As Niko climbed into the back of the cab with her son, she winced at the pain in her side, the twisting doing nothing to help her breathe.
“Mama, can I watch one of my movies?” Roman scrambled up on the bed, already reaching to turn the TV set on.
Niko would normally have tried to get him to do something creative in the mornings, like crayoning or painting, but frankly, this morning she was in too much pain to argue.
“Sure, baby.” She smiled. “Which one do you want?”
She reached in her bag, and before he could get the words out, she pulled out his favourite film.
“Lego Batman!” He giggled, clapping his hands.
Niko removed the disc from the box and passed it to her son, watching as he carefully inserted it into the DVD player.
Roman carefully stacked up the pillows and lay down, his head propped up, so he could see the screen.
“Are you gonna watch with me, mama?” He patted the space on the bed next to him.
“In a little while, baby.” She smiled. “Mama just has to do a bit of work first.”
As she pulled out her phone, she felt the tears pool in her eyes.
How could a day go from perfect to perfectly horrible in less than thirty minutes?
She’d woken to an email from her contact, telling her that arrangements were in place for them to be intercepted when they arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, meaning that in less than twenty-four hours, everything in her world would be infinitely better.
Then she’d gone into Ilya’s office this morning to say hello and see if her brother had straightened himself out, only to be told that Sofia was off their itinerary altogether.
In order to facilitate his drug deal, he’d decided that instead of heading across Bulgaria, they were going to turn off halfway to Sofia, and instead head up into Romania, to Bucharest to be precise.
As to her question of whether he was still high or not, she got her answer when she questioned his decision, and his temper exploded.
Ilya had picked up a chair and thrown it at her.
Ok, she doubted if he really meant to throw it at her. At least, not with any intention that it should actually hit her. But in his drug-fuelled rage, his aim had turned out to be remarkably accurate.
The leg of the chair had caught her straight in the ribs, leaving her grateful that it hadn’t actually punctured the skin and impaled her. In her attempt to avoid the worst of the impact, she’d turned and smacked her head straight into the door, so she not only had the pain in her ribs, but the throbbing from what she wouldn’t be surprised was a cracked cheekbone as well.
She glanced down and re-read the message that had filled her with so much hope this morning.
“Have arranged meeting for when you reach Sofia. Everything in place at the location you used last time. Will be ready when you arrive. Good luck.”
She couldn’t believe her bad luck that her brother would be such an asshole as to change the route at the last minute.
She clicked on the reply button.
“Cancel everything. Change of itinerary. Now headed to Bucharest. No idea where we’ll be stopping. Will be in touch when I know our next destination.”
Niko hit send and almost sobbed with frustration. She’d waited so long to put this plan together and having Roman with her on this trip had meant they could finally put it into action. Yet at every stage she seemed to be thwarted.
She was tired, and in pain, and her world was crumbling around her, again.
The tap on the dividing wall warned her that Kellen was trying to get her attention.
“Everything Ok, honey?” He smiled as he poked his head around the curtain. “You looked like you were holding your ribs back there. Bruised or cracked?”
Niko blushed.
“Probably just bruised, though they feel like they’re broken.” She admitted.
“Look, I don’t want to overstep the mark, but I have had experience of field-medicine in the military.” Kellen explained. “I have bandages in my pack, and some balm that you can rub into bruises, that will bring them out quicker, but take away the sting at the same time. Why don’t you let me take a look and we’ll see if your ribs need taping up? You can even rub the balm on yourself if you don’t want me to touch you. You’ll feel a lot better afterwards, I promise you.”
Niko’s immediate reaction was to shake her head and decline his offer, no matter how well-intentioned it was.
But the second she shook her head, pain ripped through her eye-socket, and her gasp set off a chain-reaction that had her sucking in a breath as knives seemed to stab into her rib-cage.
“That would be a yes, then, hmm?” Kellen grinned, but she could see the concern in his eyes.
“Yes, please.” She hissed. “But I’ll put the balm on myself.”
“Of course.”
Kellen climbed into the back and glanced at the TV.
“Hey, Lego Batman!” He chuckled. “I love this movie. As soon as we’re finished, I’ll stay back here with Roman, and you can go up front and sit with H. I doubt if you’ll find it very comfortable to lie down for a couple of days anyway.”
Niko glanced at Roman to find he was paying them absolutely no attention.
“Here, sit in front of me with your back to Roman.” Kellen suggested. “I just need to get some stuff out of my pack.”
Niko turned herself around and eased off her jacket. She unbuttoned her shirt and carefully shrugged it off her shoulders, leaving herself in a vest over her bra. No way was she going to take those off.
When Kellen knelt on the limited floor space in front of her, he had a bandage, some tape, a pair of scissors and a tube of something.
