Simple Miracles
A/N: Well this is probably the most polished story that I have ever posted yet, and this is another possible future that was avoided in my main stream of stories, meaning my The Return series and it's sequal if I decide to write it. Now please merge to the left and proceed at a reasonable pace, and don't forget to leave a comment in the box before you leave. ;-)
TK and Kari were surrounded by the sounds of another normal day in Odaiba. They walked slowly, not talking but just enjoying each others company on their way back home after a long day at Odaiba High, Kari walked along holding TK's hand and thinking,
"hey Kari" said TK suddenly breaking the silence between them, Kari jumped at his words then replied,
"what?"
"we got some extra time, you want to go anywhere?" he said, Kari thought for a second and nodded with a smile and said,
"OK, we have some time so lets go check out Jumi's." Jumi's was Kari's favorite store, it was an oddments store, you know, odds and ends, painting, sculptures, and things like that, but, everything inside was made by Jumi, almost every time she went in she found another beautiful piece of work or jewelry. Jumi was a good friend of their, they had often spent several hours talking about the many pieces that she made almost weekly, she hadn't had anything new for several weeks so Kari was expecting to find something really good. They walked over to the store and went inside, Kari immediately scanned the shelves to see if there were any new pieces, her eyes landed on a statue of a dragon, it was painted with a glossy white paint that reflected the light, it's wings were painted with a thin layer of gold leaf, it's eyes were some sort of crystal that shifted as you turned your head as if it was watching you, it was standing on it's hind legs, propped against a fake mountain top with it's wings spread and a draconian smile on it's face,
"TK look at that" she said, TK looked up from the display of rings and bracelets and gave a long low whistle of approval, then something else caught his eye, he tapped Kari on the shoulder and pointed, she looked over and sitting on a shelf angled so that it was facing the register was a beautiful statue of an angel dressed in white full armor with a full helm, it had a broadsword across it's back and a long rod in it's right hand, it was standing with it's head angled down as if it was watching them and it's two wings spread out as if about to fly off, from the posture of the angel, Kari got the feeling that if the helm was off it would be smiling at them, then a voice broke into her mind,
"so what do you think" Kari jumped and turned to see Jumi standing behind the counter, she hadn't even heard the woman come in from her back room workshop, Jumi was dressed in a pair of clay smudged blue jeans and a faded blue t-shirt that said in white letters "If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving isn't for you", Kari smiled at her friend and turned to take another look at the statue,
"it looks beautiful, as always" Jumi smiled and replied,
"thanks, so anything in particular that you are looking for?" TK shook his head and said,
"no, were just looking around"
"so anything else new besides this and the dragon" said Kari, Jumi glanced at TK and shook her head and said,
"no, I spent most of my time lately on that little guy right there, I just had a chance to finish the dragon last night" she walked over and pulled the angel off the shelf and set it down on the counter,
"if you look closely you can see the feather pattern on his wings" Kari bent over and began examining the statue,
"your right, there are tiny little feather patterns hear, what did you carve them with? A pin?" she said, Jumi laughed and replied,
"how did you guess? That alone took me over three days to do, I just put him up before you came in so you are the first besides me to see him"
"could I take a look at the dragon too?" said Kari, Jumi smiled and walked over to grab the dragon. She returned and set it down next to the angel, those two look good together thought TK, Kari bent to look at it with wonder in her eyes, TK caught Jumi's eye and gave her a smile and a wink, she winked back and then Kari said,
"did you name them yet?" for Jumi always gave names to her work, it was her way of making them unique to her,
"no, I couldn't think of a name for either so I just decided to wait till it came to me" replied Jumi,
"how about The Watcher for the angel, since he looks like he is watching you, and……White Lord for the dragon, are those OK?" Jumi just stared at Kari,
"that is a great idea, I'll engrave those on them in a little while" replied Jumi, "how did you come up with those names?" she asked,
"the just popped into my mind" replied Kari,
"well they are great names" replied TK, Kari ran her finger along White Lord's tail and exclaimed,
"look at this TK, she even engraved scales on him" TK bent down to look at the dragon when all of a sudden there was a almighty crash behind him.
