"Saguru-kun," she cries out for her fiancé between gasps of shallow breathes. He arrives in the well-designed bathroom in a matter of seconds, bringing with him an air of comfort to her. She only has moment to thank her stars that he's here for her before a wave of nausea drowns her and she throws up again. It comes as a second nature to him, he's by her side, holding her hair back, and whispering all of the benefits of her struggles will eventually add up to.
"Morning sickness is quite unpleasant, isn't it?" he offers her his condolence after he gave Aoko time for her to brush her teeth. She nods with a gently smile and laces her fingers between his. "I'm just glad that it's you her with me and not him." "Let's go in the kitchen. I'll make us some breakfast," he tells her with a kiss to the forehead, avoiding her comment. She's not hungry, but using his hand for support, she wobbles into the dining room. Her hand securely wrapped around her swollen stomach.
He fixes her something simple. Toast with butter and a strawberry jam that his father sent him from England because it was his favorite as a child. He could make her something more sophisticated and substantial like an egg Benedict or a country omelet if she asked, but she's having enough trouble managing to take more than three bites of the toast that sits in front of her. Hakuba ends up finishing the rest for her.
She stands up to fix a cup of earl grey breakfast tea in her favorite pale blue mug. He tells her to sit down, that he'll do it for her, but she insists to do the meager task without help. Aoko doesn't make it to the fridge before her water breaks. She's crying before it hits the ground. "I'm not ready," she gasps. "Saguru-kun, not yet."
He kisses her cheek and coaxes her sobbing into silence. Rushing, he grabs the car keys and leads his fiancée outside into the car. "Come on darling." On the way to the hospital, twenty minutes away, he passes every red light that challenges him. "Megure-keibu is going to kill me for this later," he tells Aoko, in attempt to lighten the mood. He squeezes her hand but she doesn't respond. The car ride is silent the rest of the way except for the occasional squeaks that Aoko releases in between her spells of weeping. They come in cracked sounds of fear as the sky fills itself with the oranges and reds and purples of the sunrise. He wants to tell her it's going to be alright, but he doesn't understand it quite right himself. The great detective with his incredible reasoning is lost as to why this is happening. The colorful rays blind him for a majority of the ride.
Only after she's hurried into a distasteful white room surrounded by foreign nurses dressed in a sterile blue does Aoko gasp from a flood of pain. She makes a whimpering sound and Hakuba is left standing, lost in the midst of the chaos. The entirety of the situation seems surreal as he stands alone, apart from the masked female nurses scuffling about as Aoko lets occasional moans and whines slip.
Hakuba's in a daze, though he's not the one struggling on the cheaply made bed. He's utterly overwhelmed and accepts a chair when a nurse, one with startling blue eyes highlighted by impressively lush and long eyelashes, leaves her undesignated post to deliver. "Thank you," he mutters. The nurse doesn't return to Aoko, rather, she seems hesitant to. There are enough nurses surrounding Aoko that the one goes unnoticed. So instead, she keeps him company, asking Hakuba not only insurance questions that are answered absent mindedly, but of the soon to be mother's recent history that goes more personal than the basic nutrition and wellness questions.
"Are you the father of the child?" the nurse with deep blue eyes asks, and Hakuba looks up at her. "Shouldn't it be assumed that I am?" he responds. The nurse doesn't seem taken back or embarrassed by the question, she simply repeats it, with a tinge of regret and sadness tainting her voice. Hakuba takes a second to reply, and his response comes with its own share of pain. "I'm sure you can guess who the father is… Kuroba." The nurse doesn't flinch. She- or rather he, gives a small smile of defeat.
"I just had to be sure," is all he says. He sinks down onto the tiled floor beside Hakuba's chair. Neither of them says anything, settling into their own unsettling emotions as Aoko continues to make pained noises. At least an hour passes.
Hakuba briefly wonders how Kaito knew that Aoko would go into labor on the particular day, or perhaps he had settled at the hospital that Aoko would get her checkups at for a period of time near her due date. His curiosity seizes him as he thinks of Kaito stretching a mask over his face and dabbling in makeup and the scrubs of nurse's uniforms for an opportunity to see his child for a single moment. He half considers revealing Kaito's identity, but he felt as one father from the same child to another, he owed him at least his presence of his child's birth.
Aoko had been in labor for six hours before the lead doctor declares the need for a C-section. Hakuba's face immediately pales and instinctively, rather than to see his struggling future wife, he glances down beside him to Kaito. Though his face was unchanged, no doubt because of his rubber mask, Hakuba noted Kaito's hands, clasped together and held close to his face. Kaito never expressed to hold faith in high school, but the two people that Kaito held the most affection for were being held at risk.
"Hakuba-san, would you like something to drink?" he asks half an hour in when one of the nurses holding a bloody towel calls him out to provide aid. "Hot earl grey tea. With lemon and honey," he asks shamelessly. He would have resigned if it was anyone but Kaito. But it is, it's him dressed as a woman nurse, offering to pick up a drink from the lounge room or the cafeteria to calm him down.
Aoko's sedated gasps trickle heavily into the room. Kaito is gone for too long, Hakuba suspects he left. When half an hour passes, or more precisely, thirty seven minutes, fifteen seconds, and twenty three milliseconds pass, Kaito returns holding a Styrofoam cup and hands it to Hakuba. "I used sugar, they were out of honey. I'm sorry," he apologizes, too sincere to be one of a hospital lacking honey.
Hakuba only takes sips as the tea was over steeped, leaving the drink to be overcome with bitterness only set off with three sugar cubes still melting at the bottom and a thin slice of lemon floating at the top. The tea is lukewarm.
Aoko lets out a final whimper and the doctors and nurses around her dissolve into murmurs. Hakuba stands up and makes his way over to the table. "Is everything all right?" he asks stolidly. One of the nurses instantly looks away from him and he has his answer. "Can I see Mashiro? Doctor? Can I see our daughter?" Aoko asks weakly, still under the influence of the sedatives in a sleepy voice. A thin film of sweat encloses her pale face. "Doctor?" she asks again, with a hint of frustration. Hakuba's by her side, instantly by her side and offering her words of condolence. She can't seem to understand.
Hakuba glances at the mess of Aoko's efforts. The doctors place the lifeless four pound body into a box the size and shape of a shoe box. One young nurse dabs pointlessly at her blood stained apron and starts to cry. "It's her first miscarriage," one of the older ladies apologizes for her. She's rushed out of the room in a flurry of sobs. The rest of the group bow to him and apologizes for not being able to save the infant.
"Saguru, the baby's alright, right?" Aoko asks, holding her hand for him to take. He grips it, and looks her straight in the eye. His stomach churns to see her like this; the poorly made tea doesn't help in settling it. "The baby's not coming home with us," is all he says. He kisses her forehead and a sob takes hold of her. He finds it difficult to hold back tears himself, but he forces himself to for Aoko's sake. "We'll get through this, I promise," he whispers to her. "I swear." She nods, tears still overtaking her. "I hate him. I hate Kaito, that bastard," she chokes out. He looks up, remembering Kaito was there, only to see the lack of the nurse in drag.
He turns back to Aoko, staying by her side until she falls asleep, remedicated, tears still seeping out as she sleeps. Hakuba sits by her, still holding her hand. He doesn't know what to do for her, so he sits by her, and he'll be by her when she wakes up to find her nightmares a reality. Exhausted, he waits.
AN:
I'm so tired. It's been a while since I've been happy…
What did you guys think about the Magic Kaitou 1412 ending? I liked it but I wish it had more closure if they're not having a third season. There needs to be more character development between Kaito and Aoko and more on Pandora.