she cannot leave him

Prompt: Gratitude
Word count: 298

***

She bit her lower lip as she watched his chest rise and fall with each strained breath. Tears threatened to fall from the corners of her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away with a blood stained hand. She wrapped both her small hands around one of his large ones. She jumped at the sound of the door opening, her head turning towards the noise as her hand reached for the dagger on her hip.

“Whoa, Kat. It is me. You remember your brother, right?”

“Sorry, Ray. I… it is just instinct,” Katarina answered, returning her dagger back to her hip.

“So, how is he?” Raymund asked, motioning to the bed.

“I do not know,” she answered, “I have done all I can. His breathing is shallow, but steady now, at least.”

“How are you?”

“I am fine, Ray. I am not the one who was stabbed.”

“That is not what I mean, Kat,” Raymund said quietly. He slowly raised his eyes to meet hers. “You have not eaten or slept all day. And you should let someone look at that,” he said, reaching towards the cut above her eye.

“I will when he wakes up.”

“I can watch him, Kat. He is my friend, too.”

“I cannot leave him,” Katarina whispered.

“Okay,” Raymund said, placing a kiss on top of her head before turning to leave. He turned back when he reached the door.

“Danny did not jump in front of that dagger just for you to waste away in here, Kat.”

Katarina bit her lower lip and nodded, “I know, Ray. I just… I need to be here.”

Raymund nodded and gave her a half smile. “When he wakes up, tell him I tried to get you to leave,” he said before walking out the door.