By the time Jason reached the shore the sun had just begun peaking over the horizon. The burning red sunrise filled the streets with a macabre hue, which luckily hid Jason dripping blood allowing him to move relatively unnoticed through the busy streets. By moving he learned that he wasn’t hit anywhere vital but there was a sinking feeling in his gut that if he didn’t get help soon he would still bleed out and that would be the end of it… he had to hurry. Jason picked up the pace but his hip wound put a hard cap on his speed. looking around he was unsure who would be able to help patch him up while not contacting the enforcers, that was something that he could not deal with right now. Rounding the corner to the red lights Main Street Jason saw the same woman who tried to go home with him earlier that day. She was still topless but the women she was with at the start of the night were replaced by an angry looking man who was yelling at her. Jason only caught part of the conversation but from what he could make out the woman owed this man money and if she couldn’t pay up she would regret it. The woman started to say something in a response but before she could get a word out the man hit her so hard she fell to the ground, then Jason had an idea. He walked up to the angry man and noticed very quickly that this man was most likely the owner of the club these women were working for.

“Hey, man I just had a long night and I’m looking for some company.” Jason said with all the sleeze charm he could muster.

The man looked at Jason and noticed the wounds that were becoming more visible with the rising midnight sun.

“Unfortunately all our workers are out for the night you will have to come back some other time” the man said coldly while cleaning the woman's blood off his knuckles with a cloth.

“Damn”, Jason thought “I’m going to have to negotiate”,

“It looks like you have a bitch right here how much would she cost.”

The man's scowl deepened, “I said no workers are available, and if you don’t get lost I’ll add a couple more bullet holes to your fucked up frame.” And the man put a small handgun to Jason’s chest.

“I’ll pay triple!” Jason said quickly, staring into the man's eyes that were now very close to Jason’s face.

All at once the man's scowl lifted, “ it will cost you 10,000 credits, and they will need to be up front.”

Jason’s hand released its grip on his gun and took out his credit pad. “Bit steep but that's the price you pay for a ticket to ride.” Jason said and transferred the units. The man looked over his pad smiling, “Oh one last thing” the man said, tossing Jason a small needle with a clear yellow liquid inside. “Give that to her after and if she doesn’t want to do something you want then threaten to break it. This one will do anything for that shit..believe me.”

Jason yanked the woman up by her arm hard, “I’ll keep that in mind she will be needing it.” Jason said and shot a sly smile to the man, and began to pull the woman somewhat violently toward home. Jason could tell the woman was scared, hell she was trembling, he couldn’t imagine what she was thinking. Being beaten by her boss then sold to a man she doesn’t know who was covered in blood. She probably thought she was going to die, Jason couldn’t reveal his true intentions yet they had to sell the lie. The two walked up the stairs to Jason’s unit and he released her to enter the room. He placed the syringe on the table near the bed and took off his shoes. The woman, still bleeding from her mouth began taking off her pants.

“No, keep them on.” Jason said when he noticed what she was doing. She looked at him with a puzzled expression, Jason took off his coat and approached her, “I don’t want to hurt you, I just need your help to fix these.” Jason said pointing to his wounded body. He placed his jacket over her naked chest, and zipped it up. “I don’t need you for sex but I had to make it look believable so your boss would let you go, I’m sorry if I made you frightened.” Jason turned from her and made his way to a cabinet, the woman still looked confused and untrusting but he couldn’t blame her because she had the tell tale signs of severe abuse. Jason grabbed a large bottle of whisky from the cabinet and a towel from the counter which he gave to the woman, “for your mouth” he said softly trying to convey compassion, “ I’m Jason by the way.” Jason walked to the kitchen bar and slumped down on a stool with a heavy thud.

“I’m Julie.” The woman said, Jason finished a swig from the bottle. “It’s nice to meet you Julie.” He said with a smile, which turned into a labored cough. Julie moved closer, “what happened to you?” She asked, looking over Jason’s bleeding body.

“I'm a bounty hunter, and sometimes bounties don’t want to be hunted... uhggg” Jason grunted with pain as the adrenaline started to wear off… what he would give for capital medifoam. “I don’t mean to be rude but I do need your help quickly if you don’t mind.”

