GIVING UP 2: AWAKENINGS
By Vampy
"We'll find her. Said Marit.
"Together."
"But." Said Alfred when he realized something.
"What happened to Ramu for gods sake? Why didn't he take
over command?
"A strange coincident." Said Balthazar sincerely.
"I fear that he was injured. On a very sensitive spot. And
what's really strange, is that he can't heal himself."
"What caused his injury? A dragonsnake?"
"No." Balthazar looked sharply at Haplo and almost
smiled. "It appeared that poor Ramu was bitten by a
dog." *
Felina sighted and dropped the book on her lap while she faced
the sun. It wasn't hot, but it was just perfect. She was wearing
an old T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
Jake was right besides her,
dozing. They were in the middle of a park and she was loving
every minute of it. Children were laughing, playing. People were
talking and having a good time.
Felina could've sworn the people were happier then normal because
of the crime free zone, people were certainly breathing easier.
Jake stirred; she looked at him and smiled. Though he still had a
serious look on his face he was actually relaxing. And that was
all she ever wanted. Jake stirred again and mumbled something.
She perked her ears to hear what he was saying but he kept
silent.
Oh well...
Felina returned the book to her backpack and lay down in the
grass. There was a nasty cloud coming but it would take some time
before it would actual threaten the sun. She suddenly felt very
sleepy and closed her eyes.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Meanwhile at the hospital...
Doctor Smith was giving some of her patients a private check up,
she would do that every now and then to keep in touch and to show
the patients that she wasn't only there for business, she was
also supporting and cared for her patients and they appreciated
that. It was all part of what made her a great doctor. Her final
visit was to someone very special to Megakatcity. T-bone.
Even
though he couldn't hear her, she would visit him to. Simply
because she wanted him to wake up. Even more then the other coma
patients. This was one kat who was noble and needed, and -was-
was the right word. With Megakatcity crime free, who needed the
SWAT kats? Well she could name a few. Herself, his partner, the
mayor, the Enforcers and well, every other citizen who lived
here. They wanted T-bone to wake up because he didn't deserve it
and because they owed him. Him and his partner.
Why was life never easy?
She entered the room, where his still form was lying. 'Okay.' She
thought. 'Happy thoughts.' Over the years she had learned from
experience that it didn't do coma patients good to talk
depressingly towards them. No.. You needed to give them a reason
to come back and since they couldn't hear words but only the
voices, you would have to keep your optimism level high. 'Yeah
right, maybe they'll think: Hey, what's that noise? Are they
having a party without me?! I better wake up!'
She sighed and
walked towards the bed. "Hey T-bone. How are you doing
today?" She picked up the clipboard and told T-bone what it
said. Unfortunately it hadn't changed much since half a year.
She
did however keep the lightness in her voice while she spoke.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Back at the park...
Felina was waking up with a strange feeling. Everything was dark,
why?
She looked up and saw the heavy clouds, the perfect ruining of a
perfect day. People were packing up and making themselves ready
to leave the park. One woman who was sitting on a bench 15 meters
from them pointed at something in her direction. Felina looked at
the lady questioning and pointed at herself. But he woman shook her head and
pointed again. Felina turned around and saw Jake, he was sweating
and trashing about, while murmuring words she couldn't quit catch
except 'T-bone' and 'No'. She kneeled besides him and grabbed him by
the shoulders to shake him awake, but he started to fight her.
She cursed. "Damn it Jake, snap out of it." She slapt
him in the face, hard. He was awake a second after impact.
"Wha.." He was shaky. Felina was still holding his
shoulders so she let go. He blinked. It was obvious he wasn't
clear-headed right then so Felina helped him a bit.
"That was quite a nightmare you had there, bud." She smiled at him, trying to
give him some comfort. But all Jake seemed to hear was the word 'bud'. She realized her
mistake...
"Oh, I didn't mean to.. I would never try to replace
T-bone.. " He shook his head while telling her that it was okay, but his
voice told her otherwise.
"Do you want to talk about
it?"
He looked up surprised. "About what?"
Felina
was sitting in a crouch, ready for a little opening up. "You
know, about the dream..." He gave her one unbelieving look,
stood up and left. Felina was startled. "Jake?"
Jake turned around, but didn't stop moving. "I have to work
on some gadgets. I'll see you.. some other time..."
Felina stood
up. "Jake, the city is crime free.." *Sigh* "You don't have to talk
to me, just... "
Jake stopped moving. "You don't have
to tell me what to do! I'll do whatever I want!"
A child
started crying and it started raining. Felina looked up.
"Oh, great." She mumbled. "Listen Jake, we could
watch a movie or something." It sounded hopefull but Jake
was having nothing of that.
