Chapter 7

Well, here it is! You guys are all probably going to kill me, but someone's going to die. It has to be done. It had to happen sometime!

Sakura: Oh please! Don't kill me!

Me: Are you trying to make me give the story away!?! Jeeze!

Sakura: I repeat, please don't kill me!!!!

Thanks to Kyralea!
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Well, as you all know, I definitely don't own these characters, except Kris, as I've already let you know :)

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Li carried Sakura up the front steps to her house. He kicked the door a couple of times,
since his hands were full with her unconscious body, hoping that her father would be the
one to open it and not her brother. He just couldn't get break like that. The door whipped open.

"WHAT_DID_YOU_DO!?!?!?"

"RELAX!!!!!!!!!!!" The volume of his voice surprised even him, "I didn't do anything!!!"

He pushed past Tory into the house, ignoring the look on his face.

"You can leave now!"

"Are you going to make me? I'll kick your ass you if you touch me, and if you think I'm joking,
just try me." Li knew he could do it. For some reason, Tory seemed to believe him.

Tory began to speak, but then closed his mouth again and simply glared at Li as he walked up the stairs to
Sakura's room.

He laid her down on her bed and then flicked on the lamp beside her bed. He took the blood-soaked piece
of fabric off of her neck and scrutinized the gash, much easier in the light. It was deeper than he had thought,
and there was dried blood everywhere. He found the bathroom and got the peroxide and skin tape, and a big
bandage, and took them back to her room. The good thing about being out cold he guessed, was that she wouldn't
feel how badly it stung to get peroxide in her neck.

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Aiden entered his little girl's room expecting the worst, but was quiet surprised.

"He's not…He...He's not in her bed!"

Tory was standing behind him, glaring at Li's turned back. He was kneeling on the floor, his head on his folded arms on the bed, eyes closed.

"How can you let him be here? Look what he did!"

Aiden looked at what he did.

"If you want me to be mad at him, you're going to be very disappointed."

"I know you're talking about me," came a muffled voice from Li's enfolded arms.

"What's your name, son?"

"Syaoran Li," he replied, his back still turned.

"Well, what happened?"

"Tell Satan to stop glaring at me and get lost, and I'll tell you."

Aiden looked at Tory, guessing that he was "Satan", and motioned for him to leave, quickly stepping into the
room and closing the door softly behind him, before he had a chance to object.

"Now, what happened?"

"No offense sir, but I think you should be concerned with Sakura's state of health more than anything right now."

Aiden nodded. "It looks like you've done a fine job on the bandage. You've had experience?"

"Yes. I had to learn how to clean wounds, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't ask me why, because I'd rather not tell you."

"I can respect that." He wondered why this youth was so defensive. "Now tell me what happened," he demanded seriously.

Li explained everything, and when he was finished Aiden nodded slowly.

"Okay. Thank you. I think you should go home now, and I'll take it from here."

He opened the door, and Tory fell in. Apparently he had had his ear pressed to the door the whole time.

"I don't believe him. He's just trying to get out of trouble."

"You don't get it, do you?" Li looked softly at her face, a beam of moonlight was shining on her face, making her look
even more like an angel. At least to Li. He softly stroked her face. "I love Sakura," He started softly."And nothing is
going to break that. Not distance on a map, not death, not torture," he turned to Tory, "and sure as hell not you. So please
leave me alone and stop trying to slaughter me. I'm a human being, just like you claim to be, and I don't appreciate being
screamed at each and every time I come here. I'm not going to nail your sister the first chance I get, so you have nothing
to worry about there."

Tory was stunned. He really made it sound convincing. Maybe he was truthful.

"I'll leave now." Li stood up to go.

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Sakura heard voices. Something about death…slaughter…screaming. Her neck stung. She could distinguish the voice.
It was Li. She heard him say that.....that....He'd leave now?! She opened her eyes as far as she could, which wasn't very
far at the moment, and threw her arm up.

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Li felt a soft tug at the bottom of his shirt. He turned. It was Sakura.

"Stay," she whispered softly.

He fell to the side of her bed again. "Oh, Ying-fa!" He whispered shakily. "I'm so sorry this happened."

"It's not your fault."

"Ssssh. Don't speak," her father said. Sakura tried to turn her head to face them, only to moan softly in pain. Tory made
a move to enter, but Aiden put his arm out to stop him.

"Don't. It's not your place. Syaoran can stay. You are my son, and I love you, but this is not where you live, and you need
to go back to your own house. I understand that you're worried for your sister, but you've been very discourteous to her
and this young man, and I think you need some time to cool down."

Tory nodded, after narrowing his eyes at Li for a moment. "Okay. I guess I can see that he loves her, and I _GUESS_ I can
accept that, but that doesn't mean that I'll ever like it." He finally left.

Aiden turned back to the picture before him and sighed. "Come on. Let's let her rest."

Li followed reluctantly. Aiden lead him to the living room.

"Have a seat."

Li flopped down onto the couch and sighed.

"Now, tell me, where do you come from?"

