A man's liable to take offense to any words that come out of a woman's mouth, is what she thinks but doesn't say aloud. She's not here to dive into a debate about male and female roles and how she's crossed the boundary between the two. It would simply fire her up and most men would interpret that as her being a "hysterical woman." Christine isn't going to give him any ammo there.

Instead she nods and pressed the damp gauze to the wound before he can reconsider. She knows the iodine will make the wound clean, but it will also cause a great deal of pain as it works its way in. It's such an unfortunate thing to know that the way to help someone feel better is to put them through more pain first. If only it wasn't so. Her compassion for people means it gets to her every time she's trying to heal and she knows she's harming them in reaching that goal.

"I'll sew you up as quick as I can," she says with sympathy. "If you can just hold the gauze here, I'll thread the needle and it'll be over before you know it."