Author note: I have no experience nor much knowledge in the medical field. I have tried to be as accurate as possible. If any of its inaccurate, just pretend it's accurate XD
Disclaimer: Hatori belongs to the Author of Fruits Basket. Mizuki belongs to me~
Reviews are very much appreciated ^.^ ~ Telley xo
It had been quite a dull day at the hospital that the Sohma Family financed the majority of it; Hatori constantly dedicated most of his time to when he was not at the Sohma Estate fulfilling his duties as the family Sohma Physician. It wasn't until he was paged with an emergency that things took a more eventful turn.
Hatori had been sitting at his desk, in his office, completing paperwork that he had been meaning to catch up on, when he was interrupted by a nurse who had paged him "Doctor Sohma, Code "
Code Blue meant 'Medical Emergency' which they must have brought the patient through the Emergency Room.
Hatori ran out of his office, careful not to bump into the female nurses as he sprinted down to the Emergency Room. Upon entering, he already saw a young girl, she was no older than 8, lying on the gurney. He frowned as he quickly assessed her injuries. Her skin was almost grey, she was panting from not breathing properly had lost a lot of blood for someone her age.
The girls eyes blinked at Hatori and she whimpered in fear. Hatori looked down at her and his coldness melted away at seeing how much she resembled his younger and most cherished cousin, Kisa. "You're going to be okay." He told her as he placed the oxygen mask over her face to open her airways which would help to breathe easier. He received a nod from her and the fear in her eyes turned to trust. He looked at the nearby nurse, "I'll need a CT Scan from her." He received a confirmation from the nurse and turned back to the young girl on the bed. "My name's Hatori. Can you tell me your name?" All the while, he was keeping an eye on her vital signs on the monitor and looking for symptoms on her body whilst continuously keeping his eye contact with the young girl. He knew better than to become personally attached to his patients. But the moment he spoke to her, the fear in her eyes turned to trust and he hadn't had that happen to him with a patient before. It gave him a strange new sense of confidence.
"Mizuki." The young girl looked up at Hatori. "It means 'Beautiful Moon'" she proudly told him.
"Ah, but the moon is no match for the beauty of yourself." He gave her a small smile and her eyes sparkled. He pressed around her abdomen for any internal damage and when he received a shriek of pain from her, he quickly apologised whilst sprouting orders to his medical staff.
"She's got internal bleeding. Prep her for the OR immediately."
"'Tori?" Mizuki asked, immediately grabbing onto his coat, it was the only thing she could reach.
Hatori turned around and grabbed her hand whilst the medical team began moving them from the Emergency Room to the Theatre Room where Hatori could operate on her.
Small fearful eyes met Hatori's reassuring ones."It's okay Mizuki.I promise we'll make you feel better. Do you trust me?" He looked down as she nodded; determination in her eyes.
"The lovely nurses are going to take you in a new room where you'll breathe into a mask. I'll be there shortly. You'll be put to sleep and I will personally make sure the pain goes away."
"So I'll be okay?" Hatori smiled softly at the young girl.
"I promise you will be okay." He told her, giving her small hand a squeeze of comfort as she was wheeled into the opposite room.
Hatori wasted no time in scrubbing his hands and arms thoroughly as per surgeon should, the CT Scan results were placed up on the board above the sink where Hatori could assess it before he operated on her. The results showed major internal bleeding from 5 various checkpoints. It was easy enough to access, but it meant he had to work fast. "She's asking for you." Interrupted the Nurse, Hatori sighed and gave her a curt nod before finishing and drying his arms from any soapy residue. With his hands outstretched he waited as the nurse placed the gloves on his hand, placed the gown around him and placed the surgical mask over the bottom half of his mouth.
Was this risky for a member of the Zodiac to be working in such conditions where one could easily be stressed and overwhelmed by the amount of patients or bumping into the opposite sex in such a hurried pace? Yes it was risky. But Hatori was born in the medical profession and this came naturally to him. He didn't allow himself to be stressed. He couldn't afford to be stressed; not just for his sake, but for the patient's sake as well. One wrong mistake and it could be life threatening. He took extra care to avoid bumping into the opposite sex at all times.
Walking out the medical bathroom, he went straight into the theatre room where Mizuki was lying on the operating table, her frightened eyes turned to eyes of relief at seeing Hatori arriving. The nurses and other doctors were on standby awaiting Hatori's orders.
"Mizuki? How are you feeling?" he asked her as he pointed to the Anaesthetist and then to Mizuki, silently telling him to get the anaesthesia mask ready for her.
"Better. But I still hurt." Her eyes followed his every movement. This man was the only one who took the time to talk to her and put her fears at ease. She didn't want him to leave her side at all.
"The pain will be over soon." He said as her eyes lifted up to watch the mask being placed over her face and he gently said, "Breathe normally, Mizuki. You'll be asleep soon."
"I...trust you...'Tori..." she mumbled as the anaesthesia began taking affect and making her drowsy, her eyes slowly shut beneath his kind gaze. He never once took his eyes off of her until she was completely under the anaesthesia.
Straightening up, Hatori turned his attention from the young to the Nurse."Scalpel." Hatori ordered the nurse as she handed him the sharp instrument. Pressing the blade of the scalpel against Mizuki's skin to make an incision, he began his work. The one thing that he had become so easily taken to the girl, apart from her almost-near resemblance to Kisa, was how brave she remained during her ordeal. He never once saw her cry. Little did he know just how much trust she truly trusted him.
