"Hey..." John pulled away from Jessie and put his hand on the clump of matted hair on the side of her head. It was still damp with blood. "We need to take care of our cuts, okay? This is not a real safe place to have open wounds."
"John, do you think he'll do it? That he'll call Bailey?"
"I don't know Jessie, he gave his word, we'll have to wait and see." John opened the first-aid kit and was surprised to find that it was well stocked. He pulled a sweatshirt and a bottle of water from his bag. "I'm gonna clean this up." He said touching the matted hair again. "So, I can see how bad it is. Tell me if it hurts too much,"
John poured some water on her head where her wound was and moved his fingers through her hair, gently, to work through the clump of matted hair so he could see what it looked like underneath. He wet part of his sweatshirt and used it to clean the side of her face, then he parted her hair and gently dabbed at the cut on her head to get a better look at it.
"It's not too bad...it's a little deep in the middle but it's not really bleeding anymore." He reached into the first-aid kit and pulled out a small bottle of alcohol, square gauze bandages, a roll of gauze and some tape. "This is gonna sting, okay? Hold still." He poured alcohol on to the cut on her head and she flinched. "Sorry."
"It's okay."
He folded two of the square bandages in half and covered the cut with them. He picked up her hand and put it to her head. "Hold that there for a minute." While she held the bandages in place, he used the roll of gauze, wrapping it around her head to keep them there.
"Is that really necessary...I feel like I should be riding a horse next to The Lone Ranger."
John smiled. "It needs to be kept clean. There..." He taped the end of the gauze down to hold everything in place. "That should do it. Now, let me see your wrist."
Jessie held her arm to herself protectively. "It's okay."
"C'mon, Jess, let me see...it's still bleeding. I can see it on your shirt." He held out his hand. "Please, let me take care of it."
She hesitantly put her hand in his and turned it over so he could see her wrist. He winced. There were two cuts the length of his index finger and the one to the left was deeper than the other one, it was still bleeding steadily. He poured some water on them to wash away the blood so he could get a better look. 'Pretty nasty.' He said to himself.
"I'm gonna have to put alcohol on this too. I'm not gonna lie, Jess, it's gonna hurt like hell...a lot worse than your head did."
"Really?" She said sarcastically.
"Jess..."
"Just do it." Jessie turned her head away because she knew if she saw him come towards her with the bottle of alcohol she would move away. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain to come.
He tightened his grip on her arm, just a bit, and then poured the alcohol on to her cut wrist. She yelped and tried to jerk her arm out of his grasp. "Okay.." He said putting the alcohol down and putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm done, it's over. Relax. I know it hurts." He got a small box of butterfly strips from the first-aid kit and used them to close up the deeper cut on the left. Then he used another roll of gauze to reinforce the strips and help close the other cut. He wrapped it tight so the pressure would stop the bleeding and keep her from moving it around.
"It's not perfect but it'll do for now. Try not to bend your wrist or move it too much. You okay?"
She looked at the bandage on her wrist and then up at him. Her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. She nodded. "I'm okay."
"I'm gonna need your help with mine...I can't do it by myself. They're pretty bad and the pain is worse." He sat quietly for a moment, thinking. "We'll do my leg first cause I've been sitting on this dirt floor." He stood up undid his jeans, and pulled them off slowly, but it sent waves of pain down his leg anyway. "Damn.." He said as he examined his thigh. He had been right. There was a jagged circle of deep gashes going around his thigh, some had chunks of flesh hanging from them while others were missing chunks of flesh completely. Rolling up the leg of his boxers, he looked over at Jessie. She was staring wide-eyed at his thigh and she had paled a bit.
"Jess, I'm sure it looks worse than it is...hey, look at me..." Her eyes slowly found his. "I'm okay."
"It looks really bad though..."
"But, I'm okay...don't worry. I'm gonna lie down on my side...there's not much alcohol left so we'll use the whiskey...you'll pour it on my thigh, so it runs down both sides and then wrap it up for me, okay? I won't have the strength to hold it up for you to wrap it after you clean it with the whiskey, so I'll put a duffel bag between my legs so you can get around my thigh." He handed her a bottle of whiskey, then he lay on his side and put a duffle bag between his legs.
"John, I don't know if I could do it...I don't want to hurt you."
"It can't hurt much more than it already does, but if it isn't cleaned it can get infected. Don't be scared...I need you to do this for me, Jessie."
Jessie knew infection would be bad. "Okay," She said moving closer to him. "I'll do it."
John smiled. "Okay." He watched as she screwed the cap off the bottle. "Jess, no matter how bad it looks like it hurts or how loud I yell...don't stop until you go over it completely."
Jessie nodded and poured the whiskey on the gashes on his thigh. John cried out and then buried his face in his arm to muffle any other screams that wanted to force there way out. He didn't want to scare Jessie, any more than she already was. He didn't want her to know that it felt like she just set his leg on fire. He bit his lip and waited for the pain to ease, even just a little, so he could tell her he was okay. He pushed away from the shadows that were trying to pull him into that welcoming, pain-free darkness that would give him some time away from the fire that had settled in his leg, even if it were only for a few minutes. He kept the shadows at bay and waited for the pain to become more bearable.
"John?"
He looked up into her panic-stricken face and tried his best to smile. "I'm okay...it's not so bad anymore."
"Is that, okay?" She pointed to the bandages she had put on John's thigh.
John looked surprised. He didn't even feel her put the bandages on. The pain must have been worse than he thought. "You did really good, Jess." He sat up slowly and put his hand on her shoulder. "Thank you."
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"Yeah...it hurts, but no worse than it did before." He pulled his duffel bag to him and took out a pair of sweatpants and a tee-shirt. He put both on, pulling the tee-shirt down gently over his cut side. That would have to be cleaned next, but he needed to give himself some time to recuperate from the pain in his leg. He sat back against the wall and closed his eyes. He felt Jessie sit down next to him and he put his arm around her drawing her close to him. "I'm okay...we're gonna be okay."
She closed her eyes, as well, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm not tired...are you tired?" She asked sleepily.
"We'll just rest for a couple minutes, then we'll do the cut on my side...k..."
"Mmmhmm."
It only took a few minutes for exhaustion to claim them both.
Tbc...
