Broken but not lost

Chapter 16, BRIAR AND FLYNN

I let out a relieved sigh after shooting the last two men. But I groan when I try to stand up, remembering that I got shot. I was just lucky when I saw the exit wound on my back. I grab two rifles from two of the more recently dead ones.

I suck in a breath as I stand up and make my way to Flynn; he meets me half way. He's holding his arm to his chest as blood trickles down it. "So you got shot twice. Great." I gently grab his arm and take a look.

Fuck. There's no exit wound.

"Fuck." I curse under my breath. Not quietly enough because he lets out a small huff of laughter.

"Yeah. This isn't gonna be fun for either of us, is it?" He says, leaning his head back to the sky and closing his eyes.

I hum in response and lower him down, motioning for him to sit. Surprisingly he does so, maybe from the loss of blood.

I squat to get a better look. I can barely see the shine of the bullet in the hole in his arm.

I fight off a gag as I look at it. I've seen worse and been through worse but it was still gross to look at.

I sigh and lift his shirt over his head, he groans as I do so. "Were they from Belholt?" He asks, clearly trying to forget his pain.

I nod my head. "I guess they didn't recognize you. Plus we're still on your side so I guess they assumed we were hostile."

"You definitely were." He says pointedly.

I shrug in agreement. I stare at his tattoo a moment longer, then rip a long piece off of his shirt, crumple it up and make him hold it to his neck. I wrap the rest of the ruined shirt around his arm tight, he clenches his jaw and fights off a groan, looking to me with shock. "Sorry." I say. I put his arm back to his chest, crossing it so he's holding it up by his shoulder. "Keep it there." I say, jogging off to go find wherever I put our bags.

I hold my shoulder, hoping to keep at least some blood inside me.

After too much running around and searching, I find our bags and sigh with relief. I sit down next to them for a moment, just to keep myself from passing out.

I rummage through them and find a long bandage, long enough for my shoulder. I wrap it as best I can, going under my bloody shirt, wrapping around my shoulder, under my arm and across my chest. It's not the best or the tightest but it's all I can do.

I pick through the bags again, not before glancing at Flynn to make sure he's upright. He is, thankfully.

I find a sewing kit in the bag. Flynn's people are much more equipped than mine. Any bags we had had a knife and some food, maybe a pair of socks. But never a sewing kit or bandages or anything of importance really.

I grab the bags and make my way back to Flynn.

                                       FLYNN
___________________________________

I force myself to keep my eyes open, trying to focus on staying upright. On staying awake.

But I'm so tired.

Just as I'm about to close my eyes, a figure pops up in front of me. It's all blurry and I can hear echos of a voice but nothing more. I feel a hands gently grab my cheeks on both sides. A slight caress turns into a a slap on my cheek. That makes me focus.

"Stay awake at least until I finish fixing you up." Briars stern, beautiful voice comes back to my ears as I finally snap out of it.

I blink at her a few times and nod my head as she lets go of my face and grabs onto my arm. She unwraps my bloody wound, making me wince.

She opens a sewing kit and grabs the tweezers. She grabs her water and douses the tweezers and then my arm. It doesn't burn as it would've if it was alcohol, but I still hiss at the contact.

She wipes the blood off from around the wound and keeps a cloth with her left hand right next to it to catch any blood. With her right hand she reaches in with the tweezers to get the bullet.

I stifle a groan and clench my hands into fists. Now I'm definitely awake.

After what feels like ages, she finally pulls the bullet out and tosses it to the side, then covering my wound with the cloth. She wraps it as many times as she can and the ties it off tight.

"I'm gonna try and let that stop bleeding while I stitch your neck, okay?" She says, reaching for my neck.

I hesitantly nod my head and she says, "Trust me, the hard part is over. You'll handle this much better." She gives a reassuring smile.

BRIAR
___________________________________

He barely flinches as I stitch the graze on his neck. It either doesn't hurt or he's just that good at hiding it.

I straddle a rock next to him on his left side while his head is tilted so I can get better access to his wound. I'm focused on the stitches but my gaze keeps wandering up to his beautifully sculpted jaw and his deep green eyes. He somehow hasn't closed them yet. Maybe he's afraid he'll fall asleep if he does.

The veins in his neck flex and his adams apple bobs up and down. I silently laugh at myself as I focus back on his graze. I'm almost done stitching it.

I tie off his stitches and grab a bandage from my pack and carefully place it over it.

I climb off the rock I was straddling and kneel in front of him. I try and take his arm so I can begin sewing it but he pulls back and I shoot him a glare.

"Let me see your shoulder." He says sternly, attempting to grab my hand.

I pull away. "As if. Yours is worse than mine."

"Briar. You're losing just as much blood as I am. Let me see before—" "Before what?" I cut him off. "Before you pin me? We're both injured, I don't think either of us should be trying that kind of shit." I snort and roll my eyes. He takes that moment to grab my arm and pull me to him. He then pushes me down with his leg and holds me with one hand. I can tell he's being gentle for both of us.

"You're fucking kidding me." I scoff. He shrugs.

I quickly tap the wound on his neck, hard enough to hurt, he hisses and I push him off with my now free hand, careful of my shoulder.

"Try something like that again and I'll let you bleed out." I scowl and he chuckles evilly leaning back against the rock and holding his arm out for me.

As I almost finish stitching him he says, "I'd never let you bleed out." He practically whispers it.

My breath hitches as he touches my face with his right hand.

I try to ignore the shudder that goes through me when he touches me and to fight the urge to look at him. Because I know if I look at him, I'll kiss him and I can't—

I sigh, frustrated at myself.

I tie off his wound and bandage that as well.

"Now it's my turn." I say, keeping my eyes averted from his.