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Andy is driving and Nile is pretty sure - like, maybe 70% - that she shouldn’t be. First of all, Andy sees a speed limit sign as a guideline. Second of all, she’s bleeding heavily, the scent thick through the car but Nile wonders if she’s simply smelling herself instead. Copper and sweat drift around her and Nile finds that her eyes flit around to all the members of her new team.
Crammed in the back of the car, Nile is aware of the creeping, gnawing hunger after her body has knitted back together multiple times. She shivers at the memory of her hand snapping back into place, the wreckage of a car around her. Booker’s staring out the window, hands shaking as he keeps sending quick glances to the rear view mirror, watching Andy.
"Where are we going?” Nile asks finally as Nicky shifts beside her. His eyes are hooded, dark circles under them but his eyes are kind and he gives her an exhausted quirk of his lips. Nile can see his short hair matted close to the back of his head, dark and something like revulsion rocks through her. Nile looks to the front when no answers are forthcoming, seeing Joe looking over at Andy.
They have a whole conversation with just their eyes and Nile is about to get annoyed (hangry, she thinks, resisting the impulse to snap at the others, just to break the awkward silence) when Andy clears her throat.
“We’ve got a safe house nearby. Maybe another hour?” Andy asks, looking over at Joe who squints, thinking. Nicky rouses himself, grumbling as his hair flakes off dried bits of blood and bone and Nile closes her eyes, resolutely not thinking about that, nope.
“You know he is terrible with directions, Andy,” Nicky admonishes as Joe shrugs easily. “We’re an hour and a half out from the India safe house.”
Nicky turns to Nile, humor flitting over his face and lightening the lines around his tired eyes, “Joe is the love of my life but he is absolutely terrible at directions.”
“Noted,” Nile says, laughing as Joe protests. The car falls back into silence, Nicky leaning back in the seat and trying to stretch while also trying not to knock himself into Nile. The silence is exhausting, Nile trying to stifle a yawn when her stomach growls loudly.
“Oh my god,” Nile mutters, embarrassed, as Andy snorts. Nile wishes for the Earth to swallow her whole as even Booker looks amused.
“Sorry, Nile,” Joe says, eyes darting to Booker and then away, “if I had my vest, I’d have a granola bar for you.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” Nile says awkwardly as Booker clears his throat. He peers over at her in the silence of the car.
“Starvation is a bad way to die after so much healing. Trust me,” he says in that rough voice. Joe’s face tightens as he stares out the windshield steadfastly, Nicky turning to look out the window to his right. Booker casts his eyes down, looking back out his window as Andy grimaces.
“There’s no way we can walk in anywhere like this. I saw some bottled water in the trunk. I’ll pull over and we can rinse off and we’ll find a gas station or something for food,” Andy says.
“And I can check your bandage,” Nile says as Andy blinks, as if she’s already forgotten. She touches her hand to her side, fingertips wet and shiny as she wipes her hands on her already dirty pants.
“Yeah. I guess,” Andy grumbles.
---
There’s an entire flat of bottled water in the trunk and they quickly divvy them up, trying to clean the worst of the blood from their tired bodies. Booker pours an entire bottle over his head, scrubbing at his face as he wordlessly hands his extras over to Joe who’s industriously rinsing Nicky’s hair. Joe takes the bottles but otherwise ignores Booker, hurt over both of their faces. There are tears shining in Joe’s eyes as he rinses blood and gore and bone from Nicky’s head; unused to such naked emotion, Nile turns to Andy as they examine the emergency bag from the trunk.
“Okay, shirt up,” Nile says, rinsing her hands with the bottle of water that Booker offers. The gloves are hard to pull on her damp hands but immortal or not, she’s not going to risk Andy getting an infection because Andy refuses to find a rest stop. (Do they even have rest stops in England? She thinks about asking the others but she knows, even after so short a time, that it will spiral into three different stories without an actual answer.)
“I’ll be fine, Nile,” Andy says, humoring her. Nile arches an eyebrow, tilting her head as she eases the gauze and tape off of Andy’s side. Andy makes a noise similar to a scalded cat as the tape finally releases. The gauze is dark red, and Nile sighs, looking down.
“Yeah, this looks totally fine,” Nile mutters without rancor as Booker grabs the flashlight from the emergency kit, holding it up. Andy snorts as Nile looks at the antiseptic wipes and grimaces.
“This is gonna hurt.”
“Yeah, because getting shot was such a breeze,” Andy shoots back as Booker looks away, his sickened expression falling into shadow. “Just do it, Nile.”
Nile takes a deep breath, wiping at the area quickly as Andy breathes hard, hands clenched in her shirt. Nile finishes cleaning it, inspecting it slowly as she eases some steri-strips over it. They’re not a permanent solution, just something to hold until they can get to the safe house and put in some stitches. Nile bandages her again, hands starting to tremble as she quickly pulls her gloves off, tossing them into the bag that Joe has waiting with their other trash.
“Not bad,” Andy says, a smile glimmering over her face as Nile rolls her eyes. Andy laughs at that, cupping the back of Nile’s neck and squeezing in the way that Nile is learning is Andy’s favorite way to show affection.
Climbing back into the car, Nile slumps back into her seat, sighing hard as Booker gently nudges Andy to the passenger side. Joe climbs in on the other side of Nile, arm draping over her shoulder to touch Nicky’s damp hair.
“I can move,” Nile offers.
“Are you comfortable?” Joe asks, ignoring her. Nile shrugs and Joe laughs softly. He shifts, bracing his back against the door and tugging her to rest on him. Nicky hums and slumps onto Nile, damp head pillowed on her shoulder. It’s like so many road-trips as a kid with her brother, traveling across the state to see her Uncle Chris and Aunt Dee. Nile thinks about protesting before she sighs.
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Rest while you can. We’ll be at the safe house in another hour,” Andy says from the front, voice hazy with sleep. Nile yawns, closing her eyes as Joe bumps his cheek against her forehead affectionately. With the warmth from Joe and Nicky and the murmur of whatever Booker found on the radio, Nile drifts off, secure.