Dictator s Daughter (11 page)

As he carefully pulled her out of the car, he
was relieved to see minimal blood on the seat. He carried her
unconscious body into the cabin, and headed for the specially
designed medical room. Dr. Randall and Sara had equipped the room
years ago with all manner of first-aid and triage supplies.
Cupboards along one wall held medical supplies and a small
refrigerator contained medical solutions. Several thick reference
books and binders leaned against the wall by the small sink.

Sean laid his patient on the prep table and
unzipped her jacket to get to the wound. Under the jacket she wore
a tee-shirt. He grabbed a pair of scissors and carefully cut the
shirt right down the middle of her abdomen. Just as he suspected,
he found a flesh-colored formed body suit which gave her the shape
of a male, right down to developed abs. Sean saw the bullet hole on
her lower left side. He began cutting the padded suit up the center
to expose the wound and as he cut, he would tear as much as
possible. When he reached her breast area, he found she was wrapped
tightly with ace bandage and he did not cut through it.

As he opened up her padding, his heart sunk.
The foam had acted as a sponge to absorb the blood that poured out
of her wound. It was now clear to Sean why she was still
unconscious; she was bleeding to death. He turned her on her side
and saw she had an even bigger wound where the bullet had exited
her back. The skin was shredded and it nauseated Sean. She needed a
doctor.

He applied clean gauze on her wounds and
pulled her arms out of her sleeves. He removed her pants, leaving
her boxer shorts on and carried her lifeless body to the main
bedroom just off the kitchen. He placed her on the bed and ran back
to the prep room to gather more supplies.

He came back with a box full of items and
applied more gauze to her wounds as blood had seeped through the
others. He threaded her arm into a blood pressure cuff and set the
machine to automatically respond. He waited anxiously for the
results which seemed to take forever, but finally the dismal
numbers flashed on the machine, setting off the alarm. Sean reached
over and disabled the annoying beep.

She’d lost too much blood, what should he do?
He thought about all the extensive first aid training he’d learned
over the years and he knew what she needed was an IV.

He wished he had paid better attention when
Dr. Randall taught him this procedure. He set up the items
necessary, prepped her left arm and made his first attempt.

Failure.

He tried again and again but her veins were
flat. After five attempts, he finally succeeded. He opened up a
large flow of saline to help flood her veins. He inspected the mess
he’d made of her arms and shuddered. She would be covered in
bruises at each IV attempt site very soon.

The blood pressure machine clicked on again
and he waited for the reading. A wave of relief swept over him as
her numbers weren’t any lower than the previous reading. He took a
big breath hoping she’d stabilized and let out a sigh as he
exhaled. He checked her bandages and applied more gauze and pulled
the sheet up and over her tucking it around her small
shoulders.

Sean stared at Eliwese’s face. Her big bushy
eyebrows were still attached to her pale skin. He went into the
bathroom and washed his hands and brought back a warm moist
washcloth and applied it to her eyebrows to remove them. Once he
had completed, he surveyed her delicate features and feminine bone
structure. Her cheekbones were high and her nose small. It still
amazed him that it all disappeared when she put on those fake
eyebrows. Couple it with the padded shoulders and constantly
covered neck, and voila, it’s a boy.

He sat down in the armchair beside the bed.
He laid his head back, took a big deep breath and thought about his
family and home. Was everyone alright? It had been years since any
altercations had occurred with Rawlings’ guards at any half-way
home in Slaterville. He felt it was unlikely anything bad had
happened at his home.

He looked over at Eliwese. Who had shot at
them, hitting her? Did he want to kill her? Riley Stone knew where
Eliwese was. Did he place her at his home or was he only aware of
her location? Did it mean Victor Rawlings knew where his daughter
was all along?

She started to tremble and he moved over to
the bed and placed his palm on her forehead; it was cold. He pulled
up the blanket and snuggled it under her shoulders. Still she
shivered and she made a faint moaning sound.

