Train Wreck
Chapter 9 Exhaustion
"Kankuro...he's heavy..." Gaara said and glared at his older brother thoroughly irritated at the whole situation.
"Oh...sorry" Kankuro blurted sheepishly and took the barely conscious actor of the psychiatrist's hands.
Gaara sighed, panting for breath it had taken a lot of effort to pull his up the stairs after he'd found the elevator had broken down, and unlocked his apartment door the keys rattling in his pale trembling fingers; his right hand went up to his mouth as his small body convulsed in a coughing fit his knees buckling underneath him.
"GAARA!" Kankuro yelled in concern and rushed over only to be shoved away weakly.
"It's ok I'm fine..." he whispered wiping his mouth on his black sleeve, leaving dark stain, and slowly got back up on his shaky legs walking in his apartment.
"You know you shouldn't over do it in weather like this..." The brunette chastised him following into the dark room.
"I said I'm fine!" Gaara said a little forcefully... he wasn't in mood for Kankuro's nagging.
The inside of the psychiatrist's home was dark even with lights on, he'd painted the walls black and dark red giving it the feel of a vampires lair with all the Victorian-style furniture that was strewn around along with heavy dark curtains...people did question him about it a lot because of his pale skin and the dark circles around his eyes...they always used to tease the three siblings calling them the Punk, the Emo and the Goth...not before they got cracked in the head by Kankuro that is.
"Urgh..." Shikamaru groaned his eyes cranking open slightly only to snap them shut as Gaara feeling sadistic towards the actor shone his penlight into his glazed chocolate brown eyes "AH! Fuckin biatch..." he slurred.
"You deserved it..." Gaara said a small smirk playing on his pale lips.
"Um...Gaara you really should not do..." Kankuro tried to warn his little brother but not before a loud crack echo around the room "...that..." and cringed at the large red bruise gracing the redheads left cheek as well as a small trickle of blood trailing down from his nose "eh...Shika's got a lot better punch when he's only half conscious".
"You could have warned me...you idiot...everyone in the building already think I'm a drug dealer or something!" he un-characteristically ranted before letting out a tired sigh "Yeah this should be it" he said pulling out a full syringe and a bottle of clear liquid Kankuro couldn't identify.
"Lay him on the sofa on his side his blood pressure is ok but his breathing's shaking...delayed pupil reaction...muscle spasms...you might want to grab a bucket as well" Gaara ordered Kankuro listing off Shikamaru's physical reactions as he thought back to his university medical training and his brother ran into the bathroom to get the things.
"Neji...urgh...Nej...i..." Shikamaru mumbled in his drug induced stupor his hand slowly reaching out at something unseen.
Roughly Gaara grabbed Shikamaru's arm, once they were alone, feeling the actor's soft tanned skin trying to find a blood vessel and pushed the needle into it quickly trying to get the liquid into him as fast as possible.
"Mommy...no mom don't...please...it's not my fault...it's not my fault..." Shikamaru whimpered whipping his other arm in front of his face as if to protect himself.
"Shh...it's ok Shika I know...they always say its our fault don't they?" Gaara commented wiping the sweat off the man's face with his sleeve; he remembered the first time he'd met him...he was still at university studying psychology and Shikamaru was at the same acting school as his brother.
'Hey bro I want you to meet someone' Kankuro yelled waving over at the pale red haired teen who's arms were laden with heavy text books.
Shikamaru walked behind the brunette slowly staring up at the cloud dotted sky with his hands shoved firmly into the depths of his pants pockets, he'd down this many times as the hem of both had frayed and sides had torn away from legs.
Gaara looked his brother's new "friend" up and down and thought the boy reminded him of a pot-head with lazy attitude and glazed and tired eyes...it was clear he hadn't slept for days.
'Hey I'm Shikamaru...' he said the boys shoulder length black hair swaying in the autumn breeze.
Gaara scowled "...What's with the stoner?..." he asked flatly, reorganising the books so they wouldn't topple over.
"Drugs! Who needs drugs when we've got Kankuro here!" Shikamaru cheered kissing Kankuro on the cheek and wrapped his arm around the older boy's waist "...Nah...I'll be serious...I'm just bored, the only drug I have is whisky...at the moment at least...I think"
The red haired teen glared at the two clowns "Stop acting...your smile's way too fake" he said shaking his head.
"Well" Shikamaru whispered going back to how he was when he first introduced himself "Then if have to stop pretending so do you..."
&&&
Neji laid there on the floor his pale eyes staring up at the ceiling.
'This is a disaster...' he thought 'Now it really is going to come to an end...' slowly he lifted himself up off the floor.
"...Neji nee-san ...he ran away didn't he?...Shika...maru-san...you...like...him don't you...?" Hinata asked her cousin awkwardly with her long indigo hair fell over her pale violet almost white eyes that were just like Neji's and everyone else in their family.
Neji looked up at her running one of his hands through his long brunette hair and for once in his life he didn't know how to answer her.
