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The shotgun in Franco's hands was smoking still from the barrel as he stood stock-still, his eyes narrowing as he felt the edge of the blade press against his groin through his pants. One slip, and she would slit his ball sack open, and even though he was standing in one of the best hospitals in the world, there was little doctors could do to rectify that sort of situation.

Slowly, almost gracefully, he let the handle of the gun slip free of his hand, swinging out to clatter against the ground, before raising his hands up, palms open. "It means female dog, my pretty little salaud." He said calmly, turning his head to steal a look at her, his eyes narrowing at the sight of her. "...One day, I shall teach you a few more words in my vocabulary...putain."

Then Toomy and Roger burst into the room, weilding their guns, pointing them straight to Hono'o and Franco. "Freeze! ********' freeze!" Toomy cried, waving her gun around to check the room was clear. "Nobody move!"

Franco smiled a little, a knowing smile. He even chuckled a little. The police were so predictable....them and their rules...at least the putain knew to hold a man hostage with his most valuable assets.

"Don't know what sorta people you're used to dealing with, Doc, but we're cops, incase you haven't noticed..." Toomy said, the woman leveling the gun to Hono'o and Franco. "How about you let that a*****e go so I can put him someplace nice and dark for the rest of his life?"

Franco, meanwhile, was beginning to slouch. Something was draining his stamina...he was an animal, he was not used to being tired without the constant exertion that came from such fatigue....and with the biting sting at his groin and the nails digging into his shoulder, there was only one explenation. "Vous ... vous baise salope .... vampire!" He growled as he felt his head drooping and his body growing heavier and heavier...

"Hey! She said let him go!" Roger ordered. "Don't make me shoot you!"

The man in Hono'o's grasp fell to his knees limply, his body crashing against the joints heavily - but he fell no further. Through some animal will, he somehow managed to remain upright - head low, eyes half-lidded, breath laboured - but still with some form of strength unheard of in humans. Perhaps will alone...

The cops moved forward then, Roger moving around Hono'o to come up behind Franco, holstering his gun and pulling a pair of cuffs out from a small pouch on his belt and snapping one link around his right hand, Toomy keeping her gun trained on the seemingly drugged psychopath as she moved to the supine Joey in the corner, slumped on the floor. "Got a live one here." She reported to Roger as he cuffed Franco and pushed him onto his stomach, putting his knee on his back and keeping one hand on the cuffs whilst the other pulled out the gun in his belt and pressed it against Franco's head.

"This guys not going anywhere. Check on Sweets."

Toomy cuffed Joey for good measure, Joey snoring lightly in his sleep, before moving to the upturned table. Roger smiled up to Hono'o as Toomy ducked behind the table and spoke up to her. "Y'all did good, Doc. Kept yer cool up till the guy with the shotgun came into the room, and even then ya didn't cut him to pieces - ever thought of gettin' into law enforcement?"

Toomy stood up with a clearly shaken Sweets, the man trying very hard to keep his composure. "Thank the gods I only have to do this for another year..." Sweets muttered shakily, before clearing his throat and smoothing his hair back. "It gets so damn hard doin' dis friggin' s**t. I means it n' s**t - wat's a man supposta do when he cant even go ta his favorite resturant and jus' order some pastrami widdout havin' some ******** tryinta blow him away?"

There was a hubbub out in the corridor. Their reinforcements had arrived. Toomy smiled and patted Sweets on the chest, before nodding to Roger. "Lets go see them, take that a*****e with us - we're good to go."

"What about the Doc?" Roger asked Toomy, cocking his head to Hono'o. "We're gonna have ta get a statement and..."

"Nah Roger. She's done enough for one day. Ain't ya Doc?" Toomy asked Hono'o with a wink, tapping her head gently before walking past Hono'o, patting the smaller woman on the shoulder as she held the door open for Roger, who shrugged and picked Franco up bodily, the psychopath standing on shaky legs to be led out like a dissonant puppy. There was a clamour outside the door as Jimmy seemed to burst into tears, police swarming around him and the dead bodies - the corridor would be full of cops for the next few minutes.

This left Joey, Sweets and Hono'o in the room. And with Joey out for the count, that left Sweets staring at Hono'o.

"You not a doctor, are you?" Sweets asked slowly, the very image of a mafiaso don broken by the measured tone of a well trained police officer. "I've seen you before....whats a Heaven or Hell pin-up doing digging bullets out of men and sucking energy out of their seconds?"

Sweets nodded slowly, thoughtfully - her response satisfied him, but not entirely. He looked like he wanted to ask more pertinent questions....yet, there was something that stopped him. "...Well, the LCPD and the Latent Mafia owe you a big debt....as long as I'm Don, you won't have anything to fear from either, I guarantee it."

He paused again, as if wanting to say more....but he just held his hand out for her to shake. "I'll stay here, the police will want to 'question' me....but I'm sure you'll be able to slip out now. Good luck with your patients, I'm sorry I had to take you away from them..."

"Heh....normally I hate people calling me that....with you, it's not so bad..." Sweets said with a wry grin...



