"What happened?" Joel said, looking behind him, to see if someone was still left.
But he couldn't see anyone.
"You… your hand!" Nina said, looking at the bloody hand.
Joel, while protecting Nina from the fourth man's shot, had shifted, trying to dodge the shot. But the bullet had brushed past his hand, giving him a superficial gunshot wound, which was bleeding.
"That's nothing." Joel said, not even looking at his arm.
"No, this is serious. Let's.. let's go to the hospital first." Nina said, her voice sounding stringer for the first time in the past half an hour.
"We don't have much time. We need to find young Miss first. She will be in C city now." With that, all the men immediately went to their own cars, starting the engine.
"C city? Why? Can anyone tell me why these people are behind Kizy?" Nina asked, not knowing why all of this was happening.
"I think it would be better if young Miss explains all this to you, instead of me." Joel said.
Nina just remained silent, knowing she will have to wait for Kizy to get her answers. But she was praying for her safe return, wishing nothing bad would happen.
She was still thinking about the entire situation when she suddenly said.
"Stop the car." Nina said, her tone urgent.
"What happened?" Joel asked, not knowing why Nina was asking them to stop in the middle.
"Quickly stop!" Nina said.
Joel immediately asked the driver to stop the car.
Nina opened the car door, before crossing the road, entering a pharmacy.
Joel, who was confused at Nina's action, shook his head, finally understanding what she was doing.
Within two minutes, Nina was back with antiseptic solution, cotton buds and some other medicines.
"Let's go to C city now." Nina said, much more composed after ten minutes.
"You are not coming to C city." Joel said immediately.
"Why not? Kizy is there. How can I not come?" Nina said, frowning a little.
"But that place is not safe." Joel replied.
"I am coming, no more arguments. Now roll your sleeves up." Nina said, no more behaving like the scaredy cat she was moments ago.
Joel didn't know what to say. This girl in front of him was their young miss's best friend. He could not be too harsh with her, nor could he reject her outrightly.
Plus he couldn't even seek Markus or Kizy to inform if he should be bringing Nina there.
Alas, he simply rolled his sleeves up, deciding to take Nina's responsibility till the end, as his Young Miss had asked him to.
Nina took out the medicine, about to clean his wound, but Joel immediately pulled his hands back.
"What are you doing?" Nina asked, not knowing why Joel took his hand back.
"Let me do it." Joel said, extending his hand to take the medicine and bandage from Nina's hand.
"Just stay quiet and let me quickly clean it. Your wound is open, which might create some complication later on." Kizy said.
"No no. I can't let you do this for me. I will apply it on my own." Joel said, shaking his head vigorously.
"I am a doctor." Nina said.
"Still-" Joel was about to refuse when Nina simply pulled his injured hand, not waiting for Joel to reply.
Nina carefully tended to his wound, cleaning it up before, applying medicine and covering it up.
Joel just looked at his wound and sometimes at her. This was the first time in the past two years, when someone else was treating his injuries, or taking care of him.
Whenever he would be sick or injured, he never had anyone to go and complain about. He will eventually have to clean and dress all his severe injuries on his own.
Thus it felt different to be treated by someone.
While Nina was trying to do everything to take care of him. If not for her, Joel wouldn't have received the bullet.
Today, a lot of things were happening which were too much for her to take. Kizy and Markus being something more than what they were showing, her kidnapping, all those firing and shooting sounds, and lastly a bullet that could have pierced her.
Though she was calm, strong and mature, she wasn't expecting something this extreme.
Remembering all those scenes from before, Nina felt emotional, a single tear flowing down her face, landing on Joel's wrist.
"Hey! Why are you crying? Are you hurt somewhere?" Joel asked, panicking because of the sudden tears.
But the next moment, Nina started crying even more, tears flowing non stop, while she was still dressing for Joel's injury.
Joel, didn't knew what to do and pulled his hand back, making Nina lower her head and wipe her tears.
"Are you hurt somewhere? What happened? Why are you crying now?" Joel asked, not knowing what else he was supposed to do.
"I.. I am.. sorry." Nina said between her sobs and started crying more hard.
"Why.. What are you apologising for? You didn't make any mistake." Joel said, confused over what he was supposed to do.
"Yo.. you were injured.. injured because… because of.. me.." Nina said, still crying.
"No no no. I was injured because of my mistake." Joel immediately replied, not knowing that this would be the reason why Nina was crying.
"No. You... were shot.. instead of me." Nina said through her sobs.
"No. I was injured because of my mistake. I wasn't able to dodge it properly. And this is not even painful. Why are you crying?" Joel said, trying to console her.
But Nina just kept crying, not knowing that the man sitting beside her was already used to these gunshots and wounds, treating them like nothing.
She was still crying when she felt Joel place his hand over her head, before bending a little, so that he was on her level.
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Hope you all are enjoying the recent plot. Please don't forget to comment and vote with powerstones and golden tickets. Have a great day ahead!!
- Kizy