Title: Of a Weak Heart
Author: Kamel
Theme: Pre-Series: Parent Meeting
Genre: General
Version: Anime
Rating: PG

Pairing: n/a

Words: 3,500

Summary: Her mother promised her it would be just like every other doctor's appointment, but this trip to the hospital ultimately changed the life of Hino Rei forever.

Notes: Written for LJ community, smmonthly.

Little legs dangled off the edge of the hard plastic conjoined waiting room chairs within the many halls of Juuban Secondary General Hospital, a place of which that has become very familiar to the small child at such a young age. The plain, long creepy walls no longer scared her, the constant scent of cleaner, or antibacterial products no longer bothered her though she preferred to be outside in the courtyard where she could be without the smell. All together, the young girl would rather be anywhere but here, however these long visits often led to quality time with her mother – away from her father, and those were always the best, the time strictly for girls, strictly for mother and daughter.

"Is mama here for a check-up again?" the little girl asked, tilting her head to the side as she gazed up towards her mother. They were nearly splitting images of each other – nearly. The only difference was the child's long dark hair was straight; she did not inherit the wavy locks of the mother. "Didn't we just come here for a check-up?"

Hino Risa knew her daughter was sharp and she knew that even thought she was doing her best to hide the truth from Rei, Rei could see right through all the lies. However, the little girl beat around the bush with her questions. Risa did not have the courage to tell her the truth, that her mother was actually suffering from an illness, that her mother was afraid of all these check-ups and doctor's appointments especially when they were the normal routine check-ups such as this one. Rei did not have to know how fragile her mother was, a mother is suppose to be strong for her children.

"Yes," she answered honestly, her voice soft and delicate; there was no beating around the bush for that one. These trips were often boring for Rei, therefore they were not forgettable. "But… this time, it's a different appointment."

"How is it different?" Rei further questioned.

"This is a different doctor," Risa answered. It was the only difference she would voice to her little girl; Rei did not have to know anything else. "She just wants to make sure mama is alright," the older woman reassured, patting the top of her daughter's head.

A small smile overcame the child's face, making her brighter, happier – she was always such a serious child, Risa had often noted, but she was also playful in her own way. She enjoyed visiting her grandfather's temple; she had taken a liking to the crows that occupied the place and went out of her way to name two of them. She called them Phobos and Deimos and had told Risa they were her good friends; Rei had an active imagination.

"Hino, Risa-san?"

Two pairs of deep lavender eyes rose up towards the nurse who, with clipboard in hand, was waiting at the beginning of the hallway leading away from the waiting room. There was a shuffle of feet behind the nurse as a young girl, around Rei's age, Risa guessed, stepped to the side. Risa gazed down at Rei with a faint smile, she could not see her mother weak, and she could not allow it. "You will wait for me here, Rei-chan? I promise not to take long."

Silently, Rei watched her mother stand on up from the discomfort of the waiting room seat she had occupied, the smile that had once graced her face had turned into a small frown upon witnessing mama-san wince slightly, a look of pain flash across her face momentarily. This doctor's visit, it was not like the rest and simply because there was a different doctor was not the answer. She gave the older woman a nod of the head, singling she understood, allowing Risa to take the few steps closer to the nurse before she bowed.

In return, the nurse had done the same, before extending a hand towards the blue haired child. "Ami-chan, why don't you play with Hino-chan?" she offered. "You know the waiting room can be quite boring, why don't you take her to the court yard? If it's alright with Hino-san," the nurse quickly added, gazing towards the patient.

A grin overcame Risa as she nodded to the idea. These appointments were always dull for Rei; all she did was sit around and yet – getting some fresh air with someone her own age sounded like a splendid idea. She gazed over her shoulder, watching Rei climb down from the seat. "Don't cause any trouble," she needlessly warned, her daughter was always well behaved.

"This way please," the nurse indicated as she turned upon her heel to lead Risa down the hallway.

"You brought your daughter to work today?" Risa asked, curious.

