Chapter 11: Shock

Ryuka's POV

I felt Grey's warm arms encase my waist, his chest pressed up against my shoulder blades. I still wasn't able to get over how perfectly foreign his body felt pressed to mine.

"Mom, Dad," I heard Liam's voice from the other side of the door, "You guys should get up. I have graduation today, remember?"

"We got it Liam," Grey's voice danced across my skin as he spoke, his fingers gently rubbing up and down my stomach, "You know your mother has to work today."

I sat up in the bed, pulling the sheets up over my bare body, "I better get ready for my shift until six."

I reached down onto the floor and plucked up my robe before pulling it onto my shoulders, "That is, if I want to go to Liam's graduation." my voice left a hanging taunt in the air as it drifted through the door to my son.

"Mom! Mom, just ready for work!" He called in protest through the door. Laughs erupted from both mine and grey's throat.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world, honey," I pulled my robe on the rest of the way and tied the knot around my waits before getting up and opening the door to see my seventeen year old son. He looked so much like his father, except for he had my eyes. I offered him a smile before tears began to well in the corners of my eyes and I wrapped my arms around him, "I can't believe my baby boy is all grown up!" I wailed into his chest.

"Come on now, Mom," Liam patted my back, "Don't cry."

"I-I'm not…"I wiped my face on his shirt, "I'm just-"

"Just get ready for work," Liam smiled and pulled out of our embrace.

Taka's POV

My head fell into my hands as I leaned forward onto the counter of the bar. It had been nearly two weeks and Sienna still showed no progress what-so-ever. And Shay…I didn't even want to think about Shay. He and his father both were both a mess. Every time I tried to sleep, I had nightmares. The worst part? I still couldn't bring myself to go see Sienna. I had been working more just to help manage money, and I was tired and still trying to keep up with school.

"Vodka," A tired and frustrated voice pulled me out of my daze as the maker of the voice plunked down in front of me. I looked up.

"Mrs. Stein?"

Her blood-red eyes came up to look at me in a glare, "Don't call me that. It makes me feel old and I'm not. Just call me Sanguine, or San for short."

"Um, okay," I reached across the back counter and grabbed the bottle, "You want it just strait?"

"Why would I ask for it if I didn't want it strait?" She asked in a groaning voice.

"That's some serious drinking. Are you sure?" I asked in protest.

"Taka," she gave me a harsh glare, "If you don't pour the glass within the next five seconds, I will take that damned bottle from you."

"Okay then," I poured the glass and slid it across the counter to her, "Something bothering you, Sanguine?"

She shot the glass back and emptied it, "No," she said in a defensive voice, "Why do you ask?"

"Well," I refilled her glass as she pushed it towards me, "Not very many people come in here and just casually shoot down strait vodka. Not unless something's wrong."

"Maybe you should start minding your own business, Kid," She said as she threw back another glass and slid it towards me for a third, "Some people would have leapt over this counter and slit your throat by now."

"But you haven't," I refilled her glass, "Because something's wrong and you know it."

She shot back the glass and gave me a look with her glassed over eyes, "You remind me a lot of my husband," She sat her head down into her palm, "He can read me like an open book."

"Is that so?" I sat the bottle down on the counter. And looked at her with a silent expression, "Do you want to tell me why you're hear now, Sanguine?"

"I just needed a place to think," Her eyes wandered across the bar, "I used to come here all the time, but I stopped drinking…until recently, that is."

"Really?"

She smiled, "Yeah," Her long pale finger pointed across the room, "I did those oils over there."

I looked into the direction she was pointing to see a blood-red and silver swirling design with a few black stitch-type streaks darting across the design at a few points, "It's….beautiful," I said before looking back at her.

"I did it when Stein went missing nineteen years ago," She fidgeted in her seat, "But I never signed it. I didn't want people to know it was mine."

"Why?"

"I didn't want to believe I was in love with him then," A smirk crept over her face, "I was stubborn, who could help it?"

I kept silent after that, just letting my thoughts sink into my brain. Did I love Sienna? Or not? And then there was Lori…

"So, how is the search going?" I began to wipe down part of the counter.

