“Wren!” Jilly exclaims
“What happened?” Lucy chimes in.
“She just overdid it,” Jane says. “Now please, everyone; let her rest.” Pace follows Jane down the hall to the right and they go into the first room. It is small, barely big enough for the bed and a set of shelves. An opening in the stone serves as a window, and shutters hang on either side. The bed is nothing more than a simple box of wood with blankets and quilts recovered from our village. Pace sets me down and the sweet smell of fresh grass comes from the mattress. Once more I am amazed at how much was accomplished while we were held prisoner inside the dome. Jonah jumps onto the bed and immediately starts sniffing everything in sight.
Jane unbuttons my shirt and pulls the bandage away from the padding. “You’re bleeding,” she says.
“I thought I might be.” My skin is tender, and I’m not sure if I want her to touch me.
“And you didn’t say anything?” Pace explodes.
I look at him over Jane’s shoulder. “I wanted to be with you,” I say simply.
“What’s done is done,” Jane says. “Pace, please go up to the Quest and ask Dr. Stewart if could come check on Wren. I don’t want to subject her to the stairs in the tower at this time.”
“Yes ma’am,” Pace says, and takes off.
Jane leaves as well, and I gingerly lay back on the bed and try to relax. There is so much to think about. Going into the dome to find Zan and the worry over the rovers attacking again. The morning was so beautiful and the world seemed so peaceful. We cannot be lulled into a false sense of security, especially when Wulf is out there. Jane returns in a short time with a bowl full of water and some towels and sits on the edge of the bed.
“You’re going to have to sit up so I can remove your bandages,” she says. I am weaker than I thought. Jane has to help me up. “Silly Wren,” she says. “Still trying to save the world by yourself?”
“No,” I say. “I know I need all the help I can get.”
“You will have it,” she says. “They all will follow you anywhere.”
I shake my head as Jane unwinds the bandage from my torso. “It is not me,” I say. “It’s this.” I wave my hand to encompass the room, but I mean it for the world outside. “We all want the same thing.”
“But you are the one who is willing to go the distance to get it,” Jane says. “You are the one who saw beyond the glass and had enough gumption to stand up and say, ‘There is a world out there and I want to see it. I want to live in it.’”
“Why are you saying this?” I ask.
Jane smiles. “Possibly because you broke my nephew’s heart, and I want you to know the impact you have on the people around you.”
“I didn’t break his heart,” I say. “Levi doesn’t love me. Not the way Pace does.”
“Just because he didn’t say it doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel it. Levi has lost so many people that he loved. His mother, his father, and his brother … he feels like he should have been with them when they died, that he should have died too. He guards his heart very carefully.”
“Are you saying that I should be with Levi?”
Jane shakes her head. “No. It is obvious that you and Pace are very much in love. Perhaps Levi was meant to come along to reinforce your feelings for Pace.” She is down to the padding and I can clearly see the bloodstain that has soaked through. “I just don’t want you to leave things as they are with him. If you feel that you must close that door, then do it gently so he may leave here with some closure between you. If you don’t, I am afraid he will not take a chance on loving again for a long, long time.”
I understand what she is saying. “I can do that,” I say. “I care deeply for Levi. He’s saved my life more times that I can count, even if he did shoot me.” Jane laughs. “He’s taught me so much, about myself. Things that I never realized. He’s made me see how strong I can be, and how to fight, which is very helpful considering the circumstances.”
“Thank you,” Jane says. “I just want him to be happy.”
“So do I,” I say. “And Jane. I am sure that Zan is okay. My father is way too curious, and too bored with everyone else, to hurt her.”
She tilts her head, and her eyes turn inward as if she is thinking about something. And I realize she is. She is thinking about Zan. “I know you are right,” she says with a smile. “I know I would feel it here,” she places her hand over her heart, “if something had happened to her.” She looks at the padding on my wound. “This is probably going to hurt.” She pulls the padding off and I feel as if my skin is coming with it. She immediately places the wet towel on my stomach and presses it against my flesh to clean away the blood and soothe the rawness.
When she pulls it away I get a good look at my wound. It is just to the right of my navel and puckered with the stitches Dr. Stewart closed it with.
“You are lucky it wasn’t any deeper,” Jane says. “It could have hit a vital organ. It nicked some of your blood vessels, which caused you to lose quite a bit of blood, but it wasn’t that deep and was fairly easy for Jethro to remove. All your moving around today probably damaged the stitches on the inside, which is why I want Dr. Stewart to look at it again.”
“I guess I am lucky that Wulf is so thick,” I say. “When it passed through him it probably slowed it down enough that it didn’t have enough power behind it when it hit me.”
Jane smiles. “Yes, Levi does feel terrible about that too.”
“I don’t blame him,” I say. “His saving mine and Jilly’s lives is worth taking a bullet for.”
“That is an excellent way to look at it,” Jane agrees, as Pace comes through the door with Dr. Stewart in tow.
“I hear you’ve been running around the countryside instead of resting as I instructed,” Dr. Stewart says as soon as he comes in. I give him a sheepish look as Jane buttons the top few buttons of my shirt for modesty’s sake. She moves away so Dr. Stewart can sit beside me, and Pace moves to the foot of the bed. He holds fresh bandages in his hands.
Dr. Stewart presses on my stomach on either side of the wound. A bit of blood seeps out and Jane hands him the cloth to wipe it away. “You have to give this time to heal,” he says. “No moving for at least twenty-four hours.” I open my mouth to protest. I need to be with Pace when he buries his mother. “No excuses,” Dr. Stewart says with an uplifted finger. “I am certain your young man here understands.”
“I do,” Pace says. “Your health is more important than anything else.” I don’t agree, but I can tell that I am not going to get any support from anyone here. Dr. Stewart has his bag with him, and he takes out a jar of some sort of ointment and rubs it across my wound and places a stack of padding on it. Pace hands him the roll of bandages and he winds them around my stomach and ties them on the side.
“Food and rest,” he says. “I will check on you again tomorrow and let you know if you can rise from this bed.”
I nod my head. “Thank you for everything,” I say. “Your tank is amazing. I felt the earth shaking beneath my feet during the attack.”
“It was my design,” Dr. Stewart says. “But your friends are the ones who brought it to life. George’s work on the forge and the rest of them pitching in to do whatever it takes. There’s nothing we cannot accomplish with such determination and desire. And speaking of tanks, we’re going to use our walking tank to raise the hot water tanks into place as soon as everyone is done with lunch.” He takes out his pocket watch and looks at it. “Then we are taking the Quest to explore some ruins about an hour north of here,” he says. “Busy day,” he says with a grin and leaves.