"I…er…China." Li didn't want it to have to come to this.

"Where do you live now?"

"…" he really didn't want it to come to this.

"Well?"

"I…um…well…the motel down town."

"Not the trashy one!"

Li nodded.

"Where are your parents?"

"My mother's in China…"

"And your father?"

"He's been dead for a long time."

"Oh. I'm sorry. How did you get here?"

"I…er… came on a ship." He couldn't tell him that he had stowed away in an airplane using the Conceal card.

"Why did you come all this way, if you don't mind me asking?"

So Li told him pretty much exactly what he told Sakura, plus some. He finally stopped half an hour later.

"Now I remember! Your that kid who likes archeology."

"That would be me."

"And now you're dating my little girl. I won't stand for this!"

"WHAT!?!?! I thought you liked me!"

"Oh, no no, not that! What I meant was, I can't stand by and let you live in a trashy motel."

"Huh?"

"Come live here. With Tory gone, we have an extra room. You can stay here till you, er, settle things with your family."

"Okay, now I know your joking. You actually trust me? That much? For real?"

"You've given me no reason not to. As long as it stays that way, you can stay."

"Thank you, Kinomoto- san. I appreciate this more than you can imagine, but I have to say,
aren't you being a bit umm, what's the word?"

"Over-trusting? Hey, just stay away from one room in the house- I'm sure you know which one
I mean- and we'll get along great. Now let's go check on Sakura, shall we?"

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Sakura woke the next morning with the sun on her face. It was 7:57.

'Was all that just a dream? Did I really get stabbed in the neck?'

She turned her head and felt the familiar pain again. She groaned.

"I should have known."

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

Sakura jumped at the sound of another voice. "Li! Aaargh, I feel like I got hit by a bus."

"Painkillers wearing off, huh?"

"Yup. Did I go to the hospital?"

"Not yet. By the way, since we're dating now, it would be nice if you used my first name. "

"Sorry, force of habit. Why are you still here?"

"I'm going to be here for a while."

"Huh?"

"Your dad invited me to stay. At least until I get my Meilin problem sorted out."

"Oh. Little over-trusting, huh? AAAAAAAH_MY_NECK!!"

"Quit trying to move. It'll only make it feel worse."

"I'm ready to go to the hospital, _NOW_. When can we leave?!"

"As soon as you get out of bed."

"Just let me get dressed and we can go- Hey, I'm not in pajamas!"

"Do you really think I'd be that desperate?"

"If I didn't have a flap of skin missing, I'd-" She tightened her hand into a fist.

"No you wouldn't."

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The entire trip to the hospital was horror. Sakura kept crying softly in pain whenever Mr.Kinomoto accidentally
ran over a bump, or whenever She moved at all. Li held her hand the entire way there, hoping she was okay and
wishing she would stop crying out, for it hurt him knowing that she was in pain and he couldn't do anything about it.
Mr. Kinimoto noticed repeatedly the worried look on the poor boy's face, and thought again and again how lucky
his daughter was. They finally made it to the hospital, Sakura giving one more cry in pain before she finally fainted.
After the doctors checked her out to make sure she was okay, they had been waiting at the hospital a grand total of
5 hours. Aiden couldn't understand why they wouldn't take her in right away. Li had gone to see what was the matter,
and still hadn't come back. When he did return, his face was VERY white. He told Sakura's father what was going on,
and when he finished his face was just as white as Li's. The doctor called them both from the counter.

"We just finished fixing her up, she got a pretty deep cut right there, but we put in a few stitches and now she fine. Um,
we gave her a few painkillers, and don't think us as babies here, but her cries were kinda scary."

Li snorted.

"Can we see her?" He asked

Sakura's dad looked at the young boy. He was still as worried about her as he was in the car, but he was trying his best not to show it. He smiled.

'The poor boy's in love.'

"Yeah, in fact she can go home whenever your ready to take her." The doctor said.

"Hey, Li, why don't you get her and take her to the car? I'll go warm it up." Mr.Kinomoto said.

Li looked a little startled, but he agreed. The doctor led him to Sakura's room, as her dad walked off.

"Syaoron?" He heard. His head whipped to Sakura's bed. She was smiling, but she looked really tired.

"Hey, Sakura. Are you feeling ok?"

"Yeah. I'm ok. What all happened? What took them so long?"

Li's face went pale.

"Um, I'll tell you on the way to the car."

Li walked back with her from the examination room, explaining what had happened, leaving out a few names. She
was walking kind of weird, making it hard for Li to keep her in the conversation. Though he was pretty sure she didn't
fully understand any of what he was saying.

'Now I know they gave her too many painkillers.'

"I hope he drops dead." She had a disgusted look on her face.

Li shuddered in spite of himself.

As they passed by a door, they heard strangled screeching and moaning, and a lot of thrashing, and that prayer, "as I walk
through this valley of death…"

Li quickened his pace and took Sakura's arm to lead her away, but she refused to budge. She felt drawn to the room, and before
Li could stop her, she tripped over to the half-closed door and poked her head inside.

