69 Couldn't Do Anything
After spending about an hour with Axel chatting and munching on candy bars, Bell had to get to the hospital. She had expected Galen to show up, he asked to walk her to work, and he knew where she was. But he never came.
‘I wonder what happened?’ she thought to herself.
Galen wasn’t the type to break his word for no reason. She sent him a message but hadn’t received a reply. Walking between patient rooms, she continued to wonder about him.
“Seriously?!” someone shouted from the nurse’s station ahead.
Curiosity led Bell to go investigate.
“What’s up?” Bell asked, setting a chart down on the counter.
The nurse at the desk turned and looked at her, then turned back to the other nurse she had been chatting with. They exchanged glances that told Bell they weren’t sure if they should tell her something. She knew immediately it must be some juicy gossip.
“Spill it. I will find out whatever it is eventually anyway,” Bell laughed.
“Uh… ok,” the nurse closest to Bell spoke, “I just heard that Granger and the Summer wolf are being brought in.”
“What?!” Bell shouted, her heart jumping into her throat. “What happened!?”
“They got into a fight,” the other nurse said, “One of the patrols was coming off duty and went to return some equipment to the training grounds. They were both passed out and covered in blood… that’s all we know.”
Bell took off running down the hall, heading straight for the emergency department.
‘You idiot! You better be ok!’ she shouted in her mind.
She almost knocked over at least three different people, shouting apologies back over her shoulder as she rounded corners and hurried down corridors.
The doors to the Emergency department gave way to her without difficulty. She looked around for any sign of him, anything to show her where he was.
“I’m fine.”
She heard the familiar voice, like a beacon calling out to her in the darkness. Rushing over, she gasped at the sight.
Galen sat on the bed, his back to her. Her eyes trailed over the exposed flesh. He had several large scars across his back. Some she recognized as claw marks, others she couldn’t identify. But one thing she recognized immediately was the bloody arrow that stuck out from his lower abdomen.
“What the hell happened?” she asked.
Galen stiffened.
He didn’t answer.
‘He’s ok,’ she told herself. Bell swallowed the fear that had been building as she ran towards him.
She straightened up and walked to the small sink near him. She washed and dried her hands before putting on a pair of gloves.
“I’ve got this one,” she smiled at the nurse that had been looking him over.
The nurse gave her a questioning look before giving a small smile and leaving the exam area, closing the curtain behind her.
Bell turned her attention to Galen; he wore a stern expression but avoided her eyes.
‘Why isn’t he looking at me?’ she asked herself.
“So,” she said, “what happened?”
“Disagreement,” Galen answered.
Bell looked down at the arrow sticking out of him.
“Seems like a big one.”
He didn’t respond.
Bell proceeded to give him a basic exam. First, she checked for injuries beyond the obvious ones. She ran her hand along his chin, his throat, his shoulders. She looked for signs of breaks or swelling, breathing a sigh of relief when she found nothing of note.
All in all, he was in great shape. The only signs of him having received any blows were some dried blood patches in his beard and, of course, the arrow.
“Is this just an excuse to have your shirt off in front of me?” she attempted to lighten the mood, “because I gotta say, I’m not hating it.”
No response. Bell felt a twinge in her chest. She swallowed and tried to keep the smile on her face.
“If you wanted to play doctor so badly, you could have just told me,” she whispered playfully, tracing a hand down his chest.
He didn’t stop her hand or even react to it. He only looked away from her. Her jaw clenched in a frustration built on fear and concern.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“You’re the doctor. The wound seems obvious to me,” Galen replied.
“No,” she said, reaching up and placing her hands on either side of his face. Finally, she forced him to turn and look at her.
Their eyes met, and she saw that he was guarding. He was trying to put up walls between them.
“What’s wrong between us?” she asked softly.
Galen felt the tug on his heart like a cold hand wrapping around his throat, slowly strangling the life out of him. He saw the sadness and worry in her eyes.
His hand had come up over hers before he had a chance to think about it.
“Talk to me,” she pleaded. Her eyes held a warmth he craved.
“I–“ Galen started to answer but was interrupted by the sound of the emergency doors flying open and the shouting that followed.
“Granger! Granger! Where is he?!” Ashleigh cried out, running to each exam room and then the next looking for her mate. “Granger!”
“Ash…?” a voice called weakly. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Ashleigh ran towards the room the voice had come from. She stopped in her tracks at the sight of him.
