He thought that they would always be together. Before going to meet her, he had even bought an engagement ring. They were on their way to the same restaurant that his parents had proposed at and he had tried to propose at before. Then everything came crashing down.
Why Ran? Why couldn't it have been me? We were both in the same car! Why did the other car have to hit the side that she was on? Why didn't the rescue people try and reach her first? Shinichi thought as he lay on the hospital bed.
They had just been on their way to the restaurant when another car had come barreling down from the other direction. The person had been drunk and lost control of their car. Both he and Ran had been lost in the accident and Shinichi was left to pick up the broken pieces of his life.
Ran had figured out the truth before he had even turned back into Shinichi. She had confronted him a week before he had gone against the Black Organization. Instead of running from the danger, she had forced her way into joining the mission. They had fought the Black Organization together.
He had almost thought that he would lose her a few times during the confrontation. Bullets had been whizzing past their heads, arms, and legs. Halfway down the hall, Conan was covered in bullet holes from pushing Ran out of the way of fatal shots at the last second.
Why is he pushing himself so? Why can't he let others protect him like he protects everyone else? Shinichi is still human and even more so when he is shrunken to the size of an elementary schooler. Why can't he let me help him? I am not a defenseless girl. I know he knows that, but he could at least show that he knows it more often. Ran mused as they were going down the hallway.
Seeing that a bullet was coming for Conan and he wasn't prepared to move out of the way because he had lost a lot of strength from the rest of the shots that he had received, Ran did the first thing that came to mind. She pushed him out of the way and took the shot herself not caring where the bullet hit her, but hoping that it wouldn't be fatal to her so she could scold Shinichi when they got out of here. He really had to remember that she was a karate expert and not like most of the girls that just sit there and wait for their knight in shining armor to save them.
Conan blinked. He had thought that he would be done for this time. The bullet had been aimed just for his chest right around the heart. There had been no way that he could move out of the path of the bullet in time until he felt a hard shove that sent him flying to the wall.
"Ran! Are you okay, Ran?! Answer me please!" Conan shouted while checking her over after having shot a dart at the one who had pulled the trigger. That person was lucky that there wasn't anything else around that he could use to get the person with. If there had been anything else that he could have used as a weapon that would cause more damage, he would have used it. No one, and he meant NO ONE, got away with harming Ran.
"I'm ok Shinichi. Please, just get yourself out of here and I will catch up to you. We got what we came in here for. Go back and help the others. They need you more than I do at this moment," Ran whispered. The shot wasn't fatal, but it had been a surprise to how much pain she received and she was still in shock from it. How can Shinichi put up with all of this pain? I only got shot once and I am in this much pain. He has been shot at least 6 times just today, yet he still puts up this brave front like he is invincible. I really fell in love with a tough idiot.
"You and I both know that I can't do that. We are getting out of here together or not at all. I will not leave you behind. I know that the others need me too, but at the moment you are more important. Can you stand or do you need help getting up?" Conan asked while trying to push her up to a sitting position at least.
"Do I need help? I should be asking you that Shinichi! You have worse injuries than I do. Why can't you just let other people help you more?" Ran half scolded as she helped push herself up. She couldn't let Shinichi do all the work especially when he is so injured.
Having finally got up, they started on their way again. As soon as they were outside, they were both led to different ambulances with assurances that they would be put in the same hospital room once the treatment was done.
"We made it Shinichi. We finally made it and we did it together." Ran smiled at the small boy next to her.
The Black Organization had been taken down and Ai was working on making a cure from the pill that Conan had brought back out from the Organization Headquarters. They had assurances that the pill would be completed within a month and it would be a few weeks after that that Shinichi would be allowed to try taking the pill. He had to heal before she would let him try to take the pill because the strain from the growing process added to the strain from healing the wounds had a high mortality rate based off the calculations. There was only a 1% chance of survival if he took it before he was completely healed.
Conan smiled back at her and grabbed her hand. "Yes, we made it. There will be nothing more in our way after I get my body back."
"Just promise me that you won't do anything so reckless anymore. I don't want to have to be without you like that ever again. I will wait for you, but I would rather not have to wait again. I am not a helpless girl. I know you are just scared of losing me, but I share those same fears. Every day, I woke up and worried that you might have gotten into too much danger or done something reckless again and wouldn't come back to me. Promise me that you won't do anything reckless like that ever again?"
Conan looked up at her face and saw the tears in her eyes. "I promise, but I expect the same from you. I don't want you running off after some criminal or anything else dangerous even if it is to help me. I was really scared when I saw that you had pushed me aside like that."
"Alright, I promise. Also, please promise me that if either one of us dies, the other won't rush off looking for death just to be together again. Everyone needs you Shinichi, even if you can't always see that when you rush into different dangerous situations all the time. I will do the same, but I want you to promise me this. After all that we have been through these past two years, I realized that we really can be torn apart so easily. It really made me think about what would happen if one of us died."
Conan sighed. He knew what Ran was talking about. It would be hard if that ever came to pass, but he would just have to try harder to make sure that neither of them died before the other until it was from natural causes. "I promise Ran. It won't happen though. I will see to that."
Ran smiled happily and then laid back down on the hospital bed. She looked forward to the day that Shinichi would be back to his real age.
