deductionrival | For Conan!

For Conan!

(Stolen from bakerstreet's 'handcuffed' meme)

Upon waking, Conan will find himself in some kind of musty storage room with the faintest scent of chloroform, still lingering on his face. The lighting keeps flickering every few moments and there are several sets of shelves lining the walls sparsely full of unmarked boxes. There's a layer of dust on just about everything and as he becomes more aware of his surroundings, he'll notice something on his wrist and something heavy attached to it.

When he looks, he'll find his friend Hattori laying on the floor next to him. There's a gash on his brow near his temple with dried blood smearing that area of his face and a few other visible injuries like he'd been in a fight. His knuckles are bruised and his bottom lip is split with a dark mark on the side of his jaw where he'd been struck with something. The dark skinned detective is almost perfectly still, giving the impression he was in even more dire shape than those minor injuries if it wasn't for the very subtle movement of his chest indicating breathing.

The oddest thing is the handcuffs that are attached to one of each of their wrists, holding them together. It looks like a very simple police grade cuff, but if Conan examines them they are solid without any cracks to show they open.

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That earns an irritated scowl, but they didn't have the time right now for anything more. (Although he promised himself to get Hattori back for the teasing later.)

He quickly slips the end of the suspenders into a loop and passes the other end up to Hattori.

"Tie it around something," he says urgently. "Then just get your foot in the loop and press the button."

Conan's expression only made Hattori shake with muffled laughter even harder. He really loved it when Conan made that face! Whatever retaliation he got later was worth it to make the very proud detective of the East pout like that.

All humor is pushed aside when things get serious again. Hattori doesn't hesitate to loop the suspenders around the hook and slip onto the window ledge. He puts the other end of the suspenders on his foot and then pulls Conan back into his arms. Just as he launches them into the air, they can hear something heavy hit the door and the sound of splintering. Only one or two more hits like that and the door would break.

Getting to the ground, Hattori hit the button again releasing the suspenders so they would release the hook. They just barely reach his hands before the door upstairs breaks open- something loud enough they can hear even from down below. Without setting Conan down, Hattori takes off running as fast as he can. He gets almost to the tree line of the forest surrounding the building when a few shots are fired in their direction. Hattori curses at their luck but doesn't stop running.

He goes for as long as he's able before his condition catches up to him. Stumbling, he narrowly avoids toppling over right on Conan- instead he twists and falls scratching up the side of his face and shoulder on some fallen tree branches. Conan is tossed ungracefully but onto the ground and not directly into the bramble (so a little better?). For a long moment, Hattori can't get up as the world spins around him and he groans painfully.

Conan knows better than to protest about being carried. Again. Better to get out of sight as fast as possible.

They very nearly made it. But just before they reach the treeline, Conan bites back a scream as he feels one of the bullets cut a deep furrow across his leg.

But there wasn't time to deal with it right now. Rather than draw attention to himself, Conan grits his teeth and endures the mad dash into the woods, as every jolt jostles the injury and sends spikes of pain through his leg. When Hattori finally tosses him on the ground, it is very nearly a relief.

He closes his eyes tightly, and breathes harshly as he tries to control the pain. And then he is rolling up the cuff of his pants and taking a look at the injury. From a glance, he could already tell that he needed to concoct some kind of pressure bandage to stop the bleeding.

When Hattori finds out, he was going to be beside himself for not protecting Conan better. His hope had been to get them both out of harm's way as fast as he possibly could would do the trick. He wasn't sure how much more he had in him given his physical condition.

As it was, he didn't notice Conan's pain as he laid fighting the urge to faint on the ground. There was a thin sheen of sweat on his brow and his fists kept tightening as he struggled, but otherwise had moved from where he landed. It took him a coupe of minutes before he got a hold of himself enough to become aware of his surroundings again and he noticed the smell of blood. It almost made him throw up, but he rolled over and looked at Conan. "Are you o- shit! What happened?"

"I got hit," Conan says bluntly as he busies himself ripping out the lining of his jacket for the material. It was cotton. It should work as a makeshift bandage.

He was in too much pain to worry about sugarcoating the situation. Not that he would have, anyway.

Hattori grunted in pain as he forced himself up. He crawled closer and helped with the bandage. "Sorry, Kudo-san." He'd tried. He knew his friend understood thing hadn't been his fault, but he hated that the small version of his buddy had been injured. Heck, he hated all of this! The concussion, the crazy cuffs that didn't have a latch, loosing his charm, getting captured.. it all sucked.

