(A/N) Wow, I am so sorry to leave you all hanging for so long. I got sick over the holidays and I've got a Supernatural fic going that requires pretty much constant attention. I also had a time of it figuring out the medical lingo in this chapter. I don't know how well I succeed, but I try to make that stuff as accurate as I can. Hopefully, all this further torture was worth waiting for.
Love Don't Die Easy
Chapter 4: Stand in the Rain
For the longest time, Fred hadn't paid much attention to the world outside his parents' mansion. It seemed like a pretty crappy place, so he mostly kept away from it, burying himself in fictional worlds. Tadashi and the gang had been the first real friends he'd ever had, but they weren't really into the whole comic book scene, so he tried to keep quiet about it. He didn't always succeed, but he tried. It had been getting harder to do ever since Hiro had started them all on this quest to track down the man in the kabuki mask, and with everything they'd just learned, it was pretty much impossible. Fred didn't know when it had happened, but the world had turned into a comic, and as Heathcliff flew them away from Akuma Island, the young man couldn't keep his thoughts from turning to just what else might be going on.
"Guys," Fred started heavily as he watched Wasabi and Honey Lemon strip Hiro out of his armor, keeping him on his side so he didn't choke on the blood he was coughing up, "we can't take him to a hospital."
For a long moment, the other three just stared at him in shock and horror. Wasabi was the one to finally break the silence with, "Man, I get you're a little whacked in the head, but are you seriously out of your god damn mind?"
"Hiro's going to die if we don't get him some help," Honey Lemon protested.
"I get that, and we're going to get him some help, but it's too dangerous to take him to a hospital."
"And why's that?" GoGo asked, glaring at him like she just might kill him if he said the wrong thing.
"Think about it. Tadashi's alive. There's no way he should be. Even if it isn't Krei, somebody pretty powerful is behind all this. If there's somebody who's got the resources to turn Tadashi Hamada into this Yokai character, he can definitely get to Hiro in a place as public as a hospital. We need to hide him, get him somewhere safe."
For another long stretch of time, the only sound to be heard was the beating of the rotor blades. This time, GoGo was the one to bring an end to it when she pounded a fist against the side of the helicopter.
"Much as I wanna call you out for being a paranoid dork...I'm afraid you might be right. But what are we supposed to do about it? Hiro's going to die without help, and if he dies...if he dies, it'll mean that Tadashi killed him. We can't let that happen."
"You guys know where we can get help. You know exactly where," Fred reminded them all, looking at each of them in turn, and almost at the same time, they realized what he meant.
"Whoa," Honey Lemon breathed in shock.
"She'll be able to help, sure," GoGo said, burying her face in her hands, "but how's she going to react when we tell her Tadashi's not dead?"
"Can we really do this?" Wasabi asked.
"We don't have any choice," GoGo growled, still not looking up. The decision was final and they all knew it.
"Heathcliff!" Fred called out as he moved up to the front of the chopper. "Get us to SFIT."
XxX
When most people woke up to see two pages full of Bs on the screen from where their nose had rested against the keyboard after falling asleep at the computer, most people would have taken that as a sign to call it quits for the night and head home to a nice, soft bed.
Suri Avicenna was not most people.
When the young med student had shaken herself awake and repaired the document she'd been working on, she moved to the other side of her small lab space and buried her nose in the mint plant she kept there, inhaling its sharp scent to snap her out of the haze of sleep. Before heading back to her desk, she snapped a leaf off her yerba mate plant and began to chew on it, all in the name of staying awake just that little bit longer. Many college students who worked long hours weren't fully aware of just how unhealthy such habits were, but being a med student, Suri knew. She was aware just what limits she was pushing her body to and why, but she tried very hard not to think about the why. That avoidance of her thoughts, however, was about to be made impossible.
The turn of fortune began just as she was about to sit back at her computer and her phone started ringing. Unable to find it, Suri moved around the small space again, searching among the many potted plants she kept herself surrounded with. Finally finding it nestled between two small rose bushes, she answered it just before it stopped ringing.
"Hello?"
"Rosie? It's Honey Lemon."
