She couldn't do this on her own. She needed Ami, with her solid knowledge of first aid.
"Oh Rei-chan, how terrible. I will come over."
"No!" yelled Rei, almost panicking. "I mean, yes, I need you, but please, don't hang up, whatever happens! You need to give me directions, right now! He is loosing so much blood!"
"Shitennou aren't entirely human, what I know about humans, might not be enough for him..." hesitated Ami.
"Whatever!" snapped Rei in despair. "He will have to take the kind of help he can get. We don't have much of a choice here. Just tell me what to do!"
"Ok, Rei, I will direct you. Listen!"
"Thank you, Ami, please hurry, and please stay on the phone."
Ami's voice was the only thing that kept her going when she tore the sleeves off her shirt and wrapped them like Ami told her. Ami had advised her not to remove any clothing yet, just to bind off his limbs above his wounds, but his uniform was so torn she touched bare skin at most places, and his skin was so damp and cold that she got scared. It had all been well before she had to touch him.
Rei tried to move Jadeite and froze when some shreds of his uniform fell off.
"Ami... I don't think he is wearing underwear..."
Ami needed a second to get over this. Rei was glad they weren't face to face yet.
"Rei, that's okay. That is not important now. His life is what's important now. Don't care about it. We'll deal with it later. Do you have the sleeve ready?"
Rei didn't answer.
"Rei, come on, surely you have seen a naked man before. If you have seen one, you have seen them all."
"I... I haven't" stuttered Rei, ashamed.
"Keep your nerves, Rei-chan. Remember the time when Kunzite dressed up Usagi-chan in that white ball gown? How do you think he did that? Just think of now as a payback for the Shitennou! Now do it, don't waste anymore time. Wrap the sleeve around his thigh and knot it really really tight. Move, Mars Reiko-chan!"
***
"That was mean", mumbled Rei when Ami had finally arrived.
She was shaking, Shitennou blood all over her, and the only thing that kept her from panicking was that the boy was at least not dead yet.
"But it worked", said Ami with an encouraging smile. She ran her gaze over the unconscious patient. "You probably saved his life. Well done. Now I need your help while I have a closer look..."
Rei just followed any command that Ami gave her, glad that she seemed to know what to do. She was immensely relieved to see the bag that Ami had brought.
"You have a doctor's equipment?"
"My mum's. She always keeps one ready for emergencies although she has never needed it as long as I can think. I will be able to refill it before she notices I had it. We will certainly need to so something about his wounds, and there are cuts that have severed muscles, and sinews, probably broken bones... I have no idea what to do about these..."
"Kunzite said he just needs rest."
Ami's lips tightened at the mention of Kunzite. Rei suddenly thought that Kunzite had actually been wise not to ask her directly for help.
"What does he know about that?" grumbled Ami. "He heals so fast that it's almost impossible to kill him anyway. He probably thinks everyone else could do it as well if they only tried hard enough. I won't take a risk just at his word."
"He looked pretty beaten up himself", said Rei, hoping this would cheer Ami up. "Any idea what the heck they are doing?"
At the same moment she wanted to bite her tongue. If the Shitennuo were into something dangerous, that guy that Ami called her boyfriend would be in there as well.
"Sorry, Ami. I forgot about Nephrite for a moment."
Ami wasn't offended. She was used to Rei being in denial about the Nephrite situation.
"He's not home yet. Yesterday evening, he just teleported into the bathroom, took a long hot shower, rematerialized his uniform, collapsed and slept the whole night sitting upright on the bathroom floor, in Shitennou form, his sword in his hand. He was gone very early today without telling me what's going on. I wouldn't want to know anyway, I would have worried all day. I just kept telling myself that he is so tough, he can take almost every blow and still fight back."
But so is Jadeite, thought Rei. Rather short, rather thin, but mean and fast and tough in battle. Two Senshi hadn't been able to bring him down, at those times when they had fought.
"Ami, I'm so sorry I called you here. You should be at home and wait for him, maybe he'll need your help."
Ami shook her head, while her hands and eyes stayed fixed on the task of stitching up one of the cuts in Jadeite's arms.
"This is an emergency, I had to come. Now the thigh. Good job. Come, let's get through some anatomy lesson while we have the chance."
"I really don't need to know", mumbled Rei and blushed.
"Yes, you do. He is your patient, I will not always be around. If he stays unconscious, you will have to take care of everything. It's okay for a nurse or a doctor. It's just another body part."
She pointed out every aspect of said body part and named the correct anatomical term.
"See, that was all. Nothing special. I know you won't ever feel attracted to Jadeite. I think that's why Kunzite brought him to you. He's so unreasonable. He must think I would seduce any Shitennou I get my hands on. So silly really."
Silly, yes, the first word that comes to mind if I think of Kunzite, thought Rei sarcastically while she tried to get over the way Ami could name boy parts with no more than just a slight blushing. It was as brave as if she had transformed. Maybe being a doctor was her new transformation.
"I rather think Kunzite knew I would be pissed off the most of us all, so he took his chance to get on my nerves", she said to keep her mind off Jadeite.
"You are probably right", said Ami. Thoughtful, she examined the cuts in the uniform. "I think we need to mend these as well... sew him in...", she said.
