And in the same night, somehow, I have had a plan to separate the story into two parts. I wanted to be able to have more liberties with this in a new setting, story and out of the hospital setting. I also wanted to go into a few things that I couldn't get into in "Protection".

Thank you all for your reviews for that story. I honestly can say that it was the fastest story I have ever finished and the longest fanfiction story ever written. I'm hoping to have just as much for this one.

I still have my beta tester and medical expert, AngelofLight to help me with those parts.

So enjoy the beginning of the new story . . . and this is two weeks after "Protection" has taken place, in case anyone asks how long this is after the story.

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Anticipation filled the air as he felt the camera crew work its magic on the scene in front of him, a smile playing on his small pale face.

The man had sat down, tipping his black top hat down over his face so that his eyes could not be seen into the cameras. He would not allow them to see his expressive blue eyes yet because it was not time to aim the camera at him. When it came down to it, he really was only supposed to be supervising this press conference. He was not supposed to be the one who would be announcing the news about Bad Luck's album.

He had left that up to Mr. Sakano and K to do, along with the help of a journalist that they had encountered during the event that had led up for this event to take place. And he had to admit, they were doing a fine job without him.

Tohma Seguchi had looked upon the few people that were the main stars of the attraction in front of him. He had to admit, the woman who was interviewing them had pulled off this impromptu press conference rather well. A woman who had her degree in journalism, Marian Tamika had proven that she was very qualified for the job. She had seemed to set Hiroshi Nakano at ease and had stopped Suguru Fujisaki from making an ass of himself on television.

Well done, Tohma thought as he watched the conference going on, standing up from his seat. With this, we can allow Shindou-san to recover from his injuries, and we can also allow time for Mr. Nakano and Suguru to improve their skills in their work, and out of the studio. A lot has happened in the last week since Shindou-san had been in the hospital.

As he looked away to pull out his Nextel cellphone, he noticed that it beeped and had picked it up. Sighing, he clicked on the receive button and had answered it. "Seguchi."

He paused as he glanced back up at the conference that had been taking place, smiling to himself as he heard a familiar voice through the phone. "Seguchi, are you sure this press conference was a good thing to do without Shuichi's permission? After all, his album was supposed to be released soon."

"Oh, I think that this is a good thing," Tohma responded. "After all, Shindou has had a lot placed on him within the last week. He's slowly recovering, but I don't want to rush his progress." Again he paused as he tried to listen to how things were going.

"I just want to make sure," the voice replied sternly. "The doctors tell me he's still afraid of being put in anything that moves. I don't want you to make him come to work and suddenly having him flip out in the car or something."

"Eiri, I promised you that Shindou-san wouldn't be back at work for a few weeks. I won't let him come back until he recovers enough to be able to perform effectively. Stop worrying so much about it." He looked annoyed now as he was keeping an eye on everything. "Besides, Shindou-san and you need some time to heal from all of this. You both are still tense."

"That doesn't mean anything," the voice of Eiri Yuki answered back in a concerned voice. "I don't know how extensive the psychological damage or trauma is to Shuichi. He won't talk to me about the accident, Tohma."

"Still?" Now Tohma grew concerned. "That's strange. It's been almost two weeks since he's been admitted into the hospital. I would have thought—"

"So did I."

Tohma sighed heavily. Even he did not know all the details to Shuichi Shindou's car accident. All he knew was what the media had reported and what scant details that they found out from the two makers of the accident, which were Ryuichi Sakuma and Tatsuha Uesugi. "Eiri. You're going to have to find out."

"I'm doing one thing at a time, Tohma. I have a lot to fix. So does Ryuichi and Tatsuha. Apparently, I can't get them within the same room near Shuichi without him going into hysterics."

I figured that much, he thought. They both still have a lot of work to do. Otherwise . . . I know Eiri will never forgive himself, or them. But it's strange . . . to think that the once happy go lucky Shuichi Shindou has been reduced to someone who suffers from depression and severe post traumatic stress disorder. It's a lot for someone to bear.

But I think it's harder for Shuichi because he doesn't want to show Eiri that anything is wrong.

"Well, then that's all the more reason why I won't let Shindou-san come back until he is able to recover from this incident. I want him to be fully recovered. Not just because of you," Tohma added hastily. "I think all of us do. We . . . each have grown during that freakish hospital visit."

"I'm glad, Tohma," he heard his brother-in-law respond. "Now I have to go. I told him I'd be back inside 20 minutes ago." With that the phone line went dead.

Eiri . . . I forgotten how hard this is going to be on you too. But . . . I've done all I can for Shindou-san. The rest . . . the rest is something only you can do. And I hope that you can help Shindou-san, because the rest of us can't seem to reach him, or talk to him.

And yet . . . he only reaches out to you now.

Tohma put the cellphone back in his fur trenchcoat and nodded to the people up on the stage as they wrapped up the press conference. Turning around, he had headed out of the room, knowing that postponing the album that Bad Luck was supposed to be releasing would do wonders for the band.

But it would also give them time for Eiri Yuki to try to find out what exactly was wrong with Shuichi Shindou that he would close up to everyone he knew in such a short amount of time.

Tohma could not have it. He would not. The boy was a valuable asset to him at N-G Productions. That was part of why he was doing this, he knew. The other was because he actually grown to accept the boy when he brought Eiri back to New York.

He needed Shuichi to keep his brother-in-law from going over the edge.