(22nd May)
"Oh shit," you repeated moving forward to look at Jimin. He was being held up by Jungkook who looked exhausted himself. His normally glowing face was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes.
"He was shot in the abdomen," he told you heaving Jimin up higher on the horse so he wouldn't slip.
You pulled up Jimin's shirt and saw a bandage soaked with blood. "We need to get him inside," you told them, "Keep going."
Hobi started leading the horses again and you helped Jungkook hold Jimin straight. Namjoon and the others had just caught up and Hobi was telling them what he'd just told you.
Your emotions were in a messy blur. You were so relieved to see all of them come back, you were curious as to what happened and worried about Jimin. Just getting him back to the house had covered you in his blood as well, you put pressure on the wound trying to stop the flow.
How long had he been like this?
The boys carried him inside and Hobi left to sort the horses out. Jungkook nodded to you then followed the others inside. You went into the house and to the sofa where they'd put Jimin. Everyone gave Namjoon some space to examine him.
"There's no exit wound," he said putting his hand to Jimin's back.
"Meaning?" Taehyung asked his face very pale and his eyes wide.
"The bullet is still inside him." You replied for Namjoon who nodded seriously.
"What do we do?" Jin asked his voice slightly shaky.
"Take his shirt and jacket off," Namjoon instructed his eyebrows furrowed together as he thought. Yoongi and Jin did as he asked and carefully removed Jimin's bloody clothes.
Namjoon walked over to you a serious look in his eye. "Look Y/n, I used to be a trainee doctor in one of those Government Camps and I know that the bullet needs to come out or he will die. The bad part is I have no tools or anything," he paused looking down at your hands.
Your brain clicked understanding what he meant, "No, I can't. I can't do it!"
"Yes you can, you need to if he's gonna survive."
You looked over at the pale Jimin, his eyes rolling in his head slightly.
It took every ounce of strength in you to nod your head and quickly walk to the sink and wash your hands as thoroughly as you could.
"Here," Jin poured alcohol on both your arms and hands to use as a disinfectant, "Do you want a shot of it too?"
You grabbed the bottle from his hand and downed a mouthful of the strong liquid.
The boys including Hobi, who'd returned from the horses, was now stood in a semi-circle facing Jimin. Namjoon was at his head talking softly to him, he looked back at you when you returned.
"It's alright, I'm going to be here talking to you," he spoke encouragingly. You swallowed and knelt down next to Jimin.
"I'm so sorry," you whispered to him trying not to cry, he smiled weakly at you. "What do I do?" Namjoon pulled back the bandage on Jimin's stomach to the right of his belly button. There was a small hole that was bleeding profusely.
"I have no idea how deep the bullet is but you have the smallest fingers and the best chance of getting it out."
"Let's get it over with," you took a deep breath and examined Jimin's wound closely. You were about to ask for a torch but Yoongi appeared holding one. You nodded your thanks and squinted trying to see the small bullet that was in Jimin. You saw a tiny glinting of silver where the end of the bullet was sitting. It wasn't deep but it wasn't shallow either. It was going to hurt Jimin like a bitch to get.
"Here goes nothing," you sighed.
Slowly, you began to put your fingers into Jimin's wound, he groaned in pain and held Taehyungs hand tightly. Trying to ignore him you pushed your fingers in deeper. You determinedly didn't think about how mushy and warm it was or the fact that you had stuck your fingers into a live person. The thought of that was bound to make you vomit.
"Oppa, stay still," you ordered him when you felt the bullet touch your finger then get pulled away again as he wriggled. Tears were now leaking out of your eyes, you hated that you were putting him in so much pain. You needed to hurry up or he was going to bleed out.
You had a 'fuck it' moment and made a grab for the bullet. His entire body tensed and his muscles tightened.
"Got it?" Namjoon asked his eye wide.
Instead of replied you retracted your bloody hands the small bullet rolling around in your palm. There was a sigh of relief from the boys as Jimin relaxed, "Bandages," Namjoon ordered taking control again and beginning to wrap him back up.
Your stomach churned and you ran outside, when you stopped you threw up the sandwich Yoongi had given you earlier. You straightened up and wiped your mouth on the back of your sleeve probably covering your face in blood.
"You alright?" Jungkook's weak voice asked jogging out to you.
"Yeah, fine," you answered rubbing your sore stomach and sinking down onto the step. "I can't believe I just did that."
"I can. You saved his life, Y/n. Again," he said seriously and you looked at him. He looked like he had lost some weight, his cheekbones were more visible and his eyes had lost their usual glint.
You nodded taking a deep breath, "But I hurt him."
"You did more good than bad," he took hold of your bloody hands him his. You nodded tears rolling down your cheeks again. "Hey, don't cry," he wiped them away with his thumb and smiled comfortingly.
You released one of his hands and held up the bullet, to examine, "Small but deadly."
"Yeah," he agreed smiling, "Let's go back inside." You nodded and let him lead you back inside.
Jimin was still lying weakly on the sofa, his torso bare and now clean of blood, "Thank you, Y/n," he breathed. All eyes were on you as you knelt down by him.
"It's alright, I'm sorry for hurting you."
"It was necessary," he smiled slightly, breathing deeply. You felt his hand grip yours and you held it tightly.
"Remind me to give you a hug when I'm better," he joked to relieve the tension. You chuckled feeling the tension in the room lift.
"Go and get yourself cleaned up Y/n. You look like you need it." You turned back to the others who had been watching you silently, they all nodded in agreement.
