definitely welcome.
The voice surprised him as she said her name. It had a deep,velvet
laced sound. As she laid there he really looked at her for the first time.
Rose was tall and curved without being considered big, blonde hair falling
from a loose ponytail and a tan visible even under the paleness of her
face, but the one thing he really saw was the pain filled turquoise eyes
looking up at him. As he was staring at her his gaze dropped to her
shoulder where a blood stain was spreading across the shirt. How could
he be so stupid? no wonder she was drifting in and out of
consciousness. He should have checked for injuries to begin with instead
of staring into her eyes. From the size of the stain he didn't have time to
ride the two hour ride it took to get to doc Hintz's place. Jake would have
to care for her himself.
Jake decided to throw decency out the window for the sake of trying to
save her life. Thankfully Rose had once again lost consciousness by this
time as he removed her shirt to find a bullet wound bleeding profusely
and one of those undergarment things women always seem to have on.
Jake felt for an exit wound but didn't find one, so the bullet was still in
side her shoulder. He went and got a pitcher of water, his knife and a
bottle of whiskey for the pain she was sure to feel. He poured the whiskey
into a glass and brought it to her lips. At first it just ran down the side of
her mouth. So he took a cold rag to her forehead, as she was waking up
he tilted her head back a little and poured the drink slowly into her mouth.
Once she drank the rest of the whiskey in the glass he poured another
to clean his knife with. Jake ran his knife through the flickering flame
of a candle and set it on the table careful not to let the blade touch the
surface of the table. Then he poured water into a washbowl and dipped
a rag in it. Jake washed away the excess blood from her shoulder. Jake
went to the end of the bed where an old trunk held old linen. He took a
sheet out and ripped them into bandages to use later. Jake took a shot
whiskey to calm his nerves. He had dealt with wounds even worse than this
but had always had a doctor with him and had never had to dug a bullet
out of someone himself.
Jake inserted the knife into the wound with a precession that he didn't
know he had. As he searched for the bullet he found that the reason it
hadn't gone though was because it was lodged near her shoulder blade.
This is going to is going to take longer than I thought Jake said to
himself. There were bone splinters to get out along with the bullet. As he
worked his thoughts drifted to his patient and the events of the night. He
wondered where she came from and why the other two riders left her or
how she got shot. Jake removed the bullet and remaining debris from her
shoulder. Jake washed out the wound stitched it up and bandaged it. After
that was all done Jake throughout the bloody water and refilled the pitcher
with fresh water for future use. Jake finally finished cleaning and made
sure Rose was doing ok before he sat in the rocking chair that he had
abandoned only a short time ago. As dawn approached he thought of
what he was going to do with the unconscious girl suddenly in his care.
Hoped you liked this. Don't know if I'm ending the chapter here or not. opinions on whether or not I should is welcome. [/i]
