QoH: hm... not many people seem to be interested in this... --() sighs ah well. ill keep writing anyway. thanks to those who were kind enough to review and lemme know how im doin! oh, by the way, did ya know that the word "mama" means the same in japanese as it does in american? cool huh?
Chapter 4: Troubled Thoughts
Miho felt like her eyes would fall out of her head at any second as she stared at her, then at their patient and back again, "Kiley? As in the guy from the hospital nearly ten years ago? The one who got you and Toji back together? That Kiley?"
The one who left that note on my doorstep... "That would be him, yes." Momo answered flatly, looking only half as shell-shocked now that the idea had begun to sink in. Shaking that away for the moment, she got to her feet and eyed the door impatiently, "Come on. The questions can wait until we're out of this place. Where on earth is that ambulance??"
"Mama?" Rai called, seeing her look in his direction.
She smiled at him and waved, "We'll be there in a second, honey. Just wait right there for us."
"Small problem with that, Momo..." Miho stood up next to her and gestured to the unconscious man, "How do you propose we move him?"
"We can... carry him?" She offered hopefully, shrugging, "What other options do we have?"
The nurse put her hands on her hips and tilted her head, "I'll give you that point. We don't have many options, but..."
"'But' what?" Momo frowned in mild confusion, focused as she was on Kiley.
"Did you forget about that gaping hole?" She asked, pointing behind her friend's back, "How are we supposed to get him across that?"
Turning around, she groaned and made a face in annoyance, "Great. And even if he was awake, he wouldn't be able to walk around it, as unsteady as he was a minute ago. He'd probably just fall in again."
"Exactly," she nodded and looked up at the ceiling warily, "and I don't trust the rest of this place, either. What's to stop it from coming down around our ears right now?"
"Mama?" came Rai's voice suddenly, accompanied by a tug on Momo's sleeve. Evidently he'd snuck along the wall during their distraction, in spite of their warnings.
Momo knelt down in front of him and took his hands, "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to wait by the door, where it's safer."
He shook his head as though that were a minor detail and grinned, "I know, but I can get us out!"
Miho joined them, her brows raised in interest, "Really? Because, if you can, I'll get you a dessert for every day of the week!"
Rai laughed, surprised but understandably delighted at this sudden reward, "Wow, cool! Can I have a triple fudge sundae with sprinkles and whipped cream?"
"Miho, don't encourage him," she warned, frowning up at her.
"Look at it this way," she gave her little friend a wink before smiling back at her, "your son here happens to know more about this place than the both of us put together. If anyone knew where to find another exit, it'd be him."
"Yeah, but...." Momo looked uncertainly from her to Rai, who was beaming with obvious pride, glad that one of his unauthorized exploits had finally come in handy to someone other than himself. Her eyes went to Kiley and winced, seeing the pained expression on his face even though he was still unconscious. She sighed and shrugged in defeat, "Well, I guess I'm out-voted, then."
In an uncommon show of restraint, her ever-exhuberant child settled for a mere "Yay!" and a fist in the air, when he normally would've jumped for joy. Momo grinned, laughing to herself. That's one bright kid I have. No telling what might've happened if he'd gone through his usual routine of literally bouncing off the walls.
Miho chuckled a bit and gave her a hand up, "Well, come on then. We'd better get this guy out of here before we all start growing mold."
The little boy giggled and looked down at the man, his gaze serious again, "I wonder who he is. What d'ya think he was here for?"
"We'll find that out when he wakes up, won't we?" Momo replied, thinking the same thing, "As for who he is, that's a very long story."
Raimareo blinked, his eyes on her curiously, "You know him, Mama? I thought he was just a stranger. I've never seen him before."
Noting the troubled expression on her friend's face, Miho broke in, "We can talk about all that later. Right now, kiddo, we need you to show us how to get out, okay?"
"'Kay," he answered, still looking at his mother with a bit of worry as he started off down the hall that led further into the building, "C'mon, it's this way."
"What do you think would be the best way to carry him?" Momo wondered as her gaze drifted over her long-absent protector, though she carefully avoided having to look at his arm.
"Hm..." Miho frowned, studying him as well, "I think I should go ahead with Rai for a bit while you wait here with Kiley. I want to find out how well this place will hold up to that sort of awkward weight."
Her blonde head shot up like it was spring-loaded, eyes apprehensive, "What? You want to leave me here with him? What if he... I don't know, goes into shock, or something? Shouldn't you stay if we're going to split up like that? You're the nurse, after all."
