Tears of the past (A Shadamy story)

Chapter 5: Surgeries and Secrets

Content warning: the first part of this chapter contains graphic descriptions of blood and surgical procedures.

No one's POV: Friday morning

Shadow reaches home, still gripping his arm. By this time, his face has gone pale from blood loss, and his eyes are glazed over. His left arm hangs limp by his side, and his jacket and shirt sleeves are stained with blood. He walks slowly up the path, but when he sees that his door is ajar, his whole body tenses up and he pulls his gun out from inside his jacket. Then the door is pushed open from the inside to reveal Rouge the bat.

Rouge's POV: a few minutes later

"Keep still. I know it hurts a lot." I say as I use a sterile wipe to clean around the bullet wound.
"I'm fine." He says, the tightness in his voice betraying how much pain he is really in.
"No, you're not." I finish cleaning the wound and I throw the wipe in the bin. I turn to the first aid kit behind me. "I'm going to remove the bullet now." I take out a pair of pozzi forceps and a scalpel. "I'm not even going to ask why these are in your first aid kit. An army medic's supplies, definitely. A surgeon's kit, probably. But a first aid kit?"

Shadow growls in annoyance and pain. "Just hurry up and do it, then."
"You're going to have to improve your mood before tonight, you know. You can't be giving Amy this kind of anger. Or any anger at all." I make two incisions around the bullet wound with the scalpel.

"Grr... Dammit..." Shadow closes his eyes tightly as he tries to manage the pain. I take the forceps and very carefully insert them directly into the hole. "Gah!" Shadow actually yelps in pain.
"Try to keep still, please." A bead of sweat trickles down my forehead as i concentrate hard on keeping the forceps in the middle of the wound. Then, I feel the forceps touch something hard, I clamp them around the bullet, and pull it out.
"Aahgg..." Shadow makes a noise as i do this. The bullet comes out, glistening red with blood. I exhale hard, dropping the bullet into a dish. I clean the wound again with another wipe.

"I have to stitch it now. Are you sure you don't want anaesthetic or anything?" I ask as I throw the second wipe away.
"Yes, I'm sure." He says, annoyed.
"Stubborn." I mutter, before taking a surgical needle and sutures. I thread the needle before piercing Shadow's skin and pulling it out of the other side of the wound. Shadow bites his lip hard to keep from yelling. I repeat the process until the stitches are complete, before applying a bandage.

"There. Done." I take off my surgeon's gloves and mask.
"When did you even receive military-level medical training?" Shadow asks as I throw the gloves and mask in the bin.
"I decided to take the GUN operative course about three years ago, just after that raid outside of Spagonia." I explain. Shadow nods in understanding. "So, how are you feeling now?" I ask.

"Like I've been shot, and then had a needle stuck in me over and over." He raises an eyebrow.
"Don't give me your sarcasm. I literally just pulled a bullet out of you." I say as I start to deal with the equipment. "Like I said, you need to improve your mood before tonight, because you can't bring that kind of attitude to a date." As I say this, his gaze suddenly becomes accusing.
"How do you know about that?" He demands.
"Calm down, Shadow. Amy told me. You don't have to be all defensive about it like that." I can tell that Shadow is still going to be cagey about the details of his date with Amy, so I change the subject.

"So, what happened after the camera saw you and the alarm went off?" I asked.
"The soldiers came, I shot six of them. Then I managed to get into the right building, shot another soldier." He explains.
"Okay, stop focusing so much on how many soldiers you killed. I don't need to know your exact body count. Did you get the disc?" I question.
"Yes. I did." With his good arm, Shadow reaches into his pocket and takes out the data disc.