At some point during our conversation Juneau had returned, her hair tied up so that it wouldn’t get in her way and her hands sterilized and ready to go.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, leaning down to press a soft kiss to the side of his face.
“Like a million bucks, sugar,” Bat smiled dazedly up at her as Doc slowly started to administer the painkillers. “You’ve got golden edges, kinda like that kitsigi you told me about,” he slurred.
“Kintsugi,” she gently corrected him. “I think the medicine is working, though.”
“You’re so pretty,” Bat murmured as he stared up at her in awe.
“Definitely working,” I said with a chuckle as Doc finished preparing what he would need to extract the bullet.
“All right you guys, I’m going to need you to hold him down while I work. I don’t know how effective the drugs are going to be when I’m digging around blindly for a bullet.” He glanced over at the BBs who were ready to run for whatever we needed.
Podcast held onto Bat’s legs while Storm and I both took an arm. “You ready, princess?” I asked Juneau who was standing resolutely next to Doc.
Juneau’s eyes were a bit wide when she looked up at me, but she swallowed heavily and nodded. “As I’ll ever be,” she finally said.
It took almost two hours to get the bullet out, clean the wounds, stitch them shut, and make sure Bat wasn’t going to die from the blood loss, but we somehow managed it.
Doc had gone to take a shower and Juneau was still busy gently washing the blood away from Bat’s torso as he slept. The BBs and the rest of the pack were busy making sure the bar and the rest of the house was locked up, leaving the two of us alone in the kitchen.
Juneau had surprised me in more ways than one today. It took a lot of grit to jump into what amounted to basically a field surgery, and she had done it with a level of composure even some trained soldiers didn’t possess.
I wasn’t quite sure where it had come from. Everything about her upbringing screamed spoiled and privileged, but she proved me wrong tonight.
“Good job, princess,” I told her, watching as she wrung out her washcloth and dipped it into the bowl of warm water.
Juneau glanced up at me, her blue eyes tired. “Were you surprised? I’m not just some spoiled princess, you know,” she said, echoing my earlier thoughts as if she’d been reading them.
“A bit, I kind of assumed that you’ve never had to deal with gunshot wounds before,” I admitted sheepishly.
“I haven’t ever had to deal with this sort of thing before, at least not in the past.” She leaned in close to check Bat’s breathing before starting to wipe the blood on his neck away. “But I am a firm believer in putting aside your doubts and worries and focusing on the task at hand. Especially when someone I care about is in danger.”
“Bat’s been through a lot of shit in his life.” I didn’t mean for it to come out as reproachful, but something in my tone made her face snap up to meet mine.
“I know, he’s told me,” Juneau said, clearly irritated by the direction our conversation was going.
I lifted my hands, hoping to show her that I wasn’t trying to pick a fight with her. “I’m just saying, I’ve never seen him grow this attached to anything, let alone another human being. Doesn’t that make you want to stay here in the future?” I didn’t add ‘with us,’ at the end, but it was implied. I wasn’t as on board with Juneau as the rest of the pack was, but I couldn’t deny that I feltsomethingabout the blonde omega.
Juneau’s voice was quiet when she finally responded. “Itdoesmake me want to stay. All of you make me want to stay, but I also have a family that believes something horrible happened to me, wouldn’t you want them to know if you were in my shoes?”
She had me there.
I rubbed my eyes, feeling exhausted. So much had happened since our run in with the fake police officer. I was having trouble keeping up.
“I wish that I could look into the future so I could at leastknowwhat’s going to happen. I hate flying blind like this.”
I had meant for my words to be hypothetical, but Juneau suddenly stood up straight, her eyes taking on the same faraway look that she always had whenever she was talking to the voice in her head.
I watched as her lips opened and she sucked in a little gasp before her eyes cleared and she looked right at me. “Rex, what if youcouldlook into the future?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“IwishthatIcould look into the future so I could at leastknowwhat’s going to happen. I hate flying blind like this.” Rex’s words seemed to echo through the room and my hand paused on Bat’s torso mid-swipe.
‘Those were the exact magic words that I’ve been waiting for him to say since you first arrived in the future,’the voice in my head said, stronger than I’d ever heard him before.
‘What do you mean?’I asked, frowning to myself.
