A series of heavy thuds woke Hunnigan from her cold sleep. She had been so tired from her second outing, that even though the water had gone freezing hours before, she hadn't awoken. Standing quickly and peeling off the soaked clothes, she ripped down the clothes that had been hanging over the shower rod, tossed them into the sink, and hung the ones she was wearing. Stripped nude, she looked around for her bathrobe. It was hung on a hook behind the door, a cream, silk robe with golden stitching. Her fingers worked to tie the belt and tug the material down to her knees as she rushed to the front door.
I was spotted, the program must've failed somewhere. Some camera caught enough of my face—or someone found some of my blood on the floor. Her mind raced as she pulled back the locks on the door. Maybe someone in the crowd saw me limping, saw the wound and reported it.
Hunnigan pulled open the door and sighed inwardly as she instantly recognized the man standing there on her porch. He towered over it by almost a head and a half, though he was slumped to one side, indicating he had been waiting there for awhile.
"Caught you at a bad time, obviously." His eyes looked her up and down, water from her hair soaking the shoulders of her robe.
"Leon—uh yeah. I was in the shower. I didn't hear the door." He nodded quietly, leaving a long pause of silence between them. Her mind scrambled for a polite way to tell him to get lost. "Sorry, I'm just not feeling the greatest."
"I wasn't expecting you too." He took advantage of her position half behind the door and slipped past her into the house easily. She let out a short breath as she watched him walk to the center of her livingroom and turn around.
"I'm not really in the mood for guests, Leon." The door was still open beside her.
"Good thing I'm not a guest then huh?"
Hunnigan took the hint and closed the door. She let go of the door and nearly collapsed to the floor. He saw her lose her balance before she even realized it and was holding her up, his arms around her waist. She looked down to see her left foot angled strangely, he noticed as well.
"What happened?" His brow was cocked in confusion, but his look quickly turned to shock as rivulets of blood began to stream down the back of her leg. "Your leg…?" He let go one hand from her waist and reached to open the door. "I'm taking you to the hospital—"
"No." She slapped a hand against the back of the door, keeping him from opening it. "I'm fine."
"Tell that to your carpet." Blood was pooling under her foot.
"Just help me into the kitchen, so I can clean it up."
Leon scooped an arm under her, laying it behind the bend of her knees, the other went around her back as her carried her to the island counter between her kitchen and diningroom. He set her on the counter then immediately reached for her leg. He tried to turn it around but she tensed under his grasp.
"Hunnigan…" He shot a look up at her. He tugged at her ankle, just enough pressure to annoy her, not injure. She let out a sigh and relaxed her leg, angling her hips to the right to allow her leg to be bent more so that he would be able to examine it more carefully. He mumbled under his breath as he got a better look at it. "I don't care what the beauty magazines say, Hunnigan, bullets don't make for a good way to shave your legs.
"If you are going to make a big joke out of this, then just get out and I'll handle it." She pulled at her leg but his grip on her ankle and upper calve tightened, near bruising in his hold on her.
"Who is joking?" A grim look flushed across his face. "How did you get a bullet wound in the back of your leg, Hunnigan?"
"I was out walking and a stray bullet hit me." She answered, not looking at him but instead at the wound. The skin was inflamed, but because of the overnight soak in cold water, the flesh around the wound had stayed cold, keeping her from bleeding out.
"Where were you walking that has a lot of stray bullets?"
"The other side of town."
"And you decided to just put it on ice instead of going to the hospital because you didn't want to inconvenience any doctor on the D.S.O's payroll?" He glared at her. "I'm not buying it. How about the truth?"
The muscles in her jaw flexed as she grounded her teeth. She could hear him moving around and heard a slight beep as he unlocked the screen on his phone. Hunnigan turned around and snatched at the device but he held it well outside her reach.
"What are you doing?"
"Calling an ambulance."
"No, you can't."
"And why not?"
"Because the bullet will be traced back to the gun that fired it."
"Yeah, that is generally the idea."
"And that gun will be traced back to Eric Leavenworth."
"Eric Leavenworth?" His eyes shifted slightly as he recalled the name. "Miles and Leavenworth, the heads of the PR department for the D.S.O?" She nodded, only slightly.
"Why did Eric Leavenworth shoot you in the leg?" When she remained silent, he began dialing the hospital. She swiped an arm at him. "Why did he shoot you? This wound is in the back of your leg, you were obviously running away, why did he shoot you Hunnigan?"
"Because I poisoned Desmond Miles!" She shouted.
A heavy stillness fell over them as then bore through each other. He looked hurt, she hurried to explain as he let go of her leg.
"Desmond Miles and Eric Leavenworth were members of The Family."
"What?"
"I have been running tracing programs for the past week and I finally have been getting results—private bank accounts linked both Miles and Leavenworth back to Simmons."
