[Log] Doctor, Doctor [Backdated; Like CRAZY Backdated]
Characters: Rin and Anko
Date: December 17th, 2007
Location: Rin's Clinic
Rating: Pg-15
Warnings/Notes: Blood and Language
Summary: After paying a little visit to the Ceno Arma base, Anko sidetracks to visit with Rin. (this was to follow this and then the resulting log after)
[OOC: So yeah, is there an award for furthest backdated log? >.>; Clearing out my G-docs, and I had been waiting for Brinn to finish this up despite her departure since we were so close to an end, but instead just wrapped it to get it out of my active docs bin.]
Cursing violently under her breath, Anko found herself ducking around the corner of yet another building at the sight of the squad of Arma troops patrolling the street. Any other time there would be the bare minimum out and about but with her current predicament it would figure they'd be lurking around every bend.
The fact that they were most likely on high alert for someone matching her description probably wouldn't factor in at all.
Considering what could have happened, Anko thought the measures taken were just a tad on the drastic side but how was she to have known Danzou himself had been visiting the Ceno compound at that time? Had she be aware of that minor fact perhaps she wouldn't have followed the impulse to raid the Armory for a brick or six of C-4 and would have slipped silently out the back door but no. Anko had felt the need to purge some of the pent up anger and frustration out of her system somehow and taking out part of the Interrogation Wing honestly seemed to be the best idea at the time. Surely Naruto had to shoulder part of that blame with all of his talk of Deidara and his penchant for explosives or else that particular idea would never have come to mind...or at least not as incessantly as it had.
Silently she slipped from her hiding place after a decent amount of time had passed, continuing to make her way through the Celo back streets. Granted the foresight to wear her Arceo's uniform underneath her other clothes was a definite blessing as that would be the last thing the troops would be looking for but Anko wasn't planning on taking any more chances that night. As it were, all of the roads were starting to blur together as the combination of prolonged use of Kankuro's adrenalin supplements in lieu of sleep and the notable blood loss from the oozing wound in her shoulder made the trip between districts seem to take three times as long as it normally did. It was this little complication that had Anko veering off her original course of going straight back to her apartment in Cena where she most likely had a very pissed off Kankurou waiting for her. Instead she found herself almost crying out in relief as the small clinic came into her line of sight.
It was almost too easy to lock her back into that all to familiar rigid stance, adjusting her gear to cover the torn portion of her uniform and adopting the arrogant air of authority before strolling into the brightly lit building. The small sitting area was surprisingly empty, only a few people lingered about in addition to the young man manning the admittance counter.
"Pardon me, but I need to speak to your head physician if she's in. My apologies for the presumption but it is of a rather urgent matter so I must insist you get her immediately."
Rin peeled off her sterile gloves, wiping sweaty palms against her pants, a fine layer of delicate powder catching the light on her fingers. No blood this time. Small mercies. Placing a guiding hand on the broad back of the man she was guiding out, she barely noticed how much she was actually leaning on him, using his bulk to keep herself upright. She needed to take a break soon. Nothing too long, just…just a few minutes to shut her eyes, grab another cup of coffee. Just a few minutes.
Her foot stumbled suddenly, and the man she’d just finished checking for a viral infection had to grab hold of her arm to keep her steady. Great. Wonderful. Exactly the message she wanted to send to patience: Your doctor is liable to lose consciousness at any moment - but enough about that, let’s check out the scalpels!
Just great.
The sight that greeted her when she walked in however, had them both freezing in their steps, the man’s fingers tightening on her shoulder in what might have been a protective gesture or might have been preparation to use her as a human shield in case of gunfire. It was a coin toss, really.
Alright, there was an Arceos officer in her lobby. Fighting down the cold wash of panic that was raising a cold sweat on her skin, she tried to focus on something, anything, that wasn’t being forcibly dragged back into the wrong end of the interrogation rooms in Ceno.
Rin’s head jerked up from where she’d been studying the scuffed floor at the sound of the officer’s voice. A strange mix of husky and silky that she knew. Rin’s dark eyes dragged up the woman’s frame to meet deep violet ones and went wide as realization struck like a blow to the stomach. She rushed forward before really realizing she was doing so, taking hold of the other woman’s warm hand in her clammy one. It was then that she caught the terrified tension gluing the queue of patients to their seats, white showing all around their irises. Of course they were scared. They thought she was about to sell them out.
“I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to close early today,” she said in a voice that didn’t sound like hers, thin and high-pitched and breaking slightly at the end. “We’ll open same time tomorrow,” she added. “I promise.”
Tightening her hold on Anko, she half-dragged the other woman into the hallway and then into a cramped exam room, before rounding on her with the sound of her pulse hammering in her ears.
“You scared the hell out of me,” she hissed, before launching into rapid-fire questioning. “Where did you get that uniform? Why are you here? What is going on?”
“C’mon Rin, breathe…please? I didn’t mean to cause a scene it’s just that it’s been a long fuckin’ couple of days, I’m tired and I didn’t have anyone else I could go to that I could trust, ok?” If the situation wasn’t what it was Anko would probably be laughing her ass off at the moment for having been able to garner such a reaction from the other woman but instead she was protectively angling herself so that Rin wouldn’t reach out and make a grab for Anko’s other arm in her ire.
She had begun to open her mouth with some humorous response to the mini-inquisition when the room suddenly tilted on it’s axis, causing Anko to tug her hand away from Rin’s so that she could brace herself up against the examination table rather then kissing the floor. Her breath cut harshly through her teeth as she willed away the dancing black splotches to her vision, refusing to give an inch after she already made it that far.
"Don't worry, I wasn't followed. Just got myself caught unawares and I knew better then to try and get back to Cena until I could rest for a minute to patch this damned thing up. Figured I'd come here to you rather then try to do it myself and then end up here anyway after I fucked it up even more and then have to listen to you yell at me," she mumbled, finally trusting that she wasn't going to keel over just yet. Carefully sliding her bag off from around her neck, Anko gently set it down to the side, ever mindful of the small vials containing whatever stock Kankurou had been forced to leave behind. A slight grimace flashed across her features when she moved from where the fabric had adhered to her skin. "Was lucky to get this damned far with them looking for me every damned time I turned a corner but they're not going to be looking for someone in their own gear, stupid bunch of rookies. They sure don't train 'em like the used to, do they Doc?"
Contrasting emotions were crashing into each other inside of Rin, huge tidal waves of feeling in clashing primary colors, red and blue and yellow swirling and mixing together in a frothing haze to form a jumbled wash across her mind. The initial panic of thinking she’d finally been found out had left her jittery with adrenaline better than any caffeine rush, which was having an adverse effect on her sleep-deprived exhaustion. The strength seemed to go out of her joints, knees and shoulders and elbows were hard to move, she kept clenching and unclenching her fingers just to reassure herself she could. And now…now she didn’t know what she was feeling, hearing this woman’s voice - this woman who had last seen her on That Night, broken and wrecked with all her cracks and scars showing - talking to her about the world she’d so succinctly sworn she’d left behind, making jokes only a military brat would understand. She could feel hysterical laughter beginning to climb its way up her throat and it would all be over soon, she’d crack or suffer a psychotic break or just curl into the fetal position right here on the exam room floor and when was the last time she’d cleaned?
