A/N: The next chapter is up! Please support :)

Chapter 5: Fragile things

xxx Tetsuhiro xxx

Tetsuhiro flew up the stairs and into the nursery. He grabbed the diaper bag, haphazardly threw in some diapers and baby clothes. Emi was sleeping in her crib but woke up as Tetsuhiro scooped her up and swept downstairs with her in tow. In seconds, he had tumbled into the awaiting taxi. "To Todai, please! South entrance!"

Emi began to act up as the taxi made a turn and exited the estate. Tetsuhiro pressed her against his chest and murmured reassuring words into her ears. "It'll be alright, Emi- chan. It'll be alright." He did not know if he was saying them for her sake, or his own.

As the scenery outside flashed past in streaks of orange lights, Tetsuhiro took out his cell again and dialed Souichi's number. The voice that greeted him was faint, strained. It felt as though Sempai was forcing the words out of his throat. "Sempai, I'll be at Todai soon. Give me fifteen minutes, okay?"

"Just come…quickly…"

"I will!" Tetsuhiro covered the receiver and instructed the cab driver to go faster. As the taxi picked up speed, he leaned back in his seat and resumed speaking. "I've also called an ambulance because you said that you were injured. We'll go to the university hospital and get everything treated. So just—just hang in there."

Souichi made a weak grunt and then trailed off. Laboured breathing feathered through the line and Tetsuhiro gripped his cell tightly, his mind running amok. Of Sempai lying in a pool of blood; of broken limbs and shattered skulls. No, no, get a hold. Sempai was conscious and he was on the line with Tetsuhiro. If he panicked and lost control now, then who was going to help him?

The majestic structure of Tokyo University appeared in the horizon. Tetsuhiro snapped to attention and began to direct the driver to the correct building, all the while keeping up a monologue with Souichi. "Ne, Sempai. We're turning into Todai now. And I think I see the lights of the ambulance. We'll be there soon. Help is coming."

"Da…?" In Tetsuhiro's arms, little Emi seemed to have sensed his burgeoning anxiety and she began to fret. "Da—!"

"Sempai, Emi- chan's coming too. She wants to see you," Tetsuhiro murmured into his cell. Emi- chan was their amulet. She would bless Sempai and help them get through this night that was beginning to shape up into a nightmare. She would give Sempai strength. Dear Kami she would give them strength.

The blue- red lights of the ambulance lit up the dark parking lot of the Botany building. Two paramedics wheeled Souichi out in a stretcher, the wheels clacking over the asphalt. Seeing the arrival of the patient, the male nurse seated inside the vehicle immediately got out and spoke into a walkie- talkie.

Tetsuhiro followed beside Souichi, taking in the sight of his injuries, his blanched countenance, his frozen posture of pain. Yet, he could not react, merely climbed dutifully into the ambulance as the paramedics loaded the stretcher and shut the doors. His senses had been left back in the laboratory, in the corner where he had found Souichi ten minutes ago, groaning amidst overturned stools and shattered apparatus.

The ambulance moved off to its destination, Tokyo University Hospital, which was situated just beside the university. Despite the short distance, the paramedics took all of Souichi's vitals, recording and reporting his status into the walkie- talkie that was connected to the emergency department at the hospital. Throughout the journey, Souichi remained curled up in a fetal position, arms wrapped protectively around his abdomen. He did not relinquish his hold even when the paramedic wanted to do a preliminary check on the area.

"Sempai, you've to let him check on you…" Tetsuhiro murmured. He refused to be wavered by the vulnerability stamped into his lover's face. Instead, he began to pry Souichi's arms from his body, gently but firmly. The injured man tried to push away his hands but Tetsuhiro was adamant. Eventually, he managed to loosen Souichi's vice- like grip enough for the paramedic to do his work. Exposed, Souichi groaned when the nurse pressed a hand to his abdomen and he glared at Tetsuhiro with pain- glazed eyes.

"What kind of pain are you experiencing, sir? Is it sharp or dull?" The paramedic asked methodically.

"It was a sharp pain initially but now it's cramping…it comes and goes…" Souichi bit out.

The nurse took down some notes on a form and continued with his administrations. "At where does the pain concentrate on?"

"Lower abdomen…" Souichi grimaced as he rode another cramp. He suddenly gripped the paramedic's arm, which made the man turn to him in surprise. "I might be miscar—"

"We've arrived!" The ambulance pulled to a stop at the emergency entrance of the hospital. Immediately, the paramedics got into action. As the driver pulled the doors open, the three other nurses hurried down the van and slid the stretcher out. Outside, the A&E nurses on duty were already taking over. Tetsuhiro stepped down from the ambulance and hurried after the entourage.

