Chapter 27

The pain hit me before I opened my eyes in the morning. There was no position that I could find that alleviated it. My stifled groan awakened Colleen, who came around the bed to see how bad it was. I smiled but it must have looked more like a grimace, because Colleen spoke sharply to Rebecca.

Poor Rebecca didn't come awake quickly, or cleanly. Once her eyes snapped open she needed time to figure out where we were and what was going on. Colleen wasn't in the mood to give her time to do anything except tend to my wound, and she let Rebecca know it, causing a spat.

"You just WAIT until I get my eyes open," Rebecca said defensively.

"Oh, yeah?" Colleen shot back. "You had no trouble keeping your eyes open when you were looking like you wanted to suck Yolanda's clit through her skirt, last night."

"You want to talk about last night, or do you want me to help Bri- ... David? We can argue all morning but you woke me up for a reason, so let's take care of first things first."

Rebecca slowly peeled my bandage off, which didn't help, as it was stuck to the open wound, which hurt like mad, and started the bleeding all over again. She turned me towards the light to get a better look, and her face changed, instantly. To Colleen she said, "Go get Yolanda. Find her, wherever she is. I need the room where she took care of Bri- ... David, last night, and I need it right now."

Colleen took off, loaded for bear. While we waited, Rebecca used a sterile gauze pad and gently cleaned the wound, eliciting a chorus of groans from me.

It hurt – a lot. When she touched it, it hurt even worse.

Yolanda rushed in, trailed by Colleen and instantly grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the room, towards her office. Rebecca - never letting go of my other hand - and Colleen with a worried look on her face, kept pace. When Yolanda directed me to sit on the exam table, Colleen left the room. She soon came back with Millie, and a very worried looking Mr. Bell.

The three stayed back while Rebecca and Yolanda poked, prodded, and pushed on my back, mumbling to each other the whole time. Jack walked in wanting a briefing, and DEMANDED to know if he should summon a helicopter to take me back to the hospital.

Almost before he got the words out of his mouth, the agent who gave him the hard time, the night before, showed up and announced that he had called for the life flight chopper, which infuriated Yolanda. She turned to him, still probing my wound and shouted, "You! Get out of my examining room, NOW!"

Turning on Jack, she said, "Find out who he called and cancel the helicopter. Do it Now!" Jack left, with Mr. Bell in tow.

To Rebecca she said, "See how his wound is wanting to fester? Let's debride it and use a topical ointment, then let a little air get to it so it will dry. I might have covered it too fast, and caused this.

A few seconds later, "How is his immune system? Any problems? This is a little too fast for my comfort."

They continued to talk and worry the wound until Rebecca nearly shouted, "Hey, look. There's a piece of his shirt in here. I bet that's what caused him to fester so fast. I never thought the bullet would cut a hunk off of shirt on the way in, and bury it in the wound.

Rebecca was all business now. "David, a bit of your shirt is caught deep in the wound. We need to dig it out, or the infection will get much worse. It's going to hurt, so get ready..." She would have continued but Yolanda handed her a premeasured syringe.

"Well, guess what, David? It's not going to hurt – much - if at all. My new best friend has a topical anesthetic that will hold you until we do what we have to do, so relax and let us do our work ... And Don't Be A Baby about it."

I felt the needle but not the shot. Whatever it was worked magically, because they pinched, pulled, poked, and prodded, A LOT after that, but it didn't hurt at all.

While they worked, Yolanda gave me strict instructions about keeping myself dry and clean, not getting sweaty, dirty, and not showering to protect the stitches until the wound completely closed. Rebecca promised that she and Colleen would be "happy" to give me sponge baths, morning, noon, and night.

Through it all I was sitting naked on the table, and all four of the women were getting the full Monty, from me. Before the shot, it hurt too much to worry about it. While they worked on me, there was too much going on to think about it. Now that they were done, I was embarrassed. My embarrassment was like an aphrodisiac for Mr. Johnson. He just HAD to stand up and be recognized. I wanted to crawl under the table and hide, but he didn't seem embarrassed at all, and neither did the four ladies.

Colleen smiled sweetly. Rebecca had her sneaky smile in place. Millie looked like she just swallowed another canary, and Yolanda was the only one without the good manners to remain silent. "I do believe this young man appreciates our efforts, Rebecca," she said smugly. "And I would also suggest that he likes ... the view..." she said pointedly looking at Rebecca's nipples through her thin nightgown.

Millie looked at Colleen, imploring her to do something, and she came through. "Are you two done embarrassing David? If so, let's all leave and let him cover up." She just couldn't leave it there, and added, "However, he might need more than that towel is going to provide, given his ... stimulated appreciation ... for your ... ummm ... devoted service."

Millie laughed and said, "If I knew he was going to be so happy about getting shot, we could have asked Jack to take care of it much earlier..."

All four ladies forgot their manners and set aside their innate modesty, for a little while and discussed my ... condition, quite frankly, until Rebecca came to my aide and shooed everyone out, closing the door behind her.

Finally alone, she kissed me deeply and apologized. "I know we embarrassed you, David. You gave Millie a thrill of her lifetime, and I bet Yolanda tries to get in my panties, just so she can try to get a shot at you before we leave. Don't be mad. We all love you." Her sneaky smile was back, and I knew she had an evil plan.

I found a pair of scrubs and dressed in them to get back to our room and dress.

After getting cleaned up, with Rebecca's devoted help, I dressed carefully, and went in search of Jack and Mr. Bell. They were huddled in a downstairs office, with two mean looking agents, who sized me up, like a butcher would look at an old bull. Their blunt examination made me uncomfortable, but I kept my mouth closed and awaited developments.

The bigger of the two behemoths said, "THIS is the kid that stood down the two shooters? Seriously? He looks like he couldn't intimidate a gypsy moth."

Wrong answer ... Jack was all him in a heartbeat. "If I need any help identifying my protectees I will let you know. In the meantime keep your trap door closed." He wasn't paying the slightest attention to the agents. His attention was on a document the he and Mr. Bell were studying. The large and rather uncouth agent rose and exited without further comment.