"I...I remember," Suri said quietly, feeling a tremor run down her spine. It had been a while since she'd spoken with Honey Lemon or any of Tadashi's friends. "What is it? What do you need?"
"Rosie...we need your help. Can you come down and let us in?"
"Sure," she said before hanging up and hurrying out of the ward where she was working. She had no idea why, but the chill persisted all the way down to the main entry, which was locked up by this time of night. Just outside the glass doors, she could see Honey Lemon and the others. Wasabi was carrying something, but she couldn't say what with the dim light from the streetlamps. Once she'd carded them in, though, there was no denying what the tall young man was carrying.
A boy...Hiro Hamada.
"My god, what happened?" she demanded, immediately going to check his pulse while noting the dribble of blood spattering the side of his face. Already, his lips were tinged with blue - a sure sign of hypoxia.
"Baymax happened," GoGo answered bitterly.
"What?" Suri asked in shock, looking around at all of them. "That- that's impossible. That wasn't part of Tadashi's programming. How could something like this happen?"
"It's a long story, Rosie. We don't have time to tell it. Hiro needs help now," Wasabi insisted.
"Of course. Follow me," Suri responded, pushing aside her feelings of shock and horror and instantly snapping into professional mode, leading the way back to the ward. There would be time to sort through her own feelings later. Right now, Tadashi's little brother needed her. She could not let another Hamada die.
XxX
Cass was on her feet the moment she heard the furious pounding on the locked cafe door. If it was Hiro, he certainly wouldn't be knocking on the door. That could only mean something was wrong.
Ever since she'd discovered Hiro wasn't in his room, she'd been struggling not to just up and call the cops. Disappearing in the night wasn't exactly outside of her nephew's M.O., but when neither he nor any of his friends had answered their phones, then she'd really begun to worry. After what had happened to Tadashi, well...she just couldn't let herself think about it. When she saw GoGo and Wasabi standing outside the door looking worried and exhausted, it became nearly impossible to push the fear back.
Dear god, please tell me he's all right. I can't lose both of them. I can't! I can't take it!
"Where's Hiro?" she demanded the moment she'd yanked the door open.
"Cass, he's hurt...bad," Wasabi tried to explain. "You need to come with us."
"I don't understand. What's happening?"
"It's a long story. Honestly, I still don't believe parts of it, but you just...you've gotta come with us right now!" GoGo insisted. "We'll explain on the way."
"Right," Cass finally nodded, quickly locking up the darkened cafe behind her. "Let's go."
XxX
Suri stood outside the window of the small med ward, looking in on Hiro, who lay comatose on the hospital bed. The bed wasn't very big to begin with, but with the small figure of the boy lying there, helpless and wasted, the small white bed almost seemed to engulf him. She'd run tracheal tubes down to his lungs so he'd be able to breathe properly. She'd also implanted several chest tubes along the injury site, draining off blood and other fluids from his chest cavity to prevent any further obstruction of his breathing. She'd done what she could for now and he was mostly stable, but in order to do more, she would need permission from Cass.
What was happening to Hiro was horrible. She didn't see how things could possibly be worse...but then Honey Lemon had told her just who had set Baymax on Hiro.
At first, she didn't say anything. She just stared at her patient - she had to think of him that way; if she thought of Hiro Hamada as anything else, she might just lose it - raising her hand up to the glass and splaying her fingers across the cool surface. Every time she tried to speak, a fresh stab of grief pierced her heart and her throat closed up on her, threatening to choke her.
"Suri?" Honey Lemon called out uncertainly, not using the nickname the group normally used for her. The med student drew a shaky breath as her hand curled into a fist against the glass, finally mastering herself enough to speak.
"What do you mean...he's not dead?"
"I can't tell you what I mean. I can only tell you what we saw," Honey Lemon said, her eyes full of pity when Suri finally looked back at her.
"We knew...this would be hard for you," Fred said, his own expression heavy with sadness as he pushed himself up from where he'd been leaning against the back wall, "but you were the only one we could go to."
"No...I understand. It's not- your fault," Suri struggled to explain, her throat threatening to close up on her again as she fought against the tears she'd been holding back for the last several months. "I just-"
Whatever she'd been trying to say was cut off when Wasabi, GoGo, and Cass all burst into the room.
