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Sometimes
by Carla Pinilla.
Prologue - Trailing behind footsteps.
Megumi looked at the toddler, and smiled. "Didn't I tell you not to run off with those kids, Odoroki?"
"But-but- I wanted to go and play with them!"
"Oh, no doubt you did, but you know, you can't always do what you want. These are the consequences!"
"Conse-what?"
"Consequences. It's like this: when you do something, it causes something to happen. And this is what happens when you run out of the house without my permission!" she said, starting to tend her son's skinned knee.
Her son...
It had *really* been a surprise when she saw the little baby on her doorstep, someone had abandoned him there. Ha! And she thought that only happened in stories! The baby was sick, so she took care of him. No one ever claimed to be a relative of the child. She grew fond on him, so she just adopted him. And they lived happily up until now.
He had really brightened her life, and she felt really at peace now that she had a son. A kid to call her own... she had always wanted that. And she would never leave him like his family did. Or like HER family did to HER, for that matter.
"Kaa-chan?" the kid asked her. "If I go outside tomorrow, will I get hurt again?"
"No, sweetie, you can go as long as you ask me, okay?"
"Okay!" the kid ran to his room, and Megumi smiled. He had run off again.
There was a knock at the door, and she went to open it. Standing there was one of her neighbors.
"Takani-san, this letter came for you this morning," said the guy, handing her a letter.
"Thanks a lot, Masaru," said Megumi, and when the guy left, she closed the door.
She sat in a chair, opened the letter and started reading it. It was from Hiro, a young man who used to be her assistant sometime ago. He left one day, because he said he wanted to be known all over the world. Megumi helped him, and now they kept in contact. He told her about everything that happened in there, in America.
"Tuberculosis epidemic?" she murmured, reading the first parragraphs of the letter. She continued reading until she reached the last few lines.
*Please, Megumi, we need you here. You have to come. We need your help. Please. Sincerely, Hiro.*
"Please, come?" Megumi said. "Like, me in America? Well, I had never thought about that before." She read the letter again. "But then, if the situation is as dangerous as it sounds..." she turned around. "Odoroki, come here for a second!"
The boy came in running, and exclaimed, with a too-innocent-to-be-true face: "I didn't do nothing!"
Megumi glanced curiously at him, but shrugged it off, as she had more important matters at hand. "Odo-chan, what would you say if I told you that we're going to America?"
A cute glimmer started to form in the eyes of the kid. "America? Sugoi!"
Megumi smiled. "I figured you'd say that."
One week later, both of them were disembarking in the America.
"Megumi! Odo-kun! I'm here!" exclaimed Hiro from... somewhere in the middle of a mob of people.
"I saw him! I saw him! He's over there, kaa-chan!"
"Ah, Hiro! There you are!" exclaimed Megumi when she got to him.
"Milady," said Hiro, bowing and kissing her hand, very much like he used to do when he was working with her.
"Oh, Hiro, stop it with the mock curtsies, ok?"
"If you so wish. Come, I'll take you to my house, where you'll be staying."
"Yatta! We're in America!" exclaimed Odo-kun, and latched onto Hiro's leg.
All in all, Hiro's house was the biggest and most beautiful mansion Megumi had ever seen in her entire life.
"How did you get this... fortress in such a little time?"
"One of my patients, Shinuzaku-san, gave it to me after I saved his life. Said I would need it more than him. So, now this is like a hospital."
"Great. I've always wanted to work in a real hospital."
"Kaa-chan?" asked Odoroki.
"Yes, Odo-chan?"
"This house is BIG."
"I know that, dear."
"Hey, big boy, want me to give you a tour?" offered Hiro.
"Sugoi!"
So, Hiro showed them the whole mansion, in and out, up and down. Odoroki was jumping up and down and Megumi had to restrain him or he would break something. Hiro just laughed.
It was then when they got to a hallway full of rooms.
"This is where I tend my patients," said Hiro, "but, maybe it's not the best moment to show it to you, Megumi, with Odoroki here and all."
