Chapter 2
Created By: Jason Wong
"I sadly announce that their name is... Yamato Ishida." said Tai, teary eyed.
There was a collective gasp as everyone discovered who it was. But none more than Sora. Hundreds of things clicked into place as she realized that he'd been referring to Matt on the phone. She'd only assumed it was him. She had jumped to conclusions because of his actions. She was upset that Matt was sick, but it still relieving to learn her love wasn't going to die. She still had some questions even though she didn't voice them. Why was Tai informed? He might be Matt's best friend now, but they were all good friends.
"Sorry I couldn't tell you guys before, but I had to sign an agreement form not to tell anyone without the explicit permission of the parents and doctors." said Tai. "The only reason I was even told about his condition was that Matt insisted. In fact he refused treatment until I was told. So the doctors eventually caved."
Tai led them them quietly down the hallway to another room. This time he knocked lightly on the door before gently opening it. Before entering, he motioned the group together. "He's asleep, but don't worry about the noise level. Just keep it down for the sake of the other patients and visitors."
They proceeded into a dimly lit room, TK was sleeping on top of Matt who was also sleeping deeply, snoring lightly. Tai walked over to TK and gently shook him awake. He resisted gently but came to relatively fast. He quickly shook the sleep from his eyes when he saw who was visiting. TK jumped onto Tai almost knocking him over. Everyone was shocked. TK had generally reserved this sort of affection for Matt. But here he was, clinging to Tai as if he were as important as Matt.
"You're back!" exclaimed TK. "Now can we wake Matt up?"
"Umm, just what does he mean by that?" inquired Joe.
Tai looked at Joe in the eye before awnsering. "Before, they were keeping him awake with certain drugs. However the combination was slowly killing him...."
"I still don't understand." said Izzy typing away. "How does your being here assist in bring Matt to a conscious state?"
"Ah, well you see," explained Tai nervously. "While I was visiting once, he suddenly needed blood. But there wasn't enough in stock, and since I'm the same blood type, I gave mine. For some strange reason after I was hooked in, he suddenly woke up. And it only seems to work with me. No one can figure out why. I can give enough to keep him up for a while. But it isn't very comfortable on my part."
It was then that everyone noticed the second bed, next to Matt's. Tai gently put TK down, took off his shoes and layed down. Then he proceeded to pick up this horrible looking needle attached to a thin long tube connected at the base of Matt's IV. He strapped it onto his arm and pushed in the plunger. Tai's face contorted into a look intensely excruciating pain for a moment. Joe looked worried and was about to assist, but Tai waved him away. He slowly explained that it wasn't so bad after a while. Joe looked skeptical, as did everyone else for Tai didn't look all that well anymore. But at that moment Matt moaned and rolled over before opening his eyes slowly.
Everyone's attention turned to Matt as he groaned again and sat up. Matt focused his eyes not expecting to see all of his friends gathered around him. He peered around until his eyes landed next to him. On Tai. Now Tai was breathing hard and was sweating heavily.
"I wish you didn't have to do that. It doesn't look healthy for you." said Matt somewhat resigned.
"Don't worry about me. It's you that's got the virus. I'm your friend and leader, I'll do anything to save you." said Tai through gritted teeth.
Sora moved to Tai's side and began mopping his face with a cool damp cloth. Tai looked at her appreciatively.
"Still, I wish there were an easier way. I almost wish you'd use the drugs, just so you don't have to go through all this. I know you're already giving more than you should." said Matt.
Tai didn't awnser Matt's last statement and there was an uncomfortable silence. Finally Sora couldn't bear it any longer and spoke up, breaking the silence.
"Izzy, you looked like you knew something about all this back there. Did you? And if so how?" she asked.
"Well, I'm kind of embarrassed about it, being Tai's friend for quite a while." said Izzy shifting uncomfortably in one of the chairs. His tone clearly implied that he didn't want to talk about it.
"Well, just tell use so it's out in the open." said Mimi, oblivious to the fact Izzy really didn't want to talk about it.
