The girl in the gilded cage *Completed*

Screaming like a girl

*Malina*

"You know I am not dead, right? I am capable of walking," Josh complains when I buckle him onto the gurney and have two strong workers carrying him to his trailer. I am not taking any chances if he has cut the main artery.

"Please shut up, Josh. Why did you have to piss him off like that? Ioan has a bad temper. He could have killed you for God's sake. Do you know how scared I was?" I tell him, feeling like crying.

He bites his lips, grasping my hand. "Not to sound like a jerk, but maybe now you understand just a bit how I feel every time you are up on that high line."

I close my eyes shortly and nod. Okay, I kind of get him now. I have never feared for someone I loved like that, and it was horrible watching his life being put on the line, not able to do anything to stop it.

I allow Josh to get off the gurney outside the trailer, thanking the men. I support him inside, laying out some thick towels on the bed. He has taken off his jacket. I get him to lay down. "The doctor is on his way; he should be here any minute to check you." Luckily, the circus has its own very competent doctor.

"Thank you," Josh says, sending me a small smile.

"We should get those pants off," I say, blushing. "You know, to make it easier on the doctor."

He reaches down and unbuttons his pants, but it's very clear that it is very painful when he tries to push them off. I gently remove his hands. "Let me do it."

I get a good hold of his pants, and he lifts himself a little, allowing me to pull them off. I try to avert my eyes, but the pain-filled gasp he lets out makes me look. "Are you okay, Josh?"

"Honestly, no. It is really starting to hurt now," he says, the pain evident in his eyes. Oh, do I have a bone to pick with Ioan when I get my hands on him.

I can't help looking at his legs. They really are almost abnormally long, and they look strong and very masculine. I still can't see the wound for real, as he is wearing tight black boxers. But the blood is running down his leg, and there is quite a lot.

"Well, this isn't exactly how I imagined it would be," Josh says with a sigh.

"How... what would be? Getting yourself stabbed for being sassy?" I ask.

"No," he says, chuckling lightly, then groaning in pain from the movement. "No, I meant having you undress me. Kind of thought the reason would be quite different."

"Josh!" I say, getting beet red in my face. I try looking at his wound, but it is very close to... well, his male parts. Luckily for me, the doctor shows up right then. He is a kind man around Josh's age called Leon.

*Josh*

"I hear you got yourself stabbed. How did that happen?" The doctor looks at me as he puts on his gloves. Then he finds a small pair of scissors from his bag.

"More like Ioan used him as a practice dummy," Malina says, and the doctor nods. He lifts up my boxers and cuts open the leg. I hurriedly use a hand to keep them as much in place as possible, resting my hand on my crotch.

The doctor chuckles. "You do know I am a doctor; you have nothing I haven't seen before."

"Yeah, you might have seen everything, but..." I say, glancing up at Malina, and the doctor catches on at once.

He smiles. "Oh, I see."

"Well, he hasn't hit the main artery. I am going to clean out the wound, but I better give you something for the pain and a light sedative first." I nod, and he turns to Malina. "Sweetie, maybe you should leave us to do this alone."

"But I don't want to leave him." She grabs my hand.

The doctor chuckles again. "You are welcome to stay, but I will have to remove the rest of his clothes, so."

She gives me a quick kiss and gets up. "Okay, doc, I get what you are saying. I'll be back to check on you, Josh." I smile at her, and then she leaves.

"You can scream now," the doctor says, and I look at him in confusion. "That wound hurts like hell, and you haven't made a sound. No need to hold it in now that Malina has left."

He is right; it does hurt like hell, and I whimper when he removes my boxers. Then he gives me two shots, one for pain, and one against infections. He waits a couple of minutes before washing the wound. It still feels like he is using acid and sandpaper, and I can't hold a groan in. "Yeah, sorry, this hurts."

I just nod, not trusting my voice.

"You got something lodged in the wound; I need to get it out, and I won't lie, that will hurt much worse. But at least the wound is more shallow than expected. By the way, who removed the knife?" The doctor says, getting a pair of tweezers.

I take a deep breath; it doesn't really feel like the medicine is helping. "I pulled it out before the wheel stopped. There were a lot of kids in the audience, and I didn't want them to be scared. Do what you need to do, doc."

"You shouldn't have. Always let a doctor remove the knife. But respect for having the guts to do it. Now, try not to scream too loud; we don't want the neighbors scared," he says.

I am just about to tell him that I am not going to scream. Then he jams those tweezers into the wound, pulling at something. The pain is excruciating, and I might just scream like a little girl.

"Done. See, that wasn't so bad," the doctor says, and I might send him a pretty nasty glare. He looks at the thing he pulled from my wound. "What the... it is a piece from a ten-dollar bill."