Chapter Sixteen: Ripcord, Life Or Death

Avery reached the ground where the three were stuck. She looked and saw that Snakes' was lightly bleeding but nothing to worry about when she saw Rip. "I need you two to go up. Trust me, will ya?" Anna shakily stood and waled to the ropes. "Hey, I need you to help her." Avery nodded to Anna. "She's probably in shock, if she slips or anything, we're all dead. Please, Snakes?"

He hesitated then put a hand on her shoulder and went to Anna's side to help her.

"Hey there buddy." Avery said and touched Rip's shoulder with one hand as she removed something from her bag with the other and flicked a switch.. "Can you tell me what hurts?" Her moaned and told her what she didn't want to hear. Not much hurt him. She assessed everything then opened her bag. Her hand wrapped a scalpel and then she took out a suturing needle and thread. "It's going to hurt bud," She took out a rag too. "So bite down on this. I don't need you to bit off your tongue and make this any harder than it will be."

She got to work cleaning all of his wounds and digging out chunks of wood. All too soon the only thin left was the large splinter of wood going through his shoulder. Taking the rag out of his mouth she looked at him. "You want the good new or the bad?"

"G-good?"

"Good news is you're almost outta here." In the dim light from the flashlight hung over head she could faintly see him smile.

"A- and the b-bad?"

"I gotta remove that chunk in your arm. Though I must say Scarlet will think you mighty sexy with a scar. Once you're all good and healed you'll be able to show her how much fun those piercings of her are." He laughed at that then Avery replace the rag in his mouth. But he spit it out.

"I'm not going to make it, am I?" He asked. Her hand hit his face with a sound Smack!

"Hey, If you're well enough for me to slap you, you're well enough to survive." Her tone was dry and he smiled.

"You're an angel. A god sent angel." Then she replaced the rag and gripped the wood.

"Rip, this will be the most excruciating pain you'll ever feel. If it was me and I had a penis, then I had the choice of this being removed from my arm or my penis being chopped off, I'd choose to loose the dick." Then she tore it out. She'd already checked it and made sure that by removing it nothing would be torn too badly.

The wood was out and in seconds she was cleaning the front and stitching. Then the back. Halfway though the back he passed out and that caused her some worry. But stitching it had slowed the blood a lot. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she reached over and grabbed the tool she'd turned on before. She pressed it to his shoulder and the smell of burning skin nearly made her wretch. But she held it on and waited for the skin to be closed. The front had stopped but the back had been bleeding to heavily to avoid this.

Finally removing it she laid him down and took his pulse and then listened to his breathing. His pulse was slow but definitely there and his raged breathing kept going. Using boards and clothes she found laying around she made a make shift stretcher and tied him to it. So well were her knots that to get him off even she would need to cut through them. After bagging all of her things she tied the ropes to the stretcher. She climbed up one several feet before taking the walkie talkie hooked to her belt and speaking into it. "This is Avery the Medic of Alpha Team anyone read me?"

A very mechanical male's voice replied. "Hello Avery. Is something wrong?"

"Um, no. We're ready to be lifted out. Bring all three ropes up at the same speed." She said, not sure what was going on because of the odd voice.

"You'll be up in just a minute." Suddenly the ropes were tight and up they went. It was longer than a minute but soon enough she was holding onto the rope dangling mid air with Rip securely tied below her.

"Toss another two ropes here!" Avery called and the men did so she tied them to the stretcher and while they pulled the new ropes towards the edge of the hazard zone they released the other ones at the same rate. Effectively making a pulley system. Once at the edge Medics raced Rip to the infirmary and someone started to check her over. "I'm fine." She insisted but the medic didn't give up.

Duke suddenly crushed her in a hug and she was gasping. "Thank you." He whispered over and over.

"On second thought," She gasped out. "I may need that medic, I'm being crushed to death by a fat ass."

Snake Eyes came to her rescue and pulled Duke off of her and she gasped in gulps of air. But then Snake Eyes hugged her, his strong arms wrapped around her and though he hugged her, it wasn't strangling her. "Okay, now my bubble is being invaded and there are injured that still need help." She said and Snake Eyes held her tighter.

It was another two minutes before he let her go. He signed to her, saying that he needed to speak to her. Avery nodded but her attention was quickly taken away when someone began yelling for a medic. She bit her lip and looked at him. She wanted to speak with him but she also needed to go to the aid of the person. Snake Eyes gave her a push in the direction of the injured person and watched as she held her bag running to go to their aid. "I'm a medic, what's the problem?"

Snake Eyes turned to see that Anna and Duke had embraced and she was sobbing while holding onto him. Going over to the pair he pointed to the way that they could take to exit. Duke lifted Anna into his arms and they began to head that way. But once they reached their rooms they went different ways.

Snake Eyes entered his room and once his mask was off he hesitantly peeled away his top. Avery had done a quick look over himself and Anna and hadn't noticed anything too bad, but he'd made sure she hadn't seen his side, she had needed to tend to Ripcord first. The blood had slowed greatly yet when he used a new towel to wipe it, it continued to drip. So focused on the bleeding wound he hadn't heard his door open and close nor did he hear the quite steps coming up behind him. "You need stitches." Avery's low voice said and he turned to her. He was wide eyed and she got a good look at his face. Her hand reached up and her fingers lightly followed the scar that ran across his face. "It must have hurt a lot." He looked away from her and into the mirror that he could see in the bathroom.

