Chapter 7

Brittle.

She felt brittle. Everything about her could break at any moment. Brittle eyes, brittle smile as she greeted her brothers, greeted friends in the office. She felt she gripped the brush too tightly as she signed in on the register and that it too, would break.

Ushered in to Gaara's private office she was relieved when the door shut behind her and she was in the room with only her two brothers. And Baki. Baki, bless him, had come because she had asked him to.

"Temari, I won't deny that I'm glad to see you but I am puzzled as to why you have returned so early?" Gaara started.

"Yeah, sis, what's up?" Kankuro finished.

"I thought I taught you better manners than this!" Baki interrupted jovially, taking the three of them back to their childhood. Hospitality in the desert was paramount. One did not pester guests immediately upon their arrival.

Relief washed over Temari. She might just be able to get through this, or at least this evening with his help.

"She's not a guest," Kankuro grumbled, "she's Temari."

"Yeah," she snapped back in her best big-sisterish voice. "And I'm tired."

Gaara gave a little laugh then and called for refreshments. The four of them sank down onto the sofa and a couple of chairs in the Kazekage office and engaged in general conversation catching up on details of life in both Suna and Konoha. There was strong tea and sweet almond cakes and Temari genuinely enjoyed the light topics and seeing her brothers again after her absence. They actually talked longer than she realized and she caught herself stifling a yawn.

Standing and stretching knotted muscles she said, "I think I'll call it a night."

Baki rose to join her, "I'll see you to your rooms, I'm tired myself this evening."

With that the two of them bid the two brothers goodnight.

After they left Gaara and Kankuro exchanged worried looks.

"What is up?" Kankuro shook his head. "I've never seen Temari so uptight before. She couldn't wait to get out of here."

Gaara looked at a sheaf of papers on his desk. "She put in for a transfer to the jonin commander's staff here but I cannot imagine she would be nervous about assuming any of the duties that station would require."

The two looked at each other and then Kankuro stated the rather obvious. "I guess we'll have to see if Baki has anything else to tell us tomorrow."

Back in her apartments she sank onto her own sofa and motioned for Baki to join her. He just stood with his arms crossed studying her. "Temari, are you going to tell me what this is about? Or do we wait until we're back in the desert?"

Most people might consider him an imposing figure but they both knew she had had him wrapped around her little finger since she could walk. He would stay and listen or he would wait as long as she needed. And no one not even her brothers would disturb them.

"I...do you remember the night Gaara was born?" she husked, turning away from him.

Baki's heart sank. He had been afraid of this. His memory was yanked back to that hideous night twenty years ago. The night Karura died. The night she was butchered he thought bitterly.

He had been 18, one of Karura's personal guards and the one she had specifically assigned to guard her children, Temari and Kankuro. She'd actually chosen him when he was 15 and Temari was born. He'd been with the two Sand Siblings ever since and was looking forward to adding to his charges, anticipating the birth of the Kazekage's third child almost as much as Karura did herself.

But that night he had not had charge of the children. Another attendant was outside the nursery and he had been one of guards outside Karura's birthing room. The night had been a scene straight from hell. He remembered the shrieks of Shukaku and Karura's screams. The wind outside was violent and howling, too, Chiyo barking orders and others trying to do the sealing.

And then there was silence. Sudden cessation of all sound. It was ominous and eerie, no healthy cry of a newborn. Chiyo had come out then followed by the other attendants, proudly displaying their new jinchuuriki. Baki realized they had left Karura unattended and feared the only reason was that she no longer needed an attendant. Slipping back into the room he saw to his dismay he was right. The bitch Chiyo hadn't even had the decency to cover his beloved mistress's body. Looking away from the scene in disgust he had let his gaze fall to the floor and he saw the most horrifying image of the night.

Tiny footprints.

Tiny footprints trailed across the floor. With a sinking feeling in his heart he had realized that three year old Temari had snuck away from the nursery and slipped passed them all hoping to see her new baby brother. And there was a trail of tiny footprints where she had fled the room through puddles of her own mother's blood that he would never forget.

He sank to his knees then in front of her and she turned to him with tears welling up in her eyes. "I don't want to die like she did."

"Temari," he said gently, his gruff voice deep and kind, "Temari, what happened...it won't happen to you."

"I can't stop thinking about it. I can't, " she shook her head and leaned against him. Something inside her broke and she sobbed against his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry.

He held her as if he was never letting go of her. The same way he had held her twenty years ago. He had dashed to the nursery then to find the guard asleep at the door and struck him as he swept into the room like an avenging angel. The night nurse was asleep and he startled her awake and tore the place apart looking for the two of them. He finally found them, Temari had Kankuro behind her in a corner, shielding his body with her own tiny one. He had scooped them both up, Kankuro began crying from the sheer pandemonium of the night but Temari remained tense and rigid in his arms.

She was spent against him now, his tunic wet with her tears. "Do I need to ask?" he whispered against her.

"I'm pregnant," she sighed. "It's Shikamaru's."

Baki had always liked Shikamaru but now he idly wondered if he should kill that Nara boy. Instead he asked, "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know," she mumbled against him. "I don't know."