“Wait, what do you mean - patch what up?” she started, the other woman’s words finally filtering through the wall of white noise buzzing in her ears. Her eyes narrowed suddenly, taking in Anko’s stance, how she was bracing her weight on the table like she was five minutes away from joining her in the Passed Out On The Gross, Unclean Floor Club. And then she noticed the blood, initially invisible against the dark fabric of the uniform (that goddamn fucking uniform she wanted to rip off with her bare hands but for the fact she was sort of afraid it would burn her skin). A fat scarlet drop landed on the table, spattering slightly and spreading on the sterile paper.
“What did you do?” she snarled savagely, even as she grabbed for Anko’s waist, shoving her into getting up onto the table. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. “This is so unbelievably typical,” she muttered darkly under her breath and she snatched fresh gloves out of a box on the counter top. “Lay down and shut up and maybe I’ll find it in my heart not to just let you die since that seems to be your goal for the day.”
"I didn't do anything," Anko mumbled sullenly, much like a scolded child as she was pushed back onto the exam table.
Perhaps if she was just a little more woozy from the blood loss, Anko would've commented on the perverted things her mind was shooting off at the demands being put upon her being taken entirely out of context but as she didn't exactly put it past Rin to forget some sort of numbing agent or to maybe just accidentally jab a little harder then necessary to spite her in her current irritation, Anko wisely kept her thoughts to herself...for the moment.
The surge of relief that she was finally somewhere safe was enough to melt her bones and Rin's odd mixture of doctorly comfort and general female bitchiness made it that much better, even though her scoldings were enough to make even Anko cringe with the few times she'd been on the receiving end of such lectures. It was nice to finally be able to breathe and not worry, not having to make the mad dash down dark alleyways on her last leg with both the charming locals and the military after her. It made it all that much easier to just give over to the doctor's biting commands and threats, the protective paper crinkling underneath her as she shifted into the ordered position, gently lying back so as not to put any pressure on her injured shoulder. The sudden change in altitude had her head swimming again, a sensation she was finding to be all too common.
"You know it's just a little contradictory to demand answers and then tell me to shut up almost in the same breath, right Doc?"
Rin had a whole list of things she wanted to reply to Anko with, preferably at close range and high volume while radiating killing intent. However, she thought the incredulous snort she opted for instead summed up her feelings quite succinctly, which was an obvious bonus as she was far too busy thinking up ways to save the other woman’s life to think up properly terrifying ways of threatening it.
Rounding on her with a blunt-nosed scissors, she began cutting away the dark fabric without preamble, taking no small amount of relish in the act of physically tearing apart the thing she associated with nothing but blood and screams. If Anko wasn’t still inside the offending uniform, she might’ve been tempted to set the damn thing on fire. As it was, however, she had to settle of slicing away thick strips of it, revealing more and more smooth skin that was slick and tarry with clotting blood.
“And what exactly,” she ground out through clenched teeth, “were you doing to prompt someone to shoot you?” To emphasize her point, she peeled away the ruined sleeve of the Arceos uniform where the entry wound was almost black with the sticky mess, steadily weeping red every time she moved.
Her mouth settled into a grim line as she inspected the damage, the mess obscuring the wound from her sight, making her fingers slide off the skin. Without looking up, she reached for a bottle of iodine she knew was there and unscrewed the cap, pouring the acrid-smelling substance onto a pad of gauze. Fixing her accusing eyes on the other woman’s, she raised her eyebrows expectantly while she began wiping off the blood.
The dull edge of the scissors dug into Anko's skin as Rin stripped away pieces of her past, disapproval rolling off the other woman in waves. Rather then focusing on whatever the capable hands were doing Anko instead fixed her eyes on a particularly artistic crack in the ceiling, tracing the plaster lines with unfocused eyes while trying not to flinch as the cloth clung, though whether it was from the actual cloth itself or Rin's overly enthusiastic ripping, she couldn't be sure.
"Made a little trip down memory lane to do some research and to pay a visit to a few assholes who had a run in with someone close." Scrunching up her nose Anko tried to keep the details to the bare minimum but also give enough to satisfy Rin's questions. It was best for all parties involved to not give out the dirty details just to protect herself as well as Rin on the odd case she was followed without her knowledge. "Just didn't expect for fuckin' Danzou to be there. Troops were increased and I was stupid, leaving them with a little parting gift that took out a good chunk of the interrogation wing. Commotion pulled in half the damned barracks and one lucky squad caught up just as I was about to cross over into Ceno proper. Rest would be pretty self-explanatory, leading up to where I came to see my favorite, gentle, kind, caring, oh-so-sexy Doctor-lady."
Perhaps it was a little over the top but Anko could always blame it on blood loss and shock later on. Anything to butter up the Doctor who was just as capable of jabbing her fingers into her shoulder to pull out the bullet rather then use a numbing agent and the proper tools, all hinged on Anko's ability to not irritate the woman further.
Whatever dignity she had left though went flying out the door at the cold sting of acid or something very close to it that was pressed against her shoulder, causing Anko to jerk away with a violent curse trying to put as much distance in the cramped space between her and that vicious stuff and the sadistic doctor wielding it.
"Ok, just for that I'm revoking the 'gentle' part."
Rin’s fingers kept up their steady pace, even as the rest of her stilled, dumbfounded, at Anko’s seemingly blasé admission. “Danzou was there?” she managed to choke out, “You attacked the military compound when Danzou was there?!” A note of hysteria had worked its way into her tone as the sheer stupidity, the unbelievable danger of what Anko had done began to truly dawn on her. Along with the fact that if anyone found out she’d been the one to patch up this particular criminal, she’d probably find herself in a holding facility in the interrogation unit, getting a taste for the other side of the interview process. Her ribs throbbed dully with phantom-limb fear that she shoved to the back of her mind as Anko hissed like an alley cat and attempted to wrench away.
Rin placed her free hand flat against the other woman’s collarbone and shoved her back down against the hygienic paper that was wet with her own blood. Even as she sopped up the worst of the tacky mess from the other woman’s shoulders, memories were caressing her with long, languorous fingers, coaxing slivers of memory she’d long since disowned to the surface of her mind.
She’d seen Danzou once, most everyone had, but only in the briefest passing, glimpsed from a distance turning a corner or speaking fast, clipped words to some superior officer or other. Their unit had been training inside when he’d just happened to walk through the room, and they’d all frozen, statue-like, in various states of sweaty dishevelment, saluting so tensely their arms had cramped. All she really remembered of the incident was the fact that during the agonizing stretch it took him to cross the room, she’d had the overwhelming urge to sneeze, and the second the door had shut behind him, she’d sneezed five times in a row until she’d gone cross-eyed and Obito had laughed so hard he’d fallen over.
Shrugging off the memory like a dog shaking off water, she raised an eyebrow archly. “You ain’t seen nothing, yet,” she warned, reaching for the spread of silver implements near her hip. But even as she said, she rubbed her thumb across her shoulder in the best reassuring gesture she could manage under the circumstances.
"Hey, give a girl some credit...if I had known the bastard was there I would have opted for a different exit plan. I've got someone waiting on me who'll kick my ass if I got myself caught, let alone killed for something that damned stupid." Or at least she would have been more careful sneaking back out rather then just busting ass out of there but that particular thought wouldn't gain her any brownie points at this moment. "Hell, I'm already fucked once I get back and he sees this," she groaned, trying to hold back another foul tirade when she was forced back down into submission, pain once again causing another overabundance of those little black spots to cloud her vision.
In response to Rin's warning however, Anko managed a low chuckle, keeping her face turned away from the doctor as she heard the other woman picking and choosing various tools, the comforting gesture not lost on her and was muchly appreciated.
"I really am sorry to put you in this position Doc, but I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to Cena like this. I promise I won't let them find out anything involving you...I don't forget those who help me," she said softly, the earlier joking tone put aside for the moment.