“Eliwese, how do you feel?” No response, only
more shivering.

He knew he needed to warm her up, but how? He
turned the heat up a few degrees, put another blanket on her and
even tried a warm washcloth on her forehead, yet she continued to
shiver. She wasn’t suffering from hypothermia, but more likely
shock. He stuffed pillows under her feet to elevate them, and then
decided he’d warm her body with his own body heat as if she was
hypothermic.

He kicked off his shoes, took off his shirt
and jeans, pulled back the blankets and sheet and lay down beside
her right side, allowing his skin to touch hers. He pulled the
bedding up and over them to trap the body heat.

He lay on his side with his legs pressed up
against her right leg. He placed his arm across her abdomen with
his hand reaching up and grasping her left shoulder. He scrunched a
pillow under his head and rested his forehead against her cheek.
She continued to shake for a little while longer and then seemed to
calm down.

Sean heard the click of the blood pressure
machine as it turned on and he lifted his head to see the reading.
Again, the number was a little higher than the previous number, yet
still would have set off the alarm. He snuggled his face against
hers again and shut his eyes.

“Sean,”

He raised his head and looked at her barely
open eyes, elated she’d come to.

“What happened?” she whispered.

“Someone shot you but you’re safe now, close
your eyes and rest.”

He checked the clock, three-thirty in the
afternoon.

A couple of hours went by and Sean got up to
replace the IV bag with a fresh one. He started a batch of coffee
in the kitchen and went in to check on her bandages. They looked
good with no blood making it to the surface. He found a laser scan
thermometer and checked her forehead temperature; ninety-six
degrees. He climbed back in bed with her.

Another thirty minutes went by and the smell
of freshly brewed coffee filled the room. Sean raised his head to
see the current blood pressure reading which was better than the
last. His eyes traveled to the window and he saw that the sun was
setting, filling the sky with beautiful colors.

“Sean,” she was awake again.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I was run over by a train.” A small
smile broke across her face and then disappeared. “Who else is
here?”

“Nobody.”

“We’re alone?”

“Yes.”

“Where is everyone else?”

“I’m not sure.”

She moved her hand across her stomach and
realized she was nearly naked. She closed her eyes and turned her
head away from him. “You undressed me?”

“Yes, I’m sorry, but I had to. You’ve been
shot in the side. I had to stop the bleeding.”

She took a shaky, shallow breath. “I’m sorry
for the trouble I have brought to your family. I never meant—” she
stopped.

“Hey, we know the risks with taking in
defectors. Every crosser we have ever taken into our home brings
risk with them,” he reassured her.

She turned her head back toward him, “My
situation is different than the general risks you’re used to
taking. I should have never tried to leave my country. I’ve only
ruined the lives around me.” She coughed a little.

“You need to rest, try not to worry about
this right now. We’re safe.”

“I’m so thirsty, and I hurt.”

“I’ll get you some ice and painkillers.”

When he came back, she had tears rolling down
her temples. He had brought a syringe of morphine with him and he
inserted in the IV. He didn’t know what to say to her, so he just
fed her ice chips with a spoon till she’d had enough. He put the
cup down and used the back of his fingers to wipe her tears away.
As he did so, she closed her eyes and he felt the warmth of her
skin.

“Thank you,” she whispered, “there’s no one
else I’d rather be with right now.”

The clock showed six o’clock. He changed her
IV bags as necessary and monitored her blood pressure and
temperature. She had reached ninety-eight degrees and he felt
relieved; but once it started to climb above that, he realized she
was probably in for a long haul. He went in the prep room and
looked through the medical books for ideas how to deal with
whatever was to come. The binder his mother had put together talked
about infection and antibiotics in a language he could actually
understand. He found what he needed and went back into the bedroom
with an antibiotic and injected it in her IV.

He walked over to the dresser by the door and
rummaged through its contents until he found a pair of jogging
pants and a tee shirt to wear, then he went out to the kitchen and
poured himself a cup of coffee. He sat at the table and stared out
the window.

