A/N: Hey, everyone… I actually got this part out less than a month from the last one… Okay, I TRIED to! Wow. Amazing, isn't it? Anyway, hope you enjoy this part! Someone commented that 05 wasn't as well written as the others, and I think that's because I was rushing to get it out and didn't edit it… =-) Oops! Just thought I'd tell you that… Um, I can't think of anything else, so I guess I'll go now! Thanks for all of your encouragement and support, reviewers! I love you all!
Disclaimer: Digimon: Digital Monsters is legal property of Saban, Toei Animation, Fox Kids, et al. By writing this fan fiction, I in no way imply that I am the owner of the cartoon. All major characters used in this fan fiction are legal property of the owners of this cartoon show. This fan fiction is written purely for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of those that may read it, and I do not intend any copyright infringement.
P.S. This is the last part remaining besides an epilogue. That will be out in the next week or so, hopefully. It's basically all written… after that, you may not see much from me, because I was accepted a school that is really fast paced with a lot of homework. I'm sorry!
Awakenings 06: Beautiful Distraction
"you're in the arms of the angel
may you find some comfort here…"
-Sarah McLachlan, "Angel"
She was rendered silent for those few moments… it was as if her body wanted to jump up and hug him and call everyone and celebrate, but her mind whirled and spun with her thoughts. It was almost as if she wanted to greet him and kiss him and welcome him back, but she couldn't do anything but hold onto his hand and shake the tears away from her eyes.
"Kari? Is that you? Why are you sad?" He brushed his hand against her cheek, wiping away the tears that she had failed to stop. "What's wrong?"
She was smiling and choking and laughing, all at once. "Nothing's wrong. Everything's gone right, just in these moments, it's all better now…"
Kari heard steps in the hall, the nurses doing their nightly checks. No, she thought. Please, anywhere but here…
But a nurse turned into the room, her eyes absorbed by a clipboard, carrying a bag of IV fluid. She saw TK's eyes open and heard voices and promptly dropped the thick plastic sack.
"Is he awake?"
Kari nodded, feeling the tears start again. She had waited so long, or what felt like a long time… each day stabbing at her heart as she watched TK, cold, pale, immersed in dreams that everyone knew were possibly the last things he would see in the land of the living…
The nurse grinned as she picked up the bag of IV fluid. "Excellent… everyone is going to be so happy, especially Julie and Dr. Jon… Here, let me help you sit up a little…" She took a few pillows from a closet and propped TK up.
"Kari…" TK smiled at her. "Please don't cry…"
"I can't help it…" Kari sniffled.
TK smiled at her and handed her a tissue from the box next to his bed. "What happened? Why am I in the hospital? Am I in the hospital?"
"Yes." The nurse bustled around the room, taking measurements and charting amounts on the clipboard. "You've been here for, maybe a week?"
Kari nodded. "Something like that."
The nurse grinned. "Dr. Jon and Julie will both want me to call them… I've got more patients too, but I'll be back in an hour to finish looking you over. Is that okay?"
TK and Kari both nodded.
As soon as the nurse left, TK's blue eyes turned to Kari. "Why am I here?"
"In the hospital?"
"Yeah."
Kari grabbed another tissue. "There was an accident. Do you remember anything that happened?"
"I was at your house, and I crossed the street and…"
"There was a drunk driver and he hit you." Kari paused and wiped her eyes. "You've been in the hospital for what, four days? Maybe five."
"What's happening? Am I gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, probably. You would have been out a lot quicker, but you had a reaction to the anesthesia and it put you into a coma. And then the people had to fix your leg and…"
"What happened to my leg?"
Kari sniffled. "Something shattered. I don't know what, though. But the doctor said…" She wiped her eyes. "He says that you might not be able to play basketball anymore."
TK nodded, his eyes serious.
"And he says you'll have crutches or a cane or whatever for a while, and then just a limp."
TK nodded again. He looked like he was deep in thought. About what, Kari didn't know, but he had a lot to think about, so… "TK, do you want me to leave you alone for a while?" She stood and took a step before TK caught her wrist.
