Where it Happened
part i

Adrenaline was making the blood roar in Haruno Sakura's ears. Her heart was pounding almost painfully against her ribs, but she ignored it in favor of focusing on the patient open on her table. It was a race against the clock, a fight to keep the tear in her patient's aorta from rupturing and causing further, fatal damage.

"Dammit! Give me another clamp," Sakura ordered.

She held her hand out for the tool but her emerald gaze never wavered from the tear she could see threatening to widen in the major artery. With practiced ease, she worked quickly to slow the bleeding before she held out her hand for the stitch that would hopefully keep the artery closed until the patient could receive a new valve. The first suture was strong but the rest were refusing to hold and she cursed again as she did her best to keep herself and the bleeding under control. One slight mistake, one slight change in her patient's current condition and they would finish this surgery with their patient in the morgue rather than the ICU.

"Will someone please explain to me what exactly my patient is doing on your table."

His entrance had gone unnoticed with the desperation of her situation, but there was no denying the icy undertone and smooth, cold fury in Uchiha Itachi's voice. Sakura glanced up briefly to meet the dark, hard gaze of her boss. He was glaring at her over the surgical mask he held to his nose and mouth but their contact quickly broke as she called for another clamp and resumed her attempted stitching.

"I paged you three times," she returned, her tone even but relaying her impatience at his delay.

"He was not scheduled for surgery until the morning." His tone made his authority very clear and she felt her heart pulse just a little harder beneath her breastbone.

"I know. But your patient's heart started dissecting during an MRI and I can't get these stitches to hold, so if you're done pouting at me, I could really use your hands."

Tense silence met her words. She could feel Itachi's glare burning into her, but she ignored him as she worked as quickly as she could. The patient was losing blood faster than they could restore it. She needed help and she needed it minutes ago.

Eventually she heard him move. "Let me scrub."

"You don't have time."

She looked up again to meet his gaze as she did her best to silently relay the seriousness of their patient's condition. He held her gaze for only one heartbeat before he turned to the nurse next to him, his fingers already tying his mask in place. "Gown."

In seconds, Itachi was gowned, gloved and across the table from her as he took in the damage before him. His experienced eyes were able to trace the line of tearing in the artery and the suturing Sakura had been attempting and failing. He heard her growl quietly in the back of her throat as her latest stitch was unsuccessful.

"Suction," he ordered. He accepted the small tube from the scrub nurse and worked quickly to clear as much blood out of the way for her as possible. To his surprise, however, Sakura didn't continue to suture; instead she set her needle down as she paused. He looked up at her sharply. "If you are unable to finish, let me take over."

She merely held up a bloodied glove at him. "I'm thinking. Give me a second."

"This patient does not have a second."

But she seemed not to hear him as she gazed thoughtfully over his shoulder, her green eyes dancing back and forth as she mentally weighed her options. He was about to take over for her anyway when she glanced at the scrub nurse. "Do we have nylon stitches?"

"Yes, doctor."

Her eyes brightened with the answer. "Good. I'm going to need them."

The nurse quickly got to work making it ready for her, but Itachi's gaze only narrowed at the doctor across from him. "Nylon stitches do not hold for long in a heart."

"I know," she said, returning her gaze to him. "But this aorta can't handle steel sutures in its current condition. Every time I throw a stitch, it tears. I'm going to have to double-up."

His brow furrowed thoughtfully as he returned his gaze back to the task at hand. It was possible she could get the sutures to hold with a double stitch, but she would have to work fast in time to keep the nylon from breaking and to prevent further tearing of the valve. They had already wasted enough time.

"You complete the nylon suturing and I will follow behind you with the steel," Itachi said, gazing up at her.

Sakura's brow arched curiously. "Can you throw a left-handed stitch?"

He was on the wrong side of the table to be able to use his dominant hand, but he merely smirked at her behind his mask as he shot her a challenging look. "Can't you?"

Her eyes narrowed in amusement, but their contact was broken as she accepted the nylon stitch from the scrub nurse. Itachi handed off the suction to another assistant before he too took up a suture, and together the pair got to work.

##

A soft sigh escaped Sakura as she rubbed at her shoulder absently. She tried not to slouch on the bench provided in the Attendings' Changing Room, but after heading such an intense, high-energy surgery, she couldn't help the slight hunch of her back as her body came down from the adrenaline high.

