And Then They Were In Love And Lost

Chapter 20

After a few agonizing hours, the doctor finally returned to Liz's room to do their evening assessment and change her dressings. Clay and Davis were visiting the room as the rest of the team and Blackburn went to rack out for a few hours as the lack of sleep was finally catching up to them. As the doctor came in, everyone tensed up and cut their conversation, hoping for some good news. At this point, Liz was starting to get crabby; she was tired but refused to sleep as she had finally had some quality time with her best friends and was craving comfort.

"How are you feeling today?" The doctor asked as he helped prop Liz up to look at her shoulder before he stripped off the dressing.

"I'm ok, ready to leave." Liz snapped a bit as she rolled her eyes. She hated hospitals and spent way too much time in them.

The doctor stiffened at her remark but ignored her attitude as he could not blame her. He saw her body littered with her war wounds and her medical file online, and it was not a small list, "Well, let's take a look and see if we can send you off to sleep in your bed tonight."

Clay was on her right side, and as the doctor peeled back the dressing and tried to look away, he did not want to see her in that state, knowing the pain she was experiencing as the dressing was lifted away from the burn. But he could not entirely peel his eyes off her. He tried to offer comfort through his gaze as he was shifted back from her bed to make some room. Liz closed her eyes, winced, and let out a tiny whimper as Davis reached over, put her hand on her left thigh, and gave a slight squeeze. With this, Liz opened her eyes and searched for comforting eyes of Clay. She struggled to see his whole face behind the doctor, but she had to stay still leaned forward while the doctor was cleaning her burn.

Davis caught on to Liz's frantic actions trying to get her head into position to see Clay but coming up short. She cleared her throat as Liz shut her eyes again, trying to get Clay's attention as he was caught in a blank stare. When she got his attention, she shifted her head, pointed towards Liz's feet, and flashed her eyes from his body to the bed a few times, hoping he would catch her hint. Clay looked at her for a moment, trying to get her cryptic message and then slowly caught on as he got up and headed over to her bed. He slowly got up, moved over to the foot of her bed, and shifted her legs, carefully watching for the wounds on her upper right leg. Liz opened her eyes with the new touch and met the blue orbs she was craving to see. With his contact, she instantly relaxed as her body knew it would be ok before her mind even processed his touch.

Clay sat on the edge of the bed far enough back to still be out of the way and keep his distance from her leg wounds to not bump them and allow her dressing to be changed. As he sat down and shifted to face her, he leaned forward, grabbed her right hand, held it in his trying not to move her arm, and gave it a light squeeze. He looked up from her hand and met her eyes as she winced again and squeezed his hand. Looking into her eyes broke his heart, he knew she played the tough soldier and would not show her weakness even to him at times, but he saw how much pain was swirling in her eyes, along with a hint of worry. She knew she would recover fully, as Trent and her nurses have told her, if she stayed on track but dealing with burns can be unpredictable. Her burn was not overly deep but still thick enough to cause problems if not healed properly. She was scared she might not be her regular on the team, viewed as weaker or slower by others.

As her eyes locked onto Clay, she did not budge; she did not blink; she just stared into his baby blues as she let herself calm down and release all negative thoughts as the doctor finished up with her shoulder and moved onto her hip.

As the doctor moved to her hips and went to lift the blanket to get a complete look at her thigh and hip, he mumbled something about maybe Clay and Davis stepping out for privacy. Davis heard this request but did not budge as she was in a trance, watching the intimate moment being shared between Clay and Liz. They were in their little world that they heard nothing, did not notice the doctor, or acknowledge anyone else. Nothing else mattered to them other than the other person. Their comfort and touch were a drug to each other, and they were in their slight euphoria by the high. No one moved, and so the doctor, being thrown off, shrugged and continued to proceed with changing her dressings and assessing the wounds. He tried to keep her gown in position and the blanket covering her to keep her modesty but soon realized no one's eyes shifted from their gaze, so he shrugged and finished up.