Lockdown

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

10/07/2019. 13:54 hours. David Rossi's House, Virginia.

"I look ridiculous!" came a groan of despair from the spare bedroom. David smirked to himself as he casually sipped his freshly brewed coffee. It was a well-deserved beverage after helping Spencer shower. If it had not been so early in the day, he would have had a good stiff Scotch instead. It turned out that Spencer was much more stubborn than he thought. It had been a battle of wills as David held the genius' head still from the front as Spencer raked at his scalp with the shampoo. David had ended up just as soaked as Spencer by the end. Once Spencer had dried himself off, David put the cervical collar back on him and went to his own room to dry off and change his clothes, leaving Spencer to dress himself. The sound of breaking glass was alarming. David set his mug down on the coffee table, his eyes still drawn to the place that had Matt's credentials and gun in a pile in the centre. He came to his feet and made his way over to the spare room. He knocked lightly on the dark wooden door with the second knuckle of his trigger finger.

"Spencer? Are you okay?" asked David, a frown knitting his brows.

"Yeah, uh… I could use some help." David slowly opened the door to find Spencer clasping a towel over his left hand and a broken glass tumbler on the hardwood floor. Spencer turned fully to look at David, the brace preventing him from moving his head. David's eyes widened.

"What happened, kiddo?" Spencer dropped heavily onto the side of the bed, his head bowed in shame.

"I tried to pick up the glass to get a drink. I got shooting pain through my arm, and I lost my grip on it. I tried to pick it up and cut my hand." David smiled softly at him.

"Don't worry. I'll help you get cleaned up." David stepped into the en suite bathroom and retrieved the first aid kit. With the green box in hand, David knelt down in front of the young man. He took a moment to absorb Spencer's appearance.

A small, thin scar snaked through Spencer's bottom lip and another across his eyebrow. The bruising had all but faded on his face. A swath of bandages was visible beneath the cuffs of the dark red button-up shirt he wore, the first three buttons undone to accommodate the collar. His long curls had been swept back out of his face. Spencer pursed his lips in frustration. The stubble on his jaw gave him a rugged appearance. He had always been a clean shaven man until prison, and then his exterior looked as rough and hardened as his core. David pressed some gauze to the neck of the bottle of antiseptic in his left hand and inverted the bottle, soaking the gauze with the harsh smelling liquid. Spencer wrinkled his nose and relinquished his hold on the towel.

"This is going to sting, Spencer." David pulled the towel away to reveal Spencer's palm coated in blood. He glanced up at Spencer, who clamped his front teeth down over his bottom lip and gave a thumbs up. David cleaned the blood away as gently as possible, with Spencer stifling his groans of pain. The cut on Spencer's palm was not particularly long but was jagged. David grabbed the tweezers and carefully plucked the shards of glass out of the wound. Spencer's grip tightened around the wrist of his newly injured hand to steady the trembling.

"Sorry, caro. It doesn't look too deep, so you might not need any stitches."

"There are many blood vessels in the hand including radial and ulnar arteries, superficial and deep palmar arches, digital arteries, dorsal metacarpal arteries and the princeps pollicis artery, so it's to be expected that the hand bleeds so much when trauma occurs. The fact that there are many blood vessels and connections between them prevents major problems if a major artery is cut. However, if both main arteries are cut, the hand can die within four to six hours." David quirked an eyebrow at him.