Ch 14: If Only He Knew

"Aoko will talk to 1311 and see what's taking so long. Tell us if you find out what their plan is"

"Alright. Don't go anywhere"

Aoko shoved her phone into her pocket. She glanced around before exiting her room, 'Why is otõsan's team is still here? Aoko has to escape!'

Even if 1211 gave a clear order, she wasn't a dove. She didn't have to listen to anyone.

Her eyes fell on the balcony, 'Baka Aoko, you can't. It's too risky!' someone will see her from outside. Her thumb rested between her teeth, gradually thinking of an escape. 'If Kaito was here…' suddenly, an idea flashed in her head. She raised a wide smile, 'brilliant!'

She opened a drawer and got some equipment out from under her bed. 'Lucky!' she smiled mentally, 'Now Aoko can disguise as one of those cops and escape!'

Ginzo wouldn't realize a thing!

There came a knock at the door.

"Aoko, dinner is almost ready," her father said with his usual broad smile. "Ten minutes tops!"

"Aaaa….mmm… okay, tousan!... Aoko'll be right down!"

He approved with a calm face, his eyes and eyebrows arching creepily. "Okay"

'And gone'

Why in the world did he invite his force over for dinner!

She let out a long gasp, cursing or panicking, she couldn't manage between them equally.

'Aoko is done for!' she would almost pull her short hair, 'Aoko has to do something! 1412… Aoko will be there somehow…. Please be okay… please!'

She leaned her head on her arms, hiding little drops from no one in particular. Her eyes, her face, were always that of an innocent little girl. 'Kaito, what do we do now? That stubborn idiot got himself in trouble all over again…' she sighed, "When is any of you ever gonna learn?" she sighed. "Aoko is surrounded by incapable people"

*Coughs*

She looked up to the unfamiliar voice.

"Oh, but there are some who are capable"

Fierce eyes daggered his form. "Who are you?" her stitched eyebrows looked at the person. When no answer came, she got off the chair and walked closer to the man cladded in black. "Oi, Aoko is talking to you! Who do you think you are coming her_?"

Another person appeared behind him, "before you do any damage, it would be good to know it's just us partners~" he took off his cap and gave a wide smile. "The original partners"

"Kudo-san…! Why are you here?"

"We came to help"

"It looks like you are having a hard time here" Dave glanced at the suit case. "Well, nice to know you know some tricks"

Aoko turned her face to the side, anger taking over. "AOKO WILL SHOW YOU SOME TRICK_"

"Aoko"

She turned her sight to the door, "C_ coming!"

Yusaku threw his patients aside once the voice on the other end died. "Found news on 1412?"

She turned to the unexpected question, "if his partners don't know, how is Aoko supposed to know?"

"Good point. But you do know something"

"Other than the plain obvious of being gone since yesterday noon, he's been caught"

Dave hummed, he took out his mobile and showed her a picture. "He's fine for now, only drugged"

"But he will wake in a bit" Yusaku assured.

"We found him a few hours ago, and it seems neither of the syndicate members, Bourbon or Vermouth, intend to hurt him"

"There is the order given to the members, no one lays a hand on the bullet" They looked at her, listening with full interest as she proceeded. "He's been a member of the BO since he was a baby, and the boss gave specific orders to not hurt him. The syndicate believes that he will side with them and ki_" she stopped herself, allowing them to connect the puzzle. "That's why they keep coming after him, thinking that he will change his mind and follow their methods. But… the point now is, being around them will cause him a lot of trouble, and the fact that they drugged him means he went through those things again"

"The memories?"

"Yes," she said looking away. "Aoko doesn't know anything about Bourbon, and that worries us. He is a total psychopath who would never hesitate to kill anyone. 1412 is in a lot of trouble"

They looked at each other. "How well do you know the boy?"

"J- 1412? Not so much. He'd never say his name to anyone and goes by the name Jeff. About Kaito's age, and that the syndicate always wants him on their side. He wouldn't say anything personal, that KID is very tight-lipped, ya know."

