A/N:

This chapter is just for fun. It is not part of the main story.

Chapter 10: Omake: Mrs. K Meets a Friend

Mrs. Kurosawa lay in her hospital bed in pleasant contemplation as she scanned the flat panel that was mounted over her head. She continued to flick through the web pages with her eyes.

There was a knock on the door of her suite.

She blinked off the display. "Come in, dear."

The orderly opened the door.

She turned her head. "Ah, hello, Chou. It's a bit early for my rotation, isn't it?"

"It is. I'm sorry to bother you, Mrs. K, but you have a visitor." He escorted someone into the room. "This is the doctor."

"Which doctor?"

Before the orderly could answer her, the visitor sidled up to her bedside and brought out a bag a sweets from a deep pocket in his long coat. "Would you like a jelly baby?"

She beamed at the kindly gentleman with the wild wooly hair and long colorful scarf. "Oh yes, I'd love one."

He popped a bean into her mouth.

She chewed it. "Mmm.. banana."

He grinned at her.

She looked him over. "My, you're a cute one. Are you married?"

He tilted his head, "Who, me? Oh, no. I'm not the marrying type."

"Oh, that's a pity."

He chuckled at her remark, then he got down to business. "My dear lady, I'm on a tight schedule so I will come straight to the point. The reason I'm here is.." Then he paused, fidgeted with his scarf a bit, and glanced back at the orderly who was still waiting in attendance by the door.

The lady smiled at the tall man. "Please don't mind Chou, he's all right."

The orderly made a small bow to the pair. "It's fine, Mrs. K. I'll come back later." The attendant discretely closed the door behind him as the tall gentleman watched him leave.

Then she said amicably to her new visitor, "Something on your mind, young man?"

The visitor quickly turned around with an annoyed expression on his face. "'Young man'? My dear lady, I will have you know that I am over.."

She kept smiling. He stopped and stared at her for a second. "Hmm, I see. He was right to send me here." The man quickly looked around the room again before he sat down in the chair by her bed. Then he bent his face close to her ear and whispered, "Well, I have this little problem I need some advice with. It's a bit outside of my comfort zone for me, all this lovey dovey stuff. They say you're an expert on the subject, so maybe you can help me."

"I can certainly try, dearie."

"All right, I'll explain." He looked down and fidgeted with his scarf some more. "The thing is, well, uhm, one of my future companions is going to get really hurt unless I can fix things. You see, my tenth did something very foolish. He, uh, started something.. with his companion. I mean, not like that, but it's heading in that, uh, direction, where it could become that. He really ought to know better. I mean he knows he shouldn't, that I wouldn't, or would I? Not me, him, he would, I wouldn't, I mean.."

Mrs. Kurosawa waited patiently but he kept on babbling.

She finally interrupted him, "Love between a mortal and an immortal?"

He quickly looked up, "Yes! That is always a kind of a problem for me, you see. Uh, she can't be with me, I mean with him, I mean like that, be with me, him, I mean not me, with her.."

"Sweetie, there is always a way. All you have to do is let her live happily ever after with you. Not you you, but you. A you, you see?"

He sighed, "Been there, done that, won't help."

She managed to raise her head slightly. "I think it will, if it's done right. Look, it's simple. Just make sure it is her you, not your you. A you that is like her not like you. Like her, mortal. Then make sure she can't go back to you, I mean you you, or should I say you you you?

He stared at her blankly for a moment, then his eyes quickly lit up. "That's.. that's brilliant!" He beamed at her. "Thank you! Yes, that would work very nicely indeed." He stroked his chin. "Hmm, I'll just give him one hint. I don't want to tell my future self too much and create a fixed point. He's a bad wolf, that one, so it shouldn't be too hard for me to find a way to do it. Or perhaps I should plant the hint so that his companion sees it..." He trailed off in thought.

She lay her head back on the pillow. The effort had exhausted her. "I'm just happy to be of help."

"Yes, well, I'm glad I listened to that other chap. Almost didn't, you know. He seemed a bit of a dullard. Anyway, he's right, I can see you're an expert on all this kissy-kissy stuff."

She simply gave him a wide smile. "I'm the best, sweetie." She thought a moment, then she struggled to move her head a bit closer to his ear. "Oh dear, I forgot something. This is important: Be sure to tell her-you that he has to stay put. Otherwise, well, he's like her now, vulnerable, not like you. She'd just lose him, and the poor girl can't be hurt like that a second time."

He nodded in agreement, "Yes, yes, of course. One of me running around the universe is enough anyway."

He started to get up. "Well, that's that. I'm in your debt, madam, thank you."

The paralyzed woman then managed to turn her head to glance down at the paper bag that was still in his hand. "You got any pineapple ones in there?"

He blinked his eyes. "Hmm? Oh." He searched in the bag. "Let's see, sorry. What else.." He dug in the bag some more and pulled out a another one. "Here! You simply must try this one." He showed her a brown jellybean with white sparkles. "Look, root beer! It's not what you think, try it! It's really good, it really is."

He popped it into her mouth. She chewed it. "Mmm. Sweetie, you're right. That one was yummy."

"You're welcome. But please, stop calling me sweetie."

She tried to peer into the bag. "You got any more of those root beer ones in there, sweetie?"

He was annoyed again. "Look, I asked you to please stop calling.. " He stopped and stared at her again.

He jumped out of the chair. "Wait.. wait! You asked me if I was married! I heard about that!"

He pointed at her and kept stepping back. "You, you're.. you're.. you!"

She gave him her biggest smile.

"Sweetie, like I said, I'm the best."

The man fled the room as fast as he possibly could.

She sighed to herself, "From prison to this..." The jelly babies from the dropped bag were scattered everywhere. One of them landed on her shoulder. With a supreme effort she turned and bent her head down and managed to snag the errant bean with her tongue.

"Mmm.. strawberry."