[Log] Retsu Unohana, Soi Fon

[flowingmists]

Title:  Not Quite Feeling Right at Home
Characters:  Retsu Unohana ( flowingmists), Soi Fon (
tsuyosaoboetai

Timeline:  19 April, 1950
Rating:  PG
Summary:  After being injured on a mission, Soi is forced to endure the indignity of medical treatment on her wound.



Elevators were such a charming convenience. Why, exactly, was something that Retsu could not quite place. In all, she probably found them more amusing than she should.

Which was why she was taking the elevator on this call, in spite of the fact that the FBI agent she was asked to examine only lived on the second floor. She smiled demurely at the two people that entered the elevator after her. And this smile morphed into a full grin as the doors slid shut and the floor seemed to drop from under her feet. Quite exhilarating, really.

Of course, the sensation was brief and the doors slid back open to reveal her destination. She nodded politely to the others as she stepped off, the handle of her medical bag clutched firmly in both hands. It was an oddly girlish pose for one of her age and profession, but some habits would not be shed by time or education. Her eyes lightly scanned the door numbers for the proper apartment.

Ah, there it was. First door on the right. That made things nice and simple.

She lightly strolled to the door and gave it a few dignified raps with her knuckles. "Miss Fon?"

After having let her doctor in through the main entrance with the buzzer, Soi remained standing in the kitchen by the door. Her leg hurt more than she expected it too, which was why she had not gone into work for the second day in a row. It was killing her to just sit around her sparingly decorated home with nothing to do other than cook herself meals or read. Television was not entertaining, leaving her to only watch the news if she happened to feel like turning the tube on in the first place, so she listened to the radio. Currently the apartment was quiet, however, the little brown box turned off for the time being.

When Doctor Unohana knocked upon the door the Chinese woman sighed from where she leaned upon the counter in her kitchen. She had dressed that morning, as she had every morning, for she hated sitting around. At least doing some daily routine would help her get through the day--even if it meant dirtying clothes not being worn outside. Moving away from the kitchen and getting the door with as much poise as possible, Soi looked upon the dark haired woman standing in her entrance.

"Come in," she said in a cool voice. She didn't like many people, they were not comforting to her and only broke her heart, but doctors especially made her anxious. Why? Well, there was no rational reason. Shaolin just really didn't like them. Though they were more helpful than she could ever be to herself, this young woman would probably never be at "ease" around a medical professional.

Leading Retsu into the comfortable living space, the host motioned for her to sit while pulling her skirt smooth behind her bottom and sat on the couch. "Thank you for coming," she told her company, though she spoke as if she had practiced saying the phrase and didn't really mean it. She didn't. She would have preferred to just do this herself and go back to work. Shame she couldn't.

Retsu didn't even blink at the decidedly cool tone of voice the petite woman used. Many of her patients were in law enforcement and for some reason that lent them to being rather curt with her. It rather seemed to be one of her occupational hazards. Considering the growls, sulking, or occasional shouts she witnessed, stiff formality was quite the mild reaction.

She followed Soi to the living room, taking note that the woman was favoring her left leg. She had not been informed of the nature of the injury prior to her arrival, but the brief walk made it obvious. Small wonder the bureau didn't want her back in the field yet, if she were reduced to hobbling around her own apartment.

Retsu took a seat at her host's offering, and raised an eyebrow minutely at the thank-you she received for her presence. The distinctively insincere thank-you. Well, at least she was trying to be polite. "Thank you. I appreciate you being so gracious about this; I know nobody likes to have a visit from the doctor." Involuntarily, her eyes flicked back down to Soi's injured leg. "So exactly how did this happen?"

There was no need to hide the fact that she had noticed where the injury was; it would only waste time. And even she would question the intelligence of someone who had seen Soi walk and not picked up on it.

At least this woman seemed to be able to do her job. Not that Shaolin thought she was hiding her limping walk very well, but the normal person may not have been so keen to pick up. Taking a long, slow breath, the patient of the moment put her hands on her lap. How did this happen? She really didn't feel the desire to share, so she made quick work of the story.

"I was on a mission," she said. "I went up a set of stairs. One gave out; I fell through up to my thigh."

She had easily patched up the few scrapes upon her forearms from where she had clung to the steps themselves, and put a Band-aid over the worst of the cuts on her leg. Shaolin had not put the effort in when she knew the doctor would be coming once she had spoken to her boss. With or without the covers to her wounds she felt pathetic. How could she have taken such a simple fall through a stair and gotten this injured? How could she have fallen so hard? And in front of people, no less. If there was one thing Soi Fon, head of Intel, despised, it was being humiliated.

