Claire rushed around and helped anyone she could.
The more severely injured soldiers were looked after by more experienced nurses, while the rest, who didn't need as intensive and complex medical attention, were looked after the ones who were just after assigned into the medical unit.
"O-ohhh... oh my..." one of the girl's voices caught Claire's attention. She turned towards the girl and saw her by a soldier, holding his bloodied hand which contained a bullet wound. The girl looked up at Claire, immediately she recognized her. "H-hey! It's you! It's you, the one who got involved in the room mix up! Can you help me! Quickly!!".
Without a second thought, Claire obeyed the girl's words. "Yes, what's wrong?".
"Can you get it out, please!?" the injured soldier voiced in desperation.
"I... I can't get the bullet out! I-I tried, I really did, b-but I can't... can you help me try to get it out, please?".
Claire nodded to her proposal. With that, she looked at the girl's hand as she gave Claire the pair of bloody tweezers she tried to use to extract the bullet.
Standing where the girl stood only moments ago, Claire looked at the wound and instantly saw a little bit of the bullet shining, stuck in his arm. "Okay..." Claire muttered.
First, she took a look for a tissue or something similar, to clear the blood. She found a pile of gauze in a metal box. Taking one, she collected as much blood as possible.
"Keep this in your hands..." Claire told the girl. "Help me stop the blood if it manages to overflow again, okay?".
She nodded.
With that, Claire finally began approaching the fresh bullet wound with the tweezers in her hands.
She felt her stomach churn nausea the more she looked at the wound. But she knew she had to get used to it sooner or later.
With that, the tips of the tweezers descended into the wound, navigating the bullet.
Claire felt shivers coarse her spine as she felt the softness of the flesh slide by the tweezers until she came across something hard. The bullet.
She tried to grab it but to no success. It seemed like a bit of the flesh made it very difficult for her to try and move the bullet.
So, with her fingers, she tried to open the wound that bit more to try and get a better grip of the foreign body stuck on the soldier's arm. More blood began to run out of the wound, but she managed to get a better grip.
With that, slowly, she began to pull. Bit by bit, she felt the bullet following her lead. She managed to pull it out.
Claire celebrated her little victory with a sigh but refocused a second later. "The blood!".
Immediately, the girl covered the bleeding wound.
"I need to find the iodine to disinfect the wound...". Under the table, Claire managed to find what she was looking for. With that, she took two more clean pairs of gauze, one used to replace the bloodied one in the girl's hands, while the other one, Claire used to put the iodine on.
"W-what are you going to do now?" the soldier asked, she saw how pale he looked from the pain.
"I need to disinfect the wound, sir..." Claire began, lifting the girl's hand, that held the gauze, from the wound. Immediately, she placed the gauze that was in her hands. "It will burn-".
The soldier's scream interrupted her.
"But it's good for the wound...".
Replacing the gauze, she wrapped up the wound with an elastic bandage before securing it with a safety pin.
Finally, the soldier sighed with relief. Then, he looked at Claire. "T-thank you. Thank you so much... you saved me.".
Claire replied to his words with a smile. "Of course, it's what I am meant to do after all.".
"Y-you don't know how much this means to me. Without you... who knows in what condition I would have been in...". Claire's smile dropped ever so slightly when she noticed the soldier's eyes as they filled up with tears. "I-I have a wife and a child, waiting for me, at home.". A pause followed. "When I got shot. I thought I'd die. I thought I had broken their promise of coming back home, alive...".
Claire felt her heartache ever so slightly to his words as she aimed her gaze down to the ground. His words evoked a sense of familiarity. A rush of pain.
Remembrance to a memory.
She promised her parents the same. That she'd come back home alive.
"T-thank you... thank you so much..." the soldier voiced, allowing a tear to roll down his face.
***
Some time passed when the group from the battlefield returned. Most of the soldiers that came back were fine, but some came back in need of medical attention.
Claire furrowed her brows when she noticed that the group seemed a bit smaller. She eyed Trina and instantly rushed to her.
"How was it out on the battlefield?" Claire inquired.
"Scary, but exciting," she replied.
