Medical Chart 04 -:- [video]

[lifes_expensive]

[Black Jack hits the Vine's networking looking far grumpier than usual. It could be the Cottonee bouncing about her desk, attempting to grab her attention, but more likely it is the absence of a certain pint-sized sidekick.]

Pinoko is gone.

[Her face darkens with a scowl, because it seems like she had barely just finished scouring the Gardens for another under her protection, only to find them perpetually missing.]

She seems to have gone back to her own timeline, much like Kohaku has. I know she had friends among you. She will be as safe back home as she was with me.

[As much as she's trying to reassure anyone Pinoko had formed bonds with, it sounds like she's attempting to convince herself of the same thing. She was better off in her own world, with her own Black Jack, and not in this fake fairy tale land.]

[Then why was she so upset?]

[Black Jack pauses to grab the bouncing Cottonee before flinging it across the room in annoyance. Unfazed and unaffected by gravity due to it's fluffy body, it simply floats down to the ground and resumes it's antics.]

The clinic will still be open regardless of Pinoko's departure. I do most of my work alone as it is.

Comments

[ritsu_kouyou]

I'm sorry to hear that.

[awkward pause]

You're always welcome at the mansion should you ever wish it. There are medicinal herbs growing in the garden Kohaku had planted out back. Help yourself anytime.

[lifes_expensive]

It's alright. She's better off back home as it is.

[Well, not necessarily, but it's a good excuse yes it is.]

Ah, thank you. I'll have to stop by some time.

[ritsu_kouyou]

Anytime. Doctor.

And... I'm not as good as Kohaku is at making tea, but there is plenty of that here as well.

[Yes, that would be her awkward attempt at an open tea invitation.]

She may be gone, but I am still in your debt.

[lifes_expensive]

It'll probably be better than anything I could come up with.

[Which means yes, she'd love to come over for tea.]

Don't worry about it. It's not like there's a valid form of currency here anyway.

[ritsu_kouyou]

Some day I will repay in services.

[lifes_expensive]

If you insist. I'll let you know if I come up with something you can help with.

[ritsu_kouyou]

I do.

And thank you.

video;

[jemerite]

You are Black Jack.

[Pinoko had told her about the doctor, a little. Mostly she understood that Pinoko was absolutely devoted to her.]

You'll miss her.

[lifes_expensive]

That would be me.

I will, but she wasn't mine to miss in the first place. She'll be happier there than here.

[jemerite]

[She purses her lips.]

She was happy.

[lifes_expensive]

She might have been, but I'm not her Black Jack. Home is where she belongs.

[jemerite]

[Her head tilts, looking incredulous.]

Then who are you.

[What do your feelings mean, if you can't miss someone who loved you irregardless.]

[lifes_expensive]

A different Black Jack, from another world or timeline or what have you. The one Pinoko had been with was male.

[It's her way of coping with the world and the ways in which it sucks. If she doesn't care, then it can't hurt.]

[jemerite]

She told me.

[Her eyes narrow.]

She said she feels unneeded. Like a burden.

[lifes_expensive]

I would have told her if she was being a burden. Which she wasn't.

[That silly little girl... Always so paranoid that she wouldn't have a place in this world.]

[jemerite]

She didn't... want to be assured she wasn't.

[She frowns, looking brooding and sullen.]

She wanted to be... needed. Not just welcome.

[lifes_expensive]

She was never needed. She stays because she has no where else to go.

[Frankly, she doesn't care if she comes off as callous and cold. Black Jack gives her a glare in return.]

And you think you understand her so well.

[jemerite]

She stays because she loves you.

[Idiot.]

[lifes_expensive]

She loves him. Big difference.

[jemerite]

You don't understand.

[That was what she and the little one had bonded over, really. That their doctors refused to see the truth as they knew it to be.]

[lifes_expensive]

What, and you do?

[Well, this was getting nowhere fast.]

...have you even been a parent?

[jemerite]

A parent.

[She repeats that flatly, lip curled.]

No. We are not... children.

[lifes_expensive]

I'm not calling you a child.

[Though she's been coming reeeal close it it.]

You have no idea what it's like to think you've lost someone you've raised as your own.

I have no right to do that to another. She wasn't mine to keep!

[jemerite]

[She snorts.]

How convenient, for you.

[reallyerotic]

Ah... That was pretty sudden.

[lifes_expensive]

It was, but there's nothing to be done about it.

[reallyerotic]

Mmm, I suppose not. I hope she'll be alright.

[lifes_expensive]

She'll be fine back home. She has another Black Jack waiting for her.

[reallyerotic]

Another Black Jack?

[lifes_expensive]

A male one. She wasn't from my world, apparently.

[reallyerotic]

Eh, really?!

So that's how it was... Still, she seemed very fond of you.

[Action]

[rhododendronic]

[As Kiriko watches Black Jack's broadcast on the vine, she finds herself sighing in disappointment. Surprisingly, she had warmed up to the girl, herself. Silently understanding Black Jack's loss, she decides that the best way to stop the Doctor from wallowing in her own depression is to pay her an unexpected visit. Even if it only serves to annoy her, it's better than the alternative.

Her high-heeled boots still on and muddying up the floor (she didn't bother taking them off in the case she was angrily chased out), Kiriko collapses onto a couch, crosses her legs and rests her feet on the nearest coffee table.

Stretching, Kiriko calls out to the Doctor loudly.]

...Mind if I drop in?

[lifes_expensive]

[For some reason while Black Jack was hiding in the study she didn't even hear the door, and didn't realize that someone had entered without her knowledge. The sound of a voice in what was supposed to be an empty house caused her to jump. Who would have walked right in unnoticed and uninvited?!]

[Placing a face and a name to that far too familiar voice helped. Kiriko. Was it too much to ask for a little peace? Growling to herself, Black Jack stormed out to the living room to find exactly who she expected to be waiting there.]

Yes. Yes I do mind.

[rhododendronic]

[Completely ignoring her anger, Kiriko waves halfheartedly.]

Hi. ...Heard about your nurse.

[Is that the right word to use?]

[lifes_expensive]

[She visibly stiffens at the obvious reference to Pinoko. Oh. Right. That had been a public post.]

She's back where she belongs.

[Black Jack grumbles something under her breath, probably about the mud that was getting on the table, and crosses her arms with a huff.]

And why are you here?