Sewn Back Together

Rating: General-Teen. Something like that.

Concept: Years after moving out of her aunt's mansion Sunako runs into someone from her past.

Chapter 1

Sunako usually lived for the midnight shifts in the ER, but tonight was proving to be a major disappointment. It was almost 6 a.m. and she had seen nothing but old woman who had forgotten to take their heart pills and old men who couldn't pee. Too say it had been boring would have been an understatement. To make things worse the resident doctor who was supervising her had taken all the good patients for himself. He had gotten to control the profuse bleeding from a nasty bone-protruding fracture for twenty minutes while she had been busy explaining to Mrs. Anderson why she still needed to take her "water pill" even if she did drink eight glasses of water a day.

"Nakahara, if nothing comes in soon you might as well go home early and get some sleep," offered Dr. Carlson noticing the bored look on his medical student's face. He knew he had been unfair tonight but the poor girl had to realize emergency medicine wasn't just car crashes and heart attacks before she chose it as her life goal Besides he was sick of watching the young idiots who usually got into those accidents fawn over the dark haired beauty. She could have sewn them up with barbed wire and they would have thanked her. Dr. Carlson had not been blessed with any kind of beauty and had relied on his brains and hard work to get ahead in life. He could not help but feeling a tad resentful of those who slide through life on their looks.

"I think someone new just came in," replied Sunako in relief as she did not want to be sent home early. She would make it until 7 am no matter what, because you didn't get ahead in med school by going home early. And while she was certainly by no means a gunner, an eery excitement and morbid knowledge did come over her when she was involved in some of the more brutal or messy situations.

In fact while most emergency room physicians were reluctant to allow medical student involvement in abuse cases Sunako had proven to handle herself well. She would meticulously document each bruise and scar left on the poor women's broken bodies. Then she would painstakingly stitch up and bandage their wounds. But most importantly she would always say something to these women that transferred them into spitfires ready to fry the bastard who dared mistreat them instead of the crying weak women they had been at the time of arrival.

Dr. Carlson grabbed the new chart and quickly went in to make sure the patient was stable. Seeing the case and perhaps feeling a little guilty for the patients he had been assigning Sunako that night, or perhaps because he wanted to see another pretty boy fall fall prey to Sunako's indifference he threw the chart to her.

"Want to sew up a face laceration?" was all he had to say to have Sunako salivating.

Sunako grabbed the chart and quickly scanned the story- Knife laceration to right face at 5:20 this am. All vital sign were stable. Perfect. She quickly gathered the suture tray and antiseptic excitedly walked into the patient room. She was just scanning the chart for the poor person's name to introduce herself when a familiar voice interrupted her.

"Sunako?"

She recognized his voice instantly even though it had been eight years since she last heard it But she still scanned the chart, verifying that it indeed said Takano Kyohei, 26 year old male. She would learn to always read her chart thoroughly in the future.

"I'm a student doctor now," she stated, her voice sounding strange to her own ears. She was never unsure of herself these days. Not in the ER. But now she sounded on guard, unsure. She hated it, it reminded her of someone she used to be. So she swallowed it away quickly.

"Dr. Carlson asked me to sew up your cuts," she said officially, perhaps coldly, as she pointed to the scars on his face. "But first I need to ask you a few questions."

"Whatever you need to do Sunako," replied Kyohei.

She nodded without looking at him. Then she remembered herself and met his eyes. Blood was covering his face, coming from two small slasher marks over his right eyebrow and cheek. He looked like hell. It should have made things easier. Only it made him look, like a serial killer. A sexy serial killer. This wasn't good. Her voice became more professional, more detached.

"How did this happen?"

"I'm a stunt man these days. I was doing a scene for a new movie. We jump our motorcycles and slash at ourselves with knives in mid air. Unfortunately my fellow stunt man wasn't as good with knives as he said he was."

