No More Excuses//Katelena

27: Bandaids Don't Fix Bullet Holes

Welcome back to me pretending to know stuff about how the human body works in a medical emergency

How is everyone??? This reached 9K reads! Thank you all so much

Happy Mother's Day!!

Content warnings: blood, injury, medical instruments, needles, the angst is so real here

Yelena doesn't waste a second once she reaches Kate's apartment, because she had already been slow getting there in the first place. Without any willingness to risk the archer's safety any further, Yelena forced herself to take the calmest routes through the city, which meant no parkour and no jumping through windows.

Kate's body had become a limp, dead weight in Yelena's arms, but the adrenaline and lingering anger in her system burned away all exhaustion. She cradled the woman carefully as she made her way up the stairs in the sketchy apartment building, and her heart clenched tightly at every wince and groan, even as Kate tried to reassure her that she was alright with breathless, faint jokes that fell on deaf ears.

Once she's able to slam the door behind her with her foot, Yelena scrambles forward to lay Kate over the kitchen table. She grabs a pillow and props it under the archer's head, then digs the first aid kit out of her closet.

The dogs prance downstairs excitedly at the commotion, whining and winding around her legs, but they both skitter back when Yelena snaps a warning at them, tails tucked down. She doesn't have time to feel bad about it- Kate Bishop needs her. She lays the supplies out wherever there's room and then cups Kate's face gently, patting her cheeks. "Kate Bishop? I need you to stay awake for me."

Kate's eyes flutter back open and she groans softly in response, her fingers twitching over her stomach. "I'm awake, 'm awake," she slurs. The pain is catching up to her. Yelena systematically pats her cheeks to help her wake up more as she rolls the archer's shirt up, revealing bruised and bloody skin. Yelena's heart sinks, and she curses as she sees the dark splotches stretching further up Kate's chest.

"Forgive me, Kate Bishop." the blonde mutters, grabbing scissors and completely cutting the archer's shirt and jacket off of her. Kate's mind is too pain-muddled to protest. The shreds of cloth fall away only to showcase even more damage, and Yelena can already feel the nightmares brewing for when she sleeps next. She does her best to preserve Kate's decency by leaving the archer's sports bra on, but worries that it'll only get in the way of her work.

"Fuck you, Kate Bishop," she hisses tearfully, hands shaking as she brushes her fingers over the bruised stomach. Her fingertips come away red from the too-fresh blood smeared on her skin, and Yelena panics, realizing that Kate is bleeding somewhere that she can't see. She pats the archer down and finds a gash in the woman's thigh, blood seeping out and soaking the fabric of her dark pants. "Jesus fuck."

Aside from the cut in her leg and the horrific bruising stretching over Kate's stomach and chest, her face is littered with various cuts and bruises, including a bloody gash above her eye and swelling in her cheek. Yelena swears in a never-ending stream under her breath to keep her brain a little busy as she quickly unbuckles Kate's belt and pulls her pants from her legs in one swift motion.

The cut is worse than she thought, quickly soaking through the hem of the archer's boxer shorts and creeping much too quickly up to the waistband. It's a wonder that she was able to keep fighting with this at all.

Already red and swollen, Yelena can tell that the gash is in danger of infection and will need stitches, and Kate's face scrunches up in pain when the assassin prods the area around it. "Shit."