"Do you know anything about his family? Parents or sibling we can contact?"

She shook her head. "He's an only child, and we haven't seen or heard about his parents. Maybe they are abroad or passed away"

"And he never opens the subject or talks personal?"

Aoko denied, "He's only too friendly with Kaito, they even consider themselves brothers because of their resemblance to each other. God, they're like twins! It's weird though, that all the silver bullets look alike!" changing topics were easy.

"How does the syndicate even know he's a silver bullet?"

Almost easy.

"Aoko has no idea! Aoko doubts he has either" she put her hand on her head, "We better escape before tõsan comes in" They nodded, "Aoko will leave a note" she wrote something down in a rush and put it on her desk.

The door opened minutes afterward, "Aoko_ huh? Where did she go?" he strode in, looked left and right, "that's strange, I didn't see her going down…" He saw the small sheet of paper folded in half. "

Tõsan, something came up with a friend

Aoko had to go fast.

Will be back soon. Ja na

He read the note several times, "she could have said that to my face at least!" he walked out rubbing his neck frustrated.

"So, where are we going?" Aoko asked sitting in the middle of the back seat. "They couldn't have taken him far, right?"

"No, three streets away from his apartment, not far from your place"

"His apartment? Aoko hasn't even been to that place!" the moment she asked they realized that they slipped the information. "Not fair, Aoko wanted to go too! Too curious about that kid"

"Calling him a kid and he is your age?" he teased and laughed at her expression, "If he doesn't decide to move, I am sure you can visit"

She retracted herself to the back again. She glanced through the window, 'Looks like it's gonna be boring' she focused her sight on the passing view, 'Did he know?'

"Ne, ne, Aoko is curious. How does it look like? Kaito probably will never allow a visit there, no less allow their identities to slip"

"A simple apartment like any other, surprisingly clean for a high-schooler"

"Even Kaito can clean," she said. "Man, why does everyone get to roam about while Aoko is stuck at home?"

"Ask your father," Kudo said with a smile, "You can't blame him for being overprotective. Any father wound, the syndicate did threaten to kill you, you know"

"Yeah" she looked away, "ha, idiots, they didn't know what they will be in if Aoko gets serious"

They didn't want to know.

The car stopped, "We're there?" and they nodded. They parked the car far from Vermouth's, by the end of the parking lot under the hotel.

"Can you disguise yourself?" Yusaku asked.

"Applying a mask? … No, but why do we need that?"

"We can't go in plain sight, they already know us"

"We can lurk around," she said, "Aoko learned a lot of sneaking around from watching Kaito on heists_" A white car suddenly rushed out and passed them. From the window, Aoko saw Vermouth driving, while in the back was a man with white light blonde hair beside someone he was worried about.

"Let's follow" Dave turned the car on and followed, "That was 1412, he didn't look okay"

The image flashed back into his head. Amuro desperately tried to wake the boy. The panicked expressions and worried face made Dave more worried than before.

The cars stopped in front of the nearest hospital and the two members rushed with 1412.

The lad was rushed away by the doctors and the door closed behind them. Vermouth and Tooru waited worried, frozen stiff watching the door with a million thought that left horror and fear in their eyes.

Once the surgical light lit red, they returned to reality and sat down, recalling the scan and test's reports.

'Inner bleeding?' Vermouth clutched her fingers in her pockets. 'How long had that been happening?'

'How didn't I notice? We shouldn't have kept him drugged…'

'If he was awake, we could have noticed something was wrong'

'He'd hide his pain anyway'

'I hope he'll be okay' she glanced at the door, now ten minutes had passed since the surgery began. Scans were ordered to be made. Nothing from the boy's face seemed good.

'His fever was high' she looked at her phone, 'if I didn't realize the trembling through the camera who knows what would have happened to him!'