"Where's Hiro? Is he all right!" Cass demanded frantically. Suri nodded toward the window.
"He's stable for the moment. He's suffered a flail chest injury. A more invasive procedure's going to be needed in order to properly correct it. I'm going to need your consent before I proceed with it," Suri explained, drawing herself back from the painful memories the others' words had brought to the surface, withdrawing into professionalism once again.
"Of course," Cass said without hesitation, slowly turning to look back at the young med student. "Tadashi trusted you...and so do I. Hiro's life couldn't be in better hands."
"Thank you," she said quietly, gaze shifting to the floor. She wasn't sure she could bring herself to say what she knew she needed to. "Did...did they tell you what happened?"
Cass' eyes widened at this, as if she'd only just realized what all this meant for Suri. "Oh...oh, sweetheart," she said softly, quickly moving toward her and pulling her into a tight hug. It was this, more than anything, that made the young woman want to burst into tears. She hadn't allowed anyone this close since...well, since Tadashi's death. "I'm not sure if I can believe it myself. I can't imagine what it must be like for you...to hear this now."
"It's fine," Suri mumbled, turning away as she pulled herself out of Cass' arms. "We...we can talk later. I need to prep Hiro for surgery."
"Suri?" GoGo called after her before she could head out the door. "Are you sure you're all right? You're sure you can handle this?"
For a moment, Suri just stood there, her hand pressed against the door to push it open. It took time for her to gather up her pain and thrust it down into a dark corner where it couldn't do any damage, but when she'd managed it, she was able to answer honestly.
"No. I'm not all right. But I can handle this. For now...I will be what Hiro needs me to be. I'll do for him what I failed to do for Tadashi."
XxX
"Who the fuck is Tadashi?"
Those eyes glare back at him with malice and cruelty...brown eyes that had once been warm and full of laughter...eyes that no longer hold any recognition.
"Tadashi isn't here. I am Yokai."
No. No! You're my brother. You are Tadashi! Oh, God, I thought you were dead. Tadashi! THEY TOLD ME YOU WERE DEAD!
"Tadashi is gone!" the now strange voice snarls at him. There's a terrifying fire burning in this man's eyes.
"It can't be," he hears himself whispering. He reaches out his hands for his brother...desperate, pleading. "Tadashi...Tadashi, please-"
"TADASHI IS GONE!" Yokai screams at him. The fire in his eyes is burning all around them as he comes at him. When the man who was once his brother wraps his hands around his throat, he doesn't fight back. Pulling him close, he hisses in his ear, "This is your fault."
"Tadashi..." he chokes, struggling to get the words out. "I'm sorry. I'm so...so sorry."
"Of course you're sorry," the cold, pitiless voice continues to growl in his ear. "Everybody's sorry...after it's too late."
"Tadashi...if it's what you want...go ahead and kill me," he chokes out, somehow managing to speak even though the fingers continue to tighten around his throat, the iron grip choking the life out of him. "If it's...for you...if it will make you happy...I don't mind dying."
At this, Yokai flings him to the ground. He feels a horrible, searing pain deep in his chest as the mercenary moves to stand over him, eyes blazing as he glares down at him.
"Destroy!"
"Tadashi!" Hiro cried out weakly as he snapped out of the nightmare. For a moment, he struggled to move, but found his limbs were too sluggish to shift even a little.
"Don't try to move, Hiro," an unfamiliar voice ordered, gentle but firm. "It's all right. You're safe now."
"Where-" Hiro started to ask, but found himself coughing weakly instead. The breathing tubes he felt traveling from his nostrils down his throat didn't allow for easy speech. It took him a moment to figure out how to speak without feeling like he might throw up. "Where am I?"
"The med tech building at SFIT," the soothing voice answered. Its owner finally came into his line of sight after a few minutes of silence: a young woman with a mess of long, dark brown curls, skin the color of dark honey, and bright blue eyes. He didn't recognize her voice, but he thought maybe he'd seen her somewhere before. "You were badly injured in the fight. Your friends brought you to me for treatment."
"The guys," Hiro started, fighting not to talk too much around the breathing tubes. "Are they all right?"
