17.
~ "Pressure!" She snapped to Cobb as her Captain was still bleeding heavily. "Put pressure on the wound!"
Cobb did as she ordered. He was too afraid not to. Arthur looked deathly white and sick.
"Doctor Kikie!" Ariadne shouted as a medic helped her push the Captain into the main triage area. Doctor Kikie was pulled away from the last of the burn victims to see the desperately wounded man on the gurney.
He took on look at Arthur and ordered Ariadne to prep him for emergency surgery.
"No morphine, we don't want his breathing to drop. Lidocaine only." He ordered as Ariadne began cutting free his uniform.
"I'm alright." Arthur groaned as he tried to sit up.
"Your not fighting me this time, son." The doctor said as he eased the Captain back down.
~ In a small surgical room, Ariadne helped the doctor remove the horrible looking shard of metal from her Captain's body. Arthur stayed awake the whole time, saying he was alright.
"Nurse, we will need a blood infusion." Doctor Kikie whispered to her.
"Already underway, Doctor." Ariadne whispered calmly back.
She had instructed her nurses to round up able bodied men to give blood as soon as the most severely wounded were under control.
"That's very good to hear." Doctor Kikie said calmly as he sewed Arthur's wound shut. Making sure he wasn't bleeding in unseen places. Asking Ariadne what his respiration's were. What his pulse was.
Their voices so calm and easy, it was as if they were talking about the weather and not a man's life. Trixie knocked on the door softly, she had a cloth face mask on and silently hung two glass plasma jars upside down on an IV pole.
"Excellent. Thank you, Nurse." Doctor Kikie said as Ariadne started Arthur's infusion.
The Doctor's tone sounding like Trixie had brought him a cup of tea instead of life saving plasma.
"This will help." Ariadne whispered to Arthur as she gently infused him with the blood.
"I was so worried." Arthur was saying as he laid on his side. His voice child like and scared.
"Worried about what?" She whispered to him as Doctor Kikie worked on.
"I was worried the hospital might have been bombed to. That's all I could think about. What if you had been hurt?" Her Captain said.
"My isn't this familiar." Doctor Kikie said. A touch of humor in his voice.
Ariadne had to smile at what the doctor said.
"Arthur, I'm fine." She whispered. Arthur wasn't drugged this time. He was fully himself as his eyes stayed on her.
"I was still worried." He said as he took her hand.
"What happened to the ones who did this?" She asked him. Her voice was soft. As if she were trying not to frighten him.
"We caught them." Arthur said simply. "I'm not sure when I got hurt. Probably in the blast. I think Dax pulled me on the floor before the real damage was done. It's not bad is it?"
"Nothing to write home about." The Doctor said confidently. Making even Ariadne, who knew better, believe the lie.
Ariadne returned her gaze to her Captain. He was looking at her with such heartfelt happiness, that she couldn't help but smile. Couldn't help but let her small hand find it's way back to his large one. Her wounded Captain seeking the comfort of her skin as Doctor Kikie cleaned the wound and gave him another shot for pain.
"I'd expect you'll be getting another medal for all this." The Doctor added. "You become any more honored, and I think you might tip over."
Arthur and Ariadne both smiled as the Doctor covered him.
"I'll go and tell the Major that you'll live. Nurse, please keep an eye on our Captain here. Make sure his vitals stay normal." He added before leaving.
Ariadne understood that the Doctor was giving the two of them precious time to be alone together.
"How do you feel?" She whispered as he laid on his side. Perfectly content to stay there and not try and be heroic and hurt himself even more.
"Better." He whispered. His thumb rolling over the pad of her hand.
His color did look improved. He no longer had the sickly, waxen like appearance to his face.
"Ariadne? How many? How many were killed?" He asked.
"Don't think about that now." She tried to tell him.
"Tell me." he demanded. His voice gentle, but still authoritative.
"Over a dozen." She sighed. "They were so badly burned that we could only manage the pain."
Arthur didn't say anything for a long time as she took his blood pressure.
"Much better." She said taking the rest of his vitals. The infusion of blood almost empty and she started him on the second.
"I feel a little selfish, having the best nurse in the hospital look after only me." He said as she helped him to sit up on his side a little.
"Well, my nurses and the medics can handle it. Beside, you heard Doctor Kikie." She whispered. Pulling a little chair closer to his bedside. "I have to look after you. You just had surgery."
"Come here." Arthur side pulling her to him. His arms stills strong despite being so gravely wounded.
