Disclaimer: I do not currently, nor will I ever own Case Closed.

Truth Will Prevail

Second Truth

Ran woke up, her eyes automatically searching for Shinichi. Instead they found a white room, and her parent's faces. "Mom," she said, her voice disbelieving, "Dad?"

Her mom, upon realizing that she was awake, brightened, and suddenly she was caught in a fierce hug. "Oh, my little Ran. You're all right! Don't you ever, ever do anything like that ever again!"

Ran blinked, slightly shocked. "What did I do, mom?"

Her mom pulled away, her eyes looking a bit fierce. "Don't you ever run away from your father again! It's dangerous!"

Ran, staring at her mother, didn't notice her father's suddenly guilty face. "But I didn't run away, mom! I never moved away from the main area until that man made me and Shinichi walk away."

"What do you mean?" her mother asked.

"Shinichi was sitting on a bench by himself, only I didn't know he was Shinichi yet, and I walked over there and we started talking. I sat by him, and then there was the man. He had a gun, and I couldn't see dad, and Shinichi's babysitter wasn't paying attention," her mom's lips tightened as she listened to the story, and her father, after prompting from his wife, took notes. Later, Ran had to repeat the whole story to an officer, who asked her questions and frowned whenever she hesitated, or didn't remember something. They wouldn't tell her where Shinichi was either, just that he was asleep and doing well. She wanted to see him though.

She had just about decided to sneak out and see if she could find him when she heard her parents approaching. It wasn't a difficult task-her mother's yelling was likely audible to the entire building.

"You are such a child, Kogoro! I can't believe you let our daughter be kidnapped right from under your eyes! How can you claim to be a detective when you let such a thing happen?!" her mother was shouting.

"Lay off, will you? It was just a mistake, and she's back now! She's fine!" her father yelled back. Ran felt her eyes burning. Her father seemed to act like the whole thing was just a small thing! It was horrible! People had been killed, Jennifer had been killed, and Shinichi had been shot!

"You've got to be kidding me! How can you just dismiss something like Ran being kidnapped like she's been on vacation for a couple of months?!" her mother shouted back.

"I'm not going to listen to this," her father replied, and stomped off.

Ran felt a tear run down her cheek, and she pulled the blanket over her and pretended to be asleep.

"Stupid idiot," she heard her mother mutter angrily as she entered the room. Ran had to fight to hold back more tears. She'd thought if she made it back to her parents everything would be all right. Now her reappearance just seemed to make everything worse.

When Shinichi woke up it was the middle of the night. He looked around. He was in a hospital room. There were a few lights that blinked on a nearby machine, and his arm wasn't hurting that much anymore. He moved the hospital gown, and stared at what he could see. Neither Jennifer nor the man had known how to properly bandage the wound, and so before it had been a mass of padding, gauze, and tape. Now there was just a neat little cover and a little gauze for security. He noticed his parents in the chairs by the windows, asleep. He was back.

Where was Ran, though? He looked at his parents—he really didn't want to have to talk to them right now. What would he say? How could he explain that he hadn't been able to think of a way to escape, hadn't been able to think of a way to save Jennifer? How could he explain everything?

He wanted something safe, familiar. He slowly, and as quietly as possible moved the covers back and slipped out. It shouldn't be too hard to find Ran.

Shinichi couldn't make it to the door before his father's voice spoke. "Shinichi, son, you're awake. Where are you going? Are you in a hurry to leave again?"

Shinichi froze, then forced himself to relax. "I was just going to look for the bathroom," he said, not wanting to admit he was going to look for Ran.

His father sighed. "Come here," he ordered. Shinichi forced himself to turn around and slowly walk towards his father. He couldn't bring himself to look into his eyes though, see what he was thinking.

Shock was his first reaction when his father suddenly dropped to his knees and pulled him close. "I was so worried about you, and the police were convinced that you'd run away. I tried to explain that you weren't that sort of boy, especially since you had a new book at home, but with no notice, no motive, they dismissed it."

Shinichi, thrown off by this news, pulled back and looked at his father. "We didn't run away! The man came and made us come, but we weren't his targets! Jennifer was, and she's being blamed for everything! It wasn't her fault!"

His father smiled at him, and Shinichi relaxed slightly. "I know. Ran told us. It's a good thing we have you to for witnesses, because no one suspected that Jennifer wasn't acting of her own free will."

Shinichi blinked. "But the police, the detectives! They would have figured it out eventually, right?"

His father sighed, and his face fell. "Maybe. Eventually. Policemen aren't omniscient, though. It's not like a book, where some brilliant detective will figure everything out. It's a sad fact, but it happens. The wrong people are put in jail, the culprit is never found."

"Why?" Shinichi asked.

"Because people don't pay enough attention to the details, or they have the information, but can't put it together correctly," his father replied.

"What about you? You can do all those things! You're a great detective!" Shinichi replied.

His father's mouth quirked slightly. "I'm only one man, and I'm just good at putting patterns together and writing stories. I can't be everywhere, and I don't know everything a true detective would."

Shinichi knew his father didn't have the time to help everyone, but it wasn't right. What about all the kids like him, all the people like Jennifer? They deserved to have someone to fight for them, to discover the one truth just like Jennifer said.

"Why don't you go back to sleep, son? You've had a hard time, you need your rest," his father said, standing up.

Shinichi, unable to really work up a proper argument, trudged back to bed, climbed in, and closed his eyes. He half-way hoped that now that he was safe, he'd be able to sleep again, but it was not to be. He lay awake, turning the issue over in his head. He didn't want to have someone else have to go through what he did. He didn't want someone as nice as Jennifer, even if she did make a mistake, to have to die. He didn't want the bad guy to go unpunished.

His father said that there wasn't enough people, and that people who did didn't know enough, or know the right information. Maybe he could learn that information. He'd still only be one person, but if he knew the right things, then maybe he could help a lot of people, help on the cases that the police couldn't easily solve.

It would be hard. Beyond hard: he would have to spend much of his time learning everything he needed so that he could anticipate whatever the criminal mind thought of, and be able to figure the hard cases out. He could do it though. He wouldn't be the person to be saved, but the person who did the saving. He could find the one truth, just like Jennifer did.

Shinichi swore to himself that night that he would study, he would devote himself to learning everything he needed to know, so that he wouldn't have to standby while Jennifers were killed and the bad guys got away. He would make sure that they were caught, so that no one would ever have to go what he and Ran had to go through. No one.

End Chapter Two

I'm enjoying writing this. As I mentioned before, I feel as if I'm getting to know Shinichi and Ran and some of the other characters in ways I didn't know them before. Hope everyone else is enjoying it as well!