Disclaimer: Haruka & Michiru belong to Naoko Takeuchi. Credits also go to Robert Munsch. Everything else belongs to me.

Love You Forever

"Doctor! She's flatlining!"

"Give me 10 c.c of Epinephrine STAT!"

A nurse nearby quickly handed the adrenaline filled syringe to the attending physician. With the syringe in his hands, without another word, he jabbed the entire length of the needle directly into the woman's aorta region.

"One minute and counting."

Everyone in the room froze, their eyes glued to the wall clock hanging in the corner. The usual accompanying background noises of an ER were completely mute; the only audible sound heard was the sound of the second hand ticking away.

"30 seconds and counting…15 seconds…" A nurse announced.

The ECG monitor showed no sign of life.

"One minute's up! She's still flatlined."

Tearing the woman's hospital gown to reveal her bare chest, the doctor climbed onto the stretcher and began administering frantic chest compressions. "Get the defibrillator! Charge 150 volts!"

"Charged: 150 volts ready!"

"CLEAR!"

- o -

She skimmed through the shelves with her index finger, trying to find that one book she was looking for. She had just passed L so the M section would be coming up soon.

"What are you looking for?"

"A book…"

Michiru raised an eyebrow; questioning whether she had heard right. "Don't you think it's a little too early to be looking for children's book?"

"Nope. And here we go!" Haruka bent down to retrieve her long sought after prized possession with a childish smile on her lips. "My mom use to read this to me growing up back in the States. What can I say, it's a classic."

"I didn't know you were such a Munsch fan."

"I didn't say that I wasn't my dear Michiru...there's a lot about me you don't know…"

"Really? Like what?"

"Don't you worry your pretty face; you have a whole life time to get to know me better."

With the book held under one arm, with the other, Haruka took Michiru's hand in her other one, and began swinging their hands in a back and forth motion, like a couple of love stricken teenagers.

"Alright, so we have the book, clothing, formula, and diapers…I feel like I'm forgetting something…"

"Umm…the crib?"

"CRIB!" Haruka began smacking her forehead at her own stupidity, for having such a blonde moment. "How could I forget something so important?"

Sensing the blonde's immediate anxiety, Michiru began to gently pat Haruka's back in a soothing motion. "You have to relax Haruka. You're stressing yourself out for nothing. We have plenty of time, the baby isn't even due for another…what? 5 months? So please, let's just enjoy each other's company for the day. Hakuna Matata."

A heartfelt smile graced Haruka's tense face; Michiru always knew what to say. "Lion King? I think you've been watching too much Disney lately."

"What can I say, it's a classic." Michiru giggled whole heartedly.

- o -

After spending a small fortune clearing half the items off the shelves, they left the store with 5 large bags. Correction: Haruka left the store with 5 large bags; she wouldn't even let Michiru carry the lightest of the bags.

"Stay here; I'll go get the car."

"Haruka, I'm pregnant, not disabled, I can walk the one block's distance."

"Fine, if you want to help, here, take this." Haruka handed Michiru a single bag, the single lightest bag of the bunch, the one with her book inside. Just as Michiru was about to rebuttal, Haruka spun on her heels and hauled ass, sprinting down the street childishly yet as quick as she could, not providing Michiru with the slightest chances of objecting.

As Michiru stood there at the end of the street, her gaze hadn't left the shadow that was Haruka's back. Since last month's Braxton Hicks contractions scare, Haruka was becoming a helicopter parent, wait, scratch that, more like a helicopter wife. It had taken almost a year's time, and 5 sessions of in-vetro to conceive this miracle baby; Michiru couldn't blame Haruka for being such a nagging wife, at the end of the day, she meant well.

A sudden poking sensation against the base of her spine brought Michiru out of her daydream-like trance.

"Don't move or I'll shoot…"

Michiru froze on the spot, dropping the shopping bag she held in her hands from shock. The man's booze soaked breath wafted against the lobe of her ear, sending shivers down Michiru's spine.

"Slowly back into the alleyway…now!"

Michiru swallowed a lump that had collected in her dry throat. Doing exactly as her captor ordered, Michiru began to slowly back into the alleyway, taking the man's lead. Once hidden between the shadows of the two buildings, the mugger shoved Michiru to the floor.

"Please…just take what you want." Without contesting, Michiru handed the man her purse. Like presents on Christmas mornings, the man began rummaging through Michiru's purse, turning everything inside out, pouring out all the contents within onto the tarmac floor.

"¥3000? That's all you have?"

Pissed that he wasn't getting his money's worth of work, the man began to viciously punch Michiru in the face, breaking her nose, dislocating her jaw, and causing massive laceration tears on her forehead.

"Michiru?"

The sudden interruption of a foreign voice caused the mugger to stop dead in his tracks. Thinking quick on his feet, he covered Michiru's mouth with his massive right hand, with his other hand, he held a dead man's grip on her throat, closing Michiru's esophagus. Michiru tried clawing at the man's hands with her nails, trying to pry the man's hand off her face, but they were bolted tight, she couldn't get them to even budge. With her legs flailing up and down, Michiru began clawing and scratching at anything and everything, hoping for a gasp of desperate air. It didn't take long before her heavy lids drooped, allowing the surrounding blackness to consume her, numbing her senses.

"Michiru?" Haruka yelled. Just as Haruka was about to re-enter the store, thinking maybe Michiru had gone back in, she stepped on something. Taking her foot off the object, Haruka bent down to pick up the bag she had handed Michiru only moments earlier, with her book still inside. Haruka's eyes doubled in size as a look of worry and panic struck her. Pulling her cellphone out, Haruka quickly dialed the familiar number as she began running up and down the length of the block.