It had been a long night. She needed water, food and sleep – all in that order. The soles of her feet ached, but she was used to the pain and almost welcomed it, knowing that the soreness meant that her energy had been well-spent attempting to save the lives of complete strangers.

"Nice work in there, Haruno."

Glancing towards the doorway, she found her boss leaning against the frame, his arms crossed loosely and his expression calm but otherwise unreadable. Itachi easily stood an entire head over her and nearly took up the entire doorway. The gown he had worn in the operating room was gone, leaving him in the dark blue scrubs that identified him as an attending. It showed off his lean form. He was muscular but not overly so, and she tried not to notice how the coloring of the material accentuated the long, raven hair he had pulled back in a low ponytail at the nape of his neck or how it brought attention to his striking, obsidian gaze.

He had come to work for their hospital nearly a week earlier and though he was the new Head of Cardio and her new boss, they'd had little interaction since he had started. It turned out her best friend and an attending in general surgery, Yamanaka Ino, had been right. He was stunningly gorgeous. Even more so without that cool demeanor all the nurses kept chatting about.

She could only assume the rumors of him being a Cardiac Genius were true as well. There had been gossip about his many achievements over the years, and though she hadn't yet had time to confirm or familiarize herself with his history, if half of it were true, she knew there was a great deal she could learn from him. After all, it wasn't every day that a member from the legendary Uchiha family came to work for their hospital.

"Thanks," Sakura smiled tiredly as she fought her yawn. She must have been going on hour thirty of her shift.

"A heart dissection is very hard to catch and even harder to prevent," Itachi murmured. His voice was low with the lateness of the hour but it easily carried across the room to her. "If I may inquire, how many cases have you seen in the past?"

She frowned thoughtfully at his line of questioning and shrugged. "Somewhere around thirty."

"And how many have you saved?"

It was a moment before she answered. "Including the one today, two."

Her answered weighed heavily in the room. They were both well-versed in cardiac conditions and knew the high fatality rate of the surgery they had just performed. It was even more extraordinary they had come out successful given the obvious exhaustion etched into Sakura's face, and Itachi felt a sudden swell of respect for the young doctor in front of him.

He had spoken to her in passing only a handful of times since the beginning of his employment within the hospital and though he had heard the rumors of her skilled hands and quick-wit, he had chosen to reserve his judgments about her until he had witnessed them himself. He was pleased to find the attending lived up to the stories.

"I received a call some hours ago from UNOS," he said, recapturing her attention. "They have a heart for the critical patient upstairs. It should be arriving in the morning. Would you care to join me in the OR at 0800?"

As all surgeons did, she perked up at the invitation of a high-profile surgery and the slight slouch to her shoulders straightened as a smile spread across her face. "I'd love to."

"Excellent. Get some rest and I will see you in the morning then."

Pushing off the doorway, Itachi turned to leave only to pause as one last thought occurred to him. "Oh, and Haruno?" She glanced up at him expectantly, her smile still lingering. "Speak to me like that in an OR again and I will bench you for a month."

Her excited expression vanished. She wanted to point out that he was the one who was late in responding to an emergency page as she battled an impossible surgery but she bit her tongue as she met his gaze with hard, emerald eyes. She said nothing.

With a single nod, he turned away. "See you in the morning."

He then exited the room, but not before he heard her annoyed mutter: "Ass."

His steps faltered, but he didn't turn back to her as he made his way to the surgical board. It wasn't until he was halfway down the hall that he realized a smirk had taken up residency upon his face.

Normally Itachi would not have let such a remark made by one of his subordinates go so easily, but he had been quite impressed with her work today and he found her unwillingness to bend to him refreshing from his previous attendings, all of whom had either worshipped the ground he walked on or steered clear of him like the plague. It seemed there was more to Haruno Sakura than her pink hair and cheerful smile, and so he would allow her to get away with her insult; but he was going to thoroughly enjoy pushing her to her limits.

tbc...

You can also blame Moor for this one as well. She is excellent at making my muse write AUs when I should be focusing on other stories ha.

Sorry if any of this is not medically accurate. As you may have guessed, I did not in fact go to medical school.