A/N: Characters does not belong to me… I'm merely borrowing them. Set in modern Japan, Megumi is around 32 years old and Sano is 29 years old. This is my first attempt to write a fanfic so bear with me. Please R&R
Chapter 1
"I got 10000 yen and a bottle of Sake that says she won't last for two days."
Katsu lounged an elbow on the counter of Kenshin's Pastry Shop and pointed his coffee cup at the long legged raven haired beauty. Disinterested, Sheriff Sagara Sanosuke watched the woman flick in and out of view between the signs plastering the plate glass. He hadn't a clue who his deputy was talking about and he didn't care. Sano had neither time nor heart to worry about females.
He grinned and reminded his deputy of what everyone in the country already knew. "No betting on sake, Katsu. You know I don't drink." Very few people understood the reasons why.
"I know, I know, and you don't gamble either." Katsu said and added "but I still do."
Sano laughed and pushed back the remains of Himura Kenshin's almost famous apple pie. Then the serendipitous Kyoto wind teased the woman's shapely legs, lifting the edges of a blue-flowered skirt ever so slightly, and he realized who she was. Suddenly, the apple pie felt like lead on his stomach. He hadn't known she was back in town.
Katsu, his head tilted in a comical leer, stared at the billowing skirt and chanted prayerfully, "higher, higher. Kuso, she has the prettiest legs I ever seen."
"If your Tae heard you talking about Sake and some woman's legs at the same time you'd be sleeping in my spare rooms again."
Katsu had the grace to look guilty; though he continued to follow the raven haired's progress until she was out of sight.
"You got that right." Katsu sighed. "But Sano, old friend, even though a tough case like you has to be affected when Takani Megumi shows up here after all this time."
Sano shifted uncomfortably and concentrated on his warm, sweet tea. He was affected all right, but not in the way Katsu had in mind. Ten years ago when Megumi had walked away from him she'd taken something he'd never gotten back, his last 30000 yen and a huge portion of his heart. He didn't intend that anyone would ever hurt him that way again.
A scalding sip of coffee washed down the bitterness that rose every time Sano remembered the woman he'd loved enough to die for. He hadn't been good enough for her. He'd known it then and he knew it now. She deserved a better life, and they'd both known an illegitimate mixed-blood troublemaker from the wrong side of town couldn't give it to her. With an annoyed grunt, he clanged the white mug onto the saucer.
Tossing several yens on the table, Sano rose "Come on, Katsu. Lunch is over and we have lots of things to do."
Katsu stood up and followed Sanosuke out the door "Wonder what she's doing here after all this time."
That was also what Sano was wondering.
Takani Megumi was on a mission.
She strode down the sunny main street toward the Kyoto Municipal Building. With every step nearer the man who held her whole world in his hands, Megumi fretted. He was happy, married and successful. She planned never to interfere in the life he'd chosen, but desperate times meant desperate measures. Somehow she'd get his cooperation without hr revealing the real reason for her sudden reappearance in Kyoto.
The huge clock on the grounds of the funeral home read a little past twelve. She blanched at the grim reminder of death, the terrible vulture hovering over her day and night. Death is her enemy, creeping forward with each passing moment. Only the grace of God and modern technology held the monster at bay for now. Megumi opened the heavy double doors and entered the cool, dim interiors.
Aiko, her only child, her reason for living, was dying. Only a bone-marrow transplant could save her, and after several months of searching and testing, no donor match had been found. So, Megumi had done what she sworn never to do. She'd packed a bag and come home to Kyoto to find Aiko's father. She'd come home to find Sagara Sanosuke.
No one sat at the reception desk outside the wooden door marked Kyoto Sheriff Office. Megumi paused, gathering courage to open the door. Throat dry as cotton, her confidence waned. What id he refused? What if this plan to save Aiko failed? Drawing a deep breath to calm her trembling insides, she turned the knob to Sano's office.
The door was locked. Disappointed, she leaned her forehead on the cool brass plate bearing Sano's name. If she hadn't already cried enough tears to fill three football stadiums, shed have broken down.
"Looking for someone?"