"Hinata-sama I need your phone..." Neji said looking at the battery metre of his cell phone.
She handed it to her cousin and asked "Who...are you...going to ...call Neji-neesan?"
"Someone I know who can help" He replied and punched in the number he knew off by heart.
&&&
Asuma Sarutobi slowly puffed on his cigarette as he watched the news 'News...'he thought 'It's all just hyped up gossip...' he sighed and snuffed his smoke in the already half full ash tray.
"Long day?" someone from behind him asked.
"Yeah..." he answered as he stretched his aching legs under his desk looking up at his secretary Kurenai.
"Neji's on line 2 for you he says it's urgent" she told him wrapping her slender arms around the man's neck and hugged him from behind.
"Doesn't he always?" Asuma said sarcastically "Is it about Shika?" he asked kissing her cherry red lips.
"Would he ring if it wasn't? You already went over the pre-production schedule with him two days ago" She replied resting her chin on his shoulder and handed him the cordless phone she'd had in her back pocket.
&&&
Kankuro hung back listening to the two.
"Shh...it's ok Shika I know...they always say its our fault don't they?" Gaara said caressing the younger mans cringing face.
Kankuro narrowed his dark green eyes 'You still think about what Dad said...he always told us it was your fault Mom died and we were too young to understand and Uncle Yashamaru was killed when they tried to kidnap you but then...' he thought staring down at the tiled floor and his hand lightly touched the rippled skin of his burnt face.
"Hey does everything of yours need to be red or black?" He joked stepping back into the living room and held up a red bucket.
"Could you shut up for once in your life?" Gaara said grating his teeth in annoyance.
Kankuro just sat down on the arm of the sofa placing the bucket on the floor near Shikamaru's head.
Shikamaru shook his head and mumbled something under his breath; his body trembled partially from the drugs and partially from it exaggerating his disorder.
"Have you called Tsunade?" The brunette asked crossing his arms over his chest.
"The woman's in France she left Sakura to deal with things" his brother explained "I rang her before I got here" just as the door bell rang.
"I'll get it!" Kankuro said running to the door and threw the poor defenceless door open "Hey Sakura come in"
"Hi how is he holding up I hope Dr Gaara wasn't too rough on my favourite patient" She asked and smiled cheerfully flipping her short pink hair.
"Don't call me that bitch get in here and actually help your patient for once" Gaara complained rolling his eyes.
"Awww I love you too Gaa-chan" She said sticking out her tongue.
The three of them then moved into the lounge room.
Sakura examined Shikamaru closely her green eyes taking in his every detail "Yeah definitely diazepam how's his respiration and heart rate?" she questioned Gaara with her stethoscope placed on the actor's heart.
"His heart rate was normal last time I checked his respiration was laboured, I gave him 300 micrograms of flumazenil" He stated.
"Gah I only did a check up on him last night...Shika you really know how to keep a girl busy!" she exclaimed poking her vulnerable victim...I mean patient "Well his breathing is still pretty bad but he's seems to have gotten slightly better from what you described; have you given him any follow up doses yet?"
"No I only just got here my-" Gaara started to say before bringing his hand to his mouth automatically as his small body convulsed in a fit of hacking cough.
Kankuro rushed over to his younger brother to stop him from falling over and handed him his inhaler.
"You pulled Shika all the way on your own no wonder you're irritable..." She said seriously and opened her heavy medical bag pulling out a small nebuliser and some vials of Ventolin "Here" she offered "Try this" and handed the mask to Gaara who immediately covered his face with it inhaling the whitish coloured mist.
"Hey what's the time?" Kankuro suddenly asked.
"5 I think" Sakura answered "Why?"
"Shit...I'll have to ring Hayate..." He told himself counting off things on his hand "Yeah if they bring those two forward we'll have enough time good..." he sighed still holding onto Gaara.
"Huh?" Sakura asked looking at her older friend like he was crazy.
"Oh my band plays tonight that's all" he explained seeing her confused look.
&&&
Asuma walked down the steps of the studio taking two steps at a time and looked up and down the busy street, it was sunset and the glare from the sun was making it hard to see.
On the other side sat a large black van the occupants watched him closely following his movements, they had orders and it would get pretty ugly if they didn't follow through with their mission.
"Fuck its cold" Asuma gasped jumping up and down on the sidewalk trying to keep warm causing ash from his cigarette to fall on his coat "Goddamnit where is that fucking Taxi what do they except all of us to get around in limo's damn lazy bastard 5 minutes he said this is worse than a bus!" he cursed L.A's transport system.
"You ready? I wanna get my money damn it..." One of the men asked looking over his shoulder into the back of the van.
'Yeah yeah old man stop fucking distracting me fuck head you'll your fucking money damn it!" the silver haired man yelled back at him.
"Damn where is it" Asuma sighed as he tried to stay calm "If I don't get there soon girly boy'll probably go after him himself..." suddenly he felt a sharp pain punch through his chest "AHHHHH!" he screamed stumbling down to the snow covered foot path...
