"Hah, I thought your first name was MacCready."
"Hah," he mimicked. "Well, it's not. I kind of don't like my name, if I'm being honest."
"I don't like my name either." I shifted my feet under the table, accidentally bumping his. He didn't seem to mind, as he didn't move his foot away. "What's your middle name?"
"Joseph." After speaking he winced and wrapped an arm around his torso. I stood up and walked around the table to him.
"Are you okay?" I asked, worried.
"Christ, they weren't lying when they said it hurts wore the second day," he groaned sarcastically, getting up and walking towards his bag for a stimpack. He jammed one into his arm, his expression growing more pained when he didn't get the instant relief he was hoping for. I stopped him from grabbing another stimpack and grabbed some medical supplies from my bag.
"Here, let me re-wrap your wounds."
He exhaled shakily and slipped off his duster, revealing his ripped white t shirt. When that was off, I winced at the bloodied bandages covering his lower chest. He closed his eyes as I started to unwrap the layers of bandages, each being bloodier than the other. When I finally unwrapped the last soaked layer, I instinctively covered my mouth as tears poked the corners of my eyes.
It looked as though the wounds had been bleeding all night. His entire lower chest was crimson with blood, and I knew I couldn't do much about it.
"On God," I said. "Robert, please, look at your chest."
He opened his eyes and looked down. His breathing hitched, and he looked up at me, looking somewhat scared. "I didn't know it was that bad..."
"We need to get to Diamond City as soon as we can. The doc can help you, I just... there's not much I can do. For now, I'll just put some pressure on it. Do you think you'd be able to make it back to DC?"
He nodded, laying down.
"In the cold rain? You're sure?"
He nodded again, putting his hand over mine as I held the rag on his chest. He closed his eyes and smiled.
How does he do it? He's always so positive and encouraging towards me, even in the worst situations. Shit, why is that so attractive to me?
"How's your arm, by the way?" He asked, shooting me a teasing glance.
"Don't you dare right now." I folded the towel over, as one side was soaked in blood already.
"Just lookin' out for you, that's all." He started to sit up, and I took one hand off the towel and placed it on his shoulder, pushing him back down.
"We're gonna head to the city as soon as the bleeding slows some and I can re-wrap it. Does that sound alright to you?"
"What choice do I have?"
"I guess you don't really have one, do you?" I lifted the towel up and it had a lot less blood than the first side. I took some bandages from my bag and started wrapping his torso tightly, and he only winced a few times. When I was done with a few layers, I looked up and noticed tears at the corners of his eyes.
"Hey, you okay?"
"I'm fine," he said, lightly grasping my hand. "It just hurts a little, that's all."
"We should probably get going. Do you need help getting up?"
"No, I can at least do that." Still holding my hand, he pulled himself up, slipping his torn shirt and duster back on. I grabbed my cola from the window sill and dumped it out, as it was overflowing with more rain water than soda. I tossed the bottle into the trash can in the corner, then grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder.
