"Who was it?" I asked as McCoy and Seeley came back in from the front.
"White four-door with a donut on the back left," Seeley supplied. "I couldn't make out any faces. It's dark as fuck tonight. I got an X on the license plate," he added, shrugging. "I know that's not much to go on."
"It's more than we'd have if you didn't rush out there. Are you fucking hit?" I asked, seeing a splash of red on his neck.
"It's nothing," he said, shaking his head, trying to brush it off.
Before I could even move to check myself, McCoy was walking over, grabbing the neck of his shirt and yanking it wide.
"We're going to need some tweezers and some alcohol," McCoy said. "Don't figure anyone knows how to sew, do they?" he asked, looking around. "Hospital means questions we don't want to deal with," he added as I came closer to get a better look.
"Think one of us needs to take some basic battlefield first aid," Remy decided. "I'm gonna get you a shot or two," he added to Seeley.
"I'm gonna go see what kind of supplies we have for something like this," I said, tucking my gun away.
"What are you going to tell Harmon?" McCoy asked, brow raised.
"Don't think anything but the truth will work. She's not stupid. That was an obvious drive-by," I said, shrugging, then heading upstairs.
Harmon was where I left her, eyes just as huge, hand clutched to her chest.
"It's alright," I told her. "They're gone."
"That was a drive-by," she said, sitting up, but not getting out of the tub.
"Yes."
"They shot at the house."
"That's usually what they do in a drive-by," I agreed, going into the drawers below the sink, looking for supplies, pulling out gauze and alcohol, but nothing that I could use to stitch Seeley up.
"Is someone hurt?" Harmon asked, climbing out of the tub, moving toward me.
"Yeah. Bullet in the shoulder. It's not bad. Just needs to come out."
"And you don't think that maybe a doctor should handle it?"
"Doctors mean questions and cops. You know how to sew?"
"What? Because I'm a girl?" she asked, rolling her eyes at me. "I mean as much as I would like to say I am just as clueless as you guys seem to be, yes, I can sew. I mean, I'm no expert, but I can sew. But you can't exactly use a needle and thread on a man's skin."
"Well, that's what we're working with," I told her, grabbing the supplies I'd gotten, and making my way through my room, down the hall, hearing Harmon following behind.
"What are you looking for?" Che asked as I rummaged through the kitchen drawers.
"Sewing kit. I know we have one somewhere. Gus had picked it up to help us sew patches on our cuts."
"Oh, that's... yeah... that's a bullet," Harmon said, making a chuckle move through me as I looked over to see her leaning over Seeley, taking a look at the wound. "Yeah, um, I'm not sure I am the girl for this job," she added. "You don't even have any anesthesia or something to numb him."
"Alcohol does wonders," Seeley declared, tipping back a bottle of vodka.
"One of us will pull the bullet out," McCoy offered. "Then you can do the stitching."
"That's not exactly comforting," Harmon said, chewing her lower lip.
"You'll do fine," I assured her, finding the little plastic kit, moving toward her, pulling out the needle.
"Oh, my God. Are you barbarians?" Harmon asked when I started to thread the needle. "You can't just take it out of the kit and stick it in his skin. It needs to get sterilized. Here," she said, holding out her hand. "I mean, you'd think if you were planning to become an outlaw biker, you'd brush up on basic first aid," she grumbled, putting a bowl of water in the microwave as she filled another with the alcohol I'd snagged from upstairs.
"Did you find any tweezers?" I asked, looking around.
"Yeah, I have them for the dogs," Remy supplied, producing a set. "You know, for ticks. Before I found out the Tick Key existed."
"Here," Harmon said, producing the steaming bowl of water. "Drop them in here," she instructed, putting the needle and thread in as well.
"You're pretty calm," I declared as she dipped her hands in the alcohol, then switched the items from the water and into the alcohol as well.
"It's pure adrenaline. It will all sink in later, I'm sure," she told me. "You have to promise me to take him to the doctor if it gets infected," she said, lowering her voice so Seeley couldn't hear. "I can't have it on my conscience that he died because of me. I mean, you owe me that," she added, giving me a snarky smile. "Since you got me involved in a drive-by and everything."
"Well, I guess I can give you that," I agreed, dipping my fingers into the alcohol, grabbing the tweezers, then making my way over toward Seeley.
"Take a breath," I told him, nodding toward McCoy who grabbed him from behind, steadying him a second before I dug my tweezers into Seeley's shoulder, wincing a bit at the howl he let out, leaving him gritting his teeth, gasping for breath as I dug around for a second before grabbing the bullet, yanking it free.
"Okay. That's done," I said, reaching for the bottle of vodka again., not giving him a second to realize I wasn't giving him a drink, and pouring it into the wound. "Don't black out on me," I demanded, grabbing his chin, leaving blood there as I watched as his eyes rolled before focusing again.
"Maybe you should have let him pass out," Harmon said, coming up beside me, wincing down at the wound.
"He still might," I told her. "Might make your part easier," I added.
"Hey, I'm sitting right here," Seeley responded, being a sport. Likely because he was half-bombed. "Least she's a prettier nurse than you," he added, looking over at me. "Probably has a better bedside manner too."
"Go on, get this over with. We have some shit to do tonight," I said, watching as Harmon rolled her eyes at Seeley. "
"You ready?"
"To have your hands on me, honey? Always," Seeley said, giving Harmon a weak, but charming smile. If he wasn't so focused on making a good impression, trying to cement his chances of getting a patch, he would be rivaling Remy with the amount of pussy he gets.
"Okay. Ah, ready or not," she declared.
She had good hands, I realized as I watched her tie off the end of the thread, as she paused for a long moment before plunging the needle into skin. I figured her steady fingers, her quick motions once she got over her initial hesitation, were due to all the video games she played, used to telling her hands how to move, and having them do so almost instinctively.
Seeley let out a string of curses, then hissing breaths before, finally, he went slack against McCoy, passing out fully.
"Oh, thank God," Harmon said, voice sounding a bit wobbly. And one look at her let me see a tear spill over her lower lid and slip down her cheek, "I don't think I could have taken his pain another minute," she told me, working faster still, steadily making his torn flesh close together.