Survival Skills

Disclaimer: Not mine, unfortunately.

Notes: I intended for it to be from Isabelle's point of view, but Royce is a sneaky devil and got in there at the end.

How much blood did the average human body contain? Was it 5 or 6 liters? Isabelle couldn't remember at the moment, which was troubling. The fact that she couldn't remember meant that she has lost more blood than she should have. She probably shouldn't have ripped out the jagged projectile the ugly alien had shot into her shoulder, but damn it, it hurt. As soon as she saw the spurt of blood arcing out of the wound following the metal object like it was a magnet she knew she made a mistake. Royce crawled over to her side moments later, after he was finished smashing the hunters head in. They exchanged first names and he collapsed to the left of her on the ground wet ground. She was glad she finally had a name to go with the face. She took a breath and gazed down at him as he tried to get his breathing under control after the hard fought fight he just won. He really was quite beautiful without a shirt on, covered in mud and sweat. She shook her head as the edges of her vision began to darken. What was she doing? A sharp pain in her shoulder reminded her to focus on the issue of bleeding to death rather than the man at her side.

She willed her hands to work as she began to fumble for the QuickClot she kept in one of her large cargo pants pocks. She had been given the cauterizing agent by a corpsman once when she was in the sandbox of Afghanistan on a mission. The corpsmen gave her a brief overview on how to use it as a worst case scenario option. She never even had to pull it out of her pocket before, but losing copious amounts of blood with no medic in sight qualified as a worst case scenario in her opinion. She managed to get the packet out of her pocket with a little wiggling and a large amount of pain. She needed to rip the top open of the square packet, but her left hand didn't seem to want to work right. She was about to rip open with her teeth when she felt a large hand over hers. She looked up and saw Royce peering intently at her torn and bleeding shoulder. She had forgotten about him. Maybe it was only 4 liters of blood.

"Why didn't you say something?" he said roughly as he gently placed the palm of his left hand over the open wound and pressed slow the bleeding he could see from the light of the fire still around them. He received a grunt of pain and tears that sprung to her eyes as an uncomforting reply. Royce kneeled beside her and guided her head to his left shoulder. He leaned her forward so he could get a look at her back. Seeing no evident blood on her shirt he wound his right hand under the collar of her shirt and slid it down across her back. With her forehead in the juncture of his neck and shoulder Isabelle smiled. It would have been romantic the way he was gently caressing her back with his right hand if it wasn't for the pain and that she knew he was only doing it to look for an exit wound. When he was satisfied there was no corresponding wound on her back he pushed her back against the log she had been sitting against and looked at her.

"I don't think it went through." She only nodded. Her vision was beginning to get fuzzy again.

"I'm gonna get a light and have a better look at this." Royce said tilting his head toward her shoulder. He grabbed her right hand and placed beneath his on the wound and pressed. The surge of pain made her grimace, but it helped push some of the fogginess in her vision away. He looked into her eyes and smirked a bit. "You need to take care of yourself for a minute. Okay?" She smiled back and then he was gone out of her vision.

Isabelle tried her best to keep pressure on the wound, but between blood loss and residual effect of the drug Edwin slashed her with, she suspected she did little to staunch the flow. What happen to Edwin anyway? She idly wondered. The last she saw of him Royce was dragging him off toward the hunters' camp. Hopefully the little bastard was dead. She felt a brief surge of guilt at the thought but then shrugged it off. Edwin was not worth her guilt especially since he just tried to kill her. A snapping twig to her right startled her out of her thoughts. She swung her head around in the direction while her hand reached for her gun still lying by her side.

Royce was briskly walking toward checking the light on the barrel of his shotgun. He had placed his vest back on, much to Isabelle's disappointment. If she was going to die she'd rather do it looking at his abs then his vest. He grabbed a branch on his way to her and dropped it at her feet. As he propped up his gun and by extension the light, on the branch so it would aim at her she wondered where he got all the energy from. Here she sat on the damp ground exhausted, gutted and drugged while he looked damn near chipper. She pushed away the childish thoughts as Royce knelt down beside her again and bent his head down toward her shoulder to look at the wound. She dropped her hand as he reached to open the frayed fabric around then wound. A moment later he grunted and pulled out his exceedingly large knife. Isabelle flinched away out of instinct.

