-Chapter 3-

Shosuke eyes flashed violet as a dark-skinned man walked through the halls of the hospital, the man was a clue, he was hiding something and he knew that he was connected. "Taji," he said with a slight nod towards the man. Taji gave a small nod of his head and that was all that was needed between the two they move to follow the doctor as he headed outside. They watch him take out a pack of smokes lighting one up. "Dr. Komiya?" the man turns to look at Shosuke before looking at Taji.

"Sorry I'm on break," he said holding up the cigarette as if proving that he was off the clock at the moment.

"This won't take long. We just have a few questions about a case we're working on Shigeki Yumiko, she was 13 years old." Taji said with a smile his hands in his pockets. They both watched as the Komiya sighed leaning against the wall.

"I don't know much about how she died but I can tell you what I do know," he said before looking at the two men again. Clearly, he wanted to speak, something was heavy in his heart. Something that didn't sit well with him and it all played across his features as he stared at the two of them.

Taji moved towards him nodding towards the pack in his hands, "Can I bum one?"

"Yeah sure," Komiya said handing him a cigarette. Lighting it for Taji and then turned towards Shosuke to offer him one as well. Shosuke declined the offer with a shake of his head which caused the doctor to shrugged. They smoke in silence for a moment before Taji picked up, leading the conversation once again.

"So you were on rounds I take it Dr. Komiya?" Taji asked as he looked at the man, Komiya looked at him and then Shosuke. As if judging one last time if they were trustworthy to be telling anything to about what happened. Whatever he saw must have been enough because he began to speak.

"Yeah, I was on rounds when she came in. When I first saw her I didn't think she was all that sick so I didn't think much of it at the time." he looked up towards the sky as he blew a cloud of smoke into the evening air.

"We heard that she had bronchitis or maybe even pneumonia." Komiya looked at Taji and shook his head at him.

"No, you don't understand the next time I saw her she was really sick. Sick enough that she should have been in the intensive care unit." he sighed heavily. "Yet we didn't have any beds at the time." He took inhaling his cigarette slowly exhaling it. "Tell me, have either of you held a heart in their hands?"

Taji was taken back by the question, he raised his eyebrow at him not sure what this had to do with anything. "No, I can't say I have."

Komiya looked at Shosuke clearly waiting for his response before he would go on, "I've only ever held my own heart." the man nodded his head.

"Yeah, that's the biggest difference here and where I spend my childhood. I've seen a lot and that's why I wanted to be a doctor you see. Third year in and they throw you at people, you got to help heal them at that point. It's been what 6 years since I started?" he shook his head sadly "It don't get no easier. My point is that anything can happen in the ER, I spent a good 40 minutes trying to find an orderly for that girl. She really needed to be in the intensive care but no luck." He looked down as he crossed his arm over his stomach "I know I should have kept looking but I got distracted. See there was this guy who had a gunshot wound right through his neck six-inch exit. He was dying and I was there." Clearly, he was bothered by the fact he didn't do more for the girl because something else had come up. Someone who needed his help right there and then.

Taji looked at him taking in his body language, "That's pretty rare, with our laws after all." The man nodded his head towards Taji.

"Yeah. Have you ever seen a gunshot wound?" he asked looking at Taji, clearly, he didn't really expect him to have ever seen one. Like he had said it was rare for those sort of things.

"I've seen a few" Taji replied taking a hit of his cigarette, "Rare doesn't mean it can't happen." Again Komiya looked towards Shosuke.

"I've seen more than I want to admit." Shosuke found the way this man asked questions a bit odd but it was clear that he had seen enough that when something doesn't sit well with him that he didn't stop thinking. Questioning everything around him, asking these sort of questions were just one of those habits of trying to make sense of the world perhaps, wanting to know that other people had seen the same sort of horrors he had seen.

Komiya nodded his head again. "Anyways after I dealt with that, I asked what happened to her. They said that she was given a prescription and was checked out. That's when I saw her father outside one of the ER rooms, he was going nuts. Yelling and asking why they didn't do this or that. I mean he really sounded like he knew his way around." he shook his head truly bothered by the whole thing, "That was after she had died though."

