Page 57 of Cole

"Dammit." He pressed his right hand against the wound, applying pressure, but the cut was deeper than he'd thought. Blood seeped through his fingers, staining the white snow crimson.

He couldn't afford this. Not now, not when every minute counted. By the time he started back toward the cabin, his leg throbbed in time with his heartbeat.

Janice looked up when he pushed through the cabin door, her expression shifting from focused to alarmed in an instant.

"Cole! What happened?" She crossed the room in three quick strides, reaching for his arm. "You're bleeding. Shit… a lot. Sit down."

"It's fine. Just a cut." But he let her guide him to the kitchen chair, too tired suddenly to argue. "Slipped on some ice. Caught my leg on a branch."

"Let me see." Her voice shifted into that clinical tone he'd heard during the necropsies, calm and competent. “Take your pants off.”

He hesitated, then realized they didn’t have a lot of time. Unbuckling his pants, he shucked them down to his knees.

"This isn't just a little scratch, Cole. It needs stitches."

"We don't have time⁠—"

"We don't have time for you to end up with an infection." Janice was already moving to her supplies, pulling out a medical kit that looked more comprehensive than anything he'd expected. "I'm a veterinarian, remember? I've sutured wounds in worse conditions than this. Now hold still and let me work."

Cole watched her lay out supplies with efficient movements—sterile gauze, antiseptic solution, suture kit, local anesthetic. Her hands were steady, sure. This was her element, even if the patient were human rather than animal.

"This is going to sting," she warned, then irrigated the wound with antiseptic before he could brace himself.

Cole sucked in a breath but didn't pull away. "You weren't kidding."

"I never kid about wound care." A ghost of a smile crossed her face as she drew up the local anesthetic. "Small pinch now. Then you won't feel the rest."

The needle slid into the skin around the wound, and Cole focused on her face instead of what her hands were doing. Blond hair escaped from her braid, falling across her forehead. The small furrow of concentration between her brows. The way her lips pressed together as she worked.

"How are you doing?" he asked, needing the distraction. "With leaving, I mean. This place has been your home for months."

Janice paused, her eyes meeting his briefly before returning to her work. "It's hard. I won't lie." She began placing the first suture, her movements precise and controlled. "I came here to do important work, and now I'm being chased out before I’ve finished it. That feels like failure even though I know it isn't."

"It's not failure. You accumulated over four months of research on the climate and the wildlife in this area. And you exposed a crime that would have gone unnoticed for years if you hadn't been paying attention."

"I know." She tied off the suture. "And at least the cameras will continue to monitor the wildlife. The data will still be collected, even if I'm not here to analyze it in real time. Someone else can pick up where I left off."

"Will they? Pick up where you left off?"

"I hope so." She sighed, then shook her head. "There," Janice said, tying off the final suture. " Only three stitches. Try not to rip them open before we get somewhere I can properly bandage this, and then I’ll give you an antibiotic.”

She wrapped his leg in clean gauze, her touch gentle despite the urgency pressing down on both of them. When she finished, he pulled up his jeans and buckled his belt again. Janice stood and took his hands in both of hers, looking down at their intertwined fingers.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "For everything. For coming here, for protecting me, for... for all of it."

Cole tipped her chin up, forcing her to meet his eyes. "We're not done yet. Save the thank-yous for when we're somewhere safe."

"Deal." She released his hand and stepped back, all business again. "Now let me finish packing while you rest that leg for five minutes. Then we’ll make the last trip to the SUV together."

"Yes, ma'am." Cole couldn't help but grin despite the pain and the danger and the ticking clock in his head. He glanced down at her shirt, noticing blood on it. “Shit, I’m sorry⁠—”

“Don’t worry. I can change when we get to town. I know we need to hurry.” She opened a bottle of antibiotics and handed him a pill after getting a glass of water.

Twenty minutes later, they had the last of everything loaded onto the snowmobile. Janice took one last look around the cabin that had been her home for four months, her expression a complicated mix of grief and determination.

"Ready?" Cole asked.

She squared her shoulders and nodded. "Ready."