Everything was incoherent after that.

Buzzing here, a few familiar voices here, and maybe groups of colors together that seemed to give away familiar figures, but nothing made complete sense when he closed his eyes.

If there was anything that made any remote sense, it was the fact that it was all too much, at least the pain was. Then again, he had been in pain for a while, so there was nothing new about that. Perhaps the aspect that was remotely new was the idea of all the pain finally catching up to him, and not in a good way either.

Then again, since when was pain ever good? Isn't that what pain was - to emphasize to the body that it was bad?

He had tried to hide it for sometime now, since his thoughts were more about the feelings of others than himself, but even the Dragon Warrior had a limit. Po came to the conclusion that he had just met his in a way he really had hoped to avoid.

Then again, there he was, on the bed and only coming to realize that he was there on the account of the rays of light in the room.

Everything was a lot more quiet than he remembered, or perhaps it was the ringing in his ears - it was still a relief on the account of the headache that he realized was there.

He groaned on the account of his pain and the fact that it had been exposed. He was hoping to deal with it later, but since his body refused otherwise, Po guessed it couldn't be ignored.

"Po?"

The voice was gentle, but he recognized it anyway: it was Tigress.

"Hey," Po said gently, putting his paw onto his face, which hadn't quite accepted the light yet.

That's right - Tigress was there when he passed out.

"Are you alright?"

"No."

Po really didn't expect her to do this, but after a short moment of silence, Tigress reached for his paw that was covering his face so she could have eye contact with her friend.

"Where does it hurt?"

She needed to look into his eyes - not out of sentimental value, but to make sure he wasn't lying to her.

"Just my lower rib," Po admitted, remembering all too well what had happened prior to all of this when he tried to keep secrets from her before, "I think it broke again, but I'm not sure."

Although he didn't feel completely there, he understood why Tigress raised both of her paws to him: to tell him without words what she was about to do. True, she couldn't feel anything in her paws, but that didn't mean she didn't have enough control over her own strength to not be gentle. She had silently warned Po that she was going to check his wound (actually, check it again since it had been looked over in his mental absence), but she wanted him to be aware of it before she did so.

The hiss of pain that came from the panda was all she needed to hear.

She knew that while he was passed out, he had a broken rib, but she had asked anyway for something else altogether - it was a matter of trust and to see how he was coming along. Aside from that, there was only one other thing she came here for, and that was out of an order from Master Shifu.

"Just stay still," she ordered gently, "I'm going to patch up your rib again, okay?"

The panda only nodded.

As she lifted his head and heard another grunt, she figured that because Po had ignored his own injury, it not only wasn't healing properly in the first place, but he was already in a pretty weak state.

After all, he was shot by a canon, with nothing to protect him but a pot that was designed for cooking, not battle.

She closed her eyes for a minute, pushing down the memory of the ordeal and her feelings about the matter before she was able to get Po to sit up (or perhaps before her emotions dominated her ability to control them - something neither of them needed), taking the wrappings beside her to begin her work of carefully putting the white strips around the panda's torso.

Tigress also didn't want to tell him that his rib had snapped outside of his body before piercing his lung. She was in here to patch up his wounds a second time because the first wrappings already had their fair share of blood. Her senses were keen, which in this present case was something she loathed - it reminded her of what had just happened and other things that kept flashing in the back of her mind. She did her best to follow through them, though.

He didn't argue - if he did, she would have given it to him. Then again, it's not like he wanted to argue with her - he was too busy trying to calm his heart that was just beating way too fast. To make it worse, the one responsible for it was so close that she could practically hear his heartbeat, which made the situation all the more embarrassing.

"Po," Tigress said flatly, "You can breathe around me."

He sighed, unaware that he had stopped breathing in the first place.

"Sorry," he said, "I'm... just thinking."

"About what?"

"This rib... will I be able to help you guys with the memorial?"

"I wouldn't count on it, but you shouldn't worry about that anymore. You've inspired so many people already that it will be finished within a few days."

"But I want to help, Tigress."

"Then 'help' by putting our minds at ease with your condition. I don't think any one of us would want you getting hurt trying to remember a master. Besides, it would make the people feel worse than they actually are if something happened to you while you were being reckless in making this monument.
They have their family to mourn - don't make it worse for them by trying to hide your injuries."

Po frowned and looked away as Tigress carefully put the final knot in her work, looking at Po for a minute before turning his head back to her in a gentle manner, her paw not leaving his face as they looked eye to eye.

"You already scared me once when you refused to stay put in Gongmen Jail - please don't do it again."

His eyes widened on the account of her remark. Did she really say that she was scared for him? He was the Dragon Warrior - of course he could take care of himself. Then again, Po knew why Tigress practically forced him to stay there - she knew his head would not be focused on the mission, but to learn more about his past. If it were Tigress, perhaps she would feel the same way too - that's exactly why the hardcore did understand.

It was those same feelings that she knew would get Po killed, and feelings of her own rang true when she said she couldn't see him get killed.

After all, she said please - a word she didn't even use then, but she still meant her words.

Looking down for a minute, Tigress removed her paw from Po's face, closing her eyes as she got up.

"Stay put," she practically ordered, "I'll go tell Shifu you're awake and I'll make you some tea for the pain."

Po couldn't take his eyes off of the tiger master as she made her way towards the tent's entrance. Before she opened the one way out, she stopped for a second to look at Po, giving him a gentle smile.

"Oh, and by the way... I know you want to follow your heart, Po," Tigress said, "But try to think about the hearts of others this time, okay?"

Without another word to the panda master, Tigress took her leave, leaving the panda master both surprised and confused.

He really wanted to say something, but nothing came out. Now that she was gone, there was no point saying it.

With a heavy sigh, he laid back down, looking up at the ceiling of the tent before another groan left his lips.

"Ouch..."

Artist's Comments

Yup, it was bad... perhaps rather graphic...

Don't worry, I'm not going to torture Po like that anymore - at least with this fiction.

Well, maybe not physically.

You'll have to see what I mean when you get to the next chapter.