Gone.
Ty knew something was wrong as soon as he woke up. It was around 6am, which was when he was greeted by the rough tongue of a cat on his face. With a groan he lifted up his upper body to pet Liho's head and slide out of the twin bed.
"No kisses, Liho." He said quietly, stepping over a few displaced toys that were scattered across his room as he made his way towards the room adjacent to his.
Nat's room was much larger than his, though the queen sized bed in the middle of it made it look smaller. He enjoyed sleeping in here and playing hide and seek with Liho though the red head didn't approve of either of those things.
Ty paused. He didn't need to even turn on the lights to realize that there was no one in the bed. His heart began to race nervously. He knew that she worked late just like Dom and Tweety did but Nat was always back before he woke up. The most horrible of circumstances began racing through his mind. What if something happened to her? What if she's dead? Shaking these thoughts from his head, the six year old decided that she had just been held up by something. There was nothing to worry about. Probably a bad guy who couldn't keep his mouth shut so Nat wanted to prolong his suffering.
The hours passed and Ty sat by the large window of the studio apartment, Liho by his side, as they both watched taxi's and cars go up and down the street-but never Nat's. Not once Nat's. It was around 1 o'clock in the afternoon when Ty looked over to the home phone, sitting on the kitchen counter. He thought maybe call Tweety-but if he was just overreacting and Nat came home later he knew she would be upset. No. Don't call. She's fine. Of course she's fine! She's a ninja!
"We shouldn't worry Liho! She'll be home soon." As he pat the felines head he noticed Liho had a very disengaged look about her. Like her mind was somewhere else. Though this was normal behaviour for normal cats, it wasn't for Liho. She was always focused. Her attention could rarely be swayed. Much like the assassin that had yet to return home.
6PM
Call. She still isn't home.
No, she will be soon. Just wait.
But what if she isn't?
She will be. She never hasn't come home.
That's exactly why you should call.
Ty stared at the phone in front of him, thoughts swirling around in his mind, they were all conflicting.
After a few more minutes of debate, Ty decided it would be worth Nat's rage to make sure that she was okay. Just as he was reaching for the phone it began to ring. As if it had been planned to be precisely that moment at precisely that time. He took a nervous breath before picking up the phone and answering.
It was Tweety.
They didn't exchange much of a conversation, he merely said that he was coming now to pick him up from Nat's apartment and take him to her. But his voice wasn't normal. It was cold and disconnected.
Ty felt an unsettling feeling wash over him and he quickly ran into his room, finding his bookbag that's only decoration was a large, green, TRex in the center.
"Liho, c'mon!" He shouted out for the black cat, who quickly trotted out of Nat's room. Without a second thought, Ty picked her up and shoved her inside the bookbag. Considering it had nothing in it there was plenty of space for her to fit.
"Shhh, stop it." The six year old swatted at the cat's face as she let out a low hiss and growl. "You can't do that...I'm taking you to Natter, LiLi." Ty whispered softly, zipping up the bad, only leaving a small and unzipped portion open at the top so Liho could breathe properly.
By the time he had gotten Liho situated in the bag, Tweety had already pulled up to the front of the apartment. Tyler put on the backpack and walked out the door, going carefully down the stairs to meet Tweety, with a happy grin on his face. He was excited to finally be able to go see Nat but also wondered why he hadn't been able to speak with her on the phone. Why Tweety hadn't explained anything.
Frowning as Clint opened up the back seat for Ty to climb in, "Where is she Tweety?" The six year old asked in a worried tone.
"We're going to see her." Was the only response he got back.
That was not the answer he had been hoping for. Grumpily, Ty crossed his arms over his chest only after gently setting Liho down-the bookbag down-next to him in the car.
The drive was silent, Tweety had turned the radio on at a low volume so that it just sounded like an annoying fly was buzzing around the inside of the car.
When the vehicle finally came to a stop, it was at the oddest place. A hospital.
"Tweety, you said you were taking me to Nat." Ty's brow furrowed slightly as he leaned his head against the window to get a better view of the large, white building.
Tweety went around and opened his door, letting him slide out of the seat of the car-bookbag in tow. Ty barely heard him whisper,
"I am, Ty."
