Bad Company

Romeo and Juliet

This is an amazing cover rendition by @ForeverIsland Isn't it beautiful??

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A blood-curdling scream filled the lower level of the house as pain raced up and down my leg. My fingers dug deeply into the arms securing me in a bear hug, and a broken sob shook my frame, igniting bone-deep soreness that simply compacted the agony. Dannie was holding my tensed body to her chest as she sat behind me on the couch like a mother trying to soothe a child. Her chin rested on the crown of my head, and her free hand, the one I wasn't strangling my vise-like grip, brushed away the strands of hair matted to forehead by sweat.

My exhausted gaze swept across the faces of the two men bent over my left leg where a deep gash slashed the length of my thigh. Neither Don nor I had noticed it initially, but my adrenaline had been so high that every inch of my skin ignited in a fiery heat once my chemicals were back in homeostasis, well as much in-balance as they could be for having just gotten in a car accident.

"Colt," Donatello whispered as softly as he could. His voice was laced with an underlying tone of caution as he addressed the man stationed firmly by my side, Colt's oceanic gaze sweeping expertly across the wound. "There are shards of glass embedded in the wound. The tweezers we have aren't going to be able to find enough grip on the pieces to be able to extract them. I'm thinking the best mode of operation would be to use the sewing needle."

Colt seemed pensive as he nodded his head, only briefly glancing at Don before returning his attention back to my wound. "I agree, but we need to thoroughly flush the wound before we do that. We can whip up a saline solution with the distilled water and salt in the kitchen. It should only take a few minutes before it's ready, and while you're doing that Daniel can sterilize the sewing needle."

Cinnamon eyes lifted to meet mine as empathy briefly flickered behind Don's gaze before being smothered. I didn't need to make eye contact with Colt to see the way his jaw ticked in irritation at the lack of proper answer for the next question, the one neither wanted to address but seemed to find unavoidable. "And what about a local anesthetic?"

My heart faltered in my chest. Even I knew the answer to that, and it was as simple as there was none. "Dannie," I croaked involuntarily, fear seizing my chest. My grip tightened drastically on her hand, and my head started shaking side-to-side as tears clouded my vision. "No, no, no."

Colt's skilled hands fell away from my wound, and he swiped his palms across a towel to rid of my blood staining his skin before lifting a hand to tease my cheekbones. With an exerted effort, I released Dannie's hand and scrambled to attach myself to Colt.

Reluctance nestled deeply in the pools of his eyes, and he tangled our fingers together. Wordlessly, he lifted my knuckles to his lips and planted a line of kisses along our interlocked hands. Hot breath fanned across my skin as he released a deep sigh, finally locking our gazes. "I wish I didn't have to do this, sweetheart. It hurts like hell to see you begging me not to, but I need you to let me do this, please. I've seen injuries like this before working as a medic, and I can personally attest that it can only get worse from here. I'm trying to help you, I swear."

Moments passed quietly between us where we stayed perfectly quiet within our own bubble, but where Colt's expression appeared persuasive as he littered kisses along a path to the old burn scar on my wrist, my thoughts were rapidly pinging around my head like a game of pinball. Each time my thoughts crashed into a new obstacle, a new reason why I shouldn't let him help me, a new direction would be taken, leading me to consider that this was truly for the best. It wasn't a lack of trust or belief, that much I knew for sure. I was purely terrified of the pain that would ensue.