At the deep, gravelly voice, Megumi jerked her shoulders back to flawless posture and whipped around. Sagara Sanosuke, older, bigger and far more handsome than she remembered stood a mere three feet away.
Her heart did a foolish jitterbug that she chalked up to nerves. She was scared, not attracted, though any female alive would notice this tall, dark and handsome man.
Wearing a shuttered expression above a crisply pressed uniform shirt, creased blue jeans and brown boots (can you imagine Sano wearing those?) he was still Sano, but with tantalizing change. Lean and tough looking, tall, anvil-shaped body that made him a top Judo athlete filled out the sheriff's shirt to perfection, the olive color of his uniform emphasized his mocha skin and chocolate eyes, his brown hair was shorter and he looked oh so delicious! Megumi's stomach dipped. The handsome boy had become a stunning man. A man who had chosen another woman over her.
She'd wondered about him many times over the years, but nothing had prepared her for this moment. Her ears rand and blood pulsed at her temples. Some deeply buried emotions threaten to rear its head as she took in the man she once loved with all the teenage passion possible. She fought it back. Sano was the past, and she was here for Aiko. Only for Aiko.
Suddenly short of breath, Sano stared at the tall, willowy raven haired beauty with a death grip on his office knob. Takani Megumi was not only back in town, she was standing outside his office, looking up at him with anxious brown eyes that threatened to undermine his resolve never to get emotionally involved with a woman again.
With steely control, he drew some air into his tortured lungs. He didn't want to notice and feel a thing in her presence, but he did.
"Hello, Sano."
She extended a hand, fool that he was; he wrapped his fingers around hers. The jolt of awareness from her skin to his was as powerful as the stun gun. She was warm and soft and k'so she was Megumi, the woman who'd taken his heart to Tokyo and never sent it back. That's why he couldn't breath, couldn't talk. Damn! He couldn't even think.
Like his father, Megumi had been relegated to a mental file marked "unsolved case" so he could move on with his life. Maybe that's why seeing her affected him so strongly and brought back an avalanche of unwanted feelings. Time and hard work had distanced him from most of the pain in his past, but nothing had ever filled the void Megumi had let when she'd stepped on that train and ridden away.
He'd known she had to give the medical world a shot; he had wanted that for her. She and her grandpa Gensai had already lost their house and were barely holding things together. He just hadn't realized it would hurt so much when she never came back, especially after his career-ending injury. Eventually, pain turned into resentment and resentment to bitterness. She'd proved him right. He wasn't worth her coming back to. He'd fallen into a black hole after she left and nearly destroyed himself since then, he'd kept his heart locked away, taking care not to risk that kind of rejection ever again.
If he had a lick of sense, he'd find out what she wanted and send her back to Tokyo – ASAP.
"How are you?" her voice was that smooth alto that had once sent his teenage libido into overdrive. Just talking to her on the phone had been a sexual fantasy. She owned the sexiest voice and she's sweetest girl on the planet.
He slammed the cover on that file so fast his brain ached.
"Doing well, you?" he wiled himself to release her hand, then reached around her and unlocked his office so they could go in. Kami Sama knew he needed to sit down and get a grip.
Standing aside, he let her enter first, catching the subtle drift of some designer perfume. He couldn't name it. Never was good at that sort of thing, though he could sniff out an opium lab or a drunk driver with his eyes closed.
"It's been a long time," she said, her brown gaze drifting around the old, narrow office that he'd worked so hard to gain. His desk, always a cluttered mess, looked even more so today. To her big-city-eyes, accustomed to the best, he supposed this place looked and smelled like a musty hole in the wall.
"A very very long time," he repeated, glancing at the calendar on his desk. Nine years, eight months and sixteen days to be exact. The date she'd left him was a permanent scar on his heart, like a bad tattoo that no amount of surgery could remove. "I heard you did alright for yourself"
"You heard?"
He shrugged, not willing to let her know how he'd scrounged for every drop of info. Praying she'd make it big the praying she wouldn't. He'd even fantasized about her coming back, broke and lonely. In his dreams, he'd been the man she needed, the only one who could help her. He'd been a dumb kid then who'd believe in the impossible.
