Chapter 6

It was six A.M. when the nurses came into the room, and Misty was not a morning person. She had slept in the empty bed in Fiona's room, and she hadn't even realized she had fallen asleep. The nurse turned on the lights, looking a bit startled when Misty was the first to react to it. Fiona stayed asleep.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said quietly. "I just came in to do my rounds and check Fiona's vital signs. Your husband says she can go home later today, after she has a good breakfast. He wants to make sure she won't have another reaction."

"Is Brock still here?" Misty asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Yes, he'll be here until about noon, I suppose," the nurse said, placing the stethoscope to Fiona's back, causing her to stir in her sleep. "He's in surgery right now, but he wanted me to see how you two were doing."

Fiona opened her eyes and looked up at the nurse, then over at Misty.

"Hi, Fiona," the nurse said, kindly. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," she replied, shying away from the light, and looking over at Misty.

"Well, we are going to bring you some breakfast in an hour," the nurse said, pulling out her blood pressure cuff. "Your daddy wants you to eat something and then we are going to send you home with your Mommy later. Do you think you can do that?"

Fiona closed her eyes and nodded her head. Misty held her hand as the nurse took her blood pressure, which turned out to be normal and she smiled.

"Alright. All clear," she said, gathering her stuff. "I'll tell Brock she's doing great and bring food to her around seven. She should be able to go home very early this morning."

"Thank you," Misty said, pulling the blanket back around Fiona's shoulders. She wondered if she should try to talk to Fiona about what happened before she got sick, or if she should wait until she had some food and cartoons were on. She knew this hospital had to be scary to her. She had dozed off anyway, and Misty decided to go down the hallway and buy a drink from the vending machine.

She saw Miroku and Reggie, dressed in their police uniforms talking to someone in surgical scrubs, as she got closer she discovered the surgeon was her husband. "Hey you guys…"

"Oh, well, Good morning sweetheart!" Brock said, cheerfully. "I just got out of surgery, and I'm starving, but I called Miroku and Reggie here this morning to talk to Fiona."

Misty slipped quarters into the vending machine. "Brock, Fiona is very tired and hasn't had a bite to eat since yesterday. I don't want to stress her out."

"Well, that's why we were going to wait until breakfast is served," Brock said, checking the clock. It was already past 6:30, and he was honestly surprised to see his wife up this early.

"I tried talking to her just before I came out here to buy a drink," she said, pressing a button and waiting for her soda. "She fell asleep on me though."

Miroku looked at her. "Actually, I guess we can use this time to talk to you without Fiona around. The tests show that Fiona had trace amounts of peanut oil in her system, you prepared the food, right?"

Misty suddenly felt like she was under attack, even though this was Miroku questioning her and he was one of her best friend's husbands, and the father of her daughter's two best friends, she still couldn't help but feel threatened by that shiny badge on his chest.

"Yes, I did," she replied, "but I always make sure I never put anything with peanuts in the food. I'm very careful."

Reggie took notes and then asked a question of his own. "Did you at any point leave Fiona in the care of someone else right before the reaction happened? Perhaps someone who doesn't know Fiona's allergy to well and might have given her something with peanut oil in it?"

She thought for a moment. She had been talking to Hideko when she heard Fiona choking, and she had told Ayame to keep an eye on her just before that, but Ayame knows about her allergy, so that couldn't have been the case.

"No, I left her with Ayame, and then I went and sat with Brock, just a few feet away and..I was talking to Hideko," she explained and then shrugged her shoulders. "It just happened so fast."

Miroku nodded his head. "Well, Brock has reason to believe that Justin might have something to do with this." Of course, Misty already knew he had thought this, and she had to admit it did seem a bit strange since everyone was extra careful around Fiona when they made food.

"Well, Justin has only known us for about four days," she said. "He could have given her something that made her sick, but I don't think he'd do it on purpose. Besides, he doesn't know about her allergy, so how could hurt her on purpose?" Misty was clearly becoming upset. The thought of someone hurting Fiona intentionally made her angry and scared. She felt Brock pull her close to him, and she started to cry.

Miroku looked over at Brock. "You also said earlier that the first shot of the EpiPen didn't work? At all?"

"Yea, we always bring one with us where we go, just in case something like this happens," Brock said, trying to calm his wife down. "The one I grabbed out of her purse didn't do a thing, it was like it was water or something. If I hadn't had the extra one in my truck…I don't even want to think about what would have happened."

"Well, the only real way to get answers is to talk to Fiona," Reggie concluded. "She was there first hand and I'm sure she can tell us what is going on as best she can. Miroku and I are going to go grab a coffee and we'll be back up when Fiona wakes up and has some food."

