Disclaimer: Alright, I'm not Gosho Aoyama sensei, so I don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito. The characters and anything else from those series don't belong to me and copyrights of their respective owners.

If I Knew

By: mysteriousangelgirl

Chapter 4: Come Back to Me

"Ran......" a voice called out.

"Shinichi?" Ran leaned toward the boy on the bed next to her chair and was disappointed and heartbroken to find that he wasn't the one calling her name.

"Ran......where are you? I can't see you in the dark," the voice said.

"I.....who are you?"

Ran almost screamed as a hand came down on her shoulder.

"Shhh!" the person said, as they kneeled down next to Ran. "It's just me, Ran."

"Aoko! What are you doing here? I thought everyone went home after I came in here."

"Well, we did. I snuck out because I was worried about you, and well, Kudo-kun too....." Aoko tilted her head to look at the dark figure on the hospital bed. His pale face was only barely visible with the streak of moonlight coming from the window. "I heard that his condition hasn't improved much."

"Oh....." Ran sniffled. Then the tears just broke loose and began tumbling down her face. "It's all my fault," she said softly between sobs. "If I hadn't let Shinichi go that day at the amusement park, then he never would have become Conan, never got tangled up in that dangerous mess, and didn't have to be like this...."

Aoko put her arms around her friend and tried to comfort her. "Ran, and you should be talking. Think about what Kudo-kun did to you. He left you on an empty promise and only a few phone calls, runs off on you some many times, and then doesn't do anything when you cry for him."

"Aoko." Ran's voice was hoarse from crying, but her tone was serious. "He had a reason, a good one. If he had told me, if he had done that, he would have put me in danger and I know that, from Shinichi's personality, he wouldn't do that.....for anyone, not just me."

"Ran....." Aoko pulled her in close for a hug. "Let's just wait until morning, okay? You're just tiring yourself and when Kudo-kun wakes up, you would have the energy to even hug him!" she whispered in her friend's ear.

"If you mean....if he wakes up....." Ran was soon fast asleep on Aoko's shoulder. Aoko smiled lightly then gently carried her friend to the sofa in the hospital room. As she pulled her jacket over Ran, she glanced over at the still lifeless Shinichi.

"Please wake up and come back to Ran, Kudo-kun......if you don't come back to her, she won't be only one suffering......." Aoko bent down and whispered in Ran's ear. "I can't stay but I'll be back in the morning." Even if Ran didn't hear, Aoko slipped from the room noiselessly and was back in her room as if she never left in a few minutes. She lay in bed for a while before whispering a prayer. Please let Kudo-kun come back to Ran......

the following morning

Ran woke up and stretched. She yawned as she got up from the couch in which Aoko must have moved her too. As she walked over to Shinichi's bed, she was still very saddened and disappointed to find that he hadn't woken up. Ran kissed him gently on the cheek and then, holding Aoko's jacket, left the room to get a quick breakfast. On her way to the nearby store, she met up with her father, who was just going to the hospital to go look for her.

As daughter and father walked back toward the hospital, they talked a bit about how fast things were happening and what the future would look like.

"Well, Ran, I heard about your detective friend.....and I called up your mother.......and....." Kogoro said, quite seriously.

"You....you called Mom???" Ran looked at her father questioningly.

"Yes I did. Even though I still don't quite get along with her, I asked to talk to her face to face and we did. She, let's sit down for a bit," Kogoro and Ran had arrived at Beika Central Park.

As the two sat down under a big maple tree, Kogoro continued, "We talked stuff over like that we had both been mad at each other, but then we talked about you, about your future and finally decided that you need both of us. We've been separated for so long just because of one little disagreement and you don't deserve that. You mother and I are doing are best to keep from fighting and we're sorry we gave such a bad experience when you younger. You mother's moving back in about a week or so, just to let you know."

"Really? I knew you'd work things out with Mom!!" Ran hugged her father.

Kogoro looked surprised for minute, before a smile spread over his face. As Ran let go of her father, Kogoro put a hand on her shoulder and said, "I know about that detective and how serious his condition is, so I'll wait until he gets better to yell at him. Now let's go home for a while, okay?"

