Chapter 4: Johnny

They made it to the hospital in record time. Miguel was barely on the chorus of Welcome to the Jungle in his head when they pulled into the ambulance bay of the hospital and Hawk was out the door yelling for a doctor before the car could come to a complete stop.

Doctors and nurses convened on the car and Keene immediately, pulling him out of Miguel's hands and onto a gurney, wheeling him into the doors and out sight in a flurry of activity that Miguel couldn't even begin to keep up with.

He saw sensei rushing in after them but he couldn't move from the position he was in, still crouched in the small space between the backseat and the passenger seat, his shaking hands dripping fresh, warm blood that smelled so strong of metal that up close.

"Miguel? It's okay." Finally he managed to drag his eyes away from where they were staring transfixed on his own two hands to look up into Aisha's teary, concerned eyes. "He's going to be okay. We did everything we could," she said, almost like she could read what was on Miguel's mind.

"There's so much blood," he found himself saying. The sound was weird, almost like he was listening to his own voice from deep underwater. "There's… there's too much blood. I'm never going to get this out of my clothes. My mom's going to be pissed," he said.

The sensation of tears trickling down his face was weird, mainly because he couldn't remember even crying. It was stupid. Keene wasn't his friend. He didn't even like the guy… but he'd almost died, right there in Miguel's arms. It was a surreal situation for anyone to find themselves in, especially a teenager and in that moment, Aisha and Miguel finally realized just how close they came to seeing someone die with their own two eyes.

It was Aisha who started sobbing which spurned Miguel to put his own drama on the back burner. Aisha was the one who'd kept Keene alive; the one who had the sense not to act like a complete idiot. If there was one person who needed comforting in that moment, it was Aisha, and Miguel forced himself to step up.

He reached over and circled his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into a hug. Neither of them cared that they were getting blood all over each other. They were drenched in so much of it as it was.

In that moment they were both just teenagers who needed comfort, so they comforted each other.


It wasn't until a few minutes later that they finally managed to pull themselves together enough to go seek out sensei, Hawk and Moon who'd gone with the gurney carrying Keene towards the emergency room. They were directed towards the waiting room and pushed open the door to find sensei pacing a hole in the floor in the middle of the room and Hawk sitting slumped over in the plastic seat by the wall, his arms around Moon sitting next to him. They were both quiet, unnervingly so.

Sensei wasn't saying anything but Miguel could tell how terrified he was.

Ever since the tournament, sensei always ended up acting weird whenever the name Keene came up in conversation (it didn't come up often, or rather it didn't come up often when sensei was around because sensei was seldom around). At one point Miguel suspected that there was more to the story than he and the rest of the Cobra Kais knew, he thought he even suspected what it was but he forced himself not to dwell on it too long or too much. For one thing, he hated Keene's guts and he didn't give a shit.

Sensei didn't notice them standing by the door. Once Aisha stepped away to approach Moon and Hawk, Miguel decided to see if he could instead go find a bathroom. He didn't feel like being in that room at that moment.

He underestimated how terrible he really looked until he was faced with his own reflection in the bathroom mirror.

The fist he caught to the side of the face was already starting to bruise, his hair was a mess and he was pretty sure he got cut in the gums by his braces during the fight because he could still feel the bitterness of the coopery tang on his tongue.

He also had blood all over his clothes, staining his hands and smudged on his cheeks and down his neck. He looked like a victim of a wild animal attack and it definitely wasn't pretty.

The tap water washed off most of the blood but the crusts under his fingernails were tougher to get out.

He wasn't sure how long he spent in the bathroom, cleaning himself up as best he could, it could have been five minutes or fifty, he wasn't keeping track and it was like his brain was still stuck on some strange loop that he couldn't fully shake.

The sight of the waiting room was slightly different when he returned. Instead of pacing the floor, wearing down the shine of linoleum, sensei was instead kneeling in front of Aisha, holding her shaking shoulders tight as she cried into his chest. Once he came within hearing distance, Miguel could hear Aisha's muffled apology and sensei reassuring her with gentleness in his voice that Miguel didn't think he was even capable of.

