Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, its characters or storyline. This collection is mine, as are Duke, Dr. Leng, and McCallister. Enjoy!
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146 – Close Call
For justagirl8225
"And…" Dr. Leng tied off the last stitch, "…done."
Tifa felt herself deflate slightly with relief. It was over. She had managed to keep her eyes carefully averted from the gaping hole in Leon's side that Dr. Leng was stitching closed. The bullet had slammed into him just above the hip, torn through plenty of skin and muscle and tissue to render that side of his body useless, and exited out his back.
Miraculously, no organs had been damaged, but the nerves had been shredded and left raw in the wake of the shot. And Leon being the stubborn ass that he was, he had refused to be knocked out while Dr. Leng stitched him up. He had been half out of his mind with the pain and blood loss, but he'd been determined not to be put under. And there was no arguing with him when he was like that.
The shot for the local anesthesia had nearly made him pass out, and Tifa would be lying if she said she wasn't tempted to knock him out with a good fist to the back of the head just to spare him the following hour in which Dr. Leng slowly and meticulously stitched the hole closed like he was a ripped cardigan or something.
Even with the nerves deadened by the shot, the doctor had warned that he'd still feel the pressure and the movement as she pulled the ends of muscle and skin together. Between that horror above his hip and the blood transfusion hooked up to him and the oxygen mask Dr. Leng had strapped on him after he passed out twice: he looked like death warmed over.
"Thank God." Tifa exhaled, wiping her hand across her face.
Her other hand was where it had been for the past hour, locked in a vise around Leon's shoulder. He didn't say anything, looking more lucid now but not quite all there. His white knuckles were the only evidence of fear that he was letting out.
Dr. Leng set her tools aside and stood, stretching her back. "Those will hold until we take a look at him again in a few days. I want him to stay tonight for observation—"
"No." Leon grunted, jaw locked.
Dr. Leng looked flatly to Tifa, who stood and leaned into his line of sight. "You're staying." She said. "You got to make the last decision."
He exhaled harshly and swallowed, "M'fine. Want to go home."
"Impossible man." Dr. Leng shook her head, opening one of the thick gauze bandages to cover the stitching.
Tifa lifted a hand, "I'll do that. Thank you, Kya."
Dr. Leng sighed and looked to her, "We both know he has to stay here."
"I know." Tifa swallowed, "I know."
The older woman gave her a long look and then glanced to Leon. "If you so much as sit up and pop one of those stitches…I'll tie you to the gurney myself." She huffed and left.
As soon as the door closed, leaving them alone in the hospital room, Leon trembled and stared up at the ceiling. "I don't think she likes me."
"If a patient gave you as much trouble as we've given her over the last few months, you wouldn't like you either." Tifa snapped, taking up the gauze bandage that the doctor had left.
"Tifa—" He sighed in that 'I know you're pissed but can we move on?' way.
"No." Tifa shook her head, forcing herself to look at the red and angry wound as she prepared the bandage. "You nearly died, nearly gave me a heart attack, and nearly bled out. I saw you, you were swallowing the screams the entire time she was sewing you back together."
"I'm fine." He grimaced, tugging the mask from his face.
"Dammit, Leon." Tifa said, exhausted and drained from the whole experience.
They both fell quiet after that. Tifa clenched her jaw so hard her teeth started to ache as she carefully placed the bandage down, using as little pressure as possible to place the second one over the exit wound on his back. His body still tensed at the touch and she gently taped the ends down, withdrawing quickly.
The local would keep that part of his body senseless for a while longer, but the wound was located in such a place that he wouldn't be able to properly get up and move around without threatening to tear the stitches open. Satisfied with her bandaging job, she turned around and leaned against the table, facing the wall, her back turned toward him.
Stubborn…stubborn, stupid…ass…
"You're staying here in the hospital tonight." She said, the little quiver at the end of her statement betraying her. "And I'm staying too…Just to make sure…you don't get stupid."
"All right." He conceded, and she felt him lift a hand and touch her back. "I'm sorry."
Tifa didn't turn around, but let her hand drift back to his shoulder. "I know."
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147 - MacGyver It
For justagirl8225
"This looks like an interesting story." Tifa leaned into Leon's office.
Private McCallister started slightly, squatting against the wall to the left of Leon's desk. "Oh, Brig—"
"Is that a spatula?" Tifa lifted an eyebrow.
McCallister looked to the utensil in her hand. "…Yes."
Tifa stepped into the office, noted the lack of Leon, and looked back to his assistant. "And what, pray tell, are you doing in Leon's office with a spatula?"
McCallister closed her eyes, hung her head, and shifted aside. The movement revealed the boot-shaped hole in the wall, through the plaster and into the drywall. A chunk of raw plaster was being held in place by copious amounts of some sort of paste.
"Since when are you Handyman McCallister?" Tifa asked.
The private resumed smearing the paste over the drywall with the spatula. "Since the latest report on The World That Never Was turned out negative."
"So, what, he kicks a wall? Not very professional." Tifa folded her arms, tilting her head at the hole.
"No." McCallister smoothed the paste down and shimmied back. "Graham Nestor and the Major General had an argument, and—"
"Nestor kicked the wall?" Tifa blinked, "Is he stupid?"
