A/N: Like I said last time, hopefully I can update this as frequently as possible.

As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy!

The ride from the alleyway to Shinra's office was short and silent. Izaya was forced to sit next to Shizuo in the carriage because the carpet-clad body was taking up the entire seat in front of them. They sat as far away from each other as possible, their shoulders pressed up against the windows, their legs squeezed together in front of them so that not even a fiber of their clothing would press up against the other. As tense as the atmosphere was, Izaya enjoyed the silence. It gave him time to think. All of a sudden, it struck him how they should have at least inspected the body before Celty put it in the carriage. For a moment, he felt sick at the fact that whoever was in front of him could be either dead or alive.

Schrödinger's human, he thought, as an amused grin appeared on his face. Izaya loved a good mystery, especially when it was a mystery that involved his precious humans.

His mind wandered further as he contemplated the meaning behind all the graffiti he had been seeing that day. He had been in the city only four days prior, and yet, he hadn't seen anything like it. Then there was the mystery of Shiki's two murdered men. They had been killed only two days ago. Whoever these people were, they had just appeared very recently. Izaya figured that there were two possibilities: either these groups surfaced on a whim, or everything that had happened over the past few days had been meticulously planned out over a period of time. The latter seemed more likely to him, but before he had a chance to ponder it further, Celty was pulling up to the back door of Shinra's office.

The doctor himself came bursting out of the door mere seconds later, hurried over to Celty's side, and wrapped both arms around her.

"Celty! Are you all right? I'm s sorry that you had to deal with these id-"

He was cut off when Celty untangled herself from his embrace, and shoved her phone in his face, just an inch away from his glasses. She then motioned with her hand, and the body drifted out of the carriage, being supported by her shadows.

"Oh, right! This way!" He called over his shoulder, as he disappeared back inside. Celty followed him, with the body in tow. Both of them had completely ignored Shizuo and Izaya, and they wordlessly decided to follow them, despite not being invited.

Soon, all four of them stood over the body in a small, stuffy examination room. Izaya hated the smell of hospitals. They always managed to reek of disinfectant, while also smelling stale and stagnant. Shinra's underground practice was no exception.

After Shinra scolded them for not even thinking of inspecting the body, he carefully began to unravel the person from the carpet. Izaya felt his heart began to race, as beads of sweat appeared on the back of his neck. His face, however, betrayed nothing, and he thought that the other three were probably feeling the same way he was: slightly anxious, yet curious.

The person wrapped in the carpet turned out to be a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, with short, black hair and thin, pale lips. She was wearing a pair of black jeans, a dark blue shirt with purple sleeves, and no shoes. The left side of her head and hair was caked with blood, as were her left shoulder and sleeve. Shinra immediately checked to see if she had a heartbeat, and his eyes widened with shock.

"She's still alive."

"Really?" Shizuo, of all people, asked in a disbelieving tone.

"I'll need you all to leave," replied Shinra in an unusually serious voice, "I need to start working on her right away. She may be alive, but her heartbeat and breathing are extremely faint."

Celty ushered them into a waiting room, and then left with only a brief text explaining that she had a job, and urging them not to kill each other in a hospital.

"Do you really think that little of me?" Asked Izaya. He received no response.

When a silence overtook the waiting room, Izaya realized for the first time since the alleyway how much pain his shoulder was still in. At one point, a particularly painful spasm ripped down his arm, and he let out an involuntary gasp. When he glanced as Shizuo, he couldn't help but notice that he was smiling. Izaya wanted to call him out on it, but he needed to see Shinra and there's no way he would help him if they destroyed his waiting room.

"Why are you still here, Shizu-chan?"

"I want to make sure that woman's okay. Besides," he paused, looking Izaya right in the eye, "maybe Shinra will let me watch as he sets that dislocated shoulder of yours. It would be good to see you in pain."

