"KIA! Kia, please DON'T leave!" Sage cried, shaking her violently as hot tears streamed down his face. His anxiety and fear rose to conquer his body and he soon pushed the doctor over, taking control on giving Kia CPR.
The doctor knew what he had to do. "Just push on her chest with the same beat as your own heart. Never lose that rhythm." The doctor hung over his shoulder, directing Sage through it and watching Kia warily.
Sage tried desperately to concentrate on keeping the rhythm and pumping Kia's chest with the beat of his own heart, which wasn't anywhere near normal beating level. He kept going, losing track of the physical as he stared at Kia's eyes.
They were clear now, the blood drained out of them, as if her body needed that blood to fuel itself; but it wasn't enough to bring her back to life.
While Sage was busy trying to keep the rhythm regular, the doctor grabbed one of Kia's wrists and searched for a pulse. He hesitated to speak, "... Sage." Even though he didn't reply, the doctor went on, "Sage, it's been almost five minutes. She doesn't have a pulse."
Sage squeezed his eyes shut, a single solitary tear rolling down his face. But he still kept going, finally taking a single deep breath and pressing his lips to hers, forcing precious air into her mouth.
With one, loud, hard cough, Kia came back into awareness, dark liquid spilling out of her mouth and her eyes closing tight. She curved her body and wailed long and deeply.
Sage almost started crying with happiness, "Kia!" But before he could do anything more, the doctor shoved him aside and quickly went to work on her exposed and wounded side. She kept her eyes shut as she cried in pain, tiredly moving her body in response to the excruciating sting located in her right side. But the doctor just kept going, tearing shreds of material and white gauze bandages from his black bag and applying them to Kia's wound.
After about five minutes, the doctor sat back, sighing and rubbing his forehead with his sleeve, "I think I'm done."
"What do you mean you think you're done?" Sage asked incredulously.
"I'm done with what I can do. The wound must heal itself from here on," he replied, packing his bag.
"You mean, she's gonna be alright?"
"It's one of the deepest cuts that I've ever seen. But with much rest and a lot of liquids, she should heal in time. She's lost too much blood as it is, so make absolutely sure that she gets her liquids. She has a punctured lung and it needs to heal before she attempts to do anything that requires much breathing." Dr. Iha stopped to look at Sage, "You got that?"
He nodded quickly.
The doctor sighed as he looked at the red blood bath that Kia was lying in. "I really don't know how you are going to clean this up."
"We'll take care of it. Can you go out in the hall and see if her husba-" Sage hesitated, "... my friend is all right?" Sage asked, his tone weaker than normal.
"Sure, then I think I'll leave. Please call my office when she gets better suited to consciousness. I want to check up on her in a week. Okay?"
"Okay. Thank you so much," Sage waved as he walked out of the room. Then with a sigh, he turned back to Kia.
***
The doctor walked out of the room and immediately noticed Rowen on the ground, with a small black-haired girl asleep in his arms. He smiled when he noticed that Rowen was also sleeping. Deciding to leave them alone, he walked out of the hall and outside, to drive away in his car.
The glare of the car's headlights woke Rowen up. He startled himself, and seeing Ayame in his arms he tried to stand up without waking her, which he accomplished successfully. He went over to the family room and set her down on the couch - with a soft smile. Just as he was about to turn back to head to the room where Kia had fallen, Sage met up with him in the hallway, drenched in blood up to his elbows.
"Is... she all right?" Rowen asked, quickly and gravely, his eyes wide with something close to fear as he stared at Sage's arms.
Sage nodded his head firmly, "Yeah, she's going to be okay. I can't thank that doctor enough."
Rowen went to sit back down on a chair in the family room. "I can't believe this."
Sage sighed and leaned back against the wall he was standing near. With a tone close to shock, he replied, "We are so damn lucky."
"What do you mean we? It's Kia that has cheated death too many times. And I have no idea how we are going to get that room cleaned up."
Sage shifted uncomfortably, "Just don't worry about that right now. All I want to know is that Kia is alive."
"I know, I know. I'm sorry, it's just that... well, I still can't believe that all of that just happened." He sighed and clenched both his hands, staring at them as though he couldn't believe that he was still standing. "And to say the truth, maybe she overreacted just a little."
Sage clenched his teeth and took a deep breath. "What do you mean?"
Rowen slightly shook his head and mumbled, "Never mind."
Sage sighed and let his gaze drifted over to the couch, and he noticed Ayame, "How's Aya?"
Rowen looked up to his daughter, "I think she'll be all right. Although I might have scared her. I told her not to go in that room after she asked where Kia was."
"Maybe she'll forget about tonight... I mean, she didn't really see anything, did she?" Sage glanced at Rowen, who shook his head. Sage sighed again, and moved over to the kitchen to clean his arms.
Listening to the sound of running water, Rowen soon fell into a deep sleep. His body was so tired from stress, worry, and anxiety, that Rowen couldn't stop the force inside of him that sent him off into sleep.
Sage re-entered the room a few moments later, drying his arms with a towel. He was about to ask Rowen something, but after he realized that Rowen was sleeping soundly on the couch, he decided to leave him alone. His mind drifted back to Kia and he walked back down the hallway and went into the den where Kia lay.
