Zack, a tall, blonde-haired young man walked in leaning on a Commandramon. In fact, both of them seemed to be injured.

The boy's hair was soaked with sweat, his face dirty, and he moved as though he had several pulled muscles. The partner digimon had several scrapes and bruises, as well as a nasty burn along one of his arms.

"Nurse?" Zack called out. "Could use a hand over here. My partner and I just got out of a battle with a Fangmon. Our injuries aren't too bad, but I figured I'd best stop by and let a professional take a look. Look him over first, please. I should be Ok for a bit."

Grace came out of a nearby room, and examined her new patients.

"You said you two were in a battle with a Fangmon?" she said while looking over both Zack and One's injuries. "Well, these don't look too bad. I'll have you two healed in a jiffy!"

----------

A bit later, Grace led Zack and One out of the hospital, both of them good as new.

"Thank you," said Zack, giving a respectful nod before departing with his partner.

Zack walked in, half-carrying his wounded partner. "Nurse?" he called, sounding slightly abashed at having to visit the clinic again for the second time in just the span of a night. "My commandramon took on a mechanorimon. Those things are nasty. Please, do what you can for him. Don't worry about me."

Grace put down her morning cup of hot chocolate to examnie the same patints who she had healed the day before.

"Oh, you two got into trouble again? Don't worry, a Mechanorimon is no match for my medicine." She smiled, taking the injured cyborg in for treatment.

A little while later, Grace emerged with a once again healed Commandramon. She smiled, then leaned over and gave him a lollypop.

One mimicked Zack's polite nod. One crunched on the lollypop and followed Zack back to their apartment.

"Damn it," remarked a voice outside the clinic. Even though the wound on Zack's ribs didn't seem to be that deep, it absolutely refused to stop bleeding since a large shard of ice had gouged his side. At the young man's side were his partners One and Aura, Commandramon and Tsukaimon respectively. They'd not been injured in the fight, but One had been mentally kicking himself for getting drawn off on to a child-level Digimon while Zack had duked it out with an adult-level Hyougamon. But at least Zack had agreed to make the clinic the first stop upon returning to the city.

"Doctor," he called out as he pushed through the doors into the clinic. But he broke off after that, how did he explain to the nurse that he'd done something rather stupid to receive the injury. He squelched the errant thought, untying the impromptu t-shirt-turned-bandage from his torso but making sure to keep the fabric pressed against the wound lest he get blood everywhere.

Grace emerged through a side door, eyes taking in her new patients. Or, rather in the singular since only the tamer seemed to be injured. "C'mon," she said gently "Let's get you fixed up." She pushed Zack's t-shirt aside, inspecting the wound carefully. "It's not too bad," she said, leading the teenage tamer into the back room.


"Now, try and stay out of trouble, okay?" Grace said a short time later, after having applied the necessary treatments to stop the bleeding and heal Zack's wound.

The doors of the Digital City clinic flew open, two beings entered carrying a third between them. One the Commandramon grunted slightly, his stocky cyborg form having some difficulty carrying, well more like dragging, someone nearly twice his height. Aura the Tsukaimon was hanging onto the remains of Zack's shirt, flapping her wings to help One support the tamer's weight.

"Oh, my," the nurse on duty, none other than Grace. She quickly stepped out from behind the counter, the paperwork she'd been filing now the furthest thing from her mind. She took Zack's other arm and wrapped it over her shoulders, helping the struggling Digimon bring their tamer into the clinic's medical facilities.

Before the nurse could inquire, One quickly explained the nature of their tamer's injuries. "Hit by a Bloody Stream attack from a Vamdemon, he also wore himself out using his Digi-Soul and Spirit for the first time." Fatigue and injuries. Never a good mix.

Grace nodded sharply, understanding. "I'll take it from here."

"Will he be ok?" Aura asked, voice thick with worry.
"The nurses have never failed us yet," One said bluntly, though at the same time trying to reassure himself as much as Aura.

The young woman with some difficulty placed Zack on a gurney and wheeled him into the back, leaving One and Aura to wait and agonize over their tamer's condition.


"ZACKIE!" cried on overjoyed voice, Aura shooting through the air and landing on her tamer's stomach.

