Had a couple of new reviews on this and it made me want to try my hand at another chappie. Urgh. Touch lost. This is what happens when you don't write for a long time! Serves me right.

Disclaimer: See Part 1

Was it pity?

Making the turn into her usual parking spot, Sakura heard her math book slide off the back seat and fall into the foot rest area. In a crumpled heap, she almost felt too bothered by it to pick it up. She knew it wasn't the fault of the text, which seemed practically remedial, but what seemed like madness for even being here.

She had to admit it to herself, once and for all, that she wasn't here to see Sasuke.

There had been times over the past couple months that she had come to visit and on the way to see Sasuke she had run in to…him. Sakura had told herself that it was purely coincidental, that she wasn't beholden to him even though he was demanding towards her and that this was just part of the empathy for patients that she needed to condition herself to for the future.

At a certain point even she could smell the wafts of poo coming off her reasoning.

He bored into her head. He had gotten in there like a disease, making her relive that first conversation weeks ago vividly. Shaking, after hearing his story, she had told herself that it wasn't real. People didn't do things like that to one another, let alone family. The graphic way he had told her about his experiences made her think he had made it up, but the way he would twitch a little or touch old scars made her question herself.

It had to be pity.

Sakura signed in with a nod to the new intern at the desk. Nurses and security people gave her a wave, and she stopped to talk to a nurse that she had spoken with before about drug interactions and they exchanged bad pharmaceutical jokes. Sakura felt like she wore her mood lightly, but inside the darkness festered. It had a name finally.

"Gaara."

"Sakura."

"So where were we?"

"I believe you were trying to convince me that you know how to tell a joke while losing at checkers."

Sakura actually smiled. "I haven't been losing, you keep rearranging the pieces when we leave off." She moved one of her black disks back to where she remembered it had been less than a week ago. At first she had thought she was going nuts, but after diagramming it out on a napkin secretly one visit and then comparing it the next she had realized his trick.

"I play with all my skills." He said simply, smile twitching up at the corner of his mouth.

With something like a pout, Sakura knew she couldn't let that go. "Cheating is not a skill."

"Yes it is. Soon you'll say 'lying is not a skill' like morality determines difficulty."

And they were off. Checkers, Go Fish, and one game of Jenga (that ended rather quickly when Gaara got frustrated with Sakura's surgeon precision with the pieces) later Sakura realized it was time to go. It worried her how easy it was to pass time here, as if this had become recreation instead of obligation. She should be spending time with people from her classes, but she knew a lot of people in her classes didn't want to spend time with the know-it-all that didn't need help from anyone. She had learned long ago that her brand of smart wasn't very approachable.

"You're feeling sorry for yourself." Gaara said simply, knocking her out of reverie.

"Why do you think you know what I'm thinking?" She was defensive, and she knew she had already erred because any time she showed weakness he would dive in on it. "You're not in my head." Trying to keep it light, she forced a laugh.

It had been a mistake to say, it opened her up to talking about her inner workings. After that first visit that had been too close, too personal, she had laid down the law. They could discuss "real" things as he asked but they weren't going to discuss "personal" things. None of his past trauma, none of her future worries. Distance was the key. If she could just create enough distance then they wouldn't be connected. That had been the idea anyway.

"I know more about you then you'd ever suspect. You're too transparent."

He was baiting her, watching her with those pale eyes of his and locking her down in that challenging stare that seemed to be his default expression. Even knowing she shouldn't, even knowing she was just giving him free reign to break all those rules she had carefully laid down, she went for it all the same.

"How am I transparent?" She was feeling the edge of anger in her that made her reckless. "Where the hell do you get off thinking you know me?"

Gaara wasn't exactly a stable person and being belligerent could have caused him to turn on her, but the false security she had gained in his presence made her reckless. He stood up slowly and circled around her as if studying her, firing off as he went:

"You're vain, you pretend not to be but I see you watching yourself in windows sometimes and you're often adjusting your bangs to make sure they look just so. Your compulsive need to have the last word annoys people around you and you know you do it but you can't stop yourself, like how right now you can't stand that I've already moved to another topic but you haven't gotten to respond about being vain."

He was right. Curse him. "That's just conjecture! Checking my hair in a window doesn't define me."

"You think you're smart to know all the rules and you think they'll protect you. Playing by the rules just makes you a target to people who don't." She was sputtering, trying to come up with something when he finished suddenly. "You spend a lot of time thinking about yourself and how noble you are, but you're just burying your bad thoughts in good intentions."

Insensible, already confused, she picked her purse up and slammed it on the table in front of them, making the Jenga tiles jump a little in the process. "I don't need to be here right now." She was packing up, retreating.

"No you don't." He was unperturbed. "So why do you keep coming back?"

"Screw you, Gaara."

"Why do you keep coming back, Sakura?" More insistent, voice low and dangerous he asked her again. As she began to move away his hand shot out, wrapping around her wrist far too tightly. It almost felt like she was being strangled she was so angry, her throat tight with rage.

The small bones in her pale wrist were screaming. "I will call for a nurse, so help me Gaara and they will lock you someplace deep and dark for a long time."

"Nothing I haven't seen before." He tightened his grip and she thought she felt her wrist begin to go numb. "Answer the question."

"Pity." She spat. "I feel bad for you and your sad life in here acting crazy because you had a bad childhood. You're still alive aren't you? Why can't you use some of that strength of will to get better instead of terrorizing people who care for you."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a large man in white run over and tackle Gaara to the ground. Someone must have spotted their little altercation even without her saying anything, though the purse thing hadn't been exactly subtle either. As they all fell to the floor and Sakura felt her wrist snap to an odd angle she knew before the pain flushed her system of other thoughts that she had lied to him and herself.

It wasn't pity.