"You saved his life. You have nothing to be sorry for," sensei repeated more than once.

It wasn't until Hawk noticed his approach and called out his name that sensei finally turned to look at him.

Aisha sniffled and leaned back, releasing her hold on sensei's shoulders. "It was Miguel," she said, "Miguel's the one who went to help him during the fight."

Sensei briefly looked at her before glancing back to Miguel standing there, unable to think of anything to say or how to react.

"You both did," he said, patting her on the shoulder, "All you guys did," he added, glancing at Hawk and Moon before he got to his feet and approached Miguel. "I heard what you did," he said when he stopped about a foot away.

Miguel fidgeted with his hands under sensei's intense gaze. "I just did what you would have done," he said nervously.

A shadow of a smile ghosted across sensei's face. "And what's that?" he asked, as if it were just another class and just another lesson he was teaching Miguel.

"Kicked some ass," he said as a matter of fact.

The small laugh sensei let out made Miguel's heart swell with pride. "You're damn right I would have," he said. Without another word and without warning, sensei stepped forward and pulled Miguel in for a hug.

Miguel wasn't expecting the physical contact or the embrace so his entire body froze stupidly.

"Thank you for helping him," sensei said. "Thank you for saving him," he added.

Miguel didn't think he needed any more proof of his suspicions but he didn't say anything. Instead he returned the hug gladly. It felt nice.

They didn't say anything more after that as they waited on news about Keene. After sensei pulled himself together, he approached Miguel and asked whether he had Sam's number. To say Miguel was taken aback by the query was an understatement and the exact moment Miguel was about to voice out his confusion, he occurred to him that sensei wasn't asking to call Sam.

He was asking to call Mr. LaRusso.

That fact sobered him up quickly. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he fished out his phone and scrolled down to find Sam's number in his long unused call list which was a sad fact in itself.

It took three unanswered calls before Sam finally picked up on the second ring; her voice dripping annoyance when she barked into the receiver. 'What, Miguel?'

"Sam… look –"

'No, you look, Miguel. I can't do this anymore. I like you a lot – liked you a lot, but you turned out to be –'

"Sam, please, it's not about that!" Miguel felt bad about raising his voice but as much as it hurt to hear Sam being so angry at him, it wasn't about him or Sam at that moment. "I need to talk your dad."

The line was silent for a beat, indicative of the confusion Sam was experiencing. 'What?'

"Please, Sam. I'm sorry for everything, I'll apologize every day until the end of time but right now I really need to talk to your dad."

'Is everything alright, Miguel?'

"No," he answered truthfully, "It's not."

Once the line went silent, Miguel knew it was his cue to hand the phone to sensei and he stepped back to wallow in his own self-pity on the seat beside Aisha.

Johnny took the phone from Miguel's hand – he could barely stop picking at the dried blood that was starting to crust on his hands but he forced himself to look away.

He waited on the silent line for a moment before the familiarly indignant and annoyed voice sounded in the receiver.

'What is your sensei playing at?' Was the first thing out of his mouth and Johnny would have barked a laugh had the situation not been so grim.

It took just a simple, "LaRusso," to set him off again.

'Jesu–What the hell, Johnny? You harassing my kid now? What do you want?'

Johnny opened his mouth to reply but all of a sudden he couldn't find the words. His mind was flashing back to the sight of his son bleeding out on the pavement just a few feet away from his own dojo. If Miguel and the rest hadn't stumbled on Robby that night – if Robby had been alone when the guys attacked him – if Miguel hadn't gone back to help him… Johnny couldn't imagine what would have happened.

He must have zoned out for quite a bit because he came to with LaRusso's concerned voice calling his name into his ear.

'Johnny, what's the matter?'

Johnny swallowed the lump in his throat and attempted to find his voice before he spoke. He hoped his voice wouldn't shake the way he knew it wanted to because all of a sudden it occurred to him.

His son almost died.

His son might still die.

And Johnny never got the chance to make it up to him or to say sorry.

The emotions were all of a suddenly almost overwhelming and he let out a sob into the receiver.

"It's Robby," he said. "Daniel, it's Robby."

Tbc.