“What can I do.” Julie asked

“There should be a first aid kit in the draw next to you with synthetic thread and a needle, I would do this myself but…” Jason lazily pointed to the empty space beneath his right shoulder where his arm had been. Julie grabbed the supplies and made her way to Jason’s side.

“I’m going to have to get you out of this shirt.”

Jason looked at her and nodded, she then lifted his shirt over his head and was met with more grunts of pain. After the shirt was off Jason took another drink from the bottle.

“ These wounds look really bad Jason, don’t you think you should be in the hospital?” Jason looked her dead in the eyes, “no hospitals. Do you know how fast enforcers would be on me if I went to the hospital with wounds like these, hospitals are not an option.” Jason said with a stern tone, he didn’t mean to be rude, his demeanor softened he reached out and put his hand on Julie's forearm, “ that is why I need you.” Jason noticed her hands were still shaking, he let go of her arm and handed the bottle of whisky to her, “here it will help your nerves.” Jason said,

Without a moment's thought Julie grabbed the bottle and took three large gulps before putting the bottle down. The burn of the whisky made her cough.

“Damn” Jason said jokingly but still astonished, and Julie cracked a small smile, the first genuine smile Jason had seen in a long time.

Julie grabbed the forceps and looked at the first wound in Jason’s chest.

“I can’t do this!” She said frantically.

“Julie, you just need to relax, don’t worry about me I’ve had worse… here every wound you stitch up you can ask any question that you want and I’ll answer whatever it is. Then I’ll ask you a question, that way we can calm down and loosen up.” Jason said reassuringly.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Ok.ok.ok” Julie took a couple deep breaths and plunged the forceps into the first hole. The pain was intense pain but manageable due to the heavy buzz from the whisky. Julie found the bullet quicker than Jason had expected and pulled it out with a fleshy squish.

“UmphI...see you're a pro.” Jason said through gritted teeth.

“Yea you really don’t sound convincing” she replied jokingly as she picked up the stitching needle and thread. “ If you thought that was impressive just wait till you see my sewing ability.” She poured a little whisky in the wound and moved in close to start stitching up the hole. After the first few stitches she briefly looked up and their eyes met. “So why are you in xenon city, you aren't like the other people who live here.” She asked, she then continued to stitch.

“Well it is not originally from nexus at all. I was born and raised on citadel.” Julie stopped her stitching and looked up with a furrowed brow.

“So you are with the capital forces then,what are you a spy then?” Julie said this with a venomous tone, Jason had to be careful with his answers the people on nexus hated the capital forces ever since they set up a planetary enforcement armada that changed most nexians life for the worse, but he owed her the truth. Jason re-engaged eye contact, “Actually I was a captain of the capital rangers galactic frontier force, but that was over five years ago before I was discharged and given outbound status.” Julie’s expression softened and went back to stitching, Jason continued.

“5 years ago I was part of battle with the revolutionaries, we were defending a mine of some sort, I don’t even remember what purpose it had, but we were defending it. One morning the revolutionaries staged a daring frontal assault and we…I wasn’t prepared for it. We were vastly outnumbered and I was the only survivor and was taken captive.” Jason grimaces as Julie pulls the thread tight and tied off the first stitch clipping the excess with her teeth. She looked back at him waiting to hear if there was more.

“For the next few months I was in their captivity being tortured and questioned, but I was trained to never break and I did not. The revolutionaries got tired of getting nowhere so they tried to us me as a ransom and get some of their captives back in return. The capital denied this request and sent them a video of their friend in captivity being executed by the empress’ master of the guard. I thought the revolutionaries were going to kill me but months went on and nothing happened, they eventually just released me. I didn’t want to stick around any longer so I booked the first flight back to my old life and soon realized I had been deemed ‘outbound only’, Since then I’ve had to scrape by as best I can here.”

Julie thought for a moment, “ did you lose your arm when you were with the revolutionaries?”

Jason looked at her with a slight smile and shook his head “it’s my turn to ask a question, how did you get to working for that seedy nightclub?”