Taking a look over her shoulder, the nurse shook her head with a dim smile. "Ami-chan is Dr. Mizuno-san's only daughter," she corrected. "Minzuno-san is always very busy and Ami sometimes spends the day here with her."

Back within the waiting room, Ami had barely moved from her spot at the end of the hallway; she was never one to be social, new people made her shy and she could already feel the blush slowly take over her cheeks as lavender eyes scanned her over. "Umm," her voice was quite, barely audible. "D-Do you want to go down to the courtyard?" she stuttered.

Rei nodded to the suggestion, though she had grown use to spending time alone out here in the various waiting rooms within the Juuban Secondary General Hospital, she did not mind the idea of being elsewhere while her mother was seeing her doctor – as long as she was back in time to spend the rest of the afternoon with mama. Briskly, she began to walk away from the other girl the adults had called Ami. "Are you coming?" she asked in return, not bothering to turn around, she could tell she was not being followed.

"Um!" Ami stood on edge as a jolt of energy caused her to rock back and forth on her feet, a nervous habit. "Yes," she murmured, shuffling her feet towards the other girl – she was a little weird. No, not weird, weird was not the right word. She was weird, she was always studying and never among others her own age to play with; this girl, she was just a little different.

XXX

Slowly, Risa exhaled, trying to get herself to calm down, she hated being in these small rooms, waiting for the doctor. These rooms were always eerie silent, too clean with nothing out of place. She wondered what would happen if she just… nudged one of the instruments out of place, would anyone notice? Would employees come sweeping down on her for soiling a germ-free habitat? At least, she would think they would be free of germs; they always smelt of bleach, the whole room reeked of it.

The woman winced slightly, a faint hiss passing through her lips (the chest pains were getting a bit worse) just as the door of the room opened, causing her to sit up and her heart to race against her chest; she had not expected the doctor so soon. The opening door revealed a woman just a bit older than herself, a woman with a slender figure who was able to pull off those white lab coats rather nicely. Glasses hid dark blue eyes from truly shining and an even darker shade of blue hair were combed back, not a strand out of place. To be honest, Risa would not have expected Dr. Mizuno appearance to be as such, compared to her primary physician, she was stunning.

"Hino-san," the woman spoke, bowing slightly before further entering the room. She took a seat on the wheeled chair provided within the room as she flipped through the folder containing personal information rather quickly. "I'm told you have a little one of your own also? Ami-chan rarely spends time with children her age, this is a nice change."

"My Rei-chan…" Risa began, watching as Dr. Mizuno gazed through the different sheets in her record. "She can be the same way, but she is a good girl regardless of the company she keeps."

In return, Dr. Mizuno nodded, a faint smile tugging on the corners of her lips. "I have the same feelings about Ami, she's determined to be a doctor herself, she's very dedicated to her studies."

"She comes from a good lineage," Risa commented, her hands grasping her knees which her skirt covered slightly. Appointments made her feel nervous, being back in the hospital made her feel uneasy, it felt as if a drape was hanging over her, full of dread and gloom – something did not feel right. It was not this place, and it was not Dr. Mizuno, Risa could not place it.

A minuscule sense of pride shown through in Dr. Mizuno's smile at the statement, she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose before returning to the file. "I'm sure, as mothers, we could rave on about our children all day if we could, but we have a matter at hand here," she noted, bringing them back to reality. No, they were not just a couple of mothers chit chatting over tea about their kids, they were doctor and patient – Risa was here for a reason and Dr. Mizuno was to help in any way possible. "You have just paid a visit to your primary physician hardly a week ago according to the papers, correct?"

Dr. Mizuno looked up and witnessed Risa confirm this information with a nod of the head. "I was feeling fine at the time, but…" her voice now trailed off. Why was it always admitting things to someone in the medical field always frightening? Was it because as of right now, Risa had no idea what was going on and in a matter of moments Dr. Mizuno would crush her with the truth – that something was really wrong? Dr. Mizuno would rip away the mask this problem was hiding behind and actually give it a face, give it light. She could not let this scare her, after all, she made the emergency appointment, she wanted to know why all of sudden this was bothering her.

