What the cat dragged in.

28 That's Different

Kelly lay on her side and held the crumpled up sheet against the outside of her throbbing thigh. It had begun in a curious, playful tenderness and progressed to an unhurried intimacy that left them both tied up together in arms and legs. One clawed hand rested on her hip, the bite of those talons just enough to remind her of how fragile she was. It made the moment perfect.

He came back into the room with the black bag of medical supplies, a small towel and a bowl. He sat down on the edge of the bed. "This is your fault."

His statement lacked accusatory conviction. 

"I didn't know the ice was going to fall off the roof at that moment." A shrug with one shoulder. "I only jumped a little."

"At the wrong fucking time." He poured peroxide into the bowl and wet the cloth in it. "Lemme see."

Kelly took her hand away and he carefully moved her makeshift dressing. "Don't tell me, tell the ice." She lifted her head. "Is it as deep as it seemed to start with?"

"Eh. It's one of the deeper ones you've had." He dipped the edge of the towel in the bowl and started to clean the long cuts. One was barely a scratch. Unless she miscalculated her new healing factor, that one would be gone within the hour. Two of the others might last until mid-morning. The one in the middle was deeper and more ragged. It was still oozing blood.

Kelly shivered. "Do you have to do that? I mean, won't it heal on its own?"

He looked at her. "Sure it will. Course on you it'll take awhile so every time you move it'll open up again. Meaning however long it would've taken, it'll take three times longer and that's if it stays clean. 'F it doesn't, then we're talking about even longer. Wanna keep arguing with me?" A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

She smiled a little. "No." 

"You're learning, frail." He pressed the cloth over the wounds again. 

Kelly suppressed a whimper. For a long moment, a comfortable silence grew between them, her body curled close to his. She hadn't been able to dress, he hadn't bothered. Dim light played off the slopes of his muscles. For the moment, the almost perpetual tension in his shoulders had eased. Despite the throbbing ache in her hip and thigh, Kelly's smile got a little wider. 

"What?" He smirked a little.

"Just thinking what an amazing man you are."

His hand paused and he looked away. "I'm a son of a bitch."

She stroked his leg and looked up at him. She stayed silent until he looked at her. "Not to me. To me, you're the person I trust completely. The one who makes me smile." She looked down at her hip. "The one who takes care of me when I do something stupid."

He gave a grudging little smile. She smiled back and gave a little shrug. "You're my mate, and I'm entitled to my opinion that you're amazing."

A slow grin spread across his face. "Sentimental shit." He leaned down and kissed her, his mouth more commanding than it had been in the last few hours. "You gonna let me finish this?"

She lay down again. "It's too big to bandage, isn't it?"

"Too deep to just bandage. Lucky I got these." He held up a box of butterfly-shaped tape strips. "'Less you want me to wake up the ape so that he can stitch you up."

Kelly groaned. "Please, they'd think you did it on purpose. I don't have it in me to try and explain and I really don't have it in me to listen to another lecture at this hour of morning. Though he does have anesthetic."

He shifted a little closer. "Keepin' the kit stocked is your thing."

"Guess I haven't been too focused lately." Kelly squeezed her eyes closed and felt tears well up when Victor started pulling the edges of the wound together and securing them. He kept one hand on her at all times. A soft purr rumbled through his chest. Kelly knew he was trying to comfort her, she clutched a handful of the pillow and did her best to say silent. It didn't work entirely.