After she felt like she had taken more time than she needed to, she found the medical supplies and headed back to the living room with them.
“I’m back,” she called out, moving to set it down. “Are you done eating yet? I can give you your medicine after your done eating.”
He nodded, still slowly finishing off what was on his plate. She went to the kitchen to get him some water to down the pills. Painkillers and all the alcohol might not be the best combination… but hopefully, he wouldn’t be paying too much attention to that. Clearly, all the drink wasn’t keeping away the pain.
She prepared everything, then took out the pills and left them on the table, along with the water.
“Can you take your shirt off for me, first?”
Adrien grunted and moved to take it off. His mouth was set in a grimace, it was obviously painful for him, but he persisted until he had it off. Then, he picked up the water and the pills, and she smiled to herself, watching him take them. He probably wanted to have it first while she dealt with his wound.
“Are you ready now?” she asked.
She got another grunt.
Camila went about removing the bandage. Her nose was wrinkled before she had it completely removed. The wound looked terrible, definitely infected. She was too afraid to have her hands too close to it, so she was glad the medical wipes weren’t gone yet, though the pack had gotten really thin since she first used it.
“How does it look?” he asked.
She sighed, hesitating. “It…honestly, Adrien, it doesn’t look good. Are you sure you won’t go to a hospital? I don’t actually know a thing about healing wounds, you know? I figured it would have at least started closing already, but it’s not yet.”
Her voice was filled with fake concern. With the way he was feeling, she couldn’t keep pretending his wound was just fine, so she wasn’t. But she also knew that he wouldn’t agree to go to a hospital or to see someone. His rationality in some parts had gone way down. He honestly believed, that if he kept ignoring it, it would be fine on its own.
Once she had the bandages fully off, she could see just how badly the wound had deteriorated. It looked disgusting, and the smell coming off it was about as bad as the rotting corpse in the basement.
“I don’t need to see anyone,” Adrien said, like she expected. “Just use the alcohol in it again. It’ll hurt, but there’s no helping it.”
“This really looks bad though…”
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said dismissively.
“Okay, if you say so.” Camila took him at his word. I hope it fucking hurts like a bitch! The bottle of alcohol that was in the bag was still there and untouched. She was sure it was actual alcohol, not anything medicinal, but whatever. As he wanted, she poured some alcohol into the wound.
“Mother fucker!” he growled, his body shaking, but quieted himself down quickly.
She took the wipes and started wiping away the excess fluid. Some of the pus had been washed out from the wound, but she still didn’t think it would be much help.
Once she was done wiping the wound down, she pretended to wipe her own hands on a towel, then got some more bandages. She prepared it with her germ laden fingers and wrapped them around his shoulder, making it slightly tight. He let out a few more growls as she pressed a bit harder on the wound, but he didn’t complain.
She was glad he wasn’t taking his pain out on her, but she was secretly pleased with how infectious the wound was looking.
“If you’re not going to see someone, then at least lay down. Move more on your side so you don’t injure your shoulder, all right? I’m dependent on you, after all.”
Adrien was panting, and when she saw his face, she wondered if he was still there with her. His face was exhausted, his eyes staring off into space.
“Yeah,” he breathed out in between pants for breath. “You…need me so… I should get better.”
“Of course,” she murmured.
She watched as he slowly moved until he was lying on the arm of the couch, on his uninjured side. Almost instantly, he fell asleep.
Good.
These days, he was spending more and more time sleeping off his binges and his pain. Even then, she couldn’t be sure how aware he was of his surroundings, so she was still careful.
This time, though, she was sure he would be out for the count. Not just a lot of drinks, he’d even taken some painkillers. He would be lucky to wake up from that for a few hours.
I should keep looking,she thought to herself.