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RED

A she was changing the dressing on her hand. She was leaning against the counter, her left hand unwrapped, palm up. Sixteen stitches ran across her fingers and the top of her palm. “I don’t need you to take care of my hand,” Ashe rasped out at Red.

“I want to.”

“I don’t need you to.”

His accent came out, “I want to.” He grabbed her by the waist, lifting her onto the counter. “Show me what to do.” She glared at him. He leaned across her and made a show of washing his hands. When he finished drying his hands, he looked at her again, “please, show me what to do.” He rested his hand against her thigh, she pulled away, he clenched his hand with his fingernails digging into his palm.

“You take the knots and move them to the other side,” she demonstrated on one. He looked at her hand again and took over.

She closed her eyes and felt the threads moving one by one. She was startled out of her thoughts when Red asked, “What did this?”

She met Red’s eyes, “a knife.”

“You held the blade?”

“Probably.”

Red finished moving the stitches, “what next?”

“Cover them.”

The guys were at PT a few mornings later. “How’s Ashe doing?” Genie asked.

“She’s going in for her interview later today.” Red was irritated and all the guys could tell.

“Man, we saw the pictures. However that went down, it was nasty.” Tech took a stab at the source of irritation.

“You’re planning on being there, right?” Genie followed up.

“Man, I wanna be there. I wanna hear what happened,” Rave added.

“Did you show Sylvie?!” Red shot back.

“What? No. But she’d probably say the same thing. She’d high-five her, you remember how we met.”

The guys laughed, Rave wasn’t wrong. The guys had met Sylvie on a ship when they walked in on her beating up a Sailor harassing her.

“If it’s quiet yeah, I’d like to be there. I’m not sure she cares where I am honestly.”

“Does she know why that guy came after her?” Stitch asked.

“No.”

“Red, that’s not gonna work.” Stitch chimed in. She killed a guy. Best case scenario, she was in the hospital because of you. Worst case, that guy raped her.” Red turned on Stitch. “You can be mad at me but I’m not wrong.”

Rave pulled Red’s attention, “He’s right. You gotta give her a reason to trust you. First mission you leave on and she nearly ends up dead?”

Red threw up his hands, “What can I tell her! It must be so nice that all your women are fine!” He stormed off leaving the guys watching him.

“He’s not wrong either,” Genie muttered.