Curse of the Sea Horse
Chapter XIII.
"Ooh! I know you!" she said almost accusingly, making Shigure nearly jump out of his skin.
"R-really?" stammered Shigure, gripping the door so hard one might think he was trying to break it. For the canine of the Juunishi, it was safe to say that this has to be one of the most sweat-inducing moments in his life. The other was when he was in his animal form playing catch with Aaya. He swallowed the large lump in his throat. "You k-know me?"
Kana nodded. "You are Sohma Shigure! Writer of "Sigh of a Summer Affair". Hm… I read that before, although it's more of a smut…"
Shigure sweat-dropped. "Aa... Glad you liked it."
There was still something akin to confusion in her hazel eyes, as if she was figuring out some sort of puzzle in her head. Shigure immediately knew what it was, and he also knew that it was a dangerous flow of thought for this young woman.
So when Kana opened her mouth to ask, Shigure hurriedly cut her off.
"Doctor… my spouse is hurting so I—"
Kana took up the bait, shifting immediately to her physician-mode, stepping into the house and pulling out her med coat from her bag. "Okay, where along is she? How badly was she hurt?"
Suppressing a sigh of relief, Shigure followed her to the clinic. "She's just in her sixth month and a half… she's fallen unconscious after some bouts of convulsion. What's happening, doc?"
"Hm. Was she suffering from hypertension during the last few weeks?"
"I—"
Shigure stopped. Was Hatori suffering from hypertension, or any sickness for that matter?
He remembered seeing Hatori more than once clutching at his stomach. He had asked if the sea horse was in pain, but the doctor waved it off as normal abdominal pain, induced by pregnancy. Hatori obviously didn't want to talk about it, so Shigure stopped asking. Shigure also suspected that it was Hatori vomiting almost every other night, instead of Ayame who had lots of food allergy. And how many times was it again that the sea horse roamed the house at night, apparently unable to sleep?
The novelist mentally slapped himself. God, his friend was actually sick right under his nose, and he didn't even noticed! What kind of friend were he and Aaya?
And what the hell was Hatori's problem?! He is a fucking doctor, and he didn't even consider seeing what's wrong with him.
Shigure was starting to hate himself more and more by the minute, but he also grew resentful of the sea horse.
The sound of a door opening and hurried footsteps saved the novelist from answering, as both he and Kana turned to the grim-looking Watabe shrugging out of his med coat. Kana approached him and touched his arm in concern.
"I'll go and see her now, Omi-kun," said Kana, before kissing his cheek and hurrying to the emergency room.
"I've stabilized Sohma-san's status now, and she's out of coma," said Watabe wearily, sinking on a nearby chair. "I injected some anesthesia so she would be relieved of some of the pain her back must have been suffering. And I conducted several tests on her blood pressure, which I found strange…"
"I'll go and see her now, Omi-kun," said Kana, before kissing his cheek and hurrying to the emergency room.
"Strange?" asked Shigure carefully, knowing full well of what he speak of. The Juunishi's blood pressure is quite more erratic than what is considered normal, as both their body and spirit are being merged to that of their animal counterparts.
The doctor stared at him then. The dog didn't like the way the doctor was looking at him. It was way too shrewd for his taste. A bad feeling wrapped itself in the dog's being.
"Ah, yes… Strange. Though I must say I never encountered anything like this my whole life," said Watabe, with an air of incredulity. Turning to the dog with a dark look, he said, "A pregnant woman, I'm accustomed to see… Would you care to explain how you managed to defy the laws of nature and get your boyfriend pregnant, Sohma-san?"
Shigure must have looked like a fool, opening and closing his mouth wordlessly like a fish out of the water. He knew he was a genius with words and manipulating other people to his liking but it's not everyday someone asking him how he managed to impregnate a man.
Watabe stood up and stared abruptly back to the emergency room. "I'm going to help Kana, and she will surely freak out if she found out what I did," he said gravely. He stared pointedly at Shigure. "We expect a full account later, Sohma-san."
