10.) Bandages and Blood
11
Stein watched as Maka entered the infirmary flanked by two fully grown adult cheetahs. The younger cheetah's torso wrapped in bandages.
"How are they?" The voice drew his attention away from the closed door as he looked to Spirit who was leaning against the wall a few feet away from where Maka had been crouched on the floor as she waited for Stein to finishing patching up her cousin and weapon partner.
Stein sighed and took a long drag from his cigarette before blowing it out. "Soul's surgery went fine and his wound stitched up perfectly. If it's taken care of right he won't even have a scar. But there was something else and I couldn't exactly take care of it."
"What do you mean?!" Spirit demanded and stepped away from the wall,but because of his aversion of Stein didn't step any closer than that. "Is Soul alright?! And what about Tsuna!?"
"The black blood, Ragnarok's blood, was in Soul's bloodstream. I couldn't remove it without knowing for sure that I got all of it." Stein sighed and seemed to age a bit before Spirit's eyes as the scientist leaned up against the hallway wall behind him.
"And Tsuna?" He tentatively asked, worried for his niece.
Stein removed the cancer stick from his lips and rubbed his face. "She's torn up bad. The holes in her shoulders were probably the least dangerous on her. The gashes on her face practically circle her eyes. If they had been a couple centimeters off from where they did hit she would be blind. The slash on her torso went from her neck all the way down. Any deeper than what it was and it would have gutted her completely and she would have died in moments after it happened. I closed her up and they'll scar whither they are taken care of properly or not. Her surgery wasn't anywhere near easy. I almost lost her to many times to be comfortable."
Spirit swallowed thickly.
"Right now I'm physically restraining myself from going back in there to hover around her. I need something to do..." Stein had mumbled to himself.
"You can go call Nana. I didn't want to call her until after the surgery until I knew if-" if I was going to be telling her her child was going to die or not. Went unspoken but it hung heavily in the air for both to clearly understand.
Stein nodded and pushed off the wall before turning without another glance and walking towards the school's payphones.
Spirit swallowed and leaned heavily against the wall. He had been worried for both teens but the news that he had almost come so close to loosing his niece forever hit him hard and made his knees want to give out. 'It's in the past she's okay now. That's all that matters. And all we can do while she recovers is to be there for her.' He frantically tells himself before his fist clenched and he sighed, forcefully releasing all the tension in his body with that one exhale.
Maka was sitting in between her weapon partner and her cousin. She was biting her lip as she looking from one to the other. Flash, the poor boy had been worried sick and in pain while waiting for Dr. Stein to finish the surgeries, had lain down on Tsuna's bed in the space between the unconscious girl's arm and body. While Dash had taken up a protective vigil over his brother and master, standing on the floor at the end of the bed facing Tsuna with one front paw on the bed.
Maka sighed and bowed her head as she took ahold of both of their hands. 'I'm so sorry. Both of you. You both got hurt trying to protect me. And I froze. I couldn't do anything as you both got hurt so badly.'
Maka looked over to Tsuna. There were bandages wrapping around her head covering her eyes and some of her nose. Dr. Stein had slipped a baggy white shirt onto Tsuna to give her some dignity. But underneath Maka could see more bandages wrapping around her starting at her neck and most likely extending far beneath the blanket laying over Tsuna. 'I'm so sorry cousin. I just sat by and watched you get torn into by that insane madwoman. I couldn't do anything.'
She looked over to Soul. He didn't have a shirt on by he was covered up by the bandages around his own torso and the blanket over him. His eyes were still closed and Maka knew that both her weapon partner and cousin would be out of it for a while. 'I'm so sorry Soul. I hesitated and panicked. I didn't know what to do because I didn't want you to get hurt but in doing so you did anyways. I'm so sorry.'
'This is all my fault!'
Suddenly the doors to the infirmary exploded inwards.