He was the only person to speak to her like a normal person. The moment she was taken out of the car wreck and onto the stretcher, no had bothered to ask her, her name or how she was feeling. Or that it was going to be okay. They just gave the other person orders and were talking with words she couldn't understand; medical terminology.
It wasn't until she saw a tall man come running in the Emergency Room and look her in the eyes. She saw nothing but kindness in those green eyes as he spoke kindly to her. 'You're going to be okay' were the first words he told her before asking her name. The fear left her when she understood that this man was the one who was going to make sure she would be alright again. She was happy to tell him her name and what it meant. And she felt her heart flutter with the good kind of embarrassment as he told her that she was prettier than her name. She could only imagine how she looked on the gurney with her face all cut and bruised from the collision; and yet this man still thinks she looked pretty. Her newly found happiness made her forget the pain she was in as she focused her attention on her doctor. Hatori, was his name. Between doing his job and ordering his staff around, he still managed to talk to her and remain eye contact with her. He was her doctor and she trusted him.
As he told her she was going to the Operating Room she didn't mind until she was physically in the room and he wasn't there either. She left it for a few minutes but she was getting scared as the nurses began preparing the instruments and a man was sitting behind her head. None of them spoke to her. "Where's 'Tori?" she asked. "He'll be here soon." Came the simple reply. She couldn't pronounce his name properly and so she called him by the shorter version, which happened to be one of his pet nicknames his cousins seem to call him from time to time other than 'Ha'ri'. Machines were being hooked up to her without an explanation and she began to get increasingly scared – especially without Hatori there to tell her what was going on. "'Tori?" she asked again to which one of the Nurses sighed and walked out of the room. Mizuki watched her leave and then stared at the white light above her. She really hoped Hatori would be coming back soon.
She waited in fear until she heard his voice call her name. Her body sighed in relief at hearing him come back to her. Right now, he was all she had. She no longer had a Mother and she had no other family. She could tell by the way the Paramedics were talking that her Mother hadn't made it. She's eight years old, not five. At the time, she was too scared and in pain to properly process the fact that her mother was gone. And then everything happened so fast. One minute she was in a car accident, the next being rushed in an ambulance with sirens blaring. And then she was pulled out of the ambulance and into the back of a Hospital where nurses began bustling around her.
"Her BP's dropping!" the Nurse said as she monitored Mizuki's pulse. Hatori was elbow deep in her stomach trying to locate the last bleeding spot. He had stitched, patched and tied off the five bleeders but she was still bleeding everywhere which meant there was one that was hidden. "Suction." He ordered as the nurse removed the constant pooling blood with the suction instrument. Time was running out and if he didn't find that bleeder and clamp it off, she would be beyond help. Working quickly, he poked and prodded through her organs, carefully lifting and moving to check for any holes. The tension was evident in the room as everyone held a hush silence in watching and waiting for the Doctor to find the last bleeder. The tension was so thick you could almost grab the scalpel and slice through it completely.
And then he found it. "Clamp" he ordered quickly, snatching the instrument out of the nurses hand to clamp down on the hole to prevent it bleeding further. He glanced up at the monitor of the ECG machine that track of her blood pressure and heart rate. It was beating steadily "BEEP. BEEP. BEEP."
But before he could sigh in relief, the unexpected happened. "BEEEEEEEEEEEEP~"
The machine flatlined.
"No. No. No. No No." His mind thought frantically as that soul-crushing sound rang out through the otherwise silent operating room. With the clamp securely in place, he dropped the remaining instruments in the tray next to him and immediately moved to her side where he started CPR on her.
"Get me the Defibrillator ready!"
"But Doctor So-" the Nurse started to protest stating the girl is otherwise dead. There was no need to work extra hard on her when she had no family to go back to. She was now an orphan.
"I said get it ready!" Hatori growled as he continued to administer the CPR pumping manoeuvre.
The Nurse said nothing more as she got back to work, getting the gel and pads ready to place over the girls' chest. She never heard Hatori ever speak like that at all.
He snatched the paddles from the Nurse and placed it over the gelled patches on Mizuki's chest. "Clear!" He stated before pressing down to deliver the electric shock to her chest.
When the machine still flatlined, he handed the paddles back to the nurse as he continued manual CPR before trying again in another 30 seconds.
He held his hands out for the paddles, and the nurse gave them to him.
"Clear!" He said again, only to be met with same results and switched back to the 30-second CPR manoeuvre. "Come on, Mizuki. Please!" his mind begged for her to come back to him.
Third and final time for the defibrillation technique. Placing the paddles over her chest again, his mind screaming "Please, please, please, please!"
"Clear!" Her body jolted under the electric discharge but the machine continued to flatline.
No. Not this. Not her.
The sound of the monitor flatlining and a voice belonging to his colleague saying "There's nothing more you can do for her." were sounds Hatori never wanted to hear as a Doctor.
Breathing deeply in the rush of panicked adrenalin, his eyes widened in disbelief at it all. The young child that now lay lifeless on his operating table and him standing beside her, his white scrubs splattered and stained with her blood. Just hours before he had looked her in the eyes and promised her. He PROMISED her he would do everything he could.
But what he did wasn't good enough. He had all the medical expertise in the world and access to all the equipment and medicine, and yet, it still wasn't good enough. He had failed her.
"Doctor Sohma?" but the voice fell on deaf ears.