4. Christmas Wish

"Did you see?"

"Yeah, I just got out of the elevator when I saw."

"What do you think happened?"

"The apocalypse. Definitely the apocalypse."

"Ha. I thought hell would freeze over before I would live to see the day…"

"Do you suppose something is wrong?"

"Probably. I mean, this has never happened before. In all of the hospital's history. And I've been working here since Funbari had its grand opening!"

"Do you think it's drugs?"

The entire staff of Funbari Hill Hospital chattered quietly and fiercely on every floor as soon as she walked by. At first, when each nurse, doctor, janitor, secretary, receptionist, security guard and employee heard the rumor, they flat out refused to believe it. Only when she walked by did their jaws drop and hit the floor and their eyes bug out.

Dr. Tao was smiling. Granted, it was nothing compared to Yoh's grin on a particularly beautiful day or Pirika's own after a decent conquest at the mall (which was more akin to a horrifying rictus than anything else). It was only a small, slight smile that would have been unnoticeable to anyone on the street. However, this was more than enough to send the entire hospital into a chaotic, gossiping madhouse.

Because Dr. Tao was (gulp) happy. Cue collective gasp.

However, that wasn't the scariest part. The most terrifying bit was that no one knew why she was acting so…so…mentally unstable (mentally unstable for Jun, that is). When each staff member was interrogated, each admitted to not having the slightest clue. All, that is, except for one Yoh Asakura who, when asked, simply responded with "Ah, so she finally read the article" and refused to comment any further.

"She's in a good mood!"

"I know, right? She didn't yell at me for once. And she's been yelling at me every single day of my life ever since I started working here…"

"Someone on the second floor heard her humming. Humming! You know what that means...Tao actually listens to upbeat music! She's human after all!"

"I've yet to see her even glare at anyone too!"

And thus, the staff was very, very content to just let her be even if they didn't know the mysterious reason as to why the dragon lady Tao was so happy.

Well, that is until…

"Pirika? Pirika! No. No. No! Don't—!"

"What…what is she doing?"

"She's going to talk to Tao!"

"Shoot, what if the dragon lady snaps out of it?"

"What if she gets mad that Pirika is interrupting whatever she's thinking about?"

"Usui'll get the boot!"

"Pirika, come back!"

The Ainu girl, completely oblivious to everyone's pleas, continued to approach the doctor to inform her that she was running four patients late. Oh man, I don't want to ruin her good mood but the hospital is getting backed up. She braced herself for impact. She's going to kill me!

"Er, d-doctor…" She hesitantly reached forward to tentatively tap Jun on the shoulder.

"Yes, Pirika?" Dr. Tao responded serenely.

WHAT. THE. HELL. She's NEVER called me by my first name. "Uh…you're four patients behind schedule…" She closed her eyes and prayed to God that she wouldn't go too ballistic.

"Ah." Jun blinked. "Thank you for telling me. I'll go tend to that right away." And with that, the doctor walked away.

"What in the world?" Pirika gaped. "I thought…I thought…I thought I was a goner for sure!"

"It's a Christmas miracle," Yoh said laughingly, patting her on the back.

"Indeed…"

"You look funny." Redseb stared at him.

Horohoro stared back. "Thanks?"

"What are you doing in here anyways? Are you a nurse too?" the little boy inquired innocently.

"Wha…n-nurse...?" he spluttered indignantly. "Hell no! That's a girl's job."

Seyram glared at him while Redseb frowned. "Hey, it's not! Mr. Asakura is a nurse and he's a boy." Seyram stuck her tongue out at the blue haired newcomer.

"Kids…what are you doing?" Tamao asked sleepily as she walked into the room. "Eep! Oh, I-I'm s-sorry, is…is this the wrong r-room?" Her hands quickly flew to her face in embarrassment after she saw Horohoro.

"Naw, it's not. This weird guy came in here a few minutes ago!" Redseb called from the bed.

Horohoro sighed. "Sorry. I was just told that my sister was supposed to be assigned to this room later today so…" He shrugged.

"Sister?" Redseb leaned forward and studied him closely. "Oh! You're the nurse's brother! You two have the same hair color," he observed. "Why are you visiting her?"

"Well, I majorly screwed up a few weeks ago. And she got mad. So I'm here to apologize." He lifted up his foot and tapped it. "Look, I even brought comfortable walking shoes for when she demands that I got shopping with her as punishment."

Redseb threw up his hands and rolled his eyes. "How could you possibly be mean to her? She's so nice to us!" he exclaimed as Seyram nodded her approval. "She tells us bedtime stories every night!"

