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“Carly, are you all right?”
She bolted upright, instantly awake. “Justin?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “God, I feel like shit.”
“You got shot,” she said. Tears spilled out of her eyes and ran freely down her cheeks. “You’re awake. Oh, thank God, you’re awake.”
Justin gave her an odd look. “How long was I out?”
“Days and days,” Carly replied. “I don’t know. A long time.”
He tried to sit up and groaned. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Please, don’t try to get up.”
“I’ve got to go.”
“Go where?”
Justin laughed. “I need to piss, Carly.”
She flushed. “Oh. Okay. Let me get you the pan.”
“Don’t tell me,” he said with a groan. “You haven’t had to take care of me like a baby, have you?”
“I would have done far worse.” Carly crawled out of the tent where Sam was waiting at the doorway, eagerly sniffing inside. “Yeah, go ahead, he’s awake.” The wolf darted through the opening, and she heard the sound of an enthusiastic canine lapping at a face and Justin’s soft laugh.
Carly handed the pan inside and wandered over to pet Shadowfax to give him his privacy. He passed the pan back out, and Carly gave him a bottle of water before she took the pan away to dump and rinse it. She returned to find Shadowfax had stuck her head inside the tent. She heard Justin’s chuckle. She found Justin lying with his head pillowed on Sam’s back, stroking the horse’s nose.
“Seems everyone was worried about me,” Justin commented.
“I was so worried you were going to die. I didn’t know if I was giving you the right antibiotic, or if I was taking care of you properly or—”
“You did just fine. Now, tell me what happened.”
“You don’t remember?”
“I remember riding down the highway after we crossed the border, and that’s all.”
Carly told the story. She had to pause in a couple of places to regain control of her emotions, but she forced her way through it.
“You killed them?” Justin asked.
Carly nodded.
“I’m proud of you, Carly. You protected us.”
“That wasn’t the hard part. Taking care of you when I didn’t know what I was doing was worse.”
“It sounds like you had good instincts about it. Taking the arrow out, the antibiotics, the cool towels... Thank you, Carly. Thank you for taking care of me.”
“You don’t need to thank me, Justin. You would have done the same.” And I love you.
“Be that as it may, I’m still grateful. Come on, lie down and get some sleep. You look like you need it.”
“After I make you some breakfast.” Carly scurried out of the tent before he could object.
She made Justin some of the powdered eggs; something she thought would be easy to digest after days of having nothing but the bit of soup that Carly had dribbled into his mouth. She brought him the plate and sat down beside him. “Eat it slowly,” she said, still taking care of him.
Justin nodded. “Where’s yours?”