"They're all fine. Only a few minor scratches between the four of them. You were the one who was seriously hurt. It's been very touch-go for the past two days."
"Two days?" Hiro repeated, just about choking on the tubes that time. "I've been out...for two days?"
"Yes."
"What...what happened to me?" he asked. All he could really remember was the hit...and the horrific pain in his chest. It was still there, but only vaguely...like it was just outside of his awareness, waiting to strike when he least expected it.
"You took a hit from Baymax. Even though he wasn't designed for combat, his inner structure is still very strong. Your armor is probably the only reason you survived that blow at all. He broke several ribs. It caused a flail chest injury. Do you know what that is?"
"Sorta," he mumbled, briefly squeezing his eyes shut to block out the memory of Baymax coming at him. "Happens in...car crashes?"
"Yes. The ribs break and separate from the chest wall, causing movement independent of the rest of the wall. In severe cases, the fractured ribs may pierce the lungs and cause pulmonary contusion. That's what happened to you. Thankfully, your lungs were only bruised and not completely punctured. They might not have been able to get you to me in time were that the case. Even so, bruising will still cause fluid to enter the lung tissue and obstruct breathing. Until this morning, I had chest tubes installed to drain the blood off, but the contusions are healing well enough on their own."
"What about...the busted ribs? They're not still a problem?"
"No. Once you were stable, their repair was my first priority. I went in surgically and set the ribs. They're currently braced with a steel plate. I wouldn't recommend anymore strenuous activity until you heal."
Hiro winced at this, memories he didn't want swimming to the surface of his hazy mind. "Dunno if I can make that promise, doc."
The woman stared at him uncertainly for a moment before shaking her head. "I understand. I know what happened...who attacked you. I just hope you're prepared to accept the consequences should you choose to risk re-injury. There's only so much I can do to save your life if you insist on throwing it away. If you think it will help Tadashi, you're wrong," she said, a brief flare of anger flashing in her eyes.
"So it...it really happened? I wasn't dreaming? Tadashi, he...he's really alive?" Hiro asked as the woman moved away from him to check one of several monitors in a nearby bank. The feeling that gripped his heart was so intense, he couldn't identify it. It could have been anything from hope to horror to anger. Whatever it was, this feeling was almost more painful than either his cracked ribs or the tube running down his throat.
The doctor's shoulders tensed briefly at his question and she didn't turn back to look at him when she answered. "It would seem so. GoGo showed me...Baymax's footage of what happened. I think...at the same time...we all do and do not want to believe it."
"Yeah," Hiro mumbled, gaze drifting up to the bare white ceiling. "He's not dead, but...what happened to him?" he wondered aloud, voice cracking near the end. He didn't know which was worse: the nights of grieving for his brother's death...or the harsh cruelty in his eyes when he'd ordered his own creation to kill him.
"Whatever happened...he isn't the Tadashi that we knew. I can't imagine what he might have been through."
At this, Hiro slowly dragged his attention away from his own painful thoughts and focused on the woman in the room with him. The thought was only just occurring to him, but... "You knew Tadashi?"
Finally, the doctor turned back to look at him. Her face was composed, but there was pain in her eyes. It was a pain he knew...that he'd lived with.
"I did. I do."
"How? Were you friends? I think...I might have seen you before," he said, conjuring up a vague memory of she and his brother crouched over a computer.
The doctor managed a small smile at this. "I'm sorry. I suppose I haven't properly introduced myself yet. My name is Suri Avicenna. The others call me Rosie. I'll respond to either, though. I suppose you could say Tadashi and I were friends...good friends. He was a brilliant roboticist, but do you really think he came up with Baymax's programming all on his own?"
"So...you were partners?" he asked, feeling bad he hadn't known that.
"Something like that. The entire project was his brainchild...his baby...but he needed the expertise of a med student to know just what would need to be included. That's how we met. We designed the program together, but everything else was his. I had to leave for my abroad residency training before he actually started building Baymax. I...I was still in New Cairo when...when it happened," she said, looking away from him, but he still managed to glimpse the sudden redness in her eyes and the slight tremble of her shoulders.
"You...you liked him," Hiro said slowly, not sure how he knew, but certain all the same.