Suddenly, he remembered something Conan had used before that just might help them. "Your badge! Did they take your detective badge?"

Conan shakes his head. "They didn't take it, but I couldn't use it until now. It's no good when I can't get a signal out." He wraps the fabric around his injury, pulling it as tightly as he can before tying it off.

He casts a glance across both of their injuries and scrubs his forehead with his free hand.

"I have the feeling our options are running a little low." With this, he wouldn't be able to walk out of here. Hattori almost certainly had a concussion, and didn't look like he could push himself much further.

Haibara was never going to let him here the end of this.

"I'll try to get help, but it might take a while before anyone hears me. Keep an ear out for anyone coming after us?"

Finally, some good news! It didn't matter to him that they couldn't use the badge till now. The point was, they had a way to call for help! He could breathe a sigh of relief for that reason alone.

"Right. Tell them we're maybe half a mile northeast of the manor." It was his best estimate given how far and hard he'd ran, but he could be off quite a bit. It may have felt further than it really was. "Hopefully someone can get this hand cuff off of us."

After that, he managed to shut up and focus on listening for anyone coming after them. Twenty minutes later, Hattori gestured quickly for the two of them to lay low and stay quiet. Fortunately the forest was dark and the thugs looking for them seemed to be doing a pretty poor job of a thorough search. It wasn't too long before any sound coming from the band of men disappeared into the night again.

Conan busies himself trying to contact Haibara through the badge. There was a possibility that he'd reach one of the kid's first, but if he could get Haobara she'd be able to reach the professor faster.

Conan suspected that he was never going to hear the end of this from her, after having to actually call for help, but right now they were running out of options and really needed a pick up.

But it isn't until after the band of men disappear that he finally hears someone pick up their badge.

"Haibara," he says quietly, but urgently. "I need the professor to get the car and come pick us up. We're half a mile northeast of the manor."

"Huh, half a mile northeast of the manor," Haibara repeated mildly. "That wouldn't be the manor that you promised you wouldn't be going near would it? The one I said was too dangerous for you and Hattori to go to alone. It couldn't be that one."

Conan's back was to him, but he'd notice a weight on wrist. If he turned to look, Hattori was slumped against a tree trunk they were hiding beside and his eyes had fallen shut.

"Is this really the time to get into that?" he asks irritably. "Just get the professor. Hattori needs to get to a hospital." He is distracted by the sudden shift of weight, and quickly glances over.

"Hattori!" he says sharply. He quickly moves over and shakes his shoulder. "You can't sleep yet!"

Not letting people sleep after a concussion may be mostly superstition, but if Hattori fell asleep right now there wouldn't be any way to monitor his condition.

Haibara opened her mouth to continue to scold Conan when he said 'hospital'. With a sigh, she conceded. If the dark skinned detective really was in that bad of condition, then no, now wasn't the time. She'd just have to- oh wow, okay. It really wasn't the time if he was passing out!

She hurried to wake the professor.

Hattori groaned and tried to weakly swat Conan away. His head really hurt and he felt ill and Conan's voice seemed loud. What else could he complain about? He managed to open his eyes and give the young detective a grumpy look. "We have to wait for them to get here, why can't I nap?" He whined.

He was usually so much more logical and less cranky than how he was acting right now. This wasn't at all his finest hour.

Conan puts away the badge as he focuses his attention on the other detective.

"Because you have a concussion." With the way Hattori was behaving it was almost confirmed by now. He gives Hattori the look that kind of statement deserved. "Think, Hattori. Where is your logic? You know what that means."

It was literally painful having to do what Conan said- to think. It shouldn't be so obvious on his face either how hard the task was, but it was plain as Ran's smile was cheery. Think. Logic. He had a concussion. It was a superstition that people shouldn't sleep while having a concussion, but why tempt fate? Also, if he slept, who would be keeping an eye on Conan who was also injured.

Whoa. How had he forgotten about that? He sat up and felt a jolt of guilt go through him. He was supposed to be taking care of his partner and here he was being so selfish about his own condition. "I'm sorry, Kudo-san." He reached out to rub his face to wake up more and was reminded of their cuff. He looked down at it, alarmed that he'd momentarily forgotten about it. He didn't forget things. He had an eidetic memory! (Well, except calling Conan by the right now, he forgot that sometimes).

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine," he says grumpily. "I doubt I'll be able to walk on this, but this is as good as I can do without any other supplies."

