Only the Lonely will Know

"I guess I am," Lochlann said. He leaned against the couch and rubbed his head again, trying to even off some of the pain. It seemed to be working. "I guess I can stay for a litle bit, if it's not too much trouble."

Until Cabel got back, Lochlann didn't have any place to go. He didn't want to admit that, though, so he said, "Are you sure there's nothing I can help with?"

His heart started to race when she picked up the knife and Lochlann tried to think of comforting, non-sexy thoughts.

"I didn't really expect to come back," Lochlann explained. "I went back to the states a few weeks after the fune--for the holidays and I thought I was going to stay, but I guess not. I just got in a few hours ago, I think I'm probably a little bit jetlagged."

The expression jetlagged was not one he'd heard before and shouldn't apply since he didn't fly out here.

"How were your holidays?" Lochlann asked her, but then realized something was wrong when she pulled her hand up. He was behind her in an instant, his hand on top of hers that was holding the knife and his body so close to hers that they were touching.

"Emily," Lochlann's voice was warm against her ear. He could smell her shampoo and tried not to be distracted by that. "Did you cut yourself? Let me see."

He'd been learning a lot about treating knife wounds over the last several months.

His heart was racing.

Shit, he was probably too close, but it was too late to back up now.

Lochlann couldn't tell through all the blood, so he said, "Before we decide if you should call a nurse, rinse that under cold water for me."

He let go of her hand and said, "Where do you keep your first aid kit?"

After he received her answer, Lochlann left her to get it and to give her a moment to wash her hand out in the sink. When he returned, he set the small kit on the table and pulled out the supplies he'd need. He returned to his too close position and looked down at her hand, frowning.

"Emily I've got some bad news," Lochlann said. "I think...they're probably going to have to cut your entire hand off."

He made the most serious expression he possibly could while looking her dead in the eye.

Then, he laughed.

"It's not that bad. Can I see your hand?" he asked. "We're going to want to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding, some of that ointment gell, and then just wrap it up. It should be okay but it'll hold it if you want to call a nurse."

He tilted his head to the side while awaiting her decision. He wasn't sure how comfortable she'd be with him touching her while she was hurt. If their roles were reversed, he'd be....

probably jumping out the window

Lochlann sighed.

So much for attempting to make her feel better. Now he'd just made everything worse, which admittedly wasn't that out of the usual. He seemed to excel at finding a situation with Emily and then trainwrecking it straight to hell.

"I'm sorry, Emily," Lochlann said.

He took her hand from her and squeezed her fingers, dabbing at it with a cotton ball. When the bleeding seemed to stop, he squeezed some gel over it and wrapped them gently, but firmly, with the bandages.

"How does this feel?" Lochlann asked her. "They might throb for a little bit, but they look like they'll be okay. I mean, i'm not a doctor or any kind of health personal so you probably shouldn't take my word for that, but I've got a lot of experience with knife wounds."

He flinched a little when he said that and rubbed the back of his right hand.

Lochlann wasn't happy that she seemed ready to burst into tears at any moment, but he was significantly relieved that she'd stopped crying for the most part. He rubbed at his eyes as though he was ready to fall back to sleep, but Lochlann didn't think he was going to be able to sleep again.

"Well," Lochlann said. "Let's put it like this....remember that tarot card reading you did for me?"

He looked at her and then looked back down at her hand, only to realize it was on her chest so that probably was a bad place for his eyes, so he dropped them to the table instead.

"Every part of it came true. Including the part about women trouble. That bitch knows how to use a knife."