Chapter 1
"I'm afraid there's been an accident." I sank down into the hard plastic seat in the waiting room of the Emergency wing. I was instantly pulled back up again and deposited into a soft comfy swizzle chair, as comfortable as a armless chair that sinks every once in awhile and rocked every time you breathed, but none-the-less, it was more comfortable than a plastic chair designed to make you on edge.
"An accident?" I questioned looking up into the face of my friend. "Who was in it?" I held onto a little tiny piece of hope.
"I'm afraid it was Mamoru." She patted my arm sympathetically as my breath became lost to me.
"Where-where is he?" I asked looking around for some sign of the man I have known for a very long time.
"He was brought in just before I paged you down here. I felt it necessary to tell you personally, considering that you and he are so close. In fact you were the only number he had in his wallet." The slightly younger woman looked concerned.
I nodded before biting my lip. "I know." I shook my head trying to get it around this new concept, that he may be dead or dying.
"He's in surgery right now." The woman seemed to understand my plight.
"Do-do-do you know how bad it is?" I stuttered, for the first time in years have I ever been unsure what I wanted to say.
"I'm afraid I don't, I saw enough to see a lot of blood, but as you know that doesn't really mean anything." The woman placed her hand over mine.
I was about to say something but got cut off by my pager buzzing against my hip. I looked up at the woman in distress. I closed my eyes tightly, before looking up again composed. "I have to get back to work. Will you page me when he gets out of surgery?"
"You won't be allowed in, you know that, but I will page you when he wakes up." The woman squeezed my hand and I nodded in agreement.
"Thank you." I stood up on shaky legs and gave one final glance towards the surgery room.
"He'll be fine, I promise." She spoke softly. "Now get back to work, it will do neither of you any good for you to be worrying." I gave her a soft smile before heading back up the stairs to the critical care unit, and when I got there I was so involved in trying to re-stabilize a third degree burn victim that my troubled mind stayed far away from Mamoru for it couldn't help him and the patients on my table at the same time. I owed it to my patients to give them all of my attention or else I would be responsible for their deaths and have to face the families affected by the loss.