The quarter-end-hell has passed once again! Sorry for the delay in writing/posting but during Qend my work takes over my life :( Anyways it's behind me and I finally got the chance to finish this chapter.

So enjoy!

A few minutes later he came back with a new shirt and a plaster on his brow and found her sitting on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her still slightly shaking body. He managed to find an old glass he had on his bed table and brought some water to Sakura. She silently accepted and downed the liquid in one gulp.

He sat down next to her on the couch and motioned for her to come closer. He left one of his feet on the ground and the other on the couch so she could snuggle in between. She pushed her back into his chest and let more tears fall down her face when he wrapped his arms around her torso.

They sat like that in silence, broken by a sniffle here and a sob there. His heat was calming but she still wasn't able to stop the waterworks. Those months, weeks, years she spent hiding her feelings deep down, trying to bury them from her heart were all coming back to the surface and were digging at her heart. It was like with a plaster, you knew it will hurt when you pull it off but the pain will go away in a second, it didn't matter if you pulled it quickly or slowly, you needed to get it off and the pain was just part of it.

This is how she felt, a giant plaster being torn from her heart, she knew it will get better, but right now all she could do was cry and let the hurt come out and wait for it to go away. She felt the need to tell him what she was hiding these past two years. He knew about Daichi, but she doubted he knew the whole truth. She tried to recall the times she talked to him, his smile, and his eyes when he looked at her, his soothing voice.

"I can't remember his face properly." She said in a broken whisper, hiding her face in her hands as she started to shake more from crying. Kakashi silently waited, patiently for her to continue if she wished to. She felt the feeling of guilt inside her, how could she forget him in such a short while? Were her feelings for him so weak that her memories of him were fading so fast?

"I can't remember how he smiled. And he smiled all the time. Whatever bad news I had for him, he would always smile and try to make me feel better. I was his doctor and he was trying to make me feel better." She shook her head in disbelief as she always did when Daichi was trying to make her feel better about his situation, about his prognosis.

"When I found the connection between the illness and the chakra flow, it was the happiest day in my life and he was the first person I told. He gave me a gift that he was saving for my birthday, but said that as this breakthrough needed a celebration he wanted to give it to me now." Sakura fumbled a bit and took out the notebook she had been carrying about with her wherever she went.

"Obviously it's mostly just the cover that remained. I filled it with notes within few months. I didn't have the heart to stack it somewhere in my desk or put it on a shelf, so I had it re-filled with new pages every time I ran out of space." She moved her hands over the cover, almost lovingly touching the leather material of the small notebook.

"My theory about his illness was the first thing I have written down in it. The second thing was written by him." Sakura opened the notebook, skipping first page and showed him the second one, unable to get the words out.

The writing was different then the neat characters of Sakura's handwriting. It had a splotch mark in the middle, probably from an old, dried up tear and it was dirty in some places, a proof that it has been touched many times. There in clear writing, stood something that Kakashi didn't expect.

Will you be my heart doctor for life? Will you marry me, Sakura Haruno?

And once again in Sakura's neat hand writing was a YES that took the rest of the page.

Kakashi was for once truly speechless. He kept staring at the few words in an old notebook. His heart clenched terribly at the horrible truth of her past. Before he managed to say or do something, Sakura continued with her story.

"He asked me… and I said yes." This time she actually smiled through her tears, remembering the happiness she felt at that moment. "If my theory was correct, he could be completely healed. There was finally hope for him and I wanted to be with him so badly." She slightly hesitated before continuing with her story, trying to futilely to wipe the tears that kept running down her face. "That night was the first and the last time we made love." Her voice broke and she continued only in whisper. "I forgot the notebook in the lab and wanted to put just few notes down. I was away for just 10 minutes… he died… those 10 minutes it took me to get the notebook and get back to him… he was gone…"

Kakashi held her even tighter and buried his face in her hair, as if someone would come and pull her away from him. He knew how bad it was when you didn't even have a chance to say goodbye. That feeling of despair and unfinished sentences lingering at the tip of your tongue, those words and thoughts you wanted to share with the person that is no longer there to hear them.

"I'm so sorry." Kakashi whispered barely hearable into her hair.

He stayed there holding her in his embrace until she fell asleep, exhausted from the crying. He gently picked her up and took her to his bed. It was already morning when she fell asleep. He tried to join her in the slumber, to get some new energy for the next day and to let his mind rest and sort all the information and emotions, but his mind would not stop working. After an hour of tossing and turning, very quietly so he wouldn't wake Sakura up, he sighed in defeat and got up to run some necessary errands of the day before she woke up.

Emptiness was the dominant feeling once Sakura woke up from her dreamless sleep. It wasn't a bad feeling but it wasn't a good one either. She just felt lighter after the crying of previous night. She kept her eyes closed, the pain of her headache piercing through her skull when she moved. She wasn't sure she wanted to get up just yet and face the day. She opened her eyes and just kept watching the rays of sun moving about the room. Unsure of how long she stayed like that, curled up with Kakashi's pillow held tight against her chest. Somehow his scent lingering all around her was soothing her aching heart. She cringed at the thought of going to work tomorrow, she wasn't sure she was able to face a day full of people that expected her to smile and be nice and polite while she treated them. She pushed the thought into the back of her mind to deal with it when the time comes, for now she just wanted to stay like this, unmoving, unfeeling. She was almost afraid to move, that the movement will force the feelings to come back, as if those two were connected.

As she watch the fine specs of dust moving about the room illuminated by the rays of sunlight coming through the window she noticed a glass of water on the nightstand. The pure liquid made her notice just how thirsty she was so she grabbed for it and drunk the water, sweat and silky in her dried out mouth. She extended her hand to put the probably last surviving glass in Kakashi's house back on the nightstand and let it go a second too early and watched as it hovered in the air, almost suspended in the moment, before falling down to the floor where it shattered into several pieces.