At least the bleeding had slowed down. Now they just had to stay here and hope no one else came in this direction for the next few minutes.

"Haibara is getting the professor. We should have a ride out of here as soon as he can get over here."

Hattori had to laugh. Clearly it was Conan's turn to turn to be grumpy. And no, he didn't blame the Eastern Detective at all!

"Alright." He leaned over and- after blinking away stars- examined the bandage Conan had made. It was bleeding through. With a sigh, he started ripping up his shirt and added it as a second and third layer. He didn't need a shirt, it wasn't that cold out here! Brr. Besides, it was more important they get that bleeding to stop, than Hattori to be comfortable.

After that he tried to examine the cuff again, but it aggravated his headache. "What could possibly be the trick to this? It has to have an opening we're just not seeing. If we were someplace where we could put a match to it, the smoke would outline the break in the material."

Conan sighs, but doesn't protest as Hattori adds his shirt to the bandages around leg. He suspected that was an argument he would lose.

He gladly turns his mind to the problem of the cuff.

"There's no place for a key, but it could be an electronic key, like a remote." If that was the case, it was probably hidden somewhere in that house. No chance of finding it now.

He really was a great detective! Conan knew when he was going to lose an argument.

Hattori's eyebrows rose as he moved the cuff around on his wrist. He hadn't thought about this having an electric key. It would explain the lack of a keyhole. "The hinge could be inside the metal frame too," he observed, agreeing fully with the smaller boy's idea. "I should've stolen the man's gun so we could try and shoot this thing off of us." He frowned, realizing that was again evidence he wasn't thinking clearly. A gunshot out in the forest would surely bring the bad guys their way.

He looked up at Conan with an embarrassed expression. "Please don't tell people I kept making such stupid suggestions!"

"I'll consider it," Conan says with obvious amusement. Remember when he promised himself he'd get Hattori back for the teasing earlier? Opportunities for revenge always came quickly.

"The professor should have the equipment to cut it off at his house. We can take a look at the mechanism there." If they managed to distract him from his latest line of automated watermelon slicers.

“You’re a brat,” Hattori retorted and stuck his tongue out at Conan with his usual touch of humor to his tone. “When the professor arrives I’m telling him you need a time out.”

He leaned back against the tree and looked half ready to fall asleep again before remembering not to do that. “Tell Hubaku about the charm when you show up.” He looked at Conan as though that sentence was supposed to make sense.

"As long as that happens after you see a doctor." Hattori was getting less and less coherent. Conan was concerned.

"Want to try that one again?"

“A doctor for your thing there, I feel fine. I just need a nap then we can go back and get my key I dropped.” He said, gesturing back towards the manor. “If we run into the guy who hit you I’m going to kick his ass for you.”

He tried to lay down again but scowled and looked down at his bare chest. Where was his shirt?

Conan? Haibara’s voice called from the badge. We’re almost there. Can you and Hattori find the road?

Conan glances at his leg, and then considers Hattori's increasing incoherence.

"I'll figure it out," he tells Haibara and shoves the badge back into his pocket.

"Hattori," He says firmly. "We're leaving. I need you to give me a lift and walk north."

Better to keep it as simple as possible, with all the signs of his increasing confusion.

Hattori frowned. There was something off about the way he was being talked to, but he was distracted by the rest of the instructions to figure out how. “Right.” He agreed and got up. Or tried to. It took three attempts but he was finally vertical and not swaying. Picking up the smaller boy, he put him on his shoulders and... needed to be reminded what he was supposed to do next.

At least he was being obedient?

It took awhile- probably more than necessary- before they could finally hear sounds of a car rumbling by. It didn’t sound like the professor’s but Hattori hurried to try and catch sight of it before it vanished down the road. He wasn’t quite fast enough but he didn’t fall either! However, Conan could feel how much the other boy was sweating and struggling to keep this up.

Conan guides him to the road with uncharacteristic patience. By this point he was extremely concerned, and every thought was bent on getting Hattori to a hospital as soon as possible. With a concussion this bad, his thoughts kept going to all the articles he'd read about possible side effects.

When they finally reach the road, Conan could hear the car. Not the Beetle's engine. And what a sign of the other detective's current state that he hadn't noticed that. Not to mention all the symptoms of his physical state.

"Stop!" he says with more than a little worry. "We can rest here. They'll find us."

Haibara still had his spare glasses. She'd be able to locate the badge with that.

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whoops, forgot to switch journals

No worries!

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