Chapter 20: Chapter 20

Rory has been shot!!

I gasp and cover my mouth as the event takes place before my eyes and I'm shocked beyond words as the memory of watching my Dad die rushes back into my mind.

"No, no, no, no, no!" I begin to feel my panic crawl up my gut, which I haven't had in six years and I know it's not the place to start getting it, but there is nothing I can do to stop myself. My body begins to tremble and I lean on the car standing close to me. Sweat and fear run over me and I begin to take in deep breaths and mumble a quick passage in Psalm I normally memorized when I was dealing with my panic attacks. Slowly and I begin to recover from the grip of fear that holds my heart captive.

"Taylor..." Comes the faint voice of Rory along with a long groan as his hand keeps pressing to his side even though that does not stop the blood from flowing. I realise the reason for my panic, the reason my old nightmare came back, the reason my heart was at its breaking point. It was because Rory had been shot and I hastily begin to move towards him.

I run to him, kneeling beside him and taking his hand in mine. "I'm here, and I'm not leaving you. Ever."

His hands tighten around mine and I almost wince at how painful it is. I stare at him and watch him struggle for words.

"G-get mmme outofhere." He rambles out quickly.

I nod wordlessly, looking around for the sight of the shooter and not spotting anyone from a mile away.

"Okay," I answer, even when I do not know how I'm going to do that considering I can't sight a taxi from miles away. He lets go of my hand and dips it into his pocket and hands me a key.

"There's a map in my car."

"Don't worry, I'll get you safely to the hospital and you'll be safe."

"Stop talking and listen to what I have to tell you dammit!" He snaps harshly, shutting his eyes close instantly and his pain can be seen. "There's a map in my car." He begins in a much cooler and softer voice, but yet in deep pain. "It'll take you to a house that's a ten-minute drive from here." He opens his eyes and gives me a half pleading half instructing look. "I need you to get me there."

Without further argument or interruption, I helped Rory into the front seat of the car standing beside us and after properly adjust the seatbelt. I make sure it is comfortable enough for him and I shrug off my jacket and take his hand away from his bleeding side. He whimper and I can see his agony and I place my jacket on his side quickly before returning his hand to his side.

"Put pressure on it," I tell him before running to my side of the car and entering. "You're going to be okay, Rory," I assure him and he growled in return.

I find a map spread wide on the back seat and I take it and start the car. I still don't know how this house we are going to is better than the hospital, but I'm not crazy enough to start an argument with Rory, because he may be bleeding and weak, but he's still Rory. So praying to God, I ask to have help waiting for us at the mysterious location we are going to.

We arrive at the location which happens to appear as if it is deserted. There is no house, but there's a white iron proof gate with an alarm button and a code switch.

I turn to Rory who is almost already absent and unconscious. "There's no house here, Mr Gate, only a white gate." I carefully explain to him, fearing that I might have gotten the location wrong and that we might be at the wrong location.

"It's an underground house." He slowly replies and blood pours out of his mouth. His eyes still close "75598002, that's the code.

I get down and hurry to the code switch on the gate and press the number and after the last digit, it opens on its own accord. I come back into the car and hastily drive-in.

I help him out of the car after properly tying my blood-stained jacket around him for a better hold and this time unlike ten minutes ago his bleeding has reduced, but he still leans heavily on me, his weight almost crushing me to the ground. I take him inside and to every locked door that requires a code to open, I quickly put in the code Rory had given me and they'll open.

We enter a large, empty (except for the big armchair at a corner nearby) and awfully quiet room which I think is the living room and unlike having a doctor present when we arrive as I thought, we are all alone. I lay him down on the chair and just then the door to one of the rooms open and a middle-aged man with grey hair walks in to meet us.

"He was shot, he was shot," I explain, getting up to properly see him.

"Okay. I'll take it from here." The man says and with that, he grabs a first aid box from the side of the chair and opens it up and I gulp when I see the things/items in it. He takes out the rubber glove and put them on both of his hands.

He dives into operating Rory wound and I watch closely.

"Oh, God!" I gasp and cover my mouth when he cuts into Rory's side to get to the bullet.

I doubt I'll be able to have a good sleep in the coming days.

He uses a little scissor-like object and digs it into Rory's side and soon pulls out the bullet from inside him and drops it in the steel plate on the floor and then begin to patch him up.

.

After twenty minutes, he finishes and gets up to look at me with grateful eyes.

"He's out of danger and he's going to be fine, so far he has no internal bleeding or cold. For now, he just needs rest." He tells me, "If you hadn't brought him in when you did, he would have died."

I smile at him, "I didn't have any other choice, you know how he can get right? He always wants you to do what he wants you to do. Do you live here?"

"Only when he's away. I'm his Doctor and guardian Francis Lupe." He stretches his hand for a formal shake.

"I'm Taylor Snowfall, his girlfriend's personal assistant." I shake his hand.

"I'll just have him cleaned up—" He says, going by me.

"I'll do it, you don't have to."

He raises a curious brow at me. "You're sure?"

I nod. "You've done a lot already, you should go clean up. While I do this."

"When you're done, you should also take a shower, your clothes are coated."

I glance down at my clothes all stained with Rory's blood and back at him. I shyly smile, not knowing how I haven't noticed ever since. "Yes, I will. You just show me the bathroom, the washbowl and some clean towel."

"Remember, you're cleaning all of him." He reminds and then asks me to follow him and I do, we leave the living room and take a walk through others. We come to the room and he also hands me some bowl and towel from the storeroom.

I ended up taking two bowls of warm water, two towels and a bar of antiseptic soap to his side, while Francis takes a bath.

I begin to tug carefully on his T-shirt which already is torn in half because the Doctor needed to perform surgery and slowly pulls it over his head. I gaze at the bandage for a little while then I let my hand caress it, I don't know if it is just me hearing things, but a moan erupts from his mouth and I pull myself together and begin to clean his upper body first washing it with the soapy towel and then cleaning him with the plain water towel.

I finish with his upper body and I know what's next. I have to clean all of him just like the Doctor had said earlier. I bring my hand to his belt and begin to undo it and soon I have his belt undone and I pull at his trouser pant and they come off immediately leaving him only in his black boxer underwear. I don't realise how nervous I am until I begin to pull at the waistband and notice my hands are trembling.

Taylor, come on! It's not like you're going to rape him or something, just pull off his underwear.

I take my hand over his side waist and almost pull when Francis' voice interrupts, which is a good thing. "Having troubles, eh?" I turn to see the doctor all clean and dressed.

I nod, making sweat fall down my face. "It's okay, I'll take it from here." He chuckles lowly.

I dare not argue with him anymore so while he cleans Rory up, I go to take a shower.