Chapter 8: "Next Step, New Plan"
-"This has become more confusing that what we thought it was; this can make sense but at the same time, it complicates things. If we want to settle things down, we need to remake our old plans and take new steps."
The early morning sun rays poured through the curtains of her window, bumping in their way with the furniture. As they lighted the room, she felt as if the darkness of her mind and soul fell apart, and made everything clear and radiant as the current morning. Her red blood eyes scanned carefully the room; she saw the dozens of fresh pink roses that lay in the table, the crib with the cocoons of her children where the sofa had once been, and the vase in her night table with the two roses in it.
"Those, flowers," she said as she leant over to see them," I guess Nathan, left the blue one."
Seeing both roses together was now something meaningful, which aroused comfort and confusion; when she saw the blue rose, she looked at the crib, he actually gave his life for her when he was not even her chevalier and she could not address his feelings; and the she saw the pink rose, and remembered how Haji had devoted every day from his life since he was just twelve to her and her happiness. Her heart streamed with happiness and joy and yet, from each of her eyes a soft, innocent and silent tear fell, wetting her cheek.
"Haji . . ." she said in a soft whisper as the door started to open.
The door opened, and a familiar face appeared, it was Ritsuko, the nurse she had met a few days ago; she walked in, ready to start an IV and not even noticing Saya was awake. As she walked, through the room, she cleaned the table from the dried roses that were left several days ago, but it was until she approached the table when a glimpse of her eye caught that Saya was sitting in her bed. She then dropped her binder and the blood package as she saw her, and run out of the room looking for any Red Shield agent.
"Mrs. Julia, Mrs. Julia!! She is awake!!" the nurse cried through the hallways.
"I suppose that I have been out for a few days now." she said to herself.
"It's been almost two weeks." a girly voice said, and then a blur jumped to her bed.
"Lulu, it's so good to see you again." Saya said as the Schiff sat on her bed.
"I missed Okinawa." she said, joyful to see her again.
As the lilac haired Schiff saw the queen's face, she realized that something shinned in her eyes, and it was not precisely happiness, but something else; they where tears.
"Saya are you crying?" she said in a gloomy tone.
"Hmm? No, it's just. . ," she said as she cleaned her eye and heard noises from outside.
The noises from outside, were all familiar voices and could recognize they were all upset. Julia entered the room, being followed by Ritsuko who was begging for forgiveness about how she could not notice she was awake, and behind them Kai would enter upset, unlike Lewis, David, and Joel who will remain calm at the present situation.
"Ritsuko, it's okay." Julia said trying to calm down the young nurse, "Return to your guard, I can take care of everything."
"Okay, Mrs. Julia." Ritsuko said bowing and leaving the room.
Saya had a bewildered look on her face as she saw everybody enter the room. She sure was now used to see Kai react brotherly and protective in matters that concerned her safety, she sure was used to see how seven people could fit properly in her room every time something would happened to her; but still, it was all of a sudden to see them in her room early in the morning.
"Saya, are you ok?" Kai asked approaching her bed, "Of course you are. Since when have you been awake?"
"About fifteen minutes." Lulu said as she looked upon Kai's concerned face.
"Fifteen minutes." Julia mumbled under her breath as she changed the blood package.
Saya tried to flex her arm and stop Julia from putting the blood package, but her shoulder was still sore after the surgery and moving it even a bit, caused her a lot of pain.
"Saya, you should rest." the doctor said as she made her lay in bed, "And your still having the IV, I can't let you drink from the package."
A smile appeared on her face as Julia spoke those words. Lulu looked around her, and noticed a discussion was being made between the Red Shield heads. It was probably not the best thing to intervene, but it was interesting to hear what they where talking about.
"What are we doing now?" Kai asked concerned,"Saya still needs to remain in bed."
"Well, we could wait for her to get better or start looking for Haji." Joel proposed.
"But where do we start looking?" Lewis questioned.
Silence and thoughtful expressions filled their faces as they discussed what to do next, Saya then look at them, thinking if it was proper to interrupt them. Not much after, they started to argue again; brainstorming about possible places and fictile plans; but still, it seemed as if they were going to take forever analyzing their pre-existing plans for emergencies like the one they were currently facing. Their voices rose, never minding that Saya needed to rest.
"This has become more confusing that what we thought it was; this can make sense but at the same time, it complicates things." David said thoughtfully, "If we want to settle things down, we need to remake our old plans and take new steps."
They all looked at David as he spoke those words; none of them knew exactly what he was talking about, besides noticing that he meant their brainstorming was not being helpful.
"What are you talking about?" Lewis asked.