Ariadne was giggling as his lips seized hers. A sudden rush of happiness washing over her at being alone with him like this. Of having him want her in such a way.
He decency, her reserve, made her push away from him as she felt his hand wander over her breast. His strong hands wanting to unbutton her dress collar.
"Ariadne." He breathed as she leaned away. His face disappointed and wanting.
Her own breathingwas quick as her body was feeling oddly alive. A sensation she wasn't used to feeling unless he was there. How easily she could give herself to him right now. Her body feeling restless as she had to remember that her Captain was wounded and she wasn't the type if girl to do the things she suddenly wanted to do.
"Please." Arthur whispered tying to pull her back to him as she slid away. Her fingers going to her collar and trying to fix it.
"Arthur, I'm... I'm not that kind of girl." She said stammered as she tried to remember how much she could lose if she gave into her Captain just now. Her position as Senior Nurse, her place at the Red Cross. She would be disgraced.
Arthur looked taken aback. Like she had insulted him.
"I'm sorry." She said feebly.
Surely, he wouldn't want her now. He was a lonely soldier who was far from home. He would want a girl who could keep him proper company. One who wouldn't refused to let his hands wander over her body and undress her. To do the things only married people were allowed to do.
"Ariadne, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have." He told her awkwardly. Embarrassment written on his face.
She looked at him. His eyes remorseful as his hand found her's again.
"I shouldn't have done that. I know your a decent lady. I know... I'm sorry." He apologized.
She nodded. Feeling her spirit was wounded slightly. Surely, now that she knew she wouldn't sleep with him, he wouldn't want to see her again.
~ Arthur didn't argue as the gruff Colonel ordered him to stay the night in the hospital. Doctor Kikie telling Ariadne to take Arthur to recovery.
Arthur asked her to check on him later. His voice hopeful as he watched his nurse leave.
~ She came back to the cold storage room and helped the nurses there wrap bodies. A corporal tagging the men who had died from the blast. Living long enough to be taken to the hospital in the hopes they would survive.
She helped to clean the ward. The floor sticky with blood and other foul things. Other nurses whispering about the bombing and some heroic Army Captain who chased down the men who did it.
Ariadne hid a little smile as she was somehow glad to go back to this mindless type if work. Her thoughts free to think about Arthur.
For now, he was safe in the recovery room. After she cleaned up, she might make some excuse to come down and see him. She was Senior Nurse and no one would question her checking on a patient. No matter what hour of night.
She felt suddenly happy as she thought of what might happen if she visited him in nothing but her night dress.
~ It was after midnight when the nurses were done with the clean up. Most of them too exhausted to care about anything but going to sleep. Ariadne took a long, hot bath and nestled into her bed. Her Captain's picture looking back at her from her compact mirror. She smiled at him as she played her favorite game. Pretending his arms were around her in her little bed. Her pillow was his chest as she looked at her handsome Captain's face in it's little frame.
Her lips aching to kiss his again.
~ She had no idea how long she slept, but then she woke up. It was still dark outside.
Her watch said it only 4 in the morning and she was suddenly too restless for sleep. Her body thinking it was time to get up and be active. She dressed in her gray uniform and silently stole out of the dormitory.
~ Downstairs, the recovery ward was silent. A plump little nurse was sound asleep at the nurse's station when she should have been awake and watchful of her patients. Anyone of them could start choking or dieing at any moment.
Ariadne wanted to kick the girl awake but didn't. She had spotted her Captain sleeping.
Arthur looked so peaceful as he lay in the single bed. Only a curtained, room divider gave the officer any privacy.
Ariadne stole down the aisles of the sleeping men. Light snoring reaching her ears as the men all slept deeply.
She closed the room dividers around Arthur's bed and quietly moved closer to him.
"Arthur?" She whispered. Her heart beating loudly in her chest. If she were caught, she would be able to play it off. She was Senior Nurse, just checking on a patient.
"Arthur?" She whispered again shaking him lightly.
Arthur snapped awake. As if pulled from a bad dream. He was panting and she had to put her finger to her lips to keep him from speaking at full volume.
"Ariadne?" He said in a soft voice. His eyes dancing as he looked over her. "What time is it?" He asked looking around at his enclosed bed space.
"Early, or late." She said in a barely audible whisper. "We have to be quite." She added.
Sorry I havent been posting two capters a day. I got a new Ipad 3, and I am WAY into playing with it. LOL.