Clannad After Story

The air was freezing cold as Tomoya walked hand-in-hand with his sick daughter, Ushio. She refused to be picked up and carried, insisting on walking with her daddy. He watched her, worried, as she walked increasingly slowly, her breath coming out in ragged wheezes. Suddenly, she tried to lift her leg for one last step when, suddenly, she began to fall. Her body fell slowly as Tomoya quickly jumped beneath her to catch her before she landed in the snow that had just started to fall.

"Daddy," she said, her vision becoming blurred. "Are we at the train station?"

His heart nearly stopped as the tears began to fill his eyes. He held back the sobs as he tried to answer her.

"Yeah," he replied. "We're here. We're on our way."

"Is it night?.. It's dark."

"Yeah," he said, clutching her to him as he felt her strength beginning to leave her body. "It's night. You should get some rest."

"Ok," the girl answered. Her breathing slowed as the light faded from her eyes. "I love you, daddy."

Suddenly, the girl went limp in his arms and he no longer felt her tiny torso moving with each breath.

"Ushio?"

No reply.

"Ushio!" he screamed, clutching the girl tighter. He frantically searched the streets around him for someone walking by. "Help! Somebody! Anybody! Help us!"

His strength quickly left his body as he collapsed in the snow, prepared to die with his daughter.

From some faint, distant land, a hand outstretched to his own. He tried to see its owner, but could not see through the blinding white light. As he touched the hand outstretched to his own, the world went dark and he lost consciousness.

-Clannad: After Story-

A steady, rhythmic beeping began to annoy Tomoya as he opened his eyes. A blurry mess confronted him as he awoke to find himself in a hospital bed. His entire body was connected to a series of different devices for measuring his vitals and, some, for life support. He felt the oxygen hose in his nose stretch as he looked around. As his vision cleared, he realized he was no where near Ushio and panic began to set in.

He sat bolt upright as he tore at all the devices he was strapped to, trying to rip all of the electronics away from his body. As his head began to spin and throb, he lay back down momentarily, listening to his EKG beep madly.

As he sat up to make another attempt at clearing his body of all the devices, a familiar face confronted him and a familiar voice sounded from the distance.

"Okazaki," she said, calmly, "I need you to do me a favor and calm down. Your level of excitement could give us another code blue to react to or worse if you don't behave."

Tomoya nodded before asking the main question he had. Ryou smiled to herself as he calmed down and read his clipboard.

"Well," she said with a smile. "Looks like your vitals are approaching normal. You shouldn't have to-"

"Where is Ushio?" Tomoya said, sitting up.

The smile on Ryou's face faded slightly.

"She's in intensive care," she replied sadly. "She's not as strong as you. In fact, she was clinically dead when for a few moments when you brought her in."

"How do I get to intensive care?" Tomoya asked, once again trying to tear off the equipment.

"Okazaki, no!" Ryou said as she tried to pull his hands away from it all.

"Okazaki..."

He continued tearing off the equipment.

"Okazaki..."

He ignored her again.

"Tomoya Okazaki!"

He stopped, staring at her. This was the first time she'd called him anything other than Okazaki.

"Your daughter is in my facility under my peer's care," Ryou said, sternly. "I promise you we're doing everything we can."

"I want to see her," he said, trying to stand, only to find his legs too weak. He quickly collapsed to all fours on the cold hospital floor.

"Tomoya!" Ryou shouted, rushing to aid him.

"Please," he said weakly. "Let me see Ushio."

Ryou looked into his eyes, seeing all of his motivation to live fading from them.

"Alright, but you have to let the doctors do their work and I'll take you in a wheel chair."

Tomoya nodded as he grabbed the side of his bed weakly.

==========================================================Clannad: After Story================================

Kyou and Tomoyo sat in the waiting room of the lobby waiting for Ryou to finish her shift. Kyou did this at least 3 nights a week. Usually they would go get ramen or curry from Ernesto Host, the restaurant Nagisa used to work for, or other places. Tonight, she'd happened to run in to Tomoyo, who'd been leaving the hospital. She'd recently come to bring her brother to a monthly check up at the clinic within the hospital and was on her way out when she ran into Kyou.

