Tales from the Intermediate (gxg)

Chapter 13

Farren turned the shower to the hottest degree it could go and stood under it for a long time. The hot water boiled away all the grime on her skin until it felt like it was boiling through her skin and cleaning away all the grime beneath it. She felt light again when she turned off the water and stepped into the steamy bathroom, like that hard concrete inside her had turned into air. She hardened again within a few moments as the steam cleared and her skin cooled.

It was late at night by the time Charlie had also taken a shower. Wanting her leg to breathe, she placed the white hotel robe over her body and avoided putting her clothes back on until after she was bandaged up. She was too afraid to ask Farren, who laid on the bed reading the little pamphlets she found in the drawer of the nightstand, to rebandage her, so she got the first aid kit and sat on the edge of the bed and tried to do it herself. It was hard to apply ointment to the wound, since it was on the back of her leg, but she crouched down and tried, anyway. Unable to see her wound, she felt around for it until she touched it too hard and hissed from the pain.

Farren had been waiting for Charlie to ask her, but when she saw that was only hurting herself, she sighed and stood up. Charlie looked up at Farren as she walked around the bed to where Charlie was sitting on the edge and kneeled to the floor in front of her.

Charlie went wide-eyed as Farren took the first aid kit from the bed and started shuffling through it to find what she needed. Seeing that Farren looked confused, Charlie quietly said, "It's that one" and pointed to the roll of bandage in the kit. Farren glanced up at her sheepishly before taking the bandage and the cream and laying it out.

Charlie held her breath when she felt Farren's smooth fingers dance around the back of her calf, gently lifting her leg up and placing her ankle on her shoulder to prop her leg up. Charlie stiffened on the bed, her leg propped on Farren's shoulder, and watched as Farren took some of the ointment and applied the cold cream to the wound that had already started to scab over. Charlie jumped slightly at the cold, but Farren was twice as gentle as Dani was as she carefully covered the wound.

"I'm not a doctor or anything, but I think it's healing," Farren said as she peered at Charlie's calf, letting her finger run over the scab. "But I still think we should have taken you to a hospital."

"Everything's just up in the air right now," Charlie whispered. "I love Dani, but she doesn't know what she's doing—I mean, none of us do."

Farren sighed as she unraveled the gauze around her hand. "I understand her thing with cops... I mean, going to the Mulberry police is out of the question, obviously. But surely not every cop in this area is part of the... gang or whatever. Or what if we go to someone higher up? I mean, there just has to be—sorry."

Charlie had flinched when Farren started to wrap the gauze around her leg too tight. Farren eased, looking up at Charlie to make sure she was okay, before she gave up on what she was saying with a sigh.

Charlie stared at Farren thoughtfully for a moment. "I mean, you're nearly a lawyer. Isn't there something you can think of? Someone or something that could legally protect us."

Farren's face seemed to grow pale, and Charlie's brow arched in curiosity. Farren just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, recovering from that strange look on her face with a hard gulp. "This is a pretty special case—I... I don't know."

Although she was curious as to why Farren had grown so stiff at the mention of her being a law student, Charlie gave it up. Farren taped the gauze at the front of her shin and then slowly lowered her leg back to the floor. "Does it feel okay? Is it too tight or too loose?"

"It feels perfect," Charlie said with a small smile. Farren returned it before she gathered the supplies back into the kit and stood up.

"You know..." Farren began, mindlessly playing with the plastic kit in her hands. "This hotel is huge. There's a lot of neat rooms and stuff on the first floor that we could go explore."