Chapter Thirty-Five

How Is She?

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"Where is Serena Tsukino's room?" Darien asked the lady at the main desk.

"Let me look her up." The nurse typed something into the computer and it beeped. "Her doctor will be out in a minute to talk to you."

"Okay, but how is she?"

"Dr. Top will tell you everything."

Darien sighed. "Okay, thank you."

They walked away and sat in the waiting area to wait for Dr. Top.

"I just hope she's okay." Darien said.

"She's fine. I know she'll be fine."

"Hello Darien." Came a voice from in front of them.

"Hello Dr. Top. This is my friend, Kevin."

"Hello Kevin. How are you two?"
"Fine." Kevin said.

"Okay. So what's going on with Serena? The lady at the main desk wouldn't say anything." Darien asked.

"She is in surgery right now. She seemed to have some internal bleeding and we needed to close the wounds up. She should be fine and we expect a full recovery from her. If you want to, I can take you up to the surgical waiting room and Dr. Mizuno, her surgeon, will update you with any information."

"Dr. Mizuno. Isn't that Amy's mom?" Kevin asked.

"Yah, Rose." Darien said.

"You've met her?"
"No. Our friend is Amy Mizuno, and she's close friends with Serena. Her mom is Rose Mizuno." Darien explained.

"Oh, okay. Well I'll take you up to the waiting room then."
"Thanks."

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"Darien, Kevin. How are you boys?"

"Good." Kevin replied.

"Fine. How about you?"
"Good."

"How about Serena?" Darien asked.

"She's fine. She's out of surgery now and she's in the recovery room. Everything went fine, and we still expect a full recovery though. It was a very minor surgery, so she won't be here too long."

"Thank you so much Rose." Darien said.

"No problem. I was surprised myself when I was paged to the ER and she was the one I was needed for. Have you called the girls yet?"

"No, they're on dates right now, and we figured we'd wait at least until Serena was out of surgery before we called them."

"Good idea. They'll all be screaming like maniacs." Rose laughed.

"Yah. So can we go and see Serena now?" Darien asked.
"Of course. This way." She said leading the two men to where Serena was laying.

When they walked into the room where Serena was laying, they saw a very thin version of the blonde they saw just three months ago. She was surrounded by tubes, nurses, and machines of all sorts.

"Do you know when she'll wake up?" Darien asked.

"Well the medication should ware off here in the next hour or so. Then it's just up to her to wake up on her own, but we don't know when that'll be. It could be two hours, it could be two days. We're not completely sure."

"How long will she have to be on the ventilator?" Darien asked.

"We'll take it out after she wakes up."

"How long will she have to be in the hospital?"

"She'll probably be in the recovery room until tomorrow then discharged Saturday morning, Friday evening. It depends on her recovery rate."

"Thanks so much. You don't know how much I appreciate all of this." Darien said.

"Anytime." She nodded. "If you need anything, just have a nurse page me." She said as she walked out.

Darien pulled two chairs from a far corner of the room and put them by Serena's bed.

"Serena, I'm sorry that you had to go through this. I should've been there to protect you." He whispered.

"Darien, she'll be fine. You'll see."

"I just need her to wake up before I can have any hope. That's how it was with my parents. The doctors said that they would recover, but they didn't. They ended up dieing. I just don't want that to happen to Serena."
"I understand."

"I should call the others." Darien said picking up his phone.

"Hello?"

"Josh, you still with Mina?"
"Yah. Why?"
"Bring her to the hospital."
"Why? Is everything okay?"
"Yah. We found Serena. She's here at the hospital."
"She okay?"
"The doctors say she will be. Amy's mom was her surgeon."

"I'll bring her there. We'll be there in a few."

"Okay, bye." He said hanging up the phone. He called Zac and Stephen telling them the same thing.

Each group walked in seeing a thin, pale blonde lying on a bed. Grasping her hand was an equally pale male.

"What's wrong with Darien?" Mina whispered to Kevin.

"He's just worried about Serena. His parents were in a somewhat similar situation before they died. They both had surgery, but their surgery was major. Serena had very minor surgery. He'll be fine as soon as she wakes up." He explained.

"Oh, okay."

"How is she?" Amy asked.