Before you walked away you handed Jimin the bullet, "Here."
"Thanks, I've always wanted to keep a bullet that almost killed me." He joked you chuckled the feeling feel strange you hadn't laugh properly in days.
You stood up about to leave, you leaned down and kissed Jimin's forehead gently.
"Kissed by an angel," he breathed, you laughed again quietly and walked away towards the bathroom.
You washed the dried blood off your hands, the cold water feeling soothing. Next you splashed water on your face a few times to refresh yourself. It'd been a stressful last thirty minutes. You dried yourself off and headed back downstairs.
They were sat at the kitchen table talking quietly and Jimin was asleep on the sofa. They looked up at you when you sat down with them.
"How's he doing?" You asked nodding your head to Jimin.
"I think he's going to be alright. Thanks to you," Namjoon replied, "Obviously, we can't do anything about the risk of infection but we can keep it clean."
"Yeah," You agreed glancing over at him for a moment. "So, what happened on the scout? Why did you take so long?" The suspense of what happened was killing you.
Everyone looked at Hobi or Jungkook who glanced at each other.
"Well, we got out there fine," Hobi started to tell the story. "We hadn't seen any Biters or people so we just went quietly and slowly."
"What then?" Yoongi asked impatiently,
"Shh." You waved your hand slightly.
"We got to the market alright and took the supplies attached them to the horses and set off to come back."
"This was the first day," Jungkook added.
"Yeah."
"On the way back the problems started," Jungkook continued the story. "We were walking back when two gangs started fighting either side of us. Jimin and Pheonix both got shot, then Jimin fell off as Pheonix fell over. There was so much blood..."
"Spot and Lady both spooked and we could hear Jimin shouting," Hobi carried on to take the pressure off Jungkook.
"Yeah, Hobi hyung stayed with them and I went and dragged Jimin away," he said sounding like the memory would haunt him forever, "We couldn't get any of the guys to stop shooting so we just tried to hide. There was no chance we could get the supplies back of Phoenix, so we just left them."
You wouldn't have expected them to do anything more, they were trapped in a scary and dangerous situation. Abandoning the supplies probably saved them.
"We went back to the market where we got the supplies in the first place and patched Jimin up there best we could," Jungkook had a fearful look in his eyes that made you feel worried.
"We had to wait for about an hour for the fighting to stop so we could escape. After it had stopped we thought it would be safe to leave but a horde must have heard the gunshots and come to investigate-" Jungkook looked like he'd reached his limit so Hobi took over to finish the story.
"Obviously, we couldn't fight our way out with two horses, supplies and a shot Jimin. So, all we could do was wait, the horde stopped for a while to eat the dead bodies of the guys who had been fighting. That part took longest they were just stood there and there were so many of them. Jimin was in a bad shape and none of us had eaten, we all wanted to come back so badly but we were trapped. When the horde finally moved on we were able to make our way back, and well here we are."
There was a silence when he'd finished, everyone was lost in thought imagining them stuck in the market with a bleeding Jimin surrounded by Biters.
"We're glad you made it back safe," Namjoon told them both, "You did well. I'm surprised Jimin didn't bleed out to tell you the truth. He's very lucky."
"I've checked the supplies, we have enough for now but it won't last very long. Someone will have to out sometime next week, but we don't have to worry about that now," Jin added sounding like he's rather be saying anything else.
You looked up at Jungkook, he looked like something was bothering him, you reached under and table and held his hand. His head snapped up and his locked into yours. He smiled weakly making you smile back sadly. You hadn't had a chance to properly talk to him yet. He looked like he needed sleep and to talk privately.
"If you guys don't mind, I'm gonna go to bed," you told the group, "I didn't sleep much when you were gone. You should all get some sleep too."
"Sleep well,"
"Goodnight, Y/n."
You got up and walked upstairs and into your room, you kicked off your shoes and got into bed.
A second later the door opened again and Jungkook came in, you knew he would.
"Can I-," he swallowed, "Can I sleep with you tonight? The memory of those Biters is still fresh in my head."
"Of course," You replied quickly moving up to make room for him. Lucky you had the double bed really.
"Thanks. Now, I know how you felt when you looked after me in that car when I was knocked out, It's horrible."
His arm snakes around your waist immediately and you didn't tease or say anything about it. He was still in a vulnerable state from the scout and needed comfort.
"It sure is," you replied, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, fine," he replied quickly.
"No, really. How are you coping? That scout mission was horrible and you're not going to forget it in a hurry," you turned over to face him.
"It was horrible, I feel..." he stopped clearly unsure how to word his problem.
"What?"
"I feel like I let everyone down."
"You didn't let anyone down, you couldn't have done anything to change it. It was an impossible situation."
"Yeah but," he disagreed, "I could've done something. Distracted the Biters so the others could've escaped earlier."
"Jungkook, there was nothing you could do. Just think, if you'd done something differently maybe Jimin wouldn't be asleep on the sofa downstairs, maybe you or Hobi could've died. You did your best and it was good enough."
He squeezed you tighter and nuzzled his face into your neck. "Thank you, Y/n."
You kissed the top of his head lightly trying to help him relax. It clearly worked because his breathing slowed and he didn't say anything else. You knew everyone would sleep much better knowing the three missing members had returned. You felt yourself quickly slipping into the deep sleep that you needed.
Valentine's day is quickly approaching... I hate valentines day. I'm happily alone every year.
You know what to do if you enjoyed.
Lotta Love
AFG