Hatori finds something worrying. I took a brief reference from the Anime and expanded it a little. As far as I know, all the medicine I describe is accurate. --------------

"You allright?"

"Oh I'm fine just-" Tohru stopped herself from babbling and gasped for air, "Yes Doctor Soma!"

"No need for formalities, Tohru-kun. I am not angry."

"Okeh........."

She walked over to the table slowly and got onto it. Ha'ri had walked over to the desk and had gotten out a little black case. She was wearing a loose undershirt over a bra, and plain underpants. They were all white, and though they fit, they seemed young for her age. Tohru nervously crossed her arms around her ribs. Hatori came back with his stethoscope and glasses on. He walked up and breathed on the listening end before putting it on her chest to listen to her heart.

"Breathe normally," he said and Tohru did. Hatori blinked, his face flickering for a brief second. Tohru thought of a pebble being thrown into a deep pond, sending out little waves that faded before they reached the shore. She wondered why. He went behind her and listened to her lungs.

"Breathe deeply, all the way in and out," He listened to the other side.

"Do you feel okeh?"

"Yes, I feel fine. Is something wrong?"

"Well, your lungs sound a little off. Your heart sounded funny for a moment, a little muffled. It was your breathing is what's making the noise, not your heart, however. Do you run as fast as everyone or have trouble breathing? Do you get colds allot?"

"No, I do well running, but I do get colds a couple times a year."

"Anyone else in your family have lung trouble?"

"Yes........ my Dad."

"How often is he ill?"

"He died. When I was little."

"Oh. Please excuse me. I did not know. I........." he reached back a little into himself, to try and explain his callousness, "My father..... was in a position in the family that gave me equal standing with everyone else, in relation to him. So he was alive at your age, but I was never cared for by him. It does not seem as unusual to me as it should, that a father would not do that for a child. I spoke from that."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess that not having a dad at all, dead or alive, can be hard. Mom said Dad would be there with me if he could. But his the memory is always with me. Mom's gone and Grampa's so old........ so it's my job to keep it alive. It's a sad thing for me, but not because it hurts, but because there's so little I have that he left behind. I don't remember much, but what I do is wonderful. Carrying that with me is a comfort, even if it's heartbreaking to know I can't ever have anything quite like it again. Maybe that could help with you too."

"I......... suppose it is not a good thing for a child. However, his memory is not with me, though I too must keep it......... " he corrected himself, "I run into it often."

Tohru didn't know what to say to that, "O-oh? I....... well, ummm.... Dad died from lung trouble. He got pneumonia after a long cold. It never really made sense to me, how something so little could kill someone. But nothing that happens really is little, is it? Not when right now is all you really have, ne? That's why I always try my hardest, and never regret what I have now! If I try to go back and say 'I should have done this' then I know I wouldn't have the joy I have now, right at my fingertips."

Tohru smiled a little, but then she remembered what he had said and gasped, "Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell you all that! Too much information, right? Please forgive me!"

"No, it was fine. It was.... relevant to know how that he died form that. I was not strictly supposed to say you what I said either. Your lungs are a little weak. I'm going to continue, but I'll most likely give you antibiotics, and come to Shigure's to check you out in a week."

Tohru tried not to think of the money, and nodded.

He looked in her right ear, and when he gently brushed her hair out of the way to look in her left, he saw the scratch.

"Did you get that coming down from the tree?" he said running a finger down the swollen abrasion. She gasped a little, so he stopped.

Hatori bent his legs until he was level with her neck, and started examining the sides with both hands. He felt around it with the tips of his fingers, moving them in a sort of firm tickling motion. He was gentle and it didn't hurt. It was strangely intimate. Hatori took his glasses off and moved his face was in close so he could see. Tohru could feel his breath on the side of her neck, and she felt a shiver go down to the base of her spine. If Hatori noticed, he didn't show it.

"N-n-o, it happened yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"Yes, b-before dinner. I brushed against a twig."

He stood up again, "What kind?"

"Of tree? I don't really know. Why......?"

"If this happened yesterday, it should have clotted better. It's seeping and very swollen. I think, since it happened such a long while ago, it may have even gotten deeper because of this...... large amount of swelling."

It was over a centimeter thick, and it was two inches long. It was bleeding a little, especially at the sides. The cut was so swollen it was tearing itself open, which would be more painful than she let on. It was definitely worrying, but his face stayed straight as always. He got out some cotton swabs, peroxide, tweezers and bandages, and some sort of gel she didn't recognize.

"What's that?" she said as he started with the peroxide.

"It's a topical antihistamine, which I think will help a great deal." "Oh......... what does it do?"

He looked up at her, looking surprised for a moment, then blank. _Pond again_, Tohru thought, but ignored it. She thought the oddest things, sometimes.

"It's a medicine people take for allergic reactions, like for pollen or mild bee stings. This goes only on the skin, which is just as well. They do not bother to keep topical medicine form being offensive to the taste or smell."

He wasn't lying. He applied a very little of the stinky medicine to the length of the scratch, and then put on the bandage. Her face lit up.

"Oh, that feels almost nice! I didn't know it would work so quickly."

"It has a pain killer and something to make it feel cool as well. So if it isn't an allergic reaction going on, at least it won't be painful. Do you know what you're allergic to? Just in general?"

"Oh, I'm not to anything, I don't think,"

He took her file off his desk, and flipped through the papers, apparently not finding what he was looking for, "Hmmm....... after I finish this, and give you a couple of shots, I'd like to do some tests."

"Tests?" said Tohru

"Only one now after the basic checkup is done, and maybe more depending on what I find." Hatori replied.

"Okeh. You're the doctor, right?"

_More money_, she thought, _more work. I'll pay it off. I'll just not buy anything and give him as much as I can._