Two weeks later, Ran was let out of the hospital. She promised to come see Conan every day until he was let out.
Conan was lonely on his own, but he did have more friends coming during visiting hours. The whole shounen Tantei-dan came to see him whenever they could get someone to bring him, and now that he was allowed to go out on his own around the hospital, he made even more friends. There were a lot of kids who loved hanging out with him, and even some of the older people enjoyed hanging around him. They thought he was weird for acting so smart, but they found it cute.
"Hi Tantei-kun." Kaito waved at his favorite critic.
They had become good friends during the year before the Organization raid. Both of them had realized that they were after the same goal, but they were going about it in different ways. They started meeting up regularly after they found this out.
Kaito still remembered how it all started. They had been in the middle of the chase when a gun was aimed at them. Both of them tried to push the other out of the way thinking that it was aimed at them. From there, a wonderful friendship had formed.
"Kaito, what are you doing here with those flowers? You know that I already have too many. You have brought one every day along with the other ones that had been brought by the others. Seriously, I could open my own flower shop here," Conan deadpanned when he noticed the bundle of flowers that Kaito had brought with this time.
"Oh Tantei-kun, you know that flowers help with healing. I just want you to heal faster so that I can have my best critic back to chasing me. Heists are boring without you there. Everything is so predictable and repetitive." Kaito grinned back at Conan. "Besides, I know you want to be out of here soon too. After all, you have to get back to your girlfriend."
"We aren't-" Conan started before he shut his mouth. Who was he kidding? Just because there hadn't been any statement of them being girlfriend and boyfriend from their mouths, it was painfully obvious that that was what they were. "Did you bring anymore puzzles or codes for me?" Conan asked to change the topic. He looked forward to the codes and puzzles that Kaito came up with. They were always so challenging and fun.
"Of course! Who do you think I am?"
They continued talking for a while longer before Kaito deemed that it was too late for him to stay. He had more heists to plan anyways.
Conan was let out of the hospital a week after that. He had to wait a while longer to be able to take the pill. During that time, he said his goodbyes to everyone. If he didn't come back as Shinichi, he wouldn't be coming back at all. The shounen Tantei-dan were sad that he was leaving, but they knew that he would be back. His and Haibara's secret had come out when he had been admitted to the hospital. He already made plans to get together with them if he made it through this. Of course, he didn't tell them his plans on the off chance that the antidote didn't work.
A week after he had taken the pill, Shinichi came back. He continued solving cases with the police and caught up on his school work so that he could graduate with everyone. Kaito had taken the tests in his place so that he could pass to his senior year with everyone, but he couldn't have him do all the homework even if Kaito had offered. Shinichi had been doing it slowly when he was Conan, but he had been unable to do any for the past few weeks which made him get behind again.
"Shinichi!" Ran waved as she came running up to his house. They were going on a date today and he hoped to propose to her.
"Ran! You look wonderful. Ready to go?" Shinichi asked as he opened the car door for her.
They piled in and were talking about random things. Then everything went black.
I'm sorry Ran, but I am going to break my promise. Shinichi thought as he tried to crawl over so that he could help get Ran out of the car. The oil was starting to leak and while there was no fire going at the moment, he had to believe that there would be one soon.
He was just about to grab Ran when he was pulled back.
"Ran! Ran! You have to let me go! Ran is still in there! Please get her out!"
Others that were around the car went to try and rescue Ran as the others struggled with Shinichi. Ran never made it out of the car. All of a sudden a fire started breaking out around the door and Shinichi wasn't out of his side yet because he kept struggling to get out of their hold to reach Ran.
How come it had to go so wrong? Ran, why can't you still be with me? I wish that I could meet you again, but I can't break my promise to you. Not again. Last time I broke a promise to you, you ended up dead. If only I hadn't tried to rescue you, the others could have helped you, and you would still be with me.
"Shinichi? You have to eat something. Ran wouldn't want you to act like this. She would want you to continue living," Kaito said concernedly. He hadn't seen Shinichi eat for the last three days since the accident had happened.
"Don't beat yourself up, brat. My daughter loved you. She would hate for you to act like this when she died. I don't get why she ever fell for a brat like you, but she did and I can't have her boyfriend go and die on me. You are the one connection I have left to her, and I know it wasn't your fault. You were trying to save her." Kogorou crossed his arms as he looked on at the man his daughter had loved.
Shinichi flinched at their comments. How can they say that? It was all my fault. Ran should still be here. If Kogorou knew, he would probably beat me to an inch of my life.
Instead of giving in to the temptation to join Ran, he stuck to his promise. Everyone was happy when they saw him take his first bite of food in three days.
It took a while for him to get back to his normal life. His friends came to see him every day and Heiji took it upon himself to move into Shinichi's house to make sure that he would eat enough and not abuse his body even more than normal. Kaito joined him shortly after. All three of them were going to the same university and Heiji was even on the same track as Shinichi.
Shinichi had to admit that he was happy they had joined him even if it made life crazy every day. At least he had more to return to every day besides his thoughts and an empty house.
Shinichi looked at the top of the dresser where an innocent looking package sat. Inside was the engagement ring that was intended for Ran. Closing the door, Shinichi walked out of the bedroom and headed on with his life. He had to keep his promise anyways.