Wounded

Chapter 1 - Samantha

"Simon, don't leave," I speak over my shoulder towards the door, not taking my eyes of Corporal Andrews, who is currently wincing in pain as I clean up the very superficial scratches to his knuckles. I bite back an eye roll as he flinches while I wrap the final bandage around his hand. Simon turns on his heels and I hear him take in a sharp breath, I can tell he's in pain. He drops the medical supplies he planned to run off with onto my desk. Out of the corner of my eye I watch him push out my chair and drop into it, he swings his feet straight onto my desk.

I close my eyes, taking a deep breath and roll my neck. Stripping off my gloves and throwing them into the bin I stand stretching my back and twisting from side to side.

"Feet off my desk please Simon, your boots are disgusting".

With the grace of a bull in a china shop he drops his feet knocking off paperwork scattering it all over the floor.

"Shit," he bends to pick it all up, quickly grabbing his ribs and even under his mask I can tell he is hurt, I can see his short, sharp breaths moving the material covering his lips.

"Well Andrews, you'll live, barely" as he stands off the gurney I pat him on the back.

"Time for you to head back to your barracks and rest up, I'll do your paperwork and Simon will promise to take it easy on you in training for the next few weeks, won't you Simon?"

Simon grunts, nodding towards Andrews, then nodding towards the door, giving him his one and only opportunity to hustle quickly from the infirmary. The poor kid looks terrified. I offer Andrews a tired smile. It's the best I can do after a long day. The team came back in varied states of injury. Watching my friends be stretchered out of the helicopter and brought to me for care was terrifying. Amelia broke her leg in three places and Lucy needed a total of one hundred and sixty stitches across various wounds. Her leg had a slash to it so deep half the stitches she needed were internal. I picked bullets out of bodies, closed wounds that were close to infection and picked shrapnel out of König's back which took almost three hours.

"I've missed you baby" Simon grunts through painful breaths.

"Look at you? Why didn't you come to me hours ago Si?" I sigh, moving to stand between Simon's legs as he sits on my desk chair.

"I had shit to do baby, the others needed you more," he takes a deep breath running his hands along the backs of my legs tugging me closer.

"Si, You're bleeding everywhere. Come to the gurney let me check you over please," I plead looking at him with heavy eyes. I've missed him so much. All I want to do is jump into his arms and never let go but he's in so much pain.

My office lamp illuminates Simon, his tight compression shirt is ripped on his right side and I can see bruising spreading into his underarm and down to the V of his waist. There's a slash across his left side, tracing along his ribs. The blood has clot across the wound but even in the glow of the small lamp I can see it's full of dirt. If it's not already infected it will be if I'm not quick enough.

I lean down moving Simon's hand gently out of the way and gently run my fingers across the edge of the wound. He winches slightly and takes a shallow breath.

"That needs a clean and some stitches, give me a second," I turn to my medical cabinet and grab a fresh suture kit. Turning back to Simon he rests his head back on the chair, his eyes closed. He's got blood seeping through his mask and it looks like it starts at his eyebrow. That's not what I'm fixated on though it's his chest, his strong chiseled chest and arms. The chest I've been longing to be held against for weeks. I'm standing between his legs, staring, practically drooling, when Simon coughs and my eyes snap immediately up to his. He is looking at me with hazy, lust filled eyes, mirroring my own but surely his are most likely due to a concussion he has suffered.