"What, you don't want to get these dirty rags off him? Isn't that unhygienic?"
Ami shook her head.
"Maybe it is, but the clothing is a part of the powers of a Shitennou. Just like it had been with us as Senshi. If we take it away from him, it could weaken him. No, we'll leave it on, we'll just wash off the blood as good as we can, use disinfectants, and sew the cuts of the clothing while he still wears it."
"That'll take forever," said Rei with a shudder.
"I'll help you as much as I can. Makoto is good at sewing too. And Usagi can ask Mamoru what this is all about."
They both sighed.
"What do you think about his chances?" asked Rei.
"They're good."
"Are you certain?"
"Absolutely. He hasn't fallen back into stone form, which would be for deep regeneration. He should be doing well. Just give him time."
***
Ami had promised to stay. She insisted Rei had a shower, change of clothes, dinner, and let people at the shrine know she'd be with a sick friend for some days.
At first, Rei was glad to have Ami around, even if they just sat together in silence, inch for inch washing the blood from the young Shitennou who did absolutely nothing but breathe. Ami would know what to do if the boy got worse, right?
From time to time, Ami insisted to shift his position, for a medical reason Rei couldn't entirely follow. Rei was still creeped out when she touched his skin that just didn't feel right, and she was worried they'd give him too much pain when they moved him.
"He'll be worse if we don't," was Amis answer. "Now give me another bandage, please."
The relief of having Ami around got damped soon by the arrival of what recently came with Ami: Nephrite. Tall, tense, exhausted, confused, disapproving, bringing anger and the smell of more blood. The maximum occupancy of the store room was instantly exceeded for Rei.
Without a word, he turned and flung his arms around Ami, burying her in his embrace.
Rei didn't get it. The most gentle and delicate of the Senshi, with the biggest and roughest of the Shitennou. Now they even kissed. This did nothing to improve Rei's judgement. Seriously, there were remainders of today's enemies on Nephrite, that Ami seemingly didn't mind to get all over herself. Looked like she was used to it. Romantic.
As suddenly as he had grabbed Ami, he let her go, shot Rei an annoyed glance and with one swift movement, he was by Jadeite.
Nephrite loomed over Jadeite with a frown, then over Ami and Rei.
He struggled for words while he was eyeing them accusingly.
"What is this?" he finally demanded.
Rei lept to her feet.
"Ha, like we knew! Kunzite dumped him here, not telling us anything! Maybe you would be so friendly to explain what the hell is going on with you Shitennou!"
"Kunzite brought him here?"
"I couldn't believe it either. Now, Nephrite, this is a sick room, and we don't want to point this out to the whole world, so please keep your voice down. Be good and don't disturb Jadeite. He needs to rest."
"Here."
"Yes."
"This room is filthy."
"I's not! It's just dusty! He has clean sheets! This room is all I have at the moment. I can give him a guest room once he stops oozing. If you have any better idea, I will be happy to hear it!"
Nephrite glared at her once more, but then he turned back to Jadeite.
"He doesn't like that", he said. With some routined grips, he lifted Jadeite into a more comfortable position, and finally collapsed into a sitting position on the floor, next to Jadeite's head, watching his fellow Shitennou.
He refused to answer questions, he refused to let Ami have a look at his wounds, he refused to lay down and have some sleep.
He ended up sleeping upright, Ami in his arm, sword in his hand.
It bothered Rei to see Nephrite with Ami cuddling by his side.
It bothered her even more when, after some mere hours, he woke up with a startle and teleported out of the room. She suddenly felt alone. She usually never did.
This stupid situation must drive her crazy already.
The night was long, dark, and quiet, and Rei didn't have to worry she'd sleep in. She was just so upset and worried. What had happened to almost kill Jadeite, drive Kunzite insane and wear out a guy as strong as Nephrite?
She couldn't take her eyes off Jadeite.
Did the boy live? Did he get better?
He breathed, although not much. He bled, although not as bad as before. That didn't necessarily have to be a good sign. Maybe he just didn't have much blood any more that he could spill.
He was so pale and still. A stranger, not from this world, and so unlike his usual self. Even if she had met him peacefully a few times in this new life of theirs, she would never be able to imagine him without a crystal dagger in his hand, challenging her, and his eyes measuring her coldly. She had never liked him, the deceit of his innocent face masking so much malice, and his reckless use of youmas against humans, but seeing him like this was just so wrong.
She knew what the slashes on his arms meant, he had been going down with his arms held up to shield him where his magic couldn't, and the other injuries told her that the fight hadn't been over once he was down. So a Shitennou lost a fight every now and then... but it made her so mad that someone had still hit him when he hadn't been able to defend himself any more.
And she just couldn't get rid of the memory of Kunzite dropping him from his tight embrace, just dropping him to the floor and not even looking at him, and Jadeite just hitting the floor real hard with a cry of pain, and with a crunching noise made Rei's blood freeze.
Fought down, beaten up, and tossed in her yard like a bag of garbage. She was not going to let anyone responsible for any of this get away with it. The boy would live, he just had to. And Kunzite was going to pay for this.
***