"But?" Dr. Mizuno repeated as silence fell upon them.

Risa gazed up with a weak frown. "But… I've been having chest pains," she stated. "It feels like… there's heaviness in my chest," she added, placing a hand just below her neck as she started to rub the area gently.

Chest pains.

Now more than ever, Dr. Mizuno looked concerned, especially since the primary physician had noted several times over in the record that Risa suffered from a weak heart – this was something not to take lightly. Already in her mind she was ruling out possibilities of carbon monoxide poisoning or lead poisoning for that matter. She had been tested a few times for Tietze's syndrome, all to come back negative – could this be caused from a panic attack or anxiety? Surely being the wife of a politician was not easy.

Whatever the case may be, Dr. Mizuno knew they could be racing against the clock. There were now tests to be done, examinations to be held. Standing up from her seat, she put on the ear pieces of her stethoscope and held the end gingerly in her hand as she carefully, with the aid of Risa, lifted the woman's shirt. "Can you take some deep breathes for me?" she asked, placing the cold end against warm flesh, causing Risa to jerk slightly at the touch. "Sorry," the doctor murmured quietly as Risa began to take the deep breathes.

XXX

"You play basketball?" Rei asked, watching as the other girl pulled out a cleverly hidden orange ball from behind the bushes lining the courtyard. Ami had been out here this morning and upon entering the building once more, she did not want to take in a dirty toy, therefore she hid it to be retrieved later.

Holding the ball to her chest, Ami shook her head at the question. "I'm not very good at sports," she muttered, she was so soft spoken and everything she had stated, Rei had noticed, was all formal. "My friends play, I help them with their strategies," she felt inclined to explain. "Do you play, Hino-san?"

"Rei," she corrected. Hino-san, as far as she was concerned, was her mother.

"Rei… -chan," Ami murmured. "Do you?"

The raven haired child shook her head as she held up her arms, ready to catch the ball. "The doctor says mama shouldn't play sports, so I don't play because mama can't, but we go to the park all the time," she answered. "She pushes me on the swing and we also go to grandpa's temple a lot."

For a second, Ami gazed down at the ball in her hands and then over towards Rei – a game of catch was simple enough, it did not require a lot. She bounced the ball over to the other girl. "You're grandpa has a temple?"

Catching the ball, Rei nodded. "The Hikawa Jinja," she said proudly, tossing the ball up in the air. She caught it herself once more. "Grandpa's a Shinto priest."

"Oh, wow," Ami replied, intrigued by the bit of information. Needless to say, she wanted to find out more, that was in her nature, of course. If possible, she wanted to know everything – she believed that the more knowledge she had at her possession, the better doctor she would become when she grew up and she promised mama she would be the best doctor there ever was. She knew she had quite the name to live up to. "Are you going to work at the temple when you grow up?"

Rei shook her head. "I'm going to be an idol!" she stated excited, tossing the ball back to her playmate. "I'm going to model, sing my own songs, and act too!" The young girl could already picture herself dancing on stage to a full audience – no, she was not going to end up at the temple, there was no reason for that, but she would visit, yes. She would want to see grandpa along with Phobos and Deimos.

XXX

Small breaks were a rare thing for Dr. Mizuno, but she seized the chance in between tests. She had left Risa in the hands of the x-ray technician and her nurse for the mean time, in order to fetch herself a cup of coffee, a hit of caffeine is exactly what she needed coming off a night of being on call. They had just finished a round of blood tests and they had moved on to x-rays, Dr. Mizuno wanted to check once more for any possible sign of enlarged costal cartilages that would obviously point to Tietze's syndrome.

Her free hand resting on her hip, dark blue eyes gazed over the thick rims of the glasses she wore to stare out the window overlooking the courtyard. She had a clear view of the two girls bouncing a ball back and forth to each other, causing a faint smile to form on her thin lips. Taking a cautious sip from her cup of coffee, Dr. Mizuno turned around, coming face-to-face with one of the nurses who immediately bowed at her.

"The technician is finished with Hino-san," she informed upon standing up straight. "The costal cartilages appear to be fine."

