~Prime Target~ Minyadagniriel
Intermission: Home Free or so she thought.
The food was so delicious…the task force completed a job well done and they all dined on Sicilian style pizza and wine, followed up with hot fudge sundaes (L's idea). They joked and laughed all night and even discussed their time in New York City, especially Matsuda.
Closer to the evening, Rachel thanked them for their generosity and support when she needed it and she returned to her bedroom. For a whole year she gets to stay in the building with L…
She collapsed on her bed, full stomach feeling good for once. She reminisced about the case and her break in between; she'd admitted her feelings to L and tiny butterflies fluttered in her stomach. Being in love with somebody gave her the jitters. Still, she wondered how L felt about her, he never said he loved her or made any hints towards it. Sure they messed around a bit, but men were confusing that way. It would be best not to force the issue and let time take care of everything.
Its nine pm…and a long day had just passed. Rachel's dreams that night were filled with memories of her childhood and her first trip to Hershey Park. Such a sweet dream…as it should be.
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Seven thirty am…
She ran down the hallway…
"Oh shit…"
The bathroom was so close and she had barely made it inside before releasing everything she had eaten last night into the porcelain bowl. She had a terrible nausea to accompany it.
Rachel stayed in the bathroom, lying on the floor only a few feet away from the toilet, should she be sick again.
"I must have eaten too much last night…or…food poisoning…"
She held her stomach and scrunched up into a little ball, her face grimacing.
"Oh…this is not good…I hate being sick…"
It must have been the extreme pressure from the court and all the worrying she'd caused herself in addition to food.
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in…" she moaned.
"Miss Rachel, I saw you run through the hallways. Are you alright?"
"Watari…I think I have food poisoning…or ate a little too much last night."
He helped lift her up and place her against the tub.
"I'll bring you some antacids and water."
"That'd be great…" she said. She rested her face on her knees.
Ten minutes later, Watari returned with the medicine in hand, "Would you like me to escort you back to your room?"
"No…I'll be alright thanks."
Rachel popped three of the chewable pills and slowly drank the water. The medicine worked fairly quickly and her queasiness was fading…the power of tums.
"Alright I'll leave you to yourself, but call me if you require anything else."
"Oh, um…maybe some graham crackers and ginger ale…?"
"Of course Miss Rachel, I'll bring them to your room."
"Thanks Watari."
Finally, after thirty minutes of waiting in the bathroom, she felt it was safe to return to her room. Wonderful! The crackers and soda were sitting on her nightstand and she quickly poured herself a glass and gulped down the tasty drink. Ginger ale was miraculous when it came to stomach aches.
She stayed up in her room all day, no plans to leave the building or eat anything except crackers. By nightfall she was feeling much better and figured it was a twenty four hour thing. But she was wrong…
The following morning she had gotten sick once again and this time Watari brought her a much stronger medicine, it relieved her nausea but she was beginning to wonder if she had the flu. Stress must have taken its toll on her body and maybe this was its way of saying 'stop fucking with me'.
Was there ever going to be a day where she was not ill, shot at, in the hospital, or running away from something?
L had not seen Rachel for two days now; he'd been busy solving minor cases. Watari told him about Rachel's illness, it was best to leave her alone so she could recover. Plus he really didn't want to catch the flu if that's what it was. He was kind enough to talk to her through emails instead.
Rachel got a kick out of L's new communication style, internet…from inside the headquarters…only a few floors apart. She laughed every time he sent a message.
A few days had passed and she was finally waking up without a make out session with the porcelain god.
L felt it was safe enough to be around her and he took her to breakfast Monday morning. She was really energized and back to normal.
"I guess all that stress got to me."
"That happens with some people who go through a traumatic event," L said.
"Has it ever happened to you?" she asked.
"Once, just after my parents died."
"Oh…that's sad…"
"I don't remember it well; I think I was six years old at the time, but anyways…let's just enjoy the day. No sad stories or arguments allowed."
"Deal," she laughed.
The two of them wandered the streets and found themselves in one of the city parks. It was a school day so the park was empty. Rachel smiled, wandered over to the swings and settled into one. L kind of looked at her funny.
"What? Haven't you've ever been on a swing before?"
"I never had any desire," he admitted.
"Well sit on one!" She tugged on the swing to her right.
He figured that he should humor her for a while and took a seat.
"I can't believe you've never been on one."
"I was always busy with homework and testing, I had very little time for fun."
