this one took forever guys... i'm sorry. i meant to update quicker but with work and friend obligations it made it hard... but here's the next chapter! so enjoy!

FYI: you are all amazing! -showers in the rain of cookies and hugs you all-

:-)


Sakura only stared at Sasuke's hand that hung in the air between them, waiting for her to shake it.

Before Sakura could do anything, she was interrupted by Tsunade saying, "Sakura, can I see you in my office please? I would like to discuss your current case with you."

Sakura nodded, silently thanking Tsunade for the interruption, and nodded at Sasuke who dropped his hand shrugging and walked nonchalantly down the hallway.

As soon as Sakura was in the office, Tsunade closed the door behind her and said, "I didn't want Sasuke to know that you were working with Gaara."

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"I think I had better tell you why I had to suspend Sasuke from working here…"

Taking a seat at her desk, Tsunade continued, "A few months ago, I caught Sasuke mistreating Gaara while he was drugged."

Sakura's grip tightened as her hands curled into tight fists. "Mistreating him how?"

Sighing, Tsunade finished, "I caught him standing over Gaara, threatening him with another shot of Nembutal while telling him that he was worthless and that no one cared about him. It took me so long to reach Gaara again after that…Sasuke's words really hit him hard for some reason. But since Sasuke never did anything physically to harm Gaara, I could only suspend him and not fire him."

By now, Sakura had squeezed her fists so hard they were shaking.

"Tsunade…" she said through clenched teeth. "Just so you know, if he does anything like that to Gaara again, I will punch him."

Walking over to Sakura, Tsunade placed her hand on her shoulder and said, "And just so you know, I will be willing to overlook such an action and lesson your suspension to a day or two."

Sakura nodded in understanding as she lessened her grip on her fists.

"Sakura…" Tsunade said in a tone heavy with warning. "Keep an eye on Gaara. If he starts acting out or acts differently in any way let me know immediately. You also have to remember that he's no longer being given Nembutal, and that drug is the only thing that saved Sasuke last time. You said that you would take full responsibility for anything that Gaara did while off of that drug. I would hate to have to fire you for Gaara protecting himself…"

"You won't fire me for hitting Sasuke, but I would be fired if Gaara did?!" Sakura gaped.

Tsunade removed her hand from Sakura's shoulder and walked over to her desk. "I can always report your incident as a sexual harassment case, But with Gaara…it would only be seen as patient neglect since you wrote in your report that he no longer needs to be on the drug. And for you to make such a claim and then have something happen only shows my bosses that you are incompetent and should not be working here. So if you have any doubt about Gaara being off of Nembutal, you need to tell me now and I will go and give him a shot. You have a promising career Sakura, I'd hate to see it ruined by the likes of Sasuke."

Sakura took a deep breath as she digested Tsunade's words.

Thinking back on her latest interaction with Gaara, Sakura's lips began to tingle. Licking them she realized that they were still cold from his lips.
Damn it all, she thought as a slow smile crept across her face.
Looking at Tsunade confidently she said, "I stand by my decision."

Tsunade nodded in understanding and told Sakura to have a good night, which she followed with a stern, "Watch your back around Sasuke. I don't trust him, and neither should you."


Tsunade's warning followed Sakura down the hall and hung over her like a heavy cloud.
She already didn't like this Sasuke guy…how could she possibly be expected to work with him?

As she neared the front door of the building, she noticed a silhouette leaning against it.

"No one's walking you to your car?" she heard a deep voice say and she immediately stopped in her tracks when she realized that it was Sasuke.

Swallowing her callous comments, she replied shortly, "Why would I need someone to do that?"

Sasuke pushed himself off of the wall and walked into the dim lighting so that Sakura could see him better.

He simply shrugged and said, "A pretty girl like you walking alone to her car so late at night…it just screams catastrophe."

Her hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they immediately curled into fists.
Willing them to loosen, she replied, "I've been doing it without a problem so far, I don't see a reason to change anything now."

When she moved towards the door, he grabbed her arm gently and said, "All the more reason to walk you out. If anyone is planning on attacking you, they would have your schedule memorized by now…"

Something inside of Sakura told her that he was right and hated him even more for it.
"And why should I trust you?" she asked him, folding her arms in front of her so he wouldn't notice her clenched fists. "For all I know, you could be planning something."

A sly smile crept his way to his mouth as he added coolly, "The only thing I'm planning on is seeing you safely to your car."