It had been six hours now since they’d fled
the home. Why hadn’t anyone contacted him on the CB or phone? It
made him wonder what had happened back home. He knew better than to
call out, doing so would be too risky and might give their location
away. The strict rule of the cabin was, once you entered it, you
didn’t leave until someone contacted you or came to you.
Apparently, there had been problems with that in the past but Sean
didn’t know much about it.

He got up and walked into the front room. In
these mountains, the radio reception was poor and television
reception was zero. He turned on the radio and scanned through the
static for a news channel he could hear. Once he found one, he
listened for a few minutes and turned it off. Nothing was said
concerning him, his family or Eliwese.

Sean went back into the bedroom and sat down
in the armchair and laid his head back. His thoughts were swimming
and he closed his eyes. He had not meant to fall asleep, but he
did.

“PLEASE DON’T KILL HER!” Her screaming
brought Sean out of his sleep and back to reality so fast he fell
out of the chair; he jumped up and scrambled to her. She was trying
to sit up and he pushed her back down noticing right away she was
hot to the touch.

He glanced at his watch with horror knotting
up in his stomach as he realized he’d been asleep for four and a
half hours. It was eleven-thirty at night and the out of control
fever was his fault.

She grabbed his wrists and pleaded with him.
“I’ll do anything, please, please don’t kill her!” She squeezed his
wrists hard with a terrified expression in her eyes. Sean was
confused and alarmed at the amount of heat coming out of her
hands.

“Don’t kill whom?”

She lay back breathing rapidly. “You have to
help me escape. I can’t take much more of this. I know you can do
it; you have connections across the border. I’ll pay whatever.”

Sean picked up the thermometer and scanned
her forehead. It read one-hundred five point one. She was too hot
and must be having hallucinations or is delirious from the fever.
If he didn’t get her cooled soon, she could have a seizure or
suffer brain damage.

She continued muttering incoherently as he
threw back the sheet and blanket causing a quick shiver to run
through her like lightning. He touched her scorching hot legs and
picked up a magazine from the bedside table and started fanning her
but realized at the same time it wasn’t going to cool her fast
enough.

Sean ran out to the kitchen and grabbed the
bottle of ibuprofen and bottled water and took a large bowl out of
the cupboard and filled it with lukewarm water. He snagged a couple
of dishtowels and went back into the bedroom. He set the water on
the bedside table and dunked the towels into it, partially wrung
out the water and placed the wet towels on her body. Goosebumps
sprung up all over her skin. He took the magazine and fanned her
body in the hopes of evaporating her heat, a method he read about
in his mother’s guide book.

Sean opened the water and shook two
ibuprofens out into his hand. He placed his arm under her neck and
helped her sit just a little. She was still delirious but he talked
her through the swallowing of the pills.

He returned his focus back to placing wet
towels on her body.

Suddenly she seized his arm and looked right
into his eyes, “If I’m gone, he won’t be able to get his money.”
She reached up and took hold of his shirt at the neck and pulled
him closer to her face. “I won’t let him use me again! I will kill
myself to escape the life he has made me take.” She paused,
released the grip on his shirt and the intensity in her eyes
softened. “Why won’t you say anything to me?”

Sean didn’t know what to say. He was taken
aback by everything she’d said. He thought for a brief second and
then stated, “I will help you any way I can, or die trying.”

Her eye contact with him was intense and he
felt like all of his deepest thoughts were being extracted from his
head; she tightened her hold on his shirt again and pulled his face
to hers. She stopped short and then she kissed him; her lips were
soft and blazing with heat, but as hot as her lips were, her tongue
was flaming.

I shouldn’t be doing this,
he thought.
She’s injured and not in her right mind. She probably won’t
remember this.
His last thought was encouraging. He returned
the kiss, cupping her head in his hands. She relaxed her body until
he held her head. She had stopped contributing to the kiss and
after half a second, he pulled his face away and looked at her.