There was only so much a woman with all of her pride could take. Even the smallest bit was like breaking a finger or burning off her skin. It hurt.

"I just want it to be bandaged up so I can return to work. I have things to do."

Fell through a flight of stairs? She couldn't help her eyes widening at this. Those stairs must have been in substantially awful shape; this doll was so petite (Retsu would have even said dainty were it not for the harsh look in her eyes) that she shouldn't have been able to apply enough weight otherwise.

She nodded once, trying to be reassuring. "I see. Well, that's nothing to be ashamed of." Seriously, could that expression get more defensive? "You have a very dangerous profession, Miss Fon; getting injured in the line of duty every now and then is almost to be expected."

Retsu paused for a moment, taking in the cuts and scrapes on Soi's arms and legs. They seemed shallow enough, and as long as she kept them clean there should be no issues; they didn't seem to be causing any distress. Really, the problem looked to be with her thigh.

She decided to ignore Soi's last cutting remark. Of course she had things to do. Didn't they all? There were several cases back at the lab that required Retsu's attention. It didn't mean that she would get snappish about it.

"Your cuts don't look like they require any intervention, but your thigh is more of a concern. I'd like to perform a closer examination if you don't mind."

Of course, she would need to do it even if Soi did mind, and though Retsu would make no claims of understanding her, Soi did seem the type to mind. But asking for permission was only polite.

If Retsu wasn't there to help her, Shaolin would have chewed this woman out for being irritating alone. Nothing to be ashamed of? Don't get defensive? She had fallen half through a stair! What was there not to get defensive about? In front of half of a K9 unit and her own squadron she had taken a fall because of her own stupidity. That. . .that was the part she felt humiliated over. Her injuries were only the result of bad karma for her being too stubborn to listen to Sajin when he had offered to go on ahead.

Had she only listened. . .

Taking a breath, Shaolin stood up and hitched up her skirt over her left leg so the doctor could take a peek. When the hem was high, almost all of the way to her hip, she turned so Retsu could see the wound. A dark bruise from where the skin had been crushed against wood and where muscle had been pinched circled her upper leg. There were a handful of long scratches traveling up and down her pale skin, some cuts lingering alongside those. The cuts looked like they had bled, once upon a time, but were beginning to heal on their own. Slowly yet surely, at any rate, they were closing and healing over. The bruises were the worst part, however, and her body was so tender to the touch at the time.

While Retsu had a look to determine what was truly the matter, and if there was anything she could do, Soi stared ahead with a blank face at the picture upon the wall. The image was an old family portrait, an 8"x10", consisting of her father and brothers standing, she and her mother sitting in front of them. It was a very classy little photograph that Shaolin held dear to her otherwise icy heart. You could live through the depression and war, through the good and the bad, and you could even live through death, but getting over everything was the hard part.

Soi was not close to getting over anything that had happened in her life. Her family. . .Yoruichi. . .a future where she had no idea what to expect. . .It scared her. That was why she was angry.

There was only so much that one little woman could take, after all.

Well, that had been easier than expected; Soi had complied instantly and not said a word about it. Even so, the woman refused to look at Retsu, expression removed from the situation.

Retsu pulled her medical bag with her as she knelt to get a closer look at the injury. That bruise looked particularly nasty, probably a symptom of a badly pulled muscle. The scratches were a little deeper here, though they had started to scab over. But considering the agent's story, there might be splinters still lodged there.

At a time like this, Retsu normally would have made eye contact with her patient. But since she seemed so determined to focus elsewhere, Retsu decided that it wasn't worth the effort to change it. "This will hurt a little."

She lightly prodded the skin near the cuts, spreading them open the slightest bit wider to check for splinters.

Pain.

The feeling gripped at Shaolin from her thigh around to her spine, coiling upward to her face where it reflected like a mirror. Her teeth grit tight, eyes hard like diamonds as she tried to ignore the flame in her thigh. Did the woman really have to go tearing open her wound? Was it not healing appropriately? Good Lord.

That hurt!

Fortunately, there was nothing there. Or nothing visible, at any rate. Shaolin was as she'd probably get, aside from the small drips of blood beginning to form. While Retsu only had opened the cuts a hair, it was enough to cause pain and bleeding. Shaolin was sensitive, despite her harsh personality.

"Are you done?" asked the Chinese woman through her teeth, they slightly less clenched as the pain began to feel like a hot, numb sensation. She was still displeased with this situation, however, but at least it was not agonizing.