"I wasn't mean to her! It's because I told her a few years ago that I…argh, why am I even telling you this? You're just a kid." Redseb crossed his arms in front of him. "Anyways, the bottom line is that I need to find a job to make it up to her. I've been putting all the responsibility on her for too long…" His voice trailed off sadly.

A barely audible squeak came from behind him. "Ah…Pardon me…I don't m-mean to interfere or anything…but…but did you say that you were looking for a job?" Tamao asked timidly. "I wasn't trying to eavesdrop!" she exclaimed in her mouse-like voice, throwing her arms up as if to shield herself.

"Yeah. But it's too late in the year to even think of finding a one. No one's employing, especially around Christmastime…" He sighed.

"The…the orphanage that I work at is looking for some volunteers…I don't mean to d-dictate what job you will pick and…and it doesn't pay very much…but we are hiring…only i-if you want though…" she stuttered out softly as she nervously passed him a business card.

Horohoro's eyes widened. "Seriously? That would be great if you could hook me up with a job! Sweet!" He broke into a grin and he pocketed the card. "I owe you one!" He began bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet excitedly, hardly able to contain himself. "Ah, screw it, I'm not going to tell Pirika about this right now! Dang, she's going to be surprised when she finds out!" He turned to Tamao again before he went out the door. "Thank you so much again!"

After he left, Tamao breathed a sigh of relief.

Redseb glared at her, his eye twitching madly. "Tamao! What are you doing? The first person you tell about the openings at the orphanage is him? You just hired a crazy person to be working at the orphanage!"

Tamao frowned and her brows knit together. "H-He looked so desperate for a job though! And…and it's the holidays. E-Everyone needs a Christmas miracle every now and then."

"So…someone's happy," Yoh cheerfully remarked as Jun joined him in the cafeteria.

"Is that a crime?" She took a seat across from him.

"I took it you tried conversing with him?"

She nodded. "Thank you for the article. It really is working. I…" She bit her lip and looked down at her plate.

"You…?" He stirred his coffee.

"It's silly. You would laugh. And it's such a wild theory that I fear many of the nurses and doctors will think that I'm being ludicrous." She shook her head.

"Doctor, it's just me. You know how I am." He smiled at her. "I'm all ears."

"You're rather peculiar sometimes, Asakura." She looked at him skeptically. "I suppose. After trying this for several weeks…I…I have reason to believe that perhaps…" She rolled her eyes. "I can't believe I'm saying this. I have reason to believe that perhaps Pailong is in a minimally conscious state."

Yoh blinked several times in disbelief. "R-Really? You think he's MCS? But the folks over at St. Luke's International Hospital said that he was already in a persistent vegetative state when they sent him over to us." He raised his eyebrows. "Wow…"

Jun pursed her lips. "I know. And I will sound like a complete fool if I even propose that to the X-LAWS. St. Luke's International has better facilities, more advanced technology for testing…there's no way they can be wrong." She frowned at her sandwich. "And even if I was right, we don't have nearly the adequate equipment nor the funds to perform deep brain stimulation so he can regain his normal body functions."

"DBS is really expensive since it's new and all, huh? X-LAWS isn't going to like it because…well…you know…"

"Because…yeah…" Jun closed her eyes and pushed her plate away. "I'm wrong. There's no way he can be in an MCS. Just wishful thinking on my part."

"You never know." Yoh grinned.

"What are you implying?"

"Maybe it'll be a Christmas miracle." He leaned back in his chair.

"Please. We work in a hospital. Not at Disneyland," she scoffed.

"There's always a chance he'll wake up."

"That is so ridiculous I'm not going to even grace it with a response."

He shrugged. "Then what are you doing?" She glared at him. "Why are you attending to him so much if you say that there's no hope? You gotta have hope, doc."

"Of course, I want to believe. Of course, I want to have hope. My heart is screaming for me to not give up but my mind is…" She looked crestfallen.

"Medicine isn't always about what is rational, doctor. If your gut says that he is in MCS right now and that St. Luke's misdiagnosed him, then I'm willing to bet that you're right. Even if they do have all the equipment and technology and money to do exhaustive tests, we're all human. There's always a possibility that they made a mistake. You're a brilliant and meticulous doctor. It would take a lot for you to be wrong."

She snorted. "Thanks for the pep talk, coach."

He smirked back. "Follow me. I want to show you something."

