Hitman's Creed - 35

 

"Not quite the greeting I was hoping for," Glenn said, pain filling his voice as he leaned against the wall next to the front door.

Joey took another shocked look then quickly wrapped an arm around him to help him into the house. Joey's mother was beside them in an instant to help get Glenn to the sofa. His right pants leg wasn't white any more, it was soaked with blood, and the rest of his clothes were stained with blood and dirt.

"It's probably not as bad as it looks," Glenn said through clenched teeth. Joey's mother shook her head then sent Mary to the kitchen to find scissors or a sharp knife. The girl came back almost immediately with a paring knife. Glenn managed a tight chuckle. "Under my sleeve."

Joey pulled the sleeve up, not in the least surprised to find a knife in a sheath. He took it out and handed it to his mother. She knelt beside Glenn and proceeded to slice open the snow and blood soaked sweatpants from the waistband down the front to the knee as she muttered, "It's a wonder you haven't bled to death." She discovered why he hadn't when she found a thickly folded piece of cotton lashed over the wound with a belt.

"My husband's?" she asked and received a slight nod in return. "Dead?" She got another nod from Glenn. "Pity. I'd have liked to have had a few words with him first." As she talked she gently removed the makeshift bandage. "Nasty," she pronounced.

Joey had to agree. It looked horrible, a gaping wound on the outer edge of Glenn's thigh that began bleeding again as soon as the bandage was removed.

"I hope to hell you've got a first aid kit here," she said as she pressed the cloth back onto the wound.

"Kitchen. Bottom cupboard."

Joey dashed to find it, returning moments later. He opened it and set it on the floor next to his mother. She nodded in approval when she saw the contents then sent Mary back to the kitchen to fetch a pan of water and whatever clean towels she could find. When the girl returned with them, Joey's mother started to warn Glenn that cleaning the wound would hurt but realized he had passed out.

"Did it hit an artery or bone?" Joey asked as he helped his mother.

"If it hit an artery he'd be dead now," she told him. "I don't think it hit bone but I can't swear to it."

Mary asked as she took a blood soaked towel Joey handed her, "Shouldn't we call an ambulance?"

Joey's mother glanced up at her with a shake of her head. "If he'd wanted that kind of help he'd have taken himself to the hospital. Until he says otherwise we'll deal with this here unless things worsen."

"How do you know what to do?" Mary wanted to know.

"I was a nurse before I met Steven. That was a long time ago but some things you don't forget."

By the time Joey's mother finished with the wound and re-bandaged it, it was closing in on midnight. Glenn was still unconscious and very pale and she decided that moving him would not be a good idea. She told Joey to get some blankets while she and Mary cleaned up. He returned with three that he’d found in a closet. Before covering Glenn, he and his mother carefully removed the rest of Glenn's clothes, and the two sheathes, but not his shorts which neither of them wanted to take off him despite the fact that they were very bloodstained.

As he laid the blankets over Glenn, Joey paused for a moment to admire the man's well-defined chest. Then he blushed as he realized what he'd done.

His mother chuckled and patted his shoulder. "If you hadn't I'd have wondered about you," she told him, which made him blush an even deeper shade of red. She laughed softly before pronouncing it time for all of them to get some sleep. "I have the feeling we'll have a long day ahead of us tomorrow," she said as she led the way up the stairs to the second floor.