Taji put out his cigarette in the ashtray, "Around the hospital?"

"No, around sick people. When you are around them enough you pick up things. Those doctors though? Something wasn't right with the way they looked at each other." He shook his head sighing heavily.

Shosuke looked at Komiya, "Worried? Excited?"

"No. No, they were embarrassed…" Komiya said put his cigarette out, "I gotta get back at it." They watched him walk back inside the hospital. Leaving them both to their own thoughts.

Shosuke leaned against the wall looking into the evening sky but not seeing it, "embarrassed."

"Does that make sense to you?" Shosuke nodded his head and walked off towards the parking lot, Taji shook his head and followed him. "Care to share?"

"Not yet," he said simply.

Taji sat in Purple Horizon at one of the tables near the blacked out window across from Shosuke. When the bartender gave a nod of his head "He is here" he said putting the cup of coffee in front of Taji before looking towards Shosuke, "Do you want anything?" Shosuke shook his head no.

Taji shook his head "Why do you keep trying Haru?"

Haru looked towards Taji. "Things can change." With that Haru walked towards the only other person in the bar at the moment, he nodded towards the two men and then went behind the bar.

Takuji got up holding his beer making his way to the two men. He looked at them for a moment before sitting down between the two men at the table. He gave a nod, "I don't have a lot of time but please tell me what you know." Taji and Shosuke looked at each other a silent agreement passing between them.

"We just had some questions, to check some facts." Shosuke looked out towards the window as Taji spoke to him.

Takuji, "Anything I can do to help."

Shosuke, "What was the prescription was your daughter getting?"

Takuji looked at Shosuke "I know it was Panadol it was 500mg twice a day."

"You weren't with the whole time were you?" Taji asked him and he lowered his head holding his head taking a deep breath.

"No… she's a young lady. I thought she would be fine, it was just a sore throat. So I was in the cafeteria, having bad coffee and reading. You don't see as many people dying or sick when in the cafeteria. I did go and check on her… the first time they told me that she hadn't been seen. I figure they were busy, I mean a sore throat is not life-threatening. The second time I was told she was getting a chest x-ray. I thought it was strange but they said they were just making sure. Sometime later they checked her out and told her to fill out her prescription, so we were heading to do that when…" he ran a hand across his face. "... she started having a hard time breathing… I rushed her back… she was so blue."

Taji placed a hand on his shoulder, "I didn't mean to cause you to live it over again. Forgive me."

"It's not your fault. I can't get it out of my head." Takuji looked at Taji"I gotta head out." He tipped his beer drowning it took the glass to the bartender and left.

Haru put the glass down in the sink before moving towards the door, locking it. Moving back to the two men he sat down and looked at Taji before his eyes trailed towards Shosuke. "You didn't tell him everything."

Taji lifted his coffee and took a drink "Haru we don't always tell them. Sometimes it will do no good until we have all the details."

Shosuke eyes flashed violet before turning towards Haru "You remember your brain tumor scare?" the man grunted.

"Brain tumor?" Taji asked looking between the two of them.

Haru nodded his head "Yeah, some years before you joined the Down, I had a pretty bad bar fight happen here. These two guys were fighting. I was shoved hard enough to hit the back of one of the chairs, broke the damn thing, but I was fine just in a lot a pain. Shosuke quickly dealt with the two while I'm sitting getting ice to ease the pain. Well about a week later I'm slurring my words, so I go and see this neurologist, he came highly recommend. He tells me he wants me at the hospital. The Good Doctor does a CAT scan and then come and tell me that I had an inoperable brain tumor in my cerebellum." he shook his head "I couldn't believe it so I got a second opinion, this one comes and says I don't have a brain tumor but a subdural hematoma." He smirked, "a month later, I'm fine."

Taji shook his head "It's a good thing they caught the mistake" Haru only grunted.

Shosuke looked at Taji "The problem is when they don't and they bury them instead." He said looking back out towards the darkened window.