Vo'ke

Fifteen

            No one in our camp was in any position to question Niabi when she showed up at the cabin with a clear bag of morphine and a full set of medical supplies. She explained anyway as she pushed her way through the front door.

"People here are sick," she said, shrugging her coat off and throwing it on the ground. She bent over and began to untie her shoes, passing her supplies over to Shaw who took them wordlessly. "Of course, there are many different definitions for 'sick'. Addiction is an illness, but so is chronic pain or cancer. My people can't afford hospitals. I do what I can."

I heard this from where I sat on the bed, Scarlett silently shaking in my arms. She hadn't stopped quivering since I carried her back to the cabin, and her eyes had a frantic, unfocused look about them that terrified me. Even Niabi's arrival did nothing to calm her.

Niabi took her things from Shaw and walked into our room, taking in the sight before her. Her brows furrowed, but she stopped the flow of emotion before it could get too far, resigned to her task.

"Hold her arm out straight for me, Harry?" she requested, and I leaned over and took Scarlett's hand, unfolding it from where it had curled against her chest. She didn't resist, the only sign that she noticed at all the slight recoil from my touch.

Niabi made quick work of finding a vein in the crook of her arm, the task made easier by her sickly complexion. It took only a few moments before Scarlett's eyelids began to flutter. Her pupils landed on me, then rolled to the back of her head as she fell into a slumber.

I had covered her in my coat for the trek home, her screaming and scratching at me with every step I took until she calmed into her trance-like state. When we arrived and Liam called Niabi for help, I wrapped her comfortably in a cocoon of sheets, being careful with her shoulder and leg so they would be easily accessible for Niabi to work on.

Louis and Niall both were missing from the room. Louis had a notoriously weak stomach and Niall was probably reeling over footage and evidence, but Shaw stood in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest. Zayn and Liam were packing things up from our base camp and sorting through equipment. Annalise bit at her thumbnail and watched over Niabi's shoulder.

Once Scarlett was sedated, Niabi carefully unloaded her tools one by one on the bed stand. Scarlett had soaked through my shirt with blood, but that was the least of my worries as I felt her slowly relax into my arms, her muscles unable to hold that much tension once she had been rendered unconscious by the morphine.

Niabi began with cleaning the wounds before mercilessly digging a pair of scissors with clamp-like endings into the bleeding holes of Scarlett's flesh. It made a wet smacking sound and more blood pooled onto my chest, but I gritted my teeth and forced myself to watch.

I did this.

It took a few tries, but Niabi finally got in deep enough to find the bullet and dig it free. Annalise offered her a bowl from the kitchen and Niabi let the bullet drop with a loud clank before getting back to work. The wound in her calf was less severe and it was easier for Niabi to locate and pull the bullet out, but no less awful to watch.

Scarlett's breathing was shallow as she lay limp in my arms. Uncomfortable, I shifted my weight as Niabi prepared to stitch the wounds together to heal.

"You'll need to be still," Niabi said as she hesitated with the first stitch. It took me a few moments to realize she was talking to me. I'd been so caught up in Scarlett's state of being that I'd completely neglected my own. My limbs quivered without pause.