(Okay, wow. As of three nights ago, several major things happened... I updated my bio, I got an idea for a really strange fic- that I probably will write and post here- AND I got one of my good friends to read this story.
Who am I, and what have I done with ITB?!
Also, the play... I was recently in Chicago, and that's what my relatives took me to. If you ever go to Chicago, go to Maggiano's. Maggiano's kicks ASS. They give you chocolate cake slices that could feed a whole family of Reubens. (You all should know Reuben.)
Also, a warning; this chapter has many abrupt time changes. But, whatever. You should be used to that by now if you're reading this.
Well, anyways, about my bio- if you want to read it, READ IT NOW. You certainly won't be in the mood to read anything incredibly pointless and stupid once this chapter's over, if I've done it right.
Characters © Nintendo)
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New Beginnings
Chapter Four- Shi
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2011... it was only May, and already it was proving to be an extremely busy year.
In the Angeles Bay area, the quiet of a small house in the suburbs was disturbed by a ringing phone. It was quickly answered by the lady of the household.
"Hello?" she spoke in a soft voice.
"Hey, Victoria... it's me."
Victoria Kasal smiled. "Hey, Sidney... are you going to be working late again?"
"Actually, I just got off for the day," Sidney informed. "You might want to get ready to go out... I'll be home in about forty minutes."
"Alright," Victoria replied. "I love you, Sidney..."
"You too, Victoria."
They hung up.
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"Oh, Sidney, that was so incredible..."
Sidney and Victoria exited the theater, heading back to the parking garage to get to their car.
"Alright, be honest..." Victoria smiled. "When did you get reservations to Vera Cruz and tickets to Wicked? There's no way you could have done this at the last minute..."
"How can you be sure?" Sidney smiled.
"It's just not possible... I heard tickets for Wicked sold out in March..."
Sidney chuckled as they entered the garage. Rather than wait for an elevator to take them to the second floor, they opted to take the stairwell instead.
"I found out in February that work was going to be extremely hectic, at best, from here on out for a while," he explained. "After today, I'm going to be working late a lot... so, I decided to celebrate our anniversary early."
"Well, it was very enjoyable," Victoria smiled as they stepped out of the stairwell. "Thank you, Sidney..."
As they approached the car, Sidney placed a gentle kiss on Victoria's lips.
"You're welcome."
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The seven o'clock alarm was quickly silenced by a tired swing at the snooze bar.
Sidney's hand lingered on the button for a little while before it slipped away. He refused to open his eyes; maybe he could fall asleep again for a few minutes...
"Mm... Sidney, I know you heard the alarm go off..."
Sighing quietly, Sidney opened his eyes, greeted by the blurry sight of his smiling wife.
"Good morning, sleepyhead," Victoria murmured, slowly stroking the side of Sidney's face. He smiled gently, pulling Victoria in closer.
"Hey there," Sidney replied tiredly, kissing Victoria briefly. "It's too early to be getting up... I vote we stay in today, how's that sound?"
"That sounds like a fine idea," Victoria giggled, her hand falling away from Sidney's face, "but I'm not too sure your boss would like it if you slept in today..."
Sidney smiled.
"All right... you have a good point."
With great effort, Sidney pulled himself away from Victoria and out of bed. He pulled on a robe as he headed for the master bathroom. Victoria stayed in bed for another minute or so before she too got up, pulling on her own robe as she went downstairs to make some coffee.
When Sidney came downstairs about twenty minutes later, Victoria was sitting on the couch in the living room, sipping a cup of hot coffee. As he finished fixing his tie, Sidney walked into the kitchen.
He returned to the living room with his own cup of coffee, drinking the caffeinated liquid as he sat down next to Victoria.
"Mm... you smell nice," Victoria commented as she rested her head on Sidney's shoulder.
"I should hope so," Sidney chuckled. "It would be a bad thing if I came out of the shower smelling worse, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, it would," Victoria smiled, drinking her coffee. "...do you know when you'll be home tonight?"
"Not until late," Sidney sighed. "Maybe I'll get out at ten... if I'm lucky."
"Oh..." Victoria murmured, looking into her now-empty cup. "Will you call me when you're on your way home?"
"Of course."
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Sidney had called at eleven and walked in the front door at eleven thirty.
He was asleep on the couch by eleven forty-five.
Victoria couldn't help but smile briefly as she turned off the television.
The lenses of Sidney's glasses no longer reflected Harry Potter and Voldemort locked in yet another deadly struggle, which Harry would inevitably win, as always. Victoria removed Sidney's glasses, folding them and gently placing them on the coffee table.
"Good night, Sidney," she spoke softly as she took the living room blanket and tossed it over her sleeping husband before retiring to her bedroom.
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Really, Victoria wondered, how could they make Sidney work double shifts twelve days in a row?! This was insane! It should be outlawed!
And now, on the day of their anniversary, he wasn't going to be home till after midnight?
Victoria hoped that he would get a day off soon... she was tired of Sidney only being home long enough to eat and fall asleep, then wake up to get back to work.
Sighing, she flopped onto the couch, desperately bored at only one thirty in the afternoon. At this point, she was even willing to watch talk shows... even though she found it pathetic, that people had been on some of the shows five or six- sometimes more!- times.
"But I just KNOW he's the father of my baby! I may have been wrong seven times before, but this time I'm positive!"
Victoria slowly began to pick up the remote...
The phone rang. She sprang to her feet, dropping the remote in her rush to answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hello, ma'am... is Mr. Kasal there?"
Victoria smiled as she quickly recognized the voice- not her husband's, but so similar to it that it was hard to tell the difference.
"No, Sidney's not here, Greg... he won't be home till after midnight."