Rin cocked a skeptical eyebrow, one hand busy bracing the other woman against the table for the fresh blast of pain that was waiting in her other. If she’d thought the bullet had hurt going in…
“Oh? You think your significant other might be a little displeased you’ve gotten yourself shot?” she asked in a voice dry enough to catch fire. “Fancy that.” Anko’s skin was slick under her fingers and too-warm, the soft tawny color stained a sick ochre. She was sweating, shining under the intense exam room light fixed on her and her heaving breathes pressed her collar bone flush against Rin’s hand every other second before sinking down just as fast. The smell of copper was so strong she could taste it in her mouth. The waves of sensory information that kept hitting her again and again almost threatened to overwhelm her, made her go breathless, made the room go bright, but she shoved it down with a vehement force that only came with too much practice and pressed on. So to speak.
A soft smiled pulled at her full lips at Anko’s somewhat dazed thanks. Repeating the gesture and tracing her fingers along her skin once more she replied with equal parts gentleness, irony, and apology, “You’re gonna be feeling a lot less apologetic in a second.” Using one hand to hold the oozing wound open, she adjusted her grips on the forceps. “Look away and brace yourself,” she warned, then added, “And keep your reflexes in check, ‘cause if you hit me I swear I will let you bleed to death on this table.” Then she reached into the open maw on the bullet hole and wrenched the damn thing out of her, almost in one movement, and dropped it with a loud, metallic clang into the waiting bin.
She should’ve been a freaking secretary.
At the sensation of an iron brand jamming through her shoulder, Anko's back arched off the exam table, the damp paper tearing silently under the violent movement. Her strangled shout muffled only by sinking her teeth into her lower lip hard enough for the metallic taste to cover her tongue. Somewhat ashamed by her own reaction, she fought against the need to curl up into the protective fetal position, instead her back fell back to the table, chest heaving as she struggled to replenish the oxygen that had been ripped from her lungs in a fashion much like the bullet that once occupied her shoulder.
It was at that moment Anko vowed that if she were ever to get shot again, the damn bullet would be staying right where it was. Either that or she would be finding a doctor who wasn't quite as sadistic and who at least held some minor belief in anesthetics.
Slowly the adrenaline rush began to chase away the blinding pain long enough for Anko to crack her eyes open to stare blearily at the yellowed plastic light casing, totally unaware of the moisture leaving tracks down the sides of her face as slowly loosened her grip on the cracked vinyl table.
"Chis'...I'll bet you worked in interrogation didn't you?"" she finally croaked out, flexing slightly against Rin's grip, testing to see if it still held firm. She just wanted to go home. Even though an extremely pissed off Kankurou would be awaiting her, an equally worried and spazzing Naruto along with Deidara...who would just be there but Kankurou was there and that thought alone helped to banish away the darkness lingering at the edges of her vision because she had a deadline to make. She promised him she'd back in two days and even if she dropped dead a second later, Anko had every intention of keeping that promise.
“Yes, actually,” Rin answered in a voice that didn’t sound like her own. Keeping a strong, steady pressure over the wound with one hand, she searched with the other for the suture needle she knew was somewhere nearby. She knew, of course, that it was deeply stupid to be reaching blindly around a tray full of medical instruments, but she was having trouble tearing her eyes away from the slick tears and slicker blood that were making slow paths down Anko’s face. This, she chastised herself as she wrenched her gaze over to tray, was why you weren’t supposed to treat people you knew, why you were supposed to keep a professional distance, why you weren’t allowed to mix your personal life and your professional one: it left you groping blindly at scalpels and feel guilt like a punch to the throat for doing your job.
Growling in frustration, she realized that she would have to release the pressure on the bullet wound if she was going to thread the needle because if she wanted to stop the other woman from bleeding to death, she was going to have to risk letting her do just that. Six of one, a half-dozen of the other. Lose-lose. Story of her life.
Letting go felt like shoving Anko towards a cliff, but she grabbed at the silk thread, cursing spectacularly under her breath when her blood-slippery fingers fumbled uselessly. “Anko,” she said loudly, trying to keep her focused and conscious, to keep her near, “The bullet nicked one of your arteries, it’s why you’re bleeding so much.” Gently, gently, push, pull, twist, finally>. Rounding on Anko again, she hunched down and tried to see through all thick, clotting blood. “I have to tie it off to keep you from bleeding out, alright? So I don’t really have time to give you anything right now,” she ground out between clenched teeth as her fingers found their up down up down up down rhythm, “But if you agree to survive this, I promise to give you some really awesome painkillers, okay?” She looked up and shouted at the mess of blood, sweat, and tears that was currently passing for Anko, “Okay?!” She almost couldn’t hear her own voice over the pounding in her ears, her heart furiously pumping blood she would have been happy to share.
The loud voice in her ear had Anko inching away slightly, the words not necessarily making their way through her hazy brain at the moment but voice was enough to penetrate the fog, leaving Anko to nod slightly in response, her tongue flickering out to wet parched lips as she tried to formulate the required response. Anything to try and pull her attention away from the needle threading through her torn skin at the moment.
"Whatev'r you say, Doc," she mumbled, trying her damnedest to keep still and not pull away from the slick grip the other woman had on her. "Just stop yellin', I'm right here." Slowly, what Rin had said processed through the haze, leaving Anko to whimper out an obscenity or four. Either way whether by work of the awesome painkillers she was being bribed with or the copiously leaking artery, her schedule was put in jeopardy. Gritting her teeth at an exceptionally painful jab, the adrenaline was wearing off bit by bit and the pain radiating from her shoulder was enough to make Anko re-consider curling up into a ball, pride be damned. It took a few tries but finally she managed to form thoughts into tangible words.
"In that bag, there's my phone...ignore anything else that's in there and do not mess with that stuff, jus' trust me on that. If something happens that I can't get back to Cena within the next few hours, you have to call Naruto. If I'm not back, they'll be out lookin' for me, and he's already too hurt, shouldn't be movin' around and the stubborn ass'll do it. Don't talk to anyone but the brat, he'll take care of the rest," she pleaded, painfully aware of the consequences of her tardiness. The last thing she needed to worry about was Naruto and Kankurou running rampant in the streets with the increased presence of troops lining every corner, Deidara being there not helping to ease her stress in the slightest.
Quite tired of staring at the bland ceiling, she tilted her head back towards Rin, doing her very best to ignore anything with the liquid red tinge to it. The other woman looked as positively exhausted and wrecked as she felt at the moment and thankfully Anko still held enough presence of mind not to voice that particular thought, instead opting to reach over her one hand to push back a piece of hair that had escaped the fierce knot holding back the mass that had fallen loose and tangled the last time they'd met under just as awkward circumstances.
"You shouldn't have still been here y'know, you look exhausted."
Or maybe she didn't have so much of a mental filter as she thought she had.
Rin held her breath as she meticulously closed off the wound. There would be a scar, but it didn’t have to be a bad one. This all could just fade into a pale white line in a year or two. The only thing to remind Anko of her painstaking care would be the sensation of raised skin when someone else ran their fingers over it.
Anko’s quiet, rasping voice was music to her ears, terrifying, driving music, but she hung off every word as her fingers worked seemingly of their own accord. With every slurred syllable she felt the muscles of her stomach and jaw tighten and clench. Orders given in the midst of massive blood loss made her nervous, made her feel sick, made her…scared. Because yes, she wanted to know the other woman, wanted to know about her, but now that she’d had a glimpse of it, Anko’s world left a sick taste in her mouth. She always dug up things she didn’t want to know and she never, never learned her lesson.