Kakashi was almost finished with cleaning up the mess she left behind in his kitchen when he heard a noise from his bedroom. Curious if she was already up and what the noise was caused by he walked into the bedroom to find Sakura on her knees near the bed with her back turned to him.

"Sakura? Are you alright?" Kakashi asked stepping closer to her to find out what she was doing.

"I'm soooorryyy." She sniffled, not able to contain her emotions. The tears kept falling down her face as she tried to pick up the pieces of the broken glass from the floor. "I broke your last glaaaaaaaaass." The feeling of emptiness instantly gone as the glass hit the floor she felt as if the empty space near her heart was attacked by all emotions at once and she wasn't able to decipher or control any of them.

"It's alright, it's just a glass."

"I knoooooow."

"Then why are you crying?"

"I don't knooooow.

Kakashi was at a loss here. In his case the two hour cry was all that it took him to get himself back on track. He certainly didn't expect that Sakura will continue with her crying after the evening, but he should have known it would take her longer to get herself back together. She used to be the emotional one so he should have considered it. Now that he made her face the truth of her heart he needed to be there for her no matter what. So he gently pulled her into his embrace and waited for her to calm down while stroking her hair and back.

When she started to calm down again she pushed away from him and looked at him.

"I…" she obviously wanted to say something else but her eyes fell down on his shirt, "ruined another of your shirts."

"Don't worry. I have plenty of them, just use as many you need." He gave her his famous eye crease trying to make her feel a bit better and she actually snorted a little in amusement though some tears still ran down her face.

Sakura used the back of her hands to get her face dry. "Would you mind if I stay here today? I don't think I want to be alone now." She asked carefully knowing she will be imposing on him once again.

"Was counting on it. I bought some food so if you are up to it…" he left the sentence unfinished and motioned with his hand to the door.

Sakura nodded her head with a happy-sad smile on her face. "Would you mind if I use your shower first?"

"You know where it is. Fresh towels are below the sink."

"Thank you Kakashi."

He knew what she meant and he smiled at her patting her head like he used to when she was just a gennin.

When she got out of the shower she found clean clothes on the bed. Old sweatpants that was too big for her and his old shirt. She actually smiled as she pulled them on and could smell his scent on them. The shower helped her to calm down and sort out her feelings a little.

The kitchen smelled marvelously and her stomach grumbled in protest as her last meal was almost 24 hours ago. She sat at the small kitchen table and looked at Kakashi moving about the kitchen. When it was ready he served the dish on the table and sat down opposite of her. He hesitated for a moment but in the end pulled down his mask and with a silent "itadakimasu" started to eat. Sakura was surprised that Kakashi was actually a pretty good cook as she tasted the food.

They ate in comfortable silence and Sakura offered to wash the dished in return for him cooking the meal. When she was finished it was already getting dark outside and as she entered his living room she found him sitting comfortably on his couch with Icha Icha Paradise in his hand. She took one of his couch pillows and she lied down on his lap with the pillow under her head. He didn't protest and just lay his free hand on her arm and continued reading his book.

The time passed by and Sakura must have fallen asleep because she was now lying once again in Kakashi's bed with him next to her, lightly snoring the night away. She moved her back closer to him, seeking his comforting heat and her movement caused him to stir. He buried his face into her hair as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her even closer to him.

When morning came around Kakashi was surprised to find an empty bed and his clothes neatly folded at the foot of the bed. Feeling bit disappointed he rolled on his other side and willed himself back to sleep as it was way too early for him to be up before he would go around his not too busy day.

He didn't see her for few days so he was rather surprised when she came at midnight through his bedroom window and stole one of his shirts before going to his bathroom to emerge clean and ready for bed. There was no talking, no explaining, he simply lifted his covers as she came to his bed and curled her back against him.

This was now their new routine. She would come to his home, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes soon enough to have dinner with him and sit on the couch with him while he read his trusty Icha Icha while she brought some medical text from the hospital and at night they would sleep together cuddled together in his bed. She didn't move in with him but she kept brining her stuff over and leaving it there. Toothbrush, shampoo a textbook here a medical book there a change of clothes that she kept in his dresser.

She was like a stray cat, coming to stay the night and leave in the morning whenever she felt like it. They would eat, talk about their days and finally sleep all the while enjoying each other's company. He would find her in his bed even when he came back from a mission, tangled in his bed sheets and snuggling to his pillow that he had to pry out of her embrace so he also could get some sleep. When he was away, he was looking forward to coming home, to Sakura.

There was nothing sexual about their relationship, Kakashi would lie if he said he didn't want it to be but he knew that it was Sakura who had to make the move, if she ever did decide to move that way. He understood that what they had before was for her without commitment, that it was just physical relationship she was seeking at that time.

Now, all she wanted and needed was to feel safe, to have a friend in him. He was content with their relationship as it was, if one could call it a relationship. He was just happy that she was putting the pieces of her broken heart back together and smiled genuinely more often. Now, after just few months, when she smiled it would reach her eyes. She was starting to be happy, really happy again and he would not ruin it by pushing her into something more than she wanted. She knew how he felt, and that did not change, so he kept his hope close to his heart and would spend the night watching her sometimes as she slept and wishing she would come to love him.

I'm sorry to say that the next chapter will be the last! There may be a shorter epilogue (will see how the last chapter turns out).

Thank you everyone who reviewed and faved and alerted this story and me! It's always nice to know that you are enjoying this little hobby of mine :)

P.S.: sorry for making Sakura so "tearful" but to be honest, she needed it :)