Transfusion

Chapter 13

When I heard the key turn in the front door to the apartment, I snapped the laptop shut, and went to greet Leon. He must be back from his assignment, everyone else wasn't supposed to be home yet. 

When the door opened, Leon was leaning heavily against the door frame, almost unable to keep himself upright, and bright red blood was cascading onto the ground below him. 

His face looked pale and his jaw was clenched in pain as he tried to staunch the bleeding on his wounded arm. Quickly, I ran over to support him, and he leaned against me, as I shuffled us toward the couch, the dripping blood following us, as he grunted in pain from the movement.

"Oh my god, what happened?" I asked, worried, checking him for any other signs of injury.

"Nothing. The operation was completed, but when I was about to leave, one of the men nicked me in the arm."

For some strange reason, I almost wanted to strangle him. Even when he was clearly hurt, Leon brushed it aside like it was nothing, like as long as the operation went without a hitch everything else was collateral damage, it was frustrating. 

He didn't seem to care that he had put himself at risk. But then I sighed, what did I know, this was my life now, and I had to accept it, everyone else had.

 I ran to the kitchen to retrieve the first aid kit and sat beside him on the couch. It was now soaked with his blood, but that would have to be dealt with later. Leon was about to reach for the kit, before I moved it away. "Don't move. I'll take care of this for you." It felt weird to be giving my Pacesetter orders, but it had to be done. He spent so much of his time, taking care of us, he had no one to return the favor. 

It made me want to be the one to do it. He didn't object, when I took out the rubbing alcohol and only hissed in pain as I soaked sections of his cut with it. 

What came next would hurt, but  I liked that Leon trusted me to know what I was doing.  That didn't stop my hands from shaking slightly as I moved to stitch the edges of his ragged skin. When the thin needle pierced through the sides, I expected Leon to groan in pain but I was met with silence instead. 

"Doesn't it hurt?"

"It does." his jaws were clenched again, and a sheen of sweat covered his face.

Trying to distract him as I worked, I continued, "So does everyone in the Collective have such high pain tolerance?"

Leon winced slightly, as the string cinched his flesh together. "It depends on the person really, I can guarantee that if it were Elias you were stitching up, he'd be groaning and cursing you out with every name under the sun."

That got a small smile out of me, and it grew when I saw him return it.

"You're very pretty when you smile, Ashlinn." I held my breath as he gently tucked my long hair behind my ear with his uninjured hand, almost caressing my face slightly.

My heart fluttered, and I had to physically concentrate on his wound if I didn't want to cause him unnecessary pain. I couldn't reply, but I acknowledged his words with a tiny self conscious smile. There was no way he couldn't see how much he affected me.

 After I finished wrapping his arm up with gauze, he thanked me warmly, and headed to his room for some much needed rest. I sat back in front of my laptop to continue my research but found that I couldn't concentrate.

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My arms were strapped down as the beeping and whirring of a machine grew louder near my ear, and a scratchy cotton blanket covered my legs. I was lying on a hospital bed, in a clinically white room.

 I craned my head to the right, and I gasped as I saw the blood flowing out of me through a tube inserted into my wrist. Another tube was wired around me and delivered blood back into my body. Next to me, the machine looked daunting, nearly as tall as the bed itself.

 I was mesmerized at what seemed to be my blood spinning around and around inside, going faster, and faster, making me dizzy. I also realized I was losing feeling in my arm, it was suspended in that place of staticky pins and needles. I tried to shift my body but I couldn't. Panic set in as the feeling began to spread to the rest of my body, engulfing me, overwhelming me in numbness....

When I woke up, I couldn't get air into my body fast enough. My head pounded and the disgusting stickiness of sweat clung to me as I padded into the bathroom for a shower.