heart attack. little conan, age seven, stumps the hospital staff of beika general when he comes in for a heart attack. haibara makes the startling discovery that no, the apotoxin was just slow at doing its job.
tw: heart attack, seizure
word count: 2577
Sometimes Ran really hated how secretive Conan could be.
Maybe part of it was her fault. Maybe she should start being like those nagging mothers who keep pestering their kids until they finally answer back, albeit exasperatedly. Or maybe she should start going behind his back and ask relatives what she needed to know.
She should've asked Shinichi last time he was there. He had actually visited her the previous weekend, saying that he just wanted to spend some time with her after being away for so long. Surprisingly, nobody was gruesomely murdered within their vicinity, but much couldn't really be done with the modern day Sherlock Holmes saying he felt under the weather.
She had forgotten all about asking about Conan's medical history when Shinichi started feeling unwell, really just picking at his food with his fork and resting his head against the palm of his hand. She wasn't a detective, but even a blind man could see how absolutely terrible he looked once he broke out in a cold sweat. At first, she just thought he was this way because he was down in the dumps, but once even talking about his favorite mystery novel didn't cause him to perk up, she knew something was wrong.
And then once Shinichi got up and practically dashed to the bathroom (no matter how nonchalant he tried to make it appear) after complaining of nausea, Ran knew better than to let a sick man stay out and not rest at home. But he disagreed. He "didn't want their day to be ruined" and that he was "feeling fine".
Ran finally convinced him to pay the check and leave, but his one condition for getting to do so was that they'd go to the park. She was still a bit wary about it, as what she really wanted was for him to get home and get in bed since he looked a minute away from collapsing, but she agreed to the terms.
They didn't even get to enjoy the park long once Shinichi began stumbling, eventually having to kneel because of the onset of sudden dizziness. He didn't argue when Ran practically dragged him back home and forced him into bed. He slept the rest of the evening, only coming in and out of consciousness occasionally.
It took a bit of bickering, but Ran eventually gave up and went home once it was nearing six o'clock. She didn't like leaving Shinichi by himself, but if he was well enough to argue, he was well enough to take care of himself. Even if she did huff and stomp away, she was still very, very concerned for her childhood friend.
She tossed and turned all night following that, falling asleep in time. The house felt empty: Kogoro was snoring away in the other room, but without Conan there (who was spending the night at Hakase's house, according to him), she felt a little lonely.
She woke up before the alarm, having golden rays of sunshine pour into the room. It was only seven am, but she supposed having this extra little free time would be good for her.
She was down in the agency when Conan arrived an hour later, shuffling into the office all miserable looking. Like his distant relative, he didn't look like he was faring much better. He greeted Ran nearly low enough for her to miss. Ran noted how horrible he looked, but didn't know whether or not to chalk it up to a simple cold or find it more concerning.
It wasn't like he had the best of health, she hated to admit. Conan was a small boy for his age, always falling sick one month after the next. And with all the trouble he always seems to attract, he's seen the inside of that hospital more times than a person does in their entire lifetime.
Adding that to the fact that no one cared to inform her about his medical history prior to him living there, she really was only ever following her intuition and taking her best guess. Part of her had a feeling that, with how secretive the Edogawas were, something wasn't being said about Conan. She figured she'd just take him to the doctor sometime this week, then.
The young boy had been sleeping on the couch for awhile before Kogoro came in and announced that he had a case arrive in that morning. Despite his current state, Conan hopped back up and insisted on going.
Ran didn't want him going, saying he needed rest, but Kogoro overruled her decision by saying that he could come because he's his "good luck charm." Ran nearly punched a hole in the wall, but kept herself from doing so only because of how unwell Conan was feeling.
The case was a bit far out, so a car needed to be rented, but within 45 minutes they all arrived to the scene. Ran did not fail to notice Conan was basically sleeping the whole ride there.
It was originally a noble woman asking the detective to see if her husband was cheating, but in no time did it escalate to a murder when the man was found dead in his bedroom. Locked room murder type, no less.