"If that's so true, then why didn't you finish me off earlier when you had the chance? Before we noticed the body, you had plenty of time to beat me into a bloody pulp, but you didn't. In fact, I consider myself lucky that I got off with just a shoulder injury, wouldn't you?"

Izaya watched as Shizuo clenched his fists in his lap and turned his attention away from him. He thought he saw a faint blush bloom on his cheeks, but he convinced himself that he must be seeing things. Other than that, Shizuo appeared to have no response to Izaya's question, and silence overtook the room again.

It was another hour before Shinra poked his head in.

"She's stable and resting now. She's not out of the woods, but I think she'll make it."

"That's good news," said Shizuo.

"Very good news! Now, my dear friend, would you mind fixing this shoulder of mine? I ran into a monster earlier, and he cruelly tore it apart."

Again, there was no response from Shizuo, but Shinra reluctantly indicated that Izaya should follow him. When Shizuo got up too, Shinra stopped him with an apology, stating that even Izaya deserved doctor—patient confidentiality.

"Can you take your coat off?" Asked Shinra when they were inside an examination room.

Izaya managed to take off his right sleeve before cautiously sliding his left sleeve off of his shoulder. Blood had seeped through his shirt and onto his coat. Silently, he hoped he could get the stain out. That was his favorite coat, after all.

"How about your shirt?"

Izaya tried, but the pain was too strong, and he couldn't lift it over his head. With a sigh, Shinra helped him.

His shoulder was in an even worse state than he had thought. The blood had stopped, but had streamed all the way down to his elbow in thick, pained rivulets. Bruises had already started forming on both the front and back of his shoulder, and just like Shizuo had said, it was definitely dislocated. Shinra came to the same conclusion, and informed him that he needed to reset the joint right away.

Surprisingly, the information broker had never had a dislocated shoulder before, so he couldn't have had any idea just how painful it was to get it reset. After Shinra made him lay down, and snapped it back into place, Izaya convulsed and let out a agonizing scream. All of his nerves felt like they were on fire. It felt like someone had stabbed him, and he wondered if he would vomit. After the massive wave of pain and nausea had subsided, his breathing became labored and heavy.

"Rough, huh? I've heard before that a dislocated shoulder is close to the pain level that giving birth is. I wonder if that's true."

"You're a bit of a sadist aren't you, Shinra?" He asked, in between deep breaths.

The doctor just smiled in response, before asking Izaya to sit up. He cleaned the wound and the rest of his stained skin, and carefully bandaged the area.

"These should be changed every day. Make sure to put disinfectant on, as well. You're lucky that it won't need stitches."

He helped Izaya get dressed, and then fitted him with a sling.

"You should wear this for at least three weeks, and avoid strenuous activity. I could ask Shizuo to lay off you, but what you should really do is go back to Shinjuku and disappear for awhile."

"You know very well that I can't do that."

"Can't or won't?"

After handing him a couple bottles of anti-inflammatory medicine, and a couple bottles of painkillers, Shinra told him to get out.

"I need to speak with that girl."

"There's no way she can talk to anyone right now."

"Give me a call when she can, why don't you?"

"Why should I?"

"You're my oldest friend. Friends do each other favors, right?"

Shinra reached his hand out in front of him, palm facing upward. He opened and closed it a couple times, with a toothy grin displayed prominently against his face.

"Seriously?"

"You don't do anything for free either, right"

Izaya reluctantly took a few bills from his wallet and placed them on Shinra's palm. He watched, slightly annoyed, as the doctor counted the money before placing it into the pocket of his lab coat, seemingly satisfied with the amount.

"Don't worry, I'll be billing you for your treatment as well."

Izaya spun on his heel and walked out of the examination room. When he stepped outside, he was surprised to see that it was already dark. His phone displayed a time of 6:16p.m, and also informed him that he had a couple dozen emails that needed attention. A grin appeared on his face, as he pulled his hood over his head.

What would this city do without me?