Serenity: Hmm, you're 90% right! :) Thank you for the review! I'm so encouraged to write when I see people reading my work... For the other 10%, read on... ;)

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Chapter 3: TRUTH WILL OUT

Akira and Shigeru let out a collective sigh of relief when it was not Tsukushi who opened the door. They were not exactly as relaxed as they pretended about the coming encounter. Instead, it was a middle-aged American woman with salt and pepper hair. She wore a disapproving expression, as if she resented the necessity of their presence in her mistress' life. Yet, she asked, "May I know who is calling?"

"Mimasaka Akira and Okawahara Shigeru. Tsukushi is expecting us", Akira said, resorting to formality in response to her icy tone.

"Please come in. The others are already in the dining room. Madame will be joining you shortly, she is just finishing up an urgent matter." She gestured towards the first door on the right, where they could see silhouettes through the glazed glass which formed the walls of the penthouse.

The couple immediately preceded her into the large open foyer of the penthouse. There was an urgency in their steps that wasn't there before. The penthouse was elegantly and brightly lit, with some kind of music playing in the background. Yet despite this, now that they were there, they felt the seriousness and uncertainty of the situation. Perhaps the sparse décor only increased their agitation. Shigeru clutched Akira's hand more firmly in hers.

They proceeded into the dining room and saw Yuki and Soujirou speaking to each other in hushed tones. Food was laid out on the table before them, but they weren't eating. It seemed that Yuki was already cautioning Soujirou about his temper. This did not bode well for all of them... Not just for this night's meeting, but for the rest of the days which may last for however long Tsukushi intended to stay in Tokyo.

"Yo", Akira greeted, taking the seat directly across from Soujirou and pulling the seat next to him for Shigeru. The couple looked up.

"Hey", Yuki's greeting was serious.

"How is Kiara-chan?" Shigeru asked Yuki with a bright smile. "Does she sleep through the night yet?" She was fascinated with babies, more so lately, when Yuki gave birth and when she started hanging out more with Akira's twin sisters.

Yuki chuckled. "Not yet. I can't wait for that time to come though! I feel like I haven't been able to sleep more than two hours each night."

"Yeah, but I bet you're loving every minute of it," Akira teased.

It was a brilliant strategy. If there was anything that could lift Soujirou's dark mood, it was mentioning his little daughter. He smiled.

But then, his face darkened again in an instant. "I would be loving even more minutes with her, if we didn't have to be here."

"Jiro.." Yuki admonished him.

"Yuki-chan, I know she's your bestfriend, but don't tell me you yourself aren't harboring any ill feeling toward her for leaving us all high and dry five years ago!"

Yuki was silent. It was true, after all. She loved Tsukushi, but she was also wary of whatever turmoil her presence will cause in their now peaceful lives. And there had been many points in the past where she'd needed her bestfriend's strength with her.

"And you, Shigeru, she was one of your closest friends! You even gave up Tsukasa for her and that was how she showed her gratitude??? I don't know what she hopes to accomplish by coming here now. As far as I'm concerned, she took herself away from us, and she took Rui away from us too! She left Akira and I to just deal with the pieces she left behind and now what does she hope to accomplish with this? Who'll clean up her mess again? I'm sick of it! Plus, don't you think there's someone important missing in this little gathering? More than any one of us, it's Tsukasa she has to explain her reasons to! After all, it was his life she destroyed." Soujirou was almost shouting now.

"Soujirou -" Akira started to speak.

Nobody else at the table spoke. After all, he was just voicing out their own thoughts and feelings. What had happened to Tsukasa when he'd realized the truth – when he regained his memories and realized that he'd lost not only his love but his bestfriend, was still not something they were all comfortable discussing. It was hard for them to think of how he once was, all they know is the broken man he had become. An empty shell who lived and breathed his work. Any show of temper would have been welcome, but even that was beyond him now. He was a robot.

"She ruined us. Seventeen years of friendship, gone. Destroyed by a girl who suddenly got it into her head that doing a vanishing act could somehow be good for those she left behind! If she hadn't gone, Rui wouldn't have -" He couldn't say the words, almost choking as he struggled to control the tears that were threatening to come to the surface.

"Say it, Nishikado." A quiet, pained voice suddenly came from the doorway. Their heads whipped to look, Soujirou a bit shame-faced at having been caught in the middle of his tirade.