"Judging by where I am," Her face slid into her hands, "How do you think it's going?"

I bit my tongue. I hadn't ever thought that would be the reason I would see her here of all places.

I was interrupted when she slammed a stack of money to the counter, "Thanks for the drink, Kid," she stood up and headed for the door. But I could swear that I saw the tears in her eyes.

Sienna's POV

Where Am I?

It's so dark, and cold. And I'm not entirely sure how I got here. It feels like my entire body has gone numb. I don't understand; how did I get here?

I could feel the chill in the air wrapped around my bare body like a blanket; it cloaked me in the darkness. I could feel my blood like ice in my veins.

I feel like I'm suffocating. What is this heavy weight pressing down on my chest? Whose are these unfamiliar hands closed around my throat? Are they my own? Am I-Am I going to die this way?

My heartbeat was pulsing through my head like some sort of live wire. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them in attempt to make myself warmer. I could feel my hair drifting out behind me in weightless patterns. Shivers shook beneath my naked skin.

I feel as if I am weightless. My entire body feels like it's floating, but in what? Is this chill the breath of Death on my naked skin?

NO.

I am Death. My entire family of reapers. All from my father's side, we are Death. Does that mean we can't die?

I gulped and wrapped my arms around myself even tighter.

I don't want to die, but that doesn't mean I want to live forever either. I wonder if this is how it feels in a cryogenic freezer. I feel as if I'm frozen a floating. Never moving forward, and never able to look back.

Then another thought occurred to me.

If I can't go forward, and I can't go back, then where is there for me to go?

Ryuka's POV

I sighed and let my eyes drift closed in boredom as I sat at my desk in the back office of the ER. Friday was unusually quiet in this wing of the hospital. Usually we were buzzing with activity, but our unit had neglected to even come across something as minor as a broken toe. Half of our usual workers weren't even here. The silence was almost deadening.

"Dr. Night! Dr. Night!" I could hear Miyuki, the young trainee's voice flitting somewhere above me, "Dr. Night! We have two patients in!"

That was when it registered into my brain that I needed to move. I sprang up from my desk and took off down the hall before breaking open the doors to the main center and scrubbing my hands before pulling on a pair of gloves. Dr. Garland, My boss, walked in shortly behind me.

"What have we got here, Dr. Garland?" I asked as I turned off the faucet.

"Two patients," He pulled a pair of gloves on, "A nineteen year old girl by the name of Saki Evans and a twenty two year-old boy by the name of Mason Thompson. Car accident."

Saki Evans? I-I know that name… But from where?

"Dr. Night, You're needed in the OR," a voice over the small intercom in the prep room sounded just as Dr. Garland turned off the sink. The two of us looked at each other for a brief second before I pulled on my surgical mask and stepped into the operating room.

The pair of teenagers lay on two separate tables across the room from each other. The man had brown hair that framed his face; a large hunk of metal erupted from a section of his stomach. The pair of doctors working at his table were making an attempt to remove the shard without the blood filling up the boys stomach. The girl's long white hair was streaked with grime and blood. Her leg was bent up pretty odd, but other than a few severe cuts and bruises, she seemed to be fine. I walked over to the girls table and took a closer look at her leg. I looked up at the two nurses standing at the head of the table.

"Hold her body down," I took hold of her foot, "I have to reset the break, or it'll heal wrong." The two nurses nodded and secured the girl's, Saki Evan's, body. I waited until the nurses had a firm hold before I gave her leg a harsh jerk to realign it. Her hips arched off the table along with most of her back as she let out a blood-curdling scream. Her emerald eyes opened wider than what seemed possible as the tears streaked her face. I looked back up at the nurses, "Keep her stable. I'm going to go help Dr. Garland and Dr. Chase." The nurses nodded before I headed across the room.

"What's going on here?" I asked as I made a quick assessment of the young man.

"His blood is filling his stomach," Dr. Chase's voice came in a clear, concise voice, "And that obviously has to be stopped."

An idea sparked in my brain, "Amanda," I called to one of the nurses over my shoulder, "Get me a syringe."

"Yes, Dr. Night," She said before pressing a syringe into my hands.