Knowing full well that he wasn't going to leave her alone until he saw her out, she reluctantly gave in to him and moved to the doors with him close behind her.

Walking briskly to her car, she reached the car door and turned around to face him.

"Okay I made it here alive. Goodbye." she said shortly unlocking her car door and moving to pull it open.

His hand prevented her from going further as he leaned against her car and asked, "So how long have you been working here?"

"Not long." she replied shortly as she tugged on her car door again, only to have him stop her once more.

"Well, then how long do you have left here?" he persisted.

"Not much longer." she seethed at him.

He chuckled quietly and continued, "Why do I get the feeling that you don't like me very much?"

Giving up on opening her car door, she crossed her arms over her chest and said, "How perceptive of you."

She watched his eyes travel down her body and she blushed from anger.

Cocking his head to the side, he gently placed his fingertips on her arm and asked, "What happened here?"

Sakura looked down at her arm and noticed light bruises that Gaara had left behind from grabbing her so hard.

"They're nothing…" she said as she rubbed her arm pretending to be cold.

"You should be wearing a coat…after all it is December. You don't want to catch a cold."

"I forgot to grab it this morning. Besides I really don't need one when I'm just walking from the building to my car."

He frowned at her and motioned to her arms again, "They don't look like just nothing to me..."

Sakura smirked, hoping that this course of action would get him to leave her alone, she replied, "My boyfriend and I got a little carried away."

All of Sakura's mental process stopped at that moment.
Did I just refer to Gaara as my boyfriend? she thought to herself.
As she rolled around the idea in her head, she decided that it wasn't the worst one she had ever come up with…

Completely forgetting that Sasuke was standing there, her attention was drawn back to him when he chuckled and said, "Boyfriend? What's the lucky man's name?"

"I…uh…" Sakura stuttered trying to find a way out of the bind that she had gotten herself in. There was just absolutely no way she could let word get out that her and Gaara had kissed...

Her eyes darted back and forth, finally resting on a silhouette behind Sasuke.
Squinting slightly, Sakura could make out a figure of someone standing in one of the large windows of the building; and judging by the person's posture, she could tell that it was Gaara.

Sasuke followed her eye line and soon found Gaara himself.

Letting out an unfriendly irritated laugh, Sasuke said, "So he's still here…I thought he would have been long gone by now."

Her anger resurfaced as she glared hard at Sasuke.

"Do you know anything about that guy?" Sasuke asked, motioning towards the window that Gaara was standing in.

Smiling slightly she decided to tell Sasuke the truth, "Only a little."

"Yeah, well he's dangerous." Sasuke warned her. "If I were you, I wouldn't find myself in a room alone with him. But don't worry, I'll protect you."
And with that, he took her hands between his two hands and squeezed them gently for a few seconds.
Letting them go, he waved her goodbye and left her standing next to her car.

Wiping her hand on her shirt, Sakura returned her gaze to the window and saw as Gaara walked out of sight when he saw that Sasuke was no longer near her.

"No thanks Sasuke," Sakura said under her breath, "I already have someone watching over me…"

Opening her car door, she got in and drove hurriedly out of the driveway and headed home.


The next morning, Sakura found herself arriving at the hospital extra early.
For some reason she couldn't wait to see Gaara and see what else the day would bring her.

Maybe he'll kiss me again… she thought as she walked to his room.

She knocked and walked into his room letting out a cheerful, "Good morning".

He was standing in the middle of the room, slouched over with his hands in his pockets.
The serious look on his face immediately made Sakura stop her advance on him and wiped the smile from her face completely.

"Gaara…" she said attentively. "What's wrong?"

He continued to glare at her, never saying a word.

Taking a step forward, her heart sank when he took a step back.
Halting her advance, she looked around the room for any sign of what could have happened to make him so standoffish to her once again.

Nothing stood out.
In fact, the only new addition to his room was the Edgar Allan Poe book that she had let him borrow.

Deciding that cornering him would be the best course of action, she took four strong steps forward, and he found himself up against he wall as he took the same amount of steps back.

Dropping his gaze to the floor, he leaned against the wall avoiding her completely.

"Hey…" she said as she reached out to brush the hair out of his eyes.
But before her hand could even touch him, his hand shot out and grabbed her roughly by the wrist.

"Don't." he said as he squeezed her wrist to get his warning across.

Sighing, she let her arm go slack.
When he felt the tension rush out of her muscles, Gaara dropped her arm and continued to avoid her as he folded his arms in front of him.

