Chapter 4 Third Times the Charm
Nabiki stood there in the kitchen looking totally lost. The first night Kasumi had been gone; Nodoka had taken pity on her and had fixed a meal for them before she left. The second night, Nabiki had ordered take-out. But that wasn't going to work for long. Shampoo could fix the breakfast meal and the lunches, but if she was going to continue to work, Nabiki had to take care of the dinner. They didn't have enough money coming in to get take-out every night. And even though the dinner was just for the three of them, the panda ate enough for three or four people by himself, even when he wasn't a panda. With Ranma and Akane gone, she wasn't even sure if the dojo would bring in enough money. She really couldn't trust Mr. Saotome to teach and her father was still so broken up over Akane and Kasumi leaving that he was worthless.
"How did Kasumi do it? Cook, keep the house clean, do all of the household chores! She had to be superhuman," Nabiki exclaimed to the empty kitchen. The fact that Kasumi had taken all of her recipes and cookbooks hadn't helped Nabiki either. She had needed to buy a cookbook on the way home just so she would have simple recipes to follow. "Well, at least the rice shouldn't be too hard," she said to herself. She placed the correct amount of water in the rice cooker and started the water to boil. She also placed a pot of water on the stove for the miso soup she was going to make.
After slaving in the kitchen for what seemed forever, the meal was finally ready. She brought the rice cooker and placed it near the dining platform, and placed the bowls for the rice next to it. Then she brought the bowls of miso soup to the table. Before she had a chance to say anything, her father and Mr. Saotome were sitting at the table. Nabiki dished out the rice and the two men began to eat.
Suddenly, Genma stopped and said, "This stuff is awful, Nabiki! The miso soup is too bland and the rice is undercooked and lumpy at that."
Nabiki snapped at him, "Well, I'm sorry I can't cook. I didn't see you volunteering. If you think you can do better, get your furry behind in there and do it!"
"Nabiki, daughter, that's no way to treat a guest in this house," Soun admonished.
"He's nothing but a freeloader, who's complained ever since Kasumi left about everything," Nabiki said sharply.
"Waah, my daughter is angry at me," Soun wailed, setting of the waterworks.
Genma growled, "And whose fault is it that Kasumi left? It's your duty as a woman to take of the household, girl."
Nabiki stood up and said, icily, "It that's what you think we're good for, then I suggest you find one to take care of you. I'm done trying. After all, I have to bring in the money to keep this place going. Maybe you can talk Shampoo into taking care of you, after all you're supposed to be her airen, remember." She turned angrily to leave.
Soun really started crying even more. "Why do I have such an ungrateful daughter? You're all I have left in this world. Kasumi, Akane, why did you leave me?" he cried.
Nabiki's face grew pale and she fled upstairs to her room. After locking her door, she threw herself on the bed and allowed herself to cry. She sank back into the depression she had been in since that disastrous day. She was really beginning to hate herself. 'Why did I do something so stupid? I knew he didn't care for me that way. Was he right, am I really that hateful of a person that I wanted to destroy Akane's happiness?' she thought to herself. She couldn't keep her mind from chasing those thoughts until she finally fell asleep from exhaustion.
The next morning, Nabiki groggily made her way downstairs to the bathroom to get cleaned up. After scrubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and partially waking herself up, she wearily changed into her school uniform. She used to enjoy going to school, the money making activities alone made it worth her while, but now, just seeing her sister there with the hatred in her eyes, made her dread going. And then to see the indifference in her Ranma's eyes. She stopped, and admitted to herself, 'He was never mine. I did all this for nothing.' She sighed as she left the bathroom to see what disasters her father and that good-for-nothing Saotome had left in the dining area and the kitchen. She walked into the kitchen, to see a bubbly Shampoo bouncing around an almost spotless kitchen, fixing breakfast and the bentos for lunch.
"Nihao, Nabiki," Shampoo said pleasantly as she finished the last part of the meals.
'Gah, how can she be so perky this early in the day,' Nabiki thought to herself. "Good morning, Shampoo. Thanks for cleaning this mess up last night. I wasn't in the mood for it, I guess," Nabiki said.
