Chapter Text
There’s a crash outside in my garage. I step out, brandishing a tiny frying pan in shaky hands. ‘If this is Allister back looking for booze I swear I’m gonna whack him in the head with this. Lord knows he’ll be too drunk to dodge... He needs to stop breaking in!!’
I open the door and step into the dark room. ‘I don’t see him, I don’t even smell him. Maybe I was hearing things?’ I’m about to head back to bed when I see a flash of movement in the little light. The side door is also open a crack, creaking quietly as it sways in the wind.
“Hello?” My voice is as shaky as the pan as I walk closer. When I get around my car I can see a man leaning on the table, beat all to shit. He spins, his blue eyes locking on me. I drop the pan and move forwards. ‘How in the hell is he even standing?!’ As I take a step he lurches backwards, raising a knife in my direction. His eyes look like a wounded, trapped animal... “I’m not going to hurt you...” I hold my hands up to show him. My eyes trace over him. Bullet wounds, scrapes, cuts, bruises, and no small amount of blood.
“Get back.” He growls out.
“You need to get those clean, if you’ll just come inside-”
“Get back!” He yells this time and I flinch, my hands still up.
“Okay, then just wait here. I’ll be right back.” I walk backwards slowly, making sure to not make any sudden movements. I turn at the door and run into the house for my first aid kit. ‘What are you thinking? Who knows what that guy does, has done? He could kill you! ... But he needs help, badly… He’s going to die otherwise...’ I snatch the box from the bathroom closet and dash back out.
When I reach the garage my heart drops. He’s not here anymore... I hope he goes to a hospital-I freeze when I see a leg on the floor. He fell over? Oh my God, is he dead!!??
I move closer quickly and I can hear him groaning. Okay, not dead... Still needs help, probably lost a ton of blood... Nice and slow now, we don’t need him any more scared or angry...
His eyes are locked on me again, looking more afraid than before. I very carefully crouch down onto my knees before inching closer. His body tenses, hands bunching up into fists. ‘He could still hit me…’
“I’m not going to hurt you. You need to have those looked at-” I nod to the various wounds and foolishly reach out to pick a piece of glass in his arm. He grabs my arm, his grip like a vice.
“Get-” Is that the only thing he knows how to say?
“-that’s all I’m going to do. Nothing else.” I interrupt him softly. I don’t fight the monster grip on my arm, knowing that it was going to leave a bruise either way. He holds on a bit more before letting go. I shake out my hand, feeling some pins and needles as I open the box, and skooch closer. His panicked eyes never leave me.
“My names Lena. What’s yours?” I try and start a conversation but he doesn’t make a single sound. I’ll just keep going then... “I’m 23 years old and a medical coder at the clinic down on 25th street. I guess listening to all that medical gobbledygook is finally coming in handy.”
I spread everything out, making sure I have enough of everything. Here’s to hoping... I grab a Wal-Mart bag from the work table above us for any garbage.
“Okay, I’m going to get the glass out of your arm now. I’m going to try and do it gently as I can but...” I trail off. There’s only so much I can when giant shards of glass are embedded in an arm. Really, they are impressively large… I hope they didn’t cut anything they shouldn’t have, I don’t need him bleeding out on my watch.
I sigh and pinch the largest between my thumb and forefinger. I tug and he hisses, his other arm moving with sudden speed to grab my arm again. I look down when I feel cool metal instead of warm skin.
He’s got a metal arm... Okay, sure, why not? His grip is tighter than it was before, the new metal arm not making it any more comfortable.
“I’m sorry that it’s going to hurt, but you need to get the glass out.” I say as calmly as I can. His heavy breath is the only sound in the garage for a minute before he lets go. “Alright, let’s get this done.” I pull the piece out quickly, ready with a towel to mop up the blood. His head hits the ground, biting down a low groan. I work as fast I as can while still making sure I don’t hurt him more than necessary.
I don’t know what he was doing but having this many wounds and still being able to move around was impressive. Stupid as heck, but impressive. Looks like he’s come from a battle field or something. I keep up a steady stream of chitchat, more for myself than anything else. Once what I can see has been taken care of I sit back and take a deep breath. God I’m tired...
“Okie dokie, I need to get that jacket thing off you. Because I can see blood seeping through it.” I get it off of the injured, normal arm first, much to the man’s dismay. His leather jacket, which is ridiculously tight, is cool looking even with just one sleeve. It shows off his metal arm which I’m sure scares people. He’s not leaning up so I’m just going to have to settle for pushing the under shirt up.