"But I wanna see EVERYTHING!" exclaimed Odoroki.
"Now, Odo-chan, if Hiro says we can't see it now, then we can't. He'll show us later."
"But Okaa-chan..."
"No buts, Odoroki," said Megumi sternly.
"Don't worry, Odo-kun, we'll take a stroll through town, instead," said Hiro.
"Yatta!" exclaimed Odo-kun, and once again latched himself onto Hiro's leg.
"So much energy, Odo-kun!" laughed Hiro, walking out the door with Odoroki beside him.
"You are pampering him too much," said Megumi, but followed them anyway.
*Big Japanese community,* Megumi thought. *It makes me feel like I'm home.* The townspeople were very friendly and lived happily, Megumi noted. Everyone laughed and there was music everywhere. There were lots of stands of food, too. *Must be some sort of festival.* She made a mental note to ask Hiro about it when she saw him.
Hiro had taken Odo-kun somewhere to eat. When he offered to buy some rice cakes from a stand, Odoroki replied indignated that he didn't want to eat in a stand, but in a 'restaurant' -with a French accent and all! Megumi just laughed and told them she'd be looking at some stuff she wanted to buy.
And now, here she was, and she had bought too many things. But, even then, those flowered slippers were so cute, and looked so comfortable, that she just had to b-
"A doctor! Please, I need help!"
"Someone call Hiro-san!"
She immediately ran where the screams were heard.
"No, don't call that guy."
"But, he's the only doctor around. We need him, Sa-"
"Excuse me, what's the problem?" said Megumi, rushing between a mob of people, and kneeling beside a fainted woman.
"She started coughing blood, and then she just fainted, miss," said the man who was on the other side of the woman, who was obviously the woman's husband.
"Ok, just let me-"
"Just who are you, anyway?" asked a man from behind her, not too politely.
"I'm sorry, sir, but there's no time for presentations. I have to help this woman," she said sharply.
"You shouldn't be here. This woman is in a too delicate condition to be aided by someone less than a professional. You're just disturbing everyone here," replied the man.
Now, that was Megumi's cue to stand up and face that jerk. "Professional? Like who? You?" She regarded him in anger. He was tall, with brown eyes, a brown beard and, she guessed, brown hair. He was dressed in black pants and a black long-sleeved red-trimmed jacket with no shirt under. He wore a pretty weird black hat, also. (It would've looked Indiana Jones-esque had they lived in the 90's!)
"No, woman, I meant a doctor."
"Then why didn't you call Hiro... -san in the first place, eh?"
"Feh. That guy's a fake. He doesn't know a thing about medicine."
Megumi blinked. Sure, Hiro's methods were a little unorthodox, but he still was a good doctor...
"Well, for your information, SIR, *I* am a DOCTOR."
"Yeah, sure, there are no lady-doctors around here, ok? I betcha you're just one of those snobbish women of high society who think they can fix any problem with their husband's money, and then make themselves a pretty good image in front of everyone."
*SLAP!!*
"You are such a barbarian!" exclaimed Megumi.
The man looked down at her, surprised, taking one of his hands to his now red cheek. He stared at her, as if reflecting something for a moment, with a sort of sad look on his face. But then his gaze turned angry, and he practically penetrated her with his eyes.
"Only one woman," he said forcefully, trough clenched teeth, "only one woman has had the right to slap me... and she certainly wasn't anything like you." The man turned around.
"Well, you should know better than to insult the person who can save your friend's life," murmured Megumi back. The man started to walk out of the group of people, when the husband of the woman called out:
"Please, we have to save Reiko. So I beg you, don't start an argument with the lady-doctor, Sagara-san."
Megumi's heart stopped in her chest. *S-sagara?* "Sagara? S-sanosuke Sagara?"
It was then, when she saw the man's retreating back, that she saw the kanji that was sewn on the back of his jacket.
'Aku'.
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Li'l notes:
1. Odoroki means 'surprise', am I right?
2. Once again, please, pleasepleaseplease, R&R!! *big hopeful puppy face* ^^