"Were you the top of your class?"
"To be honest, no. I was number two until the top student…didn't I say no more sad stories?"
"Sorry…then tell me about what types of classes you took." Rachel spun around in her swing.
"I began brief calculus when I was nine years old."
"Holy shit, that's really advanced stuff!"
"You should try differential equations…"
"Hell no…I barely made it through college algebra. Is that all you took, just math?"
"Of course not, I spent a lot of time on multiple subjects. My school focused majority of its time on college applications when we were young then as we got older, we divided ourselves according to interests. Mine happened to be in criminology…most students with top scores in math and history tend to lean towards that profession. What kinds of classes did you take?"
"Me? Um… mostly literature, history, art. I really liked taking critical reading and communications. My goal was to travel someday and…here I am. Anyways, I think I'm ready to go back now."
"Alright."
The two of them left the park after a pleasant conversation. Upon arrival at the task force, they went separate ways to their floors. Six hours of free time was nice for once.
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"Oh my god!!! How long is this going to happen!!!?"
Poor Rachel had woken up really ill once again and this time she didn't make it to the bathroom. She was so sick; she wouldn't budge from her bed and used the next best thing…the trash can.
What was worse is that she would be starting her period any day now. It was going to be an awful week.
She waited an hour to make sure she wasn't going to be sick again to dispose of her trash. If this continues she would have to go to a doctor.
Strange though, almost immediately after being sick her body was telling her that it was hungry, but if she eats, would she throw up again? Rachel decided to take that chance and took the elevator down to the kitchen. She raided the fridge and pulled out a pitcher of vanilla ice cream before seating herself at the kitchen's 'island'.
No need for a bowl, she spooned it right out of the tub. It was so delicious, ice cream for breakfast.
"Miss Rachel?"
She turned around in her seat, "Watari…"
"You're up early, it's six am."
Watari was still dressed in his sleep wear and bathrobe. He began making a pot of coffee.
"Yeah, I couldn't sleep anymore," she said.
"Ice cream for breakfast…you're starting to pick up a few of Ryuzaki's habits," he chuckled.
"Heh…it was the only thing that sounded good right now."
"Would you like to join me for coffee?"
"Um…no thanks, I'm just not in the mood for it."
Watari smiled and joined her at the island, "How is your stomach feeling?"
"Better, especially now that I've eaten something."
"You got sick this morning?"
Oops. Rachel didn't realize that Watari was talking about last week.
"I've been under a lot of pressure. I'm sure it's just a minor illness that won't go away."
"Maybe you should seek out a doctor?"
"No, it's really not that bad. I've been feeling better soon after each episode. By the way, I've been wanting to ask you. Will the task force still be here, now that the Kira case is finished and mine too?"
"All good things must come to an end. They all returned to their regular jobs at the police force. As for Mr. Yagami, he retired."
"Oh…what about Misa?"
"Miss Amane returned to work, she is still welcome to visit you here at headquarters."
"That's good." She took another spoonful of the tasty treat, "Maybe I'll invite her over today or something depending on how much I can keep my food down."
It was nice to have an early breakfast with Watari; the two of them discussed a few cases that L was currently working on, Rachel's career, and a little bit about Watari's life when he was their age. By the time they had finished, Rachel had eaten the whole tub of ice cream!
"Oops…oh dear…"
"That's alright; there are quite a few gallons of that in the freezer. I'm glad to see you enjoyed it that much," he laughed.
"I didn't think I was this hungry." She tossed the empty carton into the nearby garbage can.
"I doubt Ryuzaki will realize one gallon missing."
The coffee pot made a little beeping sound, telling Watari it finished brewing.
"I suppose not, speaking of L, please don't tell him that I'm still sick. I don't want him to worry," she said.
"I'll respect your wishes. Ryuzaki will also be down any minute for coffee so we'd better pick a different topic." Watari picked up the pot and poured himself a cup.
"Yeah, I think I'll dive into some graham crackers. After that ice cream, I need something more solid."
"The crackers are in the second cabinet above the counter."
Rachel helped herself to get the box down, having to climb up onto the counter itself because she was so short. "Ooooh, they're chocolate grahams!"
"Another of Ryuzaki's favorites," Watari said.
"Well then I'm just gonna have to eat all his food!" she laughed and bounced down from the counter.
"That won't be very good for me, what'll I eat?" said a new voice coming from the doorway.