She sighed in…not satisfaction, but maybe surrender when the last stitch effectively knit the wound together. Her small fingers picked up the thin scissors and cut the thread neatly, and it was extremely lucky that she did so before Anko’s fingers on her skin made her jump half out of her skin. Brown eyes jumped to meet violet ones and all she could do was blink owlishly for a moment before replying incredulously, “You’re telling me that I work bad hours and look like hell?”
A tired chuckle resonated from the woman on the exam table as she slowly retracted her arm once again, glad to have changed that oddly depressing look on Rin's face into the surprised and exasperated one she could deal with.
"Pretty sure that's what I just said, everyone else's probably too scared of ya to say the truth. Figured I'd take advantage of lookin' so pitiful, y'need to take better care of yourself. Can't be patchin' up all the fuck ups of the world when you're passed out in the floor with 'em." All of the blood was beginning to dry into a morbid sort of paste, causing Anko to wince as she shifted slightly, her skin detaching from the vinyl cover of the exam table with the sensation of removing a large band-aid. Ow.
Extremely glad that the repetitive needle stabbing was now finished, Anko slowly pushed herself back up into a seated position, teeth sinking into her already bruised lip when the room began to spin again but eventually she achieved her goal, twisting herself slightly so she could lean back against the wall with her legs dangling off the side of the table. She was filthy, covered in blood even though not all of it was hers, exhausted as all fucking hell but she was alive and that had to count for something, right?
"It's a pity I left my change of clothes back in Ceno or else I'd offer to take you out for that drink I think we both need right about now," she snickered, her fingers reaching up to fidget with the shredded edges of her uniform. Dammit. This had been her last one too save for the ceremonial one for high occasions. One more tie to her past lost forever. With that thought sobering her along with a fresh wave of pain radiating from her shoulder, Anko sighed and let her head fall back with a solid 'thunk' to the wall. "I do seriously appreciate this Rin and I meant what I said. I don't forget those who help me, not when you'd probably have been smarter to shove me off to the first patrol strolling by. I'm in your debt."
Rin made a vague dismissive gesture with one hand as she turned around, stripping off her bloody gloves with an elastic snap and the ease of years of practice. Sleep was for the weak, obviously. She wiped her sweaty hands against her thighs briefly before tugging on a fresh pair (a little more difficult this time, the latex sticking and pulling at her skin, snapping and leaving her wrists stinging), before rummaging through the topmost drawer of the industrial cabinet against the wall for the bottle of Lidocaine she knew was there. Her fingers finally bumped against it, making a soft clinking noise against its neighboring bottles in time with the wince-inducing sound of Anko's skin separating from the vinyl, the sterile paper having long since been soaked through and rendered useless, bits of it clinging to the back of the other woman's tattered uniform. Fishing out a sterile syringe, she ripped open the package with her teeth before plunging the needle into the top and drawing up the clear liquid.
She had just raised her hand to knock loose any bubbles lingering along the edges of the narrow cylinder when Anko's croaking voice sounded again. She shot her a glare over her shoulder, chocolaty eyes narrowed in irritation and a smear of drying blood making itself known across one freckled-smattered cheekbone, an itch she couldn't scratch until she got the stupid white gloves off. "Don't be stupid, Anko," she snapped, flicking her fingers hard against the syringe once, twice, three times, before stomping over to the exam table, looking for all the world like a little girl in a snit. "I'm giving you a site-specific numbing agent," she intoned with a clipped voice, "Once we've cleaned you up a bit, I'll give you a general anesthetic to help you sleep." The needle disappeared into Anko's russet-stained skin, her fingers coming closer and closer together as she pressed the painkiller into her bloodstream. "Done," she hummed, placing the used needle on the tray and reaching for the small squirt bottle of distilled water next to the still-open bottle of iodine. Keeping her eyes carefully trained on the expanse of skin underneath her fingers, she gently rubbed a clean pad of gauze in small circles until the soft peach could be seen through the red. Her voice felt caught in her throat as she taped the clean dressing over the angry red welt that the black Xs of her sutures marched across like train tracks. She was sure that she wanted to say something, but she just didn't know what it was she was failing so miserably to articulate.
Finally, the last of the medical tape laid flush across Anko's skin, she mumbled, "You'd have done the same for me," mouthing the words more than actually speaking them, then turning away to rip off her gloves with a sigh of relief at the feel of cool against them. "Besides," she added in a louder, falsely casual voice, "you can pay me back by taking off your clothes." Raising one dark eyebrow with a playful smirk, she tossed a hospital gown on the table next to Anko's leg. "Did I mention that you're staying the night?"
Her mouth had just cracked open to protest before yet another needle found itself underneath her skin and Rin's professional but snitty words echoed through her ears. With the blessed paralysis of the nerves in her shoulder, Anko was in far less of a hurry to start arguing, instead opting to let her head fall back against the wall to enjoy her first moments of pain-free existence since the bullet tore through her shoulder, not moving nor complaining while Rin mopped away the sweat, blood and iodine. She watched the doctor work from beneath cracked eyelids, seeing Rin's lips move with words that didn't quite make it to her ears, but were heard and appreciated all the same. It had too long since she found some sort of a friend like this, one who was entirely too much like a ghost of her past, someone who scolded and nagged but was someone who she'd do anything for if they'd only ask.
A sentiment that was given too soon apparently as the hospital gown brushed against her leg and again Rin's words were belatedly filtering through exhaustion-weary brain cells. The drab pile of fabric stared back at her even as the full brunt of what Rin was suggesting had Anko scooting off the exam table with dogged shake of her head that set the room to spinning.
"I can't, I already told you this was a temporary stop Doc. It has to be unless you want two trigger happy idiots wandering streets they're not supposed to found on. I can't expect you to worry about my idiot, but think of the blond one out there trying to find me. You know Naru-chan doesn't stop to think when he gets in that frame of mind...if it were just you and me I wouldn't oppose to some alone time with just us girls but those two..." She knew she was rambling incoherently, but Anko couldn't bring herself to stop, the crushing deadline she had given herself barely giving her enough room to breath with the consequences of not being where she was supposed to be stuck firmly in her brain and refusing to let go.
It was just a pity the damned room wouldn't stop spinning.
A silent prayer and a firm order to her knees to not buckle as she tried to stand, Anko continued to try and blurt out something a little less rambly and a more cohesive structure though that Rin could understand. Her earlier order about calling Naruto was more for the instance that she had passed out or something temporary but when the other woman was speaking in stretches of time that consisted more along the possibility of daily increments....just no.
Two days.
Two days where she had been moving without stop, each step worried about the threesome left back in Cena, about how Kankurou was doing and if he were awake yet - if he had packed up and left her. There was no way of knowing until she got back, and not even for Rin could she risk waiting to find out what would happen if she didn't keep her promise to return in the allotted time.
Her uniform was torn beyond repair but there was enough of it left to cover the majority of her upper half at least. A quick stop by her Celo residence would give her a fresh change of clothes and the opportunity to grab some additional pain killers in case Rin was feeling vindictive enough not to share with her abrupt departure. There was also the bonus of her bike hidden in the basement, having left it behind feeling as though it would have been better to ease about on foot. The roads may have been slick with ice but it would be quicker, and far easier to outrun any more government lackeys. Nothing else mattered except to get home to where Kankurou was hopefully waiting for, and that thought alone gave her the strength to shoulder the heavy duffel bag, but not before tugging Rin into an awkward one-armed embrace with another ramble of thanks and apology lumped in together.
