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Seven quickly stepped in, clogging the wounds with as much gauze as she had on-hand. The wire fibers were quickly soiled in crimson red blood. The elevation of Priest's upper body slowed the flow of the blood. She let out a sigh of relief as both wounds refrained from spilling anymore blood after she packed them with gauze. "We stopped the bleeding," Seven announced with deep relief.

Britain glanced down at Priest. She knew Seven being able to stop the bleeding would never make up for the amount of blood he lost on the way over. Pulling her eyes from Priest, Britain’s orbs slowly trailed down to herself. The pastel-colored pant suit she steamed the wrinkles out of prior to leaving her apartment this morning was stained with Priest's cold blood that was now starting to dry and brown. She inhaled a shaky breath as she shut her eyes momentarily. She was trying her best to keep herself calm. She was petrified and definitely traumatized;however, she couldn't deal with those feelings right now. She needed to continue to be brave for Priest's sake.

"Priest," Seven called for his attention. "You still with me?"

Priest nodded his head. He was exhausted from the combination of his high blood loss, excruciating pain, and the extra efforts to keep himself awake. No one was sure exactly how he was managing to push himself through this. "Yes," he throated out through his labored breathing.

"What's next?" Britain asked as she crouched down to be next to Priest. Her fear wasn't about to prevent her from being there for him. He needed as much support as he could get right now.

Seven shifted her attention from the penetration wounds in Priest’s flesh to Britain. "I'm about to close the wounds," she advised her daughter. "And I can't have you in here while I do so." Seven was about to drag a needle through Priest's skin without any anesthetics.

The thought of it was horrendous, but she knew she and everyone else who remained in the room could stomach it. Britain, on the other hand, couldn't. Priest was about to be in a great deal more pain than what he was already in. All the barriers they'd gone through to get him to Seven were hard and challenging, but the stitching process trumped all of that.

Britain screwed up her face in disagreement. "I'm not leaving him," she refused with a shake of her head.

"Britain, no one is asking you to leave him," Remy spoke up, correcting his daughter. "She just can't afford to be distracted."

Her eyes diverted from her father to her mother in disbelief. Britain had just endured a stomach-wrenching car ride with Priest, where she had to use the palms of her hands to suppress his bleeding. Her parents thinking she couldn't handle what was coming next was offensive to her.

"Gioia,go," Priest winced out before heaving a strained breath.

Britain fought against her urge to protest everyone else's wishes. She angrily stormed out of the room, proceeding to the kitchen where J'Ru was working to contain himself. He was seated at the table with his head in his hands. Britain could tell J'Ru was fuming in anger, and she couldn't blame him. It was hard for her to stomach Priest's decision to not go to the hospital as well, but he was adamant, so she knew he must've had a reason behind it.

She shuffled over to the sink. Her eyes trailed down to her hands. The dried blood that stained her palms began to crack within the crevices of her skin. She needed to clean herself up. Now that her attention was no longer on Priest, the severity of the situation began to set in. To everyone else, things may have seemed to happen so quickly, but for Britain, everything was moving in slow motion. The thought of it caused a thick clot of air to lodge in her throat. She felt like she would suffocate upon realizing that she was also on the brink of death. It was almost as if someone had shoved her into a casket while she was still alive and buried her six feet under.

Britain turned the water on, holding her hands underneath the faucet. She watched as the dried blood quickly loosened from the palms of her hands and began to travel down the drain. She scrubbed her hands together roughly, attempting to get each and every speck of Priest's blood off her. She dug underneath each of her fingernails, raking out the cakes of blood that had accumulated underneath them as well.

Pulling her hands from underneath the faucet, she examined them. They were thoroughly cleaned with soap and water, but she still felt as if they were soaked in blood. She returned her hands to the water four times. J'Ru assessed her behavior as hesat the table. She was shaken up and was finally coming to terms with everything.