TK jumped and turned to see a young man wearing a black ski mask, a large, black, trench coat and holding a silenced pistol pointed at Jumi,
"you two on the floor, you empty the damn register and get the jewelry in here" he slammed a duffel bag on the counter as TK and Kari lay down on the ground watching him, Jumi just stood there and stared at him,
"I said GET THE DAMN MONEY AND JEWELRY IN THE BAG" the robber shouted pointing his gun at her head, Jumi sighed and grabbed the bag, she slowly walked to the register and emptied the drawer into the bag, and she started pulling the jewelry out and placing it in the bag, her hand brushed past the bottle of Liquid Fire under the case that she had hidden there since the last robbery, and she slipped it into her pocket,
"ah, ah, ahhh, put that back" said the robber as he walked over to her, he pushed his gun into her back and she reached back into her pocket and pulled the bottle back out and set it on the counter, the robber picked it up and said, "now you wouldn't be thinking of using that on me would you? I'll just have to kill you now for even trying" he stepped back and brought his gun up to shoot. TK was getting slowly to his knee's and bracing himself to spring when Kari launched herself past him,
"NO" yelled Kari and tackled the man's legs, he pulled the trigger and the gun went off, but the bullet whizzed past Jumi's head and shattered a picture on the wall, the robber swore and turned to Kari he lashed out and knocked her off him with the butt of his gun, Jumi grabbed the bottle off of the counter and shot him in the back of the head, the robber screeched and pulled the trigger, Kari screamed as the bullet hit her then went limp, he turned to shoot Jumi but TK launched himself at the robber with a snarl of rage. He tackled the man and the gun went off again, the bullet went flying into the angel statue and it exploded, by some freak accident the right arm of the statue with the rod still in its hand, hit the robber in the side of the head and he swayed on his feet, TK swung and knocked the gun out of the man's hand, the man reached into his coat and drew a knife from his coat and slashed, TK dodged and lunged up and under and as his friend Morgan had taught him, grabbed the man's wrist and twisted back, with a yelp of pain the man dropped the knife, and then he swung his other arm up at TK's head, but his rage had given him the speed he needed to stop the man's arm, TK jabbed his finger into the man's shoulder, hitting one of the many pressure points that Morgan had taught him about, the robber crumpled to the ground unconscious. When TK remembered Kari he crawled over and picked her head up, her front was stained with blood, TK pulled his coat off and used it to try and stop the blood,
"JUMI, see if you can get me something to stop the bleeding and call 911, I don't know how bad she is" Jumi nodded and rushed into the back room of her store. She was back less than a minute later with a roll of gauze in one hand and a cell phone in the other, she threw TK the gauze and started punching in 911, TK undid his coat and started to wrap the gauze around Kari's chest and put his coat under her, she groaned and stirred,
"shhhh, Kari stay still, the ambulance should be here soon" said TK, Kari groaned again but did not try to move, he set her head in his lap and whispered to her,
"it's all right, help will be here soon" and in his mind he was thinking, God please don't let her die. The ambulance arrived minutes later and the paramedics started tending Kari,
"it's a good thing you tried to stop the bleeding kid" said one of them as they hoisted her onto a portable gurney, "you may have saved her life with that" TK started after them when his foot hit something on the floor and he almost tripped, her looked down and saw the bullet stuck in the floor, he pulled it out and showed it to the paramedics,
"good, now they won't have to fish around for it. Don't worry kid, if all goes well she might survive" said the paramedic, TK nodded, it was about then that the police arrived and took the robber into custody,
"you took him out yourself?" asked one of the cops,
"yea" the cop gave him a odd look "well he did just shoot my girlfriend" TK replied heatedly, the cop just looked at him, then he heard his name called, he turned to see the paramedics getting ready to leave,
"you coming?" one yelled,
"yea, be there in a sec" TK called back, he turned to Jumi and said, "I'll call the group, meet us there as soon as the cops let you leave OK?" Jumi nodded and TK ran over to the ambulance, he jumped into the back and sat down next to where Kari lay. The ride to the hospital seemed to take forever and an hour but when they arrived Kari was unloaded so fast that it made his head spin, he jogged to keep up with the paramedics as they wheeled her into Odaiba Generals ER, he was stopped a nurse and told to wait outside. TK paced the ground in front of the ER door as people went in and out, he spotted a phone on the receptionists desk and asked,
"is it OK if I use that" the nurse nodded and TK picked it up and started punching in Tai's number.
***
About twenty minutes later, the digidestined and their families were waiting with TK for news, Tai, Sora, Matt, Mimi, and Joe were standing in a small group talking about what had happened, Izzy was standing nearby with TK and Morgan getting the full story since they had been the last called and the adults were hearing Jumi's account of what happened,
"so she tackled him and he shot her, I just couldn't contain it and I jumped on him, I used the technique's that you taught me Morgan and I knocked him out cold…" TK was saying,
"I would have done more than knock him out if I was there, I would have torn him limb from limb" growled Morgan, TK looked at the big man and sighed, he probably would have if he had a chance,
"continue" said Izzy, snapping TK from his chain of thought, he was about to start again when the doors to the ER opened and a doctor in scrubs came out, and was immediately bombarded with questions,
"is she ok…"
"what is her current status?"