She just had to hurry.
Date: December 17th, 2007
Location: Rin's Clinic
Rating: Pg-15
Warnings/Notes: Blood and Language
Summary: After paying a little visit to the Ceno Arma base, Anko sidetracks to visit with Rin. (this was to follow this and then the resulting log after)
[OOC: So yeah, is there an award for furthest backdated log? >.>; Clearing out my G-docs, and I had been waiting for Brinn to finish this up despite her departure since we were so close to an end, but instead just wrapped it to get it out of my active docs bin.]
Cursing violently under her breath, Anko found herself ducking around the corner of yet another building at the sight of the squad of Arma troops patrolling the street. Any other time there would be the bare minimum out and about but with her current predicament it would figure they'd be lurking around every bend.
The fact that they were most likely on high alert for someone matching her description probably wouldn't factor in at all.
Considering what could have happened, Anko thought the measures taken were just a tad on the drastic side but how was she to have known Danzou himself had been visiting the Ceno compound at that time? Had she be aware of that minor fact perhaps she wouldn't have followed the impulse to raid the Armory for a brick or six of C-4 and would have slipped silently out the back door but no. Anko had felt the need to purge some of the pent up anger and frustration out of her system somehow and taking out part of the Interrogation Wing honestly seemed to be the best idea at the time. Surely Naruto had to shoulder part of that blame with all of his talk of Deidara and his penchant for explosives or else that particular idea would never have come to mind...or at least not as incessantly as it had.
Silently she slipped from her hiding place after a decent amount of time had passed, continuing to make her way through the Celo back streets. Granted the foresight to wear her Arceo's uniform underneath her other clothes was a definite blessing as that would be the last thing the troops would be looking for but Anko wasn't planning on taking any more chances that night. As it were, all of the roads were starting to blur together as the combination of prolonged use of Kankuro's adrenalin supplements in lieu of sleep and the notable blood loss from the oozing wound in her shoulder made the trip between districts seem to take three times as long as it normally did. It was this little complication that had Anko veering off her original course of going straight back to her apartment in Cena where she most likely had a very pissed off Kankurou waiting for her. Instead she found herself almost crying out in relief as the small clinic came into her line of sight.
It was almost too easy to lock her back into that all to familiar rigid stance, adjusting her gear to cover the torn portion of her uniform and adopting the arrogant air of authority before strolling into the brightly lit building. The small sitting area was surprisingly empty, only a few people lingered about in addition to the young man manning the admittance counter.
"Pardon me, but I need to speak to your head physician if she's in. My apologies for the presumption but it is of a rather urgent matter so I must insist you get her immediately."
Rin peeled off her sterile gloves, wiping sweaty palms against her pants, a fine layer of delicate powder catching the light on her fingers. No blood this time. Small mercies. Placing a guiding hand on the broad back of the man she was guiding out, she barely noticed how much she was actually leaning on him, using his bulk to keep herself upright. She needed to take a break soon. Nothing too long, just…just a few minutes to shut her eyes, grab another cup of coffee. Just a few minutes.
Her foot stumbled suddenly, and the man she’d just finished checking for a viral infection had to grab hold of her arm to keep her steady. Great. Wonderful. Exactly the message she wanted to send to patience: Your doctor is liable to lose consciousness at any moment - but enough about that, let’s check out the scalpels!
Just great.
The sight that greeted her when she walked in however, had them both freezing in their steps, the man’s fingers tightening on her shoulder in what might have been a protective gesture or might have been preparation to use her as a human shield in case of gunfire. It was a coin toss, really.
Alright, there was an Arceos officer in her lobby. Fighting down the cold wash of panic that was raising a cold sweat on her skin, she tried to focus on something, anything, that wasn’t being forcibly dragged back into the wrong end of the interrogation rooms in Ceno.
Rin’s head jerked up from where she’d been studying the scuffed floor at the sound of the officer’s voice. A strange mix of husky and silky that she knew. Rin’s dark eyes dragged up the woman’s frame to meet deep violet ones and went wide as realization struck like a blow to the stomach. She rushed forward before really realizing she was doing so, taking hold of the other woman’s warm hand in her clammy one. It was then that she caught the terrified tension gluing the queue of patients to their seats, white showing all around their irises. Of course they were scared. They thought she was about to sell them out.
“I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to close early today,” she said in a voice that didn’t sound like hers, thin and high-pitched and breaking slightly at the end. “We’ll open same time tomorrow,” she added. “I promise.”
Tightening her hold on Anko, she half-dragged the other woman into the hallway and then into a cramped exam room, before rounding on her with the sound of her pulse hammering in her ears.
“You scared the hell out of me,” she hissed, before launching into rapid-fire questioning. “Where did you get that uniform? Why are you here? What is going on?”
“C’mon Rin, breathe…please? I didn’t mean to cause a scene it’s just that it’s been a long fuckin’ couple of days, I’m tired and I didn’t have anyone else I could go to that I could trust, ok?” If the situation wasn’t what it was Anko would probably be laughing her ass off at the moment for having been able to garner such a reaction from the other woman but instead she was protectively angling herself so that Rin wouldn’t reach out and make a grab for Anko’s other arm in her ire.
She had begun to open her mouth with some humorous response to the mini-inquisition when the room suddenly tilted on it’s axis, causing Anko to tug her hand away from Rin’s so that she could brace herself up against the examination table rather then kissing the floor. Her breath cut harshly through her teeth as she willed away the dancing black splotches to her vision, refusing to give an inch after she already made it that far.
"Don't worry, I wasn't followed. Just got myself caught unawares and I knew better then to try and get back to Cena until I could rest for a minute to patch this damned thing up. Figured I'd come here to you rather then try to do it myself and then end up here anyway after I fucked it up even more and then have to listen to you yell at me," she mumbled, finally trusting that she wasn't going to keel over just yet. Carefully sliding her bag off from around her neck, Anko gently set it down to the side, ever mindful of the small vials containing whatever stock Kankurou had been forced to leave behind. A slight grimace flashed across her features when she moved from where the fabric had adhered to her skin. "Was lucky to get this damned far with them looking for me every damned time I turned a corner but they're not going to be looking for someone in their own gear, stupid bunch of rookies. They sure don't train 'em like the used to, do they Doc?"
Contrasting emotions were crashing into each other inside of Rin, huge tidal waves of feeling in clashing primary colors, red and blue and yellow swirling and mixing together in a frothing haze to form a jumbled wash across her mind. The initial panic of thinking she’d finally been found out had left her jittery with adrenaline better than any caffeine rush, which was having an adverse effect on her sleep-deprived exhaustion. The strength seemed to go out of her joints, knees and shoulders and elbows were hard to move, she kept clenching and unclenching her fingers just to reassure herself she could. And now…now she didn’t know what she was feeling, hearing this woman’s voice - this woman who had last seen her on That Night, broken and wrecked with all her cracks and scars showing - talking to her about the world she’d so succinctly sworn she’d left behind, making jokes only a military brat would understand. She could feel hysterical laughter beginning to climb its way up her throat and it would all be over soon, she’d crack or suffer a psychotic break or just curl into the fetal position right here on the exam room floor and when was the last time she’d cleaned?
“Wait, what do you mean - patch what up?” she started, the other woman’s words finally filtering through the wall of white noise buzzing in her ears. Her eyes narrowed suddenly, taking in Anko’s stance, how she was bracing her weight on the table like she was five minutes away from joining her in the Passed Out On The Gross, Unclean Floor Club. And then she noticed the blood, initially invisible against the dark fabric of the uniform (that goddamn fucking uniform she wanted to rip off with her bare hands but for the fact she was sort of afraid it would burn her skin). A fat scarlet drop landed on the table, spattering slightly and spreading on the sterile paper.
