I'm not too happy with how this chapter came out, no matter how many times I tried to re-write it. I hope I'm luckier for chapter 5, which might take a while to be written, as I'm facing a bit of a writer's block, and I'll also have some exams to worry about in the next days. If I get past my block today, chapter 5 might be up tomorrow or saturday ^_^

The usual disclaimers apply.



Chapter 4 – I Couldn't Protect You

In a hospital waiting room, Haruka sat down in a chair, while Michiru stood up behind her, holding her shoulders to comfort her.

Haruka kept her hands together, as if she was praying and occasionally a sigh would slip from her mouth. Occasionally a tear would drop from her eyes, as she remembered everything Usagi had told them that night and the way they trated her.

She felt guilty for everything. Besides Michiru, Usagi was the only other person for which Haruka would have gladly given her life to protect, the only person for which she would have ensured happiness even at the cost of her own. And now she was realizing that the wish to protect her and see her happy had blinded her so much that she ended up being the most fierce in keeping Usagi away from what would have made her happy. She felt the she had an importand contribution into building a huge snowball which had suddenly went downhill, probably destroying two destinies on its way down.

She heard rushed footsteps coming their way and the familiar voices of the four inner senshi, but she didn't lift her head, leaving Michiru, who managed to remain more calm, to discuss with them.

„How is she?" Rei asked, her voice chocking with tears. Almost at the same time Minako asked between sobs: „How are they?" Makoto continued: „I can't understand it, I just can't. How could this happen?"

„I'll go find my mother, hopefully I can find out something from her" Ami whispered, running away without waiting for a reply.

Michiru sighed and began replying to their questions:

„We don't know anything about Usagi-chan yet. Even her family still awaits for information from the doctors. We don't know if she's still..."

„Don't say that, Michiru. Koneko-chan is stronger than we think" Haruka interrupted, putting her hand on Michiru's hand.

„What about him?" Rei whispered.

Haruka replied without lifting her eyes from the marble floor of the hospital:

„You can imagine... he's devastated to say the least, he's in a state of shock. Setsuna is with him, she's trying to calm him down before the doctors decide to sedate him."

„But how could it happen? How could he...?" Makoto voiced her surprise once again. She still hoped she had just misunderstood things. When Michiru told her on the phone that a car had run over Usagi, her first reaction was to say that she would kill the careless driver who did that. But then Michiru told her who the driver was and she couldn't believe it. She dropped the phone, got into some street clothes and ran for the hospital.

„It seemed like the logical thing to do to call Mamoru-san and ask him to come by and be by Usagi's side since something was obviously wrong with her. Little did we imagine that things would precipitate like that in such a short time and she'd run out into the street like that... that she'd just run into the middle of the street just when Mamoru-san was steering around the corner..." Michiru shook her head to chase away the image of Usagi being hit by Mamoru's car. It was far too painful to remember it.

„He had no way to avoid her, really. It happened so suddenly that he didn't even have time to think about steering away or hitting the breaks. I don't blame him, I doubt I could have avoided her either if I were in the driver's seat." Haruka couldn't blame him, she could only pitty him. Her first impulse as she walked towards the car that hit Usagi was to drag out the driver and beat him senseless for not paying attention to the road. To see Mamoru's horrified face behind the windshield seemed surreal. Over time the fates of Mamoru and Usagi only seemed to reserve them bad things, but this was by far the worst that could happen. It almost seemed like their love was cursed. Instead of beating the driver, Haruka could only help Mamoru get out of the car and go to Usagi, she could only try to encourage him to pull himself together for her sake, telling him that is was not his fault.

„Minna, onegai, not a word about who the driver is to anyone, specially Usagi's family. We told everyone it was a hit and run and that Mamoru arrived soon after the accident, it's better this way" Michiru pleaded.

„Haruka-san, Michiru-san, please, tell us, what was Usagi doing at your house? What made her run away like that?" Minako's eyes looked straight into Michiru's, begging for an answer. However the answer came from Haruka, who spoke without lifting her eyes from the ground. She told the girls how she found Usagi in the park, the state she was in and how she fainted in her arms.

„Usagi-chan... She's been acting so strange for the past week..." Rei sobbed. „What happened to her? Where is our friend? Why did she isolate herself from us?"

Michiru's blunt and cold reply came down as a bolt of lightning:

„Seiya Kou"

„Seiya?" the voices of the inner senshi replied at the same time. They imagined he might be the cause for Usagi's weird behaviour, but they hoped they would be wrong. Their eyes turned down to the ground, paying attention to Haruka, which had begun speaking. They didn't hear the footsteps behind them.

„Our Koneko-chan is so confused... oh, so confused... She says she loves Mamoru, but at the same time she says she loves Seiya Kou, that she misses him and wants him back at her side. She hates that we've all just pushed the two of them away without letting her decide what she feels, she said she is tired of being reminded that she has to be with Mamoru because of their past and their future. I can't really blame her in the end. All we did was trying to keep her and Seiya apart. We decided they shouldn't be together and acted as such, ignoring her feelings completely. She's not sure about anything any more. She was saying that she hates knowing her future... I slapped her to make her stop saying such things and she ran away...Mamoru-san!" Haruka lifted her eyes from the ground to see Mamoru and Setsuna standing there.

All the girls turned their head towards the raven haired man. His deep blue eyes were red from all the tears they had shed. He crashed into a chair, with an empty look in his eyes.

„Seiya... Kou?" That was all he could force himself to say. He couldn't blame Usagi for developing feelings for another man while he had been away, he couldn't have been so selfish. If only she had told him how she felt... but now, now it was probably too late for anything. He clenched his fists but didn't cry. He couldn't, he had no more tears left.

„Minna, I've talked to my mother" Ami whispered, coming towards them. The look on her face betrayed the fact that she wasn't about to give them good news.

Everyone looked at Ami, waiting for her to continue.

„It seems Usagi was lucky enough and there is no internal damage. No broken bones either, she got away with just scratches and bruises but..."

„But what Ami?" Setsuna urged her to continue.

„... but it seems she hit her head very seriously when she hit the ground. The doctors are worried about it. Usagi... she is in a very deep coma and they're very pessimistic about her chances of waking up..."

The girls' eyes were full of tears and none of them could say anything. None could believe that their dearest friend was in such a serious state and none could even imagine that they might lose her.

After a few minutes, a voice full of pain broke the silence:

„Seiya... we should call Seiya back. He should be on her side in case... in case..." the sight of the hospital turned black in front of him and a piercing pain in his head and his heart made his body turn limp and fall from the chair, on the cold marble floor.