A New Semester of Love
Chapter 9: An Accident
The rest of the week passed quickly as everyone got busier and busier with the end of the semester. Friday soon came upon them, and as classes finished for the day, the last weekend of the semester before finals arrived.
Over the week, Tomoyo and Eriol had started to behave more normally around each other, although no one missed noticing the small blushes that still surfaced on their faces every time they looked at or spoke to one another.
Sakura sighed as she dumped her bag down on the floor beside her bed and then flopped onto the bed herself. Tomoyo had been watching her amusedly as she had grumpily thrown open the door and walked in and now smiled at her as she fell onto her bed. "You're finished with class now, right?"
Sakura looked over at her friend. "Yeah…that was my last class." She groaned. "I swear…professors that give big tests on the last day of class and then still give us a final too need to be hit over the head with my star staff."
Tomoyo laughed. "Poor Sakura-chan. Did your test not go well?"
Sakura just groaned again, even louder.
Kero looked at his mistress as he hovered close beside her. "You should have studied more. You were watching tv all night last night."
Sakura glared at the little yellow guardian, took her pillow, and hit him with it.
"Hey!" Kero shouted. "What'd you do that for? I was just…"
"Ooh, look at the time," Tomoyo suddenly interrupted, looking away from the amusing pair before her to look at the clock. "It's five."
Sakura and Kero had stopped glaring at each other to look over at Tomoyo.
"We're supposed to meet the guys down in the lobby at five, then meet Rika-san and Naoko-san at the student union after that," she explained.
"We are?" Sakura-asked.
"Li-kun came down here about an hour ago and asked if we wanted to go with everyone for dinner and a movie tonight. Do you want to go?"
"Ah…sure sure. Sounds like fun," Sakura said. "And it'll be a nice reward for failing my test today." Tomoyo laughed.
"I want to change before I go though," Sakura continued. "So can you go down there and get them to wait for me? It should only be a few minutes."
Tomoyo nodded, grabbed her purse, and with a quick goodbye to Kero, left the room to go meet Syaoran and Eriol. They were both down there when she arrived, and she told them that Sakura would be down in a couple minutes too. Ten minutes passed.
"I wonder what's taking her so long?" Syaoran asked.
"I don't know," Tomoyo replied. "Maybe she's still fighting with Kero-chan. She was before I left."
"If it's not serious, it's cute when they fight," Syaoran said quietly, smiling. Eriol and Tomoyo smiled, glanced at each other, blushed, and looked back toward the staircase where they were expecting Sakura to emerge.
Another five minutes passed. Eriol called Rika and Naoko who were already at the student union and told them they were still waiting on Sakura.
"I'll go get her," Syaoran said finally starting to leave them, when suddenly someone came rushing out from the stairs toward them, looking very frantic.
"You're her friends, aren't you?" the student asked quickly. "You've got to go help her. Someone should call the ambulance."
"What are you talking about?" Eriol asked.
"She fell down the stairs. She's unconscious…"
"Who?" Syaoran quickly interrupted.
"Kinomoto…I think her name is."
Their eyes widened. The color in Syaoran's face faded. He ran back to the stairs, followed quickly by Tomoyo and Eriol. They came across a few people standing around Sakura laying still…very still…at the bottom of the first flight of stairs. Syaoran hurriedly pushed his way through the few other people there and knelt down beside her.
"Sakura!"
Upon seeing Sakura, Tomoyo had suddenly grown faint and fallen to her knees shaking, just staring at her. Eriol quickly left Tomoyo in the care of his roommate that he happened to notice had joined the small crowd and called the ambulance, which, he found, was already on its way. They had already received a couple calls from some others.
Syaoran just sat silently beside Sakura, relieved that he had been able to feel her pulse, but still extremely worried. Sakura…please be okay…
In about another five minutes, they all finally began to hear the sirens of an ambulance approaching. Eriol went out to meet it and came back with a couple paramedics who quickly looked over Sakura, fit a brace around her neck, gently laid her on a stretcher and wheeled her out to the waiting ambulance. Syaoran forced his way into it with her, but only he was successful in doing so. Eriol called a taxi as the ambulance pulled away and soon he and Tomoyo were also on their way to the hospital.
Eriol looked over at the very pale girl who sat next to him. She hadn't spoken a word since she had seen Sakura. I wish I could help her to feel better…but I'm worried too…I don't know how to help…
Tomoyo just kept her eyes looking out the window, not really seeing the city passing by. The vision of Sakura laying there refused to leave her mind. She has to be okay…
They sat there quietly as they made their way, seemingly very slowly, to the hospital. Tomoyo tensed as they finally reached it, hesitating as the taxi stopped in front of its doors. Eriol quickly paid the driver and got out of the taxi, made his way over to Tomoyo's side, and opened the door for her. He took her hand gently to help her out of the car. His eyes widened worriedly as he noticed how cold her hands were, how they were shaking.
She pulled her hand away and stood there a moment longer, looking up at the large hospital in front of her. I'm almost afraid to go in… She shook her head slightly. She'll be okay.
She began walking, Eriol keeping his pace slowly beside her as they walked into the hospital and made their way to the waiting room a woman at the front desk directed them to. They saw Syaoran sitting there alone as they entered the room, his head resting on his hands, looking down. He looked up as they approached, his face still noticeably white.
"Do you know how she is?" Eriol asked hesitantly.
Syaoran shook his head. "They're looking at her now…they said they'd come out and tell me in a little while."
Eriol led a still pale Tomoyo to the seat beside Syaoran, then sat beside her. She sat there staring straight ahead. Eriol reached over and took her cold hand in his, squeezing it gently. She looked at him for a moment, then looked away. She left her hand in his.
They sat there for another hour, not moving. They paid no attention to the others in the room, their thoughts resting only on Sakura. Finally a doctor came through a side door in the waiting room. "Is there a Li Syaoran here?"
Syaoran looked up as he was asked for. "I'm here," he called out softly. The doctor quickly made his way over to them.
"You are waiting for information about Kinomoto-san, correct?" the doctor asked, addressing Syaoran. He nodded his head. The doctor glanced at Tomoyo and Eriol. "Is any of the family present?"
"No…they don't know about it yet," Syaoran replied slowly.
The doctor looked at him. "Her family should be contacted immediately so we can take care of her as we need. We also need insurance information that her family should be able to provide."
"Is she okay?" Syaoran asked.
The doctor nodded. "Basically, one bone in her left arm is broken, her ankle appears to be sprained, and she has a very serious concussion, which is our main concern. But we're quite sure she'll be just fine."
Syaoran let out a shaky breath, not realizing he had been holding his breath the whole time the doctor had been speaking. "Thank you…" he whispered. The doctor smiled at him.
Tomoyo sunk her head down onto one hand, tears of relief spilling slowly out of her eyes. Eriol breathed his own sigh of relief as he heard the news and as he watched the reactions of both his descendent and the girl beside him. Still holding Tomoyo's left hand, he squeezed it gently again. He smiled as he felt her tighten her grasp on his hand. It's all going to be okay.
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End of Chapter 9
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Thank you for your reviews! The next chapter should be up within a couple days I hope. Thank you for reading!