Tooru, from her point of view, blaming himself too. They ended up ditching the mission halfway, which angered Gin. The boss overlooked it and gave priority to the bullet's safety. Of course, the hospital the boy was in now, was the one he chose.

All BO members were told not to act, and watching over Jeff was left only to vermouth and Bourbon, while Snake was apprehended inside the syndicate to not kill him.

Speaking of Snake, the boss was scolding him as the two waited in the hospital.

"Lay one hand on him and you are a dead man," Gin said the moment Snake stepped out of the boss's office. The man gave a cold glare as he didn't practically care. His eyes only focused on punishing boy he saw as a traitor.

Vermouth and Bourbon decided to talk to one of the doctors, who was one of the syndicate's members. There was no point in staying in the waiting area to be easily spotted. The doctor laid the scan's report, as they kept their eyes on the monitor watching through the camera placed in the vent in the ceiling inside the operating room.

"We'll keep him in room 14. I will report whatever news that comes to the boss, and of course, we'll keep you filled in on the boy's condition. For now, we managed to stop the bleeding, the source of the wound was from his side. The infection made things worse that he collapsed. And he received quite a hit to his head"

"Did it come from the slip?" Bourbon posed, his eyes were serious yet worried underneath his calm face.

He nodded, "slipping on the highway is the reason why this happened. Millions of cars pass by there every day, and the wound was not directly treated, the infection spread fast."

"The boss said that we will keep him here for around two weeks, until then, is he going to be tied?"

"I haven't received any information on that yet. This is a public hospital. If we were to tie him, his room must be always shut. Else wise questions will be raised, and he doesn't look like a criminal so the excuse of being here by the police's orders will not stand firm and investigations will begin." They nodded. "The surgery will be over in a short time, during that, you can wait here until the law party leaves."

"Who exactly?"

"FBI agents, they are here tending to one of their comrade's injuries. Of course with them involved, we cannot finish the agent off in this public place."

"I spotted some of the police with them too. Namely, officers Sato and Shiratory." Bourbon said as he turned to the women standing beside him.

"When the boy wakes, we will speak to him, then we'll leave. Whatever happens next, I trust you to keep everything under control." Vermouth said. Her cold green eyes did not the least worry the doctor, a cold killer himself. The hospital was under the syndicate's watch, and the people that they sent to it were ordered to be finished off with the excuse of natural death or death from accidents.

However, the fact that the young KID partner was there did not fall into that category. 1412, known by Jeff as a code name to both the KID partners and the Syndicate, was usually sent here whenever the syndicate harmed him. The boss did not forbid disciplining him, on the condition that he would not be killed and hospitalized immediately. It's not that Snake ever followed that order and always left him to bleed to near death, and the boy only came to this hospital two years ago before being discovered by Kaito that they were inside.

'Ever since that information reached 1314, he got Jeff out and looked after him. It's no wonder that those partners never go to hospitals when injured. After all, they already know of our spies everywhere'

"Everything will be under control, don't worry about his safety. Does anyone know about your relation to him?" both denied. "So only the boss knows?" and there was a nod. "Alright, I will keep his profile a secret, in case he is found"

"They are not likely to recognize him with his head wrapped," said vermouth. "Besides, the boy only mentioned his name to his partners. No one else knows"

The doctor nodded, "I'll talk to the agents" he stepped out of the room, leaving his phone on the table.

"So, now what? Nothing good came from your little game, he only got worse!" She said.

"We were ordered to capture him. Did you prefer we tie him forever?"

She glared him, "that would have made things worse. As far as I care to know, keeping him as our prisoner did quite enough!"