Even at this late hour, the A&E department of TUH was brisk with activity. Patients of all ages and suffering from a variety of ailments were either waiting or being treated in makeshift emergency rooms. Souichi was rolled into one of them and the nurses began to pull the curtains closed around him. Other medical personnel were already pushing equipment and a drip stand into the room. Tetsuhiro was forced to wait outside and he fell back, not knowing what to do with himself.

"Morinaga- san!"

Wrapped in a shroud of misery and apprehension, Tetsuhiro only recognized the man when he came hurrying over to him. It was Dr. Yuki, dressed in his white doctor's coat and a stethoscope. "Dr. Yuki—?"

"Evening!" Upon seeing Tetsuhiro's confusion, the doctor explained, "I'm on call three nights a week for the A&E department. It works out just fine, seeing as I live near to both the clinic and the hospital. But these things aside, why are you and Emi- chan here at this hour? Is there something wrong?"

"Sempai's injured…" Tetsuhiro said mournfully. He gestured towards Souichi's ward and continued, "He had a tussle with somebody in school earlier but was hurt rather badly in the stomach. I don't know what's going to happen…!"

Dr. Yuki had listened intently through the explanation and at the end nodded his understanding. He patted Tetsuhiro's shoulder reassuringly and said, "Don't worry, Morinaga- san; I'll take care of Tatsumi- san. Take a seat and rest first; you look as if you're about to collapse." With those parting words, the physician swept into Souichi's room.

Completely helpless and hating it, the only thing that Tetsuhiro could do was to take Dr. Yuki's advice. He sank heavily into a plastic chair directly outside of the ward and hugged his baby daughter tightly, seeking comfort in her.

The closed curtains around Souichi's room hid a flurry of activity, all carried out in a bid to treat him. Nurses rushed in and out through the green screens, fetching blood samples, carrying trays of syringes and meds. Once, a pair of nurses pushed in an ultrasound machine. Tetsuhiro stood up several times and paced, often hovering near but not daring to disturb the medics' work. He did not want to distract them from helping Sempai. No, that would not do.

What was happening in there, though? Were Sempai's injuries serious? Life- threatening? These doubts and uncertainties swirled in Tetsuhiro's head, aggravated by the tension that he read in the nurses' demeanors. There was something terribly wrong about the situation, was it not? But nobody stopped to update him; no one possessed the leisure to smile at Tetsuhiro and reassure him that his one and only beloved in the world was going to be all right.

"Morinaga- san."

Tetsuhiro straightened from the chair, where he had been slumped in for the past hour. In his arms, Emi had already fallen into an exhausted, crying- induced sleep. He cuddled her protectively, needing to feel her heartbeat even more as he caught the grave, solemn tone in which Dr. Yuki had addressed him. "Dr. Yuki! How's Sempai? Is he alright?"

"I've just given him a sedative jab. He's going to sleep through the night," Dr. Yuki said. As he spoke, the curtains around the makeshift room were finally pushed aside and Tetsuhiro saw Souichi, pale and overwrought, on the bed. The nurse got an affirmative nod from Dr. Yuki and she began to maneuver the sleeping patient towards the elevators.

"Sempai!" Tetsuhiro made to follow but was deterred by Dr. Yuki.

"Morinaga- san, Tatsumi- san has to stay for observation. You'll be able to visit him later but for now, I would like to speak to you about his condition."

Condition. The term that the doctor had chosen to use did not sit well with Tetsuhiro. The two men left the chaos of the emergency department behind and entered a quiet hallway in the same direction where Souichi had been taken. Dr. Yuki led them to an empty conference room, switched on the lights and gestured for Tetsuhiro to take a seat. "Morinaga- san, Tatsumi- san is not in a life- threatening situation. You can have my word on that."

"He's alright? There was no major damage?" At Dr. Yuki's words, the jittery feeling in his bones finally eased. Tetsuhiro heaved a shuddering sigh. Sempai was okay. They had managed to treat the pain. He grabbed Dr. Yuki's hands and clasped them tightly. "Thank you…!"

"However…"

Dr. Yuki was looking at him quietly, hesitation and sympathy pouring so expressively from his gray eyes that Tetsuhiro jerked back, frightened. There was something that the doctor was withholding. It was something awful and unimaginable; a truth that would fracture his world in two. "…You said that Sempai was okay. You guaranteed it!"

