The Survivor of the 27

Chapter Twenty-One

  Once the session is done, I reschedule for next week and head outside to the car. As I walk up to the car I realize that Sharon isn't in the car. She's probably out shopping. And of course, that's when I get a text message saying that she's out shopping and will call me an Uber. I tell her to cancel it, that way I can get some fresh air. Not to mention that I have 'trust issues'.

  I sigh and walk to the nearby park. As I'm walking, I see all the little kids laughing and giggling. Some are climbing on the nearby trees and feeding the ducks by the pond. My ribs and back start to hurt, bad. So I walk over to a bench and take a seat.

  As I'm sitting there, watching all the kids play and people walk by, I take everything in. I close my eyes and listen. I can hear the cars go by, honking, desperately wanting the traffic to move. I can hear nearby planes. I can hear children laughing and singing. I can hear dogs barking. I can hear people chattering.

  I feel the summer breeze hit my face. It smells fresh and filled with life. There are birds chirping in the distance and ducks quacking. When I open up my eyes I feel at peace.

  I take a deep breath, breathing in the Houston July air. Although I feel at peace in this moment, I also feel empty. I feel like a part of me is missing, like there's a void that can't be filled. Maybe I should have taken Hassan's proposal.

  It was selfish of me to put myself above my teammates. But, I'm under oath to protect my country, even if that means death. I take a deep breath in through my nose. Then out through my mouth. I made the choice I made, and I did the best I could. You won't be happy and you won't learn if you keep on reading the same chapter of the same book.

  I get up and make my way back to the middle of the city so I can flag down a taxi, or see if Sharon came back. Each step becomes harder and harder. My stomach is twisting and turning in pain. My back is now starting to bleed through my shirt.

  I go down an alleyway and lean against the brick wall. I go to touch my back and when I pull back I see the famous red sticky substance.

  I start to stumble on my feet and my vision is littered with white and black dots. Right as I'm about to hit the floor someone catches me. I look up to see Gael.

  "Woah there, I've gotcha Mace. I've gotcha," I hear him say. He puts my arm over his shoulder and helps me to my feet. "My car is close by, I'll take you home," he says. My feet and fingertips start to go numb, and my vision is blurry. "Hold on a little longer, 'kay?"

  Once we get back to his black jeep he sets me down and buckles me up. The jeep doesn't have on the doors, nor the top of the car. Making the wind rush into our face. Thankfully my long brunette hair is tied in a braid. I look down to see that my abdomen is bleeding through. I have a metallic taste in my mouth. I go to touch my shirt and as I pull away, my hand is covered in blood.

  "Shit!" I hear him exclaim. The car swerves to the other side of the road. An oncoming car honks at us. Gael quickly swerves to the right side of the road. The quick movement though, puts me in a lot of pain. Making me let out a groan. I crunch my stomach and hold it tight.

  "Mace, we've gotta get you to a hospital," he yells over the wind.

  "No, just get me back to my house. I have a first aid kit, if I can patch myself up, I'll be fine. If we go to the hospital they'll bombard me with questions that I legally can't answer. I can also do a better job than them," I tell him.

  I can tell that he hates this and is contemplating. "Fine. What happened to you?" He asks over the wind.

  "Confedentail," I yell back. Yes I know that that's a bunch of bullshit, but I'm not telling him. I care for him too much to worry about my past. He doesn't have to know what happened when I was away.

  When my mother died, he was always there for me. When I would get in trouble, he would always help me. He's done too much for me, I can't bother him more. "Of course it is," Gael says, in annoyance.

  We pull up to the driveway and thankfully no one is home at the moment. Gael gets out of the car and helps me get out. He takes my arm and throws it around his shoulder. He helps me inside and up the stairs. I try my best not to touch anything, considering I have blood on my hands. As we're walking down the hall where mostly everybody's room is, I point out mine.

  "That one," I tell him, heading into the room.

  He takes me to the bathroom and sits me down on the toilet seat. The bathroom has white walls with white and gray floor tiling and a bathtub. The sink takes up half of the side of the wall. The mirror above it goes all along the wall and to the end of the sink.

  "In the bottom drawer is my first aid kit. Can you get it for me?" I ask Gael. I need to clean the wound and change the bandaging. Not too bad. Maybe stitch my abdomen. The cut was deep and thick.

  I take off my shirt, revealing a black sports bra and the once white, but now red soaked bandages. Once Gael hands me the first aid kit I grab out the scissors.

  "Can you cut the bandages on my back off?" I ask.

  "Yeah."

  Thankfully he knows a thing or too about medical care. He went to be a doctor but then dropped out.

  "Oh my gosh," Gael breathes out. I can tell that he's looking at all the scars. The new and the old.

  I then rip off the patch on my abdomen. I look down to where I was stabbed on my lower abdomen, and sure enough the stitches came undone.

  "Crap," I utter under my breath. I'm going to have to restitch this. I grab out a needle and some blue thread.

  "Whoa whoa!" Gael yells, holding out his hands in front of him. "Do you know what you're doing?" He asks frantically.

  "Yes," I respond bluntly. I thread the needle and order Gael to get me a candle and light it. Once he comes back, I run the needle through the flame and thread the blue thread into the eye of the needle.

  Once I'm done stitching myself together Gael tells me to get into the tub. I do as he says and he tells me to lean over. So I do just that. I hear him undo a bottle cap and then a stinging pain fills my back. I bite onto my bra strap and hold back a scream.

  "Shit that stings," I sigh.

  I turn around and sit on my butt. I have my back towards Gael and he patches my back. Then he repeats the process on my abdomen.

  Once he's done, he reaches out his hand and I take it. He helps me up and out of the tub. "I'm gonna clean up the blood. Get changed and please, try not to rip out your stitches. You're lucky the ones on your back didn't come undone yet."

  I nod and head back into my room to change. Army cargo pants and a black long sleeve shirt. I come back into the bathroom and see that Gael has now finished up cleaning.

  "You ok?" He asks. I nod and smile.

  "Thank you."

  "Of course. Get some rest and don't move too much," he orders.

  I go up to him and hug him. I can tell that he's taken back by it but then hugs me back. He still smells the same. He smells like pine, tobacco, and a hint of lavender. Eventually he ends up leaving and I end up going to bed.