Broken [In Revision 2023]

Chapter 16 - Revelation

Maddy ran into the house. Her medical bag slapping against her back as she jogged up the stairs. There was no sign of the person who had called her. She dropped down beside her uncle and started searching for a pulse.

Jake groaned, a mix of pain and disorientation, he struggled against Maddy's grip.

"Jake it's me, I've got to clean these wounds and get you sewn up before you bleed to death," Maddy said, tugging his wrist a little harder. She pulled the coffee table closer and set it up as a makeshift work surface. Feeling guilty for not having any pain relief to offer she set to work.

Jake's face scrunched up as the iodine-rich sanitising solution seeped into his open wounds. He tried yanking his arm away but Maddy had pinned it tight. His brain finally registered who was there, "Maddy?" he croaked, not wanting to believe his eyes.

"If I had to put money on it I'd say it was the bird that got you." She used her gloved fingers to press the two edges of sliced skin together.

"They're a protected species," Jake screamed as Maddy pushed the needle into the skin of his forearm, he could feel the tug of the sutures as she knitted his flesh back together. Watching only made the queasiness worse.

"It's not a real bird," said Maddy, tying her last knot on his left arm. She pulled open a packet of dressings and laid them over the stitches and the remaining scratches.

"What are you...?" Jake said when he heard the familiar sound of cohesive wrap being pre-stretched off the roll.

"I'm a training veterinarian, not a doctor. It's 'no chew' wrap or the hospital." Maddy struggled to hold the dressings in place and wrap the bandage.

"There are some black ones in the barn," Jake reluctantly tried to help hold things in place as she wrapped.

"They're open, I'm not using them." She held out her hand for his other arm. It wasn't as severely torn up, she could have put a couple of stitches in one of the slices, but it was small enough to heal on its own if given time. She scrubbed it clean and dressed it well.

"Where is he?" asked Jake, finally realising he hadn't got to thank the person that had saved him.

"I don't know, it wasn't really my main priority." Maddy let Jake have his arm back. "You've lost a lot of blood, you need to up your fluids and rest for the next 24-48 hours. I have a bag of saline I'd like to give you."

"Where the heck did you get that from?" Jake said eyeing up the cannula in her hand.

"The clinic." Maddy wrapped a cord around his bicep to tempt the veins to the surface of his skin.

"Aren't they going to miss it?" Jake wasn't prepared for the bite of the needle, his eyes watered as he tried to keep his composure.

"I told them it was for one of the horses." Maddy pulled an old coat rack from beside the front door and set it beside the sofa. She strung the bag of fluid from one of its many carved branches.

"He knew what they were," said Jake with a hot mug of coffee in hand. Maddy had managed to find a packet of cookies buried deep in the pantry and was now watching him intently to make sure he consumed them.

"Then he's related to them, or on their watch list." Maddy helped herself to one of the stale chocolate chip cookies.

"They're related." Jake's arm throbbed. He was forced to close his eyes to try and recollect the scuffle. "Cousins. I shot her father, his uncle."

"Good."

"Sunny!" Jake almost leapt off the sofa, "I had to drop the rope and grab the gun, that thing attacked me before I had a chance to put him away."