When the snow finally stopped, it didn't take them any longer than to get the sidewalks and parking lot cleared before Cody was taking a snowmobile up to the cabin. There were sidelong looks and smirks but no one said anything when they'd packed up a bag of things for Gunny like some music CD's, a few books and a couple of magazines that others were done with for awhile.
When he got up there, he was surprised to find the cabin was almost buried in a drift of snow. He found it hard to remember when it had been this deep. He came around the side of the cabin that had the main door and saw that Gunny had gotten the door open and had managed to move/throw enough snow out of the way to get the door fully open and a bit of a pathway cut for moving around just the outside the door. Other than that, there was little else done.
He climbed off the snow mobile and slid down the bit of drift near the door and knocked before opening it and stepping inside. He shut the door behind him and looked around. Sitting on the floor next to a pair of boots and a coat hung up was a pot with a handle. She must have been using that to scoop out the snow. He smirked a little as he looked around then called out, "Gunny?"
He heard someone call out from the bathroom that was on the other side of the kitchen. He blushed a little and made his way through the kitchen, "You all right?" he asked.
"Yeah…" came her voice followed by a slight grumbled '…dammit'. The door was open and he saw her sitting on the toilet seat lid, her left leg propped up on the edge of the bathtub. Her brace was off and she had a pair of workout shorts on. She was dressed in nothing else but a sports bra, her sweatpants lying near her on the counter. She had the bandages off of her knee and thigh, cleaning them out with new bandaging lying on the counter where she could reach it. Her arm was out of its sling and she was managing to use the tip of her index finger and thumb to help her manipulate the cleaning pads.
He'd seen plenty of wounds before, hell he'd been on the receiving end of a few himself but what he saw of her leg was pretty amazing, considering that she an entire femur replaced. His eyes quickly traveled to the other leg where a long scar ran all the way around her calf. There were other scars but nothing that serious. He saw the scars on her forearms, the skin pale white where the rest of the skin was tanned from years of being in the sun. His eyes traveled farther up to her abdomen and chest region and the long thin scars that were visible there though not as drastic as those on her arms.
He looked up at her left shoulder, seeing she'd peeled the bandages off and had managed to clean most of the dried blood off and was letting it air out a little. The wound looked good from what he could see. His eyes traveled up to her face and saw her looking at him. There was a slight frown that creased her brow, "It's not polite to stare." She commented.
His face blushed a little, "Sorry. Can I help?" he asked, indicating her bandaging.
She looked back at her work and sighed before looking at him again, "Since you're here, might as well make yourself useful." She said. There was a hint of joking in her voice since he learned how to listen for it, finally realizing that it was there and what it 'sounded' like. Most people still took her as too serious when in fact, she really wasn't.
He smirked at her and moved forward, kneeling on the floor before her. He reached up very carefully and looked at the wound in her shoulder, getting a slight nod from her when he gave her the questioning look before he allowed himself to touch her. He had done some EMT training so he was fairly good at being able to look over a wound to know if it was healing properly. "This one looks really good." He said as he gently touched it. "I'll put a bandage over it just to keep the stitches from snagging on anything. Is this sore or tender?" he asked as he gently pressed around the edges of the scar.
She shook her head a little, "Not really." She stated, watching his face the whole time.
He nodded and left it alone. "I'll look at the one in the back when we get done with your leg." He went over to her left leg and took a careful look at the incision that went up the length of her leg. The stitching was very precise and they had done it with the non-dissolvable stitches. He very carefully touched the cleaned areas, touching the skin on either side, pressing in just a little. It wasn't until he got closer to the bullet wound that she winced a little. He gently prodded around the cut until he identified what the problem was.
He stood up and looked around, "Is there a set of tweezers in the med kit?" he asked.
She thought for a moment, "Yeah, I think so. Down along the front edge." She stated.
He left the bathroom and came back a minute later, washing his hands up again and disinfecting the tweezers before kneeling down in front of her again. He clicked on a flashlight he'd brought with him for pinpoint lighting. "I think you've got a bone fragment working its way out. Won't know till I can get it pulled out with the tweezers."
