It's Always Darkest Before The Dawn

Time For a Little Revenge

Izzy

Slash and I stand under the hot water holding each other for a few minutes until he says "Izz, I'm so sleepy."

"Ok, angel, let me get you out of the shower," I say and softly kiss the top of his head. I turn the water off and help him out of the shower and grab one of the towels off of the toilet lid and gently dry his face and hair with it. Then I dry the rest of him and grab some of the lotion off of the sink that the hotel gave us. I rub some into his skin, it smells good and any smell other than sex is welcome at a time like this; I remember drenching myself in cologne trying to get the smell of Nikki Sixx off of me even after I'd showered.

I give Slash a sleeping pill; heroin or not it's not very easy to fall asleep with ice packs all over your body. I help him shuffle back to the bed which is easier since the smack is numbing him. I lay a dry towel under him to absorb the water that will inevitably melt out of the ice packs that he's going to need and fill several baggies (which Duff had the front desk bring up with the bandages for Slash's arms) with ice and bind them to Slash's ribs with the ace bandage from my suitcase I had been using on my knee when I hurt it riding my bike a few weeks before. He sucks in his breath at the cold but doesn't complain. "If you fall asleep it's alright baby, you're on the bed, you don't have to move, I've got you ok? I'll make sure you're taken care of."

"Thanks Izzy, Axl would never help me, never take care of me, even if he was the one who caused the bruises, he wouldn't help me. He'd just tell me to stop being a pussy..."
Slash's voice drops off in sadness. I kiss him softly on the forehead and his eyes crinkle a little at the corner and his mouth curves up some and I know he's smiling. Drifting, but smiling. That's ok, he's better off drifting than having to deal with this full force. I dig a soft t-shirt out of his suitcase and sit him up and slide it on him so there's another layer between the ice and the bed. He helps a little but he's pretty much asleep. I put more antibiotic cream on his arms and re-bandage those. I roll him over on his side where I can see and I move back down to finish dealing with his wounds. The tears in his skin have stopped bleeding, that's good and no more blood is running out from inside of him which means everything has clotted off. I grab the tube of the antibiotic cream and rub it carefully into the tears in his opening. He winces a little. "I'm sorry honey," I tell him, "but you don't want to get an infection there."

"It's ok, I know it's going to hurt. Good god damn thing we're guitar players and carry that fucking cream everywhere with us because we're always tearing open our fingers with the strings," he says half -heartedly joking.

"I'm trying to be as gentle as I can but I need to make sure it gets in there ok?"

"Yeah, I know," he says through gritted teeth." I finish up with the cream, rubbing a little inside of him too which causes him to clench down in pain but he knows why I have to and then I make another bag of ice and wrap it in a wet rag and lay it between his cheeks. I lay another one in the front where his penis is bruised and he squirms but I tell him it has to stay there. Then I pull some boxers onto him to hold all of the ice packs in place. I finish by making two more ice packs for his eyes and face. The hotel is fancy so it left us those ridiculous silk sleep masks on our pillows but this proves to be useful for holding the ice packs on Slash's eyes and the other I can only lay across his cheek and mouth. "Can you breathe ok?" I ask him.

"Yeah, he missed my nose somehow."

"That's because he gave the side of your face a handful of rings," I answer.

"Yeah, I guess so..." he says dozing. I let him sleep. The heroin and the sleep meds ought to keep him out for a while and he needs the rest to heal. He's felt enough pain tonight to last the rest of his life. Finally I pull the sheet up over him and the blanket and tell him to sleep. I think he probably won't hear me and is already asleep but he reaches for me. "Stay with me Izzy," he begs.