"Oh, I didn't do anything. The house was clean when I came home last night," Shampoo said gaily, "The men must have cleaned up. There were a few things in the wrong spot this morning, but that was all I saw wrong. Your father did ask if I could be home to fix all the meals, though."
"Yeah, last night was a disaster. I'm not a good homemaker, I guess," Nabiki said wryly.
"You can help me take all of this out there," Shampoo replied. The two girls brought the food to the dining platform, and called the two men in to eat. Genma ignored Nabiki, except to glare at her once.
Soun cleared his throat, and said to Nabiki, "Daughter, you need to apologize to Mr. Saotome. He is a guest in this house and should be treated with respect."
Nabiki narrowed her eyes. 'So it was going to start again,' she thought angrily. "Father, I treat him with all of the respect he deserves," she said in an emotionless voice.
That remark earned her another glare from Genma. For one of the first times in her life, she also got treated to Demon-head Soun. "How dare you insult him like that? After running off last night, so that we had to clean up. If you weren't my daughter,"
Nabiki interrupted him, and said, wearily, "You'd do what? Starve, get a job, grow a backbone, what exactly would you do? I'm just tired of all of this. I didn't expect to lose two parents when Mother died. You disappeared into your grief and forgot about us. Kasumi and I had to do everything that we could to keep a roof over our head, and food on our plates. And then I screwed everything up because I was jealous!" She got up, her chest heaving from emotion and said, "Excuse me, I don't want to be late to school." She grabbed her school bag and the bento from the kitchen and left, leaving an extremely shocked Soun behind.
----------------------
Ranma was sitting on the grass waiting for Akane to join him for lunch. He saw Nabiki looking forlorn across the schoolyard from where he was sitting. She hesitated for a second when she saw him looking at her, but then walked over. As she neared him, he frowned slightly. 'She looks horrible,' Ranma thought, 'This hasn't been easy on her, and I bet those idiots are making it worse for her.' "Yo, Nabiki," Ranma said as she stopped in front of him.
"Hello, Ranma," Nabiki said softly, "I came over to apologize again. What I did was terrible. I know that, now. Please don't hate me. I don't know if I could handle that if you did." A tear slowly trickled down her left cheek.
Ranma saw the pain in her eyes, and he realized that his anger had disappeared. "Nabiki, I still don't understand what you thought you were doing, but I don't hate you because of it. I was angry with you for trying to come between Akane and I, but that's in the past," he replied gently, "You and I will have to work this out eventually, after all, you're gonna be my sister-in-law one day."
"No she isn't," a voice interrupted, harshly. Nabiki paled when she realized that Akane had walked up behind her. Akane asked, roughly, "What are you doing here, bothering my fiancé?"
Nabiki turned and fled.
"Acchan, she was trying to apologize. She wants her family back, and you're not helping. I don't expect you to forgive her yet, but can you at least cut her a little slack," Ranma said, a little angrily.
Akane retorted, "How can you be so forgiving? After what she did to you, to us."
"Uh, Acchan, I know you have every right to be angry at her, but, she lost and she knows it. I think she honestly wants to patch things up somehow. I want to at least listen to her, she's tried to apologize several times now," Ranma said slowly, watching the effect his words were having on his obviously upset fiancée.
Akane got her anger under control with superhuman effort, "Ranchan, I'm not sure I can do that," she admitted, sadly, "I want my family back, too, but every time I see her, my blood boils."
"I understand, dear. But I'm actually beginning to get worried about her. She looked like death warmed over when she came over to talk to me. I gotta thinking, she's sacrificed an awful lot since your mother died, all for the family, to keep the family together. And with one stupid act, she's destroyed something she had worked so hard for. I'm afraid she's starting to crack. Shampoo said as much in the note she handed me in class this morning. I think we need to talk to Tofu and Kasumi after school and beg them to move back home," Ranma said, urgently.
----------------------
Nabiki stood irresolutely outside the Ono clinic, gathering up her courage to face her sister. Finally, she opened the door and walked in to see the disapproving frown on the face of her brother-in-law.
"I know I'm the least favorite person you want to see right now, but I'd really like to talk to my sister, if she's here," Nabiki pleaded softly.
