"That makes two of us."
Another voice speaks behind me.
"I gave him whiskey for the pain, Elaine."
Aaron.
I turn and he’s standing near the doorway, shirt stained with blood. There’s another bloodied shirt tossed over a chair in the corner.
"Good," I say. "That’ll help."
The man I don’t know comes back in with the kit and hands it to me.
"Here you go, doc," he says, trying to grin.
I open my mouth to correct him, I’m no doctor.
"Nurse doesn’t sound right," he adds quickly. "Doc feels.... I don’t know it has a better ring to it."
"Don’t push it," I mutter, snapping on some gloves.
Thomas lets out a humorless laugh that turns into a groan. "Whatever you want to call her, just hurry."
I clean the wound carefully, working through the blood until I can see properly. My hands are steady. They don’t feel like mine, but they’re steady.
"Do you want something stronger for the pain," I ask. "There’s morphine here."
"No," he snaps. "Just get it done."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Fine."
I thread the needle.
He swears the entire time. Loud and very impressive in its own way. The other men tease him to keep him talking, to keep him breathing through it and distracted from the pain. I focus on the work. Stitch by stitch.
By the time I finish, his face is pale and slick with sweat, but the bleeding has slowed to nothing.
"There," I say quietly. "Now you’ll live."
"Damn shame," Aaron mutters.
The men help him up, steadying his weight between them.
"We’ll take it from here , thank you ma’am." the unfamiliar man says, nodding at Aaron.
Aaron gives me a look before following them out. Something unreadable passes over his face.
When the door closes, the room goes quiet.
I don’t realize how tense I am until I exhale, I turn to leave the room when I see Zane a startled yelp leaves my lips.
Zane stands a few feet away. He’s stripped off his jacket, shirt gone, skin marked with streaks of dried blood. He looks tired and angry?.
My pulse kicks up.
"Are you hurt?" I ask, the words slipping out before I can stop them.
He shakes his head. "None of it’s mine."
I nod, swallowing. "You’re bleeding on your arm."



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