Friendship is not only doing something for someone, but it is caring for someone, which is what every person needs. ~C. Neil Strait

Gravity

Chapter Four

I was hardly able to get any sleep. Every hour, on the hour the nurses would make their rounds. They'd come into the room to check my vitals on the machine that was attached to me by wires. They would come in, look at the machine for a moment, write something down on my chart at the foot of the bed, smile then leave.

And don't even get me started on the IV in my arm.

Needless to say, I was pretty cranky that morning. David was able to sleep through the night on the couch. He woke up refreshed and energized. I was drugged, sleepy, and cranky. He went down to the cafeteria to get us some breakfast after assuring me a number of times that the breakfasts in the hospital weren't actually all that bad. It was the rest of the day that you had to worry about.

It was about ten o'clock in the morning and I could see out the window that was positioned directly to my left that there was a blanket of snow outside. It had started snowing at about two in the morning, shortly after David had laid down and fallen asleep. The sky was still a dark gray, threatening to add another layer to the already white blanket.

My attention was pulled away from the window when I heard a soft knock at the door. My mood immediately brightened when a pair of cinnamon colored eyes met mine.

"Keiko!" I greeted, smiling brightly. She returned my smile with an equally bright smile of her own. She quickly moved to the side of my bed and drew me into a light hug, being mindful of the stitches in my chest.

"How are you feeling?" she asked pulling away from the embrace. "Are you in any pain?"

"I'm fine," I assured her. "And no. You wouldn't believe the strength of the shit they have me on," I said, nodding to the bag that was dripping into the plastic tube that was attached to my arm through the IV. "I think I could get shot a few more times before I'd feel anything."

"Don't say that!" she exclaimed, smacking my arm.

"I'm sorry," I laughed. "Well, not really. It's the truth."

"And why the hell did you go and get yourself shot in the first place?" a male voice asked from the door way. I peered around Keiko to see Yusuke standing there, a grin plastered across his face.

"Well, its not like I had a bulls eye taped to me," I answered shortly. I returned his grin after a moment. "Hello to you, too, Yusuke."

As he entered into the room, a strange feeling brushed across the back of my neck. I stiffened at the feeling, my grin dropping immediately. My stomach twisted into knots.

"Are you okay?" Keiko asked, her voice filled with concern. "You look you're about to be sick! Do I need to go get a nurse?"

"No," I said, swallowing. The feeling started to ease, my stomach untwisting itself. "I think it's just a side effect of the morphine.." She looked like she didn't believe me. "I'm fine. I promise," I told her, shaking my head. "Morphine is pretty crazy."

"Oh, well, hello," David greeted, coming back into the room with a tray and two plates. "If I had known you would be here so early I would have gotten you both something to eat. I can run back downstairs?" he offered, setting the tray down on the rolling table.

"No, we're fine, thank you," Keiko declined, slowly pulling her gaze from me, and giving David a smile. "We ate before we came."

"Is everything alright?" he asked, his eyes moving over the three of us. Keiko and Yusuke both looked concerned. I suppressed a sigh. Of course David would notice. Of course.

"I just suddenly got kind of nauseous," I answered. "I'm fine."

A sigh did escape my lips when David picked up my chart at the end of the bed and went into doctor mode. I shot them both a look causing Keiko to roll her eyes and Yusuke to give me a shit-eating-grin.

"Well, they're lowering your dosage of morphine," David explained. "That could have something to do with it.." he moved over to the side of the bed with my IV and checked the dripping of the fluid. He then turned to me and pressed his hand to my forehead. "Are you still nauseous?" he asked.

"I'm fine," I said pushing his hand away. "Seriously. It's already passed." I knew it was no good. Once David got into his doctor mode, he stayed in his doctor mode until whatever situation passed. I sat back on the bed and gave the brunette a glowering look.

David let out a sigh and crossed his arms, looking me over. "If you say so," he said.

I blinked, surprised that he gave in so easily. David moved away from the side of my bed and asked Yusuke something about the weather. They moved to the couches, David taking his plate with him.

"So, tell me what happened," Keiko said, sliding the rolling table over to the bed with the tray of food. "They've been talking about you on the news.."

"I figured," I sighed. "I don't really know what happened," I said, after swallowing a spoonful of miso soup. "I just..I was about to cross the street. I was at the back of the crowd. I heard the gunshots and everyone started screaming," I sat back on the bed, suddenly losing my appetite. "Then I felt it." I shook my head. "I kind of remembering having an out of body experience. But I'm pretty sure I just dreamed it," I said, glancing over to David who was talking with Yusuke.

"What do you mean?" she asked, a tight expression crossing her face. The expression was gone before I could blink.

"Um. I don't know," I said, almost honestly. "I remember.." I stopped. "It's nothing," I finished, shaking my head. Keiko looked like she was about to open her mouth to protest. "Please," I pleaded with her. "I really don't want to talk about it," I said, glancing over to David again. "I just..I promise I'll tell you eventually," I added, turning my gaze back to her. "Just not right now. Please."

