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“I’m perfectly fine,” she lied. “I know your arm hurts but I think the cold is helping the bleeding.”
She removed all my wet clothes except for my boxers and laid them flat on the stone next to the fire so they could dry enough to get us out of there. She removed her jacket and laid it across my torso, yanked up her sweater and tore massive strips of her camisole off before lowering it back down.
“This is going to be painful my love,” she whispered. “Put your hand on my exposed skin and hopefully our current will dull the pain.”
I smiled crookedly at her and did as she asked. She began to wrap my bleeding wound. She was right, touching her helped tremendously or maybe it was that I was just so glad we were alive and together.
“I. Will. Never. Let. You. Out. Of. My. Sight. Again.” I managed to fight out through wires and a throbbing, shivering jaw.
“Don’t worry,” she said while working, “I won’t ever let you out of my sight again either. You’re not allowed more than a few feet from me at all times, you understand?” She asked, teary eyed.
She worked quietly.
After half an hour, when she felt my clothes were dry enough to walk through the snow, she carefully helped me dress. She had been uncomfortably quiet through that time, periodically checking on my wound. I gave her some space to let her grieve over the awful things that must have happened to her while I laid in that ridiculous hospital bed.
“I love you so much Elliott and when you were shot.......I..........,” she couldn’t finish.
I squeezed her arm with my good hand and gave her a reassuring smile. I reached for her face and delicately brushed my hand underneath her jaw. I started to bring her mouth to mine but she refused.
“Just a second,” she said. “I have to wash Jesse out of my mouth.”
I began to protest but she didn’t care. I knew if she could handle what she must have gone through with Jesse, the temperature of the water would be no challenge at all, so I let her do it.
She cupped her hands underneath a trickling stream of water leaking from a crack in the rock above, washed out her mouth and cleaned off her face. She leaned back over my body and I began where I left off.
I had never kissed Jules this way before. It was a kiss with a multitude of layers. Through that simple kiss I told her everything I wasn’t able to voice. I told her how much I loved her, how thankful I was for her, how thankful I was to her, and what she truly meant to me. I let her know the need I had for her, that my life was meaningless without her, the future that we were destined to have together and the overwhelming requisite to make her my wife.....as soon as possible.
She sat up in surprise.“Of course Elliott,” she smiled through watery eyes.
I smiled and waited for her to explain.
“Of course we’ll marry after graduation.”
My eyes began to match hers and I kissed her softly once more.
“But before we do that, we need to get out of here,” she winked.
She helped me put my coat back on and tied my boots for me and we edged our way up the embankment and followed the same line of trees up to Jesse’s parents’ cabin.
When it came into view Jules was too terrified to continue. I assured her they would find Jesse’s body soon. I guided her toward my truck and kissed her cheek in reassurance. She sighed in relief when she saw it. We brushed at least two feet of snow from the windshield and scraped the little amount of ice there was.
She wouldn’t let me drive, afraid I’d pass out from the loss of blood. She buckled me in and then herself and started the engine. I was glad she insisted on driving as I was already blacking in and out of consciousness. When it purred to life she sighed in relief and threw it in reverse, desperate to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible from anything remotely related to Jesse Thomas.
As we sped down the highway, Jules looked for the nearest hospital. She said she saw a sign on the way up here not too far away for a Davis Memorial Hospital. She said she took note of it, wanting to prepare herself for all possibilities.
We pulled into the snow blanketed parking lot and parked at the covered ambulance entrance to the emergency room before the truck’s heater even had a chance to kick in. The sun was just starting to rise behind us in the brightest red and orange colors.
“I refuse to leave your side,” she said.
I nodded and smirked as if to say I wasn’t going to let her even if she tried.
When the officer, sitting at the small security desk next to a sign that read ‘ER Admittance’, eyes bulged from his head I knew we must have looked something frightful. I couldn’t imagine what we looked like to him, both of us smothered in a sheet of dried blood.
“What happened to you two!” He screamed. His eyes went to my arm. “Hyacinth! Hyacinth! Get a gurney in here! We’ve got a gunshot wound! Smithy get me a wheelchair too!”
A nurse ran to us and asked if there was anything else wrong that we weren’t able to see and I shook my head.
“Yesterday he had his jaw broken by the guy who did this to us and can barely speak,” she said through tears.