Hm. No splinters that Retsu could see; that was a good sign. She hadn't really wanted to break out the tweezers. There was a bit of swelling though, which hadn't been apparent on mere sight. Made the treatment much simpler, really.

She blinked at her patient's angry question. Okay, the clenched teeth she could understand, but why such vitriol? She had given her fair warning before she had begun her inspection. There was really nothing to get that upset about.

But maybe being injured had put the doll in a bad mood. Surely she couldn't be like this all the time.

"Yes," she said evenly, successfully managing to keep the bite out of her own tone. It would have been a horrible thing to snap at a patient. "I apologize for having to do that, but I needed to see if there were any splinters in your cuts that might be hampering your recovery. Fortunately, you're in the clear on that one."

Retsu removed her hands from Soi's leg and fished through her medical bag. First came her prescription pad and a pen, followed by a fresh roll of bandages. She unwound the latter a bit, checking a sigh as she looked back up at Soi's nearly impassive features.

"You do have some swelling, though, so the bandage will be a bit tight in order to compress it. Have you been icing this, by the way?" She slowly began wrapping the cloth around Soi's thigh. "Afterward, I'll prescribe you something for the pain. And then we can be out of each other's hair."

If Soi could have, she would have been tapping her nails in irritation on a hard surface. She wasn't one to do such a thing, really, but sometimes it was just a subconscious action of annoyance. When Retsu claimed she was done, her arms hung lightly by her side and she moved away from the woman. Thank goodness. That was trying her patience.

Ugh, and then she needed a bandage. Stepping back into place, she watched the doctor wrap up her leg. It wasn't too bad, she could deal with this. Though she realized and knew instantly that she would have to go about re-wrapping it every day after a shower. The thought made Soi want to stick out her tongue, for while she was in her mid-twenties, she had a childish moment now and again.

"I have," replied the petite woman to the taller in reference to her question. "The ice helps for a while, but I only leave it on for ten or fifteen minutes." Pausing, Soi looked at the wall and then down at Retsu.

"How long before I can return to work?"

Retsu nodded as she finished the bandage. "Then you've been doing it properly. It's always nice to have intelligent patients. Makes things easier on me." She offered up a smile in an effort to lighten the mood. The agent might be intelligent, but pleasant company she was not. "Keep to that same regimen for the next couple of days."

She stood, grabbing the pad and pen on her way up. Quickly, she scribbled down the prescription, and held the slip of paper out for Soi.

At the next question, Retsu's smile faded into something more stern. She doubted Soi would appreciate the answer. "If you don't overwork your leg, you can head back into the office next week. But I wouldn't recommend any field work for a few days after that. The muscle will still be tender and vigorous physical activity will only increase the chance of further injury."

She could only hope that Soi would heed this advice, but she knew too well that law enforcement types tended to push themselves too hard. Pride and dedication were fine virtues, but they could often get in the way of common sense. Retsu had often been forced to make repeat visits that would have been unnecessary if her patients hadn't been so stubborn.

And she couldn't say that she was looking forward to the prospect of treating this woman again.

Fortunately, Soi was very good at following directions. To a T, in fact, so she shouldn't be seeing Retsu any time soon. Well, so long as she didn't try to go on any more missions into broken buildings. That would only have happened in the last case scenario, too, because really. . .what was she going to do on another trip? Sit or stand and wait just outside to see what comes about?

Hell no.

So she would rather not go at all. Even if that really hurt her because it was her job and her mission those baboons would be messing up. That was the thing that annoyed her. In the back of her mind she wondered if she could go anyway, keep an eye on-

No. No, no, no. Shaolin knew her limitations. She would have been tempted.

Taking the prescription from Retsu when it was offered, the Chinese woman gave a nod of thanks for it while making her way to the door. The least she could do was see her out. "Thank you," she said again. She spoke in that same stiff tone, but at least she was saying it. Few people heard those words without the addition of sarcasm.

Retsu frowned momentarily as the agent made for the door to show her out. She'd just warned her not to overwork her leg, and she went and made an unnecessary trip across the room. She couldn't completely repress the sigh this time, but at least she kept it soft.

It was a politeness thing, showing the visitor out. And some activity for the leg was healthy. Still. She didn't like seeing it.

Retsu took her bag in hand and followed Soi to the door. She nodded in acknowledgement. "Glad I could help you. I'll inform your superiors of my recommendations as soon as possible. If we ever meet again, I hope it's under better circumstances."

Such a thing was quite possible after all. FBI agents weren't exactly strangers to the crime lab.

Not that Retsu was in a big hurry to tell Soi about her day job.