Chapter 25: A Mother's Greatest Fear

Midnight

Once Marie passed out, Nemuri quickly yelled, "Marie!? MARIE!? What's wrong!?" Her daughter didn't answer, she was out cold. The Eighteen Plus Only Hero then saw that Marie's ears were bleeding, a sign of a serious skull fracture. "Midnight-sensei, what's wrong?" Tokoyami asked. "Marie's been injured, a skull fracture, or worse," Nemuri quickly said as they heard sirens approach. "Hurry! Signal them, she needs medical attention now!" she ordered, and Tokoyami quickly released his Dark Shadow to get an approaching ambulance's attention. The EMT's soon arrived and one asked, "What happened?" It was Ashido that answered, "We were attacked by The League of Villains. I saw Marie go after this one fiery guy; she must have jumped at least a hundred-fifty meters up to tackle him! He got her off of him, and she hit the ground, hard." The EMT nodded and yelled into a radio at his shoulder, "This is Unit 67 to Main, we have a patient in critical condition, skull fracture, possible brain hemorrhaging." As the first EMT said this, the other one got out a stretcher.

As the second EMT started to lift up Marie, she said, "Shinji, I think she broke both her shoulder blades, possible spinal injuries as well." The first EMT relayed this information and then put the first stretcher into their ambulance and pulled out what looked like a bright yellow board. The EMT's split the board in two down the middle and got it under Marie and strapped her down. "Mom! Marie!" Joey yelled, running up to them, with Elemental running after him. Joey was in his wolf-man form and was just too fast for Elemental to catch up. "MARIE!" Joey yelled as the EMT's lifted her up and headed to their Ambulance. "You need to let us go with her, we're her family!" Nemuri said as she followed the EMT's to their Ambulance.

"Alright, but hurry!" the first EMT said as Nemuri and Joey got into the Ambulance with them. "Sensei!" Tokoyami and Ashido yelled after her. "Call Aizawa and let him know what happened," Nemuri told them, "Stick with Elemental and Sureshot. I'll call everyone when we get to the Hospital!" She barely got this out before the Ambulance door was shut and the Ambulance drove off, sirens blaring. Joey returned to his human form as they went, watching the EMT's put a neck brace on Marie and did what they could for her. "Will she be alright?" he quietly said. Nemuri grabbed his hand and squeezed it as much for her own comfort as his before answering, "Of course she will be, she's strong, she'll recover from this." She didn't look at him as she spoke, however.

They quietly sat and watched Marie as they reached the Hospital, the EMT's quickly got Marie out and carried her on a stretcher inside, Nemuri carried Joey to keep up with them. The EMT's took Marie to the Emergency Room, where a doctor, a woman with short hot pink hair and eyes stopped them, "I'm sorry ma'am, you can't go beyond this point. Do you know the patient?" Nemuri answered, "She's my daughter. She's a Hero in Training, we were attacked by Villains, that's how she was injured. One of my students told me she fell from one hundred-fifty meters." The doctor nodded at this, and then gave her a clip board with papers on it, "I understand, Midnight. Fill this out, and we will call you when you can see your daughter. Right now, you need to stay back and let us do our job. Just tell me your daughter's name and we'll get back to you as soon as we can." Nemuri swallowed and took the clipboard. "Her name is Marie Nemuri Freeman. Please, save her." The Doctor looked at her and said, "We'll do the best we can." The Doctor took Nemuri and Joey to a waiting room and headed back into the Emergency Room.

Nemuri looked to Joey and told him, "Faith, Joey, have faith in her strength." She didn't have as much confidence as she wished, but she had to focus on the papers the Doctor gave her. If she didn't, she'd probably lose her mind with worry. Joey silently sat next to her as she filled out the papers and handed them over to a receptionist. The Eighteen Plus Only Hero then returned to her seat next to Joey and rubbed her eyes. A lot of people in the waiting room stared at her, aside from her fame/infamy, Nemuri's costume was in shreds, she had to expose more than usual to subdue the giant villain. If she had to guess, only her sweat was the only thing keeping her from being truly indecent.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she got a text message from Principle Nezu:

Kayama-sensei we heard everything from Ashido-chan and Tokoyami-kun. The other guests were unharmed, only Freeman-chan received serious injury. Aizawa-sensei and Shuzenji-sensei will come when you tell us what Hospital she was taken to.

Nemuri replied back:

I am with Joey in Mos Espa Mercy Hospital. Marie is in the ER under intense surgery. EMT's said she is suffering from a skull fracture, possible brain hemorrhaging, and spinal injuries as well.

She swallowed as she sent the text message, and her hand started trembling. Her daughter was injured, she failed to keep her safe. Her daughter was in the Hospital now, with a bleeding brain, possibly paralyzed for life. Even Recovery Girl's Quirk had its limits. She had to grasp her hands together to keep them from trembling, almost tight enough for her long nails to dig into her skin.

…Nemuri…Nemuri…

"Kayama Nemuri!" Aizawa said for the third time, this time sounding genuinely worried. Nemuri looked up to see Aizawa, with little Eri holding his hand and Recovery Girl standing beside them. "Wha…How long…I'm sorry," she told them. "Not long, about two minutes," Aizawa told her, then handed her a bag of clothes, "I used the spare key you gave me. You should go get changed, you'll attract less attention." Aizawa glared at some people who were already taking videos and pictures of them, while Nemuri took the clothes and headed to the nearest female bathroom. After quickly getting herself dressed in a normal purple shirt and jeans with black sneakers and putting her hair into a loose ponytail, she headed back to the waiting room, to see that Eri and Joey were talking together.