Kyou and Tomoyo had both spoken about some random things in their lives, when, suddenly, the topic of discussion had shifted from life, to Tomoya. Kyou had told Tomoyo about how she was his daughter's kindergarten teacher and regaled her of the first day he'd seen her as a teacher. The two had shared a laugh, not as much in humor but in joy to know Tomoya was alright.

Once again, the mood had changed when Kyou told her of the fact that Ushio had been sick for over a month by this point with no prospects of a return soon.

From that point, the conversation had essentially dropped to a stand-still. They'd both resorted to reading outdated magazines to pass the time, when suddenly, Ryou appeared wheeling a patient around in a wheelchair. As Kyou stood to wave to her sister, she realized it wasn't just any patient she was pushing.

Both the women ran to Ryou.

"Tomoya? What's going on?" Kyou asked frantically. "Where's Ushio? Is she home alone?"

"No, I-" Tomoya began.

"Is she with the Furukawas then?"

"No. She's-"

"Why are you here? What's going o-"

"Ushio's dying!" Tomoya yelled, tears flowing down his cheeks. His strength drained from his body as he weakly continued his statement. "She's dying of the same low constitution as Nagisa..."

As Kyou froze, Tomoyo placed her hand on Tomoya's shoulder apologetically.

"May we please continue to intensive care so I can see Ushio?" Tomoya asked Ryou, who nodded silently.

"May we come?" Tomoyo asked.

"You'll have to sit in the waiting room outside emergencies for a minute, but yes."

"Thank you so much." Tomoyo looked at Kyou. "Come on."

"Ushio-" Kyou muttered as Tomoyo took her hand to lead her to the ICU.

==================================Clannad: After Story========================================================

Ryou and Tomoya watched the doctors frantically trying to keep Ushio's poor little heart beating as her ragged breaths drew in and out of her chest awkwardly. Tomoya could barely stand to watch as they continued giving her adrenaline and other such drugs to try to keep her from dying all together.

"Nagisa, please. Don't let our baby girl die," Tomoya said as Ryou wheeled him back to his room.

As they left, Tomoyo and Kyou stood only to see Ryou shake her head slowly. They took this as a sign not to talk to Tomoya yet and, instead, tried to get in to see Ushio.

Tomoya sat slumped lazily in the wheel chair, his heart barely beating.

"Tomoya?" Ryou asked softly.

"What?" he groaned.

"Do you want to go back to your room? Or is there somewhere else you'd rather go?"

Silence answered her as she slowly pushed the wheelchair back to his room. If Ushio died, Tomoya would either die of heartbreak or kill himself, she was sure.

"Tomoya, I just want you to know that I'll personally be watching Ushio all night. I promise that I won't let anything bad happen to her."

Once again, silence rewarded her kindness. Suddenly, though, Tomoya spoke, surprising her.

"Thank you, Fujibayashi," he said softly.

"Anytime," she said with a slight blush. "You can call me Ryou, if you'd like. Most of my patients do."

At this time, they reached his room where Ryou aided him in climbing back in to bed. Once he was lying in bed, she replaced the instruments on his body and gave him a mild sedative to help him get to sleep. She was glad she'd been able to find a room so close to the ICU. She hated the notion of leaving him at this time but also hated to not watch over Ushio as she'd promised. This way, he was easily reached if anything went wrong while she watched over Ushio.

Once Tomoya fell asleep, Ryou walked out of the room and made her way to the ICU. Once she was there she found Kyou and Tomoyo had still not left and were in the waiting area, still.

"Kyou, you and Tomoyo can go ahead back home. I'll be watching over Ushio tonight."

"No way. We're staying too. For as long as we can, we are both going to stay."

"Alright, but you're going to have to stay out here. I'll be in the ICU helping with Ushio as best I can."

Tomoyo looked silently at the waiting room, then her eyes began to scan around for something else. Ryou, slightly curious, asked what it was she was searching for.

"Which room is Tomoya's? I'll stay in there and watch over him."

"His room is number one seventy four. It's down that hall there to your right," Ryou told her, pointing at the hall. "It should be the third door on your right."

"Alright," Tomoyo said, standing and walking hastily to Tomoya's room.

Once she was gone, Ryou and Kyou looked at each other for a moment.

"Kyou, I-"

"I know. Go save Ushio," Kyou said, knowing her sister was going to apologize for dinner that night.

Ryou nodded and walked through the swinging doors into intensive care.