It was Tsukushi. Even though she was only clad in an oversized white shirt buttoned to the neck she had a new poise, a quiet dignity, and more control over her temper than she used to. She strode into the room.

Despite being shorter than Soujirou, she gripped his lapels and forced him to meet her eyes at their level. "Say it!", she shook him. "If I hadn't gone, what? Rui wouldn't have died??? How dare you! You have no right!" She let go of him, her voice quivering with the tears she refused to shed.

"I called you all here to explain my side – our side of the story. If you think it was easy to keep away, it wasn't. We missed all of you, but it was best for everyone if we stayed away and that's what we did. It's not easy for me to come back either. Knowing I'd have to face everyone and their disappointments. Knowing I have to give you all some measure of peace, when I don't even have that for myself " Tsukushi said in a voice so low, she was almost whispering. She let go of Soujirou's shirt in defeat.

"Before he died, Rui asked me to come and face all of you. He asked me to let you all know the truth. He loved you all, but he felt he had to stand by me. At first, I was against it. I asked him to go back and to stay away from me, but he wouldn't. He sacrificed his life here for me. And though I felt guilty about it, I needed him. He was my saving grace", Tsukushi continued, her expression a little blank as her mind went back to the things she'd endured.

"You could have called. You could have told us you needed help, and we'd have all come. We're your friends – how could you be so selfish? You wouldn't share your problems with us and you just decided on your own to leave??" Shigeru burst out. She couldn't know what had happened to make her friend turn tail and run, but to her, it must have been serious - enough for her to cut yourself off from her friends, and especially her family, they all knew how devoted she was to them.

"Do you think it was easy for me? For us? It wasn't... It wasn't..." Tsukushi sat down wearily. "There were moments when I wanted to die, and I almost did, but Rui saved me... Yet in the end, when he was so sick, I couldn't save him..." Her voice trailed off. "Will you please hear me out now?"

Her four guests sat down one by one in silent acquiescence to her request. They could see how defeated she was. Five years worth of ill feeling would be hard to erase in just one night. Yet, they couldn't not grant her plea, she was, after all, their friend. And to them, the events of the past they shared was something. It wasn't everything, but it was – something. They also couldn't help but compare the way she looked now to the teenaged girl they knew. She was like the Tsukushi of old, but at the same time, she was different. She was frailer somehow, they couldn't quite see with the baggy clothes she was wearing, but she seemed to be thinner if that were at all possible. She had bags under her eyes and her cheeks looked gaunt. She also looked pale – as if she hadn't seen the sun in a long time.

"I decided to leave, it's true." Tsukushi looked off into the distance, letting the past wrap itself around her and transport her back...

"Something happened between me and Domyouji, and I was so happy. We'd finally decided to be together, and even though I didn't want him to throw his future away for me, in the end, I agreed to his decision. I wanted so badly to be with him, and we'd fought to be together for so long that we couldn't help but give in to the freedom our decision brought. We could finally announce our love and show it to the whole world." Tsukushi rubbed her arms as if warming away the chill. Soujirou, Akira, Yuki and Shigeru just looked at her, transfixed by her story, and encouraging her without words to go on.

"But then, he was stabbed, and our whole world came crashing down again... I wasn't sure if I had the energy left to fight back when I realized he forgot about me, and only me... Yet, I did. I tried to make him remember, but he couldn't. Or he wouldn't. The last straw was when I made him a bento and he didn't realize I'd made it. Sure, Umi claimed it was hers; but I guess I'd hoped that he'd somehow, in some way, remember me.. When I saw them together in his room, I think my heart finally broke, and I gave him back the necklace he gave me." She smiled wryly. "I remember him looking shocked by that gesture, but I didn't really stay to find out. I ran as fast as I could. Out of his house, and out of his life."

"I left to go back to stay with my family. I had a secret, and I wasn't sure how to deal with it. Everyone would have been horrified if they'd found out." She looked straight into their eyes.

"I was pregnant."

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Whew! Don't know if I can keep up with the cliffhangers! LOL I hope everything was clear... Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm able to express all the words clamoring in my head. But I hope you still like it. Hopefully the confusion everyone is feeling came across. On one hand, sentiment and friendship; on the other, resentment and betrayal.