Children's Draft

Chapter 17 (Part Two)

(Holly's PoV)

I attempted to immerse myself in military history books to distract myself from the present. My feeble attempt led to having to read and re-read the same sentence after forgetting the sentence before. As I delved into the evolution of the grenade section for at least the ninth time, I heard stirring and a familiar voice.

"Mother...fucker."

Relief swept over me. "Landon," I said as I rushed over to his bedside.

He winced, attempted to move his shoulder, and then cried out in pain.

I bit my lip as I watched. "Do you remember what happened?"

He closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled through his teeth. "I think I got shot. I...I was bleeding and on the ground. I don't really know what happened after that, but I'm guessing you have something to do with it, given the fact that I'm still alive."

I could feel my face growing hot. Ignoring his response, I asked. "But how are you doing now?"

"Well," he began simply. "I'm in a lot of pain. I can't see."

"Shit." My heart seemed to skip a beat. I pressed my hands against my temples. "What did I do wrong?"

"Holly. Holly." He tried to grab my wrists, but he couldn't quite find them. "You didn't do anything wrong. It's my glasses. Do you know where they are?"

I racked my brain trying to remember. I knew I saw them on him after he got shot. What did I do with them? I glanced around the room until I saw something red on the ground.

"I may have knocked them on the floor," I said sheepishly.

"That's okay," he replied somewhat confused. "You can make it up by handing them back to me."

I reached down to pick them up, but to my dismay only part of them came up. I looked down to see two other pieces lying below. "Yeah, they're broken."

He sighed. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Don't worry," I said, trying to cover up my own panic. "It's just the frames. I can fix this." I grabbed the other pieces and went over to my drawers. I dug around until I found some adhesive bandages. It would have to do.

I wrapped the bandages around the middle and right handle to connect the pieces together. Afraid he might poke himself in the eye if he tried to put them on one-handed, I put them on for him.

He blinked several times. "Much better," he stated. "Well, the vision part that is. Do you have a mirror?" he asked. There was a full length one on the wall, but he was in no shape to get up yet, so I searched for the compact mirror. It was at the bottom of the last drawer since I never used it.

Landon examined himself, shook his head, and laughed. "I look so stupid." He handed the mirror back to me. "But at the same time I don't look like a rotting corpse or a formaldehyde soaked wax figure, so thanks." He looked down and blushed. "And I'm shirtless."

Brushing off the last comment in order to spare us both more embarrassment, I placed the mirror back in its drawer and took out some pain medication. I placed two pills in his hand and gave him a glass of water. "Take these for pain." Once finished, I handed him another pill. "And this one to prevent infection."

He looked around the room as he handed the empty glass back to me. "So this is your life around here." He paused for a moment. "It must get boring."

I shrugged before replying. "It gives me a nice break from you guys."

(Landon's PoV)

I woke up to my chest throbbing. "Shit." I muttered.