Hello Doctor
Discliamer: I don't own guys… if I did, I certainly wouldn't be at this computer typing… I would be in a pool of my own money, rolling in it.
Chapter 34
The ride to the hospital was pretty hard. Part of me just wanted to strangle the EMTs that were tending to Sora… I could see every little flaw… though nothing dangerous or terrible, but it made me so nervous.
And Kairi was crying non-stop apologizing frantically to her unconscious father. The owner of that dog retrieved Jenova and returned it to Kairi. She was holding it so tightly you could see her little knuckles go white with anxiety.
I held her close, but she wouldn't take her eyes off Sora… she was afraid that as soon as she did, he would somehow slip away.
I knew better than that. I could guarantee that he was going to make it as long as people were careful. From just the looks of it, I would say he broke a couple of ribs and had some bad bruising and abrasions. I was sure that he would pull through.
When we finally got to the hospital, Cloud's hospital to be specific, I knew he would be in good hands.
Kairi started screaming when they began to wheel him away. I walked over to a chair and sat her on it. "Kairi!" I snapped.
She jumped and her screaming ceased. I gave her a firm look. "Screaming is not going to make Sora feel better. Sora wa daijobu desu," I said calmly and looked her dead in the eye.
"Ya-Ya…" Kairi hiccupped. "Y-Yakusoku?" She gasped through her stifled sobs.
I leaned in and kissed her forehead gently before taking her little face softly in my hands. "Yakusoku suru," I promised with all the conviction I could muster.
Kairi burst into tears and through her arms around me, forgetting about Jenova in the chair. I scooped her up and held her as tightly as I could without hurting her.
"Riku! What happened?" I turned to see Jane scurrying over to us. I frowned when I noticed who was behind her.
The Social Worker.
"Kairi was running after a dog, and Sora jumped in front of the car that was going to hit her," I explained softly and Kairi began to tremble, she was so upset.
"I-I d-didn't mean to! I-I'm s-sorry! I'm sorry!" Kairi screamed and I felt my heart break at the sheer desperate sound of her voice.
"Kairi, this wasn't your fault. It's nobody's fault, it was an accident. Sora will wake up soon and tell you so, I promised remember?" I asked and Kairi bit her lip before nodding.
"I want to know why Kairi was left alone long enough to run into the street," Sephiroth said in a serious voice.
I growled before taking a breath. "A dog ran up and took that Jenova doll and Kairi ran after the dog as soon as she saw that Jenova was gone. Sora was right there but didn't register what was happening until he realized Kairi was running into the street. Kairi is unhurt because Sora sacrificed his own safety to protect hers. Now if you want to go make accusations about my boyfriend and his ability to watch his child, I suggest you do it when Kairi isn't around and when my lover isn't in a hospital bed. Your implications are deplorable and so is your tact," I said calmly before setting Kairi down and asking her to go sit in the chair with Jenova.
She left with an unsure look but I offered her a smile before she scurried off.
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "I'm sorry… that was a little overboard… please excuse me, I'm a bit testy…this whole situation has been pretty stressful, as you can see," I said to the social worker who simply nodded.
"Is Sora going to be okay?" Jane asked, worrying flashing violently in her eyes. I sent her a reassuring look and nodded.
"He's going to be fine… I wouldn't be surprised if they came out in a few minutes to tell us we can go see him," I said.
And as if on queue, a nurse stepped out and called my name. "You're welcome to come and see him as well, Sephiroth," I said and picked up Kairi who was already tugging on me to get moving.
The walk to the room was short and even I was surprised to see Sora awake.
"Daddy…" Kairi said softly and I placed her down. "Are you okay?" she asked, her bottom lip trembling as she approached the bed.
I grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the bed before putting Kairi on my lap so that she could be closer to her father.
Sora sent her a soft smile before slowly reaching to wipe the tears from his daughter's eyes. You could see the slight wince from the pain it caused but it didn't stop him. "Now that I've seen you, baby, I couldn't feel any better… I love you so much. I was so scared that I would lose you that I didn't think about what might happen to me… and for that, I'm sorry Kairi… I didn't mean to put you through that," Sora said.
Kairi sobbed, "I-I'm sorry! If I hadn't run into the s-street-"
Sora cut her off with a finger. "How do you feel Kairi?" Sora asked.
"Bad!" Kairi yelped.
"Why? I feel great… the doctors put me on just the right amount of pain medication that I can talk to you and be relatively comfortable. Sweet deal, huh?" Sora said and Kairi looked at him as though he was crazy.
"I got you hit by a car!" she cried again.
"No, I jumped in front of the car… you didn't make me do that. I made that choice myself and I'm glad that I did because you're safe now."
"You're not mad, or sad?" Kairi asked.
"Nope! I'm really happy that you're okay!" Sora said but winced a little when he felt his side twinge a little.
"I'm happy that you are okay too, Daddy… I didn't want you to get hurt… I didn't want to have only one dad again," Kairi said softly and I wrapped my arms around her.
"I promised that he would be okay… there was no need to worry, Ri-chan," I said.
"I love you…" Kairi said looking at me then turning to Sora.
"We love you too," Sora and I said together.
"Do you know how long they are keeping you here, Sora?" Jane asked and Sora sighed.
"Yeah, for like five days… Cloud was a real harda-… hardhead about it too… he wouldn't budge. I kept telling him that Riku would be able to monitor me just fine!" Sora huffed before groaning in pain and I laughed gently.