“What did you do?” she snarled savagely, even as she grabbed for Anko’s waist, shoving her into getting up onto the table. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. “This is so unbelievably typical,” she muttered darkly under her breath and she snatched fresh gloves out of a box on the counter top. “Lay down and shut up and maybe I’ll find it in my heart not to just let you die since that seems to be your goal for the day.”
"I didn't do anything," Anko mumbled sullenly, much like a scolded child as she was pushed back onto the exam table.
Perhaps if she was just a little more woozy from the blood loss, Anko would've commented on the perverted things her mind was shooting off at the demands being put upon her being taken entirely out of context but as she didn't exactly put it past Rin to forget some sort of numbing agent or to maybe just accidentally jab a little harder then necessary to spite her in her current irritation, Anko wisely kept her thoughts to herself...for the moment.
The surge of relief that she was finally somewhere safe was enough to melt her bones and Rin's odd mixture of doctorly comfort and general female bitchiness made it that much better, even though her scoldings were enough to make even Anko cringe with the few times she'd been on the receiving end of such lectures. It was nice to finally be able to breathe and not worry, not having to make the mad dash down dark alleyways on her last leg with both the charming locals and the military after her. It made it all that much easier to just give over to the doctor's biting commands and threats, the protective paper crinkling underneath her as she shifted into the ordered position, gently lying back so as not to put any pressure on her injured shoulder. The sudden change in altitude had her head swimming again, a sensation she was finding to be all too common.
"You know it's just a little contradictory to demand answers and then tell me to shut up almost in the same breath, right Doc?"
Rin had a whole list of things she wanted to reply to Anko with, preferably at close range and high volume while radiating killing intent. However, she thought the incredulous snort she opted for instead summed up her feelings quite succinctly, which was an obvious bonus as she was far too busy thinking up ways to save the other woman’s life to think up properly terrifying ways of threatening it.
Rounding on her with a blunt-nosed scissors, she began cutting away the dark fabric without preamble, taking no small amount of relish in the act of physically tearing apart the thing she associated with nothing but blood and screams. If Anko wasn’t still inside the offending uniform, she might’ve been tempted to set the damn thing on fire. As it was, however, she had to settle of slicing away thick strips of it, revealing more and more smooth skin that was slick and tarry with clotting blood.
“And what exactly,” she ground out through clenched teeth, “were you doing to prompt someone to shoot you?” To emphasize her point, she peeled away the ruined sleeve of the Arceos uniform where the entry wound was almost black with the sticky mess, steadily weeping red every time she moved.
Her mouth settled into a grim line as she inspected the damage, the mess obscuring the wound from her sight, making her fingers slide off the skin. Without looking up, she reached for a bottle of iodine she knew was there and unscrewed the cap, pouring the acrid-smelling substance onto a pad of gauze. Fixing her accusing eyes on the other woman’s, she raised her eyebrows expectantly while she began wiping off the blood.
The dull edge of the scissors dug into Anko's skin as Rin stripped away pieces of her past, disapproval rolling off the other woman in waves. Rather then focusing on whatever the capable hands were doing Anko instead fixed her eyes on a particularly artistic crack in the ceiling, tracing the plaster lines with unfocused eyes while trying not to flinch as the cloth clung, though whether it was from the actual cloth itself or Rin's overly enthusiastic ripping, she couldn't be sure.
"Made a little trip down memory lane to do some research and to pay a visit to a few assholes who had a run in with someone close." Scrunching up her nose Anko tried to keep the details to the bare minimum but also give enough to satisfy Rin's questions. It was best for all parties involved to not give out the dirty details just to protect herself as well as Rin on the odd case she was followed without her knowledge. "Just didn't expect for fuckin' Danzou to be there. Troops were increased and I was stupid, leaving them with a little parting gift that took out a good chunk of the interrogation wing. Commotion pulled in half the damned barracks and one lucky squad caught up just as I was about to cross over into Ceno proper. Rest would be pretty self-explanatory, leading up to where I came to see my favorite, gentle, kind, caring, oh-so-sexy Doctor-lady."
Perhaps it was a little over the top but Anko could always blame it on blood loss and shock later on. Anything to butter up the Doctor who was just as capable of jabbing her fingers into her shoulder to pull out the bullet rather then use a numbing agent and the proper tools, all hinged on Anko's ability to not irritate the woman further.
Whatever dignity she had left though went flying out the door at the cold sting of acid or something very close to it that was pressed against her shoulder, causing Anko to jerk away with a violent curse trying to put as much distance in the cramped space between her and that vicious stuff and the sadistic doctor wielding it.
"Ok, just for that I'm revoking the 'gentle' part."
Rin’s fingers kept up their steady pace, even as the rest of her stilled, dumbfounded, at Anko’s seemingly blasé admission. “Danzou was there?” she managed to choke out, “You attacked the military compound when Danzou was there?!” A note of hysteria had worked its way into her tone as the sheer stupidity, the unbelievable danger of what Anko had done began to truly dawn on her. Along with the fact that if anyone found out she’d been the one to patch up this particular criminal, she’d probably find herself in a holding facility in the interrogation unit, getting a taste for the other side of the interview process. Her ribs throbbed dully with phantom-limb fear that she shoved to the back of her mind as Anko hissed like an alley cat and attempted to wrench away.
Rin placed her free hand flat against the other woman’s collarbone and shoved her back down against the hygienic paper that was wet with her own blood. Even as she sopped up the worst of the tacky mess from the other woman’s shoulders, memories were caressing her with long, languorous fingers, coaxing slivers of memory she’d long since disowned to the surface of her mind.
She’d seen Danzou once, most everyone had, but only in the briefest passing, glimpsed from a distance turning a corner or speaking fast, clipped words to some superior officer or other. Their unit had been training inside when he’d just happened to walk through the room, and they’d all frozen, statue-like, in various states of sweaty dishevelment, saluting so tensely their arms had cramped. All she really remembered of the incident was the fact that during the agonizing stretch it took him to cross the room, she’d had the overwhelming urge to sneeze, and the second the door had shut behind him, she’d sneezed five times in a row until she’d gone cross-eyed and Obito had laughed so hard he’d fallen over.
Shrugging off the memory like a dog shaking off water, she raised an eyebrow archly. “You ain’t seen nothing, yet,” she warned, reaching for the spread of silver implements near her hip. But even as she said, she rubbed her thumb across her shoulder in the best reassuring gesture she could manage under the circumstances.
"Hey, give a girl some credit...if I had known the bastard was there I would have opted for a different exit plan. I've got someone waiting on me who'll kick my ass if I got myself caught, let alone killed for something that damned stupid." Or at least she would have been more careful sneaking back out rather then just busting ass out of there but that particular thought wouldn't gain her any brownie points at this moment. "Hell, I'm already fucked once I get back and he sees this," she groaned, trying to hold back another foul tirade when she was forced back down into submission, pain once again causing another overabundance of those little black spots to cloud her vision.
In response to Rin's warning however, Anko managed a low chuckle, keeping her face turned away from the doctor as she heard the other woman picking and choosing various tools, the comforting gesture not lost on her and was muchly appreciated.
"I really am sorry to put you in this position Doc, but I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to Cena like this. I promise I won't let them find out anything involving you...I don't forget those who help me," she said softly, the earlier joking tone put aside for the moment.
