Hello everybody – yes I am still alive! So much for the promise of frequent updates eh? Sorry about that, I've been very busy over the Christmas period and have had exams to deal with up until today. But they are over now!
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Sorry I didn't respond to everyone directly, but I think from now on I'm gonna respond to you all as soon as someone sends me a reply – it will be easier! Anyways I'll get straight to the point, I hope you like this chapter. I personally think it's a bit weak but we'll see…
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade I only own my OC's and their Bitbeasts.
Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Question Time
When Cassie returned to the hospital later that evening, she found Tyson at Kai's bedside. He didn't even notice her enter the room until she spoke.
"Have the others gone home?" she asked softly
Jumping slightly, he turned to face her and nodded.
"Yeah, they needed some sleep – we're gonna take it in turns to stay here…"
"I see."
She took a seat beside her friend and gently held Kai's hand.
"Where did you go Cass?" asked Tyson
He didn't mean to pry, but when someone dashes off without telling anyone, well… it's just odd.
"Has there been any change?" she asked ignoring his question, hoping he wouldn't notice.
"Err, no… not really. But the doctors seem more positive today, they think he should wake up soon. Maybe tomorrow?"
"I hope so… he been asleep so long – he's worse than you to wake up!"
Tyson laughed softly
"Yeah, I guess he has been…"
There was a peaceful silence as the two friends watched the sleeping boy.
"I'm sorry Cassie," whispered the boy
Cassie turned to face him with a puzzled expression on her face.
"What for?"
"It's my fault Kai's like this…"
"Don't be silly Tyson,"
The girl waved her hand dismissively but Tyson continued nonetheless.
"…but it is… he was protecting me. I called those goons names – so they hit me, hard… but Kai tried to stop them. Then they turned on him, and I couldn't do anything to help him… If I'd managed to help him, or kept my big mouth shut… well, maybe he wouldn't be like this…"
"Tyson this isn't your fault. They probably would have still beaten him until they'd got what they wanted anyway… I'm just sorry I didn't release Patiere when they first attacked…"
"I guess its no ones fault... except the attackers of course… I still can't think why they thought we knew who this Cantou person is…"
Cassie could do nothing but shrug in answer; Tyson sighed and leaned back into his chair.
"Still… I can't help but wonder why they wanted that Cantou so much…"
"I know," mumbled Cassie
"And you got to feel for that person when those villains finally get hold of them… They don't seem the friendliest of all folks."
Cassie shivered involuntarily
"I'd rather not think about it," she whispered
Dawn had just broken when Cassie began to stir. Her friends had, after several hours of 'debating', managed to convince the girl to go home and get some much needed sleep.
Lazily she brushed some loose strands of ebony hair out of her lilac eyes. She yawned and rolled over looked at her clock.
6am
'Too early…' she thought completely forgetting about Kai and the hospital
Without a second though she cuddled down into her soft comfy bed and fell asleep again.
The ringing of her phone woke her abruptly. The startled girl reached for the phone, shaking slightly from shock.
"Hello?" she asked still half asleep.
"Cassie, its Rei, you need to come to hospital immediately."
Kai, the attackers, the coma – it all flooded back to her, and hit her like a ton of bricks. Her stomach turned as she sensed the urgency in the boy's voice.
"Rei what's wrong?"
Her words barley reached a whisper.
"We'll explain once you're here, but we think its best you come down. Please hurry."
Before she could respond Rei hung up.
Cursing slightly she looked to her clock
9am
The car journey on the way to the hospital was a silent one. Cassie's mum, upon sensing the urgency in Cassie's eyes, had offered to take her daughter to save time.
Cassie tried desperately to ignore the great knot that had formed in her stomach. Why did she have such a bad feeling? Rei didn't say there was something wrong. Surely he would have done if there was… but maybe he didn't want to tell her on the phone…
The worst case scenarios kept replaying in her mind, like a broken record. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get them out of her head. Tears formed in her eyes as she thought of the utmost worst case scenario, but blinked them away refusing to think of such a thing.