"Yes...yes, I did," she answered, her voice calm though her hands shook, "and I've regretted every day since his death that I didn't tell him that. I often think that...maybe...if he'd known...he wouldn't have done anything stupid that day. Except we all know that's not true. He would have done what he did because that's who he was...is...I don't know," she said with a pained shrug, and when she looked him in the eyes again, he could see that she blamed herself for what had happened just as much as he'd always blamed himself, even though there was no logical reason for her to. The only difference was that he knew this was somehow his fault.
"I'm sure...he cared about you, too. It wasn't your fault," he said, wanting to reassure her any way he possibly could. Talking to her about Tadashi was somehow different from talking to any of the others. She smiled sadly as she looked at him.
"Thank you for that...but I think you know I won't believe it anymore than you do yourself. It wasn't anyone's fault. Even if you all manage to save him, it won't erase what happened. It's never just one person who dies, Hiro. Really, we...we all die a little bit," she said softly, and he could tell she was just as close to crying as he was. It was like she was giving voice to all the things he'd felt. It wasn't the hopeless, hollow comfort other people tried to give him. It was the same pain he'd felt...and in that moment, he was just as resolved to help her as he was to help Tadashi.
"Not 'if'," he said, making his voice as firm as he could manage.
"What?" she asked, blinking in confusion.
"Not 'if' I save him. I am going to. I don't care what it takes. I'm gonna get my brother back."
"Well, if anyone can do it, I surely believe you can. You just need to get some rest first."
"On that subject...when are these tubes coming out?" Hiro asked, fighting around another gag reflex.
"Another few hours yet. I want to be certain. They'll be out before I let your friends in, but right now, there's someone else who wants to see you," she said, nodding her head toward the door. When he followed her gaze, he saw the door open to reveal his aunt standing on the other side.
"Aunt Cass," he mumbled, swallowing nervously around the breathing tubes. "What...what are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" she repeated incredulously. "Well, I'm glad someone felt it was important to let me know my knuckle-headed nephew might be dying, especially when he didn't tell me himself that he was going to recklessly try and throw his life away!"
"I'm sorry," he whispered, finally feeling the tears start to fall. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I knew you'd...try to stop me."
Cass didn't say anything at first. She just charged toward the hospital bed, throwing her arms around him while somehow managing not to disturb the tubes and wires he was hooked up to. It wasn't long before Hiro felt his neck start to grow wet with her tears.
"I'm sorry," he whispered again.
"Lost him...nearly lost you...my sister's boys. You two idiots can't keep doing this to me!" she sobbed into his neck as she held him.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he said over and over again, not sure how many times he repeated it as they held each other and cried. It was more emotion than they'd shown each other even at Tadashi's death. At his resurrection, well...how could anyone be expected to know how to react to something that was both a miracle and a nightmare?
XxX
"Yes...yes, I believe you're ready now," Callaghan said as he circled around his mercenary, speaking more to himself than to the young man he had turned into his own personal tool and weapon.
Yokai stood completely still as he was inspected, saying nothing and looking at nothing...thinking nothing. After all, he was nothing. In order to survive the horrors what was left of Tadashi Hamada had experienced over the past forty-eight hours, Yokai had had no choice but to break from the shattered, twisted piece of soul. Maybe it still existed. Maybe it didn't. It no longer mattered. It was pain, and it had to be erased.
"No, I don't expect we'll be having anymore glitches. Now I want you to be perfectly clear on this point, Yokai. No matter what anyone might say to you, if you happen to think something, or heaven forbid feel something, you are not to engage with anyone. You speak only to your master. Anything else is merely an obstacle to be disposed of. Is that understood?"
"Understood," Yokai responded tersely, not looking at him.
"Look at me, Yokai," Callaghan ordered sharply.
Yokai responded immediately, looking into his creator's eyes. Callaghan felt a slowly swelling sense of pride when he found nothing in those eyes. Tadashi Hamada had been curious, capable, caring, and protective. Nothing of that boy remained in these soulless brown eyes. Yokai was nothing. He would serve Callaghan's purpose...then he would die.
"Good," the former professor said quietly, reaching a hand forward to cup the boy's cheek in his palm. "Now go. Destroy them."
XxX