Brock and Misty agreed to that and walked down the hallway back to Fiona's room where she slept peacefully in the dimly lit room. Undressing out his scrubs, he put on a T-shirt and slipped on some jeans.

"I want to see how Fiona does after she eats, if she can keep anything down. After Miroku and Reggie talk to her should be a enough time to see if she's going to be alright before I send her home," Brock pulled up a stool next to the chair and put his arm around her. He saw the tears in her eyes. "Hey, hey, she's going to be alright."

"I know she's going to alright, Brock," she said, in a hushed whisper. "I just can't understand why anyone would want to hurt her. She's innocent! She hasn't done anything to anyone!" She hugged him and started to cry.

"Shhh, you are going to wake her up," Brock said, softly, watching his daughter sleep. "You don't want her to see you crying, it's only going to upset her. Look, I don't even know if Justin did anything, but I will tell you that Easton went back after Justin and Ayame left to come here yesterday. He saw that what she was eating was a roast beef sandwich and I remember what you gave her was different. Fiona isn't exactly one to eat two sandwiches in one day, you know how she is."

"She's very finicky," Misty said, smiling a little.

He nodded in agreement, looking over at Fiona.

"That's why I find it strange and I put two and two together in my mind," he said, wiping away her tears. "Look, we'll get to the bottom of this. I only called the police here because my suspicions are so strong, otherwise, I'd just chalk it up to an accident."

The door opened and a nurse came in with a trey of food.

"Oh, Dr. Harrison, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," she said, smiling. "I just wanted to give Fiona her breakfast, just as you had ordered."

"Thank you," Brock said, standing up. "We'll get sleepyhead up and try to get her to eat."

The nurse left quickly and Misty dried her eyes. "I'm alright now," she promised.

Brock shook Fiona awake and she turned away from him, pulling the blanket the blanket around her shoulders.

"She's just like you, Misty" Brock laughed and pulled the blanket from her shoulders. "Fiona, wake up, Sweetheart. I want you to eat something. You want to watch some cartoons?"

She opened her eyes slowly and looked up at him, and he turned on the television. "Let's see. There we go. How is Tom and Jerry?" He asked, pushing the trey in front of her as she tiredly sat up in her bed. "You feel like eating?"

"No," she replied, looking away from the food. "Not hungry. Daddy, I want to go home."

"You are going home, really soon, I promise," he said, making his way over to the door and motioning for Miroku and Reggie to come in as they waited outside with their coffee.

Fiona was quite surprised to see them, but she was intimidated, since Miroku was practically like her uncle and she had seen Reggie lots of times when she went to visit at the mansion. Miroku smiled at her and Misty gave him her seat next to the bed as she watched Fiona curiously pick at her food.

"Hey, Fiona, how are you feeling?"

"A little better," she said, taking a sip of a juice box. She still felt slightly nauseous and she wasn't sure if she wanted to eat anything. "I just want to go home."

"Well, we are just going to talk to you while you eat your breakfast, is that alright?" Miroku asked as Reggie pulled up the stool next to the bed. She nodded tiredly and continued to pick at her food, bringing small pieces to her mouth.

"Do you remember what happened before you got sick?" Reggie asked her as the two of them took notes.

"Yea, we were all at a picnic," Fiona replied. "My big sister came home from school so daddy took us on a picnic!"

"Fiona" Miroku said, "Do you remember what happened right before you got sick? Who was around you? Who was talking to you?"

She was quiet for a minute. She seemed to take more interest in her food, which Brock was happy to see, then she answered. "Justin was talking to me. I thought his sandwich looked really good and I wanted to try it, so he said he'd trade me."

"Did it taste funny at all?" Reggie asked and Fiona shook her head.

Misty grabbed Brock's hand. This didn't look good at all.

Fiona looked over at her parents who were standing near the wall, being as quiet as possible. "Can I go home now?"

"Yes, Sweetheart, you can go home now," Brock said, walking over to her bed. "I have to do some paperwork and then you can go home. Mommy will help you get dressed and get ready to leave."

Miroku and Reggie stood up and followed Brock out in the hallway. "We don't want to question her too much. She's little and her body has been put into shock. We don't have enough evidence to arrest Justin or press charges, but we can keep a closer eye on him." Miroku explained.

"Thanks, guys," Brock said, sincerely.

"I think that it's strange what happened with Hitomi last week, and now this…I don't know, I think they could be connected to Justin. I hope not, for Ayame's sake, but we'll make sure your family and the rest of us stay safe," Miroku promised him.

Brock waved goodbye to them and started down the hall to get the paperwork done. Somehow, though, he had a feeling this nightmare was far from over.