Hello. Third chapter.

Disclaimers: 1. Yes, I am channeling my medical clerk self through this story, sorry. 2. I own this story and my wasted time, but nothing else related to Samurai 7. 3. He stays a pronoun, I'm really sorry, but that's the way it goes. As I explained, the slight depersonalization is what keeps me sane enough to keep up this story.

Well, now. He gets to talk, after all.

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She took out a small flashlight and peeled open his eyelids. She swung the light over his eyes. The pupils were reacting to the light. His brain, ultimately, was still fine. Just taking some time to heal fully. She placed a fist over his breastbone, and pressed. He groaned for a bit, opened his eyes, then closed them again, like nothing happened. Still stuporous. Still unconscious, very slowly rising out of it. It will take a while yet, she sighed.

The fever had already gone, thankfully. A combination of antibiotics, fever medicine, and diligent if unwilling sponge baths had done its work. A few bags of blood into his system had also added color to his face. But he was still unresponsive and unconscious. A frustrating situation. He was stable, but not out of danger. Besides, the medical officer said there were still a few operations to do to him yet.

It was getting VERY boring having to be with the young man. It was now the second day. Two days of almost no one to talk to except her own thoughts and her own conscience. She was used to being left alone with her thoughts, but it was terrible to have the object of her thoughts in front of her. Completely under her power, helpless if she tried to take his life, ungrateful if she tried to save his life.

Mizuki took over for her, for about five hours, while she slept. It was during the day, anyway, when the others visited and other assistants helped with things about his care that she did not know how to do.

He did not leave her thoughts, even in her dreams.

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He walked beside her, behind everyone else, back to the village. He kept giving her angry glances.

It was terrible how he made it so simple. It was a case of betrayal, and treason was punishable by death. It did not matter if she did it not out of malice, merely because she wanted to save her sister. Treason was punishable by death.

He had waited for the other samurai to walk inside the hut where Katsushiro-sama still was. Then he grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to himself.

"I'm keeping an eye on you, girl," he told her. "If ever I see you alone sending off a messenger lizard, I don't care if you're a woman…I'll drive a dagger through you."

But she saw his eyes. They were scared. His lips were shaking as he said those words. She saw cold sweat somewhat hidden under the leather cap. And she felt the hand that held her grow cold and clammy.

"My name is Honoka," she challenged, "and I will appreciate it if you call me as such, SIR."

He released his iron grip. "Tough lady," he wiped the sweat off his forehead and grinned. "Is that why you're not married yet?"

She did not look at him. "Marriage is not on my mind right now. I want to get my sister back safe and sound. That is my highest priority now. I will do anything to have that happen."

"Yeah, we've seen it, haven't we?" he said.

She bowed her head.

"I saw you with Gorobei-dono last night," he said with an icy smile.

"What is it to you, sir?" she faced him and answered.

"Just answer me one thing," he looked far up, at the stalactites above them. "Were you gathering information then? Against us, I mean?"

"No, on my honor," she replied. "I just wanted to talk. He let me talk. I am grateful."

"Look at me and tell me that."

She looked at him fully in the eyes, and repeated. "I just wanted to talk, he let me talk. That is all."

"Okay. I believe you."

"Why?"

"The eyes. The face. The same one you gave Kanbei-sama. Finally you were telling the whole truth."

"How do you know that?" she asked.

He bowed his head as he walked away. "Takes one to know one."

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She never understood what he meant by that, and she never got a chance to ask.

She pressed on the breastbone again. But unlike before, a slight touch made him open his eyes at her.

"Hello," she greeted.

The eyes stayed open.

"I don't know what to say," she said. "Anything hurting?"

He drifted off to sleep again.

She sighed. "At least that's better than before."

It was hard to recall this half-dead, half-reactive person before her was the same person. With him like that, it did not feel right, or even worth while, to inflict punishment he would not remember, to cause pain he would not feel.

She whacked her forehead. Why did she feel like this about him? She was not normally so sadistic against any person, even those who had wronged her. She did not feel like this against the Nobuseri who razed her village, or those who took away her sister.

Maybe it was because he was reachable, he was near, and he was vulnerable. It took everything she had in her soul not to take advantage of that. Maybe that was why she was angry. She was angry at herself.

She thought like this for the next few hours, while she checked him every hour, flashing the small light through his eyes, pressing his breastbone and waiting for a response.

She remembered how sad and how bitter he looked that night, that night he mentioned, when he saw her talking with Gorobei-sama. He did not mean to intrude, from the looks of things. He just ran into them while strolling through the village that night. What was he thinking then? Did he already suspect her of sending the messages that early, ahead of everyone else? Did he see them by mistake? What did he feel about her then? There was no way of knowing.

It did send her mind drifting off to Gorobei-sama again. He accepted her without reservation, and still accepted her without malice even after they found out about her spying. And it was true what she said. They just talked together, compared stories of life as a wandering entertainer, and of life as a farmer in a faraway village. They exchanged stories of the impact of the war on their lives. She was unable to tell him about her sister then, because that was when the redhaired samurai found them sitting together under a sap tree.

She sniffed a little, and shed a few tears. Gorobei-sama should not have died. It was not his time yet. He had wanted to return to visit her after the battle was over.

As she wiped the tears, she looked down at her redhaired patient. He had opened his eyes again.

"Hello," she greeted. "Do you feel alright?"

He nodded, weakly.

She was mildly surprised, already used to the drowsy responses. "Can you move your arms?"

He slowly, weakly, raised one hand, moved it around. Then the other hand. He kept looking at her.

"Do you…do you know where you are?"

He gave her a blank look. His eyes were beginning to droop again.

"Do you know…who I am?"

His eyes closed. He went back to sleep.

"You will eventually remember me," she whispered over him. "When that time comes…will you have forgiven me?"

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I'm glad that this story makes some kind of sense to you guys. I was rather afraid that the ventings of a medical clerk would be useless to anyone else. As usual, thanks for reading. See ya soon.