Chapter Seventeen: Painful Education
"You're horrible," Doc said as he plucked each stitch out from her skin, "I can't even stitch it myself because of this," his hand waved towards the removed stitches, "but I'm sure you know what that means." Taking a small tool off of the table next to him Doc let her look at it a moment and held at bay the laugh he wanted to produce due to her irritated groan. Snake Eyes had been told to sit in the chair in the corner, due to him refusing to leave when told, and he tilted his head.
Doc put the tool to Avery's wound and a pop and hiss of air came from it. it happened a few more times and when Doc was done he could see that her wound now had six or seven staples holding it closed. Blood leaked from her wound anew and Doc covered it in a clear ointment before wrapping it with gauze. Then Snake Eyes got over to her and handed her her pants, again. "This better not become a routine," Avery joked. As much as she enjoyed her dirty thoughts she preferred them to stay thoughts and having him walk in on her when she was close to nude did not consist of them staying as thoughts.
Snake Eyes tilted his head in thought before he realized what she was talking about and he shook his head. Silly girl, if it were to become routine she would be in his room not her own. Once her pants were on they left Doc's office and headed to the canteen. There they met up with Anna and Duke. Breaker was on line getting his food while Heavy-Duty was talking with Sargent Stone and General Hawk at one of the the other doors. The three of them seemed to be in a heated discussion, the worst was that they kept looking at Avery as they talked.
Deciding it was useless to try and figure the men out she left Snake Eyes' side to join Breaker in line for food. Though she wasn't hungry she knew that Snake Eyes wanted her to eat. She watched him in the mirror that the workers used to make sure there were no... sticky fingers. Snake Eyes left after a few minutes and headed over where the General, Sargent, and Heavy were. She took that moment and gave breaker her food and food card. "Do me a favor and get my things for me. Get yours while you're at it." Then she took off and raced out of the room.
She was headed to the medical ward where Ripcord should be. "How is he?" She asked Erik from behind, startling the poor Irish man yet again.
Had he not seen the forlorn look in her eyes as she looked through the patient window at her unconscious teammate he would have yelled at her. Instead he just said, "Doc says he'll make it. Wont wake up for a week or so but he will survive." Erik knew it had been her to do the crazy stunt that had saved three of alpha team. "He also said that while the medic who had saved him, along with the other two of Alpha Team, was the most idiotic person he could think of, the medic is a hero. Bloody brilliant with a needle and cauterizer- to have done that in the near dark was miraculous."
"Of course, whoever it was had to be. It's necessary in these conditions if you want your friends to survive." Avery replied. She didn't like taking credit even when she was the hero, "besides, it's all Rip's doing that he survived."
"How do you figure?" Erik asked. How he figured it was all her. She's risked her life to go save him, she patched him up, making sure he didn't die of blood loss or infection. Ripcord, he's just the one that got hurt. The one that was making her job hard.
"Because if he wasn't fighting to continue to live, no matter what the medic did, he would die." Avery put a hand on Erik's arm and she left. Hunger was beginning to gnaw at her. It was time to go back to her team. She left Erik standing there, once again she made him question his worth as a medic.
Avery reentered the canteen and took a seat at the table next to Breaker. She sat so silently and so nonchalantly that no one noticed. They noticed she was there but because she gave off an air that said she was supposed to be there and she had been there the entire time they over looked her. Taking from Breaker's tray what had originally been hers along with her food card he looked at her and she nodded at him in thanks then just began to eat. It was odd that he didn't think twice of it. But the way she did it made it seem like it was supposed to be that way.
So when Snake Eyes returned and didn't see her hidden between breaker and one of his large techie friends, it wasn't that surprising. He asked where she was and everyone gave him an answer of not knowing. She had disappeared right around the time he had left to speak with the trio that was coming over now. Even Breaker admitted to not knowing where she was.
"The hell do you mean?" Heavy-Duty asked as he looked at Avery with confusion written on his face. "The girl's sitting next to you." The three of Alpha Team that were sitting down all looked to Avery and then Duke shouted in shock and confusion.
"What?" Avery asked when their shock still hadn't passed. "Where else would I be?" Then she took a finishing bite of her apple, having already finished the granola bar and half of her orange juice. Standing up she tossed her garbage away and chugged the rest of her juice. "I'm still tired so I'm going to go to bed." She left the room but the table they had was close enough to the door that she could still hear them when she hesitated outside.
"It's nearly been a month so it's time to inform you about our deal," Heavy-Duty said. Deal? What deal? Avery thought. why hadn't they stopped her from leaving too if Alpha Team needed to be informed of a deal? "Do you want avery to be your medic?" Her heart skipped a beat and her breath froze. "The rest of Alpha Teams mission is ending early so we want your votes now."
"It's also clear that Snake Eyes has feelings for her so he will not be counted." Hawk informed. There was silence then Hawk said in shock, "only Duke?"
Avery's heart clenched. It was obvious she was not wanted here. So before the conversation ended she left.
Her having left before the conversation ended left her without the outcome. Anna had raised her hand too after some hesitation, due to having been in thought. "I'll speak for Scarlet and Rip here too. They would want her to stay. Scarlet and her have become quite close as friends and she did save Rip's life." Then her hand lowered, "insisting that Snake Eyes' vote wont count is also the most idiotic thing you could do too. He isn't the type to let feelings get in the way." Snake Eyes nodded and to show his vote raised his hand too.