***
Kia was still somewhat conscious, her voice groaning softly. Her shirt was pushed up to her neckline, needless to say that it was almost black in color. The white bandage tightly wrapped just under and over her bosom showed that she was in no condition to do anything. The massive heap of blood-drenched blankets lying beside her on the floor and the few eye-catching stains on the carpet clearly illustrated the scene that had not happened too long ago.
Sage walked up to Kia's side and knelt down next to her. He took one of her hands and pressed her knuckles against his lips, kissing them softly.
Kia sighed in agony, moving her head back and forth, her eyes still shut.
Sage then decided that he would carry Kia upstairs to her bedroom where she might be able to rest better. Being very careful as to not touch her injured side, he scooped Kia into his arms, her body curving like a wet noodle. Her hair was full of dried blood, limp and brown, as it hung off the side of one of Sage's arms. She continued to moan as Sage walked up to the stairs, her mind conscious but her physical self unaware of her surroundings.
Sage pushed her bedroom door open with his foot and carried her over to her bed. He slowly and softly laid her on the covers, slithering his arms out from underneath her with utmost care.
Eyeing Kia's weak body up and down, he sighed, grateful that she was still alive. Then he turned around to leave the room. Closing the door behind him, he went back to his own bedroom, too tired to do anything else.
***
"Hey Sage!"
Sage sighed and rolled over in the mess of covers that he was resting in.
"Sage! Wake up!" Rowen walked over to his side and shook him slightly. "Kia is awake!"
Sage didn't have to hear anymore before his jolted out of his bed and ran to follow Rowen, who led him down the hall to their own bedroom.
When Sage walked into the room, he was struck by a mix of concern and happiness. Kia was sitting up in bed, Ayame lying beside her. Kia had one of her arms braced around her daughter's shoulder and Ayame had her pink stuffed dog lying on her mom's stomach.
"Oh my- Kia!" Sage cried, running over to her side. Kia's eyes brightened when she caught Sage's eyes, the violet bright with some emotion higher than delight. "How are you feeling?"
Kia shifted in place, grimacing when her right side touched the edge of the bed, but she managed to smile, "I'll be all right, Sage."
"Gods, I'm so happy-"
"What happened anyways?" Kia suddenly asked, her tone filled with question and uncertainty. "All I remember seeing is Natsuki, then blackness. Did I fall on something?" Kia gestured to her right side, looking at it for only a moment before she flicked her eyes to Rowen and Sage.
Rowen sighed and ran a hand loosely through his hair. He knew what happened, but to some extent, he didn't want Kia to know. Not yet.
Kia did not want the silence as an answer. "Ayame, can you go downstairs and look for a really big band-aid?"
Ayame smiled brightly and left the room with an, "Okay, mommy."
"Now can you tell me what happened?" Kia tried again, looking to Rowen and Sage and back again.
"Kia," Rowen started off slowly, "You're going to be fine."
"The doctor told me that you need lots of rest and fluids. You have a deep puncture in your lung and-"
"I don't need to know the obvious! Just tell me how I got like this!" Kia yelled, staring at Sage.
"To put it into simplest terms, Natsuki stabbed you." Sage blurted out, looking at the floor, the bed, the window - anywhere but into Kia's eyes.
Kia went quiet. "Wha... how... how did she-"
"I guess that she had a knife in her purse and she threw it at you, somehow nailing you right in the side. That's the best I can explain it," Sage finished his sentence with a long sigh. "I know it seems unbelievable, but-"
"Sage, just... just stop." Rowen cut into his sentence, glancing at Kia, who sat in her bed, deathly quiet.
Kia had both arms crossed around her chest, her left hand twirling a loose piece of the bandage. Her eyes were fixed on the window that was across the room, but they were filled with reflections that neither Sage nor Rowen could fathom.
But Kia sat motionless, only her eyes darting back and forth across the windowpane as innumerable ran through her head.
"You're going to be fine, Kia. Natsuki is gone and I don't think that she is going to come back after what she did," Sage softly commented.
Kia squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her fingers against them as she tried to stop the vision that kept haunting her mind. She couldn't see Natsuki stabbing her - it was a thought that refused to stick in her head. Yet here she was, sitting up in her own bed, conscious and hearing the truth from her husband and Sage.
"Why?" Kia asked, suddenly moving her eyes away from the window and looking back and forth between Sage and Rowen.
Sage couldn't make out a single sentence, "I... ah... she..."
"Obviously she didn't like the fact that you're pregnant, Kia," Rowen replied, his tone strong and confident. In fact, the way he said it made Kia wonder if Rowen was still on her side. "but we don't know where she ran off to. So don't worry about her, okay, Kia?"
Kia's voice was trembling as she spoke, "Okay, Rowen."
In despair, Sage grabbed Kia's hand and held it tightly, as if he meant to squeeze any remaining fear from her, "Kia. You are going to be fine, all right? Nothing more is going to happen to you. I'm going to stay here and never leave." His eyes clung to Kia's with hope, wanting her approval. He smiled when Kia nodded her head.
"Now, why don't you get some rest, Kia? Sage just said that you need lots of it."
Kia slowly nodded her head, biting her bottom lip as she snuggled her body back into the covers.
Ayame came prancing back into the room, with her a large band-aid. "Here's the bad-aid, mo-"
Rowen shushed her and picked her up, "Mommy is fine without it for now, Ayame. Let's go back downstairs and make some hot chocolate, okay?"
Ayame's face brightened and she dropped the band-aid from her hand. Sage slowly followed after them, closing the door behind him softly as he left the room.