But her job wasn't done. She'd opened the wound even more by sticking the tweezers in and pulling the bullet out. It was bleeding like a faucet now. It had to be closed up, fast.
The medicine cabinet wasn't so well-stocked after all - it had nothing for stitching wounds.
Sonya shook her head, thinking of how dumb that was. And surely there wouldn't be any sewing equipment around, either.
She searched frantically, opening every drawer, every dresser. When she saw a Swiss Army knife, she didn't have much hope, but she grabbed it, just in case. She opened every blade, the mini saw, the corkscrew…
He's going to hate me if I have to stitch him up with that thing, she thought with a sigh.
Then she pulled out the knife's tiny tweezers and a toothpick.
A toothpick? Of all the things to have… Men, why are you so weird?
Wait!
Sonya slipped out a tiny plastic sheath from the Swiss Army knife and saw the eye of a sewing needle poking out. She ran back to the bathroom.
Now she needed thread. Well, that was easy. She pinched a loose strand from the hem of an old towel and yanked out about eight inches.
Not the most hygienic surgery. But what choice do I have?
She used the towel to sop up some of the blood gushing from the wound so she could see what she was doing. Then she threaded the needle and plunged it through Dmitri's skin.
“More?” he moaned.
“Just a bit.”
“Okay. Oh, that's not so bad. It only pinches a little, like a dog bite.”
Sonya continued to soak up blood, rip off strands of thread and sew Dmitri shut. He had closed his eyes again but was singing, or more like slurring, something in Russian. It sounded like a lullaby, and though Sonya couldn't understand a word, it was familiar to her, like déjà vu.
“All right, you're all sewn up.”
Dmitri opened his eyes when she stopped stitching. He inspected the wound. Sonya was doing something with another towel now. Folding it, tying it. He looked at her in confusion.
“Here,” she said, looping the contraption over his left hand and sliding part of it up his arm. “It's a sling. Don't move your arm. Just let it rest in there.”
"Well, you're good at this. I wish I'd had you with me in prison after some of the fights I was in. Did you practice doctor on your dolls when you were a little girl?”
“I was in nursing school, remember? Emergency care was one of the first classes I took. Don't you pay attention to anything I say?”
“Yes, and I noticed you haven't said 'Thanks, Dmitri, for rescuing me from the sultan who was about to rape and murder me.'”
“Rescue me? Well, okay, I guess you did. But you were just doing your job. Halim probably wanted to sell me again. I'm still a valuable virgin, after all. You got there in time to protect your buddy's asset. I'm nothing more than that to you guys.”
“Buddies? You know I never liked that snake. And I had nothing to do with selling you. I would never consider doing that, not with any girl, and especially not you. I could have done things differently, but to accuse me of sex slavery is crazy. You are lucky I can barely move, talking to me that way.”
“What would you do, hit me? You brute.”
“No, I would never hit you. I would...”
“What?” Sonya said with a bratty stare.
“I would take you in my arms and make you mine.”
Sonya blushed and took a deep breath.
“Oh, whatever. You had your chance,” she said with a sneer.
“Okay, that's fine. We can't be together anyways. There are things you don't know.”
“Things I don't know? Like what, that you're a crazed killer? Um, I think I saw that pretty clearly today.”
Dmitri smirked. This was going to be fun.