Purple and blue bruises covered his chest and the side of his body. Patches of dried blood on his face, his chest, his stomach. His arm was in a sling, and when he smiled at her, she could see that his teeth were tinted bloody.
She had sprinted straight to the hospital when she was told. Hardly having a moment to think of what kind of shape she would find him in, only hoping to find him at all. But instead, she was shocked and horrified by what she saw.
“Ash…” he called out to her, smiling weakly.
“Granger…” she said softly, walking towards him, tears filling her eyes. “Baby, are you ok?”
He moved to try to sit up, hissing with the movement. Ashleigh ran to his side.
“Don’t move! Don’t move,” she said, reaching for him.
“I’m ok,” he said weakly, laying back in the bed and looking up at her. “Just a little rough around the edges.”
Ashleigh couldn’t believe what she was seeing. How could this have happened? It had only been a couple of hours since she had seen him.
“What happened?” she asked.
“It was Galen,” he sighed, grimacing as he adjusted once more.
“What?” Ashleigh said, confused by what he said.
From the room next door, Bell heard the exchange.
‘Bastard!’ she thought to herself, ‘he’s going to blame it all on Galen!’
“I’ll be right back,” she said softly to Galen, who only looked away in response.
She pulled away from him, but he grabbed her hand, stopping her in her tracks.
“Don’t,” he said.
“I’m just going to go check on something. I’ll be right back,” Bell smiled.
“Let it go,” he insisted.
Bell sighed. She moved back beside him, talking low so only he could hear.
“I need to make sure he doesn’t lie about you. That he doesn’t convince her of something….”
“He’s right,” Galen said, finally looking at her once more. “I attacked him.”
Bell looked carefully at him, she could see he was telling the truth, but there was something more he wasn’t sharing.
“He deserved it,” she said.
“You don’t even know what happened.”
“I don’t need to. If you felt like you had to attack him, he did something to deserve it,” she stated firmly.
They looked into each other’s eyes, a thousand words passing between them silently. Neither willing to say what they wanted to say.
‘Don’t show me care if you don’t mean it.,’ he pleaded in his heart. He looked away from her painfully.
“Galen…” Bell whispered, unsure what she wanted to say.
Galen lifted his eyes. He caught sight of the time.
‘The memorial…’ he thought to himself, moving to stand.
“What are you doing?” Bell asked, trying to stop him.
“I have to be somewhere,” Galen said.
“Yea,” Bell said quickly, “right here. You have an arrow sticking out of you. First, I need to treat and disinfect the wound.”
Galen looked down at the end of the arrow. Then, he reached out and grabbed a bottle of antiseptic and two large bandages.
“What…what are you doing?” Bell stumbled to ask as he moved around her.
Before she could do anything about it, he grabbed the base of the arrow and broke off the end, dropping it on the table beside him.
“Galen… don’t!” she cried out as she realized what he was doing.
Galen reached back and grabbed the head of the arrow. He quickly pulled it through his abdomen and out the back with a grunt. Next, Galen opened the bottle of antiseptic and poured it on himself at both sides of the wound before quickly placing the bandage on the front. When he tried to put the back one on, he struggled. Then, glancing up at Bell, he offered it to her.
She stared at his hand and back at the wound in disbelief. Then, she angrily took the bandage and moved behind him, slapping the bandage and drawing a hiss from him.
“Idiot,” she said softly.
“It was through and through. Nothing was hit, or I would have already shown signs of infection or internal bleeding.” Galen sighed.
“You couldn’t have known for sure,” she growled. “Not to mention the arrow itself could cause an infection, and pulling it out like that could have caused damage!”
She was angry. Deep in his heart, he smiled.
“I will get checked later,” he promised, “but now, I have somewhere I need to be.”
Bell felt frustrated, but she knew he meant it. She nodded. He grabbed his shirt and put it on before he went, leaving her alone in the empty room.
From Granger’s room, Bell could hear that Ashleigh was getting upset.
“How could he do this?!” Ashleigh shouted angrily.
Ashleigh’s thoughts were muddled. Rational thinking held no place in her mind right now. Her concern for Granger, the shock of his appearance, was all she could see.
“I don’t know, it happened so fast… I couldn’t do anything… He just came after me.” Granger’s voice was shaky, taking tiny gasping breaths between his words.
Bell growled. She stood up from her chair and grabbed the pieces of the arrow. Then, shoving the curtain aside, she strode straight into Granger’s room.
“Couldn’t do anything, huh?” Bell retorted, slamming the bloody pieces of the arrow down on the tray that sat beside Granger’s bed.