[kiasusam]

Katie came back with bags upon bags of things and placed them on the floor in front of us and stood back up breathing heavily.

"I wasn't sure what to bring, so I brought it all." she said taking off her jacket and throwing in on the sofa, her hair windswept and she was trying to put it back with her fingers as she knelt down beside me as well.

Rich opened each bag in turn shuffling through them as he went trying to find things that he could use.

"Katie, go and get the bottle of whiskey from the kitchen I saw in there earlier," Edward asked, "we can use it to sterilise the needle and the sutures."

Katie immediately got up and went through to the kitchen and came running back with half a bottle of whiskey.

Rich pulled out a kidney dish from one of the bags and poured some of the alcohol into it. Into that he added a curved needle and some suture thread.

"We had best leave it in there for a while," Rich said putting it up onto a table at the end of the sofa.

"Sit up Cara, and drink some as well, it will dull some of the pain from the needle," Rich said helping me up, "just try not to move too much, or it will stretch the cuts more and make it worse."

I sat and drank the whiskey, each time I stopped, I was edged on to drink just a little more. Finally I started to feel a little light headed.

"Let us help you up Cara and go into the dinning room, we can use the table in there to lay you on so that Rich can see what he is doing better," Edward said taking hold of my arm and Rich the other. I stood uneasy and lent against them as we walked through the door to the left of the hallway. Katie went before and turned the dinning room light on and cleared some of the chairs away from the table and moved the candle holders and the centre display off the table. Rich and Edward laid me down on my front gently onto the table while Katie went to get the lamp from my computer desk for a better light source and the kidney dish from the table at the end of the sofa.

Rich placed his hand on my back and began to shake, "Katie, can you bring me the rest of that whiskey," he requested, "just to steady my nerves, I have never done this before on someone that has had the right medication."

Katie came back in and handed him the bottle which he opened and took a large mouthful.

He took a set of latex gloves out of a packet and put them on, then, picking up the curved needle and suture thread out of the dish, he attempted to thread the needle, he missed many times, but he finally got it in the end. Katie positioned the lamp right where Rich was to work. Edward came to the head of the table and knelt down so that I could easily look into his eyes as Rich went about his work.

"Cara, I love you, I have since the first day I saw you," Edward said taking my hand in his, "I hope that one day you will grow to love me back."

I looked at him and replied in slightly slurred words, "I already do love you Edward."

"Cara, I am going to clean the cuts with some of this whiskey, its going to sting like hell, but I have to do it," Rich said as he soaked a piece of cotton wool in the dish.

I nodded and held Edward's hand tightly as Rich gently stroked the wound with the alcohol, I winced once or twice and closed my eyes tightly.

"Ok, now I am going to start, if you want me to stop at any point, let me know and I will give you a rest, but please, don't just be brave and not say anything, ok?" Rich asked.

"If it gets to much, I will say something, I promise," I answered looking round a little.

I went back to looking into Edward's eyes and braced myself for the pain to follow, I took a deep breath and waited.

I felt the needle enter my flesh, but there was no pain, I was totally lost in Edward's eyes, he was talking to me softly as the needle entered and exited my flesh time and time again, "I love you Cara, I want to be with you always, I will not let anything like this happen to you again, I promise."

As I looked into his eyes, I saw his true sincereness when he said these words, my heart was his, there was no question in it now, I loved him with my body, heart, soul and spirit.

Time seemed to rush by and before we both knew it, the silence was broken.

"All done, I just have to put a dressing on the wounds," Rich said with a sound of delight in his voice.