“The adrenaline has probably been keeping the pain at bay to some degree too,” he said.
“Are you sure that a doctor will come?”
“Yes,” he said. “I can guarantee that.”
“How long?”
He paused in front of the door and waited while Hatch opened it. As soon as they stepped inside, he smiled. “How about right now?” he said, motioning to the man standing there, a big medical bag in front of him. Killian looked at the doctor and said, “Let’s get her treated.” He walked over with her and sat her down on the couch, already covered with a blanket.
She looked up at the stranger. “Who are you?”
“A doctor,” he said. “One who will not talk.”
“Good,” she said. “Because somebody in your field is definitely talking. Otherwise there’s no way my kidnapper could know where I was.”
Killian watched the doctor as he quickly checked over her leg. It was very bloody, but most of it was dried. As the doctor cut off one leg of her pants, Killian knew she would need clothes and quickly sent out an order for pants, shoes, T-shirts, and a jacket, for the cold nights.
The doctor had a red swollen mark on the back of his wrist that looked like an old scratch, but it was big enough that it was still angry.
“What’d you do to your wrist?” he asked the doctor.
“Oh this?” he said. “Yeah, a bad scratch, from a dog I tried to help.”
“Doesn’t sound like the dog appreciated it.”
The doctor laughed. “Nope, he sure didn’t. But that’s what happens when you help people sometimes too,” he said, with a gentle smile at Stacey.
She looked even more peaked, as the doctor gently sponged the blood off her legs. “It really, really hurts,” she said, trembling.
Killian walked over and sat down beside her. Grabbing her hand to divert her attention, he said, “I’m sorry.” He looked at the doc. “Do you have anything for the pain?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I do. I just want to make sure that we know what the injuries are first.” With the blood now sponged off, he took one look and winced. “Okay,” he said. “This is worse than I thought.”
Chapter 3
It was all Stacey could do to sit here quietly as the doctor injected a local anesthetic all along the site of the wound. She had a huge gash on her leg. It wasn’t terribly deep, but it was long and angled. So, every time she moved, skin pulled and tore a little bit more. She closed her eyes and squeezed Killian’s fingers as hard as she could, as the doctor now slowly stitched his way through the layers, closing up the wound.
“I would have liked to have seen this in the hospital,” he muttered to Killian.
“Well, if this guy hadn’t said what he did,” Killian murmured back, “we would have taken her there. We can’t take a chance at this point. She’s been kidnapped twice by two different factions, and we don’t know what’s going on. So we can’t risk it a third time.”
The doctor looked up sharply at that and nodded.
She just gave him a half smile, but it was so tinged in pain that more teeth showed than lips. “Are you almost done?” she gasped.
“Just about,” he said in a steady voice. Finally he straightened, looked at it, and nodded. “I want to see these stitches in another ten days,” he said. “And you’re not to do any running, crazy jumping, or being stuffed into the back of any car trunks. Okay?” he said, teasing her.
“I’ll try not to,” she said.
“Now, let me have a look at those wrists.”
As he worked, she relaxed a bit, leaning back ever-so-slightly. Her leg was just this burning appendage, and she didn’t know where the pain started and stopped. Sure, some local anesthesia helped, but it wasn’t doing enough of a job. It hurt, and it was all she could do to stay quiet.
As the doc finished up and stepped to his medical bag, Killian sat up, lifted their clenched hands, and whispered, “If you let me have my hand, I’ll go put on some coffee.”
She stared at him uncomprehendingly.
He lifted their hands again, so she saw.
She winced and slowly disentangled her fingers. “Did I hurt you?”
“Doesn’t matter if you did,” he said in a sincere voice. “You’re doing just fine.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.” She looked at him. “You’re a liar,” she murmured. And then she motioned toward the doctor. “If he has any pain pills …”
At that, Killian stood and walked to speak to the doctor. She only heard part of the conversation but watched as two pill bottles were handed over. And then another. She presumed that last one was an antibiotic. Killian also had a packet of gauze, bandages, ointment, and something else. She groaned as she thought about the dressing being changed on a regular basis.
As it was, all she wanted to do was take enough pain pills to knock herself out. The trouble was, she knew that all the nightmares from the last few days would continue at a subconscious level, destroying whatever bit of sleep she could possibly get.
At another knock on the door, she froze. Killian didn’t even look at the door, recognizing the distinctive knock, turning in her direction instead, with a smile. “It’s Hatch. He went to get food.”
She stared at him in confusion. “I didn’t even know he left,” she murmured.
“Don’t worry about it because he’s back.” He walked to the door, opened it, and, sure enough, Hatch came in, carrying large bags and a tray. He looked at the doctor and asked, “Did you want to eat too, Doc?”
The doctor smiled, shook his head, and said, “Nope, I’m going home to a good home-cooked meal.”
“Well, we would if we could,” Hatch said, with a smile. He handed off something to the doctor, which she presumed was money to pay for the bill, but she didn’t know.
She nodded at the doctor and said, “Thank you.”
“No thanks needed,” he said. “Guys like us have to be out there to stop things like this from happening.” He waved an arm in her direction, while reloading his medical bag, then stopped. He looked at her in concern and said, “Be sure to take all the antibiotics until they are gone. And no more than two pain pills every four hours. If you need more during the night,” he said, “I’ve given Killian a second painkiller that you can take, of a different kind. I don’t want you to overdose because you are hurting.”
“Oh, it’s definitely hurting,” she gasped.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” he said. “I did give you a pain shot not very long ago, although you probably didn’t even notice.”
She stared at him, then looked at her arm, now throbbing a bit. “You’re right. I didn’t,” she said. “How long before it works?”
“Hopefully soon,” he said. “It shouldn’t be more than twenty minutes.”
“Is it twenty minutes yet?”
He smiled. “You’re almost there.”
“Good,” she said, the shakes quaking through her system. In an almost drugged state of mind, she watched everything happening around her. The whole thing was so surreal anyway. She’d been enjoying a nice calm day, and then all of it had been blown out of the water. She’d been on the Olympic Peninsula, then picked up and tossed into the back of a vehicle. She didn’t remember anything after that, except the blow to her head.