She knelled and her hands touched the red area around the wound. Grabbing his hand she pulled him into the bathroom where she washed her hands and got a new towel and soaked it. Wiping away blood she got to work cleaning it and even though the blood still flowed she started to stitch it up. He noticed her hands shook every time she pulled the needle out yet when pushing it through her hands were steady. By the time she finished she used another towel to wipe the blood away and it no longer bled. Her hands and fingers were dyed red with his blood.

"I need to go shower." She said and her eyes were far off. Like she wasn't there anymore, her mind was far away while her body was forced to stay here Snake Eyes took her hands and brought her over to the shower. He turned the water on and tugged her under the spray with him. Still clothed it took a few moments but soon enough they were both soaked. The red stain of blood had washed from him easier and faster due to it having only been his blood.

Avery on the other hand, well her orange hair hid the red dye well until the water ran in red rivers from it. Removing his gloves Snake Eyes forced Avery to lean her head back. Some life returned to her and she seemed to watch him curiously. Then his shampoo, made by his own hands, was poured onto her head. She flinched due to the cool sensation but closed her eyes and relaxed into his hands as he massaged the soap through her hair. Then when he finished rinsing any trace of soap or blood from her hair he tangled his hands in her locks and kissed her.

Her mouth was open in shock and he used it to his advantage. If Scarlet had been right and she hadn't kissed anyone like this, then he was going to show her how now. After the slight scare today they both needed this. They were officially a couple but she'd avoided being alone with him for too long this passed week since their first kiss.

His mouth was locked onto hers and with his tongue in her mouth she could only follow his lead. When his tongue began to move around her mouth she hesitantly moved her tongue to touch his. Immediately his tongue stopped running over the top of her mouth and began to move over and around her own. Having taken this as a good sign she began to reciprocate. Then he pulled his tongue from her mouth and unsure of watt to do she opened her eyes. He allowed his tongue to reenter her mouth and try to coax her into following into his mouth but they were quickly running out of air.

FInally he pulled back and allowed both of them to breath. the small thread of saliva that connected them was quickly broke by the water that scalded them. Avery blinked rapidly and got out of his shower. "I have to go-" she tried to excuse herself but he grabbed her arm and was out of the shower behind her immediately. His lips pressed against hers in a less passionate way but still showing her his feelings. He was nearly sure that she wouldn't react but she put some pressure into the kiss from her side. "our clothes are both saturated, I need to go get dry ones." Saturated in more ways than one, she thought.

Then she took off out of her room the the hers across the hall. Snake Eyes had heard his door slam shut, an accident from her running and pulling it too hard, so he decided to finish striping and shower himself. What he had failed to notice about Avery was that the water had continued to run red even after all of the blood had been washed off.

Her right leg had a large gash in it from scraping across a sharp chunk of wood. The entire reason she had left the damage site was so that she could tend to it. But she had planned to it it near Snake Eyes so they could also talk and have tea. Now she sat in her bathtub nude and with a wash cloth in between her teeth. It was the distraction that his presence could provide that she had wanted. Now her mind solely focused on the pain.

It took her close to ten minutes to stitch herself up and when she was finished she threw up, glad to have been so close to her toilet. Feeling ill due to the extreme pain she forsook getting dressed and made her way to her bed where she collapsed. The only reason she managed to crawl under the covers was because she had known that someone might just walk into her room to get her. She didn't want that to happen again.

It was, luckily, Anna that had come to get her a few hours later. She had knocked softly and upon no answer entered and shook Avery awake. "How are you doing, hun?" Anna asking in a soft voice. Avery just laid there looking at her. "You missed lunch, it's going to be dinner soon."

Avery sat up holding the thin sheet to save at least some of her modesty. "Let me get dressed and I'll meet you at the canteen." Anna left and Avery had managed to pull on her under clothes and a white wife beater. "Dude!" she screeched when she caught sight of movement from the corner of her eye and turned around, "Knock!" she would have dashed into the bathroom had Snake Eyes not reacted faster than her.

He caught her before she could move and then he fell to his knees in front of her. She rolled her eyes as he examined the crusted wound on her right thigh. Avery knew that had he walked in on her like earlier he would have been out before she had known this time, but he must have caught sight of the wound and had stayed to examine it. Her stitching had been horrible. they were crooked and her skin was going to heal wrong and leave an awkward scar.

Snake Eyes was no medic, not in anyway, but he was trained enough to know how to stitch up a wound. If he was to be hurt while on a mission and was in dire need to close a wound he had the knowledge of how to do it. So he sat her on her bed and hesitated. He knew how to put stitches in, but not how to remove them. Changing plans he went though her duffle bag and handed her a pair of the loosest pants he could find. Doc was not going to be happy about his new patient. "If I refuse to put these on-"

Holding up a hand he stopped her from continuing. Seeing he had her attention he informed her that she either put the pants on, he he carried her there without them. She put the pants on.