Knocking on Heaven's Door }{ [James Clark]

[Sakura Kina]

Sakura's footsteps were abnormally heavy as she made her way from the infirmary up towards the front of the ship. She was absolutely upset and she wasn't afraid to show it. She was sure that her footsteps would cause many people on the ship alarm, but she didn't care about that right now. In her right hand was a used syringe, something she had found right after getting back to the ship following their venture onto the Maiden's Mercy to save Kalli. At first she had thought that she had forgotten to clean up after patching up Tari, but she realized what the medicine was and knew exactly who had used it.

She had given him explicit orders not to use the medicine because of the permanent side effects he could incur, but of course she should have known better that to expect him to heed her warnings when the medicine would help him aid his crew during the mission. It was always like him, putting others before himself, taking the bullet for his men, it honestly infuriated Sakura. But at the same time it was also the same thing that gave her so much respect for the captain back during the war. His compassion and loyalty to his men was always unwavering and it had led to many victories as well as lives saved. But that still did not excuse him from what he had just done. Turning sharply at James' quarters, she kicked the door, throwing the door open, whether it was locked or not, having not considered that the captain may have been otherwise preoccupied. She stood at the door, syringe in her left hand and a pistol in the other, her eyes filled with rage. She wasn't going to shoot James, but it would obviously get the point across that she was mad.

"JAMES!!!" Sakura was FURIOUS.

[James Clark]

James had been in the process of washing his face after recent events he needed some water on his face. When he heard what sounded like a stamped getting closer and closer. He ignored it and continued washing his face until Sakura appeared gun in one hand and syringe in the other. Busted. "Patch I can explain..." he begun using his nickname for her from the war. His throat dried up and he was unable to finish his sentence. Captain Clark was rarely speechless but he was right now.

[Sakura Kina]

"Patch I can explain..." Sakura jerk her right arm, which held the pistol, back causing the slide of the pistol to slide back fully and then spring forwards again, cocking the first round into the chamber. "I told you specifically NOT to use this!" She raised her fist with the syringe up to eye height, clenching her fist to the point where her knuckles turned white. She honestly didn't know what to say to James, she was so furious with him. This was probably the most reckless thing he had done from the day that she met him and that was saying something; James was ALWAYS reckless, especially when his recklessness would save other's lives.

"I seriously don't know how you can explain yourself right now James, this is crazy! Even for you!!" She was getting more and more upset, not because he had disobeyed her directions not to use the medicine, but because she was absolutely worried that the medicine would truly disable his leg permanently. The drug named Anxinobenzoate-072 was a compound that was created by the Alliance R&D facility originally to try and create a drug that could temporarily induce a high rate of biological regeneration, which would in theory allow soldiers to heal damaged tissue, muscles and organs at an extremely quick rate. The drug was a success for only a few tests, up until they realized that the efficiency rate was only 15%.

The drug also had a very common side effect, happening to more than 60% of patients, which would delink all the nerve cells in the local area of where the drug was applied permanently crippling any soldier that had to deal with the side effect. Not only would this drug have weakened the Alliance's manpower had it gone through trials somehow, but it would have also damage the people's trust in the Alliance military, something they had been having trouble with already at that point. In the end the drug was discontinued, though many Alliance R&D facilities still held cases and cases of samples of the Anxinobenzoate-072, hoping to alter the formula just enough to curve the side effects and increase the efficiency of the regeneration. That was when James and Sakura as well as the rest of the Trinity crew had hit the Alliance facility, 'borrowing' a lot of Alliance R&D data as well as medicine, though they had gotten away cleanly with the help of a few old friends from the Independent army.

But now Sakura regretted every being interested by the Anxinobenzoate-072 on the shelf in the facility, she should have realized something like this would happen. But she didn't think James would be so rediculous! "You want to explain yourself? You have a minute before I decide to make you permanently crippled whether the drug will do it or not!!" She didn't truly mean it, but if he gave a ridiculous enough of a reason, she just might twitch and put a hole or two in James' foot. Nothing serious, but enough to make him learn a lesson.

[James Clark]

James thought long and hard. He calmly spoke in the face of Sakura's anger "She's on my crew" the words flowed out. Him and Kalli had been close ever since St. Albans where they had become a little bit intimate. But the words remained the same regardless of that encounter on the ice world. Kalli was a member of his crew and he would go to hell and back to bring her back safely. Sakura knew he would do the same for anyone and he would have done the same during the war.

[Sakura Kina]

Sakura stood there, half in disbelief and half in full belief of the few words that James spoke. She was upset at him for doing such a crazy thing, but it was definitely not far out of the ordinary for him. She lowered the gun and sighed, putting the syringe down on top of his dresser. "James, you're going to get yourself killed one of these days if you keep going on like this.." Sakura couldn't help but smile as she began to see the good intentions in James' actions supersede the recklessness of it. "Still, I guess your luck has been good thus far.." Putting the gun down beside the syringe, she walked up closer to James only a few feet away from him. Looking into James' eyes, she could see the fire in his eyes of always wanting to keep his crew, his men and women, safe. Getting closer, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him in a bit more, their faces only a foot away now. Then she slapped him across the face, not extremely hard, but pretty gorram hard. "That's for being an idiot."

Sakura then pulled him in and kissed him on the lips. Pulling away, she looked away, turning beet red from what she had done. "And that's for being the James that I know..." Sakura said softly as she looked at the ground, still holding onto James. She wasn't really sure why she had done that, but it most likely had to do with the tension between the two since they had first met, all piled up into this one moment. She was going insane inside, she didn't know what to think. On one hand, there was James who was an idiotic, passionate Captain who never left anyone behind no matter the costs. Then there was Sakura, who was the down-to-business, 'shoot first, ask questions later' medic. This would never work out... Would it? She couldn't believe what she was thinking. Again, she caught herself acting unlike herself, like a lady. She finally came to the conclusion that the coma must have really done a number on her head... Once her blushing faded, she dared to glance at James, wondering how he would react. He would probably still be confused as to what happened, considering she had just slapped him and then kissed him, but she decided to let him absorb what had just happened before doing anything else.