A/N: Hello everone! Let's get this baby moving shall we? Try and actually FEEL the anxiety in this chapter. Feel the emotions as you're reading. See it in your head. It'll make it that much better. Enjoy!

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Anko slept hard when she slept. It was necessary for a ninja to get adequate sleep to perform efficiently. She barely heard the tapping at her door, she slept so deeply. But something managed to jostle her from her slumber. Something inside her spoke to her and told her she had to wake up, that it was important that she wake up. She stirred a bit, and listened. Then she heard it, a slight tapping at her door. Kakashi? she instantly thought, becoming immediately wide awake. She heard more tapping and then a slight cough. KAKASHI! She silently got up and ran to the door looking out the peephole to make sure it was him, and not some kind of trap. She saw nothing; she couldn't see anything at all. Whoever it was, was leaning against her door and covering her peephole, either by accident or on purpose. She didn't care about her own safety at that point, she opened her door and Kakashi fell immediately forward, sliding down the opened door. Anko caught him as he fell, causing her to fall with him.

"Oh dear God Kakashi! Look at you! You're a mess. I've got to get you to the hospital. Look at your arm. What happened to your shoulder! Come on, get up. I'll get you there right away,"

"Anko. Anko," Kakashi slurred a bit, but he was obviously not drunk.

"Come on Kakashi! We have to go now!"

"Anko. Wait a minute."

"We don't have a minute. Why didn't you just go to the hospital?"

"Because I told you I'd come here first. I promised. I," his head fell forward and he lost consciousness.

In that moment, Anko was terrified, yet relieved. They were still "friends" afterall. But they weren't out of the woods yet.

There was no way Anko could carry Kakashi the whole way to the hospital by herself. It was late, and she doubted she could get anyone to help her get him there. So instead of taking him there, she carefully got herself under his good arm, stood up with him, and dragged him to her bed. She put him down as gently as she could and slowly laid him back on her pillow. He was a mess. He was dirty, there was dried blood on parts of his arms and around his un-scared eye, and his pants were ripped in a few places below his knees, like they'd been put through a shredder. She didn't know what to do with him. Then she saw his arm. His right arm was in a strange position. As she looked up his arm and tried to move it slightly, she found that it wasn't his arm that was broken, but his shoulder had been wretched from its socket. He had to be in a great deal of pain, and his body had just shut him down rather than deal with it. She wanted to panic, she wanted to run and get him help, but she couldn't do that. Ninjas just don't do that – they don't freak under pressure. She kept it together and felt a whole new kind of hurt well up inside her. She didn't want to see him this way. She didn't expect to ever see him like this. Not in her bed at least. She didn't know what to do next.

Anko looked at him and decided that the only thing she could do was make him as comfortable as possible until morning. She carefully took off his forehead protector, which seemed to be more chipped and dented than she remembered. He fingers brushed his hair as they passed it. How she wanted to touch it properly, sensually, but now was not the time. She kept looking at his chest, checking to make sure he was still breathing. He was, so she continued. She began to remove his left glove. The ends of his fingers looked like they were missing fingerprints, and two were cracked with old blood in the cracks. One of his fingernails was partly gone. His hand wasn't broken, so she laid it gently aside and went around the other side of the bed to carefully remove his right glove. She took extra care with this one since his right shoulder was at such an unusual angle. She didn't want to aggravate his injury. She got his glove off and his right hand pretty much matched his left – beaten but not broken.

She then unzipped his vest and tried to figure out a way to get it off him. But after going over in her mind about 20 different ways to position him to get it off him, all seemed impossible with his shoulder as badly injured as it was. She decided to leave it on him, but pulled it open wide so she could look at his chest. She pushed up his shirt and looked at the hard stomach and chest that she'd enjoyed and missed so much. There were bruises on his right side over his ribs, but overall, he seemed ok. No stab wounds, no active bleeding. His pants were another thing. She decided if she was going to get him to the hospital in the morning, she'd better leave his pants alone. She didn't want to have to try and explain why she was bringing in a pant less Hatake Kakashi, gravely injured, to the hospital. Instead, she decided to look for blood patches on his pants that would indicate any serious injuries. First she felt along his legs, squeezing slightly from thigh to ankle, looking for something that might be broken. Both legs were intact, and after she lifted each to look for bleeding, she was satisfied that his legs were ok. His left ankle seemed to sit at a weird angle, but it too wasn't broken – probably sprained. She needed to get him to a medical ninja who would be able to assess him properly. She was no medical nin and had relied on them countless times to heal her when she returned from particularly rough battles. They'd fix him up. He'd be fine. But he was unconscious now and in so much pain. What else could she do for him?

