The work of changing his dressings took several minutes, punctuated frequently by cursing and exclamations of pain. Abigail, for her part, was exceedingly gentle, and moved quickly so as to have the whole experience over as quickly as possible.By far the worst pain came from his thigh, which despite being st.i.tched up and covered with various kinds of salves and unguents still gently weeped blood and pus around the threads. The whole leg was swollen and inflamed, and dark purple-red-black bruises encircled the stab wound like the petals of a rose. When she went to remove the linen wrapped around it, part of the blood-soaked linen near the st.i.tches caught on one of them and tugged, sending into a flurry of howls and obscenities. Abigail apologized profusely, but he waved her away. He knew it wasn"t her fault.
Mercifully, after the bandages were replaced, Abigail covered him back up, and gave him a mouthful of some thick white substance she poured out of one of the brown gla.s.s bottles. It tasted a bit like pine sap smelled, and no sooner had he swallowed it then he began to feel his lips, tongue and teeth go numb. He looked over at her as she re-stoppered the bottle.
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"You just gave me the good stuff, didn"t you?" He said more than asked.
"Crushed Morphium petals in Numb-Nettle sap. I"d say you"ve probably got about five minutes before you can"t feel your face, much less your wounds." She said, flicking her eyebrows with an amused expression. "Never had it myself, but I"ve heard it"s pretty pleasant."
So, he was about to trip b.a.l.l.s on powerful painkillers. That was going to be fun. Only time he"d gotten to do that before was when he"d broken both his arms when he rode his bike off a jump at the bottom of a steep hill and missed the landing ramp. He couldn"t remember much from the couple days afterwards, but what he did remember had been an endless conga line of warm fuzzy feelings and happy thoughts.
As soon as he thought about this, it occurred to him for the first time that he hadn"t seen Rose or Madeleine or either of the brothers since he"d woken up a little while ago, and despite his pain and the numb glow slowly beginning to take his extremities he began to feel suddenly apprehensive. Before he went all loopy he had to know the girls were okay.
Abigail got up and turned to leave, but Jack called after her.
"Abigail, my companions... Rose and Madeleine... are they okay? Where are they?" He asked. It took him more effort than usual to p.r.o.nounce each word because he could no longer feel his tongue or lips.
"They"re fine. I believe they"re helping some of the others clean up and treat the wounded. Would you like me to tell them you"ve finally woken up?
"Yesh... Pleash..." He said, beginning to lose his ability to adequately control his mouth. The drugs were taking effect much faster than he expected. "Tsh.e.l.l themmm I"m...." He started, then stopped as he struggled to get his brain to the correct next word in the sentence.
"I"ll be sure they know you"re recovering well, and are currently sedated for the pain. When you wake up next, you should be feeling much better, and will be able to see them then." She replied, then headed for the exit. "Sleep well, Jack."
"Hyoh-kay. Cannn doooo..." Jack said, giggling to himself as he felt like he was sinking further and further into the bed. He was about to have an absolutely phenomenal sleep.