Marie woke suddenly in the pitch dark, the moon was set, and no lights were on. She thought she must have heard something, so she lay in bed and listened. Sure enough, a few moments later there was a sound of shuffling footsteps followed by a muted thump.
She slid out of the bed, ducking down out of the immediate line of sight of whoever was approaching, just in case it wasn't Logan. It didn't sound like him, she thought worriedly, as she heard more stumbling steps and another thump, this time right next to the door.
The door handle turned slowly and the door creaked open, before the tall dark shadow of a man stumbled into the room and sagged against the door.
"Logan!?" Marie exclaimed, as she rushed across the room toward his silhouette.
She flicked the bedroom light on as she went but stopped with a horrified gasp at the sight before her. Logan was drenched in blood, his uniform was in tatters, torn in places, blistered and burnt in others. The hair on one side of his face and head was burned away, the skin puckered and peeling. In other places red liquid seeped out of bullet holes, while a mass of mangled flesh, where his right thigh used to be, appeared to have been hit by something a lot larger and filled with shrapnel.
Marie knew it was largely useless but she pushed against him in an effort to help him stay upright, if he fell now, she wouldn't be able to move him.
"You need to get to the bed," she said, trying to encourage him to keep moving.
"No ... bathroom ... don't get ... blood everywhere," he rasped, the gurgle of liquid, probably blood, in his lungs was audible.
With slow, obviously painful, steps he made his way along the wall and into the bathroom, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Once in the bathroom he lurched into the shower stall before slowly sliding down the wall until he sat heavily in the bottom of the shower. His head lolled back against the wall; his energy spent for now.
Thinking quickly Marie knew she needed to try and stop the bleeding. Rushing back into the bedroom she grabbed a sheet out of the cupboard before rummaging around in the desk drawers until she found a pair of scissors. She began to cut and tear the sheet into strips as she raced back to the bathroom, slamming the bedroom door shut on her way.
The slam of the door brought Logan's attention back to the here and now, and he was watching her as she walked into the room. He grinned wearily when he saw her field bandages.
"I'll admit, I'm making this up as I go along from what I've seen on TV so any tips you can give would be appreciated," she told him, as she dropped down beside him on the cold floor.
"Cut off ... uniform," Logan said, by way of instruction. He tried to help as much as he could as she cut and peeled off what was left of the uniform.
Once the uniform was out of the way the extent of the damage seemed even worse. Wounds that had been held shut by the constricting uniform were now ugly, red, gaping chasms of flesh.
"Logan what do I do, there's too much blood, how do I stop it," she whispered, trying desperately to hold back the tears that were wanting to fall. Crying now would not help anything.
"Bullets ... still in the ... holes. Start at ... the bottom ... one wound ... at a time. Once the ... obstruction's ... gone, it'll heal." Logan said, sounding a little less pained now. Marie noticed his hand move as if to reach for her but stall partway, she grabbed hold of his hand and lifted it her cheek. "Don't cry ... I'll be fine ... had to make sure ... you were okay," he told her, his voice still raspy but less wet sounding, he even managed a decent smile.
Marie drew a deep breath, to settle her nerves, before she placed a kiss on his bloody palm, not noticing the blood that clung to her lips when she did. She set to work, starting at the bottom of his left leg she quickly worked her way over every wound. Using her fingers, she searched out and, as carefully as she could, removed each mangled bullet, every single one had stopped when it hit his metal coated bones. She hated to think how many more wounds there had been, that had only hit soft tissue and already healed. As she went, she was relieved to see the wounds methodically begin to knit together, leaving behind angry pink skin, as his healing left off once the wound was closed enough to no longer be a problem.
It took her almost two hours to remove every bullet and all the shrapnel she could locate in the thigh wound. Logan had to shift position several times so she could reach all the wounds. By the time she was done she had almost as much blood on her as he did, her hair was matted to her forehead, where she had kept trying to push it back with the back of her hand, and the coppery tang on her lips had run down her chin as she had sweat.
Once all the wounds were closed it was time to wash away the blood residue. Pulling down the showerhead Marie carefully set the temperature to what she knew Logan ordinarily liked, even so she still checked with him that it was okay this time. He grunted intelligibly but she assumed it was something in the affirmative so she began to gently hose him down, blocking the direct flow of water onto the tender new skin with her hand as she gently massaged away the blood.
She hosed off the shower floor as well before getting him to turn over again so she could wash his front. She stifled a giggle when she asked sarcastically 'seriously?', as his dick tried valiantly to rise to the occasion when she got to that part of his anatomy. Logan huffed a half-hearted laugh in response.
When he was clean enough, she left him sitting on the floor as she stripped herself and washed all the accumulated grime off, so she wouldn't get him all bloody again when she helped him to the bed. He watched her with a grin as she showered above him but said nothing.
Grabbing a nearby towel she wrapped it around herself before grabbing a second to pat Logan relatively dry-ish. Getting him back onto his feet took a lot of effort from both of them, and once he was upright they had to pause to catch their breath. They staggered the short distance to the bed before Logan threw himself bodily at it. It took several minutes, and a lot of prodding from Marie, until he was fully 'in' the bed and she could pull up the covers over him. She grabbed an extra blanket too as he was very cold, as well as pale.
"What else do you need?" she asked gently, with all the blood washed away now she could tell he was deathly pale, as well as unnaturally weak and tired.
"Food," he replied, "Protein ... and fat, you'll need to ... go to the kitchen ... use your door ... shouldn't be anyone to catch you."
Nodding determinedly, she leaned forward to place a kiss on his lips, "I'll be back before you know it, don't go anywhere," she joked, as she walked over to the dresser and pulled out one of Logan's shirts, before pulling on her jeans and gloves. That should be enough cover for her to make a midnight dash to the kitchen.
She was back twenty minutes later. She'd found a picnic basket on top of the fridge and loaded it as full as she could carry with everything that looked like it contained protein and fat. As Logan moved to sit up enough to eat, Marie grabbed all the pillows and cushions she could find, to prop him up comfortably. Cold roast beef was the first thing she handed him, along with a bottle of Gatorade, she figured it would be more useful than plain water in his current state.
Logan powered through the meat, and drank half the bottle before motioning to the soft cheeses, which he likewise all but inhaled. He'd polished off half the baskets contents, and a second bottle of Gatorade, before exhaustion overwhelmed his need for nutrients.
After putting the basket away in the bathroom where it would keep cooler overnight, she returned to help Logan lie back down. Once he was settled, she stripped off her jeans again and climbed into bed in just Logan's shirt.
She gently cuddled up beside him, unsure how comfortable he would be having just healed, but was relieved when he reached for her and pulled her closer. Closing her eyes, she drifted off to sleep again, hoping images of Logan's blood-soaked body would not be disturbing her dreams tonight.
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