JP - Colt is Walking Around

Colt walked over and gently touched her shoulder. “What can’t come out?” He asked softly.

Tzeitel jerked away, she was still shaking. She wiped her eyes when she recognized Colt. She touched the image of her neck where the bullet was near the edge of the image.

Blinking, Colt looked at the image and frowned. “A bullet, yeah…you’ve had it in your neck for years. I bitched at the doctors to try to get it out for you back when it happened, but they refused…” He explained, finally noticing his bleeding arm. “Shit…”

“You knew it was there?” Tzeitel asked, she felt so violated. She looked up at Colt and saw that his arm was bleeding. “COLT! You’re not supposed to be walking around! What the FUCK are you doing?”

“Swear jar.” Ami said in a small voice.

Colt flinched and took a step back. “I was worried about you and…wait, you didn’t know about it?!” He asked, genuine confusion on his face. His eyes glanced at the file again and things began to quickly click. “They erased your memory of it…?”

“Yeah. They did that a lot.” Tzeitel said, spreading out the pages about her multiple escape attempts with Klaire. Ami walked over and looked at the pages spread on the floor, quietly hugging Tzeitel from behind. Tzeitel did not have the pages about Canestone out so she let Ami look. “See? I wasn’t always a sheep for MegaCorp. Klaire and I were friends for years before we escaped for good, they’d separate us and erase our memories.” In the oldest photo Tzeitel was only a year older than Ami and Klaire must have been around forteen. They both looked scared but Tzeitel could tell by how they stood close to each other, protective, that they were already good friends. “I wish I could remember us… It happened a bunch of times.”

“Maybe we can find a way to help you remember…?” Colt suggested and shifted so he was keeping his bleeding arm hidden. He didn’t want her to worry about him when this was a stressful situation about her.

“I don’t know. They wiped Klaire’s memory too… And why the hell are you trying to hide your fucking arm after dripping blood all over the floor?” Tzeitel asked.

“Swear jar,” He said automatically and grimaced. “I’m fine. This isn’t about me.”

“Yeah, it’s about you bleeding out all over my file.” Tzeitel grabbed the first aid kit from her car and pulled out some gauze to press where Colt’s arm was bleeding.

Ami turned from the pages to watch her sister and Colt.

Colt tried to step away, but when dizziness struck him, he had to stop and hold onto a chair. It caused pain to shoot up through his burnt arm, but he endured and let her take care of his arm. “Sorry…” He muttered.

“Sit your ass down.” Tzeitel scolded as she took care of the bleeding. “Though you really should be in bed. What the fuck, have you forgotten what happened to you?”

“No, I haven’t…kind of hard to forget when a guy throws you around like a ragdoll while you’re on fire…” Colt said with a bit of sarcasm and chuckled bitterly as he obeyed and sat down. “I’m sorry I never mentioned the bullet…I honestly thought you knew about it.”

“Up until the moment I saw the bullet on the x-ray I thought I would know if I had a bullet in me.” Tzeitel rubbed her neck and glanced at Ami. “Ami, please don’t touch the file…” She did not want Ami absorbing her file. It had more details about what Canestone did to her than Tzeitel wanted to know about, she hated to think how traumatizing absorbing that kind of information could be. Ami nodded and stepped back from the file. “I feel…” Tzeitel hugged her arms and shuddered. She felt violated. She felt like throwing up.

Colt watched Tzeitel with concern. "Ami, can you grab the small trash bin from near the door?" He asked and gently touched Tzeitel's shoulders. "Hey, just breathe…remember, slow deep breaths. Find things that ground you "

Ami got the bin and set it in front of Tzeitel. Tzeitel closed her eyes and breathed slowly. "I want it out of me." Tzeitel whispered.

“I know you do, but we need to know if removing it could do more harm than help first. Okay?” Colt insisted and squeezed her shoulders to remind her that she was still in control. “If there’s a chance removing it won’t hurt or kill you, we’ll work on getting the bullet out, but for now you need to try to calm yourself down. The bullet is in your neck…that’s a very sensitive area. If anything went wrong and they accidentally cut something important while getting it out, you could…” He released her shoulders, looking away. “Lets just make sure it’s safe to get taken out…”

“I know.” Tzeitel shuddered. She did not want to end up paralyzed or dead getting the bullet out. But… she never wanted the damn thing in her in the first place. She threw up.

Colt made sure she vomited into the bin and held her hair back for her. “We’ll figure this out, Tzeitel. I promise.” He told her calmly. “Even if we have to hunt down the best surgeon on the planet. Right, Ami?”

“Cody can help.” Ami said.

Tzeitel groaned. “That’ll take too much out of him.”

“You sure?” Colt asked. “I’ve seen him heal a lot of people these days and he’s usually fine so long as he gets a good meal afterward. Speaking of Cody, who’s that girl he was hanging out with? I passed them on my way here.”

“Girl?” Tzeitel remembered that Cody was sitting by a girl but did not assume they were together.

Ami was planning on asking Cody about what he could do about the bullet the next chance she got.

Colt shrugged. “She seemed nice.” He said and scratched at the stubble on his chin. “I need to shave…”

“Nice… What do you mean?” At least Tzeitel was distracted from the bullet lodged in her neck.