"Dr. Chase," I looked up at our newest doctor in our ward, "I need you to apply pressure right here," I said gesturing to the patients stomach, "Dr. Garland, pull out the shard," I pressed the syringe just below the wound. The shard pulled from Mason's stomach and I pulled up the plunger in the syringe, filling it with blood to prevent it from filling up his stomach. After the syringe was full, Dr. Garland sat the shard down and picked up the suture from the tray and began to stitch up the wound in his stomach. The boys eyes golden eyes flew open and he attempted to sit upright, but I pinned his shoulders down as Dr. Garland continued to stitch him shut.

"Hey, Look at me," I looked into his eyes until he began to meet them, "You're okay. I'm going to take care of you."

"Where is" He took in a sharp breath as he attempted to calm himself down, "Where is my girlfriend? Where's Saki?"

"She's just fine, Mason," I offered him a brief smile, "Her leg may take a while to heal up, but other than that she's going to be just fine."

He responded with a serious nod.

"My name's Dr. Night," I couldn't recognize the familiarity I kept seeing in his eyes, "But you can call me Ryuka if you prefer."

"Okay, Ryuka."

"Dr. Night," Miyuki's voice buzzed over the small intercom, "The parents of your two patients are here to speak with you whenever you're ready."

"Right," I called over before looking at my watch, "Mason, Dr. Garland and Dr. Chase are going to watch you and Saki and check you into a room. I'm going to be back in a hour or so."

Mason nodded before I took off down the hall.

Silver's POV

"Daddy?" I asked as I entered the Death Room. The entire school was empty. The life that had been in the town had disappeared. All of the shops were closing. The town was running downhill, but now that both of it's doctor's were gone, Death City was just a few steps away from a ghost town.

"What is it, Silver?" My father asked from his place in the Death Room.

"I brought you some teriyaki chicken and rice," I smiled as I carried in the plate, "I know you're busy, but you still have to eat."

"I'm not very-"

"Dad," I pushed the plate towards him, "Eat."

He pulled his mouth into a tight line before he hesitantly took it from my hands. He slowly began eating. Chew and swallow. Chew and swallow, "So, How's Shay doing?"

"He's still at the Hospital with Sienna."

"And Sienna?"

"Not showing much improvement," I sighed, brushing my hair out of my face, "The doctors still don't know if she's ever going to wake up."

"He must be taking it hard," he chewed another bite and swallowed, "She's his other half. If he loses her, he'll crash and burn then hit rock bottom."

"I know," I bit my lower lip, "He couldn't go on without her." A few moments passed in silence as my father continued to eat and I stood there.

"Dad?" I looked closely at him, "Death City really has gone downhill, hasn't it?"

"The world hasn't been so great as it is," he sat his fork down on his plate, "And since we're in the middle of the desert, it's expected for the town to go downhill."

"How's the search for mom going?"

"Not so-" A flash began to appear at the corner of the screen, small and erratic along with an even beeping behind it, "Hold on."

"Dad, is that-" he held up his hand to silence me and stepped towards the monitor.

"I'm coming for you, Ryuka," He pressed his fingertips to the blinking red dot on the monitor, "I'm going to hold you in my arms again, I promise."

Ryuka's POV

I straitened my jacket as I turned down the next hallway. I was nearly to the waiting room of the Trauma ward. My short waves of hair had become slightly wild through the events of the day. I pushed open the door, clipboard in hand. That was when I was faces I knew.

"Maka? Soul?" The pair sat beside each other, Maka's head on Soul's shoulder. She looked like she'd been crying.

Then the next two faces turned.

"Liz?" I asked, seeing her long waves of brown hair move with her head. There was a familiar figure sitting beside her. His was a face that I knew well. I could feel my heart stop inside my chest as my eyes went wide. I dropped my clipboard, but never heard it hit the ground.

"Kid?"

A/N: That took way longer to write than it should have….I'm so so so so so sorry that my updates have been getting so slow! But I'm trying! I'll try to get the next chapter out faster! Leave a review pretty please! I need to know how all this is coming out so far. I love all of you guys! See you in the next chapter! ^^