Sweets said nothing to her last comment....he simply watched her leave.

Outside in the corridor, things were beginning to become a little more normal - as normal as a hospital full of cops and two dead guys could attest. Jimmy was sitting on the floor with his hands cuffed before him, bawling like a baby as Roger grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him onto his feet. Toomy was busy reading Jimmy his rights as she spotted Hono'o, and gave the woman a short wink and a smile as she walked past.

Both Roger and Jimmy also looked - but they didn't look her in the eye like Toomy did, their eyes were on some of her other...attributes. This earned Roger a kick in the shin from the disgruntled Toomy, and as Jimmy reached out to try and cop a feel of that delicious a** one final time, Toomy made sure to give him a swift and decisive knee to the balls, taking what little fight he had left out of him so Roger, now back in his place, could carry him away.

Now away from all the action, one thing would be left clear to Hono'o - that little pull she had felt. It had only been a small pull, a slight tug that had stopped before it had even started. If she wished to find out what body had attracted John's soul, she'd have to get close to it. Really close. In fact, to be absolutely sure, she'd have to check every person in a vegetative state she could find.

And in a hospital this size, it would take her a long, long time to check each person individually...

...But perhaps, if she used her head, not too long.

She just had to think, and try to figure out the quickest way to find the person who had rolled past her. It had only been around half an hour, not even that long.

It's amazing what you can find out if you have a name-tag and looked like you belong.

The head nurse looked up at Hono'o once, before looking back down to her papers, flipping through them with a small sigh. She looked as tired as Hono'o had not moments before. "Had a couple of John's and Jane's admitted from that bus crash, they've been sent to the ICU for treatment and observation, we're waiting to see whether the cops can find any ID so we can start properly treating them...other then that, there's the coma ward up on the third floor, we've had about....four come in from another hospital for that special brain treatment the doctors are looking to study..."

The ICU was on this floor, and not far away. The Coma ward itself was an elevator ride away.

The good thing about coma patients is that, instead of needing constant attention, they mostly just lay there. All you needed to do was empty their bedpan, give them a sponge bath twice a day, and monitor their vitals to make sure they were....well, still living.

Even though it was a sure thing most of them had checked out sometime before.

That was the problem with most medical care these days - invalid people were not very well looked after. What with all the spiritual mediums floating around, it was now very well known when a soul had left the body. That only left one option - letting nature take its course. Whilst the debate for soul-transference was still being hotly debated, a lot of people still found it very unethical, not to mention spiritually unsound - transplanting a heart or a hand was one thing....but to take the soul of a dying person and implant it in another body? What would the relatives left behind think when their loved one got up and began walking and talking....but as a difference person. Worse - going on to love someone else in their wake?

It was one of the main reasons why it had only been done once or twice in a medical facility. That, plus the spiritual powers needed to perform such a thing....

Unfortunately for Raven ((And yes, I considered it for a long time but decided against it)), the woman was not the one who had given the pearl a tug. The pearl sat in it's box calmly, the tiny container to her lover's soul as still as his bodies' shredded heart.

She would have to move on.

There were over twenty rooms in this ward, with four coma patients in each. Unless she was willing to grab one of the nurses and begin getting some more info out of her....

There were so many bodies lying in these beds...so many vessels left open, so many lives snuffed out but with a reminder left behind so vivid you could still call it alive...

It was not uncommon for only the kindest of the nurses to venture into this ward, the ones either experienced enough to cover their flinty hearts with cotton wool, or the young ones who did not fully understand such things.

There was only one nurse in that night, a slim woman with brown hair. As Hono'o moved through the rooms, she would see the nurse travelling through the rooms as well, checking on the beds one at a time, just like Hono'o. She did not seem to be enjoying her job at this moment in time - indeed, she looked almost frightened, as if she was scared of something. Perhaps the gravity of this ward was beginning to get to her...or, judging by the bags under her eyes, she was just tired and emotional, and today had been a long day...

...In any case, as Hono'o was moving to another bed, the nurse looked over the charts of a man lying very still, as were all the patients in this ward. He had an IV in his arm, but aside from that, seemed to be breathing fine by himself. His face and upper shoulder had been bandaged recently - you could tell by the fact that he smelt clean, and the bandages still smelt fresh, his skin pink from the scrubbing he'd received once they had taken him in.

The nurse looked over his chest, chewing on her bottom lip as she did, before placing it back on the bed-end and moving up to touch her hand to his forehead. As she did, a bracelet she wore, one of those chain bracelets with all the little charms on it, jingled slightly as she pressed the back of her hand to his head, feeling his temperature. Frowning slightly, and shooting a furtive look to Hono'o, the woman hooked the IV to the bed and slipped the safety off the wheels. Although she looked slim, she clearly had enough strength to get the bed moving all by herself, and she smiled apologetically to Hono'o as she pushed the bed past her, the bed coming so close Hono'o would either be forced to move between two other beds or lean up hard against one of the bed ends...

...But as the bed passed, the pearl would shift in it's box towards it, like a compass pointing north veered off course towards a magnet held up to it, before falling still again as the bed moved past her...