"Oh no…" He let out a quiet sigh.
"I have found them as well as Adrian Waters…"
"Hunnigan, no…"
"…I went to him and found out that there is only about fifty-five members in The Family so if I can find them—
"Stop…"
"…I can get the ones that worked directly with Simmons then I will bring in the other for—"
"Stop." He raised his voice, louder than hers but he was not screaming at her. "That is not going to bring her back."
A sharp pain pierced her throat. She swallowed hard, grinding her teeth together roughly to keep her lower lip from shaking. Her brows furrowed as a heat built in her sinuses. The world melted around Leon's face as tears began to form.
"Don't you think I know that!?" Her voice was shrill with pain, but not a scream. She couldn't scream even though she wanted to. "They took her away from me and they have to pay for that."
"Yes they do, but you putting yourself on the line is not going to result in anything but you losing your life."
"I don't care if I die—"
"And if they stop you? Do you want to spend the rest of your life in a prison cell?" He tone was stern. "What if they still have some form of the virus and they infect you? Then you will die just like she did. Do you think that is worth it?"
"Yes."
A stalemate fell between them before he grabbed her leg and turned it over again.
"Lay down on your stomach so that I can look at this better." She did so silently, sliding up along the counter so that her leg was propped up on the surface. Leon cleared his throat a bit then walked to around in front of her. "Towels and first aid kit?"
"Cabinet just over there and under the bathroom skin." She pointed him in the direction. He came back just a few minutes later and got to work.
First, he placed a pile of towels under her leg, both to soak up the blood and to steady it as he would have to work. Next, he draped a towel over her thighs, covering her up where her robe had failed to do so. She shook her head slightly at the idea of Leon seeing up her robe but at the moment, it didn't seem nearly as important as it normally would have been. He set the kit down on the surface and popped it open. He pulled out the bottle of alcohol, opened it and dumped it on the wound.
The chemical hissed furiously, as did Hunnigan, nearly leaping off the table. Only his hold on her knee kept her where she laid. She whined loudly and buried her face into her folded arms. He pulled out some long tweezers and began to press them into the wound.
Pain burned brightly and soon she was wiggling too much for him to hold on.
"You have to hold still."
"It hurts!" She let out a hiss as she sucked in air through her teeth.
"Yeah well if bullets felt good, more people would join the military." She shook her head and covered her face with her hands. The cold metal moving around under the skin was strange, her muscles jumped and twitched. Leon grumbled as he tried to hold her leg still with one hand and work the tweezers with the other.
"Ahhh…" She groaned loudly as the end of the tweezers brushed the bullet. "Shit!" Her leg jumped from the pain.
"I think I found it."
"Jesus Christ Leon, just pull it out."
He let out a chuckle. "I will just after I get this bullet out from your leg."
Hunnigan let out a short cry then slapped a hand over her mouth as the bullet moved around as he manipulated a better hold on it. He wiggled it back and forth then began to pull it out, though to her it felt as though he were driving it in farther.
"Oh… Ffffffuck…" He gave it a hard tug and she heard a wet, fleshy noise, then the sound of metal clanking in the kitchen sink.
"Well, that is done, now to sew it up." He grabbed a large cup from the cabinet beside the sink and filled it with cold water. He poured it slowly over the wound.
"Great…" She said, breathlessly as her hands drummed the counter-top in pain. "I bought the basic first aid kit that doesn't come with stitches."
Leon dabbed at the area with a clean towel then poured a small bottle of Iodine on the area. "I'll get creative." He wondered off and returned with a large sewing needle and a container of unwaxed floss. He got a pot from under the stove and filled it with water. In the pot, he dropped the floss and needle.
As the water boiled, he sat next to her on a barstool. She grabbed his arm and held her hand in both of her hands, pressing his cool fingers to her feverish forehead.
"What are you doing, Hunnigan? This isn't you." His voice was just above a whisper. She lulled her head to the side, to look at him.
"No, it isn't but this isn't for me."
"Then who—" She cut him off.
"It is for her… both of them." She gave a sniff, trying to stop the tears that had already begun to fall. The pain of the unofficial surgery on top the ache in her heart had made the tears unstoppable.
"If you have the evidence, why don't you just turn it over?"
"To who, Leon? The Family is everywhere. Their power is everywhere. They only caught ten members so far. I have to do this myself."
"You can't be serious. You are going to get yourself killed."
"I know, but if I go down before I am done, I've already set up a backup plan."
"Backup plan?" He puzzled. "What kind of backup plan?"
"Don't worry about it."
He stood and went over to the pot. He used tongs to pull the items out of the hot water then ran cold water over them. He threaded the needle and dipped them in a bowl of the alcohol from earlier.
"Brace yourself."