"I can help her, if we really need to," Eri said. Nemuri stopped and thought about her options. It would be dangerous, Eri's control over her Quirk was far from perfect. And yet… when Midoriya had rescued her he was able to use his full power, and her Quirk healed him almost instantly, allowing him to defeat Chisaki Kai single-handedly. However, she quickly lost control, Midoriya only survived because Aizawa was there to shut off her Quirk in time. It was possible, if Aizawa stood by, and Eri focused as hard as she could…

"Don't even think about it."

Aizawa poured cold water on Eri's plan. "But Aizawa-tou-san, she needs my help. I can fix her," Eri tried to argue. "You can't control your Quirk well enough," he responded. "I can do it now, I have to," Eri argued back, "I can be a Hero, like you, and Midnight and Recovery Girl." Aizawa rubbed his tired eyes before saying, "Not yet. You're not ready, if anything goes wrong, you could do something irreversible." Aizawa got down on one knee and put his hand on her shoulder, "Part of being a Hero is knowing when to act, and when to wait. We may not need your Quirk. Some of the best doctors in Japan are working on her right now, and Recovery Girl is here as well. Now, is the time to wait and see what happens." Aizawa patted his adopted daughter's head and told her, "I know that your heart is in the right place, but good intentions can only go so far by themselves."

Eri tried to keep from crying but needed to hug Aizawa and cry into his shoulder. Joey looked up at Nemuri and swallowed his own tears before saying, "She'll be alright." He tried to sound brave, but deep down Nemuri could hear that his words were more like a prayer than a certainty.

The five of them sat in the waiting room for four hours. Eventually, Eri and Joey fell asleep, resting their heads on their respective parent's laps. Even though they hadn't said anything during most of their wait, just having her colleagues with her was comforting enough.

"Who is here for Marie Freeman?" a male nurse finally called, and Nemuri's head shot up, she had dozed off herself. "That's us," she quickly said, starting to stand up, and waking up Joey. Joey got up and asked, "How's Marie?" Eri was roused as well and the nurse quickly said, "Ano… family members only, please." Nemuri and Joey stepped up to him while Aizawa and Eri stayed in their seats, Eri waving to Joey with a hopeful smile as the nurse lead them further into the Hospital. They finally arrived in a room, where Marie was laid face-down in a bed, her head wrapped up in bandages. A doctor that Nemuri didn't recognize was standing outside the room along with the pink haired one that had given her the paperwork.

This doctor was an old balding man whose Quirk appeared to be green skin. "Kayama Nemuri? I am Toriyama Inosuke, I worked on your daughter," the older doctor extended his hand and Nemuri shook it, "Thank you for your hard work, Toriyama-sensei." Dr. Toriyama shook his head, "She's not finished yet, unfortunately. Your daughter's injuries were extensive… Are there friends that you can take your son to?" Joey looked up at the green skinned doctor with wide eyes, and Nemuri bent down to Joey, "GO back to Aizawa for now." Joey responded like an eight-year-old, "I don't wanna leave Marie." He said it in English, and Nemuri responded in kind, "I know. But Dr. Toriyama wouldn't say this if it wasn't important, I'm sure his explanation will be very complicated. I promise that I will explain everything to you after he explains it to me. Alright?" Joey swallowed, but nodded, and the nurse escorted him back to the waiting room.

Dr. Toriyama looked at Nemuri and told her, "As I was saying, her injuries were extensive. Both her shoulder blades and four ribs were shattered, along with her skull. Also, two of her vertebrae were fractured, and two more were dislocated. When she arrived, she was experiencing severe brain hemorrhaging, and we had to work quickly to release the pressure her brain was under. We had to shave her head and trepan her skull to do this, drill holes into her head to release the blood. It was a delicate operation, and during it, she was clinically dead for two minutes and seven seconds."

Nemuri sucked in a breath but managed to release it smoothly at this information. Dr. Toriyama continued, "We managed to revive and stabilize her. She was lucky that none of her ribs pierced her lungs or other internal organs. The most delicate part of the operation now is to repair her spine. Come with me." Nemuri followed the old doctor to his office, where he had two replica skeletons on either side of his desk. He turned around the smaller skeleton to show its spine. He indicated four vertebrae between the shoulder blades. "The four vertebrae that were severely injured along with her ribs is here, four of her Thoracic vertebrae. These two were fractured," he indicated two connected vertebrae and then indicated two others, one above the two fractured vertebrae and one below, "and these two vertebrae were dislocated.

"This will be an extremely difficult operation, and we will need to call in a specialist to work on your daughter's spine. Because of her injuries, there is significant risk that even the specialist we are calling in could make a mistake, and leave Marie paralyzed for life. Do we have your permission to proceed with the operation?" Nemuri had to sit down to process all this information, and asked, "And, without the operation, she will be a paraplegic, correct?" Dr. Toriyama nodded, "Yes." Nemuri nodded at this, "Then call in the specialist. I don't care how much it costs, at least there will be a chance for her if she gets the operation." Dr. Toriyama nodded and made the call.