Greg let out a low whistle.
"I call on my first day off in a month, and he's working until midnight?! And I thought my hours were bad... don't tell me he's pulling doubles!"
"For almost two weeks, now."
"Damn... oh, pardon my language, Victoria."
"Oh, it's alright," Victoria waved off Greg's less than perfect choice of words. "What did you want to tell him? I'll give him the message."
"Well, I was going to wish him a happy anniversary- happy sixth anniversary, by the way-, but now I'm going to tell him that he needs to get a life," Greg chuckled.
"Oh, he still does... it's just mostly work now," Victoria joked."But about two weeks ago, he took me to see Wicked..."
"Really? Who'd he have to kill to get the tickets?" Greg laughed.
"Ha ha, very funny, Greg," Victoria admonished, but was unable to keep the smile off her face. "Actually, he--"
Her sentence was suddenly cut off as she let out a cry, clutching at her chest, which had exploded with pain...
"Victoria? ...what's wrong?!"
Victoria tried to answer, but couldn't; her breaths came in labored gasps, her vision began to blur... the phone fell from her hands to the floor, and soon, she followed suit as everything faded to black--
"Victoria!!"
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At one fifty, Sidney was stuck in a meeting that he would rather have not had to attend in the first place.
Suddenly, his back pocket began to vibrate. Suppressing a sigh, Sidney subtly pulled out his cell phone and checked the caller ID.
Why would his brother be calling him now, of all times? Didn't he work on Thursdays?
"What is it, Greg?" Sidney asked in a hushed voice as he accepted the call, trying not to draw attention to himself. "I'm in a meeting right now."
"And I'm sure that this meeting you're in is not as important as your wife!"
"...what are you--?!"
"Sidney, you need to get to Hope Hospital, now."
The younger Kasal was on his feet in an instant, ignoring the stares of everyone else in the room.
"I can't say what happened... it would take too long. Just get here, Sidney... hurry."
Greg hung up.
Sidney started to leave.
"Where are you going, Mr. Kasal? The meeting's not--"
"I don't care; I have more important matters to attend to!" Sidney barked as he exited the room.
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He was at Hope Hospital by two twenty-five. Greg was waiting for him in the main lobby.
"What happened?!" Sidney demanded.
"...I called your house at one thirty," Greg began, his voice somber. "Victoria answered and said you weren't home. We started talking, and... I'm not sure what happened, but she fell and dropped the phone... and didn't answer. So I called for an ambulance... and then I called you, and here we are."
"...where is she?"
"...come on. I'll show you. ...don't be surprised by what you see."
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Sidney collapsed into the chair by her bed.
"V...Victoria..."
She was still unconscious. Her skin had taken on an ashen color, and her thin arms were covered with IV sites. As Sidney slowly took her hand, he noticed that it felt unnaturally cold...
"Greg... what's going to happen?"
Greg sighed, running a hand through his brown hair.
"When we did a CT scan, there were tumors in her lungs... but they didn't look right. Every image showed them in a different place..."
"...they were moving?!"
"Sure as hell what it looked like to us," Greg nodded. "We told Dr. Hoffman, the director here at Hope... he said not to operate. he's going to call Caduceus."
"Caduceus... that organization that the HHS set up?" Sidney asked.
"Yeah. He's hoping they'll send over their senior surgeon... he's come once before, and the situation turned out alright; Dr. Clarks is an excellent surgeon. If anyone can take care of this, it'll be him."
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Over the course of three days, Sidney was reluctant to leave Victoria's side; he would only go home to take a shower, and then would come right back to Hope Hospital to stay with his wife, even sleeping by her bedside. Each day he waited, hoping that Victoria would open her eyes; and every day, she remained unconscious... Sidney felt himself slipping into despair.
On the fourth morning, Sidney was awoken by Greg gently shaking his shoulders.
"Sidney... Dr. Clarks is here. He's going to be operating in about a half an hour. You have to let them prepare her for surgery."
"...alright..." Sidney muttered, clearly reluctant to move away from his wife.
"Sidney... you can stay with her again after it's over. They can't do anything for her if you won't let them do their job..."
Although Greg's words were rather blunt, Sidney could see their point... he slowly rose to his feet, exiting room 212 with Greg.
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Ninety minutes.
Greg and Sidney had only been waiting for ninety minutes.
Dr. Clarks walked out of the operating room slowly, reluctant to look towards Sidney.
Greg knew what that meant...
"Dr. Clarks... is my wife going to be okay?"
He stopped, turning to face Sidney, who was slowly beginning to stand.
"...I'm sorry, sir," Dr. Clarks shook his head sadly.
"...what... what do you mean, 'I'm sorry'? She's going to be alright now, isn't she?!"
"Sidney," Greg said warningly as he rose to his feet, sensing that his brother was losing control of his emotions.
"Why?! Why won't she be alright?! I thought you--"
Sidney was suddenly brought to silence when Dr. Clarks gently placed a hand on Sidney's shoulder, his brown eyes reflecting regret and sadness. Sidney felt his clenched hands relax...
"...nothing can be done to save her... I'm sorry, Mr. Kasal. ...stay with her... because she doesn't have much time left."
Dr. Clarks then left, leaving Sidney behind. Greg slowly approached his brother, who was frozen with shock.
"Sidney...?"
Sidney trembled slightly.
"...Greg..."
His voice cracked; Greg was barely able to catch him before Sidney collapsed to the floor, the tears falling freely from his face.
Never before had Greg heard a sound so sad as that of his only brother, the one who had taken all hardships with a grin, sobbing over the loss of his love.
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(End chapter four.
No additional comments, just that shi is Japanese for the number four... and that it also means death... and my usual request for reviews, please...)