"I guess the medication wore off after I called you guys. Now she just has to wake up on her own." Darien explained, never taking his eyes off Serena.

"She'll wake up, don't worry." Amy said placing a hand on his shoulder.

He just nodded. "Have any of you guys called Yella? I kind of forgot."
"I'll call her." Lita said heading for the hallway.

"I'm hungry." Mina said.

"Yah, I'm getting there myself. I never ate breakfast this morning." Darien admitted.

"Then why don't we go to the cafeteria and get some food then?" Kevin suggested.

"I guess." Darien sighed. "I could eat."

"She'll be here in a little bit." Lita said returning to the room.

"We're going to go get some food." Zac filled her in.

"Okay, I'm hungry." She laughed.

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"Guys, they took Serena off the ventilator. She's breathing on her own!" Yella told the others as they came back up.

"Really?" Stephen asked.

"That's great!" Mina said.

"So she woke up?" Darien asked.

"No. They were slowly turning down the amount of oxygen going into her and seeing if her breathing decreased. When they fully turned off the vent, she was still breathing. They determined it might be less stressful that when she wakes up, she doesn't have a tube in her mouth."
"Good idea. I know I'd be freaking if I woke up with a tube in my mouth and I couldn't talk." Mina said.

"One step closer to recovery." Darien sighed in relief.

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"Wh-where are I? What's going on?" Serena started to panic, not being able to remember what had happened after she kicked Nichole down.

"Miss Tsukino, please calm down. You're at County General hospital. If you give me a minute, I'll page your surgeon. She can inform you of all the details." A nurse informed.

"O-Okay. Thanks."

The nurse paged Mrs. Mizuno and she was there in less then a minute.
"Serena. How are you feeling?" Rose asked.

"Fine I guess, but what happened?"
"Well you were brought to the ER yesterday. I was paged down there because you had some minor internal bleeding, so you had to go into surgery."
"Oh. Has anyone called Darien, or the girls or anyone?"

"Yes. They were all here yesterday, but they left late, so I'm not sure when they'll be here today. You can pretty much guarantee that they'll be back today. They've all missed you horribly. I must say it was pretty quite around the house too." She winked.

"I bet. And thanks."

"No problem."

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"DARIEN!" Serena shouted as he ran over to hug her.

He wrapped her in a tight embrace as she returned the affection and started to sob into his chest.

"It's okay now. You're alright." He said into her hair.

"I know, but it's just been so long since I've been able to hold you. I've missed you so much." She continued to sob in his chest.

"I know, I know. I've missed you too."
After she calmed down a bit, she loosened her hold on Darien so she could look at him. "When will the others be coming?"

"They should be here soon. They went to go get the girls."

"Okay." There was a knock at the door. "Speak of the devil." She laughed.

The door flew open when they heard her voice and they all rushed over to her again. Darien backed up a little to let the others have their hugs.

Serena's crying didn't subside for long. "Oh Mina, Lita, Amy, Josh, Zac, Stephen, Kevin, Yella, Raye. I've missed all of you so much!" She said into the group. "Wait a minute, where's Raye?"

"She's in California." Kevin answered.

"Oh."

After another minute of hugging, the group heard someone clear their throat in the door.

Detective Bruter walked in with Dr. Mizuno behind him.

"Good morning Dan, Rose." Darien greeted.

"How are all of you this morning?" Dan asked.

"Perfect now that Serena's back with us." Darien said replacing himself next to Serena.

"That's good. Now why don't you kids go down and get some breakfast." Dr. Mizuno suggested.

"I am hungry." Amy said.

"I never ate breakfast either." Mina said.

"Yah, let's go get some food." Stephen said leading the pack out of the room.

'He probably wants a statement.'

'Want me to stay?'

'Please.'

'I'll ask.'

'Thanks.'

He nodded. "Do you mind if I stay?"

"It's fine with me. Do you see a problem with it?" Dan asked Dr. Mizuno who shook her head no. "Then as long as Serena doesn't mind."

"Of course I don't mind." Serena said. She moved from her halfway laying down position to a full sitting one. She then motioned for Darien to sit where her feet once lay. Detective Bruter and Dr. Mizuno then took a seat in chairs next to her bed.

"I'm assuming you can guess why I'm here?" Detective Bruter started.

"You need a statement?" Serena mumbled.