"But Dad, I have to watch Shinichi, he-"

Kogoro sighed awfully loud. "I guess your mother was right when she said you wouldn't leave that idiot until he woke up. Fine, go back to him, but when he's well enough, you've got to come home and get some rest, okay?"

Ran nodded, as she stood up with her father. "Well, I'll be seeing you and Mom later...and I'll call if something happens or if Shinichi wakes up, okay?"

Kogoro nodded and then he turned and walked in the direction of home as Ran returned to the hospital. She reentered Shinichi's room and glanced at the boy on the bed again. He was still very pale and unconscious. Come back to me Shinichi, please. Ran forced herself to not cry. Just as Ran dropped her bags on the sofa next to Aoko's jacket, a doctor knocked and came into the room.

"You're Mouri Ran, right?"

Ran nodded.

"You want to know the, I mean excuse me, your friend's condition?"

Ran nodded again.

"Okay, so he's doing a bit better. One bullet when through his left shoulder, and even as it was quite close to the heart, it didn't harm anything. The bullet that went through his stomach did scrape a few organs, which is why he's not in real good condition yet, but he's going to live, which compared to the other patients here, is a great miracle." The doctor smiled. "Tell your friend when he wakes up, that he's one strong guy." The doctor winked and turned to walk out of the room, but turned back to see Ran crying.

"What...wha..what's wrong?" He came over and put a hand on her shoulder.

"No...nothing...I'm just....so happy that Shinichi's going to live.....did your really say that he'll wake up, did you?" Ran rubbed her eyes, trying to stop the tears that she had been holding back.

The doctor patted Ran on the back. "Yes, your friend is going to live."

Ran smiled as another round of tears came running down her face. "Thank you, thank you......I've got to call my friends!!" Ran wiped her tears and was just about to leave when someone groaned.

Shinichi?

"Shinichi??"

"Yeah....it's me....." the boy said as he sat up in his bed, holding his stomach and groaning at the pain. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"Shinichi!!!!" Ran ran back to her friend and threw arms around him, causing him to whine in pain, but she didn't care. He, her childhood friend and the only one she would ever truly love, was alive.

Shinichi gently embraced Ran as the doctor smiled, before leaving quietly to not disturb the happy reunion of the two lovers.

"Ran!" Shinichi said after Ran left go of him, "You look so tired and pale....you know you shouldn't be waiting for me here...." Shinichi frowned at her.

"But if I wasn't here, I wouldn't be able to see you wake up!" Ran smiled, holding back the urge to hug Shinichi again.

Shinichi smiled. "And now I suppose you're going to hop out of that chair, rush to the pay phone down the hall and get the gang here, right?" He grinned.

Ran smiled as she stood up. "Just what I was going to do. Now you had better not go anywhere!!" Ran ran from the room, a true smile on her face after all these years.

Shinichi smiled. You think I can actually get anywhere like this? Besides, I will never, ever leave your side ever again, Ran. Never, I swear that to you. Shinichi leaned against the back of the bed and tilted his head to the left when the door opened. He was just going to ask how Ran could make so many phone calls so fast when he saw who his visitor was.

"Haibara......what are you doing here?" Ai carried a bouquet of flowers, which she put in the vase on the nightstand next to the hospital bed in which he lay.

"What, am I not allowed to come visit you?"

"No....it's just that I'm surprised that you'd come.....I mean....after that blowout I had last time.....I didn't think you'd ever want to speak to me again.....and well....." Shinichi didn't know how to apologize.

Ai stood next to him, her arms crossed. She had remained as Haibara Ai. She never wanted to be Miyano Shiho again, so she left her past and her sister behind and finally began a clean life as Haibara Ai.

"You know why I didn't take the antidote?" she suddenly asked.

"Yes, well actually no.....I could guess, but I don't know for a fact." Shinichi answered, looking at the young girl in front of him.

"Well, since Mouri-san isn't here at the moment, I think it'll be easy for me to explain." Ai took a deep breath. "I loved you, Kudo Shinichi."

It was so abrupt that Shinichi was paralyzed. "You......you.....what??"

"It's alright. Although your reaction was a bit different from what I had anticipated, that's okay."

