Unforeseen

Chapter XXI

Once Raphael made his way out, I asked Gabriele what had happened with the doctor. Gabriele told me that the doctor was troubled to see that the bullet was still inside and had remained so all night. The only positive notion at the time was that from what he could tell the bullet looked to be intact. During our tour, I had noticed a couch, its shape I had never seen before located in the private study. Apparently,it was here that the doctor worked on him. With a stroke of luck, he had been correct in his suspicions, the bullet was indeed all in one piece. He was able to remove it and examine the remaining wound for any additional problems at which point he found none. He was also able to properly disinfect the injured area before sewing him back up.

Gabriele had told me that the doctor said he wasincredibly blessed during this whole situation,especially with running the fever yesterday he had described to him, and lucky that he didn't develop a very serious infection. To his knowledge, the wound looked good and showed no presence of bacterial contamination or anything else being wrong. Normally if there were a problem, he would see significantly more drainage from the wound.And the drainage would be of a strange color, a green or yellow normally, at times even a light tan. It would be thick in dimension, and the pus would have an associated odor with it, that would smell of a dead animal carcass, that had been left untouched for days. These symptoms were the most commonlyseen among other things. He considered it excellent thinking on Raphael's part with the quick decision to douse it in hard liquor to help kill any bacteriabefore it had a chance to grow. He did give some praise to me as well for cleaning the wound the second day after the incident and rebandaging it with clean coverings.

The doctor ensured Gabriele that he should heal up nicely but strictly warned him that at the slightest temperature fluctuation that he is called immediately. Apparently, he wasn't out of harm'sway just yet. The following forty-eight hours I made sure to keep a close eye on him. The doctor had named this as the danger zone for Gabriele and that if we got through this time with no problems the chance of an issue arising would decrease since his wound wasn't as bad as what he initially pictured once he got to take a look at it in person.Later in the day, Raphael met up with Gabriele and I in the gardens.

"There you two are...I am beginning to think you're going to be spending more time out here than you will be inside the manor," he said with a hard laugh, puffing the remaining smoke out of his mouth from the burning cigar he held in his hand. 

Gabriele laughed it off telling him that we were just trying to take it all in and enjoy it while the weather was in our favor. 

Raphael turned his attention on me, speaking gently as if I was a child and he the father. "Abriana, I wanted to inform you that all of theboxes from your apartment were brought into the manor. We put them in the library since Gabriele said that's going to be your private room, so that you may unpack at your leisure." 

"Thank you kindly, Raphael. I appreciate thatand please tell everyone else thank you for me too in case I don't get a chance to see them againtoday."

With a slight nod of his head, he turned to leaveus but not before shooting a glance at Gabriele. His face remaining a mystery of why he was sharing a look with him and what it meant, but I had a strange feeling that Gabriele seemed to know. 

"I'll be right back," Gabriele whispered in my ear, taking a few small steps away from me.

"Actually..." I said, grabbing his arm to briefly stop him. "I am going to head for the library I'd like to start unpacking my boxes and get everything back to the way it was in there." 

"Okay darling," he said, cupping my face. 

"But I will ask when you get done, doing whatever it is you're going to do, will you please meet up with me in the library? I have some things I would like to discuss with you."