"You're right about that Miss Tendo," Tofu said stiffly. At that moment, Kasumi walked in from the kitchenette with some tea. She froze as she saw Nabiki standing there.
"What are you doing here?" Kasumi said with a frown.
Nabiki hung her head in shame. "I came to apologize to the two of you and to beg you to return home. Not for my sake, Kasumi, but for Father's. He hasn't stopped crying since you left. It's worse than when Mother died," Nabiki answered, not looking her sister in the eye.
"Oh my, poor Father," Kasumi said, softly as the old Kasumi poked through the icy façade that she was maintaining. Then her expression hardened as she asked, "Has he understood what he did to Ranma and Akane?"
Nabiki swallowed. "Kasumi, he didn't really do anything wrong except to listen to my lies. I'm the one who dishonored our family. You know how weak Father is. I just pulled him in the direction I wanted him to go," Nabiki replied, sobbing quietly.
"Have you talked to Ranma and Akane? After all, they're the ones who you wronged," Tofu asked, his bright eyes watching her closely. He frowned as he detected something in her chi that bothered him.
"Hai, I've apologized to both of them. Not that I expect either of them to forgive me. I don't really deserve their forgiveness," Nabiki said, softly.
Kasumi looked at her sister, and then sadly shook her head. "I'm sorry, Nabiki. I can't forgive you either. I wish I could, I really do, but I can't. I can't forgive your Father either. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he didn't care," she said.
Nabiki stared at her sister, all hope leaving her eyes. "I understand, Kasumi. I won't bother you again," she said. She bowed to her sister and then slowly trudged out of the clinic toward her home, tears streaming down her face.
When she reached her home, she ran into Genma. He sneered at her and said harshly, "I can't believe I let you talk me into this fiasco. I thought you were smart enough to make this work. Look at you, you're worthless. You're nothing but a weeping girl. You can't cook, you barely know how to clean, what good are you?"
She stared at him, and then flared up. "At least I don't laze around all day doing nothing, like you do, eating us out of house and home. You were supposed to work, but you don't even do that anymore. I work, I bring home the money that feeds your fat ass, and you have the gall to tell me I can't do anything! Get out of my sight, you ugly parasite!" she screamed at him in rage.
Genma just laughed at her. Her father looked at her sternly from the door to the house. "Nabiki, apologize to Mr. Saotome, right now! You can't talk to a guest that way. Haven't you brought enough misfortune to our family already?" he said angrily.
Nabiki froze. 'I lied, cheated and stole for this! What was I thinking? I gave my honor away for this!' she thought to herself. She ignored her father and ran into the house, brushing past him in dismay. She ran upstairs to her room and slammed and locked the door. Her father followed, banging on the door, demanding that she let him in. She ignored him and walked slowly toward her dresser.
----------------------
Ranma and Akane came running up the street towards the clinic when they saw Nabiki stumbling away from it. She was crying so hard, she didn't notice them following her. As Ranma and Akane neared the dojo, they heard the tail end of the argument between Nabiki and Genma, and then the words her father said. Ranma looked at Akane and said, "I really don't like the sound of this, Acchan. I'm gonna go try and talk to Nabiki." With that he jumped on top of the wall, and then made his way over to where he could look into Nabiki's room.
Akane followed him, cursing under her breath. Then she stopped as the two of them froze in anguish as they saw Nabiki open a drawer in her dresser and pull out a tanto. Ranma sprang from the wall through the window, spraying glass fragments all over, just as Nabiki slit her wrist with the blade. Ranma knocked the blade out of her hand and grabbed a hair ribbon, and tied it off as a tourniquet, in an attempt to stop the flow of blood. He picked her up, and jumped back out the window, calling to Akane, "Get a hold of Tofu and have him make arrangements with the hospital, and then meet me there."
Akane stared in amazement and wonder for a second as he jumped over the wall and vanished from sight. Akane ran into the house, ignoring the angry noise from Genma and her father. She grabbed the phone and called Tofu. When he answered, she said, "Nabiki tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists. Ranma's taking her to Nerima General. Call them and let them know he's on his way, and then meet us there." She hung up and ran past her father, who attempted to stop her. Genma grabbed at her and she knocked him into the koi pond. She turned, anger flashing from her eyes, and said, "I don't have time for this stupidity. My sister just tried to kill herself, because of what we have done to her." She turned and ran as fast as she could to the hospital, followed by her pale-faced father and a wet panda.