"All our current plans need coordinates, places, and information." Joel answered, "Something we do not have, at least not in a hundred percent."
Saya knew better, and knew something helpful they ignored; if they where to find Haji, she knew the place where he would most likely be. After that night, it all made sense, and she was ready to give it a try to see if it was true that she did remembered.
"I might know where he is." Saya spoke softly, as every one looked at her.
"Do you remember something?" Julia asked and she nodded.
"In the time I was out, I saw a lot of things. One of them was where Haji was." She said as she tried to sit on her bed,"At the Met, I remembered him whispering me something to my ear, after he convinced me to live. He just said me to go to the city of my first sleep."
Everybody looked amazed at the helpful and oblivious information she gave, everyone in the room had read Joel I diary, and knew what she meant; and still none of them even bother to think that he would most likely be at that city.
"I feel so obtuse. How could I did not thought about that before?" Joel mumbled.
"Don't feel that way, none of us did." Kai said gloomy and sat in a nearby chair.
"Anything else you would like to share with us?" Mao said as she entered the room, followed by her nieces and Julia's son.
"Morning!!" the twins yelled as they hugged Kai and jumped into Saya's bed, where they hugged Lulu and Saya too.
"Mao!! What the hell are you doing in here?!" Kai yelled.
"I woke up, and realized you left, leaving breakfast ready. A nice detail by the way." Mao said as she showed him a note he left. "And then I also realized, you might be here, so I decided to drop by, with the kids."
"Mao can't you see we are discussing matters of high priority here?" he asked.
"No, I only see you are not letting rest Otonashi." she said looking at Saya.
Saya looked at Mao, giving one of those "thank you for rescuing me" looks; but still she had been interrupted at the middle of giving some important information, when she stormed in. She hoped this was not one of those typical mornings with the Miyagusuku's, but she knew that she was most likely to be wrong; after all nobody found it strange, but normal.
"We will have plenty of time to discuss, when we are on board." Joel said rising his voice over Kai and Mao's screaming, "Now, I suggest getting your belongings ready."
"Are we going somewhere?" Mao asked but Joel just smirked.
"We?? No, you are staying!" Kai yelled.
"I'm not staying, you can't leave us alone." Mao said angered.
"This would be like last time, right?" David murmured to his wife.
"It seems it will." she murmured into his ear.
"Just leave everything ready and be at the airport at two o'clock." Joel said as he left the room, being followed by Julia, David, Robin, Lewis, and Lulu.
The room was quieter, but Kai, still angry, looked at Mao who was now braiding Saya's long hair, never minding their previous fight. Aki and Aoi looked at their aunt, exited about leaving Okinawa for the first time.
"Mao, you are still staying. I don't want to loose you. " Kai said as he held his head in his hands."Neither do I want to risk the twins."
"Kai, this will not be like last time." Saya pleaded.
"I know." he sighed, "But there is still Nathan. Who may I recall; injured you gravelly."
Saya's arm ached in guilt as she heard Kai's words. It might have been true, but she knew it would not be, like the last time.
"I know, but Nathan hopes to meet me again." she said softly.
"What makes you think that?" Mao asked and she pointed at the blue rose.
"Damn!!" Kai yelled, "How can he always infiltrate the center without us, noticing?"
"Good question. Everything is ready Mao." Lulu said as she leaped into Saya's bed.
Kai just looked at Mao, wondering what Lulu meant, and asked: "Lulu?"
"I asked her to close Omoro, and leave a sign at the door." Mao said.
"I guess, there is no way back once you left everything ready." he sighed resigning.
"Exactly." Mao murmured under her breath as Lulu laughed.
The alarm clock on the night table marked twelve thirty, still enough time to get to the airport. They all sat in silence for a moment, until the twins started to giggle.
"Aunt Saya?" the red eyed twin asked, "Where are we going?"
"Yes, auntie, where are we going?" Aoi also asked with excitement.
"Well, we are going to the "city of lights"." Saya answered and her nieces looked at her perplexed about what she meant.
The alarm clock marked one o' clock now and they were now ready to leave the center. Saya kept her children close to her on their way to the airport, the twins sat in the car peeking through the windows, and Lulu would play with the radio as Kai drove. The day was hot, probably the hottest this summer and the AC was not working, a bad day for it not to work; but anyways the windows were down letting the coastal breeze cool the car. The clock marked 1: 59 as they stopped in the airport, where the rest would stand waiting for them in the shadow of the private jet Joel had arrange for them.
As they waited to take off, they as well waited to take the next step into something bigger that would change their lives; probably even bigger than what they realized.
