Still, Ran appreciated the encouragement, and the effort that she knew he must be making to give it in the first place. That he would do something like that despite the amount of pain he was in... she never ceased to be amazed by Conan's bravery.

She went as quickly as she could and still keep the stitches neat and even. It was incredibly nervewracking work, and she could feel beads of sweat trickling down her face before she was done, but she didn't dare pause to wipe them away. She just kept working, stopping only to clean away Conan's blood when it made it too difficult for her to keep her grip on the needle.

Finally, after what felt like hours, it was finished.

Ran let out a shaky breath and examined her handiwork. It was hardly perfect -- it looked quite messy and painful, really -- but the important thing was that the bleeding had almost completely stopped.

She did a light and quick cleaning of the wound with the same antiseptic that she'd used to sterilize the needle and her fingers, and then carefully pressed gauze to it, leaning over slightly to see Conan's face. She wanted to make sure he was all right before she bandaged it. "Are you okay, Conan-kun?"