🚨❗CONTENT WARNING❗ Mentions of gore, blood, injury, and pain. Please read at your own discretion. 🚨
You saw the warm, orange light spilling out of the farmhouse windows as you limped home. Shit. You realized your husband would still be awake, and you didn't want him to see you in such a sorry state. Well, that and you didn't want him to realize you had been down to the mines, a place he constantly made sure to remind you were too dangerous. A sharp pain surged through your left leg, and you instinctively grabbed it, trying to get home as fast as you could as you hobbled along.
You climbed up the porch steps of your old farmhouse and rested your head on the doorway, trying to compose yourself before you went inside. You straightened yourself up, trying your best to hide the more than obvious injury in your left leg. You opened the door and quietly walked inside as if you could sneak past your overly-caring husband. You slowly closed the door behind you and took a step towards your bedroom when you saw him.
He was passed out on the couch with your bright red telephone on his lap. The handset had fallen onto the floor with the curly string stretched all the way to the box in his lap. Your husband was slumped across the couch, his glasses sliding down his nose and his tie loose around his neck. It was the perfect opportunity to sneak off to bed without him noticing your injury. As you thought that, you were instantly overcome with guilt. It was obvious he had fallen asleep trying to call you, but your phone had been dead for hours in your pocket. He was surely worried about you. By the same token, he worked long hours and needed the rest. You didn't want to wake him. You decided to leave it up to fate.
You tiptoed around the couch and towards your bedroom, trying your best to stifle your moans of pain and avoid any creaky floorboards. You opened the bedroom door, only to hear it squeak loudly.
"Darling?" You heard your husband's sleepy voice call you from the couch. Damn you, fate. You whipped around to see him, only to send more pain through your leg.
"Harvey?" You watched your husband sit up as the telephone finally tumbled all the way to the floor.
He pushed his glasses back up and looked at you. "(Y/N), are you okay? Where have you been?"
"Well..." You walked over to sit on the couch across from him. "I was...uh....in the mines."
"The mines?!" Your husband sat up instantly, suddenly wide awake. "What were you doing in the mines?! And so late?! You could have gotten hurt! Or passed out! Or worse!" You saw panic and dread flash across his face as he said the last few words.
"Harvey, I'm okay. See?" You scooted closer to him to put a hand on his lap, causing the pain in your leg to steal your attention once more. You winced, quickly blowing your cover.
Your husband instantly stood and took your face in his hands as he began to examine you, his doctor's instincts taking over. "What happened?" He asked, quickly racing to the other side of the room to grab his emergency medical bag.
"I hurt my leg, but don't worry, I'm okay." In the blink of an eye, your husband was in front of you, kneeling as he set down his bag. He stripped off his signature green suit jacket, rolled up his shirt sleeves, and put on some blue medical gloves.
"Which leg?" He asked. You pointed to your left, wincing as he rolled your pants up. His face went pale as he revealed a large, deep gash running from the side of your calf to the middle of your thigh.
Blood was everywhere, slowly dripping onto your couch and your husband's arms as his gloved hands examined your wound. He looked up to see you nervously watch the blood spill onto your nice furniture. He sighed and handed you a towel to mop it up. "Darling..." He huffed softly as he helped you set the towel under your leg to catch any dripage. "This is a serious injury. You know the mines are dangerous. What if you hadn't made it home?" His voice trailed off as he returned his attention to your wound.
"I'm okay, Harv." You smiled at your husband, running a hand through his abnormally disheveled hair. "I protect myself and stay safe."
"Safe?!" Harvey looked up at you, disbelief in his eyes, gesturing to your nasty injury. "You call this safe? I've told you the mines are dangerous! You could get badly injured!" He shook his head, grabbing a bottle from his kit. "You could easily die from this! If it got infected, if you had passed out and lost any more blood- This is a serious injury, (Y/N)!"
"But you're going to treat it and make it all better." You smiled, trying to reassure your loving husband. "It may hurt for a couple of days, but I'll be perfectly fine."
"This time! But what about the next? What if you pass out! What if I fell asleep again and couldn't go out to look for you?!" The intensity was rising in his voice as he spoke, nearing a yell. You had never seen him so riled up...well....besides on your wedding night. ;) He sighed deeply as he managed to calm himself down. "There's no reason for you to go to the mines again. It's just not worth it, dear." He grabbed a large cloth from his kit.
