“Well you being conscious and alert with me right now is a good sign. If it hit something super important, you would’ve bled out in minutes,” Roxie says to Rowan. “This will hurt like a bitch, though. The only pain relief I have is pills, and those’ll take a while to kick in.”
“I’ll take what I can get,” Rowan nods.
She hands him a couple pills and Ash appears with a small plastic cup of water a secondlater.
“You’re being awfully helpful,” Rowan grunts to Ash before throwing back the water and pills in one go.
“You keep talkin’ like that and I won’t do jack shit for you,” Ash grumbles.
Despite his protests, he keeps a watchful eye on Roxie’s every movement. I think with the chaos of tonight, I can see a world where I get upset over the attention he’s giving her, but luckily, no part of his body language shows any sort of interest. If anything, he looks like he doesn’t trust her at all.
“I dunno if you want to watch this, Sweetheart,” Griffin murmurs into my hair.
“Why?” I ask, my attention shifting from Ash to Roxie as she strips away the remains of the makeshift tourniquet Griffin made from Rowan’s jacket.
“Fixing a bullet wound is... intense to watch,” he says.
I start to get nauseous as I see a peek of Rowan’s bloodied flesh. I instantly bury my face in Griffin’s neck.
“How’s your pain tolerance, Rowan?” Roxie asks.
“Pretty good, but I’ve never been shot before.”
“Okay. Try to keep the screaming down. Wouldn’t want the cops called on us.”
Whatever medicine she gave him doesn’t seem to dull the pain very much, considering the intensity of his muffled screams a second later.
“Help me hold him down,” She says, directing Ash. “He needs to stay as still as possible here or I can’t work.”
“Fuck, are you sticking your finger in him?” Ash says, his voice strained.
Oh my god. Griffin is definitely right. I don’t think I can watch this.
“Yeah, I’ve gotta clean it and then pack the wound. If it heals from the outside in, it could trap nasty bacteria in there, that means he goes septic and dies,” Roxie says.
Rowan lets out another strangled cry as Roxie continues towork. The sound is gut-wrenching. I feel like I’m going to throw up.
When I find the courage to peek past Griffin’s shoulder, I see Rowan’s pale face staring at me. His eyes are glazed over from the pain and he’s biting into one of the spare hand towels to muffle his screams.
And then he lifts his hand. It’s a tiny movement, considering everything going on. But he reaches for me.
And I go.
I keep my eyes locked onto his face as I push myself off Griffin’s lap and stumble to my feet.
I barely make it a step before I trip over myself, but Rage’s massive arms wrap around me, keeping me from falling.
He wordlessly lifts me up into his arms before carrying me over to Rowan’s bed.
“Thank you,” I say, flashing Rage a watery smile before I crawl into the bed next to Rowan.
I ignore the sting in my shoulder whenever I move my bad arm. It’s nothing compared to what Rowan is going through, so the least I can do is be there for him.
His face is scrunched up in pain, and a tear leaks from one of his eyes.
“Hi,” I whisper, reaching out and squeezing his hand. “You’re—you’re doing a good job.”
He grips my hand in a death grip as another muffled scream leaves his lips.