"Well... well you see, I hacked the hospital records." said Izzy nervously. "Well, actually... sorry Tai, but I hacked your home computer first. I wanted to find out where Tai was going off to so often. This location was in his electronic daytimer almost every day. So I hacked into the hospitals computer network. Tai had visitor clearance, and then almost a week later it changed to medical clearance. That tipped me off, I looked deeper and found that the Ishidas and the Takaishis were also here."
There was another uneasy silence.
"I guess that goes to show that everything you don't want people to know shouldn't be written down anywhere." said Tai weakly, breaking the ice. "Come on, we came to talk to Matt, not to ignore him."
They realized that Tai was right. They really had been ignoring Matt the whole time. They knew he was ill, but they didn't want to face that fact. And by ignoring him, they didn't have to face that little reality. Everyone bowed their heads slightly and surrounded Matt. But there wasn't really anything to say. They knew each other so well that they didn't have to speak to let their messages be known. Eventually, someone cracked a joke and soon they were all laughing and talking about their adventures in the digital world. However at one point in the conversation, Izzy spoke up.
"I can't even remember why I wanted to avoid you guys, it was silly of me." said Matt.
"Matt?" inquired Izzy. "Tai mentioned the virus may have originated from the digital world?"
"Yeah, I guess." said Matt. "It's not like anything ever seen before."
"Well, I have a theory." said Izzy. "What if while Matt was on his own, he was attacked by an evil digimon who infected him and then erased his memory of the event. I mean, he admits that his memory of that time frame is fuzzy at best."
"I never thought of that." admitted Matt. "Now that you mention it, I do remember something... a dark stream, then a shadow. That's all except, Gabumon wasn't there...."
"Well, that makes this so much more interesting." said Tai. His clothes were clinging to his skin and his hair was matted down from all the sweating. "Kari, you sure have been quiet. Kari?"
Everyone looked around and saw Kari was comforting TK. Both of them had fallen asleep in one of the room's corners. They really did look like a couple. No one could bring themselves to wake the two sleeping angels.
It was approaching twelve thirty. They'd been there for quite a while. They unpacked their lunches and quickly ate, sharing bits with Matt. Matt gobbled the food down, the food he'd been getting was bland and horrible. Naturally TK and Kari didn't eat (They were asleep), and Tai indicated he'd eat later. They had just finished eating when Izzy's computer chimed. Izzy disabled the screen saver mumbling something about interruptions. Everyone could tell it was something important because Izzy's eyes widened dramatically.
"Are you going to tell us or what?" mumbled Tai.
"Well, it's from Genni." said Izzy. Everyone looked at him puzzled. "He confirms that Matt's condition is the result of an evil digimon."
"Anything else?" asked Joe.
"Well, he believes he has a device that can heal Matt, but we have to return to the digital world and get to his house." replied Izzy.
"Let me guess, there's a condition." said Mimi.
"Well yes.... You see, since our digivices were destroyed, there just isn't enough power to send us all back. As you know, in the digital world we're complex pieces of data. It would be to hard to upload us all." said Izzy. "We're going to have to leave some people behind."
"Well, Matt has to go.... And I guess, so does Tai." said Sora.
"Not true." said Joe. "But just how many of us can go?"
"Hold on, hold on." said Izzy. "I was getting to that. There will be four. However, Genni has already selected those of us who will be going. He'd bring us all, but he's picked those who are best suited for the job."
"Who's going?" asked Matt quietly
The room fell totally silent, the only noise was the soft breathing of TK and Kari, still asleep in the corner. Everyone braced themselves as Izzy announced who would be going back.
"Matt has to go." stated Izzy. "Apparently so does Tai. The other half of our team will consist of..."
Ha Ha Ha, I think I'll end all my fics this way if I plan on continuing them. THis time its easy to figure out though. I have four favorite characters (besides TK and Kari who ARE NOT GOING), I even have them listed on my web page somewhere. They are the four characters I like to use in fanfics, everyone else usually gets smaller and less important parts.