"Also, is it only me or did the group get... smaller?".
A slight frown formed on Trina's lips. "W-we lost some of our force in the battlefield today...".
Before Claire could have replied to Trina's words, the chatter of worry caught her attention.
From the corner, Gabriel walked into Claire's line of sight. He had his brows scrunched as he held his right arm with his left hand.
A millisecond later, Claire comprehended the blood that was present on his left hand. That was all she needed to piece together that Gabriel was shot.
A group formed around the Captain, as Claire and Trina joined the crowd.
"C-Captain? Are you okay?" Claire heard him being asked.
"Yes, I'm fine, just a little accident on the battlefield...".
Claire spectated as a few of the more experienced nurses rushed to Gabriel. They wanted to help him. To everyone's surprise, he rose his hand, stopping them.
His eyes moved to Claire. They both looked at each other for a second or two. Claire tried to understand why he was looking at her, did he want her to do something? Did he want her to aid the nurses?
"Miss Emerson..." he called out. "I want you to extract the bullet from my arm.".
Her eyes widened in surprise. 'M-me?' she asked herself.
"If you don't want to do so, I can ask someone else to help me," Gabriel voiced.
Though his eyes moved off of Claire, she still looked at him for a moment longer.
Then, Claire cleared her throat.
"N-no! I-I can do it...". she began. "I want to help you.".
With that, she approached Gabriel and took her place beside him. No words were exchanged, but it was as if their glances made a sufficient enough communication.
One of the nurses approached her and gave her a tray that included a few gauzes and a pair of tweezers. Straight away, Claire bent down and got the bottle of iodine, an antiseptic.
"Alright..." Gabriel muttered under his breath as his eyes dropped off of Claire, but more so, his eyes moved away from the wound.
Claire took the clean tweezers into her hands before she approached the wound. The closer she got, she could have felt her breath become more and more shallow. She wanted to help Gabriel without inflicting a lot of pain.
And so, with a deep breath, she repeated the same procedure that she did only hours ago when she helped that other soldier. She saw the golden glimmer from the bullet and widening the wound that bit more, she proceeded on entering the tweezers into the lesion.
"Did you get it?" he asked, pain audible in his voice.
"Almost... almost, just bare with me.".
And with that said, she got a grip of the bullet and began to pull it out.
"I got it..." she muttered. She glanced up at Gabriel only to see him with his eyes closed, jaw clenched and sweat accumulating across his forehead.
Pulling the bullet out, Claire held it tightly within the tweezers. With a slight thud, the piece of metal met the tray.
"Alright, now, I have to disinfect the wound. It will burn, but... it'll pass," she paused, preparing the gauze. "I'll apply and rub the iodine on the count to three...".
Gabriel nodded in return, now biting his lower lip in the dreadful anticipation.
"Okay... Three..." she stopped and immediately dropped the saturated gauze onto the wound. It was safe to say that Claire really caught Gabriel by surprise.
She felt the way Gabriel jumped ever so slightly. His eyes were immediately covered by his other forearm as his breathing quickened.
Moments passed when Claire changed the gauze and wrapped the wound up. Tieing it secure, she let out a gentle sigh of relief. "It's finished," she voiced.
"Finished?" Gabriel questioned, uncovering his eyes.
"Yes, it's done," she confirmed.
Hearing those words, Gabriel blew a rush of air from his mouth. He released an even bigger sigh of relief.
He sat up and looked at Claire. A small, appreciative smile grew on his lips. "Thank you, Claire. I knew you could do it...". Though they didn't notice, the crowd around them began to dissipate. It was approaching dinner time, so most of the soldiers began their way to where the food was to be served.
"Thank you, Captain... I'm glad I could have helped...". Claire wanted to add something more, but no words wanted to escape her lips. So, she gave him a slight smile before looking at him for a second longer.
After, she let her gaze fall to the ground before she turned around.
But before she walked off, she said "I'll see you at dinner, Captain.".
"Sure thing," he replied.
With that said, Claire walked off as Gabriel's eyes followed her. Before long, he too found himself heading to the dining area, following the crowd.