We are going a bit back in time to Friday night here, the night of the accident. And man, it was super annoying trying to make all the time differences accurate between Paris and Japan, while I was in the US. It was messing majorly with my head and I had to write out two different story timelines to keep Natsuko's part accurate.
Natsuko had been startled to come back from shopping and an early dinner with her father to find her phone had six missed calls and four voicemails. She had not thought to take it with her, international calls on cell phones were so expensive, who would call unless it was an absolute emergency?
Worry knotted tightly in her stomach, she checked the missed calls.
Three were from Yamato.
Two were from Hiroaki.
One was a number she did not recognize.
There were none from Takeru.
Michael Takaishi paused in removing his jacket to see that there was a message blinking on the house phone. Unaware of his daughter's unease, he pressed play. Natsuko whipped around to stare at the machine as the mechanical voice chimed out,
"You have one new message. Friday, four eighteen pm. Beep. Natsuko, its Hiroaki," She heard him sigh heavily, "You need to come home." It sounded as if he began to say more, then a moment of silence, and the call disconnected.
Michael stared at his daughter in open concern as the machine chimed behind him.
"Natsuko honey, what's this all about?" Michael came up to her and rested a hand on her shoulder. She was pale and obviously frightened, looking down at her cell phone as if it would detonate at any moment. "Natsuko?"
She didn't look up as she whispered,
"Takeru didn't call," She raised a hand to her mouth. "Something happened to my baby and I'm too scared to press a button to find out."
Michael guided her towards the kitchen table and settled her in a chair, taking the one next to it for himself.
"You are a strong woman, darling, and you love your children. I will be right here if you need me."
Natsuko nodded and braced herself. The first message came in at two fifty.
"Hello, this is Tokyo Medical University Hospital. I am calling to inform you that your son, Takaishi Takeru was admitted this evening with injuries due to a vehicle incident. Your presence is requested at this time as his legal guardian. Please call 358-9100 if you have any questions. Thank you."
Natsuko swallowed past the growing lump in her throat and pulled the phone away from her ear. The next two messages were from Yamato, one at three twenty and another at three twenty two. The first one yielded little more than garbled background noise for exactly eleven seconds and went dead. The second was silent for the first six or so seconds, then a loud but muffled noise forced the phone away from her ear. She pulled it back frantically as she hear a familiar voice speak out, though it was not the one she had expected.
"Mrs. Takaishi, sorry, it's Taichi. Yamato's a little … I know the hospital called you about Takeru, but Yamato just wanted to let you know that he's here in the waiting room and Mr. Ishida is on his way. Takeru is in surgery, he- The doctor is supposed to talk to us when he gets out. We'll keep you updated. Don't worry, I'll stay with Yamato as long as he lets me," There was a distant shout cut short by the message ending.
Natsuko almost smiled. Thank God her sons had such good friends. She was sure that Yamato had been embarrassed to hear Taichi's declaration and probably grouched about how he was sixteen and didn't need a babysitter. The gesture had been clear though, and the mother was heartened to know that at least one of her sons was being taken care of.
She reached out and gripped her father's hand resting on the table and listened to the last message, which was from Hiroaki.
"Nat..." God, just by that one word she could tell he was smoking. "Takeru was moved to the pediatric ward. They let us see him for a bit. He's pretty banged up but he's going to make it. We're staying at the Yagami's place tonight. Its closer. Call me, we'll be up all night I bet."
The woman took a moment to collect herself before turning to look her father in the eye, knowing he had heard every word.
"I need to be with my kids."
Takaishi Natsuko would move heaven and earth to get to her children. Hadn't she stolen a rowboat a few years ago in order to get across the bay during the fog incident? She could do this too.
Unfortunately the whole world seemed to fight her every step of the way. First of all, there were no direct flights from Paris to Tokyo until Monday. One flight on Saturday morning would send her first to Moscow, and then to Hong Kong for a nine hour layover that got her to Tokyo no sooner than had she waited to fly until Monday. Honestly, why were these flights even offered? Finally she settled for leaving Saturday at noon, staying in Beijing for a one hour layover and landing in Tokyo around six thirty in the morning on Sunday because of the damn seven hour time difference. That would be tolerable, she could be with Takeru before he was even awake so long as there wasn't much traffic. She would be okay.
And she would have been okay if her flight from Beijing hadn't been delayed four hours. And she certainly wasn't okay when her bags nearly got stolen by someone at the baggage carousel who wasn't looking closely enough. By the time she was trying and failing to hail a cab from the airport arrivals gate, Takaishi Natsuko was out for blood. Her only blessing came in the form of a fellow mother, who, when seeing her haggard face, yanked her teenage daughter back from stepping into their taxi and offered it to Natsuko instead. Mrs. Takaishi thanked her profusely, driven almost to tears, but the other woman just waved her away.
So now, nearly seven hours later than she had expected, Natsuko half ran down the halls of the pediatric ward. In her opinion she had wasted enough time and wasn't going to worry about looking calm and composed. Anyone running around a children's hospital with bags under their eyes as big as hers was either an overworked doctor, or a parent. Both were to be respected.
Finally after all her trials, Natsuko stood panting slightly with her hand on the doorknob of her child's room. This was it. Her stomach clenched.
Yet as she twisted the knob and entered, the scene set before her was nothing like what she had been picturing for the past thirty-six hours.
The four occupants of the room turned quickly to look at her, two of them freezing at the look on her face and looking embarrassed, if not guilty. Yet she only had eyes for the smaller figure in the middle. Takeru was sitting up in bed, no pain evident on his face, grinning like he hadn't a care in the world. He wore huge green rimmed sunglasses and what on earth was that thing on his head? Was that actually supposed to be a hat?
"Who dares trespass in the fun zone?" His attempt at sounding stern was ruined by his choked giggles.
Natsuko stood stunned. Had she come all this was only to interrupt them playing cards? Fast food bags lay scattered on the guest chairs, upbeat music played quietly from a small radio, and Patamon sat on Yamato's lap wearing striped socks on his ears. Yamato and her ex-husband were frozen, staring at her in thinly veiled horror.
Patamon unfroze and happily greeted her.
"Hi Takeru's mom!"
Takeru jumped, slamming his cast into the bottom of the dinner tray and nearly upsetting his soft drink cup. A few playing cards fluttered to the floor.
"Mom!"
The next chapter is Natsuko and Takeru, and takes place immediately afterward. It should be up pretty soon!