Ran didn't even have to try looking after Conan, today. He didn't stray to far away from her today, his half-lidded expression indicative of some type of exhaustion. To be frank, he looked even worse than he did when he got back to the agency this morning. He was deathly pale, and kept rubbing at his left arm.
He had really only pointed out one little clue since the start of the murder case, getting Inspector Megure and Kogoro on the right track, but other than that, he grimaced most of the time and stayed quiet.
After some time, Conan eventually tugged on her shorts, telling her that he was heading to the bathroom. She watched him stumble out the door, and didn't fail to realize that he had been gone for ten minutes.
Come the fifteen minute mark, Ran was thoroughly worried when Conan still didn't appear. She excused herself from the scene, quickly telling her father that she was going to look for the little boy as she fished her phone out of her pocket.
Ring, ring ring. Voicemail. Ring, ring, ring. Voicemail. She grew anxious when still he didn't pick up, and practically sped walked through the halls towards the direction of the bathroom.
And when she turned the corner, her heart stopped. Her phone clattered to the floor.
Conan was curled up in a little ball, whimpers escaping his throat as he desperately clutched his chest. Ran dashed over quicker than she's ever run, falling to the floor to hold the boy.
"Conan-kun!" she cried, holding him close. "Conan-kun, what's wrong?"
"Hurts...call...help..." he gasped, forcing an eye open before it snapped back shut. She dove for her once forgotten phone and immediately dialed 110.
But she never finished. The trouble came when he started to convulse.
Kogoro and a few others rushed in when she let out a strangled scream. His eyes had rolled into the back of his head, body involuntarily twitching. She couldn't move. Seeing him in such a vulnerable state made her heart ache. Her dad came up behind her, holding her close when she refused to keep still. She had to help him.
"Just let it run its course," Kogoro whispered in her ear, finding it easier to hold her down once she began to slump in his arms. He was trying to be comforting, she could tell, but when she looked up through wet eyes, he wasn't even trying to hide his deep running concern for the boy on the floor.
The seizure died down eventually, and now it was just him lying on the ground, still unconscious. She couldn't even bring herself to get near him, feeling that her touch would shatter him into a million pieces.
She didn't even realize who finished the call or even when the ambulance came, she only found herself suddenly in the back of the ambulance along with Conan, having to be separated from holding his hand so tightly. She didn't know where her father was.
He was whisked away from her not even a moment after they arrived in the hospital. She was asked to stay behind in the waiting room once they took him beyond a set of double doors, the wheels of the gurney he was on sending screeching echoing down the halls.
She spent most of her time trying to dry her eyes, only for the tears to come back ten fold. Kogoro- she wasn't even sure when he had shown up- for the most part either rubbed her back or paced around the hall.
It felt like hours that they were there. And it probably was. Eventually, Ran ran out of tears to cry, and her sobs turned into sniffles. Even Kogoro lost the energy to pace around, settling to just wrap his arm around his daughter and let her lean into him.
Her head whipped up once the double doors flapped open. Out came a doctor, his dress shoes tapping against the sleek tile floors.
He walked right up to them, knowing who to approach without even having to ask. "Are you the guardians of Edogawa Conan-san?"
Ran jumped up to her feet before the doctor even reached them. Her father got up behind her momentarily. "Yes. Doctor, will Conan-kun be okay?"
His face turned grim, mouth pursing as the furrow lines in his forehead came out even more. He cast his gaze at the clipboard, avoiding the anticipated stares of the father and daughter.
"Please."
He sighed heavily, clearly getting ready to break some back news, which Ran didn't like already. He flipped through the documents on his clipboard, appearing to be stalling for time.
"I'm going to be completely honest with you," he started, making direct eye contact with her. "This is not something I can break easily, nor is it something that can be explained briefly." He paused again, going back to organizing more documents on that damned board. Perhaps he was stalling for time.
Ran shook her head. "That doesn't matter, doctor. Is Conan-kun okay?"
The overcast expression on his face was not letting up. Ran felt her throat closing on her. "I'd advise you take a seat, then. What I'm about to tell you is a bit upsetting."
"You're stalling," Kogoro called out, but led Ran back to the chairs they had been sitting at for the past few hours. The heat had remained in the seat.
