Chapter 11: Finding Help
One hour later, Michiru was close to crying. She had been dragging the wounded Haruka towards the light for more than sixty minutes now, and still the light seemed to be as far away as it had been when she had started to walk. The fact that Haruka hung down on her side, still unconscious, didn't exactly help; more likely, it made it almost impossible for the aqua haired girl to walk on. Her strength had vanished in the last fifteen minutes, and she didn't know how long she could go on. Finally, the aqua haired girl decided to rest. She gently placed Haruka on the earthy ground and knelt down next to her, taking the blonde woman's hand into hers. "Hey." Michiru whispered, tears welling up in her eyes, "come on…wake up. Please…" Haruka didn't react; her chest kept rising and falling steadily, and the bleeding had stopped, but still she didn't wake up. "I can't go on." Michiru now sobbed, hiding her face in the taller woman's healthy shoulder. "Please, wake up…I can't loose you, not now…" Still, the blonde didn't show the slightest reaction; she didn't even stir. "Wake up, dammit!" Michiru suddenly shouted, all her fear, tiredness and worry breaking out of her in one huge outburst. "Please, Haruka, wake up!" And suddenly, the blonde let out a small groan. Michiru stared at her, wide eyed, and her eyeballs nearly fell out of their sockets when Harukas eyelids started to flutter – before they sprang upwards and Haruka looked at her. "Mi…Michiru?" the blonde whispered, her voice weak and even huskier than usual. "What…what happened?" Michiru started to cry again, the tears running down her face like two small rivers. "The driver of the Yakuza car managed to shoot you before their vehicle exploded…oh God, I thought that you would die…" "Hey." Haruka whispered, managing to sit up with rather big effort. "I won't die. Not as long as you are with me." Michiru gave her a tiny smile through her tears and asked: "Promise?" Haruka smiled back, although the pain she was in clearly showed in her eyes, and replied: "Promise." Michiru let out a happy sigh and gently kissed the blonde, before she pointed at the light she had been approaching before. "I think that there is house where people can help us." She spoke, looking at Haruka. "Your wound needs to be at least cleaned…maybe we are lucky and a doctor lives up there, who can take real care of it." Haruka nodded, coming to her feet. She moaned in pain for a second, her hand flying up to her wounded shoulder, which brought her a worried look from her lover. "Are you sure that you can walk? If not, you can stay here and I'll run up there alone and get some help…" the aqua haired girl offered, but that suggestion didn't seem very appealing to the blonde. "No way!" she now protested, glaring at her girlfriend. "I won't let you run through the dark alone. Nobody knows if there are still Yakuza marching around here." Michiru frowned at her lover. "Haruka, darling, you wouldn't be able to do much to them anyway. You're hurt!" "Yeah, but I still have my gun." The blonde replied, patting the handle of her weapon, which was back to where it had been before the attack: in the waistband of her jeans. "Okay." Michiru finally agreed with a sigh, realizing that her girlfriend wouldn't allow her to go alone. Haruka gave her a toothy grin, and soon, the two woman were walking towards the light again.
Ami Mizuno and her girlfriend Makoto Kino were sitting in their small house, enjoying dinner and the sitcom they were watching while eating when their peaceful evening suddenly got disturbed. A loud knock came from their front door, causing both women to look up. "Who could that be, at that time?" Makoto wondered out loud. Ami shrugged and stood up, walking out of the living room and over to the door. Upon opening it, she had to keep herself from letting out a shocked yelp. In front of their house, a young aqua haired woman stood, crying. She was holding an older blonde woman, who was obviously unconscious and bleeding from a wound in her shoulder. "My God…" Ami whispered, but before she could ask anything, the aqua haired woman started to stammer out words. "Help her, please…she broke down again…please, she needs help…" Ami stood still for a moment, then she yelled as loud as she could: "Makoto!"
Twenty minutes later, Haruka laid on a comfy couch in the living room while Makoto, Ami and Michiru sat at the dinner table and Michiru told them what had happened. "…and then we started to walk again, but suddenly, Haruka started to gasp for air…and before I had the chance to ask her what was wrong, she had broken down again." The aqua haired girl spoke softly, her eyes not living the surface of the desk. "Well…" Ami mumbled as soon as the aqua haired girl had stopped talking, "I am a doctor…but I can't help your lover as much as I want to. I don't have my utensils here…all I can do is clean the wound, stitch it up and bandage it, but if she really started to gasp, her lung's probably hurt. She should be taken to a hospital immediately." "We can't go to a hospital." Michiru replied, her eyes filling with tears again. "They would arrest her as soon as we walk through the front door..." "Michiru's right, Ami." Makoto agreed, looking at the aqua haired girl with sympathy in her eyes. "You should do what you can for Haruka…then we can think about what we do next." Ami finally nodded and agreed, after thinking about it for a while. "Okay. I'll get my utensils and take care of her wound…Michiru, maybe you should try to sleep a little. You look pretty exhausted." Michiru nodded, giving the two women a thankful look. "Thanks." She then whispered while Makoto rose from her chair. "No problem." The tall brunette replied. "Come on, I'll show you our guestroom. You can take a little nap there." The two left the room while Ami carefully undressed Harukas upper body and started to work on her wound.
Five minutes later, Makoto returned into the living room. "She sleeps." The brunette informed her girlfriend, who nodded. "Good…you think we should call the police?" Makoto sighed and nodded. "I'm afraid we have to…" Ami nodded and let out a small sigh, too. "I really hate it to act in such a traitorous way…but Haruka needs a hospital as soon as possible. Otherwise, she'll die." Makoto went pale, but Ami didn't give any more explanations, and so the brunette went to the phone and called the police. From her position in the living room, Ami could hear every single word her girlfriend spoke. "Am I talking with Inspector van Dyk? … Good … yeah, I'm calling because of the bank robber you are after. She's here in our house. What…? No. Really? Oh, okay…" Makoto gave her address to the inspector, then hung up the phone and returned into the living room. "They'll be here as soon as possible." She quietly spoke before she looked down on Haruka. "I'm sorry." The brunette whispered, then turned around and left while Ami finished tending to their guests wound, her thoughts circling about what they had done all the time.