"is she going to live?" he held up his arms and said,
"she's ok for the time being but if she's lost a lot of blood, thankfully the bullet missed her vital organs but, forgive me for putting this so bluntly but if she doesn't get a blood transfusion soon she has little or no chance of living through the night, she may have until midnight if we are lucky without the transfusion" he turned to TK "if you hadn't stopped the bleeding she would be dead now, so don't go blaming yourself" there was silence for a second then Morgan's voice broke the blanket of silence,
"but that is only if she doesn't get a transfusion, so big deal we have…one…two…three……at least twenty people here to give blood and you have to have some on hand……" Morgan's voice died away as he realized what he had just said,
"she had AB- blood and we don't have any also there are no other hospitals close enough to get theirs to us…so lets get testing and see what comes up, if she gets the transfusion she will still be in danger but her chances with go to about a one in three" he said, the attitude in the room brightened a bit but not much. He took the Kamiya's first since they had the highest chance of sharing Kari's blood type, they came out as a no go, so next the rest of the adults, Mrs. Kamiya called her sister and brothers and they came in to get tested, these all came back as no goes, the doctor took the kids next and the best they got was an AB from Sora, but there was none of them with the right kind, the started going through their records to see if anyone who had come to Odaibi general before had AB- but they had a lot to look through and only so much time. They let the family in to talk to Kari and one at a time the others were allowed to see her, she was still unconscious and the doctors did not expect her to live, it was around seven that night when TK finally got to see Kari, what he saw broke his heart and he felt a wound in he soul start to open, she was lying on her bed hooked up to several machines that were monitoring her and helping her last as long as possible, he walking Mrs. Kamiya looked up when he walked by her and then looked down again when he reached her bed, he was scared by how pale her beautiful face was, in the back of his mind played what had happened and still couldn't believe what had happened,
"oh Kari you can't die, I care to much about you…I love you Kari with all of my heart, I will always love you" he whispered, he knelt beside the bed and cried and cried, not out loud but the quiet tears that just flow forth from a wounded heart and soul and into the world. TK didn't know how long he knelt there crying before he rose and walked stiffly from the room, the tears of pain and sorrow still falling. He walked along the hall for a long time until he reached a small waiting area where no one was, he sat down on one of the chairs and released his grief, why did that man have to rob Jumi's, why did he have to try to kill Jumi and Kari. And as the tears flowed free he did something that he hadn't done since he had called upon MagnaAngemon to stop Piedmon, he prayed,
"God, I am sorry that I did not speak to you sooner, but please don't let Kari die, I love her to much, I would gladly take her place on that bed and die for her, I will not believe that she is dying…" he broke down into racking sobs again but they were not as bad as he had remembered, and he closed his eyes. He didn't hear the person behind him until he felt a touch on his shoulder, he looked up to see a large man with platinum blonde hair next to him, TK wiped his eyes and looked again, the man was dressed in a white muscle shirt with a pair of old dog tags hanging out and faded camo pants sitting in a wheelchair, then TK realized that the man's pants were knotted shut at the knee,
"what's wrong little one" the man asked, TK just looked at him for a second before replying,
"…you don't want to know…" whispered TK, the man gave him a piercing look and said,
"I want to know what make a young man like you cry, when you should be happy, with a full life ahead of you" TK sighed and explained,
"my girlfriend in sitting in her room dying because some jerk decided to kill her for stopping him from killing the owner of a shop he was robbing" the man didn't look surprised,
"but the doctors?" the man replied, concern coloring his voice,
"they did all that they could but she lost to much blood and if they can't find any type AB- blood soon she a one in a hundred chance of actually surviving" the man was silent, TK looked back at the ground and fresh tears started to leak from his eyes, he heard a the snap of metal and thought that the man was leaving him but he didn't care, then something bright appeared before his eyes, he wiped them and looked down at it, it was the man's dog tags, clearly written on them was,
NAME: GABE RIEL
BLOOD TYPE: AB-
"take me to the doctors" said Gabe, tears began to flow from TK's eyes again but this time the pure kind that are filled with joy of a heart and soul that are beginning to heal with the light of hope. TK took the man to the doctor that had been working on Kari and Gabe told him that he would donate, the doctor smiled for the first time since they had arrived and took Gabe off to take the blood needed for the transfusion,
"fear not young one" said Gabe before he left with the doctor. TK went and sat with the Kamiya's, but he didn't tell them what had happened, he was still trying to figure out what had happened but he couldn't help but smile, he still had a chance to tell her. Tai was furious over the fact that TK could smile at something like this when he had just been in there crying his eyes out, but everyone had cried when they had seen Kari, but though Tai had no tears to cry he still felt the grief over what had happened to her biting into his heart, he looked up when the doctor came in carrying something, his heart leapt, he was carrying a IV sac of blood,
"you found some!" exclaimed Mr. Kamiya, the doctor nodded as he set the IV up and said,
"Takeru here found a donor, TK I need to talk to you outside once I get this done" TK nodded and looked back at where Kari lay. Now Tai understood why TK was smiling, he had known all along that there was blood on the way,
"TK," said Tai in an irritated voice ", how could you not tell us?" TK looked up and said,
"simple, I couldn't believe it myself" Tai sighed and looked down at the floor. Once the doctor had the IV in he beckoned for TK to follow him outside, they walked a ways away from the room before the doctor turned and said,
"where did you find that man?"
