"Nurse Me" - one character healing another.
"Damn it, are you trying to burn my skin off?"
"Maybe if you'd just hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much."
"What kind of field medic are you, anyway? You know you're not supposed to use alcohol to clean a wound, right?"
"So you want me to use the water from our canteens? You realize that's unsanitary and would have you down with an infection? Just leave the first-aid to me, sir."
Sofia stuck Baird with a glare and, predictably, he gave in. He was in no condition to argue. He was sitting, shirtless and vulnerable, in an abandoned building that looked ready to collapse, and he was losing a lot of blood from the gash in his waist. He hoped it was a superficial wound. A cleaver had come too close for comfort in the last skirmish; now his side was torn up and he felt light-headed from the shock, and maybe from blood loss. He couldn't tell.
The cadet succeeded in making him sit still as she applied an antiseptic spray. Cleaning the wound was harder; her lieutenant was ticklish. After three times, she called Cole over to hold him.
"So how's it look, Doc?" Cole asked when she finished. "Is he gonna live?"
"Unfortunately." She leaned forward by a centimeter, eyes narrowed on the wound. "Looks like he needs stitches, though."
"No way!" Baird yelped. "No way in hell am I getting stitched up."
"Do you want to bleed out?"
"Don't be so dramatic. It can't be that bad."
"Is our great lieutenant afraid of a tiny needle?" Paduk goaded, coming over to inspect the gash for himself.
Baird lowered his arms protectively, careful of the blood. "No, but we don't have the sanitary space for this," he replied. He looked down at Sofia. "Just slap a bandage on it and we'll wait until we're back at base. I can get a real surgeon to stitch me up there."
"Sir, I've been trained for this," Sofia said; she was already searching for the items in her rucksack. "Just relax and try to ignore the sting."
"I said get me a bandage, cadet!" He was starting to bleed again, damn it. He was getting too worked up about a needle and the smug grin on Paduk's face wasn't helping. He was not afraid of needles—although he never had reason to be. He never felt one before. Shit, was he really afraid of a tiny piece of metal?
Sofia found the needle and thread, packaged in a sanitary container, and motioned to Cole. "Hold him, please. Sir, this is for your own good."
Baird screwed his eyes shut as Cole restrained him. He braced for the first bite of the needle; it was cold, sharp, and immediate. It felt worse than the three foot tall cleaver.