"What?"

"Ever since I met you, I fell in love. You gave me everything I had missed out on when I was really a kid. You, along with those cute kids, gave me friendship, fun, laughter, and the courage to move on in life. You were just so innocent with those kids. You made me feel like life was actually something besides the drug. You never blamed me for the drug and how it ruined your life, destroying the life that took you so long to build. Yet never once did you shout and lose control, well at least not aimed toward me. I know you did inside you, but you tried so hard to not let it show to me and to you basically was everything to me. Without you, if you had been taken away, I think I would have shrunk back into that cold, icy girl I was when I first met you. I didn't want to see you hurt, and I could tell you really wanted to meet up with Mouri-san again. I worked hard on that antidote and with the few scraps of information you and I had collected, along with a great stroke of luck, I found the antidote.

When you came in that day, I knew you were upset because Mouri-san must have been crying for you again, because that's the most upsetting thing to you, ore should I put it, the only thing that upsets you, and when you blew up at me, well that was expected. You've been stuck in a child's body, watching your best friend crying for you, even as you're standing right next to her, for over a year now. I was also the one who put you in that situation and watching you get upset and blaming yourself really made me feel bad...."

"Ai....you know you don't have to tell me this...." the teenager said softly, not daring to look at the brown-haired girl.

"I know, but I want to, no I need to. So listen to me. I didn't take the antidote because, I know you Kudo Shinichi, you loved Mouri Ran and nothing will ever change her place in your heart, no matter how hard I try, I'll only be a friend to you...."

"A good friend," Shinichi put in.

"Thank you. But as I was saying, I also didn't want to return to what you tried to help me put behind me, and being Haibara Ai is, well better. I know you don't care, but I just want to let you know that.......I just want you to be happy, okay?" Ai sighed. Whew....that took a long time. Well, at least I got it all out. Just as Ai was going to say 'then that's it for now, goodbye', she heard a gasp behind her. Ai turned and saw what she dreaded. It was Ran, she was staring, with her mouth hanging open, as if she had seen a ghost.

Ai said a soft good-bye and then rushed to get out of the hospital room. Just as she opened the door, Ran looked up at her and smiled. "Thank you, Ai. Thank you so much....."

Ai froze. She had never felt so welcome in her life. Someone was thanking her! Ai smiled, truly this time and tilted her backwards to glance back at the smiling detective and his girlfriend. "Well, congrats, Edogawa, and I'll see you sometime soon!" Wit that, Ai walked out, shut the door behind and left the hospital with a smile that no one had seen in the last 5 years.

Back in the hospital room, Ran walked over to her beloved friend and gave him a light peck on the cheek. He immediately reddened by their contact but smiled and hugged her.

"So, what did you talk about with Ai?" Ran asked, speaking in his hospital gown.

"Not much, just a few....things....." Shinichi said into Ran's hair.

Ran snorted. "Yeah right, but then again that's your business and I don't want to ruin are moment together......"

Shinichi smiled. "Alright, so when's-" he was cut off of saying 'when's everyone going to get here?' as the door slammed open and crowd of people came rushing in all yelling, "he's awake!" "he lives!" "thanks god!" and all sorts of things. Shinichi unfinished question was immediately answered.

"Hey, everybody! Whoa, Hattori! Don't stick those in my face. Oww! Someone don't touch my shoulder.....Hey watch my head!!" Shinichi was bombarded by his good friends and everyone was very happy that Shinichi was alive, as was Shinichi that he had such great friends.

As Shinichi talked with everyone, he thought back to the one person he had to thank for all this. Ai, thank you for giving me life again. Without your hard work, I'd never be here now. Maybe you don't know it, but I needed you along the way, just as much as I needed everyone else....so thank you.

THE END

Completed: May 13, 2004

Well, that was a bit different from what I expected and after reading Ysabet's Windfall just a few minutes ago, I feel that my story really isn't that interesting. It's quite bad actually so I guess have to thank you all for even clicking on the title button and trying my story. Special thanks to those who reviewed, I appreciate your thoughts and I hope that maybe my next story will be much better. Thanks again!

mysteriousangelgirl