'Kai will be aright' she reasoned. 'He has to be…"
As the car pulled up to the hospital entrance, they spotted Hilary standing outside obviously awaiting Cassie's arrival. A foreboding feeling consumed the Korean girl.
Her mother faced the anxious girl
"Do you want me to go in with you?" she asked softly
Cassie shook her head
"Hil's there I'll be alright…"
"I can wait in the car park if you want?"
"Mum its ok. Go home, I'll ring if I need a lift or if… well you know…"
Her mother nodded softly
"He'll be alright dear. He's a strong lad,"
"I hope so…" whispered Cassie.
With a final deep breath Cassie got out of the car and headed towards Hilary.
Her friend didn't even say hello, instead, the brunette simply stated.
"Come."
Slightly taken aback by this command, the girl followed Hilary, fearing the worse had happened. The two girls made there way towards Kai's usual room. Outside his room, on the corridor chairs, sat the rest of her friends.
Rei, Max and Kenny were talking quietly to one another with glum expressions on their faces; while Tyson sat away from them with his head in his hands. Cassie suddenly felt very sick as fear took hold of her.
Upon hearing the girls' footsteps, Tyson jumped up from his seat. The other boys tuned to face them; small smiles appearing on their faces.
"You're finally here," exclaimed Tyson. "He wants to see you."
Cassie stopped dead
"Pardon?"
Was she hearing things?
She heard Max chuckle at her blank expression.
"Kai, he wants to see you."
"He – he's awake?"
Her friends all nodded their heads.
"He woke up just before I phoned you," explained Rei. "The first thing he asked was where you were, then he demanded to see you… so much so that he refused to be seen by any doctors until he saw you…"
"Really?"
Cassie wasn't sure whether to be touched by this, or concerned.
"Yeah, sorry if we scared you – it's just the doctors said they need to check him out as soon as possible, routine procedure and all," smiled Hilary
"I see… is he…"
"He's in there, ready and waiting," smiled Max
Cassie nodded gratefully before entering the small hospital room.
Sure enough Kai was sitting in the bed, waiting patiently for her.
"About time," grumbled Kai
"Nice to see you too," teased the girl earning a smirk form her boyfriend.
Cassie made her way towards him in the dimly lit, she signalled questioningly at the window blinds that had been half drawn.
"The light hurts my eyes," explained Kai
"Oh…"
Carefully she sat down on the chair beside the bed and took hold of his hand. Kai shuffled to the side and patted the bed beside him, signalling her to join him, but Cassie shook her head.
"I'm not a china doll – I won't break if you touch me…" mumbled the boy
Suddenly huge tears formed in the girls lilac eyes, alarming Kai.
"Hey, what wrong?"
"You're… you're awake…" wept Cassie.
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"…And that's a bad thing?" he asked puzzled
"No!.. No, its just… I…I… they said… and… I - I thought you were… dead!"
"Oh I see,"
Kai looked kindly on his girlfriend.
"I was so scared you'd left me," she sobbed
"Cassie, you know I'd never leave you… I'm gonna kill Tyson when I get my hands on him!"
"Why?" sniffed the girl
"He was the one here when I woke up; he was the one I told to get you – honestly making you think I was dead was not what I asked him to do…"
"But it was Rei that phoned me,"
"Rei? I'd have thought better of him…"
"I don't think they meant it Kai," smiled Cassie
"Hnn," grunted the boy, "Still… gives me the opportunity to make them train extra hard..."
Both teens chuckled at the thought.
"Sooo, erm are you gonna see a doctor now then?" asked Cassie
"Not willingly, you know my opinion of them…"
"But they need to check you're ok,"
"I woke up didn't I? And I haven't dropped dead since..."
"Kai!"
"Well I haven't…"
"Even so, they still have to do a routine check-up,"
Kai shrugged
"They can try." He stated
Cassie rolled her eyes
'Stubborn as usual,'
"Right well… I'm going to tell the doctors they can see you now, everyone was very worried that you wouldn't see them, you will be nice to them won't you?"