"How…how is this possible?" Jun's heartbeat pounded in her ears as her eyes grew large and her breathing became rapid. "No…this…this can't be right…" She staggered back. "It…this doesn't make any sense at all!" she exclaimed. "We…No, you see, this is what we need to do. We need to run another test to verify it."

Yoh cleared his throat. "Uh, doc, we've ran three more tests since you came in here."

"We need another one," she snapped.

The patient looked up at her impatiently. "Here's a test for you. Prod my leg right now."

Jun didn't show any indications of doing just that. Yoh poked at the girl's leg with the pen he was holding.

"See. I can feel that. Why can't you accept it already?" she grumbled.

"I can't accept it already because it should be logically and medically and scientifically and just outright impossible," the doctor growled back.

The patient scowled in response.

"When you arrived at the hospital, we ran exhaustive tests and each one told us that all the nerves in your legs are shot and you would never be able to make use of them again."

Yoh's hand immediately went to rest on the patient's shoulder in an unconscious effort to comfort her.

"You're supposed to be paralyzed from the waist down!"

He could feel the girl stiffen after Jun spat out those words.

"And now this…this fluke you came across is saying that, at the rate your legs have regained sensation and healed, you'll be able to move them by next year?"

"R-Really?" The patient looked almost hopeful.

"Perhaps the exhaustive tests were…mistaken." Yoh shot a look at the Tao girl. She shot daggers through her glare back at him.

"This…how…can…this is a…I don't even know…" Jun whispered, her fingers beginning to run through her hair.

"I believe this is called a miracle."

"So finals are coming up?"

Jeanne nodded and dramatically sighed, placing the back of her hand to her forehead. "How ever stressful for me." She smiled at him, tilting her head playfully to the side.

"Don't worry, college is much more fun than high school—" Lyserg shut himself up after he saw Jeanne's eyes go empty. Shoot, I forgot…she won't be going to college since—

"Jeanne!" A curt bark echoed through the semi-abandoned hallway.

The girl's mouth formed an O of surprise as she turned around. "Ah, R-Ren!" She smoothed her skirts out and instinctively her hands flew to her hair.

Her fiancée looked bored. "After your shift is over the driver is waiting for you outside." He checked the time on his platinum plated watch. "And please, try not to be late this time."

She tried her best to smile and nod obediently before he turned around sharply and left.

"Why."

She looked down at Lyserg who looked like he was ready to explode. "Hm?"

"Why, Jeanne? Why are you…just why? Why are you letting him treat you like that? Why are you getting married? Why won't you let your heart guide your actions instead of what you think is your duty to your family? Why are you sacrificing what you love for something that doesn't, that can't, that won't love you back? But most of all, why can't you see that someone who loves you truly, madly, and deeply is right in front of you and is willing to give all he has for you?"

Wouldn't it be great if Lyserg actually said that? It would be, wouldn't it?

Instead, we get this:

"Uh…er…I said why is Ren so rude sometimes." Lyserg cleared his throat awkwardly. Damn, boy, can't you grow a spine?

She frowned. "Ren…Ren isn't all that rude. In fact, he's rather polite and kind when he wants to be—"

"So in other words, never," he mumbled under his breath.

"And…and he will be a good husband and an excellent provider for myself and the heir I will produce for him." Her eyes looked like they were going to spill over with tears but the rest of her face remained expressionless.

"I know that but…you didn't mention once that you both loved each other. That's what I'm concerned about. None of the reasons you gave explained why you always look so flustered and keep checking your appearance around him. Or why you look so scared and anxious every time he calls your name. Or why you get so quiet around him." He sighed. "I just want to know why."

She had been standing perfectly still the entire time. "I…It's because…I…I need him to approve of me. I'm assigning so much of…of my self-worth to whether he is happy or not…and I'm scared to find out if he…doesn't," she said quietly. "That is all."

"And you're willing to give up going to a university and studying literature for marrying him…"

"I—"

"You're giving up going to Yale."

She drew her lips together. "I didn't want to go there that much anyways."

"Jeanne, when you came back from visiting Yale, you…you had this look on your face like…" He inhaled deeply and exhaled. "You had the same look on your face when you're reading Tolstoy or…or Dante. Or Joyce or Sophocles. Or…writing a literary analysis on Nabokov or explicating a…a Housman poem."

She closed her eyes but kept her arms at her sides. "And what look would that be?" she whispered, her eyes pleading him not to say it.

He sighed and looked at the floor before he spoke.

"You looked like you were in love."

