Saved Soldier (AB/DL)

22: Boo-Boos

Clay's Pov:
I held on to Brodie tightly as he sobbed into my chest and wrapped his arm around my body. His stub arm was hung over. I sigh softly and gently rock him. "What's troubling you, baby?"
He points to his stub arm with more sobs here and there.
"Ohhh... Okay." I say calmly in hopes of calming him down. I carry him towards the nurse area. I wasn't sure why it was hurting him so badly all of a sudden.
A few nurses walk over and take Brodie from my arms, causing for him to scream and thrash around. I quickly pick him back up and held him tightly. "I'm not sure if that's going to work out so well, girls..." I carry him over to a patient's table and sit on it, holding him securely in my lap.
The nurse that we saw the first day walks into the room with a file. "I have his file right here." She smiles and sets it on the table. She then grabs a lollipop and holds it in front of Brodie, who looked at it curiously with small sniffles in his attempt to calm down.
"If you let me look at your arm, I'll give you this lollipop! How's that sound? I'll make all the ouchies and boo-boos go away!" She grins at him and held it up to him.
I look down at Brodie to see him looking up at me. I nod to him. "You can take it baby, but be good and listen to what the nurse has to say."
He hides his face in my neck and says something, which was muffled a bit. "You're going to have to speak up, baby..." I gently grab his head and move it up.
     "Wh-wh.... wh' kin'...?" He asks in a sweet and sad voice. I smile and blush a little. His voice had changed completely for a second there... almost like... nah. I continue rocking him soothingly to try and calm the shaking thing in my arms.
     "Only the best kind for a brave boy like you, root beer." She says and held it out to him. "What do you say, little guy?"
     He whimpers and looks up at me. I look down at him and nod a bit. He copies my nod and then looks over to the nurse, opening his mouth.
     She chuckles softly and unwraps it, sticking it in his mouth. His eyes widen a little as he began to suckle on it. His face, though stained with tears and puffed out, showed a bit of delight from the delicious pop.
     "I don't think these two know what good food is... I have the other one an apple and he basically freaked out..." I laugh and watch as Brodie calmed down a bit and held his arm out.
     The nurse laughs a little and began to examine the stub arm carefully. She gently touched it, causing for Brodie to let out small whines here and again. "I'm not surprised. It's crazy how inhumane that country is... starving their people and such. Even though I'm in the military... I'm not one for politics." She sighs and laughs a little more, yet it was a bit more awkward. She examined his arm. "...But I hate their views... and nearly everything about how that country is run... I knew I wanted to help people out when I signed up... and well...? Maybe stoping the other side would be good. We could help their poor people... the way we have to do it sucks though..."
"Oh... well uh, wow..." I mumble. "That's, very nice of you." I say, not really sure what other words I could say at the moment. I grabbed on to Brodie's hand and smiled. "You're Doing such an awesome job, cutie." I said to him in hopes of moving on.
He looks up at me with glassy eyes. His crying had settled down from earlier. He then looked down at my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, which I copy.
"Alright, I honestly think he slept on it wrong and got super fussy." She smiles and stood up. "I'll go grab some bandages and pain killers, if you'd like to hold him for a bit, you may." She gently pokes his nose and cooed. "You're going to be just fine, cutie! You're boo-boos will be all gone soon!" She left the room quickly after that.
     I adjust Brodie in my arms and move him so that he would face me. I could see a bit of embarrassment slowly settling into his face. "Hey honey... does it still hurt?" I ask softly and gently brush his hair back.
     He looks away and blushes a deep shade of red, only shrugging his good shoulder and nodding a little bit.
     "Someone isn't all that much in the mood for talking, is he?" I smile and take the stick that the lollipop was on out of his mouth, and throw it away.
     He only nods more and rests his head on my chest. "...diff'ent..." he mumbles.
     I look down at him and raise a brow. "What do you mean, baby?"
    "Feel... diff-"
    "Alright you two, I got some bandages, a bottle and some Advil. I don't think that it should hurt too heavily for much longer." She sets the bandages down and took out two pills of Advil. "You're gonna need two, since you're such a tall, handsome boy."