She nodded a little and leaned back to let him have the most light. He was very careful as he investigated further and finally got a hold of the offending fragment and pulled it carefully out of the cut between two of the stitches. She didn't flinch and hardly did more than inhale slightly. He handed her the fragment and then put the tweezers down, grabbing up a gauze pad and some disinfectant to clean the little bit of blood that was coming from the small opening.
"You doing ok?" he asked, his voice inflecting that there was more to that question than just injury wise.
She nodded a little, "Yeah. Just…strange." She commented.
He continued testing the incision until he got to the wound above the knee and worked carefully around it, cleaning it, inspecting and making sure everything was good. "Strange, how?" he asked.
She was silent for a long moment. "You're the first non-medical…person that I've let touch me other than to shake my hand or during hand-to-hand combat … in a long time." She said, swallowing slightly.
He looked up at her for a second then back down at his work, "That long huh? I can stop if you want me to." He asked in a way.
She swallowed again, "No." was all she said. He could tell she was fighting a battle he couldn't help her win. He looked away from her and focused on getting her leg bandaged up. He kept quiet as he worked, letting her deal with her issues in her own way. He did his best to use a careful hand, gentle and soothing as he went like he'd use on an injured wild animal. He knew he had to exude a sense of confidence and sincerity that she would notice subconsciously.
When he was finished with her leg, he looked up at her. "Why don't we move out to the kitchen to look at your hand and the back of your shoulder." He said. He stood up slowly and gathered up the old bandages and the new stuff. He left the small bathroom to give her the room to move around in and get her brace back on. He saw the slight look of relief when he was out of the way and knew he'd chosen to do the right thing.
He'd spent time gentling wild horses before and when you have to approach wild animals to observe and track them, you learn to move slow, cautiously and look for signs that you're on the right track or when to back off. With the mental and physical trauma she'd suffered in the past six years, she was like a wild horse; shy, skittish and willing to bolt or fight at a moments notice when she felt threatened. Since he met her, he'd been slowly working on her, wearing away those walls she'd put up around her, the ones he could almost see from the first time he shook her hand.
Within a few minutes, she came hobbling out without the use of the crutch. She wasn't putting her full weight on the leg yet but she'd obviously been working on it a little. She got to a kitchen chair and flopped down in it with a grunt. She had gotten her sweat pants over the bandages and then put the brace over the top of it. She had a sweater in her good hand that she put on the table for after she was done getting 'doctored up'.
Cody had been busy cleaning up and throwing away the used bandages and laying out the stuff he still needed. When she got settled in the chair he carefully moved around to her back and pulled off the bandaging over the wound she couldn't reach. He picked up another gauze pad, doused it with alcohol and slowly cleaned it up. As he did, his eyes traveled down the visible skin of her back. She'd obviously had skin graphs but he could still see some of the damage and the scar tissue from the injuries she'd received six years ago. There were whip scars up around the edges of her shoulders and neck that hadn't stripped the skin away but nothing could be done for except to let them heal. The scars were faint and not easily seen at quick glance.
He finished up quickly and then tested the skin and muscle around the exit wound. "How's that feeling?" he asked quietly.
She was quiet for a moment as he pressed gently and prodded a little. "Can't feel anything really other than the pressure of your fingers. Can't feel much back there." She said, growing quiet again.
Cody knew she didn't have to finish that statement. The nerve endings would have been ruined with the beating she'd taken and then the skin graphs couldn't replace all that had been ruined, just cover it up to hide it. He kept his thoughts to himself. He put some ointment on a pad and pressed it over the wound. "The skin is cool and there's no swelling or redness around it, so you should be good." He stated as he put some tape at the edges to hold the pad into place. "I wouldn't doubt that in another week or so they'll start removing some of the stitches. You're healing pretty quickly." He said as he came around to sit on a chair in front of her.
She watched him for a moment and then pulled the sweater to her. She took care in pulling her bandaged hand through the sleeve first and then very slowly lifted her arm above her head as she pulled on the rest of the sweater, using her good hand to pull it into place. She carefully put her arm down with a slight wince. She might be healing outside but the insides were still mending. It was obvious that she knew the extent of what she could do and he was silently thankful for it. It meant she'd not strain herself too much and be able to get back to work within a shorter period of time.
