A/N: Woo! Mika comes in. I actually admire her character a lot. She is the epitome of femimine strength. She is calm, but strong. Protective, but accepting. She is just a very good character who I think doesn't get enough attention. Oh, and Dr. Soba lovers, please don't hate me for this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation.
Impart - v
to make known; tell; relate; disclose
to give; bestow; communicate
To pass on; transmit
"What the hell did you bastards do to my brother?" Mika screamed. Hair frazzled, clothes wrinkled, and not an ounce of make-up on her face, Mika Seguchi was not in a state to be messed with. She'd been woken up in the middle of the night by her husband telling her that her youngest brother was in the hospital, and that her other brother and his lover were already there as well. After being manipulated into waiting until morning to come to the hospital, Mika was in no mood for her husband's false miles and cheap words. Her brother was hurt. She wanted an explanation; she deserved an explanation.
Mika had always prided herself on being the best at three things: being a daughter, being a sister, and being a wife. Ever since her beloved mother's death, she had done everything she could to make things easier on her family. Instead of hanging out with her friends after school and on weekends, she would always come straight home to look after her brothers and the house. She agreed to the arranged marriage set up between Tohma's family and her father with admirable grace and maturity, and never once complained about her father's horrible habits of neglecting his children, particularly his youngest son.
She had always done everything in her power to please the men in her life, only to be repaid with indifference and deceit. She had never minded the injustice of this arrangement before, but at that moment, when she saw her dear, sweet little brother lying unresponsive in the hospital bed, she began to resent all the men in her life.
Tohma, for being a lying, manipulative bastard,
Yuki, for becoming a cruel, bitter recluse,
Tatsuha, for never trusting her for help,
and
her father, for causing it all.
"I asked you a question!" she screeched, glaring through hot, bitter tears at the three men across the room. "What happened to Tatsuha? Why is he here? Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Mikarin," Tohma began, lifting his hands in a placating gesture. "It's a long story, maybe you should sit down-" Mika cut him off.
"Don't you tell me to sit down! My brother is hurt and I'm the last to know! I'm his sister, I should be the first to know if anything happens to him!"
"Mika, listen," Tohma fumbled for the right words, something that normally didn't happen to him. "Tatsuha was...he...-"
"Tatsuha was raped by a group of guys a few days ago," Yuki cut in. "He was at some club and they jumped him on his way out. He didn't want to admit that it had happened, so we invited him to Kyoto to try and trick him into thinking he had HIV so he'd admit what had happened to him, but it didn't work like we thought it would and he stormed off and hit some old man driving off."
Silence.
Then, the sound of Mika Seguchi's body hitting the floor in a dead faint.
"...Well, that went well," Tatsuha spoke up from his place on the bed. The three other concious heads in the room snapped towards him. Tatsuha blinked. "What?"
"You were awake the whole time?" Shuichi asked loudly. Tasuha blinked again.
"Yeah..." he answered slowly.
"Well, why didn't you say something?" Yuki glared accusingly.
"Well, I thought you all were handling it so magnificently that you didn't need my help."
By the time Mika regained conciousness, she had been moved to a vacant bed beside Tatsuha. It seemed that Tohma, Yuki, and Shuichi had long since fled to the waiting room. She sat up with a long sigh and observed her sleeping brother's face. He looked so innocent, so peaceful, so...
Wait.
"Tatsuha, open your eyes. I know you're not asleep," she barked. Tatsuha opened his eyes with a cheesy grin and waved at his sister with the hand that wasn't wrapped in a cast.
"Hey, Mikarin," he greeted. "Aren't the beds here really comfy? The pillows are kinda hard, though. Oh, that remote to your right, you can use that to move the bed, and-"
"Tatsuha," Mika cut him off. "What happened?" Tatsuha cast her a confused look.
"What do you mean?" he asked. Mika's eyes softened.
"I mean, why didn't you say anything? What happened to you, you know it wasn't your fault, so why, Tatsuha, why?" Mika stopped as her voice broke.
"Why what, Aneki?" Tatsuha asked, feeling a sharp prickling in the back of his eyes.