Rin cocked a skeptical eyebrow, one hand busy bracing the other woman against the table for the fresh blast of pain that was waiting in her other. If she’d thought the bullet had hurt going in…
“Oh? You think your significant other might be a little displeased you’ve gotten yourself shot?” she asked in a voice dry enough to catch fire. “Fancy that.” Anko’s skin was slick under her fingers and too-warm, the soft tawny color stained a sick ochre. She was sweating, shining under the intense exam room light fixed on her and her heaving breathes pressed her collar bone flush against Rin’s hand every other second before sinking down just as fast. The smell of copper was so strong she could taste it in her mouth. The waves of sensory information that kept hitting her again and again almost threatened to overwhelm her, made her go breathless, made the room go bright, but she shoved it down with a vehement force that only came with too much practice and pressed on. So to speak.
A soft smiled pulled at her full lips at Anko’s somewhat dazed thanks. Repeating the gesture and tracing her fingers along her skin once more she replied with equal parts gentleness, irony, and apology, “You’re gonna be feeling a lot less apologetic in a second.” Using one hand to hold the oozing wound open, she adjusted her grips on the forceps. “Look away and brace yourself,” she warned, then added, “And keep your reflexes in check, ‘cause if you hit me I swear I will let you bleed to death on this table.” Then she reached into the open maw on the bullet hole and wrenched the damn thing out of her, almost in one movement, and dropped it with a loud, metallic clang into the waiting bin.
She should’ve been a freaking secretary.
At the sensation of an iron brand jamming through her shoulder, Anko's back arched off the exam table, the damp paper tearing silently under the violent movement. Her strangled shout muffled only by sinking her teeth into her lower lip hard enough for the metallic taste to cover her tongue. Somewhat ashamed by her own reaction, she fought against the need to curl up into the protective fetal position, instead her back fell back to the table, chest heaving as she struggled to replenish the oxygen that had been ripped from her lungs in a fashion much like the bullet that once occupied her shoulder.
It was at that moment Anko vowed that if she were ever to get shot again, the damn bullet would be staying right where it was. Either that or she would be finding a doctor who wasn't quite as sadistic and who at least held some minor belief in anesthetics.
Slowly the adrenaline rush began to chase away the blinding pain long enough for Anko to crack her eyes open to stare blearily at the yellowed plastic light casing, totally unaware of the moisture leaving tracks down the sides of her face as slowly loosened her grip on the cracked vinyl table.
"Chis'...I'll bet you worked in interrogation didn't you?"" she finally croaked out, flexing slightly against Rin's grip, testing to see if it still held firm. She just wanted to go home. Even though an extremely pissed off Kankurou would be awaiting her, an equally worried and spazzing Naruto along with Deidara...who would just be there but Kankurou was there and that thought alone helped to banish away the darkness lingering at the edges of her vision because she had a deadline to make. She promised him she'd back in two days and even if she dropped dead a second later, Anko had every intention of keeping that promise.
“Yes, actually,” Rin answered in a voice that didn’t sound like her own. Keeping a strong, steady pressure over the wound with one hand, she searched with the other for the suture needle she knew was somewhere nearby. She knew, of course, that it was deeply stupid to be reaching blindly around a tray full of medical instruments, but she was having trouble tearing her eyes away from the slick tears and slicker blood that were making slow paths down Anko’s face. This, she chastised herself as she wrenched her gaze over to tray, was why you weren’t supposed to treat people you knew, why you were supposed to keep a professional distance, why you weren’t allowed to mix your personal life and your professional one: it left you groping blindly at scalpels and feel guilt like a punch to the throat for doing your job.
Growling in frustration, she realized that she would have to release the pressure on the bullet wound if she was going to thread the needle because if she wanted to stop the other woman from bleeding to death, she was going to have to risk letting her do just that. Six of one, a half-dozen of the other. Lose-lose. Story of her life.
Letting go felt like shoving Anko towards a cliff, but she grabbed at the silk thread, cursing spectacularly under her breath when her blood-slippery fingers fumbled uselessly. “Anko,” she said loudly, trying to keep her focused and conscious, to keep her near, “The bullet nicked one of your arteries, it’s why you’re bleeding so much.” Gently, gently, push, pull, twist, finally>. Rounding on Anko again, she hunched down and tried to see through all thick, clotting blood. “I have to tie it off to keep you from bleeding out, alright? So I don’t really have time to give you anything right now,” she ground out between clenched teeth as her fingers found their up down up down up down rhythm, “But if you agree to survive this, I promise to give you some really awesome painkillers, okay?” She looked up and shouted at the mess of blood, sweat, and tears that was currently passing for Anko, “Okay?!” She almost couldn’t hear her own voice over the pounding in her ears, her heart furiously pumping blood she would have been happy to share.
The loud voice in her ear had Anko inching away slightly, the words not necessarily making their way through her hazy brain at the moment but voice was enough to penetrate the fog, leaving Anko to nod slightly in response, her tongue flickering out to wet parched lips as she tried to formulate the required response. Anything to try and pull her attention away from the needle threading through her torn skin at the moment.
"Whatev'r you say, Doc," she mumbled, trying her damnedest to keep still and not pull away from the slick grip the other woman had on her. "Just stop yellin', I'm right here." Slowly, what Rin had said processed through the haze, leaving Anko to whimper out an obscenity or four. Either way whether by work of the awesome painkillers she was being bribed with or the copiously leaking artery, her schedule was put in jeopardy. Gritting her teeth at an exceptionally painful jab, the adrenaline was wearing off bit by bit and the pain radiating from her shoulder was enough to make Anko re-consider curling up into a ball, pride be damned. It took a few tries but finally she managed to form thoughts into tangible words.
"In that bag, there's my phone...ignore anything else that's in there and do not mess with that stuff, jus' trust me on that. If something happens that I can't get back to Cena within the next few hours, you have to call Naruto. If I'm not back, they'll be out lookin' for me, and he's already too hurt, shouldn't be movin' around and the stubborn ass'll do it. Don't talk to anyone but the brat, he'll take care of the rest," she pleaded, painfully aware of the consequences of her tardiness. The last thing she needed to worry about was Naruto and Kankurou running rampant in the streets with the increased presence of troops lining every corner, Deidara being there not helping to ease her stress in the slightest.
Quite tired of staring at the bland ceiling, she tilted her head back towards Rin, doing her very best to ignore anything with the liquid red tinge to it. The other woman looked as positively exhausted and wrecked as she felt at the moment and thankfully Anko still held enough presence of mind not to voice that particular thought, instead opting to reach over her one hand to push back a piece of hair that had escaped the fierce knot holding back the mass that had fallen loose and tangled the last time they'd met under just as awkward circumstances.
"You shouldn't have still been here y'know, you look exhausted."
Or maybe she didn't have so much of a mental filter as she thought she had.
Rin held her breath as she meticulously closed off the wound. There would be a scar, but it didn’t have to be a bad one. This all could just fade into a pale white line in a year or two. The only thing to remind Anko of her painstaking care would be the sensation of raised skin when someone else ran their fingers over it.
Anko’s quiet, rasping voice was music to her ears, terrifying, driving music, but she hung off every word as her fingers worked seemingly of their own accord. With every slurred syllable she felt the muscles of her stomach and jaw tighten and clench. Orders given in the midst of massive blood loss made her nervous, made her feel sick, made her…scared. Because yes, she wanted to know the other woman, wanted to know about her, but now that she’d had a glimpse of it, Anko’s world left a sick taste in her mouth. She always dug up things she didn’t want to know and she never, never learned her lesson.
