How far away did Murphy say the nearest town was? An hour in good weather. Providing the police were coming from that town and not another, in which case they should have arrived about an hour ago.
“So what does that leave?” Garrett's voice sounded gravelly as he asked aloud the same question he'd asked Murphy earlier.
There were times when he disliked the cold, analytical way his mind worked. This was one of those times. Because, when he thought about it, what it all boiled down to was that he really had only two viable options.
Either he could set out for a hospital himself, or he could wait and hope the police got here before the roads became too bad to travel. They were almost that bad now.
The latter option was warm and dry and risky, the former cold and wet…and equally risky. Of the two, setting out now in that rat-trap Murphy called a car seemed the lesser risk.
How long before his body reacted to the metal imbedded in his thigh via an infection? He didn't know. All he knew was that an infection would set in if the chunk of metal didn't come out, and come out soon.
That clinched the decision.
Unfortunately, making the decision was the easy part.
Putting the plan into motion was something else entirely…as Garrett found out the instant he pushed himself up to a sit. The mattress beneath him creaked under his weight. He missed whacking the top of his head on the overhead bunk by mere inches.
The room spun around him. A surge of pain rocked up his thigh like a jagged bolt of lightning.
Murphy had left his pants draped over the foot of the bed. Make that what was left of his pants; she'd cut the right leg off his jeans at the hip. He thought briefly about trying to get his pants on, but dismissed the idea. So far all he'd done was sit up, and the process nearly depleted what little energy he had left. Sweat beaded his brow, more dotted his upper lip.
He tried to stand. The room spun more viciously, this time in great, swooping circles. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he felt the world tip. No, wait a minute. That wasn't the world tipping, it was him. Reaching out blindly to steady his balance, his hand grazed the edge of the nightstand. It took effort curl his fingers around the sharp corner of wood.
That, he realized belatedly, was his mistake.
Just when Garrett thought he'd steadied himself, the nightstand tipped over and clattered noisily to the floor. The glass of water went flying, splattering it's contents against the floor and wall like a splash of clear paint.
Momentum working against him, Garrett was quick to follow.
The bright, crayon-green carpet cushioned his fall. Sort of. Garrett landed on his left hip with a thud and a grunt.
He'd barely had time to catch his breath when the door was thrown open and Murphy ran into the room. Without breaking stride, she snapped on the overhead light. The glow temporarily blinded Garrett, since his eyes had grown accustomed to the dark.
She assessed
the situation in a blink. In two, she was kneeling over him. Her hair fell forward, and the end of a fat brown curl tickled Garrett's cheek.
Concern swam in her eyes, and more hardened her tone. “Are you all right? What on earth were you doing? Are you nuts?! You shouldn't be standing on that leg. You've probably opened up your wound again, which means you're going to start bleeding all over the rug, and—”
“Murphy,” Garrett said, hoping to snag her attention before she worked herself into a panic, which she seemed to be doing very quickly.
“—I'm going to have to r-rebandage you. It was hard enough the first time. I don't think I can do that again.”
“Murphy?”
“I get queasy at the sight of blood, you see, and—Damn it, Garrett, what on earth were you thinking—”
"Murphy!"
“—about?! If you wanted something, all you had to do was yell and I would have gotten it for you. You didn't have to—”
He'd tried silencing her with words. It hadn't worked. Garrett took the only other course available to him.
He reached up and slipped his hand past her throat. Splaying his fingers over the base of her scalp, burying them in her soft hair, he dragged her mouth down to his.
Murphy stilled instantly.
So did Garrett.