"I met him in one of the waiting room's, he looked like a patient and he asked me what was wrong and I told him" the doctor looked at TK intensely for a second before replying,
"I left the room when I had him hooked up to draw the blood to check and see if he was a patient, he wasn't and none of the receptionist saw him come in, so I figured that he may have come in with a crowd so I went back to ask him and he was gone, on the counter there was two bags of fresh blood, two bags, most people are lucky to give half a bag and be able to walk steadily, let alone drive a wheelchair, for at least a day, that man gave over half the blood in him in those bags, but what scares me more is none of the receptionists have see anyone leave and I had the interns comb the area for him and he is not to be found" TK looked astounded at this,
"what do you think happened to him?" asked TK,
"I have no idea, he shouldn't have been able to get out of the hospital with that much blood gone, I thought that you should know this, I know that Kari will make it, now you can go back to the others" the doctor walked away, TK turned and walked away to, only he walked over to the waiting room where he met Gabe. He looked around and saw a wheelchair sitting in front of a picture, he walked over and found a pair of dog tags sitting on the chair, they were blank, he looked up at the picture to see a doctor leaning over a small child who was asleep in a bed, her parents were sitting nearby and behind the doctor was a tall man clothed in a white robe, he smiled and went back to Kari's room.
***
Kari made a gradual recovery over the next few days, TK visited her every chance that he had, each time he came he would bring her some flowers or a small figurine from Jumi's. Finally the doctor told her that she could go home the next day, she told this to TK and he smiled saying,
"good, do you remember what tomorrow is?"
"of course! It's my birthday, but we won't be having a party, mom and dad said that I need to rest and regain my strength" she said,
"yea…too bad about the party" he said, but Kari could tell that there was something he wasn't telling her. The next day when Tai took her back to their parents apartment she asked him,
"Taichi?"
"what-chi?" he replied with a grin on his face, Kari couldn't help but smile,
"who was it that gave the blood that saved me?"
"I don't know, only TK does because he was the one that found the man that gave the blood, but how it happened seemed like a miracle, the doctors had given up hope when TK showed up with a man in a wheel-chair" Kari fell back into though as they pulled up in front of the apartment complex, Tai got out and walked around to help her out, she had been told that she was allowed to walk only short distances, but it was hardly far from the car to the elevator and from there to their apartment. Tai hung back and let her go through the door first, immediately upon entering she heard a door close and then her parents showed up,
"how are you feeling?" asked Mrs. Kamiya,
"pretty good mom, but I am real tired, I think I'm just going to take a nap" replied Kari,
"ok, call if you need anything" said her dad, she just nodded and walked to her room, she walked in and, after closing the door, flopped down on her bed. She stared at the wall for a few minutes before she heard something behind her, she rolled over and jumped, TK was sitting in the corner with a bag next to him,
"hi Kari, how are you feeling?" he asked in an innocent tone,
"as soon as my heart drops out of my throat I'm going to whoop you" she replied, TK just smiled,
"I'll even hold still for you to do it if you let me give you your present first" he said, Kari looked at him for a minute before she nodded,
"this better be good" she teased as he opened the bag and lifted out a small box, he walked over and kneeled in front of her,
"Kari, please forgive me for not asking sooner but…would you marry me" TK opened the box to reveal a ring with diamonds arrayed in the shape of her crest, Kari gaped at TK for a second and then replied as he had hoped for so long,
"yes Takeru, it would be my honor" he pulled the ring out of it's box and slipped it onto her finger, she bent over and kissed him.
A/N: so it's not quite as romantic I would like it to be but when I started it was intended to be a romance, anyway I hope that you enjoyed it. Sayonara ;-)
DigiDragonLord