"I need to go to the mines!" You objected. "I have to get ore to sell to Clint for money and to repair things on the farm."
"I'll tell Clint he needs to get his ore himself." He doused the cloth in the liquid from the bottle. "Brace yourself, this may sting." He offered you his free hand to hold as he ran the cloth down your cut, sending shots of icy pain through your leg. You sucked in a breath through your teeth as you squeezed his hand tightly. You knew he hated to put you in more pain, you could see it on his face as he cleaned the wound. "I'll go to the city to take appointments. We can buy any supplies we need. I just...I just can't lose you." He rubbed your uninjured leg lightly as a sign of affection as he looked up at you. Tears filled his eyes.
Instantly, you felt yourself in his shoes. You could never imagine the pain of watching him get injured, constantly worrying about his wellbeing. It would drive you mad. You felt so much empathy for him in that moment that you didn't know what to do besides place your hand atop of his. You stayed like that for a moment before he moved his hand to wrap fresh gauze around your injury, encasing your leg.
"We'll have to take you to the clinic tomorrow for stitches, but a bandage should last overnight." His hands moved diligently, working with a vigor he only reserved for taking care of you. He finished the gauze work and set back on his heels, breathing a sigh of relief as he packed his things back away. He stripped off his gloves and quickly sanitized his hands before running his fingers through his hair, trying to return it to its normal, neat state. "I'm sorry, (Y/N). I'm not upset with you. I just can't imagine life without you, darling, and I'm terrified of any experience that makes that even a slight possibility. I love you." He grabbed your now bandaged leg and gently rested his head on it.
"Harvey," You said his voice softly, causing him to look up. "I understand. We'll figure out what to do about the mines. You're my world, and I can't imagine what you must be feeling, love. I don't want to put you through that. I love you more." Your felt tears silently spilling out of your eyes as you spoke. "Now, let's get to bed. We're obviously both tired."
He nodded his agreement as he stood up, ready to finally fall asleep with you. You tried to stand up, but he quickly stopped you. Instead, he turned you sideways and put your legs on the couch. Harvey reached down and picked you up in his arms bridal style, letting out a loud huff. He wasn't the strongest, so it was few and far between when he carried you like that. He walked you into your bedroom and gently laid you down on the bed. The motion of him carrying you was almost enough to lull you to sleep, but you somehow managed to stay conscious.
"Now," Harvey said, helping you sit upright. "Let's get you out of these dirty clothes and into some nice pajamas." You nodded, thinking about how wonderful it would be to get into comfier, less bloodstained clothing. You watched your husband walk over to your shared dresser and pull out a pair of your softest pajamas. He walked back over to you and set the pajamas on the bed next to you. He quickly got to work, helping you take off your top and replacing it with your pajama shirt. He quickly did the same with your pants, making sure to be extra careful as he worked around your bandage. You tried your best to help him, but you were so tired he ended up doing most of the work.
"Thank you, honey." You could barely keep your eyes open as you mumbled the words. You lifted up your head and reached out for a kiss. He gently grabbed your chin with one hand the back of your head with the other as he kissed you. He pulled away and you felt the smile on his lips.
"Always." He whispered. He fluffed your pillow and guided you to lay down on your side. "Now, make sure you keep your injured leg elevated." You nodded sleepily as you watched your husband walk back over to your dresser, carrying your dirty clothes.
He gently placed them in the laundry hamper and turned back to the dresser. He made quick work of removing his tie, which was already mostly loosened. He then set to unbuttoning his shirt. You laid there, barely awake as you watched your husband sleepily undress. In any other context, you would have been more than excited to watch this. However, you felt yourself drifting in and out of sleep and the only thing grounding you to consciousness was watching your devoted husband. He finally got off the shirt and set it in the hamper before quickly taking off his pants. You watched as he quickly pulled out a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt. He got dressed and groggily walked back over to your bed. He lightly tapped your injured leg.
"Up." Harvey said, and you followed his instructions as you lifted limp leg up slightly. Your husband gently placed a pillow in between you legs and helped you lower your leg back down. The cushion felt wonderful and took a lot of pressure off of your painful leg. "Does that feel better, sweetie?"
"Mhmm." You mumbled as you let your eyes close for the night. You felt your husband crawl into the bed behind you and scoot as close as he could. He gently rested an arm around your waist, nuzzling his face into your neck. You felt the tickle of his mustache as he kissed your neck.
"I don't know what I would do without you."