She sighed in…not satisfaction, but maybe surrender when the last stitch effectively knit the wound together. Her small fingers picked up the thin scissors and cut the thread neatly, and it was extremely lucky that she did so before Anko’s fingers on her skin made her jump half out of her skin. Brown eyes jumped to meet violet ones and all she could do was blink owlishly for a moment before replying incredulously, “You’re telling me that I work bad hours and look like hell?”
A tired chuckle resonated from the woman on the exam table as she slowly retracted her arm once again, glad to have changed that oddly depressing look on Rin's face into the surprised and exasperated one she could deal with.
"Pretty sure that's what I just said, everyone else's probably too scared of ya to say the truth. Figured I'd take advantage of lookin' so pitiful, y'need to take better care of yourself. Can't be patchin' up all the fuck ups of the world when you're passed out in the floor with 'em." All of the blood was beginning to dry into a morbid sort of paste, causing Anko to wince as she shifted slightly, her skin detaching from the vinyl cover of the exam table with the sensation of removing a large band-aid. Ow.
Extremely glad that the repetitive needle stabbing was now finished, Anko slowly pushed herself back up into a seated position, teeth sinking into her already bruised lip when the room began to spin again but eventually she achieved her goal, twisting herself slightly so she could lean back against the wall with her legs dangling off the side of the table. She was filthy, covered in blood even though not all of it was hers, exhausted as all fucking hell but she was alive and that had to count for something, right?
"It's a pity I left my change of clothes back in Ceno or else I'd offer to take you out for that drink I think we both need right about now," she snickered, her fingers reaching up to fidget with the shredded edges of her uniform. Dammit. This had been her last one too save for the ceremonial one for high occasions. One more tie to her past lost forever. With that thought sobering her along with a fresh wave of pain radiating from her shoulder, Anko sighed and let her head fall back with a solid 'thunk' to the wall. "I do seriously appreciate this Rin and I meant what I said. I don't forget those who help me, not when you'd probably have been smarter to shove me off to the first patrol strolling by. I'm in your debt."
Rin made a vague dismissive gesture with one hand as she turned around, stripping off her bloody gloves with an elastic snap and the ease of years of practice. Sleep was for the weak, obviously. She wiped her sweaty hands against her thighs briefly before tugging on a fresh pair (a little more difficult this time, the latex sticking and pulling at her skin, snapping and leaving her wrists stinging), before rummaging through the topmost drawer of the industrial cabinet against the wall for the bottle of Lidocaine she knew was there. Her fingers finally bumped against it, making a soft clinking noise against its neighboring bottles in time with the wince-inducing sound of Anko's skin separating from the vinyl, the sterile paper having long since been soaked through and rendered useless, bits of it clinging to the back of the other woman's tattered uniform. Fishing out a sterile syringe, she ripped open the package with her teeth before plunging the needle into the top and drawing up the clear liquid.
She had just raised her hand to knock loose any bubbles lingering along the edges of the narrow cylinder when Anko's croaking voice sounded again. She shot her a glare over her shoulder, chocolaty eyes narrowed in irritation and a smear of drying blood making itself known across one freckled-smattered cheekbone, an itch she couldn't scratch until she got the stupid white gloves off. "Don't be stupid, Anko," she snapped, flicking her fingers hard against the syringe once, twice, three times, before stomping over to the exam table, looking for all the world like a little girl in a snit. "I'm giving you a site-specific numbing agent," she intoned with a clipped voice, "Once we've cleaned you up a bit, I'll give you a general anesthetic to help you sleep." The needle disappeared into Anko's russet-stained skin, her fingers coming closer and closer together as she pressed the painkiller into her bloodstream. "Done," she hummed, placing the used needle on the tray and reaching for the small squirt bottle of distilled water next to the still-open bottle of iodine. Keeping her eyes carefully trained on the expanse of skin underneath her fingers, she gently rubbed a clean pad of gauze in small circles until the soft peach could be seen through the red. Her voice felt caught in her throat as she taped the clean dressing over the angry red welt that the black Xs of her sutures marched across like train tracks. She was sure that she wanted to say something, but she just didn't know what it was she was failing so miserably to articulate.
Finally, the last of the medical tape laid flush across Anko's skin, she mumbled, "You'd have done the same for me," mouthing the words more than actually speaking them, then turning away to rip off her gloves with a sigh of relief at the feel of cool against them. "Besides," she added in a louder, falsely casual voice, "you can pay me back by taking off your clothes." Raising one dark eyebrow with a playful smirk, she tossed a hospital gown on the table next to Anko's leg. "Did I mention that you're staying the night?"
Her mouth had just cracked open to protest before yet another needle found itself underneath her skin and Rin's professional but snitty words echoed through her ears. With the blessed paralysis of the nerves in her shoulder, Anko was in far less of a hurry to start arguing, instead opting to let her head fall back against the wall to enjoy her first moments of pain-free existence since the bullet tore through her shoulder, not moving nor complaining while Rin mopped away the sweat, blood and iodine. She watched the doctor work from beneath cracked eyelids, seeing Rin's lips move with words that didn't quite make it to her ears, but were heard and appreciated all the same. It had too long since she found some sort of a friend like this, one who was entirely too much like a ghost of her past, someone who scolded and nagged but was someone who she'd do anything for if they'd only ask.
A sentiment that was given too soon apparently as the hospital gown brushed against her leg and again Rin's words were belatedly filtering through exhaustion-weary brain cells. The drab pile of fabric stared back at her even as the full brunt of what Rin was suggesting had Anko scooting off the exam table with dogged shake of her head that set the room to spinning.
"I can't, I already told you this was a temporary stop Doc. It has to be unless you want two trigger happy idiots wandering streets they're not supposed to found on. I can't expect you to worry about my idiot, but think of the blond one out there trying to find me. You know Naru-chan doesn't stop to think when he gets in that frame of mind...if it were just you and me I wouldn't oppose to some alone time with just us girls but those two..." She knew she was rambling incoherently, but Anko couldn't bring herself to stop, the crushing deadline she had given herself barely giving her enough room to breath with the consequences of not being where she was supposed to be stuck firmly in her brain and refusing to let go.
It was just a pity the damned room wouldn't stop spinning.
A silent prayer and a firm order to her knees to not buckle as she tried to stand, Anko continued to try and blurt out something a little less rambly and a more cohesive structure though that Rin could understand. Her earlier order about calling Naruto was more for the instance that she had passed out or something temporary but when the other woman was speaking in stretches of time that consisted more along the possibility of daily increments....just no.
Two days.
Two days where she had been moving without stop, each step worried about the threesome left back in Cena, about how Kankurou was doing and if he were awake yet - if he had packed up and left her. There was no way of knowing until she got back, and not even for Rin could she risk waiting to find out what would happen if she didn't keep her promise to return in the allotted time.
Her uniform was torn beyond repair but there was enough of it left to cover the majority of her upper half at least. A quick stop by her Celo residence would give her a fresh change of clothes and the opportunity to grab some additional pain killers in case Rin was feeling vindictive enough not to share with her abrupt departure. There was also the bonus of her bike hidden in the basement, having left it behind feeling as though it would have been better to ease about on foot. The roads may have been slick with ice but it would be quicker, and far easier to outrun any more government lackeys. Nothing else mattered except to get home to where Kankurou was hopefully waiting for, and that thought alone gave her the strength to shoulder the heavy duffel bag, but not before tugging Rin into an awkward one-armed embrace with another ramble of thanks and apology lumped in together.
She just had to hurry.