Unstitched Wounds

Chapter 4: Blood and Water

-Uncharted Waters-

Jung Hoseok is a lot of things. Patient is usually one of them, and he prides himself on it. You have to be patient when dealing with any form of Defenders, but these Defenders are a special kind of patient. One that he certainly isn't paid enough to deal with on a daily basis.

Especially dealing with the Bangtan Squad.

An ounce less of patience on his part and he may as well become puppy kibble for the whole litter of them.

After tonight, he may just cut his losses anyways just to be done with it. His patience has run it's course at the moment. He doesn't have an ounce of it left. Not when he is already dealing with his pregnant wife, the excited terror of the realization that he is about to become a father, and the icing on the cake is the loss of the Ascendant Wolf and a group of Nosferatu running around slaughtering Defenders and humans alike.

Not when he just got off a twelve hour shift at the Lantern to finally come home to his wife only to be called two hours later to return to the Lantern. Along with additional word that the rising-star and number 1 problem wolf is severely injured, had been kidnapped, and that he is to come alone.

Being fired is on the horizon. He can practically taste it on his tongue.

Which is why he didn't complain even once when Nari, his pregnant wife, demanded that she drive Hoseok to the station with the bold statement that he is in no state to drive himself. And considering her own state of physical being, that is in fact, a very bold statement.

So, Hoseok smartly doesn't call Nari out on it. Instead, he acquiesced to her demand, if only to save his balls from her current temper, and wisely keeps his mouth shut at the speed his wife used to get them to their destination.

In return, Nari doesn't say a word about how Hoseok practically tucked and rolled out of the car once she pulled into the parking lot. She'll later complain that she hadn't even slowed down yet before his passenger door is open and Hoseok is already more than halfway to the doors leading to his clinic.

Hoseok hasn't even opened the door to his clinic yet when the sound of yelling touches his ears. It sounds eerily like Seokjin in the middle of a fit about something and Namjoon's calm reply, though it sounds shaken.

Hearing the door to the clinic open, Seokjin halts whatever he was about to shout at Namjoon and turns to face him with a wild expression on his face. He's dressed in what is lovingly dubbed the Leftovers, which is typically just a bunch of clothes that is stashed in various parts of the Lantern and the city for any Defenders that phase back into their human forms for whatever reason.

The alarming part, however, is the sheer amount of blood coating him. It coats his face, smeared around his mouth and staining his teeth. His hands are crusted with dried flecks of it, splatters of it weighing down his wheat-colored hair. Namjoon isn't much better.

For a brief second, Hoseok debates on booking it right back out the door, snatching up Nari, and driving them home because everything about the situation is making whatever piss-poor instincts he has go haywire. There are no other Healers around, the clinic clean aside from the random puddles of blood that was absolutely not there when he left a few hours prior.

Even stranger, where is the Healer that is supposed to be here to take Hoseok's shift? The other nurses? The front desk lady that smells of licorice and moth balls and can't spell worth a damn!

The whole place is barren. Empty. Zero.

Except for, of course, Namjoon and Seokjin. Problem wolf Two and Three.