Read Online The Way Home by Shannon Flagg - Free Book Online

the wound. Susan sighed and shut her eyes. “We've got to find you somewhere to sleep.”
                  “There's no where in this house with all the injured. I don't even need a bed, I could fall asleep right here.”
                  “You're not falling asleep sitting on the toilet. I'm going to finish cleaning up your leg, and then I'm going to find somewhere for you to sleep. And food.”             
                  “I am hungry, but I'm more tired, so if it's all the same to you, I just want to sleep.” Susan opened her eyes reluctantly, looked down to see him doing a pretty decent job on her wounds. “Where did you learn how to do that?”
    “I leaned basic first aid so that I could take diving groups down. I learned more when I realized just how handy it came in. Learned more when I worked as an EMT.”
    “You were an EMT?” The mental image of Houdini in the uniform did funny things to her stomach, made her want to do things to him that her body didn't have enough stamina for. Frustration took hold of her and she huffed out a sigh.
    Houdini had been watching her the entire time, and Susan watched his brown furrow at her sigh. “It's nothing, I'm just really tired.” She was pretty sure that he didn't believe her and hoped that he would just let it go, at least for now. “Thank you.”
    “For what?”
    “Everything, Houdini. I really do appreciate you. I need you to know that.”
    “Relax,” he told her, a small smile on his lips. “I know how you feel about me, Susan. Now, you're all patched up. Let's get you to a bed.”
    “I need to change your bandages first, there's still some bleeding from the laceration on your cheek.”
    “What's another scar?” He shifted so that she could reach him better, handed over her kit.
    “How did you get this scar?” Slowly Susan traced her finger over it, from his eyebrow down to just beneath his eye. He could have easily lost his sight. “You don't have to tell me if you don't want, I know that I ask a lot of questions sometimes, and that I don't always give you as many answers as you'd like.”
    “Susan...” he was going to try and cut her off but she shook her head and continued.
    “No, Houdini. It's the truth. I don't give you anywhere near what I should, anywhere near what you deserve. I don't know that I ever can.” A horrible feeling took root in Susan's stomach, her mind making it worse as she replayed everything over and over again, from today and the bombing to the moment that she'd opened her mouth and got them both entry into the Strays.
    In that moment she'd known that the assumption would be they were together, and she'd rolled with it, rolled right along without giving Houdini a choice. He'd never so much as raised an eyebrow to that fact, had accepted their new life without hesitation. She'd railroaded him right into it, given him just enough encouragement so that he wouldn't lose hope and pull away. She hadn't done it maliciously, not at all, but she should have been strong enough to not let things get this far.
    “How many times do I have to tell you, you can tell me everything or nothing. It doesn't change the way that I feel about you.”
    “Maybe it should,” Susan snapped the words. “And you've been off your back long enough, you need to find somewhere to lie down and your bandages need to be changed. You'll need to keep it as clean and dry as possible to minimize scarring.”
    “I'm not too worried about scars, especially since you find them so sexy.”
    “My opinion shouldn't matter. You should want them to heal properly so that there's no lingering infection. She leaned down and took the gauze from his hands. “I'll finish this up.”
    “I'll go and find somewhere for us to sleep.” He kept his eyes on her as he got to his feet.
    “Don't worry about me. I just remembered there's more stuff I need to do.”
    “It can fucking wait,” he told her. “You need to