"Do you have to leave so soon?"
"I'm only gonna be outside Kai. I'll be back as soon as they finish, now be nice!"
"I'll try," grunted the teen
The girl smiled lovingly at the Kai before quietly exiting the room. She shut the door behind her softly and found four eager doctors waiting for Kai's answer.
"He'll see you know," she announced.
As predicted, Kai's routine check up was not as simple as they had planned. Throughout the inspection Kai had been least than co-operative; answering important questions with a simple shrug. However the doctors eventually gave him the all clear, but insisted he stay in hospital for at least three more days 'just to be on the safe side.'
"I'm not staying," grunted Kai
"You don't really have a choice…" reasoned Rei
"It's a free country – I can do what I want."
"Kai be reasonable, its only three more days, it will fly by!" reassured Cassie
"Hnn."
There was no pleasing him. He hated hospitals, he hated doctors and Cassie knew that. No one could blame him though; he just associated them with Boris and his experiments at Biovolt.
Rei shook his head and got up from his chair at the foot of Kai's bed.
"Right I'm gonna join the others for a bit of lunch, you coming Cassie?"
Kai and the girl exchanged glances before Cassie shook her head.
"I'll stay with Kai. I'll eat something later."
A reasonable compromise, so Rei left the two alone in Kai's room.
"You should eat something." Stated the Russian
"I will, don't worry… Do you want a drink? I saw the nurse brought in some more water…"
"Yeah, that would be nice."
Cassie went over and began pouring some water into two ups. Kai watched her carefully.
"Cassie…"
"Yeah?" she didn't even bother facing him.
"Who's Cantou?"
The girl visibly shook and spilled some of the water she was pouring. Cursing slightly, she grabbed some paper towels and began mopping up the mess. Kai watched silently.
When Cassie turned around with the water cups she looked noticeably worried. She handed one cup to the boy before seating herself on the chair beside his bed. For a few moment she stared deep into the cup of water, possibly to consider her choice of words carefully.
"Why are you asking this?" she whispered
The boy sighed.
"The police came to see me, while the doctors were 'inspecting' me… They wanted a statement so I told them all I remembered – which wasn't a lot. Then they mentioned Cantou, a name that Tyson remembered and one you apparently recognised…"
Cassie nodded slightly
"So you do know who it is?" asked the boy, he seemed neither angry nor sad, simply curious
"I know…"
Kai waited patiently for the girl to continue.
"Cantou is – was- my real parents surname, before they died…"
Kai gasped slightly
"As soon as I heard Tyson say it, I remembered. But as far as I know, no one knows my birth name except my adoptive parents – not even Daren knows… It was only the people from my biological parent's village that knew, but as far as I'm aware they were all killed when the soldiers attacked…"
"So you're the Cantou they were after?"
"I guess so…"
Kai pulled her into an embrace, which she accepted willingly.
"But why you?" pondered the boy. "Did you recognise any of them?"
Cassie faltered momentarily
- Flashback -
She gasped suddenly as she thought of the man who had attacked them.
'Those eyes… that face...'
Quickly reaching for her wallet she pulled out a photo,
The picture took her breathe away. Shock froze he, so much that she let go of the picture.
Gently the photo floated softly to the floor, while the girl just sat on her bed, motionless.
'It couldn't be…'
- End Flashback -
Cassie buried herself into Kai even more.
"…No… None at all…" she mumbled
At last I've finished this chapter! About time too. I'm sorry it took so long, and I'm sorry if it went a bit 'whimsy' at the end. This chapter was a just a pain to write and I had little ideas what to do with it; but at the same time I couldn't leave it out and skip to when Kai has a miraculous recovery and is back home…
Hopefully the next chapter will be a bit more interesting, I feel I'm just repeating myself here – Jabbering on without getting to the point! Oh well, I hope to update more frequently now because my exams are over (until May at least!)
Please feel free to leave your comments whether they be good or bad! And if you have any ideas about the storyline please say – I do consider everything you guys say! Thanks for reading!
Wreckless Spirit