"Baby, what about my clinic… it's not like I can force everybody to stay healthy until you get better. It's better if you stay here…" I said and Sora nodded.
"Okay, I can understand that… if that's what Cloud was worried about then he could have just told me that…" Sora grumbled.
Kairi giggled. "Daddy's being a big whiny baby!"
Sora gasped. "Take that back!"
"No!" Kairi squealed and Sora grumbled again.
"You're lucky I can't get up, I was going to tickle you into oblivion…"
"Kairi you forget that he has an accomplice!" I said and began to tickle Kairi.
She yelped through her laughter and I giggled before kissing her cheek. "You were supposed to be on my side!" she piped.
I smiled. "I think it might be better though, if we let your Daddy rest… all this excitement might hurt his ribs," I said and Kairi sighed.
"Do we have to go?" she whined.
"We'll be back tomorrow after school," I said and Kairi nodded.
"Kai, you be good for 'Tou-san. And I don't want any more tears about this okay? I'm fine, I promise!" Sora assured and Kairi scooted over the bed to kiss her dad on the cheek.
"See Kai, you gave me good luck, nothing can hurt me now." Sora smiled.
Kairi nodded and moved over to her Granma. "Are you gonna come to our house?" Kairi asked.
"Well, I have to finish talking with the Mr. Sephiroth, he wanted to ask me some question when I got the phone call about Sora," Jane explained and I took Kairi's hand.
"You'll see her tomorrow Kairi. How about we go home and we can share a big bowl of home made ramen?" I suggested, knowing Kairi would love to do something like that.
"Hontou?" she asked.
"Hai! What do we say?" I asked.
"Mata ashita!" Kairi said.
"Kairi, Riku… kiotsukete ne?" Sora said with a fond, but tired smile on his face.
Kairi and I smiled. "Ittekimasu!"
-Hello, Doctor-
When I finally got out of that stinking hospital, I was just about to go stir crazy! I only had one day left with Kairi before she went over to her mother's for a while. It was really upsetting to know that my time to be evaluated was seemingly cut short.
I could tell Kairi was getting more and more nervous about it. Riku and I kept reminding her so that she would be prepared to go… but it only seemed to put her on edge.
Every once and a while she would look to me and smile sadly while I lay in my hospital bed.
"I love you and Riku… and I love my family as it is… why can't Kasai and Rakurai stay my friends and their mother stay my friend too… I just… don't get it…"
I could never really answer her accurately.
Roxas came to visit me a couple of times. He said that our show got even more popular and that people wanted to know more about the cast.
We were invited to an anime convention and I couldn't be happier about that. Kairi and Riku looked almost as happy as I was to hear the news.
I laughed when I got a very discreet looking get-well letter from an anonymous person…
I knew it was Vincent… he's the only one I know with really fancy handwriting. He was such a closet softie!
Despite all of that, I was glad to just move about the house, cooking a little and watching a bit of TV with Kairi. Since it was my last day with her, I let her take the day off from school.
Riku was going to come home early as well so that we could have dinner and enjoy each other's company.
"Daddy?" Kairi said and I looked over to my daughter. She was still holding Jenova. One of the good things is that, even with the whole dog incident, Jenova was still in really great shape.
"Yes?" I replied and smiled.
"What will happen if they force me to stay with the twin's mom?"
I pulled Kairi close and kissed her forehead. "I'm sure that won't happen, but if by some strange reason it does… it wont change anything between you and I. I will always love you and you will always be my daughter no matter what. Your mom is a decent woman, if she really loves you, then she'll let us see you," I said.
"I-I… I'm scared…" Kairi whimpered and I frowned.
"That's fine, but do you want to tell me why?"
"I… want to hate them… I want to make sure I never see them again… but I-I can't and what if I end up liking them?" Kairi said.
I smiled. "Kairi, I would be more scared if you had said that you hated them… I don't want you to hate anyone… you know that's not how I raised you. I want you to go over to Lacey's house and I want you to try and have fun… if you like being there, then the worst thing that could happen is that you stay over there half the time… and that's not so bad… I wouldn't like it all that much, but if it makes you happy, then I will deal with it."
"Why?" she asked.
"That's what loving someone is all about, baby. When you love someone, you make sacrifices… well maybe sacrifices isn't the right word… you do what you can to make that person happy even if it's at a cost… because in the end, all you really want is for that person to smile and know that you love them," I explained.
"Like when you give me the mushrooms off your pizza and give them to me even though you really like mushrooms?" Kairi asked.
I laughed. "Yeah, that's a small example… but yeah."
Kairi snuggled closer and hummed. "I still don't really want to go… I don't you to have to give me up…"
"Riku and I would never give you up. Think of it more like, entrusting your safety to someone else temporarily. Because we will always care and love and miss you when you are here and when you're gone." I said.
The front door opened to reveal Riku he close the door and placed his stuff down before moving over to the couch.
He planted a kiss on my lips and then moved to kiss Kairi gently. "How are my two favorite people in the whole world?" Riku asked.
I looked to Kairi and smiled. "We're just fine, huh?"
Kairi looked at me before turning her gaze to Riku before beaming.
"Yeah, better than fine… I'm happy to be home."
A/N: Hey! I know you guys are probably like, "ummm, what up with this? There's typos everywhere!" Well, I didn't really proof it because I've been doing school stuff all frikkin day! But I have fall break so I may have another update Monday or Tuesday… review and let me know what you think!