"Do you think she's right?" The girl took a large chomp out of the remains of the chocolate bar Yoh had given to her after Dr. Tao had marched out of the room.

"About…?" He took out an arm strap. "Blood pressure time."

"That I'll be able to walk again…" Her voice trailed off and hitched near the end of her sentence as the Velcro constricted tightly around her arm.

"I wholeheartedly believe so. See, science and logic said that you wouldn't be able to even feel when someone touches you. The nerves in your legs were supposedly shot but… see what happens when you have a little hope?" He removed the arm band and recorded the results on the clipboard. "Temperature." He opened a new thermometer. "I'm a firm believer that your mental state directly affects your health: how quickly you recover, how susceptible you are to further ailing… you know." He looked at the degrees the little plastic device returned to him. "As long as you stay positive and optimistic and don't get too down on yourself, you should be well on your way back to recovery."

"Huh." She reclined back into bed. "That's…"

"Nothing short of miraculous." He smiled. "IV drip."

"Will you read to me again?"

"Of course." He scribbled down a few more stats he collected. "Hmm."

"What?"

"Your vitals have greatly improved over the past few weeks." She simply tapped a paperback book on the table next to the bed. "Where we left off from last time?" She nodded as he opened Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and began to read.

"Just at this moment her head struck against the roof of the hall: in fact she was now rather more than nine feet high, and she at once took up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door," he read slowly.

"Poor Alice," the girl murmured, her voice sounding breathy.

"Poor Alice! It was as much as she could do, lying down on one side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get through was more hopeless than ever: she sat down and began to cry again."

"She cries too much."

"'You ought to be ashamed of yourself,' said Alice, 'a great girl like you,' (she might well say this), 'to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!'"

"But she couldn't order her emotions around like that. No one could…" The girl's voice sounded tired.

"But she went on all the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool all round her, about four inches deep, and reaching half down the hall." He stopped reading when her small, frail hand, still covered in semi-healed wounds, darted out and seized him by the wrist.

"That's enough…" Her eyelids fluttered delicately as she tried to fight sleep.

He closed the book and put it back on the night stand. "Alice in Wonderland? A bit childlike for someone of your literary prowess," he teased.

She closed her eyes. "Not childish at all. The book is riddled with allusions and references that scholars today still don't fully understand. Carroll was as complex as the book itself. He was labeled a pedophile, questioned to be a drug abuser, and marked off as anti-social by his contemporaries."

He nodded.

She tried to keep talking, her lips barely moving as she lost all of her energy to stay awake. "Carroll has a wonderful control over imagery and word choice. He makes it so that she is literally drowning herself in her tears. Her sadness. Her weakness. They were to be the death of her if she hadn't somehow stopped."

"Why was she so sad?" Yoh began to slowly stand up from the bed.

"Because…she didn't know what had become of her surroundings. Her world was…upside down. Or perhaps…she didn't know what had become of herself…" And with that, the girl dozed off.

He smiled down over her small, sleeping form. "Good night."

"Asakura!" came a hiss from the door.

He whirled around. "Tao?"

"Come here," she commanded through clenched teeth.

He joined her outside the room. "What is it?"

"The police are here to ask you questions."

"Ah…how can I help you tonight, officers?"

"Hello, Mr. Asakura. You are in charge of the patient here in 207, right?" He nodded, eyeing the bright yellow GANDHARA unit name that was emblazoned across their left breast pocket of their uniforms. "We'd like to talk to you about her. Our HQ up in Mount Osore just got information regarding her injuries." The two officers exchanged uncomfortable looks. "This new information will make it into a police case. A very serious one."

"Go on." Yoh felt like he was muddling through a daze.

"Apparently as she was walking down an abandoned road, she was assaulted and beaten almost to death by her attackers. It was a miracle she even survived."

If I could give any gift I wanted, a present to every boy and girl, I'd make it a miracle that came from God above.

A/N: a thousand, a thousand pardons for not updating yesterday! i just found out that i had a huge essay due the following day and...ugh. i'm very sorry that i wasn't able to keep up with my promise =( forgive me?

REVIEW? =) YES? REVIEW? YAY!

coming up next chapter: a little background history on...everyone: what exactly happened with the Usui family? what about Seyram and Redseb's parents? how did Pailong end up in a coma? what made Tamao start volunteering at an orphanage? and, most importantly, what the heck happened to Anna?

also: looking for more ideas for Pirika's next bedtime story (in the next chapter!). so far, i have a request for a YohAnna one, but that'll have to wait a couple more chapters...

don't forget to leave a review ;)