"Why didn't you come to me for help?" she sobbed. Tatsuha lowered his gaze. He hated seeing his sister cry. He hated being the one to make his sister cry more.
"It was all happening so fast," he whispered. "I couldn't- I couldn't stop to think. It was all so overwhelming and I just didn't know who to talk to, or what to do. And, I kept trying to tell myself that nothing happened, that it was just, you know, sex, but I couldn't stop from feeling like I was...I don't know, Aneki, I just don't know!" Tatsuha broke off, sobbing. Damn, he thought. Trust Mika to guilt me into tears. Mika got off the bed and knelt at her injured brother's side. She took his hand and smiled softly.
"It's okay, Tatsuha," she whispered. "It'll all be okay. We'll get past this. I'll help you. But don't worry, I promise those three idiots won't be helping you again if I have anything to do with it."
As Mika exited the room, Tatsuha suddenly felt very frightened for the others. He also felt very thankful that they were all in a hospital.
Tohma sneezed as he walked into a very familiar clinic. He flet slightly guilty about leaving the others with a raging Mika, but it couldn't be helped. He had more pressing matters to attend to. He walked past the front desk of the clinic without permission for the second time in less than a week and strode into Dr. Soba's office. He was met with the sight of a disheveled Dr. Soba and a mountain of cardboard boxes.
"Are you going somewhere?" Tohma asked, smiling as Dr. Soba jumped at the sight of him. She smiled back nervously.
"No, no. Actually, I've been..let go," she replied sheepishly. Tohma blinked; the woman certainly didn't seem to broken up about being fired. "The head of the clinic caught sight of a certain surveillance tape, and well..." Tohma's eyes widened as realization suddenly dawned on him.
"Oh, dear! You weren't fired for showing me Tatsuha's file, were you?" Tohma didn't know why he cared so much, but this woman had helped him and Tatsuha. "I'm so sorry, I can talk to the head of the clinic. I'm sure I can persuade him to-"
"No, no," Dr. Soba cut him off. "That's not necessary. It was going to happen sooner or later anyways. I broke too many rules, stepped on too many toes. As a doctor, I was more concerned with making sure my patients got help than if they had insurance or if their records were confidential. Silly me. Anyways, there will be hearing over my license in about a week, and well, I think I'll be fine. I have some money saved up, and a few back-up plans, so..."
"You don't seem to regret it," Tohma observed. She smiled softly again.
"I regret a lot of things, Mr. Seguchi," she said. "But, I never regret helping someone who needs it, especially someone like Tatsuha. Although, I suppose I do regret having to make that little phone call for you, even if it technically did help Tatsuha. Speaking of which, how is he?"
"Oh, he's fine," Tohma smiled. "Pretty banged up, but he should be fine with time." Dr. Soba nodded.
"I'm sure he will be," she said, turning back to her boxes. Tohma bowed politely and exited the bare office silently. After he left, Dr. Soba turned back around and observed what was once her office with sad eyes. As hard as it was to leave, she knew she had done the right thing.
And, at the hearing over her license the next week, she calmly stated that, if given the chance to go back to that moment in time, she would've gladly done the same thing again without the slightest bit of hesitation.
After a few more days of wonderful pain medication and comfortable beds, Tatsuha awoke to the presence of his sister, brother, brother-in-law, and two police officers. One of the police officers walked over to him while the other flipped out a notepad and a pen.
"Tatsuha Uesugi?" the police officer asked. Tatsuha nodded. "I understand you've been the victim of a rape?" Closing his eyes, Tatsuha nodded silently.
"Yes," he replied clearly, having already rehearsed what he was going to say. The police officer with the notepad spoke up.
"Do you think you could tell us what happened?" he asked. Tatsuha nodded again.
"I'll tell you everything."
And he did.
A/N: Okay, the end! Not really, but this is the last chapter besides the epilogue, which should be up tomorrow. I'm really sad that this story is coming to an end, but I'm glad that I had a chance to post it and have you all offer up your comments and criticism. Two people in particular that I would like to recognize are Vindalootoo and Linker27. While you probably don't feel like you did anything, you have no idea how much I appreciate your encouraging comments. You rock my socks!
Much Love!
Tenka-chan
