A Sense of Self
by Evilkeen
Hospital
Upon reflection, Ranma pondered, he really didn't remember regaining consciousness. Just in the same way he didn't remember being born, his memories just faded away the further back he recalled them. His earliest moment in the hospital that he could recall was to answer a question a nurse said rhetorically to herself while maintaining the jungle of tubes and wires that had sprouted around his bed. When she heard his voice suddenly croak at her out of the blue she jumped in surprise and called in a doctor. Then his memory got frustratingly hazy again and he didn't recall anything until after the surgery.
The surgery that had to put him out for around eleven hours as doctors reset his right ribcage bones using a combination of surgical wiring and replacement ceramics, all the while picking out some forty-odd bone fragments that were scattered around his upper chest. Some shards dangerously close to his heart. Ranma had gone through the entire process with a decidedly necessary sense of black humour.
During that whole ideal, Ranma simply abided it all. He was just too tired to be angry or upset or caustic to anybody. Whenever the Tendo clan visited Ranma, he had not once used the quality of the hospital food as part of an insult to Akane's cooking. At this juncture, he could simply care less.
Not that his newly-gained politeness mollified Akane at all, if anything else she was even more furious at him for some inexplicable reason, she yelled at him for insignificant events from the past, getting louder and louder as the visit went; Ranma endured her tirade patiently and without retaliation. Not talking back to Akane had the same effect on her temper that not hitting her in a sparring match would've. And her tirades would get so intense that she hit him with a glancing blow. Ranma yelped in pain from his still-sensitive chest and discreetly pushed the emergency buzzer under his pillow. He didn't have to take this crap right now. The on-duty nurse ran in on the spectacle of the youngest Tendo shaking Ranma by the collar violently, an IV needle had been violently ripped out, leaving his arm bloodied.
And because Akane was finally and discreetly told to leave the building by the hospital staff who couldn't take her consistent abuse of their patient. The unspoken duty of visiting him daily had to be taken up by somebody else in the Tendo Dojo.
Soun--who avoided hospitals as a rule because of the memories of his wife that they brought--was discounted immediately. Besides, he didn't really know Ranma well enough to talk to him alone for more then a few minutes without repeating himself.
Genma had mysteriously started working double-shifts at Tofu-sensei's clinic and, although he tried to visit as much as he could, he couldn't manage it on a daily basis.
Kasumi couldn't stay long enough without interfering with the harmonious operation of the household.
So that left Nabiki, who rolled her eyes and grumbled mostly for show, but eventually accepted the burden.
That next day, Nabiki was let out of school, talked briefly with her teachers, and left for the Hospital on foot. She carried her school bag over one shoulder and over the other, the strap of a large carrying case which was resting against her hip like a purse.
And at about the point where Nabiki was wondering if she was on the wrong street, the short, wide, earthquake-resistant hospital building was abruptly revealed to her around a corner. Unbidden, her mind flashed a rapid sequence of images: Her mother coming in for weekly visits, growing sickly, clumps of her hair in the furo's drain, and then finally the bedridden spindly, ghostly form.
AOk, you can stop with the angst now girl@ she chastised herself internally.
Walking through a gauntlet of smoking patients, who all had sour expressions on their faceBno doubt because of fact that they had to smoke in this brisk weatherBNabiki pushed open a door and stood in the entrance, letting the fierce air pressure blow warm air over her chilled body. And standing there in the lobby of the Kojima-Sakaguchi Trauma ward, she never felt so lost in her life.
Not that she'd admit that to anyone who could've shown her the way.
***
A while later, Nabiki was finally (she hoped) nearing her destination. ARemind me never to tease Ryoga again,@ she grumbled to herself, then suddenly stopped, berating herself for her mental faux pas. At that moment her eyes fell on a chart next to a door.
SAOTOME, RANMA (16)' it read.
AHmm, twenty minutes late,@ she mused, AI really should have visited him with Daddy and Genma beforehand and got my bearings.@
It was at that point she started to hear a rhythmic thumping sound emanating from in the room. She was about to peer inside to see what Ranma was up to, when suddenly the noise was replaced by the sounds of something dribbling across the floor accompanied by a muffled curse, and a bright green tennis ball rolled out of the room, rolling down the hall, hitting a wall now and then, before coming to rest against a couch in the ward lounge area.
Nabiki stared at the tennis ball, the tennis ball stared back, looking forlorn with its lime-green clashing with the dark mahogany of the couch's upholstery. Her eyebrow rose. Walking over and retrieving it, she examined it, turning it over and over in her hands.
PROPERTY OF PHYSICAL-TRAINING DEPT.' was written with a black magic marker in neat Japanese and English writing.
Almost impulsively, Nabiki tossed it in the air, observing it as it sailed upwards, nearly hitting the ceiling before halting its ascent and started coming down. Nabiki deftly caught it in both hands.
She hrumphed' and wheeled around, making her way back toward Ranma's hospital room, absently tossing the tennis ball in her right hand as she walked.
***
When Ranma accidentally fumbled that ball, all he could to was lie in a sitting up position and track the thing helplessly as it rolled out of the room and down the hallway. Of all the rotten luck.
Deprived of his only source of entertainment, he sighed and lay back on the bed, his thoughts running through his head at a snail's pace.
The ball's gone.
I don't think it's coming back
Damn
Maybe I should buzz the nurse . . .
And then his eyes caught a brief flash of a light-blue and white school uniform outside his door.
I think Akane's outside my room.
He pondered that one for a while, then simply summed up his feelings in two words.
Aww. . .shit.
***
When Nabiki finally walked into Ranma's room, she noticed that his expression was first of surprise. ThenBshe was gratified to noteBsome delight, then suspicion rolled over his pale features.
AHey Nabiki,@ he said through suddenly-dry lips, Aya want something from me?@
Nabiki assumed a not-entirely-false expression of hurt. AListen Ranma, the fact is this: My spaz of a sister, has proven that she cannot be trusted to visit you here, and since somebody has to visit you every day I'm here because no-one else seems to be able to do it. Now I've made arrangements so this won't affect my after school activities too much, but if you make another single ungrateful remark, an ill-timed comment, or one careless phrase, and I will make sure that my visit is your living hell. Are We Clear?@
Ranma, throat suddenly dry and fully aware of his lack of mobility, nodded yes urgently.
AGood,@ affirmed Nabiki. She sat down, feeling somewhat depressed, opened up the large shoulder bag she was carrying and took out an old laptop which she promptly turned on and started a finance program.
There was dead silence, save for the clicking of keys and the whirr of a ventilation duct nearby. Ten minutes passed.
Finally Ranma said something that he'd never said before in his life.
ANabiki, I'm sorry@