Notes

Wonderful Beta by Sasha123cof. Remained faults are all mine.

Cross-posted to AO3

It happened in the middle of the night.

Sirius Black was sleeping, just like anybody else would be at that hour of the night. He woke up to several poundings on the door although he wasn't expecting anyone. He buried his head on the pillow and tried to ignore the uninvited guest, but it didn't go away. Finally, he switched the light on and put on a night gown. With bare feet, he crossed the living room and went to get the door. He had decided that he would open it, curse whoever the hell it was, shut the door, and go back to sleep.

When he opened the door, James was standing right there. That was not beyond his expectation. However, when Sirius opened his mouth, James collapsed.

Well, that was unexpected.

Sirius stepped forward and held him tight so that he would not hit the floor. His hands were slippery. Sirius leaned him over and saw the blood all over his body. He mildly cursed and peeped outside. There wasn't a pool of blood or any blood drops.

Sirius shut the door hard as he pulled James inside. He tucked his arms around him and dragged him to the bathroom. That left long traces on the floor but not that he cared. He took the shower curtain aside and put James into the tub. Sirius took his purse, beating, and opened the cabinet.

The gunshot wound was on the abdomen. Sirius hoped that James had not been shot by the thugs in the back alley. Those street guns were nasty to treat. He turned James around and looked over his back. Fortunately, the bullet passed through-and-through and there would be no internal bleeding.

But still, James was in critical situation. Sirius wiped the bleeding off and continued checking. There was a lot of blood on his trousers and shoes. Sirius loosened the belt and took off the trousers. Normally, neither of them would be reluctant to do that but this was not the time or the place. Some bruises and scratches were on both sides of legs but likewise, there were no visible wound. Sirius went back to torso and took off a soaked towel with bloods. The bleeding has stopped.

Sirius opened the first-aid box. He didn't have anything near the tranquilizer, but James was already in shock and it was better this way when he have to go in surgery without any anesthesia. Sirius washed his hands with soap twice and cauterized the wound.

It took him a whole hour. Sirius finished sewing and put the gauze on it. He washed the blood off his hands and took care of the other wounds. It was all done quite successfully, if he could call it a treatment. Sirius cleaned the blood off James, put a bathrobe on him and took him out to the bedroom. He laid him on the other side of the bed; adjusted the pillow a little bit, and covered him a blanket. Sirius stood there for awhile, listening to his breathing. It was shallow but steady. He went back to bathroom with door open.

The bathroom was a mess, filled with a smell of blood. Sirius threw the paper towels into the trashcan. He washed and put the surgical instruments on a clean towel to dry. He took James' clothes and put them in a laundry bag. The shirt had to go, though. It didn't matter. James would nag him in the morning, but Sirius would have that rather than watching him-

Sirius poured bleach onto the tub and floor tiles with running water. Reddish liquids and the smell of chemicals gave him a headache, but there was no sign of any blood. Sirius washed his hands with soap one last time. No matter how he rubbed his hands with foam, the blood under his fingernails didn't go away that easily. It was blood.

James' blood.

Sirius gave a serious thought about doing the same thing he did on the tiles he was stepping onto.

He decided not to. He dried his hands with newly taken towel; put the first-aid kit back into cabinet. He turned the light off. He knew without watching the clock that the sun will raise in a couple of hours and he will have to get up, wash, change, and go out to work. He went for the couch, not the bed. As he lay down, he listened carefully. Finally, everything was quiet.

The morning sunshine warmed the back of his neck. James opened his eyes. He got up too quickly to feel the sharp pain on his left side. He leaned his back slowly to the wall. He realized that he was in Sirius' flat, his master bedroom, and best of all, in his double-sized bed with his bathrobes on. James took a quick glance under the gown and was glad he was not wearing birthday suit and felt sorry for the gauze on his abdomen.

The memories of last night came back with the pain when he got out of the bed, the pieces of the memories, to be exact. He didn't remember much. He remembered coming to the flat. He punched the pass codes, pounded the door but nobody answered. So he kept on pounding. After that, everything went black. But considering he is still here, alive, with both arms and legs, the door must have opened and Sirius must have come out. James giggled a little and the wound hurt again so he stopped. He went out to the kitchen where he heard the noises.

Sirius was sitting on the counter, sipping a cup of coffee. He had already got dressed and was ready for the work. He raised his eyes as James came in.

"You look nice." said Sirius.

"Good morning to you too." said James, as he sat behind the counter. "Is there any coffee left in the pot?"

Sirius got up, poured a glass of orange juice and put it on the table with a plate of toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs. James dragged a chair for himself, sat, and started to eat. It was still warm and actually quite edible. He was half-finished with his breakfast when Sirius put the newspaper down. James looked at him with eggs full in his mouth.

"You came here, two in the morning, bleeding all over, and I had to treat a gunshot wound with disposable first aid-kit."

"Oh, Yeah, thanks for that."

"I think we don't have to compare who spent the worse night." said Sirius, drily. He raised his eyebrows. "Care to explain?"

James swallowed the eggs and said "Someone brought a gun to usual meeting. There was a shooting. I got shot."

"You should have called me."

"It was a last minute call. Cell wasn't allowed. Even if I had one, the last thing I would do was making a phone call to you. I barely managed to come here after making sure there was no tail on me."

"I could have arrested them in the act."

"They would be released in an hour for the lack of evidence and we wouldn't catch 'Voldemort'."

"I could have taken you to the hospital."

"Then you would blow my cover. Will you stop with those 'could have's? We would be dead before even getting to the hospital. Why do you think I came here in the first place?"

"I don't know. So I could watch you dying in the first row?" Sirius snapped.

Two of them went silent for a while, James just eating.

James knew what the other man was thinking but decided not to dare speak of it. Sirius wasn't a big fan of him with this undercover case. He never was. He was the one who most strongly opposed. The risk James was taking was the endless subject they kept on going on about. The Death Eaters were a relatively new organized family but their acts of crime were cruel and vicious. They didn't stop for anything, murder to torture, bribe, you name it. The organization was tight and their head, so-called 'Lord Voldemort', was a criminal mastermind and he became an urban legend in short amount of time. The Yard tried to sweep them off the street but failed every time. This, James' cover, was the first case that they actually had succeeded. It was dangerous; James would be dead if he made any mistakes. But James never regretted taking this one. This was what he did for living. It was his job.

He forked the bacon. He began to explain what the meeting was about, where it took place and the others and Sirius noted every single word.

James put the dish and fork to sink and headed to bathroom. He was dying to take a shower but settled with brushing his teeth with an extra toothbrush Sirius must have taken out for him, and washing his face.

When he came out to the living room, Sirius was already off to work. James found his jacket, trousers, belt, and a dress shirt hanging on the doorknob. It was clean and smelled fresh. James would never find out how Sirius got rid of the bloodstains and gun power off the clothes.

The shirt was unusually clean and soft for his taste. It was more like what Sirius would wear. James was half-expecting what would have happened to his shirt and mourned over its tragic death. There was something inside his jacket. He took out a key. His name was carved on it. And there were pills in the orange bottle, saying taking them twice a day with his name on it. He threw the key in the air and took it with one hand. He opened the door and went out.