"Ryuzaki, good morning." Watari greeted as L fetched himself a coffee mug.
"Hi L." Rachel crunched on a cracker and rejoined Watari at the island.
"It's odd Rachel, you're never up this early," L said.
"Eh…couldn't sleep so I'm just enjoying my morning with Watari."
Breakfast couldn't have been better, the three of them sharing stories and eating together. It was almost like the mornings back in Pennsylvania Rachel had spent with her mom and brother. Of course her brother would constantly be worried about his up coming hockey game and her mother spent most of her time discussing her pupils which she taught music lessons – harp.
"I didn't know your mother played an instrument. Do you know how to play too?" asked L.
"Sort of, but I wasn't really musically inclined. I played for maybe three years and gave it up in favor of dance classes. I don't know, maybe I'll pick it up again someday."
"You should, music is said to help improve math skills and by what you told me the other day, yours are very rusty."
"My math skills aren't that bad…I just couldn't get passed college algebra. I also didn't have to go any further to get my degree. Stop teasing me…" Rachel sulked, but still he was just playing with her again and she could return the favor if she wanted to.
After long a long morning Rachel decided to try and go back to sleep, but the best she could was roll around in bed. It was nine am and she gave up finally, it was just too damn hot in the room. Would this ever end?
Oh no…it didn't…
In fact, the week passed and she still had mild insomnia. What was even worse is that her body was so out of whack, it was beginning to crave foods that she would normally hate and her favorites, such as cappuccino and French toast made her sick to her stomach. She kept a good front when she was around Watari and L, not wanting them to worry.
Rachel also noticed that her period was really late…and it scared her. Should she tell L? She couldn't, it was probably nothing and she didn't need him panicking.
But as the following week moved along she really started freaking out. Her breasts were aching and back started to cramp every night. It couldn't be…could it? She decided to cave into her gut feeling and sought out the advice of a doctor.
It was Thursday morning and she made up an excuse to leave the building. L insisted that he go with her but she begged to go alone, promising that she'd be back by 1:00 pm the latest. He eventually let her go as long as she left her phone on.
Rachel grabbed a cab and instructed the driver to take her to the Takeshita clinic in Tokyo.
The office itself was very neat and tidy and the waiting room wasn't very full so she should be able to get in shortly. The nurse at the desk was very kind and took Rachel's international insurance card then asked her to have a seat. She looked around at all of the couples in the room, all of them seemed to be expecting. The women were glowing and their husbands were so calm.
"I wonder what L would think if I was…"
Every few minutes or so, one or two couples were called to the back for their appointments, until Rachel remained alone in the waiting room.
Eventually her turn had come.
"Rachel Willis?" a nurse called out to her from the doorway.
"That's me." She got up from her seat and followed the nurse in back to a vacant room. There was a hospital gown waiting for her and a freshly made table.
"Rachel, please remove everything you have on and put on the gown, Dr. Shida will be with you shortly."
"Thanks."
Rachel waited for the nurse to leave the room and she quickly slipped out of her clothes and into the soft gown. Then she hopped up onto the table and waited.
Only a few minutes passed when someone knocked on the door.
"You can come in," Rachel called.
A woman in her early forties stepped through the door, "Hi Rachel, I'm Dr. Shida and I'm going to looking after you today. So what brings you here?"
"I'm suspicious of…possibly being…pregnant…"
"What types of symptoms have you been experiencing?" Dr. Shida pulled a pen out of her coat pocket and picked up a clipboard with Rachel's information and chart on it.
"I've been throwing up on most mornings…um I've eaten quite a bit of odd foods like ice cream for breakfast. I also skipped my period this month and my breasts have been really tender at night."
"Alright Rachel, it does sound like you may be. What I'm going to do is give you a cup and I need you to use the restroom outside and fill it up."
Dr. Shida searched through the cabinets for little sanitized cups with lids and handed the container to Rachel.
"Just out the door and to the left is the bathroom."
"Thanks."
Rachel took the container and left her room. She needed to go anyways so giving a sample to the nurse was easy.
It seemed like years before the nurse returned with Rachel's results. Her heart was pounding…what was it? Positive or Negative?
The nurse finished recording the result on Rachel's chart, "Rachel, we have come to a conclusion about your test and we are happy to stay that your intuition was correct. You are pregnant."
To be continued…
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Sorry for the long update, I've actually been working a lot this week and now I have the next four days off so hopefully I'll be able to push out some more chapters! Happy Reading!