Saving Logan

On the Mend

Blood is everywhere. This is so much worse than I thought. What the hell happened? His skin looks like a canvas pulled taught against its frame. Dark circles underline his closed lids, severely putting mine to shame. An ugly yellow and green bruise surrounds his right eye. His neck has red angry outlines of fingers that are slowly turning black, purple, and blue. Worst of it all was the battered left side of his head which was bleeding.

Sighing, I stand up. I was not expecting this. Nor expecting so much blood...

I quickly fill up a bucket of warm water, grab a soft cloth and head back to the man on the bed. I lightly wet the cloth before gently dabbing the blood away. With my fingers I gently probe the area to figure out where the blood came from. Just in front of his ear, blood seeps out of a gash.
I lightly open the gash to see how deep it is when a sharp inhalation makes me stop.

My eyes quickly flit to the man's face whose eyes are squeezed shut. Acting quickly I glance again at the gash deeming it not problematic, just bleeding because it's his head. I bring the cloth to the source and lightly apply pressure with one hand. With my free hand I snap the lights off.

My eyes adjust quickly to the dark, I notice the man's doing so as well, although slower. He stares at me in disbelief.

"Who are you?" His voice is gruff from sleep and his eyebrows furrowed. His eyes are squinted, most likely in attempt to place who I am. I sigh, "a friend."

He shifts and tries to sit up but I gently place my hand on his shoulder and press him back into a laying position.

"You're hurt, starved, and sleep deprived. I'm helping you" I state bluntly. He blinks and nods as I turn back to what I was focused on before. I gently remove the cloth from his head and notice the bleeding has stopped. I drop the cloth on the floor and sift through the first-aid kit before finding ointment cream, an alcohol wipe, gauze, and pre-wrap. I dispose of my bloody gloves and put new ones on and taking out the alcohol wipe and gently bringing it to the gash.

As I bring the wipe to the gash, he winces. Shit. "Sorry" I mumble. "I'm going to clean the gash on your head with an alcohol wipe. Then I'm going to put on some ointment and a makeshift head bandage for you."

He relaxes a bit realizing I was actually going to help him. I bring the alcohol wipe to his head and he tenses. I gently and thoroughly clean the gash and dispose of the wipe afterward. I apply ointment and efficiently wrap his head up.

"How's that feel?" I say, taking a step back. He moves his head around a bit.

"Adequate." I nod at his response and start eyeing his bloody sleeves. He shifts under my gaze. I sigh and hold out my hand for one of his arms, in which he hesitates but obliges. Gently I roll up the  sleeve and unwrap the bandage. Blood immediately starts flowing from one of the cuts toward the middle of his arm. Pressing a clean part of the bandage on the wound, I look up to see his face.

Surprise riddles his eyes.

"You didn't realize you cut so deep...did you?" The question was more rhetorical than anything as I knew the answer.