"I'm not in the mood, I'll see
you later... much later..." And with that he turned and
left. Felina balled her fist and wanted to curse the rain but
instead kicked a can into a garbage can. A smile appeared on her
face for that but it quickly faded away. A crime free city alone
just wasn't enough.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
A thunder crack echoed trough the city. Doctor Smith sighed and
closed the window of T-bones room. She was about to leave when
she remembered she hadn't put the clipboard back on the bed.
While she turned back she saw T-bones eye flutter.
She froze.
Had
it been her imagination?
It hadn't been, T-bone blinked again and
turned his head. She dropped the clipboard, and it fell clatering to the floor.
"T-bone?"
He closed his eyes again. Doctor Smith looked at the hearth
monitor and saw he was quite upset. "T-bone? Listen you have
to stay awake for a while so I can explain what happened."
He opened his eyes again. And tried to sit up. "What the..
Where am I?"
Doctor Smith held him down. "Easy there,
you're at the hospital." She couldn't believe this just
happened, it wasn't normally that people came out of a half year
of coma. But apparently Chance was someone who did.
He wasn't satisfied with the
answer though. "What happened? How did I get here?" She
ignored the questions for a while, while she checked his
condition. He was doing reasonable fine, so she took a chair to
have a talk with him. "What's the last thing you
remember?"
Knowing she would stay with him comforted T-bone.
"I don't know. It's all fuzzy. How did I end up in
here?"
She smiled and took his paw; surprisingly he didn't
take it back but allowed it. "You were shot, in the chest
near the hart, you almost died because of it but apparently you
survived. Do you remember you're name?" T-bone eyes became
splits. "My name is Ch.. T-bone." She had to smile at
that, even though he was a mess he knew when to say his real name
and when to don't. "Well, T-bone, My name is Smith. And I
think I should be calling a very worried friend of yours."
T-bones eyes became large. "Jake! Where is he? Is he all
right? Why isn't he here?" She stood up to ring the nurse
call and as suspected a nursed entered the room. "She will
keep you company, but try to get some rest, I'll call you're
friend. There's nothing to worry about." T-bone couldn't do
any other thing then nod. He had the feeling he was forgetting
the world but he was too tired to care at a certain point. Jake
would be here soon and everything would be okay after that. He
let the nurse tuck him in. She had the weirdest excited look on
her face that he'd ever seen. Why?... But he was asleep before he
could find it out.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
At the scrape yard...
Jake was rubbing his eyes. He had some plans before him on the
table. They were one-year-old designs but they didn't made much
sense anymore. The answering machine was blaring out a message of
Feral in which he reported the progress of the Mariah case. Jake
listened and had to think of the little girl that was raped and
brutally murdered by Dennis Clover. He sighed, and hoped the
bastard didn't enjoy his stay in prison.
Today at the park, the people had been so... Well happy.
Careless. Normal. It had been because of the crime-free thing but
he knew it wouldn't last very long. Megakatcity had been a crime
free zone three months ago. But the villains had gotten back just
as hard. But it still felt good. As long as you didn't think
about the fact that it did existed, or had existed.
Mariah Perry had been killed and for that he wouldn't be able to sleep very well
the upcoming weeks. He couldn't help seeing the picture of her he had found on
her file. 17 years. No parents. She had been an orphan but she had managed to
survive since she was already in college. She had friends, maybe no family but
she had friends, she had a life.
He knew all of that from the investigation he had held before
Dark kat appeared and he had to take care of that. Mariah Perry.
He would've given his life for her. But somehow that didn't make
a difference. He dropped the designs. They didn't make sense and
they wouldn't make sense. He had to start all over, but didn't
know where to start.
He was about to take a sip of water when the phone rang and he
almost choked in it. The answering machine took over. There
wasn't a message. Just a beep but most people understood that it was
an answering machine and that the people who owned it weren't home at the moment so they
could leave a message.
The beep was followed with doctor Smith, cursing.
Jake attention was peeked. Better yet, he was terrified.
Smith seemed to be getting control of herself. "Jake...
fuck, I don't know how to tell you this, I would rather say it
right to your face, not to a machine..." Jake was to the
phone immediately. "Smith? What's wrong?"
"Jake! Thank goodness your there. Come to the hospital
immediately. Chance woke up a few minutes ago. Isn't that
great?"
Jake was stunned. "Wha..."
"Jake didn't you hear what I said? He's awake!"
"Who's awake?"
"Jake.. Listen to me. Chance is awake; he's going to be all
right. He's out of his coma!"
"But, but.."
"Isn't that.."
"NO!" Jake yelled. Smith was utterly surprised.
"NO! It's not all right. They asked me to pull the plug,
they advised me to.. to.."
