Chapter 4

Hakkai had been pacing and puttering nervously for about the past hour. The blood-flow from Gojyo's hand had been fairly easy to manually staunch, but he still wanted to heal it. Which he wouldn't be able to do until the man woke up, because there was no damn way he could heal anything properly when there was half a mirror embedded into various shreds of flesh. The legs had been less of a problem. A few shards of glass that had been easy to pull, and they were already fixed. The hand, however, presented a problem. At least until Gojyo decided to come back from whatever place he'd sent his mind.

Hakkai stopped his pacing to look intently at Gojyo again, eyes running over the man, looking for anything that he'd missed. It didn't make sense. Gojyo hadn't killed her, no matter what the redhead had said, panicked and scared on the bathroom floor. The gunshot wound in her chest had been obvious, as had the bolt embedded in her stomach. Gojyo didn't have either of those weapons. It had been clear who had ended the girl's life, and it wasn't the redhead curled around himself on the mattress. Which meant that it had to be figurative, and Gojyo wasn't one for the metaphorical.

There was also the matter of the man's arm, and the question as to what and why it was dyed blue. Hakkai had noticed how Gojyo had been keeping himself wrapped inside his coat, but had written it off as shock. Now, Hakkai wasn't so sure. His first thought had been towards infection, when he'd been trying to maneuver Gojyo onto the bed without slamming his hand into anything. But closer and frightened examination of the arm had revealed that it was only superficial coloring. Not that the knowledge relieved Hakkai all that much. Because it opened up a path to a whole new set of questions Gojyo would most likely skillfully or not-so-skillfully evade. Hakkai sighed, sitting down next to Gojyo on the bed, looking the redhead over carefully. He didn't seem to be dreaming, at least. Probably a blessing. Dreams in such states were never pleasant. Dreams in general weren't pleasant if you were one of the Sanzo-ikkou.

Cautiously, Hakkai reached out a hand, letting it rest a scant inch about Gojyo's face. "What happened?" he whispered, voice trembling. He needed to know. He couldn't make things better if he didn't know what was wrong.

In response, Gojyo shifted, groaning slightly, the movements of a man about to wake up, and Hakkai stood again, swiftly, not wanting to be too near the bed when he did.

Indeed, Gojyo sat with a start, staring at his hand curiously, processing information, deciding when and why he had hurt it. Hakkai watched his face carefully, for expression, for answer. The closest he got was the dying of Gojyo's eyes for the second time, and a stiffening when his hair fell from around his shoulders, in front of his face. As the red wave crossed his vision, Gojyo hissed, gluing his gaze to the blanket.

Hakkai didn't like it. "Welcome back," he said softly, walking the few steps towards the bed, reaching down to pull a leather tie from their luggage as he did so. Without another word, he rested on the bed behind Gojyo, pulling the other man's hair back, and tying it up in a tight ponytail. Task completed, he gestured to the table, where he'd laid a few things from their constantly re-stocked medical kit out. "Ready?"

"For what?" Gojyo asked numbly.

"Your hand. I can't heal it if we don't get the glass out, and I refuse to let you leave it like that."

"Oh."

Hakkai sighed, reaching down again to pick up a bottle of amber liquid from the floor by his feet. "Drink this."

Gojyo blinked, and finally smiled. Forced, but in the right humor, at least. "Are you condoning my getting drunk?"

"For this?" Hakkai replied, "I'd condone a lot of things."

Gojyo nodded once, and took a large sip from the bottle, swallowing easily. He balanced the bottle on the bed, looking at his hand oddly again. "It will heal completely?"

"Once I get all the glass out of it and can help it along a little, yes."

"Huh," he said, taking another deep gulp from the bottle, and wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

Hakkai smiled. Whether because he was trying to leaven the situation, or because he was trying to hide the pain he felt at Gojyo's words, because the "huh" actually sounded somewhat disappointed, although he wasn't sure. It certainly seemed to be a familiar tone, though. "I get to practice a lot."

"Yeah," Gojyo said, absentmindedly, and they sat in silence for a while, Gojyo keeping it from becoming uncomfortable by taking frequent sips from the bottle. When it was about half gone, he turned to look at Hakkai.

"Let's do this, Doctor."

Hakkai nodded. "Of course," he said, simultaneously standing and laying a hand on Gojyo's shoulder, pushing him back onto the bed. The redhead knotted his hand into the sheets, and turned his head away. They were well-rehearsed in this part, at least. All sorts of things had been embedded into them at one time or another, and most of them had needed to be pulled out. They usually didn't leave Hakkai with such a bad feeling in his stomach. He grabbed the first big piece with his fingers and yanked, watching Gojyo wince as he did.

One down. Hakkai sighed, and wracked his brain for the inane topic of the hour. Weather was out, since it was threatening rain. Gojyo had barely looked at the women downstairs, so he supposed they were out too. He briefly considered kittens, but couldn't think of anything to say about them.

Gojyo let out a sound that they would both ignore, because it was, of course, anything other than a whimper of pain.

"I ate while you were sleeping," Hakkai said. "I hope you won't be offended."

"As long as you didn't…eat more than your share." Gojyo latched onto the words, understanding that they were a weapon to block the pain.

"I suppose that would depend on what you think your share is. I ate about 3/4s, since I booked the room and got the food," Hakkai said. He'd moved onto tools now, for the smaller, more deeply buried pieces of glass, and small beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he tilted his head back and forth, looking for where the light refracted differently than on blood alone.

"Is that the way this works, now?" Gojyo replied, knuckles on his free hand turning white where he gripped the sheets. "Fine. Next time I order food, you're not getting anything at all."

Hakkai smirked, ignoring him. "Good. You have horrible ideas about what constitutes food, anyway."

"More tha….one culture sustains itself on beer, I'll have you know," Gojyo ground out, panting slightly.

"Done." Hakkai said, by way of reply, holding the mangled hand carefully away from the sheet. He settled himself back down on the mattress next to Gojyo and helping the redhead sit up, figuring he probably didn't want to feel prostrate and helpless any longer. "Now the easy part."

Gojyo said nothing, just let his head drop forward tiredly as Hakkai began healing him.