She saw an arm in between a preacher and 2 worried looking people. It was Kris's arm, the arm she had seen right before she felt
the horrible stabbing pain in her neck, and she felt an urge to rip that arm off, despite being heavily sedated.

Li grabbed her arm tightly in a last futile attempt to stop her and looked her in the eyes very grimly, silently pleading with her not
to go in. She pulled out of his grip and entered without a sound, stumbling a tiny bit. What she saw, once she could see past the other
three forms was the worst thing she had ever seen her life.

It was Kris all right. He was strapped down to the medical table. She had seen this type of thing before, in a video they had had to
watch at school. It was some kind of safety precaution….? He was going through convulsions or something, and the veins on his
arms were popping out. His eyes were glazed over, and the look on his sweating face was one of pure terror. Doctors were working
hastily around him, and a woman, most likely his mother was holding his hand, weeping hysterically. Li pulled her away just before
the irregular bleeping of the machine that measures heart rate stopped. It all happened in a matter of seconds.

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She was letting herself be pulled down the hall, absent to the world. Li stopped when they got to the end of the hallway.

"Sakura, why did you do that?!?" he freaked.

"I had to!"

"No, you didn't! Now-"

"What did you do?!?!"

"WHAT?!"

"What did you do to him!?!?"

"I didn't do anything to him! Calm down! I'll tell you what happened!"

"WELL!?!?!" Sakura was going a _little_ bit mental.

"He O.D.d!"

"Come again?"

"He overdosed! He was on steroids and he overdosed! That plus he got alcohol poisoning! Settle down -hey, stop blinking so
much, you're freaking me out. No, I'm not going to jail! (Sakura kept interrupting him) I_didn't_do_anything. They gave you
way too many pain killers."

Sakura collapsed into him, in hysterical tears. He could see he would get nowhere with her like this. He picked her up off the
ground, and she continued sobbing. He took her into an empty room and sat her on the bed, then sat down beside her.

"Sakura, listen to me."

She nodded through her tears.

"It's all right. Shhhhh, it's okay. Calm down." He put his arm around her.

After she calmed down and was only sniffling, he tried to explain again.

"Sakura, can you understand me?"

"Yeah! I'm not stupid."

"Then listen very closely." He re-explained, and this time she seemed to get it.

"That's why we had to wait so long. He came in a while after us, when you were passed out again. They decided his case
was more serious, so they took him in first."

Sakura drew in a shaky breath. "It was so scary. I've never seen someone die." She almost began to cry again.

"Come on. We've got to get you home. Your dad's going to kill me for letting you see that."

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"Oh my God, are you okay?!?" Madison rushed into Sakura's room and threw her arms around her injured friend.

"OOOOOOW! Step away, before you kill me!"

"Sorry! I forgot! What happened? Li just called and told me you were hurt!"

"It was Kris, and he's dead."

"WHA-!"

"I saw him die."

"Oh my god, did Li kill him?!"

"Umm, if he did I wouldn't think the police would let a murderer run free."

Sakura explained everything that had happened the night before.

"Wow. I wouldn't have guessed that he of all people… I guess he really would kill to go out with you."

"Please don't talk about him, especially when making sad attempts to cheer me up."

"Sorry. Where's Kero?"

"He's ragging on Li. He's moving in."

"W_H_A_T!?!"

"Yup."

"Wow. I'd like to see everyone's face when you tell them that."

"I know. They probably wouldn't be surprised by anything I tell them anymore."

"Madison, Mr. Kinomoto says to go back to your own house before you start gathering dust." Li leaned against the doorframe.

"Your one to talk."

"Hey, just joking. Actually, he wants Sakura to get some rest."

"Okay. I'll leave in a sec."

"See ya later." He left again,waving over his shoulder as he walked away.

"Why won't he come in?"

"It's like the threshold between life and a painful bloody death."

"Your dad set down the rules already, huh?Well, guess I better go. I'll drop by tomorrow, okay?"

"Alright. Madison?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't tell anyone about this, okay. I don't want to be the center of attention."

"Your going to have a hard time covering that up till it heals. Hopefully you don't go out of your way hiding it and
seriously hurt yourself. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah. Bye."

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Okay, that's all I could think of for now. Scared ya, didn't I?? Thought I was going to kill Sakura?
Hey, this thing gets better! Serious plot twist coming up soon. Okay, just to avoid emails asking about
that whole steroids thing, it's all made up, except for the video at school part (Can you believe they made
us watch those? Is that sick or what?!) Hey, look! There's a little space at the bottom of this page! It's
where you put reviews, for anyone who doesn't know and NEVER DOES. Thanks so much to those people who do, though.
Sakura-Chans (yes, that is plural), OR, Lullaby, Kyralea, Digidynasty, Fire Angle, Darkness of Death, Chibi
Sakura, Melzart (okay, I'm going to stop now.), this is for you guys. If I left anyone out, sorry, but I have
to hurry up. My time limit on the net. is at it's end.
P.S. Okay, there's like twenty different authors with the name Annie now.I'm definately going to change mine soon.