I was right, he’s got a nasty gash on his abdomen. I mutter about him having a death wish but again he ignores me. I clean it first before deciding that it’ll need stitches. Since I know he’s not going to go to a hospital, not after all the growls I got when mentioning it before, I get up to find some fishing line and needles. I really don’t want to do this... I can feel the vomit in the back of my throat just as the thought of pushing a needle though flesh.
I come back to the garage with an armful of supplies. A needle, fishing line, a lighter, some disinfectant, some ice, a couple Ibuprofen, a glass of water, more bandages, and a stomach that could not be any sicker if I tried.
“Here.” I hand him the pills and the water. “You’re going to want that.” He ignores me and I frown. “Take the damn pills. I’m going to feel bad enough about this, I don’t need you in more pain then you have to be... Seriously, take them...” He glares at me before downing them without the water.
I wrap the ice in a towel before pressing it around the area of the wound, hopefully taking down some of the swelling. This also gives me time to get everything else ready, including my nerves. I hold the needle over the lighter before cleaning it and the fishing line with disinfectant.
Once the swelling is down and the ice is gone I take yet another deep breath. My hands, however, are surprisingly steady considering what I’m about to do. ‘I can do this, I have to...’
I push the needle in and the man bites back yet another groan. I hold down the vomit and push it through to the other side.
“You have to go… at a... steeper... angle...” He pants out. What do you know, he does speak English, I had been starting to wonder. I nod in response and on the next stitch I go steeper. Halfway through he’s biting into the collar of his jacket to hold back the groans.
“DONE!” I fall back onto my butt the second I finish, all the energy just flooding out of me. “Okay, let me just finish bandaging it up and then you can rest for a bit.” He's got quite a few bandages on but at least he looks better than before.
His eyes still follow my every move but he doesn’t look as frightening as he did before. I’m sure he’s tired.
“I’ll go get you a pillow or something. You want anything to eat, I’m starving...” His face says no but there’s no way he’s not hungry... I’ll just leave some food out here for him.
I come back with a big pillow and a plate with a PB+J sandwich, a handful of chips and an apple. I set the plate down near his metal arm which seems to be working fine. It’s really cool looking... I wonder why he’s got it, beyond the reason that he clearly lost an arm.
I move to his head, to help him get situated on the pillow but he tenses up again. I roll my eyes, tired of this tough guy act.
“Look, you’ll be more comfortable with a pillow. Concrete isn’t exactly the nicest thing to sleep on, at least with a pillow you won’t wake up with a headache along with all the pain from the crap you got into.” He halfheartedly glares at me but the blood loss along with everything else takes the fight out of him, allowing me to gently lift his head and slide the pillow under. “Alright, I’m going to bed, I’ve gotta be at work in the morning bright and early. Try not to move around too much.”
My alarm sounds and I wake up in a daze. God, I’m still so tired... But I gotta go to work, can’t pay for anything if you don’t. Once I’m dressed I head out the garage, wondering if that guy from last night stuck around.
He’s gone, not that I was expecting him to stick around. I grin as I pick up the plate. At least he ate... I grab a granola bar before heading off to work. Everyone is as nice as ever, giving me nods and good mornings as I walk in.
“Lena, you... Well, you look like shit.” I roll my eyes as I sit at my desk.
“Thanks Jake, it means a lot to me.” Jake is probably the closest thing I have to family. I met him in the coding classes and we instantly bonded. His latest boyfriend, however, is a different story. That guys the biggest kind of scum bag. If I had a dollar for every time Jake walked in with a new bruise or cut then I’d be rich enough not to work anymore.
“But really, you’ve got the biggest bags under your eyes. What did you do last night?” I mull over if I should tell him or not...
Definitely not.
“Binge watched Leverage and lost track of time.” It was a believable lie, I love Leverage and I’m really quite good at losing track of time. Jake chuckles before we both start to get to work. It’s gonna be a long day, I’m already dead tired...
When I get home and turn on the TV the news is in uproar over the assassination of some political guy. I sigh and turn it off, I don’t need to see stuff like that. In no time people will start coming out with conspiracy theories and before you know it, it was the aliens that did it. I heard enough of those stories before my mom and dad died. It was an accident, their plane crashed on the way back from a vacation. If my dad were still around he’d have blamed the government for it, claiming that they were trying to keep him quiet.
I jump into the shower, trying to wash away the tenseness from my muscles. My mind flashes back to the man from last night and sigh. My dad would have had a field day with that...