The Darkness Before Dawn

Mutation

"I want an 18 gauge IV in both arms! Lactated Ringer's on the pole! Run it wide open!" Umiko gave her commands calmly as she watched the nurses and trauma doctors work on Hidan's dying body. "I'll draw his blood! You! Take it and get me O type...NOW!" The nurse took off running in the direction of the Lab to obtain the blood. Umiko slipped the second vial of blood that she had drawn from the stricken man into her pocket.

"Doc! He's crashing!"  Umiko grabbed the paddles, "charge 300!" she said. A nurse placed gel on the paddles and Umiko rubbed them together before placing them on Hidan's chest. "CLEAR!" A bzzt was heard but his heart was still in arrhythmia. "Charge to 450! CLEAR!" Bzzt! Silence hung over the trauma bay. After several tense seconds a blip blip was seen on the cardiac monitor's screen as Hidan's heart fought to regain its normal rhythm. The nurse came back with the blood and hooked it up. Umiko watched the red fluid flow down the lines and into his arms and into his veins.

"Doc? Doc!" Umiko was shaken from her reverie by the medical student tugging on her shoulder. "What?!" She snapped. The student pointed at Hidan's chest, saying "he's stopped bleeding. How?!"  Umiko frowned as she watched Hidan's bleeding slow to a trickle before stopping. Where he was shot there should still be copious amounts of blood but the reverse was happening.

She grabbed the ultrasound wand, squirted some gel onto his chest and used to wand to look at his heart. His pericardium was punctured and the heart was flailing in its empty sac but slowly, and in front of her eyes, the hole closed and the sac refilled with blood and his heart began pumping normally. How? she thought to herself. "Get him to ICU. I want him on close observation" she instructed as nurses and students began wheeling him away to the ICU.

She sighed, her breath blowing her bangs out of her eyes, squared her shoulders and left the room to meet with his partner. Kakuzu was pacing the hallway but he rushed over to her as soon as he saw her. "How is he?" he asked. "He's in critical condition and we have moved him to the ICU but he's alive and breathing". Kakuzu let out the breath he wasn't aware he was holding and his shoulders slumped in relief. "Can I see him?"  "Of course. 7th floor" she said, waking away to tend to the ill who were still crowding the hospital's entrance.

"This doesn't make any sense" the woman said as she adjusted her glasses. She looked at her boss but Kisame was deep in thought. His brows furrowed, his lips set in a hard line and his glasses resting on his nose. He's so hot, his assistant thought. "One profile shows no abnormalities but the second shows an extra gene. Where the hell did it come from?!" He asked in frustration, throwing the papers onto his desk as he sat on his desk. He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Did we somehow contaminate the sample?" he asked her, his hand running through his hair. She squeezed her thighs together to try to dull the ache before replying "no. I double and triple checked the reports. I'm certain there was no contamination".

Kisame ran his hands down his face. "Fuck me" he muttered. Yes please! Right here, right now, on your desk. Take me Dr. Hoshigaki! "Let's keep a lid on this for now until we figure out what the hell is going on" he said, looking at her with his intense black eyes. She bit her lip and nodded. He sighed before reaching for his jacket and putting it on. "You're dismissed for the night. See you tomorrow" he said, waving as he left. I'll be here for you, she thought as she turned off the machines and computers before leaving.

Konan looked at the address on the paper in her hand and the mansion in front of her. She had reported the massacre that occurred there but she hadn't thought someone would move into the murder house. She walked up the steps and knocked on the door. She heard muffled voices before the door opened to reveal a short, curvy woman with blue eyes gazing at her. Konan blushed lightly before asking "Are you Umiko?" A man approached the door admonishing the woman for doing his job. Ignoring him, the woman replied "No. I'm Yukiko. Do you need something?"

Konan thrust her microphone to Yukiko's lips. "Do you know what's happening in the City? An epidemic has broken out and no one can identify the culprit. Two people were assassinated and there are no suspects..." she trailed off, waiting for Yukiko to answer but she remained silent.

Konan shifted her weight on her feet and stood with her hand on her hip. "Well? Do you know something or not?!" she asked with growing impatience. Yukiko lowered the microphone from her face so her words wouldn't be amplified and said "I know a lot. Call my butler to set up an appointment" before closing the door in Konan's face. Konan looked at the door blankly before turning around, pushing her cameraman in the process, and returning to her news van. An appointment? This could be interesting, she thought.

"Are you doing anything productive?" Kay asked Shinju as she watched her browse the online catalogue. "Mmmm" Shinju replied as she zoomed in on an image of thigh high black boots. "You have an addiction" Kay said as Shinju added the boots to her cart. "It's not an addiction. It's fashion. Something you could use" she said as she looked at Kay. "Don't start this shit again. It took me forever to find a replacement for the Jaws shirt you burned!" Shinju laughed as she remembered the incident while Kay scowled at her.

Tenno entered the room with Yukiko. "Ladies, please, do not fight" he said while holding his hands up. "Let them fight. Maybe we'll get a show!" Yukiko said with a smile. "Wouldn't you like that?!" Kay replied, standing over the shorter woman. "Sorry sweet cheeks, you need to be a certain height to ride" she said, laughing as she left the room. Yukiko flipped Kay off behind her back before she heard Tenno clear his throat.

"We have a new target ladies. We'll discuss this further once everyone is at home. Any requests for dinner?" He asked.