She finally gave in with a sigh and a nod.

We spent the late morning laughing and talking. Keiko had been so busy these last few weeks that we hadn't been able to talk. Between her work and her last year of college, she was swamped. I wasn't angry at her though. I was almost jealous. She was twenty-one, almost twenty-two, had a stable job, finishing college that she got into almost free with her scholarships, and married to someone who she had essentially been with since she was fourteen.

Not that they didn't have their ups and downs. Keiko didn't date in highschool, though there were a lot of boys that showed interest in her. We met in art class. She needed an extra credit, and I just simply liked it. We sat together at our table and that was it. We had been friends ever since. One of the few nights I wasn't working on a weekend, I'd stay the night over at her house for the night, assuring David that Keiko would help me study. One of those few nights, after we had spent much of the night watching romantic comedies and eating candy, I'd asked her a question that I had always kind of wondered.

"You know, that guy Haru over at the boy's school seems pretty into you," I said, turning to look at her. We were sitting on her bed, the credits on her TV rolling as we finished our third movie for the night. "I mean, he's always standing outside the gates waiting to walk you home when school lets out."

"I know," she sighed, a distant look in her eyes. "I'm just not interested."

"Are you interested in anyone?" I asked after a moment. I had always wondered. Any time dating and boys were brought up, she'd get a far away look in her eyes and almost check out of the conversation. She turned her cinnamon colored eyes to me and chewed her lip for a moment before answering.

"You promise not to tell anyone?" she asked. I gave her a bland look. Who was I going to tell? She was the only person I talked to.

And she told me of Yusuke, the boy she had been in love with since she was fourteen. How he started working for a job that sent him to another country to work. Before he left the summer before her first year of high school, he promised to be back in three years. I quickly counted in my mind. He would be back by the end of this year, if he kept his promise.

"So you promised you'd wait for him?" I asked.

"Kind of," she said, sighing. "I told him that I was going into high school and a lot could happen."

"So..you're waiting for him?" I asked again, reading in between the lines she said. She nodded, a forlorn expression on her face. "Huh," I said, blinking. "Well..That's the cutest thing I've ever heard. Like, so cute, it's gross. I could vomit right here."

"Oh, hush!" she said, giving me a playful shove and a giggle. I returned the smile and laughed. "You know, there's quite a number of pretty cute boys who make sure they try and say hi to you after school," she said, giving me an amused grin. "And they blush when you actually acknowledge them."

"Yeah, yeah," I said waving her off. "Like I have time for dating. Could you imagine David's reaction if I even mentioned bringing a boy home? Seriously. He tried to talk to me about sex when I was fifteen, like I hadn't already gotten the talk. Now you want to talk about awkward," I shook my head.

Keiko laughed and agreed. "Maybe it's for the best."

Two months later, Keiko came back to school from the weekend, her face holding a new glow I hadn't ever seen before. I made sure to get her alone during lunch and demanded she spill about what she was so cheery about. With a grin that nearly split her face in half, she told me Yusuke had come home. And they were going to get married this summer, after she graduated.

I was pulled from my thoughts when I felt something... shift in the room. The light hearted atmosphere changed. I felt stress clench in between my shoulder blades. I turned my attention to Yusuke. It was almost... as if the feeling was coming from him. He was staring out the window, passed David. His brow was drawn, and lips pursed.

I slowly followed his gaze out the window. I felt my heart flutter. Floating outside the window was a blue haired girl. I jumped in surprise, and my chest constricted tightly, shooting pain into my body.

"Ah!" I cried out, clutching at the place of my incision and bullet wounds. I barely heard the monitor attached to me go haywire, but the pain coming from my chest over powered any other sense that I had. David was at my side in an instant. Peering up through my hair and clenched eyes, I saw Keiko and Yusuke stepped back from the bed. Kieko wore nothing but concern on her face. But Yusuke is who my eyes were drawn to. I could feel concern coming from him. But I could also feel dread.

I was wracked by another wave of pain from my chest as I coughed. I tasted metal in my mouth and saw small splatters of blood appear on the white of the blankets and my hands.

"Nurse!" David yelled, holding a cloth to my mouth as I coughed again, and this time I could feel the blood on my chin. "She must have ripped a stitch," he told the nurse as calmly as he could, when one finally appeared. He grabbed his pager that he carried with him off the rolling table and after a moment he was back at my side. The coughing wouldn't stop, no matter how much I tried. My attending doctor appeared next to me a moment later. David told him what happened. My heart beat had fluttered.

"Get her sedated," the doctor told the nurse, his voice calm, but worry pouring off of him. I could feel the nurse was trying not to panic. David was on the verge of having a melt down. All of these people touching me, their emotions pouring into me, my blood, my bones, my nerves. Everything was raw. I couldn't find my own mind in the chaos of theirs.

The nurse took a syringe and injected something into the tube of my IV.

And everything went black.