Catlike Reflexes

The moment Jessica opened her hand and Tom started to fall, Janine reacted, lunging forward, arm outstretched and hand opened. Time still seemed impossibly slow as he accelerated toward the floor. It was an odd detached sense he felt, like he was outside himself. He could see Janine’s hand sliding in beneath him as time returned to the present.

His feet struck the thumb side of her hand, cartwheeling him toward the ground where he hit with an audible wet sound, like an overripe piece of fruit hitting concrete.

“NO!” Janine screamed, landing on her stomach, the sensation of his body lingering in the spot where he had made contact.

“Oh my god!” Cassidy yelled, moving in beside Janine, her emergency room training kicking in.

“He bit me,” Jessica said, taking a couple of steps backward, rubbing the spot where her hand hurt.

Looking up at her sister, “What have you done you stupid cow!” Janine challenged, rising to her feet.

“No, no,” Cassidy said, carefully trying to roll Tom’s limp little form into her hand, the whole right side of his face bright red with fresh blood, right eye open, left eye closed.

“He bit me,” Jessica repeated, holding her hand out to show the pink mark on it. “It’s not my fault,” she added.

“Come on Tom,” Cassidy encouraged, Tom now cradled in the palm of her left hand.

“He bit you because you grabbed him and were squeezing the life out of him!” Janine asserted, turning her head back to look at the nurse down on her knees.

“I just wanted to hold him, that’s all. He shouldn’t have bit me,” Jessica said, shaking her head and spreading her hands.

Turning back, Janine brought her right hand around, open palm striking her sister with a resounding smack across the older girl’s left cheek.

“Breathe for me Tom,” Cassidy urged, noting his chest was not moving.

“What was that for?” Jessica questioned, bringing a hand to her stinging face.

“Shut up you spoiled brat,” Janine barked, turning away and dropping in beside the nurse.

“It was an accident,” Jessica protested, still rubbing her cheek.

“TOM!” Cassidy yelled, voice urgent.

“Come on little guy,” Janine said, suddenly choking up and overcome with emotion. Where was this feeling coming from? With all she had done both to him, with him, she had been able to remain detached, but now she felt almost overwhelmed.

Bringing him up near her lips, she placed them around his face and blew ever so gently, trying to coax him into breathing on his own.

Janine turned to the side, burying her face in her hands. Why was she crying? What was happening to her? Where were these feeling coming from?

“Is he alright?” Jessica asked, peeking in over Janine’s shoulder but unable to see Tom as Cassidy tried to inflate his lungs.

Snapping her head up, Cassidy fixed Jessica with a deadly glower, the bloody heart on her lips from trying to resuscitate him a grotesque parody of lipstick, “No!” she said, “he’s pretty goddam far from alright!”

Jessica shook her head, “I’m sorry,” she said.

“I want you out of my house right now,” seethed Cassidy before leaning forward again and breathing into Tom.

“I said I was sorry,” Jessica repeated, shrugging her shoulders.

“GET OUT!” screamed Cassidy, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Getting to her feet, Janine turned her head hiding her face as she pushed her sister toward the door.

“It was an accident!” Jessica yelled back, leaning around Janine.

Janine felt to emotionally distraught to speak, confused by the sudden intensity and depth of the feelings racing through her. She had tied Tom to a dildo and fucked herself in the ass and hadn’t batted an eye, but seeing his broken little body lying in the nurse’s hand touched something inside of her, something she could not yet fathom or seem to get a handle on.

Shoving Jessica through the door and out into the hall, Janine closed the door, a sob escaping her lips. Why couldn’t she just turn it off? Using the middle finger of each hand, she removed the tears building up in the corners of her vivid blue eyes.

Jessica was about to comment, but the look in Janine’s puffy eyes promised murder, so she turned away.

Inside, Cassidy watched the sisters leave before wiping the back of her hand across her blood tainted lips and looked down at Tom, his little chest rising and falling on its own. Professional experience had taught her not to panic at the sight of blood, and given the volume on him, her primary concern was the bleeding she couldn’t see, internal. Gently touching his chest to see if there if she could detect any broken ribs that might have penetrated an organ, she timed her palpation with his inhalation. As far as she could tell, it seemed as if there was nothing broken. Similarly, she examined his arms and legs. She wished she could examine his eyes and do a bi-lateral pupillary response to see if there was any cranial bleeding. Wanting to get a better look at the source of the external bleeding, she got to her feet and hurried into the kitchen, setting him down carefully on the counter and turning on the faucet. Moistening a fold of paper towel, she cleaned his face, mindful not to compromise his airway. The vast majority of the blood originated from a nasty laceration over his right eye, though the blood in the wound had started congealing. His nose was bleeding, though it didn’t look broken and his lower lip was split.

Scooping him back into her hand, she glanced toward her apartment door, wondering if maybe she should try and sneak him into the hospital and do some x-rays.

“Hey,” he croaked.

“Oh Tom!” she exclaimed, overjoyed.

“Not so loud,” he said, raising a hand.

Leaning her head down close to him, she kissed him gently on his torso.

Pushing back at her lips, “Not tonight dear, I got a headache,” he said weakly.

She smiled, then settled into her nurse guise, peppering with questions about how he felt. All he felt was insanely tired, like he just wanted to sleep.