Broken but not lost

Chapter 7, FLYNN

We're back where we were last night. Her sitting down and myself kneeling before her, helping tend to her wound. Only this time she's much more bare than I saw her last night.

I'm trying not to stare but it's hard to keep my eyes away from her chest. Her undergarment not covering enough of her to keep my eyes away.

"Are you done yet? Or do you need a longer look?" She says, irritated.

I roll my eyes and reach to her back, holding the bandage in one spot, beginning to wrap it around her ribs tightly. My head gets intensely close to her neck as I keep reaching to her back. Though she keeps her head up, and her eyes away and her face calm, I can hear her wildly beating heart and her shallow breaths. 

After a long moment of quiet, I go around the bed and begin tying off the bandage. There's a large scar on her back, but I don't pay attention to it when she finally speaks.

"Where am I?"

"If I tell you that, you might try and kill me again, love."

She turns her neck so I can see the side of her face. She has freckles all along her cheeks and nose, outlining her deep blue eyes.

"I want to know and I want to know now, Flynn. Where am I?" Her voice shakes slightly.

I sigh. "You're in Belholt. My side of the border." She inhales like she's about to shout at me but I quickly cover her mouth. "But... no one knows that you're here but me. You're not supposed to be here but you were injured and unconscious and your people clearly didn't have the aid to care for you, so I brought you here."

She takes hold of my wrist and moves it from her mouth, she rotates around so we're face to face.

"Why..." she says in almost a whisper. "Why help me? I tried to kill you. Why bring me here if you knew you shouldn't? Why didn't you just leave me on the ground for my people to find?"

"I don't know." I say breathlessly. "I don't know. It's clear neither of us like each other so I don't know why I felt the need to help you." She opened her mouth to speak again but I interrupt her before she can. "Have you eaten, Briar?"

She ruffles her eyebrows and looks away.

"I'll take that as a no." I turn and find something for her to eat. I pull out a protein bar and hand it to her.

She takes it gently in her small hands, offering nothing but nod as her thanks.

"Have my people left yet...?" She says with a mouth full of food, sounding afraid of the answer.

I sigh and give her a sharp nod. "They left not long after the sun was on the horizon. My people went there to tell you all that you were too close to the border. They were willing to kill some of you if you didn't pack up and move." She once again opens her mouth to speak but I answer her before she can ask. "They haven't come looking for you. I'm sorry."

She nods sadly, not looking at me and swallows her bite of food and places it next to her. She barely ate.

"I can take you to them?" I offer. She picks her head up with an expression of shock. She scoffs and shakes her head.

"I'll do fine on my own, thanks. If they left me I don't need to go back to them." She turns back around and begins putting her boots on.