Julie poured whisky in his arm and began sewing up the entry wound. “I figured that would come up.” She sighed. “Well, I didn’t have the happiest home life, In fact I would say it was downright awful.” She glanced away from Jason’s arm and met his eyes for a moment then turned away. “When I was younger my parents used to fight a lot and when they got extra mad my sister and I could get caught up in the crossfire. She did everything she could to take the brunt of the abuse herself to protect me which took a toll on her. One day after an especially bad fight my father beat my her so bad that she had to get rushed to the hospital... The damage was very bad, and it left her with one eye.” Julie stifled a tear but not quite enough to let it not affect her voice. “The next morning, I woke up to a peacefully quiet morning and I knew something was up, I walked into my parents’ room and found what was wrong. My mom was laying in a pool of her own blood. It looked as though she had been pushed hard against the wall, but unlike all the other times this sort of thing happened; this time it looked like she tripped and caught the corner of a nightstand on the way down. That was nothing compared to my father. His head had been crushed to the point he was no longer recognizable by a hammer which was still lodged in the bloody mess.” Julie stopped to gather herself, and this time Jason noticed a tear rolling down her face; She quickly wiped it away. I remember running from the room to throw up. It was a horrible sight but what was worse was how I felt…there was relief.”

“How did your sister feel about it” Jason spoke up in the pause. Julie looked at him with sadness in her eyes.

“There was a note placed in the kitchen from my sister. In the note she said when she woke up that night, she heard the fight. It was about something trivial, but our dad was very mad like usual. When she walked in the room, she witnessed our dad push mom and she saw her lifeless body hit the floor. she said in the letter she didn't remember exactly what happened next when she regained control, she was sitting on top of our dad covered in blood. she had to skip town because the enforcers would kick in the door looking for her, but she felt confident that I would find my feet. That is when I hit the streets and eventually picked up my drug “interest”. The only way to pay for a habit like that was working in the clubs and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few years.”

She pulled the stitches tight and tied it off, and took another drink of whisky. “It can be tough, but you know the money is really good and I can get my elisium for cheap so it all works out for me.” Jason looked at her with a pained expression but didn’t say anything.

“Where else did you get hit bud?” Jason shifted uncomfortably from the bullet lodged in his hip and his embarrassment from the location of the wound .

“Well this will be the worst one.” He said with an anxious tone. Jason said as he stood up and pulled his pants down alittle to expose the bullet hole in his lower hip. Julie knelt down beside Jason and staralized the site and began digging in the wound for the bullet. This one would be tougher to fix since the bullet had broken into 3 or 4 pieces on impact. She pulled the first shard free and dropped it on the counter. She could tell that Jason was uncomfortable being in this compromising position.

“You know you don’t have to be embarrassed, I’ve seen a lot of asses in my time.” Julie joked, Jason stopped tensing up and let out a laugh at his own expense, the laugh turned to a grunt as Julie ripped out a piece of lead that was lodged deep in his hip.

“Ow”, Jason muttered, Julie sighed and rolled her eyes though Jason couldn't see it.

“Are all you big tough guys such pussies when it comes to wound care?” She said as she grabbed the last fragment and pulled it free.

“Well Getting shot is the easy part.” Jason joked through the pain.

Julie drank another gulp and began sewing up the last wound, “So answer my last question, how did you lose your arm?” Jason was worried about this question could he tell her what truly happened? Should he lie? Would she even believe him? He took a drink from the bottle and swallowed it comically loud.

“I lost it In a card game…”

Julie stabbed him hard with the needle. “you said you would answer truthfully!” She pleaded, Jason shrugged. “Ok wise guy, why haven’t you gotten a prosthetic? It can’t be easy running around the red light with one arm.”

This he could answer,

“Well as you know there are not many medical resources in the red light for us, that and my outbound status makes it impossible to get access to any prosthetics worth having. But I have gotten used to using my left hand at this point so I figure why bother.” Julie laughed at that last statement. “You “should” bother, that way you don’t have to hire a prostitute to be your doctor. ” Both laughed at the absurdity of the situation. Julie pulled the last stitch tight and placed the equipment on the kitchen bar next to Jason, and leaned against it to look at him. “Well, next time you get shot up, you know who to call.” She placed her hand on Jason’s face and drew a line across his chin as she walked by him toward the door, “hopefully you won’t need me too soon.” She said jokingly. Jason looked forward at the empty space that Julie was just standing in deep in thought, “you know…… I paid for the whole night.” Julie stopped walking and stood in the front doorway. Jason turned slightly and looked over toward her, “if you want some rest you can stay here tonight..I’ll take the couch and you can take the bed, I know it’s not much but I’m sure you could use a peaceful night.” Julie's eyes began to water.

“Thanks”.