Page 68 of Shane
“Sure glad this was built into a corner,” Tuesday muttered, as, at last, they succeeded in blocking most of the light from where Shane now lay flat on his back with one arm over his eyes.
Tuesday was at ground level. Everlee was still on the ladder. “It’s going to get stuffy and hot, though,” she worried, not sure of the best way to help Shane.
Right on cue, the sounds of gagging, coughing, and retching came from the covered enclosure. Everlee’s gaze went to Tuesday, her mind pinging for solutions she didn’t have.
“You’re right. It’s too warm in there. I know what he needs, but I’ll need your help to get him to agree to it. He’ll listen to you.”
Quietly, Everlee dropped to her feet. “Tell me. Hurry.”
Tuesday nodded at the canvas-enclosed space. “Let’s go inside with him, but be quiet.”
There was still enough light inside the now-covered office for Everlee to see poor Shane on his knees, his head over the bucket.
“Damn it, get out of here,” he growled, spitting. “Go away. Please.”
“We’re here to help,” Everlee admonished quietly.
“I’ve got more water if you want it,” Tuesday whispered.
“Leave me alone!”
Everlee felt helpless, but she couldn’t let him suffer. So, when Tuesday knelt on Shane’s left side, she knelt at his right, eager to do whatever he needed.
“Don’t you two know how to listen?” Shane spat into the bucket again. “It stinks in here. I stink. It’s only going to get worse.”
“Not if we help,” Tuesday said matter-of-factly. “When you’re done throwing up, lean back so we can reach you better.”
“Whatever.” Angrily, he shoved the bucket away and rolled to his butt, his eyes still closed, and his hands on his knees.
Shifting positions, Tuesday knelt behind him and put her hands on his shoulders, her thumbs on the back of his stiff neck.
He winced the moment she touched him. “Your hands are cold,” he told her grouchily.
“Because you’ve got a fever. I’m going to use acupressure on you, Shane. Our bodies have specific pressure points. I’m going to manipulate those points to relieve your migraine before it gets worse. On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it now?”
“Nine going on a hundred,” he grumbled.
“Okay. Not ten, that’s good. Try to relax while we work on you.”
He stopped arguing, but Everlee had no idea what Tuesday was talking about. Acupressure sounded like some weird, quackery that people in tie-dyed shirts did. So she watched and she learned as Tuesday dug the pads of her thumbs into the muscles at the base of Shane’s skull. He let loose a few vehement curses, but Tuesday didn’t stop, didn’t even slow down. “Breathe Shane,” she ordered softly, tipping his head forward and his chin down. “I need you to focus on breathing. That’s all. Slowly in. Slowly out.”
“Ow, ow, ow, damn it! Stop! That hurts.”
“I know,” she soothed, “but I promise, what Everlee and I are doing will help. Be patient. We won’t take long. Now breathe like I asked.”
He chuffed like a big, mean cat, but he also let her do her thing.
Jiminy Christmas,Tuesday was being so kind, more evidence she was not the cruel murderess the FBI claimed. There was nothing sexual about the way she touched him or about her idea of help. Nothing unusual about her at all, not in Everlee’s book, nothing except… All at once, she’d morphed from being just an unfulfilled FBI assignment into an efficient, practical nurse who just happened to also be pretty. So pretty, she could’ve passed for Nicole Kidman’s kid sister. But it was the kindness that radiated in everything she was doing to Shane that convinced Everlee.
She’d tried her damnedest to see Tuesday through her Agent-in-Charge, follow the rules lenses. But everything had changed. Tuesday wasn’t who everyone said she was, and Everlee wasn’t so sure who she herself was anymore. Paradigms. It was all about those hard, fast ways a person looked at the world. Only they weren’t so hard nor so fast anymore.
Tuesday moved in front of Shane. She took hold of his hands and dug her fingertips into the muscles between his thumbs and forefingers.
His gorgeous brows slammed together. He bared his teeth and growled.
“Just a few seconds more. Okay, now breathe,” she told him as she released his hands.
He slapped them to the ground beside him, his chest heaving.