By Pavlov’s bell
“Kerry”
In response Kerry pulled closer to the slightly shorter woman’s body. “Hmmm” she groaned into Sandy’s neck.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course”
“You know, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to”
Having faced this question time and time again, Kerry could feel it coming like the sun rising just before dawn. “You wanna know what happen to my leg”
“I’m serious you don’t have to tell me”
“Somebody shot me”
“What!” Sandy sat bolt upright. She turned her head so that she was facing Kerry. “Jesus”
“Shh” Kerry soothed, a little dazzled by the reaction “it was a long time ago” pulling lightly on Sandy’s body “come here and I’ll tell you what happened”
Sandy carefully laid back down on pulled the small woman on half on top of her, kissing her carefully on the tip on the nose.
“Well I had just started working in a hospital as a med student” Kerry’s eyes glazed slightly as she was caught up in the memory. “I had been there less than a week, when it happened”
“Take your time, its okay now” came the soothing voice from below Kerry, bringing her out of the painful memory that had swept away.
“I was with a patient when I heard gun blasts, I ran to the admin to see what was happening.” A gentle touch on her cheek reassured Kerry more than she thought a touch could.
“As I rounded the corner, security was tackling this crazed man with a gun. As they brought him down he fired one last shot” Kerry paused as her breathing hitched. “He got me”
“Shit” apologised Lopez “I don’t know what to say”
“Everybody was running and screaming, but I didn’t hear anything. Not the screams, not the gun blast or anything”
“I had to have a few surgeries on my knee, but I can still walk”
Sandy remained silent. Kerry feeling the need to hear Sandy’s voice asked, “anything bad ever happen to you?”
“I got burnt once, in a fire”
“How”
“I’m a fire-fighter it’s a job hazard”
“You know what I meant”
“I got trapped under a falling piece on burning building” a soft sigh “but I escaped with second degree burns”
“Your still walking though”
“Yeah, wanna see my scar?” rolling over without waiting for an answer.
Kerry closely inspected the two inch thick pale scar that ran across the base of Sandy’s back. “Nice, I’d say you where lucky to get away with your life”
“I guess, what time you in tomorrow?”
“You guess?” Kerry mused “12 till 12. What about you?”
“I’m 2 till 10, then I have three glorious days off”
“Lucky you, I have the day after tomorrow off”
“Wanna do something?”
“Sure, but we should probably sleep now”