4 AM
She bites her nail, she sighs, 'is is going to take a long time?' she wishes to ask, but she doesn't because she is too worried, too tired, she wants to sleep, but there's not a bed in sight. She doesn't want to sleep on the floor, because it's so dirty, full of germs she could pick up, god knows what illnesses may hide beneath the industrial rug of the tidy, aseptic waiting room."You can sleep by me on the bench", I offer, she shakes her head, no, she'll wait. I see the worry in her eyes, I wish I could do something about it, ease her pain, but I just hold her hand, and pass my fingers through her silky hair. There's nothing more I can do at this point, I know it.
She twitches every time a footstep is heard, maybe it head toward us, with bad news, maybe. Her eyes, glossy from lack of sleep. Jay Leno welcomes another guest on the sound-less TV, they sit on the chairs in front of the fake Manhattan background, they smile. Hollywood girls, thin and long-legged, with pretty faces and wide eyes. I wish I could switch channels, but the TV is too high screwed to the pastel-coloured wall.
-"D'you think he's gonna be okay?" she asks, and I nod. "He's strong, Yolei. He'll be okay."
She pushes her glasses a little farther up her nose, and smiles to me, a little tentative smile, not quite sad, not quite happy. She doesn't believe me, she's smart, too smart for my pathetic lies, but right now, she just needs to get her hopes up, just a little, so she can hold on, at least until morning.
More footsteps, more cries, she is worried now. I pass a hand though my dirty blonde hair. "He's gonna be okay, Yolei, Daddy's gonna be okay," I chant over and over again, until she falls asleep on the orange plastic chair. I turn my eyes back to the TV, the programs are over, it's night now. Stripes run down the screen, green, red, blue, purple, yellow. Hold on, is written near the bottom in neon green.
I fall asleep to the soothing beeps of heart monitors.
+++
She heard the doorknob turn, I heard it too, and we both eye the door with suspicion.
-"Mr Inoue?" the nurse in light green asks, and I wince slightly, Mr Inoue is my father.
-"Is he gonna be okay?" Yolei asks, her voice shaking.
-"Yeah" the nurse says, and she smiles. I grin back at her. "He's good now."
And it's the most wonderful sentence I've ever heard.
I've never seen Yolei's brother in any fic, probably because he had one line in one episode, but he striked me as a funny, slightly egocentrical (It runs in the family, apparently...) individual. I'm on a submitting spree, three fics in three days has got to be a record. This fic has so many run-on sentences, it,s not even funny. Please forgive my awful grammar ^^;;. And, as ever, I'm begging for a certain thing, beginning with a R and finishing with a W. =)
Digimon belongs to Toei Animation. This story, however is © 2000 Rianne (rianne@chemicalsmile.com) and may be used freely as long as the name and e-mail address remain intact. Thank you, and good night