"Why won't you let me touch you now?" she asked.
She was so confused by everything…she decided to throw caution to the wind and get to the bottom of everything.

His cold gaze drifted to her hand and then up to her eyes as he said, "He touched you."

Completely forgetting about her little conversation with Sasuke the previous night, Sakura asked, "Who did?"

But he only stared harder at her.

"Gaara," she said, "no one touched me."

"I saw it."

His silhouette immediately popped into her mind and she remembered that Sasuke had grabbed her hands before he left.

Shaking her head at Gaara, she clambered for words, "Gaara…it's not like that…he grabbed me. I didn't want him to, but he did anyways and…"

Gaara huffed at her as he shifted slightly against the wall.

His eyes drifted to her once again and traveled over her.
This time Sakura felt a heated blush creep to her face at his concentrated gaze.

His gaze rested on her arms and cut hand as he said, "I hurt you."

Her eyes moved to his neck and noticed a thin red line from where she had pressed the scalpel blade too hard, "Not any more then I hurt you." she pointed out to him.

He nodded slightly and then side-stepped around her, avoiding any contact that might happen during the move away from her.
She followed him with her eyes as he returned to his bed and sat down on it. Opening up to the middle of the book, he started to read, completely ignoring the fact that she was there.

Wanting to draw Gaara's attention away from Sasuke and the interaction she had had with him, she walked over to the bed and sat down next to him, "So do you like Poe so far?" she asked.

Gaara simply nodded at her.

I need to think of something else…she thought. Something that requires more than a one word answer.

"I've always liked Poe," she tried. "My favorite story is probably Eleonora…what's your favorite?"

Gaara only shrugged in response.

Sakura fidgeted where she sat and did not like the distance that was quickly growing between them.

Maybe if I just address the topic that we're both avoiding he'll come back around…she thought.

"Gaara…" she asked quietly as she stared at her hands, silently wondering if cutting them off would bring Gaara closer to her since she would have had removed the parts that Sasuke had touched. "You do know that Sasuke is back for good, right?"

Gaara stiffened next to her, his grasp on the hardcover book tightening.

"You also know that I have taken full responsibility for you and your actions off of Nembutal…"

Gaara's gaze lifted from the book to her.

"Tsunade told me what happened between the two of you last time," Sakura continued. "So I'm reminding you that my career rests in your hands…I'm asking you to control yourself."

Gaara huffed at her and said, "It's not my fault that you put too much trust in people."

"Gaara…please." Sakura said as she scooted closer to him.

Noticing her move closer to him, he eyed her wearily but didn't move away.

"I don't make promises."

"Do it just this once." she said as she lightly touched his arm. "For me."

Gaara stared at the offending hand on his arm.
Tightening his jaw and exhaling heavily, he nodded in agreement, and then returned to reading his book.

Sighing in relief, Sakura leaned in closer to him and whispered, "I know how you feel Gaara…I don't like Sasuke either."

Gaara's eyes widened dangerously as he hissed, "You have no idea how I feel."

Not good… Sakura's inner self warned her.

"You don't know what it's been like for me. You don't know what it's like to live your life confined behind four walls while the world outside passes you by, forgetting that you even exist…"

"Gaara…I…" Sakura stuttered as she reached out to calm him down.

"Don't." he said as he jumped up from where he was sitting.
Book still in hand, he walked to the door, pausing only to turn around and look at Sakura once more.

Opening his mouth to say something else, he only shook his head side to side and said, "Forget it" and threw the book onto the floor and left his room.

When Sakura no longer heard his footsteps in the hallway, she slowly stood up and picked the book up off of the floor.

It had fallen open to a random page that had a verse underlined in black pen.

That's odd… Sakura thought, I never underlined anything in this book.

Sitting back down on his bed, she read the underlined verse.
She recognized the line from Eleonora, it read: I was awakened from a slumber like unto the slumber of death by the pressing of spiritual lips upon mine own.

The book slipped from Sakura's hands and once again hit the floor as the message of the verse hit her.

Did he underline that? she thought to herself. He must have…he's the only other person who's ever read this book…but why did he underline it? Is he referring to OUR kiss?

Sakura's head spun until she was dizzy.
She needed answers from him, and she needed them now.

Stumbling out of his room, she occasionally reached out to touch the walls to steady herself as she searched everywhere for Gaara.
But just like Tsunade had told her before, when Gaara doesn't want to be found, you don't stand a chance in hell in finding him.