As Haruka ran passed a coffee shop, a faint yet familiar sound caught her ears, causing them to perk up. It was faint but Haruka recognized that tune from anywhere, it was Michiru's ringtone! Running back down the opposite end of the street, Haruka stopped dead in her tracks in a secluded alleyway in between a salon and an adult video store; it was there that the ringtone was at its loudest.

Entering the urine soaked alleyway with caution, Haruka inched forward, step by step, with each step she took, her heart raced faster. The cellphone Haruka had gripped in her hand slipped from her loosened grasp; she had found Michiru.

- o -

"How bad is it?" Haruka asked in a broken voice; she was choking up from her river of tears.

"Not good. She had been deprived of oxygen for an extensive amount of time. From an EEG we conducted, Ms. Kaioh's…"

"JUST STOP!" Haruka released a loud sigh before raising her arms up in the air apologetically. "Just…please, layman's term."

"She's brain dead…"

The doctor's words hit Haruka in the face like a brick wall. Haruka's legs fell from under her as she landed on her ass, her knees pressed against her chest, sitting in a cradling position. Taking a handful of her blonde locks, Haruka began to silently sob away at the pain building against her chest, as the reality of the situation began to process in her mind numbing brain. As tear after tear began to stream down her silk like cheek, Haruka began banging the back of her head against the hospital walls. Thud after thud. Bang after bang. It wasn't until the attending doctor had cushioned his hand against the wall did she stop.

"…I wasn't done yet. As you are well aware, there is the issue of the fetus…"

It was the first time anyone had mentioned the baby. At the first mention of their child, Haruka immediately gripped the man's collars, pulling him closer. "What about the baby?"

"Ms. Kaioh's body is experiencing shock, even after her brain death. She's experiencing multiple organ failure, her lungs have been compromised, her kidney is failing, and her liver is starting to bleed out internally. If the fetus continues to stay in the womb, the toxins secreted by the failing organs will severely compromise its development, and in extreme cases, death."

"…fuck." Was all Haruka could bring herself to vocalize.

"Ms. Kaioh had entered her second trimester some time ago. The fetus' organs have already developed, just not fully. If we perform an emergency caesarean section, with intensive neonatal care, the fetus has at least a 40% survival rate. But…"

"But what…?"

"The hospital can't perform the C-section even with your consent. Ms. Kaioh's body is too unstable for surgery. Even with your consent, its suicide, there's no way our legal department or our malpractice insurance will green light it. As long as Ms. Kaioh is living, and breathing, we cannot perform this risky operation."

Haruka sprang up from her seating position to slam the doctor against the wall, her grip not loosening once around his collar. "You want me to choose between my wife and my child?"

"I didn't say that…but essentially, yes."

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Haruka raised her right fist high into the air, ready to strike the man that was supposed to be Michiru's doctor, the man who saw to it that she gets the best damn care available.

"You can hit me but that won't change a thing. I'm asking you to be logical, for the sake of the child. With each passing hour, the fetus' neurological development and health is compromised with Michiru's condition."

Haruka's fist dropped in mid air, her head held lowly. "How long do I have to make this decision?" Haruka asked with a heavy hearted sigh.

"One hour, two hours max. Ms. Kaioh's currently on a medical ventilator…"

"…I understand."

- o -

There were so many machines and tubes coming in and out of Michiru that it pained Haruka to no end, yet with her eyes closed, it looked like Michiru was just dozing off again, ready to wake up any moment now, refreshed from her nap. Taking one of Michiru's hands that didn't have an IV in it, Haruka brought the delicate hand up to her lips for a gentle, yet loving kiss. Haruka held Michiru's hand to her cheeks, allowing her tears to soak her delicate skin.

This was the hardest hour of Haruka's life, and she wanted it to be memorable, for both her, and Michiru. Releasing Michiru's hand, Haruka surveyed the room until she found what she was looking for, placed in a secluded corner. There, Haruka picked up the dirtied white bag, and the book they had purchased together earlier.

Taking Michiru's now iced cold hand into her own once more, Haruka swallowed hard before continuing on. Her voice began to break, in barely a whisper, Haruka began reading to Michiru.

"A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and while she held him, she sang: I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."

The hardcover book was only 32 pages in length, and would have taken no more than 5 minutes max, but Haruka read in a steady and slow pace, prolonging the inevitable for as long as she could. It wasn't until Haruka got to the last page did tears once again consume her eyes, her hands shaking uncontrollably, all the while holding Michiru's hand.

In the last sentence of the book, Haruka read: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my wife, my Michiru you'll be."

Closing the book with a reluctant clasp, Haruka gently placed the book on Michiru's chest, above her baby bump. Taking a deep breath, Haruka walked over to the ventilator that was by Michiru's bedside. With an unsteady hand, Haruka pressed the power down button on the machine, immediately deactivating the air reservoir tube.

Haruka bent down and kissed Michiru's sweet lips one last time. As a single droplet of tear fell from Haruka's cheek onto Michiru's face, Haruka whispered: "I'll love you forever."

- o -

A/N: Guess who's back? Huh? Eminem? No. Me. Jce. Anyway, I'm done being lazy and well…lazy, so I'm back to writing. But I've decided to try something new. This new project will be a series of one-shots. We'll see how it goes.

This story was inspired by Robert Munsch's book: Love You Forever. I don't know why, I was walking through a bookstore and it sort of jumped out at me. Seriously. It bit me in the fucking ear. The clerks had to beat it down with a swifter wet jet. Regardless, many of you have probably read it before, and if you haven't, go watch an episode of Friends: The One With The Cake, for a rendition. This is my little spin on the book.

Tell me what you think. I'm going to get working on my other two crazy assed creations now.

w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-e-e-e-e-e-e…

PS: Did it bring you down? Even just a little? Maybe a little?