Page 55 of Shelter for Morgan

A thought turned Rhett's head toward her. "When does the next class show up?"

She shook her head as she smiled at Benji. "No class. This is their mid-morning break."

Rhett let out a breath.

He didn't think that it would make things easier on Benji to have a bunch of people staring at him.

He also wasn't going to make them wait any longer.

Rhett dropped his gaze and peeled back the bandage, momentarily ignoring the whimper of pain from Benji.

He didn't have to look at more than an inch of skin to see that the boy's arm wasn't just burned, he was infected. His normally tan skin was tinged with purple and there was a thick sludge of pale pus that welled up at the edge of the bandage.

Rhett felt like hell. He'd opened the skin by pulling off the bandage. "Sorry, man."

"I- It's... okay." He sucked in a breath. "I b-barely fee-feel it otherwi-ise."

Rhett nodded. "Okay, we need to get you to a hospital." He paused for a moment, looking at Morgan and then beyond to the open doorway. "We could call an ambulance, but-"

Benji reacted to that suggestion, tensing up, trying to pull his arm away.

"Hey... hey... hold on." Rhett smiled at him. "I should have started with the other option."

"Front office?"

Rhett's smile deepened as he heard Morgan asking for someone to come and take over her class. She was a smart woman.

"The second option is that we take you. We can help you walk and make this look as normal as we can."

He saw the relief in Benji's eyes and his quick nod.

"Okay. We'll get you there so that they can look at your arm and help you heal."

Benji looked over at Morgan and when she hung up her cell phone Benji spoke to her. "Don't... don't you want m-me to tell you how I got hu-hurt?"

Morgan leaned in and rubbed his good arm. "First, we want to get you to the hospital and get the doctors to help you start healing. When you're ready to tell us what happened, I'm ready to hear it."

Rhett watched Benji absorb her words like a sponge, then he saw Benji look over at him.

"Help m-me up?"

Rhett nodded and together, with Morgan's help, they got Benji up on his feet.

Morgan picked up the sling. "Do you want to put this back on?"

Benji's whole face blanched. "N-no."

Morgan nodded, understanding. "I'm guessing you don't want anything touching your arm."

Benji's face relaxed.

They started to walk, passing the office worker who would be taking over Morgan's class after the break.

"Lesson plan?"

"On my desk."

The other woman nodded and looked at Benji with concern.

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