He deposited them on the bed and stared at her vest.
“As much as I probably look like I should have x-ray vision, I’d be lying if I said I did.” Kellen winked at her cheekily. “Could you lift your vest, so I can see the damage? You can keep your arms covering your, umm… ‘upper parts’, if you feel more comfortable.”
“My ‘upper-parts’? Is that how you usually refer to them?” Niko couldn’t help but smile at him this time, especially not after the ‘Superman’ lookalike suggestion.
“Nope.” Kellen grinned. “But I’m trying to be as reassuring as possible to you, while at the same time acknowledging that we have a youngster in our midst.”
Niko lifted her vest gingerly, while keeping her right arm across her ‘upper parts’ as suggested.
“Can you stretch up to give me a better look?” Kellen leaned down to get a closer look at the bruise.
Niko breathed in and tried to stretch her torso up, ignoring the shooting pains as much as she could.
She was surprised when she heard him growl to himself.
“What did he hit you with?” Kellen said quietly.
Niko shook her head.
“He didn’t hit me.” She whispered.
“Niko, don’t…”
“Kellen, Ilya didn’t hit me.” She repeated clearly. “He threw a chair across the room, whether intentionally directed at me or not I wouldn’t like to guess. Either way, it spun around, and the leg caught me in the ribs.”
“And your face?” Kellen asked, obviously not believing her for a minute.
“I was trying to get out of the way of a random flying chair and discovered the door in my way.” She smiled. “Entirely self-inflicted.”
Kellen looked at her sceptically.
“Believe me or don’t, it doesn’t make a bit of difference to me.” Niko shrugged and then instantly regretted the movement. “I’m not in the habit of lying to anyone.”
Kellen looked closer at the bruise on her ribs.
“Did the chair leg hit you end on?” He asked, frowning at the large circular mark she’d noticed earlier, when she’d dared a glance in the filthy bathroom mirror.
“I think so. It was a square wooden leg, about three inches in diameter, so I’m guessing the bruise would span three or four ribs.” Niko explained.
“The square outline does precisely that, but the secondary bruising radiates out another six inches in each direction. A few of those ribs will definitely be fractured.” Kellen touched a spot very gently, but it still made Niko gasp. “Is there any chance we can get you to a hospital?”
“Not a snowball’s chance in hell.” Niko smiled.
“Niko, the spot I just touched was six inches away from the epicentre, and you nearly hit the roof.” Kellen pointed out. “This is going to be a long, painful recovery if you don’t go to the hospital.”
“It’s going to be a long, painful recovery even if I do.” She pointed out. “They’ll strap up my ribcage and give me painkillers. The first part is what you’re about to do, and the second I can accomplish by myself.”
Kellen shook his head but didn’t argue anymore. Instead he picked up the tube of balm and unscrewed the lid, puncturing the seal with the cap.
“Hold your hand out and I’ll squeeze some onto your fingers. I’ll guide your hand to where you need to rub it and let you do the rest.” He held the tube out.
Sure enough, the man was as good as his word, and within a couple of minutes he was winding a bandage around her torso.
Considering he had to keep wrapping his arms around her to pass the bandage around from front to back, Kellen managed to avoid making any contact with her very ample ‘upper parts’.
As impressed as she was with his efforts, it left her wondering if she’d totally misread him. The only men she’d ever met who’d refrained from looking straight at her chest, were either accompanied by their wives or were gay. There was no wife here to keep Kellen in check, so it left her to draw the only other conclusion she could come up with.
“Put your finger there, while I cut some tape.” Kellen instructed, and Niko reached to hold the bandage still, while Kellen applied three strips of tape to hold it in place.
“There.” He grinned. “All done. Now all you have to do is try not to move around much for at least a week. Take regular deep breaths though, to stop your lungs filling up with crap.”
Niko nodded and pulled her vest back down to cover herself up.
“Thank you.” She smiled. “You’ve been kinder than anyone I can remember. Kinder than I probably deserve.”
Kellen frowned at her.
“Everyone is entitled to a little kindness sometimes.” He pointed out. “Why should you be any different?”
Because I’m the sister of a drug-smuggling, human trafficking monster, who has failed to do a damned thing to stop him in the last two years?
She kept her mouth shut and shrugged.
“I’ll go and sit up front, so you and Roman can enjoy Lego Batman.” She smiled, grabbing her shirt, and slipping it back on very carefully. “But please don’t go sharing your stash of goodies with him. He can be a bundle of energy all by himself without pumping him full of sugar and e-numbers.”
Kellen held the curtain back, so she could slide through to the front of the cab, and Niko moved forward as gingerly as she could.
“Thanks, again.” She smiled as she caught his eye, before turning and taking up residence in the passenger’s seat.
Well, at least one of her travelling companions seemed to like her.