Sano shifted the weight off his bad knee. Weather must be changing for the old injury act up this much. Or maybe it was the 18 hour day he'd spent on duty, half of it on his feet. He knew his stance had given him away when Megumi's gaze came back to him, drifting down his body to rest at his aching knee. Though her attention was purely curious, Sano's body grew warmer.
"I never did get the chance to tell you how sorry I was about your knee injury. Does it still bother you?"
So she had known, and never even called. Apparently, she hadn't given him another thought once she hit the big city.
"Sometimes," he admitted gruffly. Nearly ten years has passed. Why was she bringing it up now?
Megumi touched his arm lightly, but enough that the electric shock of her touch made his inside quiver. Not just physical wanting, though she had that power, too, but emotional need so intense he wanted to collapse at her feet. After all this times, he was still a fool.
"I always hated what happened to you."
If she cared so much, why hadn't she come home? Why hadn't she been the one to see him through those black days? Why had she left him alone to drown in alcohol and self-pity and to marry the first woman who would tolerate both?
"That was a long time ago." He stepped back from the subtle lure of her perfume, placing the desk between them. "It all happed a long time ago."
They'd been so young, thinking they could have it all. Megumi would be the famous doctor and he'd be the pro judo player. Then they'd find their way back to each other. Trouble was, her dream came true abut the same time his died.
He'd fallen into the black abyss of anger and alcohol, too proud to call her, but furious when she didn't call him. Then Sayo had some along, sweet and sympathetic, willing to tolerate his drunken rages and self-pity. She'd been his anchor during a time when he'd wanted to die. Out of some alcohol-distorted sense of gratitude, and because he needed to believe someone cared, he'd married her after less that a month.
Sano squeezed his eyes shut and blotted out the memories. "So what brings you back to Kyoto?"
And how soon will you be on the next flight out?
He studied the intense set of her jaw, and the shadows above her elegant cheekbones. That's when he knew Megumi was afraid.
What was she afraid of? And what on Kami-sama's green earth could it have to do with the hometown she abandoned years ago? Better question, what did it have to do with him?
"Mind if I sit down?" she asked. Sano tried to ignore the tingle in his gut whenever her lips moved. "I have some important business to discuss with you."
Fighting the need to protect her from whatever demon chased her, and the greater need to protect himself from her, Sano indicated the green vinyl-covered chair across from his desk, and then settled into his own. Immediately, he wished he hadn't. Megumi sat, crossing her legs directly in line of his vision. His chest tightened. Sitting upright, he steepled his hands beneath his chin to block the view. He had to get out of this office.
"Business?" curiosity got the best of him. What kind of business would bring Takani Megumi back to Kyoto?
The phone rang, holding up one finder of his left hand in a 'wait-a-minute' gesture, he punched a button with the right. "Yeah?"
His receptionist's voice came out of the speakerphone. "Mrs. Yuki needs you to drive by her place. She's sure the peeping tom is back."
Taking out his annoyance on the receptionist, he growled, "Where have you been?"
"Even Saito the magnificent has a bladder Sanosuke Sagara!"
He glanced at Megumi, saw her struggling with a grin, and was relieved when she rose and started roaming around the room. He swiveled sideways to avoid watching the swish of her blue skirt.
Having Megumi in his office was bad enough without the hired help humiliating him. But he knew better than to cross Saito Hajime. He was a lot more than a receptionist, and he couldn't manage without her. "Tell Mrs. Yuki I'll be there as quick as I can."
"She said there's no big hurry. And she wants to know if you'll stop by the store get her cat some cat food before you come out."
He'd investigated her "peeping tom" 5 times already this month. Poor old Mrs. Yuki, anything for a company. "No problem."
From the corner of his eye he could see Megumi surveying the row of framed certificates and citations hanging around his small, cluttered office. He hoped she wouldn't miss the collage diploma. As he started to disconnect, Saito spoke again. "Don't be late for the Little League practice."
"Anything else?"
"A meeting with the commissioner at four, the task force tomorrow morning, Kenji's birthday party and the slave auction at the high school-"
Megumi's chocolate eyes, wide with curiosity, drifted back to him. "You are a busy man."
"Goes with the job, so I you don't mind…" he let the words trail off hoping she'd take the ball and run with it. Her visit is starting to get under his skin.