With a light sigh, he rose from his seat and made his way over to the sink where she was now washing her hands for the fifth time. He reached over her, turning the water off. She halted the scrubbing of her hands, staring down at them aimlessly. The skin on her hands had grown pale from the back-to-back scrubbing and lathering of the hand soap. To J'Ru, Britain's hands were as clean as they could possibly get; however, to her, they were still tainted with Priest's blood.

"C'mon," J'Ru said to Britain in a light voice as he rested his hands on her shoulders. "This happens. You're stuck reliving it for a while. Then, eventually, it becomes the past," he advised Britain as he pulled a few sheets of paper towels off the roll so she could dry her soaked hands.

Britain nodded her head. She kept her eyes on her hands, still examining them after drying. "Are you gonna be okay?" J'Ru asked her.

He was concerned about her. J'Ru knew Priest never really introduced Britain to the malicious downfalls of his life, like death, so this was going to be hard for her. She was always kept safe, and now, her safety and security had been severely compromised. Recovering from this wouldn't be easy. She may not have been the one who was injured physically, but she was the one who was injured mentally. Healing from that could take longer than anyone could imagine.

Britain shook her head. She was an honest person. She was always upfront with her feelings and emotions. It definitely pained J’Ru to see her admit that she wasn't going to be okay. He was expecting her to suppress her feelings and emotions and push through this. Britain wasn't that type of person, though.

Her orbs glistened with tears as she bit down on her bottom lip with the intention of preventing her tears from falling.J'Ru sighed lightly as he opened his arms, pulling Britain into an embrace. He was sure she would much rather have Priest comforting her more than anyone, but whenever Priest was down, J'Ru always stepped up and made sure everything was handled. Britain was special to Priest, so he felt obligated to make Britain's feelings a priority.

She fell into the embrace. She cried lightly on his chest, a mild shock going through her body as the events of the day replayed in her mind. She went from hugging her father goodbye this morning to applying pressure on her boyfriend's gushing bullet wound. Britain needed time to process, but she wasn't granted that time. Things were moving too fast for her, and she wasn't sure if she could handle it.

Back in the front room where Seven kept a controlled environment to keep Priest stable, she pulled her orbs from Priest and set them on Jeremy and Kaymen. "I'm about to start stitching him up," she began. "His first reaction will be to fight me off, but I need the both of you to secure his hands. If he moves too much, the suture won't hold, and I'll just have to do it all over again," Seven explained with detailed instructions.

Kaymen glanced down at Priest before nodding his head, agreeing to Seven's instructions. She shifted her attention to Jeremy, awaiting his response. He followed suit with a nod, which gave her the go-ahead to proceed. "If the pain becomes unbearable for him, he may pass out. If and only if that does happen, I need you, Kaymen, to monitor his pulse to ensure that he's still alive."

"And if he isn't?" Kaymen throated out to Seven. She sighed lightly before clearing her throat.

"Things look fine right now," she assured. "I stopped the bleeding and cleaned the wounds the best that I can. If he wanted to die, he would have died in the car. He's okay. We just need to be prepared for the worst."

Kaymen nodded his head. He knew that Priest being treated on a foyer floor on a dozen blankets was pretty unconventional, but if Priest put his life in Seven’s hands, then he had no choice but to do the same. Despite the excruciating pain and the high chance of infection, Seven seemed to be doing the best she could. She only had a limited number of resources to work with and still managed to keep Priest alive.

Seven shifted her eyes between Kaymen and Jeremy to ensure they were ready to stomach Priest's pain. Both men nodded their heads as they secured Priest's arms in their grips so he wouldn't be able to fight Seven off, even if he tried. Once the medical thread was weaved through the small opening of the needle, Seven let out a light breath. She recited a silent prayer in her mind before dipping the sharp needle into Priest's thick skin. The first puncture caused Priest to instinctively clench his jaws as his eyes widened.

Veins bulged out of his arms that were being restrained by Kaymen and Jeremy. "Priest, I need you to stay still," Seven instructed as she pulled the suture through the second puncture.

At the sound of Priest's outroars of pain, Britain immediately wiped her tears, preparing to head back to the main room where Seven was stitching Priest up. J'Ru was able to pull her back, restricting her from heading back to Priest.