"Tatsumi- san will recover, Morinaga- san. I didn't lie to you when I said that," Dr. Yuki murmured. He slid a monotone photo from the file he had with him and presented it to Tetsuhiro. It was unmistakably an ultrasound snapshot, depicting an dark, oval- shaped sac in the center of a grainy, white, fan- shaped background. "…It's the child he's carrying that I cannot be sure about."

"Child…?" Tetsuhiro picked up the snapshot and stared at it, not comprehending. His senses were already overloaded with worry for Souichi. Now, Dr. Yuki was saying that there was a child involved. He looked back at the other man and read his sympathy, clearly directed at him. "What…child?"

"Yours, Morinaga- san. Yours and Tatsumi- san's. He's five weeks pregnant."

"Pregnant…"

"Yes. I ordered some blood and hormone tests as well as an ultrasound earlier and all of them confirmed that Tatsumi- san is indeed with child. In fact, it was he who alerted me to his possible condition. Apparently, he had once been in danger of a spontaneous abortion and recognized the signs…" Dr. Yuki breathed out heavily as he finished outlining Souichi's examination and treatment in A&E.

"Yes, that happened back in Nagoya… Sempai was carrying Emi- chan when there was a lab accident…" The words came out from him robotically. Tetsuhiro felt as though he were in a dream. Pregnant. Sempai was pregnant.

"Very early pregnancies are unstable as the attachment of the zygote to the uterine lining is still preliminary. As such, they are susceptible to physical trauma. The punch that Tatsumi- san sustained to his lower abdomen and womb was very likely the primary reason why he went into threatened abortion."

The gravity of the situation set in slowly, like a ship sinking beneath waves. It chased away Tetsuhiro's surprise, his burgeoning joy. This was not a dream; not even a nightmare. This was inescapable reality. He picked up the sonogram once more, gazed at that dark, tiny blob floating in the middle of the shot. He already loved him, this little being; loved him till he could feel his heart swell, then break. "…Are we going to lose the child, Sensei?"

The doctor pulled out two napkins from a box and tucked them neatly into Tetsuhiro's limp palm. He waited for Tetsuhiro to dry his eyes, his own voice gruff with emotion. "It is an early pregnancy, and a male pregnancy at that. At this point in time, I cannot guarantee the baby's safety."

"That's too vague…I can't accept that." A face surfaced in his mind, a boy. He had dark hair and golden eyes, and a smile that could light up the world. "Pa!"

"There is currently no quantitative treatment for threatened or inevitable miscarriages. We can only place Tatsumi- san under observation for further signs of miscarriage." Dr. Yuki spoke quietly, regretful to admit that even after hundreds of years of advancement, medical knowledge was still incapable of saving Tetsuhiro's child. "…I'm very sorry."

"So there's nothing to be done to keep him? Tetsuhiro pushed back from the chair and began to pace around agitatedly. "We have to do something! We can't just sit back and—and wait for fate! This is my baby!"

"We won't give up!" Dr. Yuki's gaze was direct and fierce as he regarded Tetsuhiro. "I will do everything in my power to save the baby! Morinaga- san!"

"Wahhhh—! Wahh—baa!" Jolted from her fitful sleep, Emi's cries cut through the men's charged conversation. They had focused so much on the new baby that they had forgotten about the other one.

Tetsuhiro slipped towards the far corner of the room, hugging Emi tightly against the swaddle. Would they have the chance to love their second child like this? Would they be able to wipe his tears when he was sad, kiss his hurts when they got bad? He did not know. Kami, he did not even know if the baby would survive this night! Emi sobbed inconsolably into his shirt, as though she, too, were commiserating. Tetsuhiro closed his eyes, his own tears seeping to join hers.

"Sensei, please—save my child."

Fifteen minutes later, the men were once again walking down another hallway. This time, they stopped outside a private ward, where Souichi's family name was labeled in Kanji on the door.

"Tatsumi- san's inside, Morinaga- san."

"Un, thank you. And, I'm sorry about my outburst earlier," Tetsuhiro murmured. He bowed at his doctor and in turn, received one from him. "I know that you'll do your best by Sempai and the baby. My rudeness was inexcusable."

"There's no need to apologise, Morinaga- san. As a father- to- be, I understand how difficult this must be for you. But please, have faith in the baby." Dr. Yuki grasped Tetsuhiro firmly on the shoulders and he took comfort from the strength radiating from it. "I'll also contact Dr. Hako from Nagoya. If his schedule permits, he would most likely arrive tomorrow. The two of us would do our best for you."