The young human lay in a soft bed, propped up by several pillows so he was sitting but in a rather inclined fashion. A slightly sheepish grin lit his face, he seemed to be well enough. His burns once treated weren't bandaged, but the young man's skin felt like it had a sunburn all along his right arm and the same side of his torso. Treating his burns and giving Zack a solid meal had put him well on his way to recovery, and after doing so Grace had seen to taking care of One and Aura.

"You look like you've got something on your mind," One said, standing beside the young man's bed as the nurse busied herself with other matters.

"Yeah," Zack admitted, wincing slightly as Aura's wing brushed against his reddened flesh. The Tsukaimon quickly jerked away, sensing she'd inadvertently pained her tamer.

He held up his right hand and stared at the open palm, then elaborated. "I've been trying to summon my Digi-Soul again," he explained, green eyes still staring at his hand.

"You're probably still too tired, right?" Aura said, looking curiously up at Zack's hand as though wondering herself about the human's newfound power.

"I dunno," the human admitted, shaking his head briefly. "Before, even when we were in the thick of it with Lady Devimon, I still got a feeling," his eyes flickered as he tried to describe it. "Of something, but now, nadda." If it's a manifestation of my emotions that powers One's evolution, it could be tricky to control...

"Grace says you're free to leave, although she advises you take it easy for a day or two," One relayed, staring unblinkingly at his tamer. Telling Zack to take it easy seemed equivalent to telling him to remove his d-ban. Zack nodded, and the Commandramon turned and left the room. "Eh?" Zack made the slightest questioning exhalation as his partner left. It wasn't like One to leave his side.

"Ohhh, Zackie," Aura complained, looking at his fading burns and wincing. She looked away, squeezing her eyes shut as though it pained her just to see them, even if they looked nowhere near as bad as before.
"It'll be alright," the tamer said absentmindedly, staring out the window.
"NO! No, it won't!" the mammal protested, eyes squeezing shut as tears welled up in them. "You could have died!" she was positively distraught as her teary yellow eyes looked up with a mix of sadness and resentment at Zack, previously contained emotions gushing out all at once.
"I-Aura-" Zack fumbled for words, trying to explain it. He wanted to say he was fine, that it was his duty to stand by them in battle, that he was willing to accept the risks, but he didn't. With a pang of regret, he knew she was right. He could rationalize it all he wanted, but taking on a perfect-level Digimon was the stupidest thing he could remember doing.

He wrapped his furry little partner in his arms, embracing her tightly and noting he found the tickling of her fur comfortable even when it touched the burns on his chest. "I'm sorry," he said softly, a single tear splashing across Aura's face as she was held tightly to Zack's chest.

It didn't sit well with him to just stand around while his friends put themselves in danger, usually no less, to protect him, after all. But he realized there was something that upset him even more. Seeing that he'd hurt them.

Aura's tears stopped, the young Tsukaimon finding comfort in the young man's arms. "You're right," the tamer said, sighing deeply, still cradling Aura in his arms.

"I used to like watching you fight," Aura said softly, staring fixedly at a spot in the corner of the room but making no effort to distance herself from Zack. "But today I realized I shouldn't. You're no Digimon. You can't heal on your own and if you die, you're gone for good." But the tears did not come back, kept at bay by the warmth of Zack's touch.

The human suspected now why One had left the room when he did, but was none the wiser to his situation. Zack would never be able to promise he'd never fight alongside them again. And yet he felt the need to say something to put his partner at ease about him getting hurt again, possibly worse the next time. But the silence seemed more enjoyable at the moment, so it remained, Aura cuddling against her tamer's stomach as Zack stared out the window. For the moment, both seemed at peace.

It came at last to an end, the human donning a plain white t-shirt given to him by the nurse. His old sweatshirt and shirt had been too badly damaged to be mended, he'd have to find a replacement. "Let's go," he said, gait slightly awkward. Each step tugged slightly at his skin, but as he strode out with One and Aura at his side he found it drifting further from his mind. There was something bothering him, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it. Heh, I wonder if the burns will leave any scaring. Then again, if it does, maybe it'll be a reminder...