Take My Breath Away

One of the doctors gestured for the soldiers to pipe down. Then he said, "We removed five bullets from Colonel Li's body. The good news is that most of the bullets didn't cause much damage on their own. The bad news is that a couple of them tumbled, and tore through several vital organs. We got to him in time, but he's in a coma. We don't know if he'll regain consciousness. It all depends on his will to live. We're taking him to the ICU."

Everyone fell silent after the doctor was finished talking. 'It all depends on Wesley's will to live...'

Wesley was wheeled to the ICU. Blair silently followed the group of nurses and doctors.

She saw him lying motionless in the bed with an oxygen mask on, face drained of all color, as if he were already dead.

The heartbreaking scene stirred up her emotions again. She tried her hardest to fight down her sadness and managed to collect herself. She trusted Wesley; he promised to come back and protect her. He never lied. He was going to make it.

Since Wesley's condition was severe, the soldiers had no choice but to let his parents know. Baldwin and Cecelia hurried there, but Wesley was still unconscious.

Cecelia had seen her son wounded many times. The bandages, casts, slings and so forth were just part of the job. But seeing him lying in the ICU, covered in tubes and wires made her sob uncontrollably.

Blair held back her tears all this time. However, Cecelia's cries opened her floodgates as well. She covered her mouth and ran to the ladies' room, crying at the top of her lungs, tears streaming down her face.

She remembered how energetic and healthy he usually looked. This was the first time she saw him hurt, and it was a serious injury to boot. His life hung in the balance.

A dozen soldiers were wounded in varying degrees; Wesley lay in the ICU, motionless, covered in tubes and wires; Cecelia cried hysterically in Baldwin's arms. As these scenes replayed in her mind, Blair suddenly understood the reason why Wesley didn't want to get married.

If she were Wesley, she might do the same. No one wanted to make their loved ones worry every day and suffer sleepless nights.

But the country needed heroes like Wesley. Wherever the fight, whoever the enemy, the country would send their best. He followed a different path from others, a path of sacrifice, a path of service. He stood ready to defend the nation, ready to fight for what mattered. When the people needed him, he was there.

In Blair's eyes, Wesley was a hero.

Thanks to Wesley's strong will to survive, he lived. Soon, he started breathing on his own. Three days later, he was transferred to an exclusive ward. He was better but he still hadn't woken up yet.

Cecelia, tended to Wesley every day, along with a nurse. Blair would come help after she was off work. When she saw the nurse was about to wipe down Wesley's body, Blair grabbed the towel and offered to help.

Cecelia was surprised. Blair told her calmly, "Aunt Cecelia, I told you Wesley always took good care of me. Now it's my turn to take care of him." She had already seen Wesley naked, even if it was only once. She would do what she could. And these were extraordinary circumstances. It wasn't the time for her to feel shy about seeing his body.

Seeing the sincerity in Blair's eyes, Cecelia was moved and nodded. Blair was a good girl.

Cecelia dismissed the nurse and walked out of the ward. Blair and Wesley needed their privacy.

Blair dampened the towel in a basin of warm water, wrung it, and began to wipe down his body carefully.

It was then that she got a closer look at his wounds—some were deep cuts and some were minor scratches. She tried to avoid wiping the gauze or the small wounds with ointment on them.

Tears blurred her vision as she gently touched the gauze on his body. It pained her heart to see these wounds. Poor guy. Stabbed, shot. He had to be in a lot of pain.

She cursed those criminals who wounded Wesley so badly. They were so cruel. Didn't they know she was waiting for him? She let out a heavy sigh at the thought of it.

A few days passed. Blair did the same thing every day and got better at tending to a patient. The nurse only came in to monitor vital signs, tend the machines, and be there when Blair could not be. But the day-to-day tasks like rotating the patient, wiping him down, etc, were handled by the young translator.

Blair had asked for two weeks off. She devoted all her time to taking care of Wesley at the hospital.

One day, Talbot came to visit Wesley. He chatted with Blair in a hushed voice in the ward. What they didn't know was that Wesley was starting to wake up from a coma.

Talbot told Blair stories about Wesley. "Do you remember when we were training freshmen at your university? One day, our chief went to the girls' dorm to check the sanitation. Eight girls blocked his way and flirted with him mercilessly. They were brave, but they chose the wrong guy. Chief is a guy who'd been taught all sorts of tricks to resist torture. It was nothing for him to resist a gaggle of hot girls."

Blair pictured the scene in her mind where Wesley was surrounded by a group of beautiful women. She couldn't see it.

The wound in Talbot's arm was healed. As he ate the sunflower seeds, he continued the story. "So those university girls were too much. How could they ever get through to that guy? And it backfired, really. Far from being tempted, he was a rock. I heard that our chief wore an angry face the whole time, as if he were about to throw those girls out of the building! And they paid for it, too. He was so hard on them the next day in training. Few, if any of us, would have been able to resist these girls' charms. So, naturally, we wondered if he was gay."

"And then?" Blair's curiosity was piqued.

Talbot paused to recall more details. Then he went on slowly, "Those eight girls were too tired to walk after their punishment and they all lay down on the playground to rest. One of them was ballsy and reported Wesley to the principal. But it only compounded her misery. Our chief ordered her to write a three-thousand-word letter of self-criticism, and read it to the whole class."

Blair trusted what Talbot was saying. It did sound like Wesley's style. He was never merciful to girls.

A chill ran down her spin as she remembered how she tried to flirt with Wesley back then. 'i guess I got off easy,' she thought.

"I bet that girl hate Wesley now," she commented.

"No." Talbot shook his head. "She vowed to win our Chief's heart. She found his WeChat account and sent messages to him everyday. but our chief never wrote back. He had her account deleted. She got to Lenerd for help. So Lenard asked out chief why he deleted the girl's account. Do you know what he said?"

"No. What did he say?"

"Chief said...Ahem..." Talbot cleared his throat and imitated the way Wesley spoke. "I'll delete anyone I don't like. Any other dumb questions?"

Blair was amused by Talbot's funny expression. She asked with a laugh, "Anything else?"

"No, so much for this story. By the way, are you two really living together?"

Blair was surprised by his sudden change of subject. She rolled her eyes at the nosy boy and said, "Wesley don't really come home that often. It doesn't make a difference weather we live together or not. Besides, we sleep in separate rooms."

"What? You two sleep in separate rooms?" Talbot was disappointed. "I wonder if he's impotent?"

A scene popped up in Blair's mind. Her face blushed as she stammered, "Ahem...How...would...I know that..." She knew if he was impotent. He didn't seem to have any problem getting an erection. But she wasn't about to tell Talbot.

Talbot left the ward without noticing the man in bed had opened his eyes. Neither did Blair. She turned on her laptop and was about to translate a document from her company.