"No, please. Stay with me." Kari was surprised by the emotion in his voice as she took a seat in the chair next to the bed.
* * * * *
"Hello, this is Music Mania, Chandler speaking."
"Hello, this is Kari Kamiya. Is Matt Ishida there?
"Hey, are you his brothers friend? The one who was going to come to the concert?"
"Yes, I am. Does everyone from the band work at Music Mania?" Kari asked.
"Yeah. Lemme go find Matt for you."
Kari winced as she heard Chandler yell, the sound magnified by the telephone. "Ma-att! Pho-one!"
"Kari? Here he is."
"Thanks."
There was a brief pause as Matt picked up the phone.
"Hello, Music Mania. Matt speaking."
"Matt, it's Kari."
"What, is something wrong? Do you need me up there?"
"No, it's…" Kari tried to tell him what had happened, but Matt just barreled on.
"Hang on, I can see if Chandler can take over for a couple of hours and…"
"But Matt, it's…"
"Or I can call somebody and see if they can fill in…"
"Matt, it's okay!"
"But then I… what?"
"It's okay! He woke up!"
"Are you serious? When?"
"At like four this morning. He's sleeping now, but…"
"He's awake?"
"Yes!"
Kari heard Matt yell in joy. She could picture the odd looks he got from customers, because she could hear him muttering "Sorry, sorry…" as he returned to the phone.
Matt scooped up the phone again. "So he's okay? No amnesia or anything?"
"I don't think so. But you never know."
"Can he have visitors?"
"Yeah. Want to come up? He asked about you earlier."
"Really? " Matt was surprised, Kari could tell. She didn't know why he was surprised; they were brothers, after all…
"Yes. He'd probably be glad to see you."
"I'll be up in an hour or so, okay?"
"Okay, I'll see you then."
"Bye, Kari.
"Bye."
* * * * *
Matt walked into TK's room about an hour later. It looked as if TK had just woken up as Matt had opened the door, because he sat up and rubbed his eyes as son as he saw his brother.
"Hey Matt," he said.
Matt grinned at him. "Hey Squirt."
TK grinned back before glancing around the room. "Hey, where'd Kari go?"
"I sent her home."
"Why?"
"She hadn't slept for the five days you've been here. Yeah, maybe a couple hours here and there, but she didn't get nearly as much as she needed. She's also been crying about every hour, and I think she needed the rest."
"Is she gonna be okay?"
"Yeah, she's just tired. How would you feel if a car hit her, and you watched the entire thing?" Matt noticed how TK's eyes widened at that sentence. "What?"
"You mean she saw the accident?"
"Yeah, you didn't know that? You were at her house, and…"
"Yeah, I know that part. But she actually watched me get hit by a car?"
"Mmhmm. And then she was the one who called 911, and then she rode in the ambulance, and called everyone from the ER."
TK thought for a moment. "Was she all by herself?"
"For the first day or so. Then I was able to drive up, and Sora came up for a while, too."
"Taiora?"
"Huh?"
"It's a joke of Kari's and mine. Tai plus Sora equals Taiora."
Matt grinned. "Nope, just Sora. Taiora had a brief separation, but they're back together."
"You mean Tai and Sora broke up while I was out too?"
"Yup."
"So she was all by herself?"
"Pretty much."
"I can't stand to see her sad, Matt."
"I know, Squirt."
"No, but when I was out, I kept hearing bits of conversations and things, but it was as if through like, a really dense fog. And one of them was Kari crying. And I was trying to wake up and trying to tell her it'd be okay, but I couldn't. It was worse then any of the nightmares I had when I was a little kid, because I just had this feeling that it was real. You know how with some nightmares, they just seem to have this ethereal quality? But this one didn't."
"TK, calm down. When I kicked her out of the hospital to go home, she was in the best mood I've seen her in all week. You're awake. She's happy."
