit the couch, and it looked like she was sleeping. Callie thought she better check the bleeding before she went to get some well deserved (if she say so herself) sleep. It looked like the wound had clotted up again, so Callie only changed the compress.
She went straight for her bedroom, because she was afraid that if she took a detour to the bathroom she would fall asleep in there. As Callie closed her door, she stopped for a moment and looked at the door. I don't know this woman, she thought. Her fear started building up as the different scenarios played in her mind, including Callie getting killed in her sleep. She locked the door, and pushed her dresser to block a possible intruder. That made her feel a bit safer. She didn't have time to consider any other possibilities, because she fell asleep the minute her head hit the pillow.