Nobody can fix me

"No..I didn’t say it was ugly did I? It just looks like it hurts." Ike said confused and was about to reach out to help Rafael but decided against it. He didn’t want to irritate his boyfriend right now. "Okay..that’s good baby." He smiled a little and watched Rafael lay back on the bed. Ike crawled over laying next to Raf pulling their sleeping bag over them. He laid his arm across Raf’s body and his head on his chest,"I love you."

"No... I'm just self-conscious about it, I guess." Raf flushed with embarrassment, watching Ike decide not to help him. He bit his lip, smiling when Isaac joined him and cuddled up to him. "Mm... you make me happy, Ike. I love you, too."

Are you serious? You can save him right?!

"I don’t need a psychiatrist…well, an argument could be made that I do, but I’ve seen enough of them in my life. I’m not dangerous to myself or others, so, it’s hardly necessary. Thank you, really, for your concern," she said, giving a small smile. Tentatively she continued, "It appears you’ve lost more than just someone you cared about…" She glanced briefly at his missing hand. "If you don’t mind the inquiry, did that happen here?"

"Well, be careful what you say... she's always listening." He joked. He didn't have anything against Ember and, in fact, rather liked what she was attempting to do. "You're welcome. I'm concerned about everyone at this camp." Rafael sighed, trying to hide his injured wrist when he noticed her looking at it. It was too late, however, she'd already seen and she'd taken the bait. "I was bitten, actually. Turns out, if you cut off the affected appendage quickly enough, you survive to tell the tale." He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

He did, and he was well on his way. It’s… a blow, actually. I cared about him.

Do you promise, Raf? Do you? He’s not going to die, right? He’s Luke, he’s too strong to die…

Charlie nodded and played with her fingers, lifting her eyes to his face as she looked over at the older man, sighing softly. “How do we even protect ourselves?”

"Yes I mind…it hurts when you do that but I have no choice, eh?" Luke smiled a little at his friend. He sat up in bed the way Rafael liked it so he could take a look at his stitches. "Yes ..please." He said a little guilty. He didn’t like taking the pain killers since he was an addict but sometimes the pain was just too much. "Oh yeah…" He looked at his friend. "Thank you for saving my life, Raf." He looked at him in a serious way wanting Rafael to know how serious his apology was. "Both of you..but I will tell Zeke that later. 

Raf smiled apologetically at Luke before gently pulling the bandage off of the older man's throat. The sutures were thick and black and the skin was puckered but, all in all, it was healing well. "Looks good, Luke. You're invincible." He joked with a little smile, quickly producing a couple of Tylenol 3s for his patient. "You're welcome for the stitches... but it wasn't just us. I think a lot of that was a combination of you and Wylie."

Luke was still in a lot of pain but it wasn’t as bad as it had been. He was sleeping a lot so he didn’t have to feel it, and today he felt like actually talking to people. He needed to see Charlie, Wylie, Jackson, family and friends. Even though he’d been so out of it and not able to speak he knew how supportive and scared they had been.

Rafael smiled when he heard Luke speaking, "Good... I'm glad you're doing better. We were all really scared there for a while. Mind if I take a look at the sutures?" He asked, leaning in. "You need more medication?"

You saved his life Raf, thank you, you’re a hero. My hero. Oh thank you.

Really, a lot of it was him saving himself... if he hadn't gotten to the RV, Wylie might not have been able to help him in time.

Vivien sputtered a laugh. “Dying? It’s clear you’ve never met me before. Maybe that’s what you wanted to hear. Maybe that’s what I should have told you. I feel a crushing emptiness and I can’t stop thinking about killing myself, please, won’t you help me? Nothing seems to matter anymore," she screwed her face up in mock emotion as she spoke the last sentence. She sighed and looked away again. "I’m sorry. That wasn’t very nice." She paused and looked at the ground. "My mother died, recently. I guess it never felt real until now." It wasn’t the entire truth of how she was feeling, but she thought it would be enough to satiate him.

Rafael pursed his lips at her laughter and mocking tone. "Well, I probably would end up referring you to September. She's the one who deals with all of the feelings and the head cases, you know? The stuff that we physical doctors don't deal with." He smiled at the redhead, trying to get back in the game. He really was too nice sometimes. Raf shrugged it off, "Don't worry about it, I'm used to people being on edge. I was just worried about you. You've ammended that, though. I'm no longer concernd." He flashed her a little smile which soon faded. "Oh..." The doctor's brow crinkled. "I'm sorry to hear that... we've all lost someone we care about and it's never easy."

I don’t know, Raf, but I’m scared. I don’t want anyone else getting hurt, but how can we stop them if we don’t know who they are. Why- why would anyone here want to hurt anyone?

I just- it’s shocking. I mean… I was- treating him. 

Right... I was under the impression that he wanted to, um, be better? For lack of a better term. It's really tragic.

"You're getting weirded out, aren't you?" Raf asked his little brother with a grin before patting the taller Alvarez on the back. "I'll shut up about it now, if you want." He looked at Blanco expectantly. He wanted to be able to talk freely about things with his brother but he knew how Gabriel (and most of their family) was. "Yeah, I figured... just thought I'd ask you... in case. You know?" He shrugged. "I love you, too, and I'm glad I didn't die, too... that would've sucked. You'd have been real life Bad Luck Brian." He chuckled at his own reference.

"It’s human nature to comfort with touch…Just not my nature." Parker stated, holding out his uninjured hand as Raf came back with the pills. He hardly took a breath before lifting them to his mouth, swallowing them down without hesitation. "I will. When should I come back to get these out?"

"Right, but I knew you didn't like it... I should have stopped myself." He frowned, feeling uncomfortable suddenly. "Well... I guess I should give you a couple more?" Raf furrowed his brow, he hadn't expected Parker to take them all at once but he handed a couple more to the older man. "Uh... come back in about a week and we'll see how you're healing."

What are you talking about? Who is in there?

Luke... he got his throat slit. It's bad.

 Ike stayed and helped clean up after dinner, and when he was finished he walked his way back to Rafael’s tent. He walked in kicking off his shoes watching as Rafael examined his wound,”Is it okay?” He asked and winced a little bit as he saw the wound without the bandage. He started to take his shirt off as he was getting ready to lay down for the night. When he was only in some shorts he sat next to Rafael in their sleeping bags, and leaned over kissing his boyfriends shoulder. 

Okay..okay. I’m sorry. I won’t call him that from now on..except in my head.” Blanco smirked at his brother and nudged him with his elbow. “Is he the the first dude in your life or?” He asked wanting to know more about his brother. He had no idea and he waited for Raf’s reply. “If you ever need anything..and it’s something you don’t wanna let him help you with. I’m your brother…you can ask me. Okay?”

Raf smiled and nudged his elbow back into his brother's ribs. "Jerk..." He shook his head then looked over at Gabriel curiously. "Um... no. He's not. I had a couple of male lovers in college and med school, I've had relationships with both genders. What about you? Strictly hetero?" He smiled, nodding. "Yeah, I'll come to you, for sure... and you come to me. If you need anything."