Waki watched with vast annoyance as Tsume roused again, summoning up the dregs of her willpower to see her through it. "S'fine," she murmured. "He smells fine. Jus' need some time, s'all. S'okay..."

"Yes, yes," Waki said, wishing they'd all sleep. "Everyone is fine. We're all here. You--" he pointed to the male nurse, "--and you--" the female nurse. "Get those beds and put the sides down. Slide them up along this bed. Keep the dog in reach! No, no, not there! Over here!"

"What dog?" he heard the woman ask.

With great exasperation, he pointed to the human male hooked up to wires and tubes. "That one!" Did he have to explain everything?

The Inuzuka opened her eyes to stare around blearily as their bed was moved yet again, but in the end there were two beds crushed together, within an arm's length of the comatose dog. The large man kept chattering, asking for coffee or pills, gaze flickering to and from the beast.

He'd have to come to terms with that on his own. Waki wasn't a psychologist.

"No coffee. No pills," he said, pausing when all was said and done and the nurses had left. He reached out with one age-spotted hand to check the boy's pulse. Then he glanced over the Inuzuka and the genius, clipped a chakra monitor to each of them, and stepped back.

All three adults were crowded into the double bed. The dark haired man was on the bottom, bolstering the other two, as strong as slate and just as fragile. Tsume had slipped into unconsciousness again, cradled on a broad chest spattered with the gore of a half-decimated dragon. One of her hands rested on his stomach, curling gently into a paw. The silver haired man was on the other side, long slim arm reaching across all of them to anchor everyone in place, even in sleep. To keep them all where they belonged, for the time being.

To one side, machines beeped and hummed, and with the hiss of a respirator the dog-man's chest rose and fell.

Waki nodded once. "The Inuzuka are a pesky clan," he said to the only conscious guardian in the room. "Enjoy the quiet. They'll be in shortly." Then, muttering about pills and dogs and chakra amputees, he turned and tottered his way from the room.