Snippet #2006208

Bell was a talkative fellow, it seemed, happy to chat as Morgan gathered his needed supplies. Morgan wasn't a particularly chatty fellow himself, but he didn't mind small talk, and as human interaction was part of the job, he was content to listen to Bell rattle on about feisty women and how kind he was. Actually, it seemed to him "Mr. Jones" was laying on the charm a little too thick, but hey, better a friendly fellow with a gash than some drunken idiot who'd shot himself in the foot.

Morgan removed his hat and tossed it onto his messy desk before turning back to Bell, his eyes roving the man's bare chest, which bore marks from several other scuffles. But back to the task at hand. He quickly found the tie on the bandage and undid the knot, carefully unwinding the dirty, blood-soaked rag from around the outlaw's torso and laying it aside. The wound looked pretty nasty, red and inflamed. Bell said he'd been out in the desert for days, so who knew how long the wound had been festering under the dirty bandage.

"My, that's quite a gash you got there," he murmured, laying a gentle hand on the skin just to the right of the wound. It was surrounded by dried blood and oozing fresh blood now that the bandage was off, prohibiting Morgan from inspecting the severity of the cut. "Now I'm an honest man, Mr. Jones, and I'm gonna warn you that what I'm about to do is gonna hurt like hell. If you'd found a doctor a little sooner it might not have been so bad, but that cut's infected from the looks of it."

Morgan shook his head, picking up the wet rag and gently pressing it to the wound. He quickly cleaned away the dried, crusted blood and dirt and was able to stop the bleeding by applying light pressure. The wound finally clean, he was able to take a closer look at the gash. "Deeper than I thought. I'm afraid that's going to need stitches."

The doctor opened a bottle and poured a bit of the foul smelling liquid onto the wet rag, then pressed it back to the wound. "Stings like hell, but it'll help the healing." Laying the rag aside, he fetched his sewing tools and threaded a needle. "All I've got for the pain is whiskey and a bullet to bite. Not much else I can do, but it'll be over soon enough. Shouldn't take more than three or four stitches."