Clint walked ahead of him quickly, obviously eager to get inside.
They were greeted by a friendly nurse at the front desk who had large glasses sitting atop her mousy brown hair which was pinned up into a neat bun. Nat never wear's her hair in a bun. The nurse and Tweety were talking, obviously somewhat familiar with each other but Ty wasn't listening to them. He wanted to see his Natter. He missed her so much.
The nurse finally pressed a button on her desk and the doors that led to the ICU ward buzzed and opened up. He could see doctors going from room to room, people in wheelchairs and on crutches walking up and down the halls, disappearing in different directions.
When it all finally sunk it, Ty's face paled immediately.
Is she dead?
Ninja's can't die, silly.
Ty reached up to hold Tweety's hand as they walked into the large hallway. He didn't mind, he didn't even seem to notice.
The hallway seemed miles long, but they finally arrived at a room at the end of the hall and Ty could see through the large window, though the blinds were pulled halfway down, a red headed woman laying on the white bed, quite obviously asleep.
Bouncing up and down on his feet as he pointed to her. "Tweety, look!"
"Yeah, I know." The archer replied gently, entering into the small hospital room.
Ty followed after quietly, making his way around the side of Nat's bed. She was hooked up to something that beeped every five seconds. An oxygen mask covered her face while her torso was heavily wrapped with bandages that were ever so lightly stained with a bit of red.
Everything began sinking in and he understood. Ty gently set the bookbag containing Liho down on one of the chairs that was pressed up against the wall of the room and opened it to allow the cat free access to the small hospital room.
Though there wasn't enough room for another person to sit on the bed there was enough for a child to easily lay next to whoever was on the bed; unfortunately this happened to be Nat.
Tweety didn't stay for more than a minute, claiming he needed to go get some coffee. Ty didn't mind though. He pulled himself up onto the bed and gently pressed his nose against Nat's cheek, his blue eyes filling with unshed tears.
"Natter…" He mumbled, shaking her shoulder gently. Everything hurt. Especially his chest. It felt as if there was something trying to squeeze into little broken bits and he couldn't understand. She couldn't leave him, she was his Natter! He loved her too much for her to just be taken away like this.
"It's Ty-...Tweety brought me. You would be real proud, I snuck Liho in my backpack to come see you." He said quietly into her ear.
Why was this happening? It wasn't fair. It really wasn't. He couldn't lose Natter. There were so many people that came and went in his life and Ty had learned to deal with that. But this-this was different. Nat wasn't one of them, she wasn't one of those people. She was his rock, always there, always saying something upsetting or funny, always making him laugh or cry or feel good about himself for punching some mean kid in the face at school. He loved her more than he loved himself or even his dinosaur. Though he didn't realize this himself, everything, absolutely everything he did was to impress her and make her proud of him. Without her he felt as if his world would fall into little scattered pieces.
"You can't leave Natter." He whispered sadly, holding her limp hand in his smaller one. She felt gone. The warmth that she carried around had seemingly disappeared. Yes, she was an assassin but...a different kind. She was very odd. She had a death glare that could kill someone where they stood but-she also had compassion, more than she or anyone else was aware of but he saw it. When Ty was upset she would kiss his forehead and then proceed to tell him to suck it up. When he got hurt she would comfort him and then tell him to go back out again. When he was scared at she would take the monsters out from under his bed and set him back down on it.
The monitor continued to beep for hours and Tweety came in to check up on him occasionally but never really stayed for long. Ty had decided to pretend Nat was conscious, practicing reading books to her that he kept in his backpack for school, talking to her and explaining different kinds of dinosaurs and how they interacted with each other.
After a while though the pretending got to be upsetting. She wasn't responding to him,she wasn't listening. She wasn't there.
Eventually, Ty was too tired to care about trying to wake her up and he snuggled back up against her, giving her face kisses, which he knew she hated, maybe even enough to wake up.
Sleep weighed heavily on his mind. But he just couldn't. Nat was always like a guard dog at home, noticing every little detail of every different thing, but right now she couldn't. So for now it was his job.
(to be continued)