Chapter 3 #3
When he wandered back to the shelter where they’d spent the night, Chaos was relieved to see Kara standing by the rocks, looking uncomfortable and unsure.
“Will you help me with my shoulder?” he asked.
He was well aware taking off his flight suit and shirt was going to hurt like a bitch, but it had to be done.
He needed to know what the hell was stuck in his body, and hopefully get it out.
He had no antibiotics or even soap to clean the wound, but he couldn’t continue to walk around with whatever was in there.
When Kara agreed, Chaos looked around, spotting another large rock not too far away.
He walked over to it and sat. He took a deep breath—and immediately regretted it.
His ribs were most certainly at least fractured.
He didn’t think they were broken, as he could still move around without too much pain.
But when he twisted the wrong way or breathed in too deeply, he was reminded of how hard he’d been slammed against that wall of trees last night.
He brought a hand up to the tab at his throat and began to unzip the flight suit. He attempted to shrug the material off his shoulders like he normally would—and sucked in a pained breath at the motion, his eyes slamming shut.
“Here, let me help.”
Kara’s voice directly in front of him had Chaos stilling almost immediately. He opened his eyes and turned his back to her…and she let out an audible breath.
“Oh, Arrow, you’re bleeding.”
He wasn’t surprised. “Can you see what’s in there?”
“It looks like a big piece of glass went right through your clothes. It’s sticking out of your back.”
Chaos nodded. Glass sucked, but it was better than a stick.
Those tended to be covered in bacteria and dirt and other nasty stuff that would cause an infection to fester quicker than anything else.
Not to mention it would hurt like a bitch to remove.
Glass still hurt, but not nearly as badly as a freaking stick.
“Can you get it out?”
Turning his head, he glanced at Kara as he spoke, trying to gauge how she was feeling about this. If she was pale or looked at all queasy, he’d do it himself. Somehow.
He wasn’t exactly surprised when she pressed her lips together and nodded. This woman was made of sterner stuff than she probably thought.
“Can you tell how deep it is?” Chaos asked.
“No, not through your clothes. And not when it’s embedded.”
“Right. Go ahead and pull it straight out, slow and steady.”
“Aren’t impaled objects supposed to stay in place until you can get to a hospital?” she asked, hesitating for the first time.
“Generally, yes. But that’s in case they’ve pierced something vital, like an artery. There aren’t any arteries in my shoulder. No organs. Nothing that removing the glass can make worse.”
“It’s going to hurt,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I can handle it if you can.”
She straightened at that. “I can handle it,” she said, almost defensively.
“That’a girl,” Chaos said softly. “I have a feeling you can handle anything.”
She snorted. “Hardly. And remember, Kara the Terror. Don’t blame me if you’ve suddenly grown an artery in your shoulder and removing this piece of glass makes you bleed to death.”
Chaos couldn’t hold back the laugh. “Not happening. Besides, around me, your luck has changed.”
“If that’s true, you might never get rid of me,” she joked.
It took everything within him not to say, “Fine with me.” Baby steps. This woman had been through hell. Something he couldn’t even comprehend yet, but all the same, he knew it was bad. He wasn’t going to do one damn thing that would make her trauma worse.
“Okay, I’m going to take it out. But if you need me to stop, just say so.”
Chaos nodded his agreement, then pressed his lips together. That wasn’t happening.
Even though it was clear Kara had never had to remove a large piece of glass from anyone’s shoulder before, she was as quick as any nurse or doctor would’ve been.
And just as gentle. He felt the gush of blood as the piece of glass came out of his back, but he wasn’t too concerned.
Hopefully it would clean out some of the dirt and muck from the floodwaters that had gotten into his body.
He moved quickly, easing his flight suit off his torso and removing the shirt he was wearing under it.
“It’s bleeding, Arrow!” Kara exclaimed, sounding alarmed when she saw his back for the first time.
“It’s okay,” he said calmly, as he passed her the shirt. “Use my shirt and put pressure on the wound.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“It’s fine, Kara. There’s hurt, then there’s hurt. Do it.”
Immediately, she pressed a portion of his shirt against his shoulder, and he held back his hiss of pain. They stayed like that for a few minutes, not speaking. Until finally she asked, “How do I know if the bleeding has stopped?”
“Give it another minute or so,” Chaos told her.
“Does it hurt?”
“Yes.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Talk to me. What’s your story, Kara? How did you find yourself in a tree, in the middle of a hurricane, in a flash flood?”