"Oh… my… god…"
She was completely shocked by the image in front of her. All her mental functions temporarily halted as she stared at her patient. With the patient's kimono cut off, Kana could see that from the chest up (excluding the wig), her patient was very male. With flat chest, broad shoulders and an Adam's apple to boot, he was undoubtedly a man. But his stomach was bulging, very obviously pregnant. And very obviously too, he was in pain.
The slight moan of pain made Kana jump to life. Before being a bewildered, completely shocked female, she was a doctor first. Professionalism won over shock.
The door opened, and she threw her future husband a grateful look. He held a guarded look, which she could feel rather than see from his surgical mask She immediately gestured at him. "Quick, Omi-kun. We need to perform cesarean immediately."
Thankfully, he simply nodded.
It was a horribly hard to work on an operation with very limited supplies and instruments, and with very minimal manpower. But between her and her fiancé, they were able to deliver the baby without too much complication.
Finally, they got the child. But to the couple's horror, the baby wasn't breathing. Kana immediately administered all the procedure she knew just to get the baby to breathe.
"Oh please… Breath!" she mumbled as she worked quickly. Another minute, and they would surely lose the baby. The thought terrified her senseless, and she wanted to cry just from the thought of it. "God… please!"
The first cry of the infant brought relief to Kana, as she cradled the baby in her arms, bundled in several layers of blankets. For some reason, she felt as if her heart wanted to explode with sheer joy that she felt her eyes watering as she stared at the tiny baby crying in her arms. She guessed it must be that it was a miracle that the child survived at all, being three months pre-mature. Not all infants survive this early delivery.
Her fiancé was also obviously relieved; it showed in the way his shoulders lost much of their tension. He then nodded at her, before setting off to work on stitching back the man's abdomen.
Kana went to the adjacent room and turned on the tap water, setting it to lukewarm before washing the blood and bodily fluids off the infant's body. She gently dried the baby's body in blankets, and hummed softly, trying to soothe the wailing baby. Once asleep, she placed the baby in the clinic's incubator. The poor infant was still struggling to breath, by the way the tiny chest heaved laboriously.
"Please…" she said softly, feeling absolutely wretched that she could do nothing for now but to wait for any improvement in the baby's condition. "Please live."
The scent of spring…
The freshness that comes after a long winter, where grass shoots up in the icy ground in vibrant green; the smell of newly bloomed flowers, and clean air…
It was the one scent that he could never forget. It was her scent. And he could never forget her. Somehow, it always lingers in any room she's been in, long after she left it. For long months after the incident with Akito, the scent haunted him. It teased and taunted him, letting him smell her yet taking her forever away from him.
It was…But after a while, it faded.
He tried searching for it, missing it the moment it was gone, when he had spent so many days before wishing it would leave.
When was it…?The last time he smelt it was the day she packed her bags to leave the clinic. The day when she cheerfully thanked him for being such a good instructor and colleague; the day when she said goodbye, and walked away in that cold rainy day… never looking back.
Is this…
He could vaguely hear voices speaking. His body felt so heavy so he didn't even bother to move, knowing it was futile. But still, he forced his eyes open. He had to know. He simply needs to.
A silhouette of a brown-haired woman hovering above him with creased brows greeted his blurry sight. She leaned over to say something, and though he can't hear her very well, he understood clearly what she said.
"It's going to be alright…"
His eyes slowly closed themselves, but as he drifted back to sleep, he knew. He believed her.
Is this… spring?
A/N:
(gasps)… HATORI GAVE BIRTH! (more gasps)
Heh. Finally, took him long enough. (-,-;)
I know that the cesarean operation part is next to impossible, seeing as there are only two doctors available and in a small clinic at that. I asked around and found out that the cesarean operation is possible in the presence of at least two doctors, one is required to be an anesthesiologist... So I made up the excuse of having Watabe some knowledge of it. Problem-solved! (-,-)
Please don't react on this part anymore, saying that the operation is not possible or give me the technical detail of such. Let us remember again that this is fiction, and anything goes in fiction. Thanks for the consideration!
I have a horrible crime against you guys on this one… Hm. I wonder how many are going to notice this? Ahehe… (hides behind some random barrel for safety).
Thanks for reading! Please drop me a line or two on what you think of this story. Thanks a lot!