“Sir?” she asked, tipping her head in confusion.
“That was the first time you made eye contact for over three seconds. Thank you for trusting me.”
She lifted her head and held it high, even if she was staring at the poster again. She nodded. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you.”
“It’s that you couldn’t show me,” Cal said. “I’ve always understood that, and I accept you no matter what. You’ll see that’s true of others if you give them the benefit of the doubt.”
“In time, I suppose that will get easier,” she agreed. “For now, I better get back to my work so we don’t feel like we’re watching the clock tick down on a bomb we can’t disarm.”
“Couldn’t have said that better myself. I’ll have Selina bring you the walkie-talkie when she’s done helping Bec. You know where to find us if you need anything?”
When she nodded, he strolled from the room, whistling like they weren’t fighting for their lives.
Chapter Nine
Bec kept her eyes glued to her arm as Selina unwrapped the gauze. She’d lied to Iris when she said it was fine and that she could handle it herself. When she got up this morning, it ached like nothing had before. She hadn’t the nerve to take the bandage off it, so she was glad Selina had arrived with Cal.
“Do you see these red streaks here?” Selina asked, motioning at the spot above the gauze, and Bec nodded. “That’s what we call lymphangitis. It means your arm is already infected. The streaks are infection of the channels going toward the lymph nodes in your armpit.”
“When you saw that, you knew I couldn’t handle it alone,” Bec finished.
“I didn’t want to alarm Iris, so I didn’t say anything, but that’s correct.”
Bec hissed when she pulled the gauze off the wound. As soon as the air hit it, it told her the skin was indeed burned.
“Sorry,” Selina said, glancing back at her as she tossed the gauze in the garbage. “The good news is, my bag is fully stocked with burn cream and antibiotics, so we’ll have it fixed up in no time. That said, I’ll still check it daily to be sure it’s getting better and not worse.” Sherested Bec’s arm on the table, grabbed a Sharpie from her bag and started drawing on her skin.
“What are you doing?” Bec asked with curiosity.
“Marking the streaks,” she explained as she worked. “Your homework will be to keep an eye on them. If they grow past these lines,” she said, showing her the ones about an inch above where the streaks ended, “you need to call me immediately.”
“And if they don’t?” she asked while Selina took supplies from the bag.
“I’ll still clean, rewrap and inspect it tomorrow.”
Bec chuckled with a nod. “Noted. I didn’t know flash-bangs could do this kind of damage.”
“A stun grenade can do so much more than this,” Selina said, inspecting the blisters with a trained eye. “They can kill in the right instances. They can also cause lasting hearing loss and tinnitus. Do you have any problems with your hearing or vision?”
“No, not since yesterday,” she said, yelping when Selina sprayed something across her skin. “Could you have warned me?”
“I try not to,” she answered honestly. “See, I’m used to working with a bunch of guys, and when you tell them what you’re going to do, they try to get up and walk out. I’ve learned to ask for forgiveness after the fact.” She winked, which made Bec smile. “In fairness, that was numbing spray. You’ll appreciate it when I start cleaning it. Let me know when it feels tingly, and then I’ll do a second layer.”
“I didn’t know the cleaning would be this extensive.”
“I didn’t know the infection was already this bad or the burn this deep. If we were in any other situation, I’dsend you to the ER, but that’s not an option. It’s not that I can’t handle this—I can, so don’t worry. I just meant that they could give you intravenous antibiotics there where I can’t here.”
“I’m not worried,” Bec said with a nod. “Something tells me even in this situation, if it were life or death, you’d be shipping me out of here.”
“You’d be correct,” Selina said with a lip tilt. “We aren’t there yet, so I’m glad Iris mentioned it. Is it numb?” Bec nodded, so she sprayed it down again.
“She saw it last night and made me wrap it back up again. She was worried about infection.”
“Guess she has some psychic abilities,” Selina said with a wink as she cleaned the blessedly numb skin.
“Iris has a lot of abilities, even if her confidence in them is occasionally lacking,” Bec answered, closing her eyes to avoid watching what she was doing. She was getting nauseated thinking about how badly it would hurt if it weren’t mostly numb. She could feel enough to tell her it would be excruciating.
“We all care about Iris. None of us want to see her get hurt,” Selina said as she ran something cool and soothing across the skin.
