Chapter 59
Mist didn’t like that response. Neither did Adam, but they had no choice. Esther took something else from the bag and put it on Rain’s shoulder first. Adam prayed she’d guessed right and that was whatever would work best to deaden the area. With the first slice of the blade, they’d find out really quickly.
It didn’t take long. Seth’s grip was firm, but Esther steadied herself by holding on to Rain’s shoulder. Adam couldn’t see what she was doing from where he was standing, back toward the opening of the room. Mist and Walt were behind Esther, deeper into the room, at a distance but on the side where they’d have a view of what the woman was doing. Esther made her first cut, and Mist winced, covering her mouth. Her face went pale, and Walt’s arm went around her.
Rain didn’t cry out, but he could tell by the way she bit her bottom lip that even with her eyes shut tightly, she was in pain. Seth was close to her face, whispering something. A pang hit Adam in the stomach. Even without much experience in the real world he recognized the emotion immediately. Jealousy. This man they’d just met on the boat shouldn’t be the one holding her, comforting her. It should be him.
Realizing he would’ve sounded ridiculous to anyone who could read his thoughts, Adam took a deep breath and returned his attention to Esther. He shouldn’t be so selfish at the moment either. Rain was in a lot of pain, and rather than thinking about her, he was worried about the fact that a man she couldn’t even see because her eyes were glued shut was trying to help her relax. He shook his head slightly and focused on the woman. It didn’t take long at all for her to pull a tiny, deformed, mangle of metal out of Rain’s shoulder. “Here we go,” she said, dropping it onto a towel on the nightstand. “All out.”
“Thank God,” Seth said. It was a concept Adam was familiar with from his study of the Bible, but he hadn’t heard anyone say that before, not that he could recall. It seemed right--though a bit odd.
Seth was looking over Rain’s shoulder as his mother cleaned the wound with the water he’d brought in and another clean towel. “Do we use that device now?” he called to Mist.
“Yes,” she said, flying out of Walt’s embrace to the bed. She picked up the wand Esther had already used on the front side of Rain’s wound and turned it on, placing it in Esther’s outstretched palm. “You can put it all the way in now.”
The older woman nodded, having figured that out already. She pushed the object inside of the hole she’d just made getting the bullet out. At first, Rain winced, her eyelashes fluttering, though her eyes did not open. But seconds later, she relaxed. The device was doing its job--closing up the open blood vessels, healing the torn flesh, repairing the wound. Esther pulled it out a few seconds later and handed it back to Mist who turned it off. “Thing’s good to have around,” the woman muttered.
Even though it wasn’t necessary because of the healing wand, Esther insisted on wrapping the wound with gauze. Once she had Rain wrapped, she lowered her carefully back to the bed. Seth seemed reluctant to let go of her, which ate at Adam’s gut again.
“Fetch that blanket on the chair, and let’s get her boots off.” Esther had been speaking to Seth, but it was Mist who went for Rain’s boots. The patient’s eyes were still closed, her breathing evened out. She seemed to be asleep now.
Mist got her boots off, and Seth draped a dark brown blanket over the top of her. “We’ll let her rest and worry about changing her out of that torn shirt later,” Esther said, satisfied with her work. “Now all y’all git.” She made a sweeping gesture with her arm toward the door. Seth helped her gather up the towels and other items, and Mist finished putting the healing items in the medicinal kit, but she left it on the nightstand, just in case, and then they headed for the door.
Adam knew he’d have to go, too. Esther wouldn’t allow him to stay in the room with her patient when she clearly needed to rest. He only needed a quick glimpse of her tight lips to know that. Reluctantly, he took one last look at Rain, and then headed for the door, praying to Seth’s God or whoever might be listening that she would be okay and wake up soon. He’d been so close to losing her for good, and it had scared him to death. The idea of being free, of having all of the world to explore and do whatever he chose meant nothing if Rain was no longer a part of it. The idea almost brought tears to his eyes, but he reminded himself that she was safe now--they all were--and followed the others out of the room.
***
Waking up and not realizing where she was or how she’d come to be there was something Rain was getting used to. As unsettling as that could be for someone who’d woken up in the same bed in the same room for almost twenty years, she wasn’t alarmed when she opened her eyes to find herself in a bed she didn’t recognize in a room she was fairly certain she’d never been in before.
Trying to move was her first reminder of what had happened. Her shoulder was sore. It didn’t hurt at the moment, though she was suddenly aware that it had. The pain was a fresh memory, and as she pushed up to sitting, she could almost feel it radiating through her limb again.
But it didn’t hurt, not like that. It was more of a dull throb in the center of her upper chest muscle. She was wearing a white nightgown and paused to question the origin and how it came to be on her body. Had Mist changed her clothes? Surely, Adam hadn’t. Or one of those strangers. Did this gown belong to that woman from the boat? Had she been the one to remove the bullet?
The bullet had been taken out. She had to assume so, anyway, because they’d used the wand on her shoulder, on both sides. She could feel the difference it had made. As a first-year medical student, they were required to slice their palms and then use the wand to heal it. The tingling sensation of the nerves regenerating was recognizable to her now, even deep within her tissue. A bandage covered her shoulder completely obscuring both the entry and exit wounds, so she couldn’t check for infection or see how it was healing, but she felt much better than she had when Adam had carried her onto that boat. She couldn’t remember much after he’d set her down. Only that she felt safe despite being among strangers. There was that woman--she seemed harsh in a way. But there was someone else there that had made her feel safe. What was his name?
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