     Brodie hides his face in my chest the second she walked in, gripping onto my shirt again in embarrassment. I wish she hadn't interrupted, it felt like he was going to say something important...
     I look down at him and chuckle a little. "I think he might prefer if I just give him the Advil and wrap his arm up, so we can get some quiet time. Does that sound good?"
     He looks up at me, only moving his head so that I could see his eyes, and no where below that. He nods his head a little bit. I stand up, careful of his arm, and take the things.
     "Alright then, let me know if you need anything else or some more help." She waves and walked into her office.
     I smile down at Brodie. "Let's Go to the Room, then maybe you'd like to talk?"
     I wait for an answer for a little bit, and he just tried his best to stay hidden in my chest. I sigh softly and carry him to the room, hiding him in the blanket once more. He was acting off for sure.
     He did say he was going to try and be better for me. I wonder if this was him doing it?
     I open the door and step inside, shutting us behind me with a small click. I lay Brodie in the bed and plop the Advil into his mouth. I then laugh. "Do you mind just drinking from the bottle, honey?" I look at him... and to my surprise, he just opens his mouth and looks down.
     I blink twice before sticking the tip in his mouth, and letting him take what he needed. He swallowed down the Advil with a gulp, then sits up and held on to his arm. "Oh gosh..." he grumbles and looked down.
    "Does it still hurt?" I frown as I grab the bandages. "Here, let me wrap it up really fast, okay?" I smile a little bit... nervously? I can't be nervous. Not for him.
     "It's not that... well mostly... yeah that hurts but..." he looks up at my eyes and quickly looks down, his face heating up a little bit in embarrassment. "I don't know... I just sort of... earlier I just..."
     I grab on to his arm. "Here, let me fix up your arm first, then you can tell me?" I smile and he nods in relief. I wasn't sure what it was, but he was clearly very nervous about telling me something. I figured giving him time to process this was the best that I could do for him. I wasn't a person unfamiliar with gross sights... but his nub arm was much grosser than what I was expecting.
     "Thank you..." he mumbles as I finished wrapping it.
     I give him a warm smile and nod. "Not a Problem, honey. Now, if you're comfortable, was there something you wanted to tell me?"
     The same nervous expression appears on his face. "Well... yeah... since I trust you now... will you just... promise not to tell anyone?" He mumbles and grabs on to my arm with his hand.
     I look at him and without thinking nod my head. If it was making him this nervous, I wanted to be sure to be there for him.
"I... just... I felt different... very, warm and fuzzy when I woke up. Like a different kind than usually, a good, warm, soft and fuzzy. I don't know when... but... but I started thinking about her, and then I was thinking about you and... I just... started crying? It was weird, I didn't know I was... and I couldn't stop...?" He questions himself more. "I just knew at that second of sadness that I needed you... and being with Vicky was scary... she's super duper a million times mean." He says and frowns a little at the thought of Vicky, folding out his lower lip, childishly..
     "I needed you... because... because you're the most nicest person I have right now..." he looks down with those glassy eyes again.
I nod along to him and hold on to his hand now, gently rubbing my fingers into it to provide him a level of comfort. "I see... that was super brave and nice of you to tell me, Brodie. So, thank you very much." I grin at him, and he only blushes and looks down at his feet.
"I don't mind that you did that. I'm just so glad you felt that you could come to me." He smiles a little up at me.
     "Yeah... well, I kinda have no choice here... everyone else probably wants me dead..." he laughs awkwardly, and I simply pull him into a hug. I felt him tense up for a second before melting into me. He relaxed in my hold, which was fairly rare up until now.
     "If someone here were to hurt you at all... they'd have to answer to me." I run my fingers through the hair on the back of his head, and hold him tightly. I stare at a wall with intent eyes, feeling him wrap one arm around me, relaxing himself even more. "That's a promise I made, and intend to keep..."

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How's life going, everyone? School is like a vacuum... because it SUCKS! Haha! Have a great day/night!