"I still don't know her too well," Breaker said, but raised his hand, "her being able to steal Snake Eyes' heart is more than enough for me about her character. Then like Anna said, she did save Rip's life. Along with herself and Snake Eyes." His hand fell and the group looked to Heavy-Duty and Stone.
"Hey, I haven't even officially met her yet. I can't vote." That left Heavy-Duty. Reluctantly, really reluctantly, he raised his hand. But gave no reasoning.
"Then it's mostly official. She's one of us." Hawk said and he turned to leave. Before he got far Snake Eyes' hand on his shoulder stopped him from leaving. Hawk knew what this was about. " We've got three more Joes coming in tomorrow, they have a vote to. She's still got a month to make friends of them, and enemies of you."
Snake Eyes left to find Avery and inform her of this, it was time she knew. He knocked on her room door and heard a soft 'come in'. He entered and though she didn't have much in the way of possessions he still noticed that something was different. He took his shoes off and made his way over to her bed and sat next to her. She looked up at him and he could see that in her eyes there was a deep sorrow. He asked her if she had heard.
"Yeah," she admitted. Then with a deep breath she gave him a small half hearted smile, "guess I gotta find a new room, huh." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and shook his head. "But I'm not part of Alpha Team anymore."
Snake Eyes told her how Anna voted for Rip and Scarlet, got his vote to count and convinced Heavy and Breaker to vote yes. He finished with telling her the rest of the deal. How the three Joes she had yet to meet still got to to vote, after meeting her for a while. That Stone still had to vote and that if any of the alpha team that voted now changed their vote it would count.
"Who knew of this?" She finally asked after a few moments of silence and she noticed his shoulders slump, "wait," she gasped, "you knew? This entire time?"
He looked at her with pained eyes and shook his head. It took a few minutes for him to explain but he finally did. There was still hurt in her eyes as he told her he was only informed of it when he had openly admitted to liking her. She was still hurt but she also understood. He was more worried about getting her to like him then the silly deal. He hadn't really thought of the deal since that day and now. Oddly enough it was comforting that he had been more worried and focused on her than the deal.
"I'm not mad at you about this," she told him when he asked if she was upset, "I just, it's hard to figure out exactly how I feel. I guess I'm kind of happy that I'm not off yet." She leaned her weight against him and he tightened his grip on her shoulder.
Avery hid any indications of how tired she was but when she had fully relaxed against him and her breathing evened out he knew she had fallen asleep. Snake Eyes figured he'd lay her down then go back to his won room, but once she was out of his arms he felt a heaviness upon him and made the decision to stay. He removed his shirt and mask then laid next to her. Shifting her around he ended up sing the pillow and having her head on his chest as a pillow. He leaned down enough to lay a kiss on the top of her head before he let sleep take over him too.
It was in the middle of the night when Avery woke up. She knew something was wrong. Lifting a heavy hand she rested it against her forehead and could feel the fever that was there. As carefully as she could she sat up and crawled over the body that was sleeping with her. Her sick mind didn't recognize that she always slept alone.
Once out of bed she stumbled over to her bathroom and closed the door. While her mind didn't recognize that she was supposed to have slept alone it did recognize that there was another person in her room and she didn't want them coming in on her. So she locked the door.
Sitting on the toilet she held a cloth she had ran under cold water to her head and put a thermometer under her tongue. Her eyes closed and she dozed for a minute or two as her temperature was taken. The soft beep of the finished temp woke her and with squinted dilated eyes she read the temperature of 101.4 from the stick. With a grimace she peeled her pants off then undressed and left the wound bandaged. Blood had nearly soaked through so it would come off easier when soaked with water.
The icy tendrils of the shower made her shiver but she knew she had to cool her over heated body down. She watched as the bandage sagged from the wight of the water and ran red from the dried blood that held it to her skin. It took a little bit but soon the bandage fell to around her ankle. She just sat down and took the cloth that had been on her head and put it in her mouth.
Then when she was sure that she would neither make a sound or bite her tongue off she used her thumbs to push the puss that had formed in the wound out. The green fluid turned her stomach but still she kept pushing t out from her wounded thigh. When the only thing that escaped her leg was blood she turned the shower off and gout out to sit on the toilet again. Her med kit was on the edge of the sink, next to her toilet, so she opened it and took out ointment that when it dried would harden and as she healed it would flake off. But before she did that she needed to do one more thing.
So with the cloth still in her mouth she grabbed the staple tool remover and was glad that her fevered mind wasn't thinking this through. As she pinched each staple to remove it she covered the open space with the ointment. Between each staple she waited thirty seconds to let the gel settle and begin to harden then repeated.
When the wound was coated in the gel she dribbled some water on it, due to the water being what activated it. Like gorilla glue. Once again she stuck the thermometer in her mouth and took her temperature. When it beeped off the device read 100.1, better than before at least. Drying the rest of her body off she got redressed and crawled back in bed with her bedmate and instantly fell asleep.
Snake Eyes had stirred when she left but had stayed asleep. Then when she returned had nearly woke up. It was the freezing cold wet hair that rested on his bare chest that really was the icing on top of the cake. He jolted awake and his eyes shot open. He knew exactly where he was but could for the life of him figure out why her hair was not only wet but freezing cold. When he moved the hair out of her face his fingers skimmed her skin. Her flesh was heated, perhaps she had gotten up to go the the bathroom and had wet her hair to cool off?
That must be it. So he calmed down and relaxed once more. He had to admit, the cool did indeed feel nice in her hot room. Why it was so hot, he did not know.