Chapter Eight

Charm found herself on the couch in the living room. Dr. Wells had kindly asked her to leave the room while he "operated" on Aaron. She had refused to leave Aaron's unconscious side. But then Tony gently took her arm and led her out of the room. Before the door closed, she looked back and saw Dr. Wells giving Aaron some kind of a shot.

"Damn it," Tony mumbled, bringing Charm out of her thoughts. He was trying to clean the blood out of the carpet.

"It's not working," she said, stating the obvious.

"I'll make it work," he said, frustration evident in his voice while scrubbing the carpet.

"I give up," he said after a few unsuccessful minutes of trying to clean it. He got up off the floor and joined Charm on the couch.

"You should get some rest," he said gently.

"No thanks," replied Charm.

"Aaron's going to be fine."

"I know."

"Then why are you worrying so much?" Tony asked.

Charm stayed silent, looking down at the floor.

Tony nodded. "I see…"

"Tony," Charm said, "how is Dr. Wells going to take out the bullet?"

"Ted is an excellent doctor," he said.

"I understand that, but how is he going to get it out. This is not a hospital. I hardly doubt that he has any appropriate medical supplies with him in that small brief case of his."

Tony smiled at her sadly. He seemed to do that a lot around her now. "He has all that he needs."

Charm frowned. He was deliberately ignoring her questions, causing her to worry even more about Aaron. "Just answer my questions," she said, her voice growing loud and angry.

He just smiled sadly at her, causing Charm to groan in frustration. He wasn't telling her anything she wanted to know. She was already worried for Aaron. She was sad and blamed herself for him getting hurt. She had to know the answer.

She quickly got up off the couch and walked towards the closed bedroom door.

"Charm?" she heard Tony say. "What do you think you are doing?"

Her hand closed around the doorknob. "I just want to see Aaron," she said quietly before opening the door.

Aaron was still unconscious, lying on a towel on his stomach on the bed. Dr. Wells was leaning over him with what looked like tweezers in his hands, trying to pull out the bullet. Blood slid out of the wound, down his back and onto the towel.

She stared down at them from the other side of the bed. Dr. Wells didn't look up at her; he just kept doing what he was doing. The tweezers moved all around inside the wound, searching for the bullet.

"Ahh…," Dr. Wells said as he pulled the bloody tweezers out of the wound, with a bloody bullet between its teeth.

A hand grabbed Charm's shoulder, causing her to jump. She looked behind her at Tony. She hadn't heard him come into the room.

"Here," he said and handed her a wet washcloth.

"What…" she asked, staring confusingly at the cloth in her hands.

He nodded towards Aaron and she finally figured out what he wanted her to do with it. She gently sat down onto the bed.

"Be careful when cleaning around the wound," said Dr. Wells, who was staring intently at her.

She nodded and reached out, her hand shaking from nerves. She was afraid that she was going to hurt him even more. She didn't want to hurt him.

"Relax, Charm," Tony said.

She steadied her hand as best as she could and gently cleaned around the wound. As soon as she finished, Dr. Wells was stitching the skin together.

Charm looked away. She couldn't stand the sight of a needle. When he was all finished, Dr. Wells stood upright.

"I'll go clean my tools in the kitchen," he said. He grabbed all his medical tools, the bloody wet towel, and gently pulled the towel out from under Aaron before walking out.

Charm exhaled, letting out the breath she was holding ever since she came into the room. "That was…. I've never…."

"I understand," said Tony. It always seemed that he knew what she was trying to say. He crouched down onto the floor, so his face was level with Charm's. His eyes and face went serious. "I fear that if you stay involved with us, you will see many other things."

She cocked her head to the side and gave him a confused look. She didn't understand where he was getting at. Nevertheless, he continued.

"When you came with Aaron to see us, we should have sent you outta town. Hell, we should have sent you outta state. But we kept you here for our own selfish purposes. Bait. We wanted to use you as bait."

"What?!" she yelled, feeling both angry and hurt. She thought she could trust him, after all that he did for her. He gave her a place to stay and comforted her when she needed it. It wasn't out of the kindness of his heart, he was just using her. Was Aaron just using her too? That thought quickly pasted through her head. Nothing was going on between them in the first place. Right?

"We're….I'm….sorry," Tony finally got out. By the way he was acting, Charm knew that he was a man who hardly said that he was sorry to anyone. A man who hardly admitted that he was ever wrong.

She was speechless, but a million thoughts formed in her mind. She was angry, sad, terrified, and hurt. So many emotions, but she didn't know which one to act upon. She just sat there on the bed, staring at him.

But before she could say anything, Dr. Wells came back into the room. "I'm finished. I left a bottle of pain killers on the counter top. Call me if anything happens, but for now, my services are done." With that, he walked out of the room and out of the apartment.

Tony stood up from his crouched position. "Well," he said, "I should go and update Martino." He walked to the door and hesitated before looking back at Charm. "What do you think about my offer?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Offer?"

"I'll get you a plane ticket outta here by tonight," he said.

"No, thanks," said Charm.

"No?"

"After…only after when I know that Aaron is well again. Then I'll leave, but until then, I stay."

"Why stay?" Tony asked curiously, but he thought he knew the answer already.

Charm looked away from him to Aaron's motionless body. "He got hurt because of me. He got hurt when protecting me. It's the least what I could do." She shrugged. "Help him out until he heals." Maybe he'll want me to stay, she thought.

Tony looked at her with some look in his eyes that she couldn't decipher. He then smiled that sad smile. "I'll send someone to check up on you two later tonight," he said before leaving her alone to care for Aaron.

Charm looked down at Aaron. "I guess you're stuck with me for now," she said. "I'm not going to leave you until you are well and hopefully…." She sighed. "Never mind."

She got up off the bed and made her way to the TV. She put it on, needing to hear some kind of a noise in the all too quiet room. She then laid down on the bed next to Aaron, making herself comfortable.

"And besides," she said, closing her eyes, giving into her tiredness. "You promised to take me to Martino's Place sometime. I'm still holding you accountable."

Slowly, to the sound of the TV and the warmth of Aaron's body next to her, she soon fell asleep.

wow, it's been awhile since i last updated this story. sorry that it took me awhile. i just didn't have any inspiration until recently during the middle of the movie Zorro. lol. thank you to those who read and review.

Garnet-earth-Princess: yeah, Aaron has handled many dangerous missions before and survived them. maybe i could do like a flashback of one of them in a chapter.

Harvey the Pooka: lol. charm reminds you of lucky charms. that's interesting. yes i have seen 'The Professional'. that's where i kinda got my story idea from.

SKATENaked-BlindReaper: romance might be prolonged, considering that you need two people for romance and one of them is unconscious. but hopefully, it will start sometime next chapter.

Mini May: hopefully this chapter is interesting enough for you and a hook up (it might be the two main characters, it might not... ) may come very soon.