Has it been a month already since I last updated? (gasp) I'm so sorry! I suppose this is a good time as any to say that I am a very unproductive writer…er…but I guess you all can probably tell by now. (remorseful smile) But thank you so much for the reviews and bearing with me anyway, everyone!

To See Saw: Hi! Interesting to see a familiar name from the OP fandom here, thanks for taking the trouble to review my stories from both the fandoms. Yeah, good ole h/c. (grin) If you sound evil for liking it, then I'm evil-er for writing it…hee… Seems like I can't stop writing this sort of fic…(sigh)

To Sai Ya Xiao Jie: I'm okay with KakaIru romance but the idea of friendship moves me in a different and no less meaningful way, hence this fic. Glad you've enjoyed it. Erm…sorry, but Kakashi isn't poisoned. (I agree that that'll be more exciting, won't it?(smile)) He's just seriously worn out, as usual.

Okay, enough delay, on with the story…

In Case of Emergency

They re-materialized in the hospital reception area and Kakashi went limp completely, finally losing his tenuous hold on consciousness as the last of his strength gave out. Iruka stumbled a bit from landing on solid ground again but caught the jounin as he collapsed, lowering him carefully to the ground.

"Kakashi-san!" The pretty red-haired nurse manning the reception desk took one look at them and gasped, her bright brown eyes round with shock.

Kakashi must be admitted quite regularly for the staff here to identify him by name on sight, Iruka thought absently as he watched her swing open the small partition to get out from behind the counter and come hurrying towards them.

She knelt down beside the unconscious jounin, hands hovering over his still form, fingers dancing deftly as she ran through a series of quick diagnostic jutsus.

"What happened?" she asked distractedly, checking his pulse and peeling back the uncovered eyelid to shine a penlight to gauge pupil response with practiced efficiency. The Sharingan gleamed blood-red for a second as she inspected it next.

Iruka took an awkward shuffling step to the side, trying to give her space to work. The serious tone in her voice worried him. The deep frown that crossed her face as she pushed aside the standard-issue vest and peeled back the black shirt underneath to study the wound on Kakashi's side was even more unsettling.

"I found him like this, unconscious, in his apartment." He cleared his throat anxiously, adjusting his hitai-ate in a gesture of nervousness. "Not sure…but he said something about being tired, couldn't get up…and a mission I think. He blacked out just when we got here."

Acknowledging his words with a nod, she stood up, walking over to the phone on the counter briskly. "Doctor Haruki? We've got an emergency case at the front desk. Could you please come over right now?"

She paused for a moment, listening intently then replied. "Severe exhaustion, beginnings of a bad infection, dangerous chakra depletion…I'm not sure, but I think he's going into shock."

Iruka swallowed past the worry that choked his throat at the nurse's words and glanced down at his companion. In the harsh bright lights of the hospital lobby, the Copy Ninja's face was ashen, almost as white as the floor he was lying on.

Crumpled in a graceless heap on the ground, limp and lifeless like a rag-doll, he looked as thin and haggard as his namesake. Iruka found he could not tear his gaze away from the jounin's pale visage, suddenly fixated with watching the jerky rise and fall of each shallow, painfully laboured breath…

He must have spaced out because the next thing he knew, the area was humming with activity. Medical personnel bustled about, looking like a bunch of swarming termites in their white uniforms. A man with thick, black-rimmed glasses and graying brown hair was crouching beside the unconscious jounin, taking his pulse with a grim expression on his face, barking out orders in a deep authoritative voice. And before Iruka knew it, they had whisked Kakashi onto a gurney and were taking him away.

He gazed fretfully after the group as they moved down the corridor until the red-haired nurse spoke up beside him, startling him. "Er…shinobi-san?"

"Please, it's Iruka." He turned and smiled at her. "Umino Iruka."

"Iruka-san." She nodded, returning his smile. "Kakashi-san will be fine. We'll take it from here." She gave him a slight bow. "Thank you for bringing him."

Iruka blinked at the clear note of dismissal in her voice, puzzled. "Ummm…well, if it's alright," He looked at her uncertainly. "I'll like to wait around…you know, to see what the doctor says."

Her eyebrows rose in surprise. "Oh, please don't worry. Collapse from chakra depletion can be rather dramatic, and sometimes even quite alarming, but surely you know people rarely die from it."

"Besides, Kakashi-san gets brought in with that a lot, even more than other ninja because of the unique condition of his Sharingan transplant." She shook her head with a sad sort of laugh. "We used to get him here every other month when he was doing missions full time. So this is nothing, really. There's no need for you to stay."

Iruka stared at her, shocked at her words and the offhanded way she had spoken them. If she wasn't looking so earnestly at him, urging him to go home, he would think her heartless. As it was, he didn't blame her and knew she was only trying to be reassuring.

But he was still appalled that the hospital staff was so used to random people dropping an unconscious Kakashi on them, that they no longer thought it to be anything important or extraordinary. Like it was a common occurrence that everyone was so accustomed to, no one found the need to stick around to see if the jounin was really alright anymore, or cared enough to be there when he wakes.

"I'll wait." He repeated, a bit more certain this time.

Her expression softened. "I see. That's okay too." A smile spread across her face and she suddenly seemed glad. "In fact, that will be nice."

An hour later, the chunin wasn't sure it was so nice after all. The hospital lobby was quiet, the silence barely disturbed by the faint scratching of pen against paper as the nurse went about her duties at the counter. Perched uncomfortably on one of those plastic chairs in the waiting area of the entrance hall, Iruka tried to calm his sense of unease. He never liked the hospital, too many bad memories of that fateful night his parents earned their place on the Hero's Stone, and his own stays in the past when a mission went wrong.