As time went on, she was becoming more and more desperate.
She was walking frantically through the hallways looking for him, occasionally bumping into patients. Some just slouched away from her, but one patient started to throw a fit and two strong and firm hands grasped onto her shoulders and pushed her down into a dusty chair.
Sasuke entered into her vision as he rushed forward to get the flailing patient away from her.
With a quick showing of dominance from Sasuke, the patient shrank away and Sasuke returned his attention back to Sakura.

"Are you alright?" she heard him ask.

Sakura collapsed in on herself so that he didn't get a chance to touch her.

"Hey…" he said as he stood over here. "Didn't you hear me? I asked if you were okay…"

Sakura held her head in her hands as she started to hear the patients walk towards the cafeteria for lunch.

"Come on." Sasuke said, offering her his hand. "Let's get you something to eat. You look like you're going to pass out."

Sakura glared at her hand and stood up without his help.
Piecing back together her wits, she firmly walked by him and headed to the cafeteria with a smirking Sasuke close behind her.

Sakura decided to copy Gaara and let silence develop between her and Sasuke. She didn't say one word to him as they stood in line for their food.
Eventually it was Sasuke who broke the silence.

"So did you hear that Tsunade has assigned another doctor to help that Gaara freak? I don't know why that woman won't give up already. It's obvious that there's no hope for him."

Sakura gripped her lunch tray tightly.
Each word that he spoke sent hot trails of ire through her veins.

Staring straight ahead of her, she clenched her jaw and resolved not to lash out at him in front of hundreds of witnesses.

After getting her food, she walked briskly to a table, hoping that Sasuke wouldn't follow her.
Much to her dismay, he was close on her heels.

"I mean…I don't know who this doctor is, but whoever it is they don't stand a chance. They'll just quit in the end like all the rest did. You know why all the other doctors quit don't you?"

Sakura shook her head side to side while trying to find a way to get rid of the leech.

"Because they all realized that he is beyond saving. It's people like him that make me wish that euthanasia was legal for humans as well…"

Sakura's anger won out against her self-control.

Turning around sharply, she pretended to run into Sasuke while dumping all of the contents of her lunch tray onto him.

Sasuke was now one big, sticky, hot, goopy mess in the middle of the cafeteria.
All of the patients around them were laughing and pointing like little children.

Sakura couldn't help the satisfied smile that crept onto her face as she said in a sweet voice, "Oh…I'm sorry Sasuke…I didn't think you were that close behind me."

Sasuke gave her a cold stare that almost matched Gaara's.

She stepped around him and headed for the cafeteria exit.
Passing Tsunade on the way out, she informed her boss that he was going home early.
Not giving Tsunade a chance to agree or disagree to her statement, she headed down the halls and out of the doors to her car.

Looking around as she unlocked her car door she noticed two figures standing by the fence once again.
Recognizing them as the two people from before, she walked to them calling out to get their attention.

The girl recognized her first and pulled on the man's sleeve to get his attention.
Seeing Sakura coming towards them, they both turned and started to retreat.

"Wait!" Sakura called out as she started to run. "Please! Wait! I have a question about Gaara!"

The two didn't even pause, they only quickened their pace.

"Please! I'm his doctor! If you two would only talk to me I might be able to get him out of here!"

The woman stopped.
Reaching out, she grabbed onto the man's arm next to her which caused him to turn around sharply and stare at her. His intense look lessened slightly and then traveled to Sakura.

The woman turned around as well and Sakura almost gasped when she noticed the resemblance of the two people in front of her compared to Gaara.

"You said that you can help him…" The woman spoke.

Sakura stepped towards them and nodded, "I'm sure I can."

"And you can get him out of there?" the woman persisted.

Sakura nodded again.

The woman looked up at the man standing behind her and he nodded at her as he closed his eyes in thought.

The woman took out a pen from one of her coat pockets and grabbed Sakura's hand swiftly.
Sakura gasped at the sudden movement but didn't pull away from the woman's harsh grasp.

Quickly writing down a phone number, the woman said, "Call that number and we'll set up a time to talk face to face."

Then the pair turned around and started to walk away again.

"Wait!" Sakura called after them. "What are your names?"

Without turning around, the woman gave Sakura the answer to her question. "I'm Temari, and this is my brother Kankurou. We're Gaara's siblings."

Sakura's heart stopped beating for a few seconds at the realization of what kind of information these two could possibly give to her.

His siblings…she thought as the cold December wind whipped around her.