"Oh, Jake, listen to me. You did the right thing. They were
wrong, you gave Chance a chance to survive and he did. He
survived Jake. The only problem you've got is how you're ever
going to tell him what happened to the Turbokat."
"The turbokat? Oh I don't know.."
There was a long pause and Smith waited. Eventually Jake realized
what she had tolled him.
"HE'S WHAT?"
"Jake, I'm not going to tell you again, get your tail to the
hospital, NOW!" She waited for a response, maybe a good-bye,
but there was nothing.
At the scrape yard a phone was bungling from its line while a
door slammed shut.
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
The heart monitor was unhooked, and standing next to Chances bed
doing nothing. It was the first thing Jake noticed when he
entered the room. On one site it freaked him out because it
wasn't the way it was supposed to be but on the other side.. It
meant Chance didn't need it anymore. Jake walked to the bed.
Careful, not to wake the occupant up. When he saw Chances face he
frowned. There hadn't been many changes. He looked back to the
open door. No one was there. It was all just like before. Chance
was still...
Chance stirred and turned to lie on his side. Jake eyes went wide
and his legs couldn't hold him anymore. He sat down in the chair,
tears streaming from his eyes; it wasn't just of cheer joy but
also of unbelief and frustration. It just was too much after one
year.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and another one holding out a hanky for him.
He took it and nodded gratefully at Smith. When she spoke it
sounded soft and soothing, like a real professional. "The
first thing that he wanted to know, was how you were doing. He's
a true friend Jake and so are you."
He had whipped away the tears. "I still can't believe
it." He said. "I had given up hope you know. The only
reason why I couldn't pull the plug was... because it would be as
if I was killing him. I never believed he would wake up. But he
did. And now... I don't know what to do..."
Diana sighed. "I know, it's hard, specially for you but you
shouldn't be worrying so much. The first thing to concern is that
he gets settled in. You can answer his question later.
Okay?" She looked Jake in the eyes and he nodded.
"I'll do that. When do you think he'll wake up?"
Smith looked at the clock and then smiled. "Not for a very
long time. I think he'll.. " Then she noticed the blood on
the floor. "Jake are you bleeding?"
Jake looked up with a confused look on his face. "No,
why.." Then he saw a small patch of blood on the floor.
Smith was kneeling on the floor and took his foot. "Seems
like you stepped into something."
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Chance heard voices. 'What the?' His eyes were too tired to open
so he listened.
"Really, I swear you wouldn't had noticed if you had been
hit by a truck." *Laughter* The laughter stopped abruptly by
a laud yell of triumph and a mild swear. "There, there, that
wasn't so bad now was it?"
"Oh, it wasn't?!? I could've sworn that was bad! What did
you pull out? A propeller or something? Jesus!"
Chance shot up, he recognized that voice. "JAKE?"
Jake looked up, from where he was lying on the other bed, eyes
wide. He managed a smile. "Chance! About time you woke
up..." But his voice broke.
"What the hell happened buddy?" Chance tried to sit up
but his muscles were too stiff.
Jake stood up, Smith wanted to comment that she bandage the wound
first but she left instead, closing the door so the two friends
would have some privacy.
"You better lie back down." Jake commented.
"You've been out of it quite a while..."
Chance nodded and lied back. Jake just stood there, lost. Chance
noticed this and asked what was wrong.
"I'm just glad you're okay. You've been.. You were shot,
near the hearth." Jake looked down, not willing to face the
confused look on Chances face.
"What?! I feel pretty darn good to be shot down. Well.. My
body aches but I don't feel as if I was shot down." Chance
shook his head. "What the hell is going on?"
Jake sighed and sat in the chair.
Chance wanted his answers. "Jake what happened? What's going
on?"
Jake looked up, his eyes teary. "Chance, You've been in a
coma for over a year."
"WHAT?!"
"That's why your wound had time to heal." Jake stood
up. "That's why you muscles feel so stiff, it's because you
haven't used them for over a year."
"No.." Chance couldn't believe it. "No, this can't
be... Jake?"
Jake had turned his back to Chance. "Believe it
Chance." 'I had to do so, too.'
Chance was starting to get up again. And Jake had to push him
back gently. But Chance wouldn't stay down. He looked Jake right
in the eyes. "What happened Jake? Who put me in this
hospital? Why won't anyone tell me?"
Jake turned his face. "I'll tell you later, I promise but
let's just wait till things settle down."
Chance was silent and wondered what Jake couldn't face himself.
"Are you okay?"
Jake looked up at him and smiled. "I'm fine. Now that you're
back.. Everything is going to be all right." He hugged
Chance and Chance hugged him back. "Don't you ever scare me
like that again!"
Chance grinned. "What you didn't think I could make
it?"
* This is an exerpt from one of my favorite books, called "The Gate Of Death" From Weiss & Hickman.