"You're right." He cleared his throat.
He sighed.
"Well, bad news first, I suppose. It appears as though young Conan-kun has suffered a heart attack."
A heart attack.
What a thing to process.
Ran slowly let her hands drop down into her lap. Kogoro maintained a blank stare at the doctor.
"A...heart attack?" Ran repeated.
"Isn't he only seven years old?" Kogoro reasoned, his voice raising the slightest bit from the shock of such a thing. "I thought kids can't have heart attacks?"
"They typically don't," the doctor started slowly, as if picking and choosing the words he was about to say. "It's highly unlikely, not to say it's impossible, though. I have to admit: it startled us as well. If a young person were to suffer a heart attack, it's commonly because of preexisting heart conditions or illnesses that the person already had. Do you know if he has any history of such things?"
Ran wanted to cry again. She had the opportunity to ask, and now she can't because his parents never contact their son and his previous caretaker doesn't know anything either and the only one who does know what's wrong with him is himself, who's in the hospital and-
She shook her head, wanting to save the tears for later. "I-I'm sorry, I don't. His parents are just so secretive...they've never really told us anything."
The doctor's frown grew deeper. "Has Conan-kun ever let you in on any of his history, then?"
"He's so stubborn, he never even lets us in on whether or not he has a cold," the sleeping sleuth explained.
"This is concerning, then. Do you have any way at all of contacting his parents? It's crucial that we know of any medical conditions so we can treat his problem accordingly."
Kogoro stood up, his phone already in his hand. "I'll go contact somebody right now. I'll tell you what I know as soon as I get it."
"Thank you," the doctor dismissed, and Kogoro walked down the long hall to find some place to talk outside.
"Wait, but doctor..." Ran started. He turned his attention towards her. "What about the seizure? What caused that?"
"We believe it was just caused by anoxia, which is basically just a lack of oxygen. Blood isn't delivered through the body, including the brain, during a heart attack, so we feel as though it was an instigating factor. It was just an unfortunate thing that can happen when one has a heart attack. But it is a problem if he keeps having them following this."
Ran's gaze was down. "I see." She wrung her hands out so tightly the skin was turning white, little imaginary pins and needles tingling under her skin.
"You would still like to see him, correct? We've moved him to the ICU a while ago. Thankfully, we managed to put him in stable condition, but due to the severity of his condition, we still want to keep him under observation for awhile."
"Thank you, doctor, for all you've done," Ran said, rising out of her chair.
"It's what we're supposed to do," he smiled, leading her to the room. She would text it to her dad, later.
It was scary to be back here again so soon, really. Ran peered into the other rooms and stared at nameplates as they walked to their destination. Allergy alert, stroke, falling hazard. post-surgical checkups, fever, frequent checkups. Someone in one room had been in for a broken leg, but the bed was empty when she looked inside. Someone lucky got to be discharged.
Finally they arrived at the door: Room 303, Edogawa, Conan. She couldn't believe she was seeing that sign again so soon. It felt unreal, if she had to be entirely honest with herself: a child having a heart attack. She wanted to laugh at how nonsensical it sounded.
The doctor rested his hand on the curtain, tugging it back ever so slightly. "I'll let you be alone with him. Just mind the wires."
Ran was left to enter the rest of the room by herself. She was scared, in a way. How beat up would he be this time? How pale and fragile and defenseless would he appear to be this time, even though just the day before he was up smiling and playing with all of his friends? How many IVs and endless cords would he be hooked up to now?
She pulled back the curtain gently, preparing herself for what she would see.
There he was, surrounded by thin hospital linens, gown open to make way for the many wires and pads attached to his chest. He lay sedated, a breathing tube shoved down his mouth to help him with what his lungs couldn't do on their own. A steady drip of IV fluids entered his arm, which was resting at his side.
He was just so damn pale. It scared her how lifeless he looked, how the only thing keeping alive was a machine. That was the only connection between life and death.
The only sound that filled the unsettling silence was the beep of the heart monitor. It was so familiar in a bad way.
She hated that thing.