I woke up with a start the next morning to the sight of John asleep in the chair next to me. His head was drooped over his shoulder, and he was snoring into his brown leather jacket.

Peggy was back, tending to a conscious Lafayette.

I sat up straight in bed. "Laf!"

Laf saw me. "Mon amie!" he said happily. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing alright," I said. "You?"

"Better with every passing day," he said, his French accent tinging his voice.

"Lafayette, I need to redo your bandages," she said, then turned to me. "And then I need to do yours."

I nodded.

John suddenly woke up, nearly falling out of the chair in the process. He was breathing heavily, looking around wildly until he calmed down a little, but he was still shaking.

Peggy saw this and grabbed a bottle of pills and poured out a single capsule and handed it to John, who swallowed it greedily and washed it down with a drink from his canteen. He was still quite shaky but seemed to calm down within a matter of a few minutes.

"Thanks, Pegs," he said in a hoarse voice.

Peggy ignored that and said, "What was this one about?"

John rubbed his forehead. "Lee."

Peggy dropped a roll of bandages on the ground, which rolled for a small distance before stopping against the leg of a cot.

Her eyes were wide and were searching the bench in front of her for some sort of unseen object.

"What happened?"

"The same as usual."

"Oh."

She twitched her head a little, and suddenly whacked her temple with incredible force. Her right eye spun a little in its socket, looking at the floor, then the wall, then the ceiling, then the wall, then the floor again, then resumed its normal position.

That disturbed me a little more than I'd like to admit, so I distracted myself by studying Laf closer.

His burns were definitely getting better, that's for sure. The salve that Peggy was talking about last night must've helped a lot.

John seemed way more calmed down after a minute, so he turned to me and gave me a strained smile.

"So, Alex, got any family in the US?"

"Nope."

"Oh."

There was a long, awkward silence.

"Alright, Alex," Peggy said. "Time to clean your wounds."

(Three days later...)

"Here's your leg, Alex!"

I had to contain my excitement as Peggy attached a brass copper prosthetic leg to my stump through several leather straps. She inserted a key into a lock on the leg, turned it clockwise, then handed me the key which was strung on a silver chain.

"Put that around your neck, and never lose it."

I did as she said, then watched with absolute euphoria as she flexed the foot. It squeaked a tiny bit at the action.

"Okay, so, try flexing your right foot," she said, and I did. She took her hand away from the steel appendage.

The foot kept moving, and when I stop flexing, it stopped, too.

I squealed at the sight. "Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!"

Laf laughed. "It is good, is it not?"

I nodded happily, touching the metal with my fingertips.

"Okay, try standing up," Peggy said.

I swung my legs over the side of my bed and touched down on the ground. I carefully stood up, gripping onto John for support. I took a step with my real leg, and then another step with the prosthetic leg.

I laughed a little in shock, then let go of John and walked a little bit on my own.

Peggy smiled proudly. "Well, look at you."