"I need to cut the hole in your shirt bigger so I can get a better look." Royce explained when he saw her reaction. He waited for her to nod before he gently slid his survival knife in the hole already created by the impaling metal and tugged. The fabric gave away easily and he put the knife back in the sheath. Keeping his eyes on her shoulder he reached behind him and adjusted the barrel light to better see by. Royce had seen his fair share of bullet holes and knife cuts and as he looked at her shoulder he sighed, it could have been a lot worse. Hearing him sigh, Isabelle looked over at him worried. He raised his head to look at her as he spoke and froze. Their faces were inches apart; she could feel his breath on her face. For a moment he lingered looking into her brown worried eyes before he looked away and sat back on his heels.

"I've got good news and bad news." He said, looking back at here. Isabelle raised an eyebrow in response.

"The good news is I don't think you'll need this." Royce said removing the QuickClot she still held in her left hand and tossed it to the side. She followed the movement with her eyes. "I hate to see the real worst case scenario then." She said softly, mostly to herself. Royce tilted his head in confusion, when he heard her murmur. She shook her head and smiled a small smile.

"You've stopped bleeding so that's good and there doesn't look like anything broke off in there." He continued pointing to her shoulder. "The bad news is I've got nothing good to patch this up with and no pain meds. " He paused for a moment. "Wait a sec."

He stood up and took off the gloves she just realized were still on and began reaching into his pants pockets. She reached for the QuickClot and shoved it back into her pockets hoping she wouldn't have to use it. The movement caused more pain and made her bite her lip. He pulled his neckerchief out of a side pocket and wound it into a rope between his fingers. He knelt down beside her again and Isabelle sat up off the log when she realized what he was going to do with it. Royce wrapped his neckerchief under her arm and around her shoulder to cover the wound as best as he could. He sat back on his heels to inspect his work after he was done. Isabelle leaned back on the log and looked at the work herself, it was obvious he had done something like this before, it was a good job.

Royce stood up and began surveying the scene around him. The fire has lessened a little but it was still enough to see the area around him with ease. There appeared to be no immediate threat, it was just Isabelle and himself now. The thought was both comforting and scary. He was use to doing things alone, everything worked better that way. He was no good at taking care of other people; he needed to get away for awhile.

"There's a lake about half a click away. I'll go get some water." He said turning to point in the direction of the lake they had all fallen into earlier.

Isabelle angled her up head to look at him. She watched him waiver on his feet for a moment. His shoulders were slumped and she began to think the exhaustion she was feeling was sneaking up on him. When he turned back he wouldn't meet her eyes as he bent over to turn off the light on his gun. As his words sank in, the sudden panic that he would leave her alone was just as unexpected as it was just a few hours ago when he said he was leaving. Only she didn't even have that bastard Edwin with her this time.

"Give me a second and I'll come with you." She said as she attempted to push herself up with one arm. She managed to get as far as sitting on top of the log, before she had to stop for a breath. Damn drugs and blood loss, she thought.

"You can barely sit up let alone walk. Stay here." He said to her, again not looking at her. He took a step in the direction of the water when the exhaustion and adrenaline loss made his right knee give away. He caught himself by flinging his arm out to a nearby tree.

"You're not doing much better than I am." He heard Isabelle speak from behind him. She paused for a moment as she watched his back, debating on what to say. "Royce, sit down for awhile and get your strength back, then we'll go." She said.

It was the first time she said his name and it was the way she said it that made him look back at her. However it was the look in her eyes that made him turn around and sit next to her. It was the same look she gave him when he told her to leave Edwin behind. The same look that flashed in his head as he paused in front of the alien spacecraft over an hour ago and made him, cursing under his breath, turn around. He hoped she never figured out how much she could get him to do just so he'd never have to see that look of abandonment and disappointment in her eyes again. He suspected she already knew the power she had over him because she was a female and females knew a lot of ways to manipulate men. She smiled at him as he sat down. It was beautiful smile that reached her eyes and he thought maybe being manipulated by her wouldn't be so bad before he quickly looked away.

He look over at her again as he felt her shift on the log, her face was turned down and away from him as she adjusted the newly appointed bandage. She bit her lip to stifle the pain as she hit a particularly sensitive spot. He reached his left arm around her back and shoulder and stilled her hand. She looked up at him as he reached his other hand up and placed it softly on the bandage in front of the wound and her hand. Startled, Isabelle looked up and into his eyes. Their faces were close again and for a brief moment she wondered what it might be like to kiss him.

"Don't move around or you'll start bleeding again." He ordered sternly and looked away into the woods. The moment broken, Isabelle nodded her head and followed his eyes. She began thinking over all that had happened and she slumped further into Royce's embrace. He tightened his hold on her when he felt her lean closer. They stayed that way wrapped in thoughts and each other sitting on a log for some time.