Everglow: Friend From Far Away

12 - Patch Up

Opening the shed door, Fischer quickly entered, medical supplies in hand. Ko was sitting on the tool bench, busy fiddling with various screwdrivers and drills. However as soon as she saw Fischer open the door, she hastily placed them back onto the table. She watched carefully as he walked over and placed several items on the bench next to her, taking note of the strange wrappings and bottles he had acquired.

Fischer slowly took a deep breath in, his mind still properly taking in the fact he now had an alien to take care of. That catch up with Mira would have to wait.

Taking a look back at Ko's leg, he ran through the options he had available. The makeshift tourniquet made from his jacket was now completely soaked in maroon blood, the smell was no pleasant experience either.

"Ok, I'm going to see if we can change the wrapping on your leg. This stuff here is designed to fix up wounds like that," he stated holding up the roll of brown bandages. "So hopefully it'll do a better job than my old jacket,"

Ko's eyes moved from the bandages to the blood stained jacket wrapped around her leg. Having an enormous wound there was bad enough, but the jacket was not designed for stopping bleeding, and was far too big. It had held together long enough for them to get back home, but now it was beginning to weaken. There were visible blood trails starting to fall down from her leg beneath it.

"Just stay where you are. I'll take the jacket off and wrap these around you,"

Crouching down so that he was at a level height to Ko's waist, he grabbed hold of the knotted sleeves and began to pull them apart. At first it was rather difficult, the knot was quite tight. Eventually though he was able to loosen the sleeves enough to where they came undone on their own.

The bloodied jacket fell to the floor, significantly heavier now that it had been drenched in alien blood. Fischer frowned as he looked down at the clothing that lay among the shards of metal and wood. "Shame, I really liked that jacket."

Ko looked down at the now mangled mess that was the jacket. Her brow tilted upwards slightly and she gave a small frown. Even though he had done it of his own accord, she still felt guilty that she had basically ruined something that he valued. The sound of ripping bandages quickly seized her attention though as Fischer unravelled the brown layers that were rolled up.

"Ok, this next part is probably going to suck ok? It might hurt, a lot," he reluctantly stated, grabbing the anti bacterial cream. Ko's pupils quickly narrowed, the horns on her head tilting down slightly. Noticing the look of fear on his companion's face, he couldn't help but feel slightly cruel, wiping some of the cream on his fingers. Yes, it was for her own good but the poor thing had been through more than enough already. Still, with little choice available, he placed his hand on her leg and slowly smeared the cream over the wound.

Ko took it a lot better then he had expected, letting out a small wince, but nothing more. Not even a deep breath or any sort of heavy exhale. "Wow. You just tanked that. Usually it stings like a bitch," he exclaimed, grabbing hold of a cloth and wiping away the rest of the cream on his hands.

"It did hurt. I'm just used to the pain. It doesn't bother me as much anymore."

Fischer raised his eyebrows at her statement. "Oh. . . uh. . . ok then. Well I guess that's good." With the bandages now in his hand, he fed one arm behind her leg and grabbed the roll with his other hand wrapping them around her leg. After a few passes her leg was properly patched up, and the bandages were holding firm. Grasping a pair of pliers that were next to him on the bench, he cut away at the excess bandage and sealed it up. Hopping to his feet, he wiped his hand on his shirt and dusted off his knees.

"There we go, good as new. Kind of," he crowed, taking a look at his handiwork. "That feel better? Should be a lot more comfortable without the dead weight there."

Ko looked down and moved her knee around. The bandage held, much nicer than the jacket did. It was also a lot more comfortable, as Fischer had stated. "Yes it does, thankyou."

"Now, we will probably have to change the bandages every once in a while, so they don't get all manky and gross. Once the bleeding stops it should be a lot quicker to clean everything up. For now just take it easy, try not to put too much weight on it. I'm no alien doctor, but I imagine giving it some rest would probably be the best way to fix it all up," he advised. Grabbing the leftover cream and bandages, he opened one of the cabinet doors and stashed them in for safe keeping.

"Ok, so my mum is going out for some time today, which is really good. Means we'll have some breathing room. I can show you around a bit once she's gone. For now though, whaddaya say we give this place a pit of a clean up? I reckon we can make it a bit of a nicer place to sleep than what it is now.

Ko looked around at the shed, taking everything in. It reminded her of where she used to sleep. It wouldn't be too dissimilar to her life before, but it wasn't the horrendous living conditions she wanted to avoid. It was the memories that came with those conditions. "I'm ok with staying here as it is if you don't want to clean it up, it looks like a lot of work and you've done more than enough for me already. I don't want to make you do extra. I used to sleep in a very similar place anyway. It's just those memories I don't want to have."

Fischer once again found himself raising his eyebrows at her remarks. She used to live in a similar place like this? She did say before that she never wanted to return home. Maybe the life she had before was why she came here. From what he knew so far, it sounded an awful lot like hell. No wonder she didn't want those memories.

"That's completely fine. I don't mind cleaning it up at all. It needed a sweep up anyway. Tell you what, I'll grab you a broom and you can sweep the floors down, something easy on your leg. I'll clear out the shelves and the cobwebs ok?"

"I can do that," she said with a smile. Turning around, she grabbed the broom that was already laying against the shed wall, not needing Fischer to explain what it was.

"Huh, I guess you already know how to use that?" he asked.

Ko let out a small chuckle as she began to sweep down the floor of the dusty shed.

"It's not exactly the most complicated of devices. I think I can handle a broom," she said, a stain of friendly sarcasm to her voice. Hearing her cheer up a little warmed Fischer's heart slightly. It was nice not seeing her frown anymore.

Smirking, he turned back and began shuffling the tools on the workbench.

"Touché. Maybe keeping an alien secret won't be so bad after all."