"But you've heard the horror stories just as much as I have. What if I go back under? What if I have some messed up allergic reaction to say, the IV fluid?"
"TK, you've already had a 'messed up allergic reaction'. You had a pelvic fracture- supposed to be a routine procedure, right? Ever heard of Malignant Hyperthermia?" TK shook his head. "Well, we all have now, thanks to you. Wanna know what it is?" Matt barreled on without waiting for a response from TK. "It's some kind of allergic reaction to an anesthetic. Or something like that. It's rare, so rare that the doctors didn't know what it was at first. You're damn lucky that Dr. O'Neill could figure it out before you died. How do you think Kari felt, sitting in the waiting room, seeing the people run to the room you were in, and not know what was going on?"
"Matt, I'm just saying 'what if'. I don't want to have her sad."
"Well, let's play the 'what if' game, then! What if she marries, say, Davis? What are you going to do then? Live miserable?" As soon as Matt spoke, he wanted to pull the words back in. But he couldn't, the damage had been done. And now he had to watch as the pain spread over his little brother's face.
"TK, I'm sorry," he gasped. "I… I didn't mean it…"
TK sighed. "I know you didn't. But it's true, isn't it? I know she doesn't love me. Why do I even bother?"
"Because you love her."
TK rubbed his forehead. "I'm hopeless."
Matt laughed as his little brother babbled on about what had happened before the accident.
* * * * *
Julie didn't know why, but she returned to the hospital earlier than normal the next morning. She had a feeling that something big was going to happen that day, but who knew exactly what?
After dumping her purse into her locker space in the staff lounge, she grabbed her white coat and decided to hurry upstairs before she started her shift. Plus, Jon wouldn't mind if she were a little late…
As she made her way up to Takeru Takaishi's room, she heard voices. She entered the room and grinned as she saw him sitting in bed, awake and chatting animatedly to the man that she recognized as Matt, his brother, and Dr. O'Neill. "Hey, Dr. Jon. Fancy meeting you here!"
Jon grinned at her. "I knew something was up when I got a phone call at four in the morning. So I came in early. How 'bout you?"
"I had the phone off the hook last night, I needed the sleep." She turned to the boy in the bed and smiled. "I'm Julie Connolley."
He stuck out his hand. "TK Takaishi. Pleased to meet you." Julie took it as he spoke. "Are you another one of the doctors? Hopefully you're not like the one who came in earlier… I could have sworn that him and Dr. Jon were going to kill each other…"
Julie sighed. "As you can see, Philip and Jon aren't exactly the best of friends…"
Jon snorted. "Philip? Now you two are on a first name basis?"
"Yes, not like it's any of your business. I'm on a first name basis with you."
"I just don't want you to get hurt. Phil has a tendency to…"
"Yes, I know."
TK Takaishi grinned at her. "So are you a doctor?"
"Not quite. I'm a med student."
"Eh, close enough. And thanks for saving my life."
"Really I didn't do much… mostly I just took care of Kari for you."
TK's eyes were serious. "Well, then, thank you even more for that."
Julie thought for a moment. "Hey, where is Kari anyways?"
Matt interrupted. "I sent her home to get some sleep."
"Good," said Jon. "I was wondering if we'd have to admit her before she'd get some rest."
A nurse that TK recognized from earlier that morning poked her head into the door. "Dr. O'Neill? Julie? Your shift starts in ten minutes."
Dr. O'Neill rose and shook both the hands of Matt and TK. "I've got to go back down to the ER. It was very nice to visit with you. We'll have to do it again sometime." He grinned, waved, and walked out the door. Julie said goodbye quickly and hurried out to catch up with Jon.
She grabbed his arm as he pressed the button for the elevator. "What were you and Philip fighting about this time?"
He sighed. "You know the way Dr. Kelsey and I get along." She couldn't help hearing the slight emphasis on 'Dr. Kelsey', which seemed to Julie to show his disapproval that she was calling his professional rival by a familiar term.
"Jon, what's wrong with you? You've been acting funny all morning."
