I force myself to stand up and start walking to the bedroom wing. Once I get to the wing I knock on the door opening it. Inside I see Charlotte asleep in her bed holding a tablet with a strap in her arms.
"Charlotte" I called out her name. She wakes up easily seeing me bleeding and at her door she gets out of bed dropping the tablet she was holding.
"James! You're alive" I fell onto her, my arm unable to hold me anymore. She wraps around my back letting me lean on her shoulders and supporting me.
"I need to get you to the shower " she says, helping me walk to the bathroom, opening the shower door and she helps me into the shower. I fall down exhausted into the shower sitting on the ground.
She turns on the water, making it warm, letting it hit my body and warm me up.
She comes back with her hair pulled back and a huge first aid kit. My blood all over her pjs. She takes off my makeshift sling setting to the side. She grabs some scissors and starts to cut through my wet suit, peeling it off the top half of my body letting it sit behind me in the shower.
She takes off the wet bandages I applied before throwing them on the ground behind her. She puts her hand over my chest trying to stop the blood, worry flooding her face.
She yells something inaudible towards the door of the bathroom. She grabs my cheek making me look at her telling me something with tears building up in her eyes. That is the last thing I saw before passing out.
I wake up in a lot of pain but that means I'm not dead, I feel hands running through my hair gently and affectionately. I open my eyes to see a book in my face, I turn my head still letting my eyes adjust to the light.
The book now closed Charlotte was sitting in a chair next to my bed. She puts the book on the nightstand and puts her hand on my forehead "How do you feel?"
Giving her a "really" look then trying to sit up she chuckles at my look then helps me sit up and leans me back against the bed frame. She hands me a glass of water, I drink it all really fast not noticing how thirsty I was before.
"I really thought i was a goner this time" I say looking at the bandages all along my arms , hands, and chest. Charlotte hits me in the shoulder making me look up at her to see her eyes feeling with tears.
"Do you know how bad you scared me?! Coming into my room bleeding out, barely able to even stay conscious." I grab her hand stopping her. She hangs her head down letting tears fall. I gave her hand a little squeeze.
"Thank you for taking care of me." I say leaning down a little bit making her make eye contact with me. "You're welcome" she says, taking her hand back and wiping the tears from her eyes. I pull the covers off of me revealing me only in some blue boxers. I quickly pull the covers back up.
"Could you maybe wait outside" my ears feeling hot. Charlotte gets up and starts for the door a blush across her face she opens the door slipping through and closing it behind her. I throw off the covers and get out of bed using the wall to get to my closet, my left arm dangling by my side. I grab a set of clothes and throw them into the bathroom then make my way there.
Hiding behind the door only peeking my head out I call Charlotte in telling I'll be out in just a minute. I hear her sit on my bed right before I turn the water on. I wash myself quickly, getting off any extra blood that was on me and scrubbing my hair the best I could with one hand. I finish my shower and dry myself off then put my towel around my neck. I slipped on my underwear and some khaki colored pants that were tighter on my legs but very elastic. I leave my button unbuttoned and slip a black short sleeve button up on over my hurt arm first then over my other buttoning the bottom few buttons and tucking in my shirt buttoning my pants over them so it's nice and tucked in. After a few attempts at buttoning the rest of the buttons I gave up and walked out of the bathroom with my chest showing with most of the buttons being unbuttoned.
Charlotte walks up to me and finishes buttoning up my shirt leaving the top one open so it looks more casual. She grabs something from inside the nightstand walking back over to me. She is carrying a black sling made out of cloth. She grabs my arm gently putting it in the sling then putting the strap around my neck. Seeing her on her tiptoes I lean over so she can tighten the straps properly.
She grabs the towel around my neck pushing me to go sit on my bed. Sitting on my bed she runs the towel through my hair drying my hair then grabbing the brush and brushing it out in the way I normally have it. After a little while she was satisfied with how it looked and put the brush down. I ran my hand through it, loosening it, letting a few pieces fall from it.
I grab some socks, slipping them on and grabbing some nicer but not too nice black shoes, slipping them on and tying them with the help of Charlotte. We head out towards the Cafeteria to grab some food, I use the wall as I walk so I don't fall.
Charlotte updates me on everything that happened while I was gone and asleep and how I ended up getting to my bed as we walked. She kept watching me as we walked scared I was going to fall any second. I fake trip grabbing a bar that was going along the ceiling catching myself just leaning forward. Charlotte jumped in front of me ready to attempt to catch me, her eyes closed.
I thump her forehead, getting her to open her eyes and hold her head. "I'm fine, focus more on where you are walking" now standing straight and starting to walk once again. Rubbing her head she gives a slight jog catching back up with me complaining about me teasing her. A smile grew on my face just listening to her talk.
We reach the cafeteria quickly, pushing open the door to see my brother and some other men and women that live on base looking at us. I glance back at Charlotte seeing if she knew. She had her head turned away from me whistling. Smiling and shaking my head at her then turning back to the group of people putting up my hand waving.
Caleb comes up to us letting me put my arm around his shoulder and have him help me over to the table of food and people. People clap me on the back as I walk past them.
Richard walks up to me and sticks out his hand. I let go of Caleb and shook his hand trying to stand up as straight as I could.
"Sooo is it alright if I dig in? I ask, nodding toward the food letting go of his hand. "Of course" he laughs patting me on the back letting me grab some food and sit down.
All the people are now chatting with each other instead of focusing on me. I sit on one of the tables close to the door eating my food in peace.