Appear to be fine and fine were two completely different things, especially in the field of medicine. How many times did one problem try to disguises itself as another? Dr. Mizuno nodded regardless. "I want a CT scan however," she replied. "It will give us a better picture than the x-ray," she added unnecessarily. "I will be there in a moment."

"Right away, doctor," the nurse replied, giving her one more bow before taking off, allowing Dr. Mizuno to return to gazing out the window. The two girls were still in the same place, still tossing back and forth the ball. It was nice to see Ami enjoying herself and Rei seemed like a sweet girl. The Hino family were good company, she concluded, finally stepping away from the window, Risa was waiting for her to return. Finishing off her bitter cup of coffee, she tossed the empty disposable cup away in the trash can next to the coffee marker before venturing back out into the hallway.

As she entered the proper lab, the doctor closed the door quietly behind her before joining the technicians at the monitor. She leaned over the control panel and pushed down on the intercom. "You're doing alright, Risa – this should not take much longer," she reassured. "Are you feeling alright?"

Risa was doing her best to not allow the small space to get to her; this was a surreal feeling being in this machine. It was loud, it was small, she did not enjoy it one bit – a sense of impending doom fell over here. In this space, she was immobile, she was trapped. Risa could feel her breathing growing a bit shallower, she was starting to feel a bit dizzy, nauseated. It had to be from the loss of blood, she tried to reason with herself – how many vials did they take? She was not sure, but the number, whatever it was, had taken her by surprise at the time. This was nothing to be concerned about, she was over reacting.

"I'm alright," she answered.

Dr. Mizuno lifted her hand from the button and took a seat herself next to one of the techs. Momentarily, their eyes met and they nodded to each other. However, only a few silent seconds would pass before them. "The picture's not coming in clear, she's fidgeting," the man informed. They were not going to get an answer if this continued; this machine was extremely sensitive to motion.

Once more, Dr. Mizuno found herself leaning over the control panel, bringing her lips close to the microphone as she pressed down on the intercom switch. "Risa, you have to remain still-"

"My left arm hurts," Risa interrupted.

To the best of her ability, Risa was trying to flex her left arm while messaging it gently with her right. She could not shake the numbing feeling from it, she could not feel her arm at all when, suddenly, sharp pains shot up and down the limb, the pain radiating up to her jaw. The woman gasps for breathe as the pain strikes her chest, her whole body is shaking as the machines around her start beeping like made, but the sound is lost upon her. She barely heard the door to the scan room swing open with such a velocity or Dr. Mizuno shouting 'code blue,' whatever that meant, and 'she's crashing.'

XXX

Rei had just lifted her arms to catch the ball Ami had thrown, but her dark lavender eyes immediately widened as she stood on edge. The ball simply bounced past her as her breath hitched in her chest; something was wrong. "Mama," she murmured. Without a second thought, she ran past the confused Ami and back towards the building they had ventured away from. She did not know her way around this hospital; she always followed mama to the necessary waiting rooms, that was it, but in this moment… Rei knew exactly where she was going.

Her legs could not move fast enough, she urged herself to move faster, she had to move faster because she had to get to mama. Something was wrong and she needed to see mama. Her foot collided with the edge of the step of the stairs she had been running up and she flew forward, but managed to catch herself by the railing – it did not mean she did not get hurt. Now her leg was throbbing, but she went on, she could not stop, she had no reason to stop. She could feel her stomach tying itself into tight knots, making her feel sick – something was really not right.

This was a part of the hospital she had not been in before, but she was going the right way, she knew she was – something was telling her it was. Mama was close. Rei watched as two nurses ran past her, she tried to keep up with them, but slowed down as they entered the CT scanning room, this was the room mama was in.

"Mama?"

"She's not responding!"

"Mama?" Rei repeated as Dr. Mizuno's head jerked up from within the room, her eyes landing on the small child. She bit down on her lip before ordering one of the nurses to pull the curtain. Suddenly, mama was out of view which only made Rei charge for the room, but she was grabbed by one of the nurses.

"Mama!"

End