(1.5 years ago)

Sakura stood at the foot of the hospital bed. A resident stood by her side, reading off of a clipboard to go over the specifics of the case. She tuned her out because she couldn't bear to listen to someone's pointless yammering at the moment. But bits and pieces would still break through to her, and she clenched her hands into fists in the pockets of her white lab coat to keep from knocking the file out of her hand because I know, you foolish girl, I don't need to hear this from you.

"33-year-old male… blunt trauma to the chest… multiple fractures… broken rib missed the lung by an inch…"

"Stop." Sakura ordered, voice so cold that it surprised the both of them. "I can take over from here. Thank you, Shizune." The woman nodded and didn't say anything. She closed the blinds and locked the door behind her as she left, giving the chief-in-the-running and her new patient some privacy.

"Sasuke," she breathed out shakily. It was the first time she'd acknowledged him as anything but another patient since he'd been rushed in over five hours ago. She had been paged and informed that her husband was in the hospital, but they didn't let her anywhere near his operating room. So she paced the long hallways of the East Wing, looking like she very much belonged in the fourth floor, the psych ward.

Her knees felt weak underneath her so she held onto the frame of his bed. She had lost her mother in a car accident. He had lost Itachi in a car accident. Sasuke… she couldn't lose him, too.

"You bastard," she hissed once she was by his side and she clutched his limp hand in her hands, tight enough to break his wrist. "I love you," she whimpered helplessly, hopelessly, pushing the hair out of his face and running her hand through his hair. Every time, she would fall asleep to the sound of his even breathing and steady heartbeat. Right then, she fell asleep to his strained breathing and a beeping noise that resonated through the room.

When she woke up, Naruto was there, sitting on the opposite side of the bed across from her. He had been watching his broken best friend, but shifted his gaze to her when she stirred. He looked at her like she was a ticking time bomb, like she was about to explode any second, and maybe he was right. Because she felt her lips tremble and all of a sudden, her resolve dissolved. He ran around Sasuke's hospital bed and enveloped her in his arms. "I'm so scared," she sobbed, holding onto the secure arm around her shoulders. She felt his chin right on top of hers. He was whispering calming, reassuring things, but she couldn't hear him because her vision kept moving from Sasuke's bruised and beaten form to her mother's blood seeping through her fingers as her little self tried to save her.

He's slipping through my fingers.

.

He was discharged after five days. He was working again the following week. And every moment that he wasn't within her reach, she kept seeing him in the hospital bed, eyes closed and chest barely rising, with only a beeping machine to let her know that he was still alive. All of a sudden, he felt… unreal. A pipe dream that's meant to vanish when she woke. She felt like she was going to lose him at any moment. But instead of holding onto him, she opted to protect herself.

Naruto told her not to worry. Ino asked her what was wrong. Mikoto and Fugaku called constantly to check on her and Sasuke. Minato and Kushina called constantly to reassure her that he was alive, that she was okay, that they were there if she needed anything. But all she could think about was how much she loved him and how much of her she had given to him, that if she lost him, she was sure she wouldn't have anything left.

"You look at me but it's like you don't see me," he told her once. He held her tight, as if he knew what she was afraid of and he was reassuring her that he's there, alive, breathing, hers…

You almost died on me, she thought, and I nearly lost my mind.