Sometimes it was better not to think. As a frozen, blood-covered Julianna shivered and whimpered in my arms, smelling of piss, mildew, and all manner of gross, I watched the police cover the dead body lying five feet away with a tarp, and I tried to process what I was seeing. But I’m pretty sure my brain wouldn’t let my thoughts travel far or I would’ve had a meltdown right then and there.
I was shaking as much as Julianna was. Or maybe she was trembling so much for both of us it just felt like I was too. She was like hugging an ice cube.
“Blanket,” I said, lifting my face to address anyone from the horde of people gathered around us, standing there and gawking like dumbasses.
Juli’s dad immediately began to shed his coat. Somewhere in my head, I wondered why I hadn’t had the forethought to take off my own coat for her, but then, I wasn’t all that sure I was able to stop holding her long enough to do so. I snatched the coat as soon as it was held down to me, and after I fumbled to wrap it around her shoulders and tugged her back against me, she tucked her face just under my chin, croaking a barely discernable word that sounded like water.
“Water,” I ordered, glancing up again. This request wasn’t so readily available. There was a mad scramble before a clear half-empty bottle was shoved in front of me. In the wait, I tucked my face close to her cheek and asked, “Where does it hurt most?”
Though her coat and clothes were freezing cold, her cheek was burning hot.
A shudder wracked her body. “E-everywhere.”
I closed my eyes and kissed her hair. We clutched each other for a while, blocking out the rest of the world. I was only vaguely aware of family and emergency workers milling around us, talking and trying to figure out what had happened. At the moment, I didn’t care about any of that. Julianna was alive and in my arms, and that was all that mattered.
When the ambulance finally arrived and they started to wheel a stretcher toward us, I returned to reality and began to pull away from her, knowing she needed to be checked out.
“I think she has a fever,” I told them. But as soon as I stepped away and two paramedics crouched in front of her, she freaked.
“No… Colton.” She reached for me, her breathing immediately picking up, eyes huge with fear, and tears gushing, so I stepped toward her, except the paramedic waved me back.
“Sir, we have this.”
I gritted my teeth and shot the woman a look from hell. Julianna needed me. I wasn’t going to leave her if she wanted me close.
I didn’t have to say a word, though. Julianna’s dad’s voice spoke up, commanding, “Let him stay with her. She gets hysterical otherwise. He’s the only one who’s been able to keep her calm.”
I kind of loved him in that moment.
He had such a powerful presence, the woman nodded reluctantly and waved me forward. “You’re going to have to stay out of our way though so we can take care of her.”
“I understand.” Taking Juli’s hand, I kneeled by her again, moving in close so I could kiss her temple. “Baby doll, these people need to check you over and make sure you don’t have any wounds that need to be immediately taken care of.”
She nodded as she pressed her cheek against my chest. “Okay.”
As long as she could touch me, she let them do their thing, flashing lights in her eyes and taking her blood pressure, temperature, and such. She even answered their questions, though she gripped my shirt in one hand hard as she did so.
“There’s a lot of blood on you, Juli,” the female paramedic said kindly. “Do you know if any of it’s yours?”
“Maybe,” Julianna croaked. “I think so. Stabbed.”
“You were stabbed?”
When she nodded, I breathed, “Jesus,” and closed my eyes.
They asked her where, and Juli lifted her shirt enough to show them her abdomen, where two nasty slashes were still oozing blood.
I whimpered.
The EMT examined it before nodding. “Good news is it looks like you were slashed and not penetrated. Probably just surface damage, but we need to get you into the ambulance so we can clean and patch you up, okay?”
“Okay.”
About three of us helped her to her feet. Her legs were unsteady, but she finally gained her equilibrium enough to hold on to me tight as she took her first wobbly step forward. But as soon as they started to help her onto the stretcher, she freaked, diving back to me and clutching me hard, hiding her face in my coat.
“It’s okay, baby doll,” I assured her, picking her up and simply carrying her to the ambulance, despite the protest of the emergency workers.
Again, they didn’t want me in the ambulance with them, something about policies and liabilities, but Julianna’s dad once more talked them into letting me stay.
We finally got her to sit, but she wouldn’t let go of my hand all the way to the hospital, and I had to say, I didn’t mind. It was nice to feel her alive under my fingers. I didn’t want to be apart from her, no matter how hard it was to witness her agony and only imagine what she’d gone through these past few days.