Chapter 14

"Come on, Joshua. You don't look so good." Addie prodded.

Infection must have set in after going three days without changing the gauze. My skin itched and my temperature soared. Headaches and nausea were sure to come and there was still about ten miles of caverns to go through. Addie pushed me forward where I had stopped walking to take a breathe.

"We need to get through the caves and into the wasteland. I don't have any antibiotics in my bag but if we can make it to the Mojave, I have a pretty wide network of doctor friends. I was a Follower so they gave me the key to the safe house near the exit to the Mojave. There should be supplies there that we can use."

I grabbed the wall for support. "At this rate, it will take a few days to get there. I will continue but I will be slow."

"I can help." Addie nudged her head under my arm and pulled me along the path.

I tried to carry most of the weight, or at least support it on the wall, as we made our way through the cave. We continued stumbling along the path for hours, only making it about two miles. After that short distance, I could no longer keep up the pace. Addie helped me down against the wall on the floor and uncapped a bottle of water and tilted it for me to get a drink.

"I apologize for this ordeal." I muttered.

"Don't apologize. You're in pain and you couldn't really see this coming."

I shook my head after a moment of hesitation. "No, I could have prevented this."

"How?" She asked with a puzzled stare.

"I haven't changed my gauze since the day before we left. I have to change it every day or else infection sets in."

Her confused look melted into an angry one. "Why didn't you just let me change it?"

I didn't answer her out of fear of saying the wrong thing.

She scoffed. "Do you think I'm just going to refuse to see your skin? Is that the kind of person you think I am?"

"No. I didn't want you to see me. I didn't want to... scare you off."

She placed her hands on her hips. "You really think I would run away because of that? Do you hear how ridiculous that sounds, Joshua?"

I nodded and closed my eyes. Of course Addie wouldn't care. She's Addie. She is mine. "I'm sorry, I was stupid and I should have just told you sooner."

"Is there anything we can do about it now?" She crossed her arms.

"We can remove the gauze and soak fresh gauze in a mix of broc flower, xander root, and water. That is the only way I know how to fight infection."

She threw her pack down and riffled through it for the ingredients. She produced a few bags of healing powder, but not enough for the entire trip to the safe house. A loud crack sounded from her pack. She wiped her brow and cursed.

"One of the bottles of water fucking broke." She bit her lip, glaring at the shards of glass ripping holes in the canvas of the pack.

I thumped my head against the cave wall. This trip would not be an easy one. Addie checked her Pipboy and rolled her eyes.

"Just great, it's already seven o'clock. It's going to get dark really soon and we can barely see as it is. Do you think we could walk a little more? The sooner we get walking, the sooner we get out of here."

I unlatched the vest and shrugged it off with her help. Addie unbuttoned my shirt as I kicked my boots off. She pulled my shirt off and stared at the last thing to take off: my pants.

"So, uh, how are we gonna do this?" She asked nervously.

"It's not like this is the first time I've been undressed in front of you." I tried to pull the pants off but stopped when a sharp pain shot through my arms. I gasped and leaned back against the wall.

"Just let me get it for you. I'll get you fixed up." Addie finished pulling my pants off.

She deposited my clothes in a heap by her bag as she produced a small bowl from her bag and dumped the bags of powder in it. She mixed in the water with her hand. The product was a gray, clumpy paste. By the bowl, she set aside another bottle of water and a rag.

"Where's the gauze?" She asked from the bowl. She wiped her face again, smearing the paste across her cheek.

"In the front pouch on the left. It should be under the stimpaks." I lifted my arms slightly to point at the pouch.

She made a grunt of acknowledgment and dug out the gauze. She unraveled it and rested it next to the bowl. She looked at me with a point.

"I have to change the gauze now so don't be a baby." She stood up and dusted her hands off on her pants. She dropped down next to me and grabbed me arm gently. Her finger swiped under the loose end and tugged it out of place. She began unrolling it from my arm as gentle as possible. The gauze stuck to my skin slightly, causing sharp pains from every movement.

She got to my shoulder and dropped the strip of gauze to the cave floor. She started unrolling the next arm. It was hard to relax when the gauze was being peeled away painfully. Looking at Addie work reminded me of when a child was playing doctor with their friend or sibling. An image of Addie as a small child dressed in an oversized doctor's coat and a stethoscope around her neck treating her sister materialized in my head. The image was brief, but still brought a smile to my face.

"What's got you in a better mood?" Addie asked, dropping the other strip to the floor.

"Nothing. Just thinking."

"Mhmm." She peeled the gauze back from my neck a little rougher than before.

This was it. This is the moment that I had been dreading. The moment she would see my face. I bit my tongue and shut my eyes tight. Maybe if I tried hard enough, I could just disappear. I let out a shaky breath as the gauze peeled off in spiral around my neck towards my jaw.

The moment seemed to take hours as she took her time to be careful around my throat. Eventually, my chin and lips were naked to the air. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter as I awaited the inevitable. My nose and cheeks stung as the gauze was pulled away, then my eyes and the rest of my head. I sat there, holding my breath and closed eyes.

Addie's lips pressed to mine tenderly was not what I expected. I opened my eyes a fraction to confirm what was happening and it was. Addie dropped the gauze and held my face. She pulled back to look me in the eyes.

"I love you, Joshua. And nothing that I see right now is changing that." She breathed out.

Despite the sharp pain in my arms, I wrapped them around her and pulled her closer to me. "I love you, too," I whispered.

She smiled and began tugging at the gauze on my chest. She reached around and unrolled it down to my waist, causing a noticeable tension between us. Her eyes were burning holes into mine as she bit her lip in uncertainty. She grabbed the rag and soaked it in the water. She dabbed at my burns carefully in an attempt to clean them.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her closer by the hair. I kissed her shoulders with a familiar hunger. She dropped the rag and placed her hand on my chest. I tugged her hair and her neck was open for me. I tasted the damp skin of her throat greedily.

"Who do belong to, Addie?" I growled into her ear.

She gasped when my hand dove for her thighs. "You."

It didn't take long for her clothes to be in a pile by mine and her lips on my temple. She rode my lap for all she was worth, and she was priceless. Her chest heaved up and down in the light of her Pipboy. Her hair framed her body to the point where I would have believed she was an urban legend wished into reality.

She tilted her head back as the world seemed to shake in her climax. I leaned forward to muffle my moans into her shoulder. Once my body relaxed completely, I tilted my head back against the wall to regain my breath. The two of us sat in silence as we gasped for air in the caverns.

"I don't think we're going anywhere tonight." She breathed out with a smile.

I chuckled. "I don't think so."