She went into her bathroom and grabbed a wash basin and filled it with warm water. She brought it and a soft cloth back to him and decided she could clean his exposed skin a bit and get rid of the dried blood. She said, "I know this isn't the bath you would prefer, but I don't want to move you, so this will have to do for now." She took his left hand and washed it, revealing some bruises on his knuckles, but no cuts. She turned his hand over and washed his palm and long tapered wondrous fingers that she suddenly had the urge to kiss. She steadied herself, and washed his right hand carefully, trying not to twist it or move it. She re-wet her cloth and pushed down his mask. My God his face. He's a mass of bruises. What did they do to him? She washed his neck first, gently lifting his head to get the back part, and cleaned his ears. She re-wet her cloth again, and started to wipe the sweat, dirt and dried blood from his jaw line. She cleaned one side of his face and saw the old Kakashi beginning to emerge from the bruised and beaten and unconscious Kakashi. She continued to wash his face, noticing small nicks in places, but nothing serious. She cleaned his forehead, and pushed his hair almost straight up away from his face. She wanted to laugh for just a second at how comical he looked that way, but then she sobered herself and re-arranged his hair a little more the way he usually wore it. Lastly, she washed his eyelids, nose and finally his mouth. How alive his mouth still looked even though he was completely unconscious. She put her cloth down and couldn't stop herself from leaning down carefully, placing a hand on each of his cheeks, and ever so gently, touching her lips to his. She looked at his face and said quietly, "I'm so glad you're back. I missed you so." She choked back the tears that threatened to spill out of her and all over his face. It was then that Anko notice the hurt inside her intensified in her chest and throat.

She backed away from him and sat on the bed and looked at him. She said firmly, "Kakashi. Come on, wake up. You need to wake up for me. I've got to get you some help and I can't do this by myself. It's the middle of the night, and there's no one else I can get to help you. It's just you and me, and seriously, you need to wake up. I know you're tired. I know you have to be in a lot of pain. God, this sucks. COME ON KAKASHI! WAKE UP ALREADY! Wake up. Come on. Please wake up." And then the tears came anyway.

In the deep recesses of Kakashi's mind, he heard Anko yelling something at him. She sounded like she was shouting at him from the bottom of a well. She wants me to wake up? I am awake! What's she talking about? She sounds worried. Why can't I see her? Oh shit. Not again. Is she crying? Then he felt guilty. Anko, I'm so sorry to put you through this. It wasn't my intention to practically die on your doorstep. I just wanted to get back to you because . . . and he slipped a little deeper into oblivion.

Anko shuddered. She wiped her eyes and looked back over at Kakashi. Crying wasn't helping a God damned thing. If he was in a coma, he could probably hear her. She was sure he wouldn't want her crying over him, he might think it was a sign of weakness. So Anko did the only other thing for him she could. She dimmed the lights, covered him up a bit and lay down next to him. She never took her eyes off him while he lay there. She watched his chest rise and fall, while the rest of him didn't move a fraction of an inch. She resisted the urge to snuggle up to him and throw her arm and probably a leg over him and hold him tightly to her. He was too injured for her to chance that. Instead, she carefully reached down and took his left hand and interlaced the fingers of her right hand with his, and covered both their hands with her left.

Kakashi stirred somewhere in his mind. He could feel his body and he knew he was pretty banged up. But something held him. Something warm was holding his left hand. He focused on that something warm . . .

Anko must have dozed off some time because she woke when she felt her right hand being crushed.

Anko's eyes flew open as Kakashi writhed on her bed. He saw she was awake and he gasped, "Sorry. Sorry. Wasn't trying to wake you. Didn't want to disturb you."

He dropped her hand as she sat up, "You're awake. Good. We've got to get to the hospital. It's almost dawn. I'm sure I could get you there,"

"Don't."

"What? Are you nuts? You need medical attention right now!"

"I know. Don't move me. Hurts too much."

"What am I going to do then?"

Kakashi paused, closed his eyes and breathed very purposefully. When he opened them he said, "Get Sakura."

Anko thought a mile a minute. What would Sakura say about Kakashi in the state he's in, and in her bed? Would she know? Would she tell anyone? Sakura can't know. But this was her sensei. He was requesting her, but still Anko doubted Sakura was the right choice. She said, "But she'll know. She'll tell everyone."

Kakashi breathed harshly and said, "She'll keep quiet because I'll tell her to. Get her. Hurry."

Anko didn't argue anymore. Instead, she put her jacket on over her pajamas and said, "Where?"

"Should be at home this early. She's probably getting ready for work. Go get her." Kakashi told Anko how to find Sakura's apartment.

Anko said, "Is there anything I can get for you? Anything I can do to make you feel better?"

Kakashi always the pervert said, "I could think of a few things, ow, but not right this second. When you come back maybe? After Sakura leaves?"

Anko smiled a bit relieved. She said, "Quit it. Like you could do anything in your state. Stay put, I'll go get her."

Kakashi's eyes squinted in pain. "Alright, just put my mask back on for me. Then get her. Hurry," was all he said to her as she quickly put his mask back in place, and then bolted out the door.

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A/N: And we're off. Actually Anko's off to find Sakura. Will she find her in time to help her friend? Review please!

Next up: Anko runs to get Sakura to help heal Kakashi, or at least get him stabilized. What will she have to do to him? Find out next chapter. See you soon!