She held out her bandaged hand to him, "Last one Doc." She said with a slight smirk. She seemed a little more at ease now that she had hidden herself away behind the sweat pants and sweater.
He nodded and began to unwrap the hand and pull off the bandages. The wound looked like the rest, ugly but healing well. He went to work, quietly cleaning the top of her hand and then turning her hand over to clean the palm. "Have you tried to work your fingers yet?" he asked.
She raised an eyebrow at his question but with slow, careful movements, he saw her carefully curl her index finger and then her middle finger. Her ring finger took a little more effort but it finally joined the others. The thumb and pinky fingers were the only ones not affected from the damage done. He smiled warmly at her and nodded, taking the hand and carefully smoothing out the curled fingers.
Gunny struggled with herself not to jerk her hand away. She honestly wanted to be touched by him but her mind was screaming to run away as she fought with herself to not follow through on that instinct. Finally he turned her hand over and looked at the other side, cleaning it as well, checking the wound out and then finally applying fresh bandages along with the finger splints that were to hold her fingers still so things could heal properly.
He finally nodded and smiled up at her when he finished. "Everything is looking good, actually much better than I thought they would." He cleaned up what mess he'd made and then stood up, stretching. "I'll go clear the snow a bit farther out from the cabin." He went over by the door of the bathroom where he'd set down the care package and picked it up, bringing it over to her. "The team put some things together to give you something to occupy yourself with for another few days before your doctors appointment."
She looked at the bag of stuff then up at him, apparently unsure of what to say to that. To save the need to say anything, he went back over to the front door and pulled on his coat and gloves before taking up the shovel that was behind the door and heading outside. He spent the next few hours clearing off the porch and cutting a pathway to the barn. He climbed onto the roof and cleaned off the solar panel and the drifts around it so it could get sunlight.
As he stood on the roof, overlooking the valley below, he was amazed at the scene. He scrambled down off the roof and went over to his snowmobile and pulled out his camera. Slinging it around his neck, he went back up to the roof and spent some time, taking pictures of the valley that sprawled out below. It looked like a box full of emeralds that had been slung out onto white velvet, nothing having disturbed the quiet tranquility that these deep snows brought.
He came down off the roof and took a few pictures of the front of the cabin to document the depth of the snow and then headed inside. When he opened the door, he was overwhelmed with the smell of cooking food that made his stomach growl. He shut the door and peeled out of his wet clothes, hanging them up and kicking off his boots before heading into the kitchen.
She was sitting at the table, her leg up on another chair, reading through some of the newspapers. On the stove was a pot of stew, slowly simmering away. He thought he smelled fresh biscuits too but he didn't dare hope. She looked up at him as he came in. She had a look about her that seemed to enjoy the fact that he was in obvious heaven with the smell of the food. She smiled a little, "Why don't you go get a hot shower and warm up. Lunch will be ready in a little bit." She said, her eyes still watching him with a bit of mirth tucked into the corner of her mouth.
He nodded, not quite sure what to say or do at that moment, seeing her sitting in the kitchen, surrounded by smells that brought back a rush of memories. He walked by her then on his way to the bathroom and stopped near her, leaning down as she looked up at him and kissed her forehead gently. There was a little exhale of breath and he looked at her eyes before leaning down and gently kissing her lips this time, a gentle and tender kiss that she responded to without more than a heartbeats hesitation. He heard the little hitch in her breathing; the almost silent moan that came from her throat.
He parted from the kiss and looked at her again, holding her gaze with his before speaking, "After that kiss, I don't think I need a hot shower anymore." He said in a light manner before moving towards the bathroom to get cleaned up. He would have to leave after lunch because he had other things to do but at least she hadn't flinched away or told him off. He had heard the need in the few small sounds she'd made when she had responded to his kiss. But he promised himself to take this slow. He wanted her coming to him, being the first one to initiate a touch so that it was on her level, her trust, not his. He wanted her to get the sense that when he was close to her, there was no threat, no need to fear his attentions but to look on them with a sense of longing or desire to have them to herself.