"We'll take him to the syndicate after this" Bourbon said, she looked at him worried and a questioning glare struck him. He put his phone down, "I received the order while the doctor was talking. They will bind him down and use drugs to keep him calm. He will not be in full mental ability to think of anything"

Even vermouth felt the unease in his voice. The boy was his son, to see him in that state was like seeing him dying in front of him all over again. "It was a bad idea in the first place, I don't know why I even agreed to it"

"You could have said no to the boss? How fearless of you, even as his favorite, you could not be allowed to question"

"I did raise the boy, and as his mother, I know what would be best to do. And for your information, Amuro-kun, the boss listens to my suggestions. I did not expect him to get hurt, else wise everything would have been under control"

"What's done is done, there is nothing that we can do now. Once he enters the syndicate, he will never leave it. Snake will…"

"Anokata has other plans. Snake was given a warning for the last time, any disobedience and he will be killed" she said. "If Gin doesn't, I will. And I will gladly do it, I have my revenge to settle for what he did to my boy"

He looked away, "don't you think that I want that too? But killing snake won't solve anything, it will never make the kid forget. It will never solve anything. He's more damaged than he shows, I know that well. I can't even believe that someone his age is in all this. The pressure itself is too much for a kid to bare. He tried to kill himself before, what makes you think that it won't happen again? This time Kaito-kun isn't here to stop him. He doesn't have anything else to loose"

"I know that!" She kept her silence as he spoke, his words rushing before his mind could arrange them. "He's my son too. And just like you, I don't want him to get any worse" She exhaled, "We did eventually do what we were warned not too" he looked at her confused, "we knew all along that he will be a mere weapon, a puppet in our hands, yet we still got attached to him. The fact that we raised him from such a small age, will never make me able to raise a hand on him. If anything happens, I will do everything to protect him."

"That's what I expect you to do"

Both turned to the voice, the source was a small device placed on the top of the table far from them. The voice was easily recognizable, the boss. Fear clouded their hearts, 'was he listening to our conversation all the time?' no, her devices in the car were jamming everything the syndicate had on her. As for the hospital, there was nothing she could do. 'Did we say anything we shouldn't have?'

They clearly heard a smile, she was surprised, "I watched him. After all, every single step was recorded and sent to me at the spot. Did you think that I would hand over such an important weapon without keeping my eyes personally on him? Even if you tried to hide it, I knew exactly how you both felt towards him, and I did not expect otherwise"

"W-what do you mean?" Bourbon said.

"I wanted him to grow like any other, to trust us by trusting you," the boss said, his deep voice was obviously changed by means of a voice changer. "If he grew up as other members did, he would not be able to find what needs a pure heart to find. After all, you did exactly what I wanted you to do, protecting the boy was my main reason to why I entrusted him to you. If you consider that you truly know him, what would you suggest" he paused, "Bourbon?" the latter's eyes widen mentally. "If you share her exact thought than I will follow your plan. For now, Pandora will not surface until next month. There is no need to bind him or have him against his will. So, Bourbon, do you also suggest to let him go?"

'Is this a trap? Is he testing my loyalty? If he already knows…'

"Speak your mind, I expect honesty from my most trusted members."

He shifted his sight to the ground to his right, "until he is okay"

"Then I trust you to watch over him," he said. Vermouth and bourbon sustained. "Allow the police to find him and leave a path for them to take him"

The boss ended his speech as the device turned off. 'We better be more careful' their eyes hinted to each other. "Well then, let's do as we're told," vermouth said, pulling down her colored lenses glasses. "We will need to disguise ourselves first. Perhaps, we should better allow the partners to plan the escape, it's safer for them to look after him instead of the police. The police will only lock him and that won't do any difference from being here"

"Wouldn't that be going against_?"

She put her finger in front of her face, waving it left and right denying. "If I don't receive anything from the boss, we will try that method" she took out her phone and showed it to him once it gave a beat of an incoming text. "See?"

Agreed

Amuro read the one-word text. He looked back at her. "I would like to see him saying no to you for once," his half eyes said. She laughed.

"I am the favorite~" she winked.

"No doubt there~" he raised a sarcastic smile.

"Now, let's prepare for our son's kidnapping," she said pulling out a disguise.

'That sounded so right~' he paused, "let's go~"