----------------------
Ranma reached the hospital in good time, and burst in through the Emergency Entrance. An orderly met him there with a gurney, but Ranma ignored it and said, "Just show me the way." The orderly led him into one of the exam rooms, where Ranma laid her gently on the table. He got out of the way as the staff began to work on the damaged wrist. After the nurse hooked her up to a saline drip, and a monitor, the doctor quickly debrided the wound and stitched it up. After she was finished, she carefully undid the tourniquet, and watched to see that there was no more bleeding. She turned to Ranma and asked, "Who are you?"
He replied, rapidly, "I'm Ranma Saotome. I'm her sister's fiancé. Is she gonna be okay?"
"We could still lose her, but I'll feel better once she wakes up. We need to get her up to a room, and then we'll keep an eye on her. The tourniquet helped, but it's going to be a tough 24 hours. She lost a lot of blood, even with the tourniquet. Good job with that, by the way. Where's the rest of her family?" she asked. Then she really looked at Ranma and gasped, "We need to get you cleaned up, too. What did you do, go through a window, or something? There's glass all over your arms!" She rushed over and began removing the splinters of glass from his arms. Once all of the glass was gone, she began cleaning the wounds, watching in disbelief as the wounds began to close by themselves. One of the orderlies started wheeling Nabiki away, and Ranma jerked to follow. The doctor stopped him and said, "Don't worry. I'll take you to her once I'm done here. She will need quiet, so we will need to restrict the visitors." Soon, all of the wounds were clean, and he followed the doctor up to the room that they had placed Nabiki.
Ranma sat there and held her hand, hoping that she would wake up, tears streaming down his face. He prayed, listening to the sound of the beeping monitor, knowing with cold comfort that as long as the machine was beeping, Nabiki was still going to make it.
Suddenly the room was full of people, Soun was wailing over his poor baby. Akane and Kasumi looked devastated as they saw their sister lying in the bed, with her face ashen. Tofu was attempting to keep things calm, but Genma kept growling at him.
Ranma looked up, self-loathing in his eyes. He said in an icy voice, "She doesn't need all of this circus. Pop, get out of my sight, NOW." Genma took one look at the ice chips that had replaced his son's eyes and left in a hurry. "Mr. Tendo, crying at the top of your lungs won't help her now. Akane, Kasumi, would you take him outside and calm him down. I don't care how." Akane and Kasumi nodded, and grabbed their father, and pulled him outside. As the door shut, Ranma distinctly heard the sound of a hand hitting something, and Mr. Tendo suddenly shut up.
Ranma looked at Tofu, and said, "I knew something was wrong this morning Doc. I should have been there sooner, I should have said something, I don't know what."
Tofu looked at him, kindly, and said, "Ranma, you're babbling son. I'm as much to blame if not more so. I saw something wrong this afternoon, but I didn't intervene. I think she needs you right now, and you're doing the exact right thing. I'll check on Soun and then send Kasumi and Akane in as well. Nabiki needs to hear from them as well."
Ranma started saying under his breath, "Come on Nabiki, hang in there. Don't die on me, on us. We need you, we love you." He bent over her and kissed her on the lips, and whispered, "Please come back, Biki-chan."
As he drew back, Kasumi and Akane walked in. Kasumi said, "Oh my, Ranma."
Akane growled at her fiancé and said, "Ranma!"
He turned and glared at them, and said, "This is our fault! Do you love your sister or not!"
Akane dropped her eyes and then said, "Gomen, Ranchan. You're right." She walked over and grasped the same hand Ranma was holding and said, "Sis, you didn't need to do this. We would have worked this out soon. I just had to get over my anger, that's all." Tears began to stream down her face, landing on Nabiki's hand.
Kasumi joined them. "I'm sorry, Nabiki. I should have been paying better attention to how you were hurting. I couldn't see past my anger as well."