Sure, they tried to liven the place up a bit, with potted plants in the corners and the leisure magazines featuring innocuous activities like gardening and fishing on the low table. But the sterile white walls always seemed too bleak, the pervasive hush of the place oppressive. The clean, faintly antiseptic smell in the air couldn't never quite mask the stench of blood and death to him.

He sighed, suppressing an urge to fidget in his seat and swing his legs back and forth. It was an old habit he had as a child whenever he was anxious or bored, and right now he was more than a little of both.

It's almost midnight, he thought, glancing at the clock and couldn't quite stop a worried frown from crossing his face.

"Iruka-san?"

He looked up to see the nurse beckoning to him. Relieved for the distraction to the seemingly endless wait, he approached the counter.

"Would you like to fill in Kakashi-san's admission form for me while you wait, Iruka-san?" She pushed a page towards him and waved a hand at the pile of documents on the desk. "I'm swamped with work here so it'll be a great help. Besides," Her brown eyes twinkled kindly as she gave him an understanding smile. "sometimes when the wait gets really dull, I find it helps to have something to do to occupy ourselves, take our minds off things for a bit."

Flipping through a thick patient's folder on the table, she selected another similar form and offered it to him as well. "You can copy most of the information off this old one that's already been filled if you like."

He nodded, accepting both sheets of paper gratefully. Picking up a pen on the counter and he started to write. Kakashi's name, address, occupation, rank and registration number were entered easily. He hesitated briefly over the 'Signs and Symptoms' part but realized with a wry sort of amusement the Copy Ninja had been admitted for a similar ailment of over-exhaustion and chakra depletion when the old form was filled too, so he noted the short paragraph in the fresh document with little difficulty.

The 'In Case of Emergency' portion, however, completely stumped him.

Looking to the old form for guidance was useless because the corresponding space was left blank.

"Excuse me, Miss." He angled the paper towards her so that she could see, pointing at the section with the tip of his pen. "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to enter here."

She clipped a sheaf of papers together from the pile she was sorting and glanced at his half-filled form. "Oh, it's alright, we usually leave that blank. Sometimes, we put down the teammate who brings him in. But jounin are often away with missions so it's pretty pointless when they can't be contacted half the time."

She shrugged and added. "Don't worry, if something really bad happens, the Hokage will be informed."

If he dies, we'll report it to the Hokage. Iruka couldn't help translating inwardly.

He frowned tightly and pressed his lips into a grim line, suddenly speechless from a swell of indignance that gripped him.

The image of Kakashi when he had found him earlier rose abruptly in his mind.

Weak and injured, lying so still on the cold floor of his small apartment…

As the jounin had missed their Tuesday dinner meeting, Iruka was quite sure he had lain there all through last night and the whole of today as well. Last night had been cold with the autumn wind howling for most part of the night. He remembered being annoyed at the rattling windows waking him up and had burrowed deeper into his blankets with a shiver. He could only imagine how bad it must have been for Kakashi in his weakened state, collapsed on the chilly ground.

If Iruka did not think to check on him tonight, he would still be there now. All alone in his room until he recovered enough strength to take himself to the hospital or call out for help.

And if he could not? Would he lie there, unnoticed until he was needed for the next mission? Would they realize too late, only arriving to find the body when he had died of hypothermia and his injuries? Did no one care at all?

He felt vaguely ill, and suddenly very angry. A quiet simmering rage filled him as he glared at the empty entry on the admission form, as if trying to burn the desolating blankness out of it with his gaze.

Kakashi was a competent shinobi, his abilities legendary, and more than capable of taking care of himself. But no matter how skilled he was, how valuable he was as a ninja to Konoha, he was not a tool to be called on when needed, forgotten when not, patched up and made ready to be used again whenever he was incapacitated.

Having taught it so often to his classes, he knew very well it was the way of a hidden village; that shinobi were above all else, code-bound to serve. But honor and duty can only keep a person going for so long. Even genius ninja need someone who cares, a friend to be there for him when he couldn't cope with the burdens of life himself.

On impulse, Iruka gripped the pen tight and wrote his name and contact number in the space with large firm strokes.

He looked up to see the nurse watching him curiously.

"Oh!" He blushed, anger draining out of him in an instant when the thought occurred to him he was being presumptuous and rude, putting his details down like that, as if he was trying to prove the nurse wrong or something equally insulting.

Scratching embarrassedly at the back of his head with one hand and gesticulating anxiously with the other, he stuttered as he tried to explain. "I'm sorry! I don't mean anything…but I teach at the Academy you see…so I'm always around in the village…I mean, you can always find me if necessary…and…and-" He took a breath to cut off his mindless rambling and offered the nurse a sheepish grin. "I guess I'm trying to say that Kakashi-sensei is a good friend of mine. I would want to know and be here if something happened to him."

The nurse smiled, amused at his flustered outburst but seemed touched by his little speech. "Of course." She nodded, taking the forms from him and filing them away. "Kakashi-san is very fortunate to have such a staunch friend in you.

The phone jangled at that moment and she answered it. Putting the receiver down after a brief exchange with the caller, she beamed at him. "Okay, they're done with him and have put him in recovery, room 57. He's probably asleep and won't wake until morning, but you can go see him if you want."

Iruka nodded his thanks and started walking down corridor, following the signs posted on the walls towards the wards.