"That's what I thought." The private replied, standing again. "They were having words and then I heard Nestor kick the wall in. Then it got quiet—"
"I bet."
"—and they both left."
"Probably so Leon can kick his ass off Allied property." Tifa snorted and then looked to the hole again. "And he seriously told you to fix it? The nerve—" She turned.
McCallister had been Leon's assistant for nearly two years. She was a soldier, not a slave.
"No, no…I just thought I would…" She shrugged.
Tifa put her hands on her hips. "You're not a construction worker."
McCallister got that stiff upper lip that any good Leonhart intern had trained into them. "I'm whatever I'm needed to be."
"You're repairing a wall with a spatula."
"…"
Tifa snorted.
"It was the only thing on hand."
"Why would a spatula EVER be 'on hand'?"
McCallister exhaled, "Fine, maybe I don't know what I'm doing."
"Maybe."
"Do you think he's really going to pummel Nestor? Because…we technically should stop that."
Tifa smirked, "Nah. He might…scare him…a little, but I doubt he'd actually—" Her eyes drifted sideways to the case where Leon usually kept his gunblade while at the office.
The case was empty.
"Oh, we should definitely check." She corrected herself, stepping out of the office, McCallister on her heels.
"I hear Nestor is actually a bit of a sharp shooter." McCallister said.
"They're not cowboys, Tabaeus," Tifa snorted as they walked downstairs to Nestor's office.
"No, but Nestor's waist is the size of the Major General's thigh, so maybe we—"
Tifa glanced at the soldier, who still had the spatula in her hand. "Well, if all else fails, you can plaster them both across the face."
And there was the Glare that all of the Leonhart interns had trained into them too. If Leon didn't kill Nestor and go to prison, she'd have to congratulate him on getting at least one intern right. Then again, McCallister had tried to fix a wall with a spatula.
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148 – Line Crossed
For justagirl8225
"Oh!"
"Shit!"
"Oh my God!"
"Tifa!"
"I'm sorry!" She backed up so fast that she tripped out the door and nearly wiped out on the side table beside the couch in the living room. "I'm sorry!" She squeaked again.
Duke lifted her head from her curled spot on the recliner.
"I thought you said okay!" Tifa slumped onto the couch.
"I said okay as in 'okay, later'…not barge right in!" Leon snapped from the other side of the door.
"It sounded like 'okay, now'!" She retorted, picking up one of the pillows on the couch and thrusting her burning face into it.
The shower stopped running and Tifa sank deeper into the couch, pillow over her face.
"Why would I mean now?" Leon sounded as shaken up as she felt.
"I don't know!" Tifa garbled through the pillow. "Shut up! Leave me alone!" She spouted off like a child.
Duke barked and Tifa glared at her over the top of the pillow.
"Just…" The door opened, but Tifa didn't turn around. "…knock first."
Tifa did spin around at that, glaring at him. "I didn't know you'd be NAKED!"
Leon looked torn between being annoyed and amused, hair wet and only wearing some hastily thrown on pants. "So you thought I was running the shower for what? Giggles?"
"I don't know. Bah!" Tifa framed her eyes with her hands and dropped her face to the top of the couch, mental images hitting her every time she looked at him.
"What in the world was so important," He was saying, and she could hear him moving around, but didn't dare look up. "that you had to tell me immediately?"
Tifa groaned, flopping back onto the couch and staring at the ceiling. "I don't even remember now."
Out of her line of sight, Leon snorted, and she frowned. Sitting up slowly, she spotted him in the kitchen, tinkering with one of the cabinets, fully dressed now, but hair still plastered to his skull.
"Sorry." She grumbled, staring hard at the coffee table.
He glanced over at her, not looking half as embarrassed as Tifa felt, and gave a small shrug. "Forget about it."
I wish I could, she frowned, putting her face in the pillow and dropping to her stomach on the couch again.
He walked past the couch and she heard Duke clatter off the recliner, trailing after him.
She sat up again, "I want to take her for a walk."
Leon blinked, "Okay."
"I mean…I need to…get out of here…" Tifa said, nearly tripping on the coffee table again as she tugged on her coat, "Plus it's, like, thirty degrees out there and you're still…wet."
He surrendered the leash and Tifa snatched it away before he could see her face turning scarlet. She hooked the clasp around Duke's collar, and the dog was immediately bolting toward the door, ready for her walk.
Without another word, Tifa slipped out of the apartment, closed the door behind her, and leaned against the wall. Breathing carefully, she looked to Duke. The dog just swished her tail back and forth, ears up, and demanding that the walk start NOW.
A beat passed, and Tifa abruptly heard Leon laughing in the apartment.
Her knees nearly buckled and she gripped the leash, stepping away from the wall. A laugh from Leon was a rarity, and she found herself grinning stupidly despite herself. Well, it was nice to her know that her humiliating herself was amusing to him.
"Come on, girl." Tifa wheezed, leading the dog down the hallway.
The cool wind outside helped combat the blood filling her cheeks, and she slowly got her heart rate back under control. Knock, she told herself. Always, always knock from then on.
She started laughing at herself as she and Duke stepped out onto the sidewalk. One thing for sure, those rumors about the gunblade 'making up' for something…They were LIES!
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A/N: Hm…No real witty closing statements this time…Lovely prompts as always!