He said it so matter of factly. But still, Sunako wasn't sure if she believed him. But it didn't matter how it happened really. Just whether or not a lot of crap got in the cut and when it happened so she knew whether or not it was safe to sew up. But people were funny and she was taught that they liked to tell their story instead of have someone ask point blank if they got any shit in their cut.

"When was this?"

"Just this morning, we started filming at 4:30 am. I think it happened shortly after 5."

Sunako nodded. "Have you had a tetanus shot recently?"

"Yeah. I'm a stunt man. This sort of things happens all the time," he said, stretching his legs out in front of him as he pulled up his pant leg and gestured to the large gash on the side of his left leg. "This is the first time I've been gotten on my face though."

"Do you mind if I stitch you up?" she interrupted. She didn't need to know anything but the relevant details. As curious as she was.

"Go ahead," he replied carelessly in a way that reminded her of the Kyohei she had known.

Sunako leaned forward and carefully studied the two scars on Kyohei's face. The one on the forehead was only about 1 cm long and not very deep. It would be fine with one small stitch, and a steri strip. The one on the cheek was slightly deeper and at least 3 cm long. It marred his cheek up pretty good. She wet one of her cotton balls and slowly cleaned the wound with sterile water and then alcohol. Kyohei didn't wince once. He didn't even pull away as she began to freeze his wounds.

"Can you feel this?" she asked as she poked him gently with the needle while the other hand pulled the stitches out of their package.

"I'm frozen," he whispered as he studied he woman in the blue scrubs who carried herself like they were strangers. Fine so she had left the mansion, gone to Africa with her parents, obviously gotten educated and made something of herself while he had stuck around this town, got involved in a few fight clubs and then luckily dropped into his current career before burning out. They were strangers now, long ago diverged on different paths.

He thought about the last time he had seen her as she carefully stitched up his broken face. It was graduation day. They had just gotten their diplomas and were standing around taking pictures. Everyone was so happy. Even Sunako was smiling because her parents had flown home and surprised her. They were taking her out for supper and she uncharacteristically asked Kyohei to go with them. But he had said no. He regretted that sometimes. But he had figured Sunako should have some time alone with her parents. Plus while he was happy for her, it did sting that his own parents hadn't bothered to come down the street to see him graduate.

His last words to her had been something about her eating some shrimp for him at supper, and that he would see her at Ranmaru's party later. She didn't want to go but Noi had begged her and she had relented For them. But she never showed up at the party.

He found out from her aunt the next day that her parents had asked her if she wanted to spend a year travelling with them before settling down to study. They missed their daughter. They had booked flights back that morning but they would cancel them if she agreed. Sunako agreed but she didn't want them to have to cancel their flights. She had spent all night packing and was out of the country while they were all drunkenly falling asleep on couches in Ranmaru's father's cabin. She didn't even leave them a note goodbye.

"You're all sewn up," announced Sunako as she placed some steri strips over the stitches on Kyohei's face. She had finished too fast. He didn't know what to say. She'd be gone again.

"You could put some polysporin on the cuts to prevent infection, and try to keep them dry as possible but it's okay to shower, just dry them afterwards. The stitches aren't dis-solvable. But that means you'll have to see a doctor in a week to make sure they've healed well and to have the stitches removed."

"It's a pain to come back here just to get the stitches out," complained Kyohei, an idea forming in his head.

"You could go to a walk in clinic if that's easier," suggested Sunako. She was cleaning her hands with that quick sanitizer. Kyohei missed old fashioned hand soap.

"Or you could take them out for me."

This time Sunako finally looked at him and not at his cuts. She looked unsure of what to say. As if she was fighting with herself.

"Are you staying with your aunt? I could come by the mansion whenever is convenient for you. You take out my stitches and save me a lot of trouble."

She seemed to be considering it.

"I'll buy chocolate."

She relented. Next Saturday at 5 pm. He would come by. And this time he would stay for supper if she asked him.

End Chapter 1