Dr. Yuki glanced at Emi and then at the big diaper bag that Tetsuhiro was lugging around. "I'll get a bassinet for Emi- chan. If you need to feed her, please feel free to approach the nursery. I'll tell them to charge the costs to me."

"Thank you." Tetsuhiro said with feeling. He opened the ward door and stepped in. "Then, see you tomorrow, Dr. Yuki."

"Goodnight. Have a good rest yourself, Morinaga- san."

Tetsuhiro entered the darkened ward and padded over to the single bed set near the window. A heart rate monitor beeped beside Souichi. There was also another unfamiliar looking machine that was currently displaying a flat, static line. Tetsuhiro set down his bag on the couch and then flopped down on the visitor's chair. Just a few hours ago, he had been chatting about dinner and pureed apples with Sempai. Now, they were expecting parents who might lose the child they had just gotten to know.

Why was life so ironic? They had been granted the gift of a new child and yet they could do nothing to protect him. Tetsuhiro stroked Souichi's sleeping face, hating how pale he looked in the moonlight, hating the green hue that the machines threw over his countenance. Emi's pregnancy had not been smooth- sailing; the new pregnancy now was also wrought with difficulty. The person who had it the toughest was Sempai.

Tetsuhiro sighed. He took hold of Souichi's hand and squeezed it, hoping that his sleeping lover would garner strength from it. The only thing that he could do now was to keep Sempai comfortable during his bed rest and not let him worry about other things. He would take leave from his office so that he could stay at the hospital with Souichi. He might as well keep Emi- chan with him, so that meant that he would also have to contact the childcare center. Then, he would have to call Yuki Manami tomorrow; ask her to assist Sempai with any loose ends at work.

Todai, huh. What had happened in the lab earlier? Tetsuhiro had seen the aftermath of the fight but the only person left in the area had been Sempai. Sending Souichi to hospital to get treated had been his priority; there had not been sufficient time to query the man about the fight. Had it been about the thefts that Sempai had alleged to in their phone conversation? He had not elaborated but Tetsuhiro had still gathered that malice was afoot. If so, then it was no longer a prank of mischief. Souichi's attacker had not only harmed him; he had also harmed their unborn baby. A life was at stake. He would have to be brought to justice.

A rapid beeping sound jolted Tetsuhiro from his dark thoughts. He looked up, searching for the source of the alarm. It was the second machine. Where before there had only been a straight, horizontal line, green peaks were now moving across the monitor. Tetsuhiro heard a moan from the bed. Souichi was still in the grips of the sedative but even so, his face began to contort in pain. Tetsuhiro stood up and pressed the call button situated above the bed. "Sempai!"

"Morinaga- san, I've brought you the bassinet. Wait, this sound—" At that opportune moment, Dr. Yuki returned, accompanied by a nurse who was wheeling in a cot. The doctor heard the beeping sound and he immediately rushed forward. "Blue code!"

The nurse understood the code name instantly. Abandoning the cot, she left to carry out his instructions. Meanwhile, the beeping of the monitor continued, an ominous siren that showed no signs of stopping. Dr. Yuki pulled Souichi's blanket down and removed his trousers and briefs. At Tetsuhiro's stunned gasp, the doctor paused in his administrations. "Morinaga- san, it'd be better for you to wait outside the ward."

"But what's happening?! Why so sudden—"

Dr. Yuki began to steer Tetsuhiro towards the exit, his face stern and focused, completely unlike his usual friendliness. "The monitor has detected signs of contractions in Tatsumi- san's womb. I'm going to try to stabilize the fetus now so please wait outside until I give clearance!"

"Dr. Yuki!"

The nurses had arrived, replete with medical supplies and an ultrasound machine. They received a nod from him and immediately entered the ward. Through it all, feet tripping over the other, Tetsuhiro was directed firmly towards the corridor.

"I'll explain everything afterwards. For now, please wait here!" In a flurry of white coat, Dr. Yuki returned to the ward. The door shut with a resolute bang behind him.

"Dr. Yuki! Dr. Yuki! You can't just make me stay outside—Sempai is—Sempai is—" Tetsuhiro pounded against the door but it was fruitless. It was locked, an unyielding barrier separating him from his heart. He sagged onto the floor, a helpless mess. "You have to let me in…Sempai…my baby…" This was too much. Contractions, cramps, bleeding—they were trying to take his family away from him. Tetsuhiro's fist slid uselessly against the wood, tears dripping fast and furious down his face. "Sempai…!"

To be continued.

a/n: Is it inevitable?