"I'm sorry, I'm tired, and I'm not in the best of moods after my run-in with Philip Kelsey…" He sighed. "I'm sorry. Really. After Takako called at four-thirty, I couldn't go back to sleep, and then I came in early, and I had the late shift last night…"
Julie grinned. "Don't worry about it. I just wanted to know what was wrong."
"Well, that's it." He grinned. "I need more coffee…"
"Why don't you see if Dr. Nichols will let you take a shorter shift? Someone can probably fill in, we've got a bunch in the ER today."
"Nah, I'll be fine. Really…" He yawned, ignoring her skeptical look. "Seriously, I will…"
Julie shook her head. "Go see Dr. Nichols. I'm serious. I don't want you to leave, say, a scalpel inside someone." He laughed as she went on. "Seriously. It's happened."
"I know. Now come on, we've got stuff to do."
* * * * *
Kari woke up at one in the afternoon, the latest she'd ever slept. Normally she got up early, but she couldn't remember why she was up later today…
TK was up, that was it. She grinned, remembering how Matt had sent her home, even though she wanted to stay.
She hopped out of bed feeling rested. After grabbing a sweatshirt and jeans out of her dresser, she changed her clothes and got ready to leave for the hospital again. Hopefully she could send Matt back to her apartment to get some sleep, he was probably pretty tired by now too…
She left the house at a brisk pace, hoping to make it back just in time for visiting hours, but the nurses would probably bend the rules for her anyway, they'd done it before.
The hospital was only about a mile away, so she made good time, arriving in about twenty minutes. She didn't know what to do, really. She'd always been lucky with finding her way around the place, since all the doctors had always led her up. Well, that and the fact that she'd been at the hospital for a while without leaving…
She walked hesitantly into the lobby, asking a woman at the desk where she could find TK. She was directed towards the fifth floor. She rode in the elevator and realized where she was.
She walked into TK's room and saw Matt asleep in a chair, with TK making paper airplanes and throwing them at him. She grinned and poked Matt in the arm. "Matt, wake up."
"Mmm, five more minutes…"
"Matt, get up or we'll take away your hair gel."
Matt opened his eyes and sat ramrod straight in the armchair. "Hi, Kari. What do you want?"
"Matt, go to my house and get some sleep."
"No, I'm…" he yawned. "…not tired at all."
TK grinned. "Matt, just go to Kari's house and take a nap. You've been asleep in that chair for an hour."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Just go to Kari's for an hour. If you aren't asleep then, you can come back."
"Okay." Matt yawned again. "Sounds fine to me." He stood and walked out o the room before reentering. "Kari? Where is your house?"
Kari and TK both cracked up as Kari gave Matt quick directions to her house.
He hadn't been gone for more than three minutes before TK spoke up. "What did I miss?"
"You mean at school?" Kari laughed. "I skipped."
"Really?"
"Yeah. There were more important things to do."
TK's eyes became serious. "Kari?"
She looked at him inquisitively. "What is it?"
"Nothing really, just…" he fell silent.
She nodded and the room was silent for a few moments before TK spoke again, his voice charged with emotion. "Please, Kari, don't say you can't love me, you can learn, Kari, I can't live without you, please…" He glanced at her and saw the grin across her face and her shining eyes. "Kari? What…?" He grinned. "What happened?"
Tears, happy tears this time, spilled from Kari's eyes as she spilled out her story. "I told you I couldn't love you, because I was scared, I think. And then you left, and I watched you get hit by that car, and then I realized that I had lied, and I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't, and…"
"Ssh…" He grinned at her. " I know."
"I don't want to lose you again," she whispered.
"You won't, I promise…" he murmured in reply as their lips met.
To Be Continued…
A/N: One more chapter, everyone… actually it's an epilogue, but it'll be up really soon. I hope. =-) It'll just tie up those loose ends… And don't forget to review!
Finished: August 2nd, 2001… however, fanfiction.net was down, so I couldn't post it…dang.
Feel free to e-mail the authoress at