Chapter Five

The man that had been formerly lying on the ground was now lifted up and carried over into the operating room that was sealed away in a corner of the house. The operation was a little difficult, because the bullet was lodged rather close to the heart, and on top of that, the coating that surrounded the bullet seemed to be kind of falling off. Black Jack had to be careful that he removed all the pieces of shrapnel as well as the bullet.

It was a long operation, and once they were finished, Black Jack was thoroughly sweating. Pinoko's willing eyes focused on him, helping him, but also at the same time, asking questions. Was Yukia going to be okay? Where was he?

As soon as they had finished, Black Jack went outside and started to distract the shady men in his living room while Pinoko grabbed a phone and dragged it with her into the bathroom. She locked the door and crouched down near the toilet, and dialed the number for the police.

"Hello?" Pinoko whispered into the phone. "I need police assistance."

She waited a moment, and then narrowed her eyes at the phone.

"Yeah, it's the doctor's house, of course. Look, please just—"

One of the men threw open the door, and gave her a nasty sharp toothed smile.

"Who are you on the phone with, girly?" he demanded, his eyes flashing.

He grabbed her, and smacked her roughly. Pinoko uttered no words, but allowed herself to be dragged out of the bathroom.

"Damn it," one of the men growled murderously, "that little bitch called the cops!"

"Quick! Get Ronny into the car!" another man yelled. "Let's not waste any time!"

Black Jack said nothing, and was solemnly silent, keeping his eyes trained on the ground.

Three men surrounded Ronny and picked him up and carried him out the door, while another man stayed behind and left a gun trained on Black Jack and Pinoko. Both were now more fearful than they were before. What if they somehow found Yukia?

"Damn it!" they heard someone roar.

The man who was in the house gave them a wary glare and then headed outside to investigate what the problem was.

"Who deflated the tires on our car?"

"I don't know!"

"We were watching them the whole time!"

And here, Black Jack grinned smugly, and took Pinoko's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Yukia ran alongside the path again, hurrying as fast as his small little legs could carry him. His chest was hurting—he hadn't ever run this hard in his life—and his heart was thumping so hard it was amazingly loud. In one hand, he grasped it—one of Black Jack's scalpels (Yeah it's probably pretty hard to cut open the tires with a scalpel, but hey, these are pretty high grade scalpels, and also this is fiction! Yay!)

He saw a small police cruiser then charging up the road, its lights flashing and horn blaring. Yukia stopped and the car halted as well. A police officer climbed out and confusedly looked at the boy.

"Whoa! Kid what are you doing?"

Yukia panted a little and then broke down in a hysterical, terrified little kid tantrum, bawling.

"Whoa, kid calm down!"

Three more police cruisers soon joined the lone officer and together they drove up and apprehended the criminals quite easily. An ambulance was also there, to rush the injured Ronny to a hospital (for when they moved him, his stitches ended up coming undone). After the investigation was said and done, the officer lead Yukia up to his parents. He was still bawling like a little baby.

"Excuse me, is this child yours?" the officer asked nervously, glancing down at the kid.

"Yukia!" Pinoko clutched at him and pulled him in for a hug. She gave him multiple kisses and wiped away his tears.

"Kid, why the heck are you crying?" Black Jack demanded gently. "We're fine!"

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't run away like you told me to!" he sobbed. "And I… I took one of your scalpels! I used it to pop the bad man's tires, and i-it broke!"

Black Jack narrowed his eyes and then ordered, "Yukia, hold out your hand."

Yukia stretched out and uncurled his fingers that had been closed into a fist. Bloody scratches and gashes were all over his hand. Pinoko even gasped. It looked awful.

"Your hand is cut really bad, Yukia. When exactly did you take it?"

"I took it… yesterday. I thought it looked cool. I was going to give it back, I swear!"

Black Jack released Yukia's hand and sort of glared at him coolly.

"Well I'm definitely not very happy. But let's go clean up your hand."

Black Jack was completely silent as he stitched up and cleaned and treated Yukia's hand. Yukia could detect the tension in the room—anyone could. It made him want to cry again. When his uncle yelled at him, it was better than the silence that Black Jack was giving him. He just wanted to be forgiven.

"I'm sorry, Papa," he called out when Black Jack had left the room.

Black Jack hadn't responded. He was unreadable at this moment. He remained this way for the rest of the day, and didn't really talk to Yukia. What happened to this afternoon when they had been playing? When they had been happy, and he had called him "Papa"?

"Is Papa not going to forgive me?" he woefully asked of Pinoko later that night.

Pinoko smiled sympathetically and tousled his hair affectionately. "Yukia, he's just mad. He's grumpy sometimes. You understand what you did was a bad thing. But you did a good thing too. You helped catch the bad men."

She continued, "You helped catch the bad men. I'm sure he's more angry by the fact that you were in danger than that you broke his scalpel."

Later on, she did address this issue with Black Jack. As she was climbing into their bed that night, she glanced over at him. He was already trying to sleep, and the light on his side had been turned off.

"You should forgive him," she told him, focusing her eyes on the ceiling. "He's really sad. And it's really hard on him when you do stuff like that."

"I will tomorrow."

"Kuro'o. He's not like me. He can't handle that 'wait for tomorrow' business. He needs acceptance." She smiled at him. "He's a lot like you."

"I wasn't that big of a crier when I was little."

"Don't call him a crybaby."

"I didn't."

"You wanted to," she returned, rolling her eyes. "And I bet you that you were. And when… when that situation happened with your mom… and your father, too… that made it worse. It made you cold. It made you distant."

And then you happened, he thought, blushing; hoping that she wouldn't see him. You happened and then I had to loosen up. I had to change. You couldn't live with someone like that.

"I was worried about him. He could have gotten caught. He could have stabbed the tire and the scalpel wouldn't have dug in and shot back at his face."

"It's nice to see that you're worried about him."

"He's our son, isn't he?"

She smiled and then kissed him sweetly. "'Night honey."

She shut off the light and then rolled onto her side and he snuggled up behind her as he usually did.