Disclaimer: I don't own Witch Hunter Robin plot or characters.
CHAPTER 2: CAPTURE
Flash...flash...flash....
Mai could sense the rectangular flashes of light at regular intervals through her half closed eyelids. She was lying on her back, and knew that she was moving. There was the squeak of wheels beneath her, her hands and arms lay on fabric of some kind, and the top of her right index finger lay against something smooth and cool. Metal. She was on a moving metal thing with sheets. A gurney.
The pain in her chest and shoulder seemed blunted, dull somehow. There were voices fading in and out of her consciousness.
...Nurse! Why didn't ...
...Some question of custody...dispute between....
...Say they're guy who brought her in....distraught.....
...Don't care about that...surgery....now!
After that the flashes of light from the hallway ceiling's fluorescent fixtures stopped. There was a pinprick in her arm, and everything became hazy.
There were brief moments when she could think enough to understand what was going on, but they never lasted for long. She heard raised voices outside her room, felt the cool, efficient hands of a nurse checking the tubes coming out of her nose, and arms. Once she heard paper being flipped or turned and the rattle of a clipboard being replaced. But mostly she just endured the pain, and slept.
Movement again. It was darker this time, the flashes of light further apart. The squeak of the wheels was the same though, and somehow, though her eyelids refused to open, she could hear better. Two voices. One oddly familiar and male, the other lower in register, and not familiar at all.
"Thanks." The word was terse, as if wrenched out of him against his will.
"You're welcome. I guess I should thank you for calling. I didn't think you ever would."
"There was no one else I could trust."
"I can see your point." This voice had a darkly amused undertone, and Mai wondered if he were laughing at the owner of the other voice, or at himself. "Will there be trouble for you when they find she's gone?"
"I can handle it."
"You know, I am a lawyer. If you ever need my services, I'd be happy to give you a family discount."
Silence from the other voice.
"Sorry." The amused voice didn't sound very repentant. "I guess that wasn't very funny."
"We're here."
Mai felt herself being lifted, gurney and all. There was the brush of cold air against her face momentarily, then the sound of car doors opening. A muffled curse at her head as she tipped a little, then straightened out. She tried and failed to open her eyes, but managed to move her head a little.
"Is she waking up?" The lower voice, the one Mai thought of as the amused one, asked the question doubtfully.
Mai felt a tug at her hand, then the other voice answered.
"Her IV came loose. It's back now."
"It wouldn't do to have sleeping beauty wake too soon. I don't think she'd be very happy seeing you again, considering."
"No."
Someone brushed by her in an enclosed space. The car like doors slammed, and Mai subsided into the silent darkness of unconsciousness again.