Before she lost her nerve, Megumi settled back into the green chair and plunged the story she'd rehearsed for days.
"I've come home to Kyoto to do some charity work. You know, one of those charity works that would help the medical world."
She'd never done any charity work, though she'd worked tirelessly to increase bone-marrow donors and have even headed a previous drive. Finding cures for sick children had simply become her passion.
"What could that possibly do with me?"
Megumi hadn't expected a red-carpet welcome after all these years, but his cool appraisal turned her butterflies into swarming buzzards.
Normalcy – a condition she could hardly recollect. For a while three years ago, life had almost been normal. They'd been sure Aiko had been cured by the chemotherapy treatments.
Then had come the frightening news two months ago that Aiko's leukemia cells had reappeared, throwing her into the desperate search for a bone-marrow donor, the only hope of cure now that chemo had failed to permanently destroy the disease. Until now they hadn't even considered the last ditch, drastic kind of treatment. For the first time Megumi had no choice but to involve Sano. Aiko was in a second drug-induced remission, but the doctors said it was only a matter of time until the cell began to multiply again. How much time, no one could say.
If she could get Sano to donate blood without him knowing about Aiko, everyone would be better off – Aiko, Sano and his wife. No wife, however devoted, wanted the shock of discovering her husband had an unknown child by his first love.
'I'm involved with increasing the number of donors for the bone-marrow transplant database."
Sano frowned at her, puzzled but clearly intrigued. "Bone-marrow donation?"
"People wouldn't necessarily be donating their bone marrow. At first, there's just a blood test and the donor info is put on a data bank. Then if someone needs a transplant, doctors can access the data bank for a suitable match."
"I thought relatives usually donate bone-marrow."
Megumi's pulse kicked up a notch, the falsely chipper smile tightening. "That's the idea situation, but sometime family members don't match." Like me.
"Any reason why you're targeting us?"
Oh, yes, the most important reason in the world. Their daughter had Sano's heritage and the genetic types that went with it.
"We have very limited donor system, so the chances of finding a match are almost nil. And because the population is small, we need all the donors we can get. I've been working with the bone-marrow registry for a while. Too many kids die who could be saved by somebody if only hat someone had his blood type on file"
"Why come to me? Why not go to the hospital?"
"I have. The hospital administrator thinks it's a great opportunity for PR. The bone0marrow people will send a mobile unit, and we'll accept regular blood donations, too."
"Let me ask that again. Why come to me?"
"I'm lining up all community and civic leaders. The mayor, the school admin, fire chief, etc. your influence…" at Sano's thunderous expression, Megumi clapped her lip together. She'd thought he was warming to the idea, but now the cold, shuttered expression returned.
"Don't expect me to get involved."
Her heart fell "but I thought…"
"You though what Megumi? That you could march in here and pretend ten years hadn't passed?"
"No! That's not what I thought at all." Where had she gone wrong? "As I said, you're the sheriff; you have a certain clout that could be used…"
"Used? No thanks. Been there, done that."
Megumi squeezed her hands into fist, she wanted to scream, to cry, to grab Sano and make him listen. Everything was coming out all wrong.
"That's not what I meant."
With a loud exhale, Sano held out a palm, peacemaker style. "Look Megumi, I don't mean to be a hard case about this, but there are plenty of others to help with this cause of yours. I really am awfully busy, and given our history, I'd expect to be the last man on earth you'd come to."
Their story was exactly why she had to have his help, but for Aiko's sake she dared not tell him that. While her insides howled in terror, she struggled for control and a serene façade. Any act of hysteria on her part was bound to make him wonder why he was more important than any other civic leader.
"We were once such good friends, I just thought…"
"once." He interrupted. "And once was a long time ago, a time I don't care to revisit. Now, if you'll excuse me…" he tossed the pen down and pushed upward from the desk. "I have to see a woman about a peeping tom."
"Wait. Please." But Sano was past listening.
Megumi watched in dismay as the sheriff of Kyoto, the man whose very blood she depended upon, grabbed his hat and, as if he couldn't stand to be in her presence another moment, strode out the door.
Wheew! Hope you like my story! Please read and review! Thanks so much!