She glanced back at Rai, who was waiting by the doorway with an odd look on his face, then bent down to her ear, "If he did, there wouldn't be much that I could do for him, not here in this dump. At this point, you're as good a choice as I am. Even better, really, if you ask me."
Momo gasped slightly so as not to alarm her son and stared up at the older woman, muttering back, "You don't think he could die here, do you?"
"No, I don't, but..." she shook her head as her light purple eyes went back over their patient as if she were trying X-ray vision, "that's assuming he only has the broken arm. There could any number of other injuries that we don't know about, and there's also the very high risk of infection. Kami only knows what all is in the dust that's covering him, and anything that is there has had ample time to incubate itself and start replicating. No doubt, his immune system is already working overtime..."
"What can I do?!" she asked, beginning to panic. Seeing Rai start over again, she forced herself to calm down and lower her voice, "I--we can't let him die like this."
"Well, I don't intend for him to die at all, but the longer we stand here arguing about it, the worse his chances get." Seeing her friend was still unconvinced about staying with Kiley, Miho put her hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze, "Don't worry. From what you've told me, he's the strong-willed sort. I'm sure he'll be fine." With that, she rejoined Rai, took his hand, and let him lead her down the hall to wherever that "exit" might be.
"He is that..." Momo muttered as she watched the two disappear into the musty darkness, wondering if they were going about this the right way. She eyed her old friend as though he were a mega-ton of lit TNT chained to her leg while her thoughts raced around in her brain like entrants in the Indy 500. What if he wakes up again? What am I supposed to say? I haven't even heard from him in the last eight years... What in the world is he doing here, anyway? I wish Miho had done something about that arm of his. Oh, I really don't feel well...
"Hey, gorgeous..." Kiley's faint voice broke in and she saw him watching her through heavily lidded eyes, a brave attempt at his familiar grin in place, "please tell you're gonna make like Florence Nightingale and fall head over heels for me..."
She made a face at him and raised her fist in a mock threat, "You're lucky you're already hurt; otherwise, I'd knock you into the next decade."
"I believe you, but still--" he went in a coughing fit, probably from all the dust, and started to roll over on his side in order to get rid of it.
Momo quickly put a stop to that, of course, with her hand on his chest, "Are you insane? Don't you know your arm's broken?" When he struggled, obviously having a hard time breathing in his current position, she scooted around and pulled him up so that he was half sitting, half leaning against her, his arm tucked close to him and held there with her own. It was an odd sort of embrace, if one chose to look at it like that.
Naturally, Kiley did. He huffed a little laugh and leaned his head back on her shoulder to smile teasingly up at her, "Three times you've saved my life, and each time, it's gotten better and better. If this is some sort of trend, I may have to do this more often."
"Watch it, pumpkin…" she scowled at him and reared her head back in an effort to put, at least a little, distance between them. He hasn't changed at all…Her heart protested, but her mind fought back, reasoning that he couldn't still feel like he did all those years ago. Still, there was that little, persistent doubt which had her stomach doing flip-flops … but is that good or bad? Do I want him to have changed? Besides, what good is it? Even if it wasn't some sort of fluke back then, and he really… I'm married, with a son! Oh, Toji's not going to like this at all…
"Ouch," he winced a bit, but whether it was from the insult or his current predicament, it was hard to say, "I see you haven't forgotten anything, either. Though, some things I wish you would have…" He coughed again.
"How am I supposed to forget that you're a pervert when you say stuff like that?"
"You could try," he grinned hopefully, reminding her strongly of the last time he'd said those exact words.
"Kiley…" she growled threateningly as she grabbed the top of his head and pointed it in the direction of the hole, "do you want me to drop you back down there?"
"Aw, c'mon, Momo, you know I'm just joking," he put up a hand and smiled rather nervously, as though he wasn't all together sure that she wouldn't do that to him.
"Yeah, well, it can be pretty hard to tell when you're joking and when you're not, you know," she replied and squirmed a little, getting more uncomfortable by the second. However, it was anyone's guess as to what was causing that discomfort, be it physical or otherwise. It bugged her that she didn't know.
Noticing her restless shifting, he tried to sit up, "I'm sorry, you're probably getting stiff, sitting like that." He got only as far as a foot away from her before his strength gave out on him and, amid profuse apologies to her and muttered curses to himself, he fell back against her.
Momo sweatdropped, shaking her head as she held him steady, "What, do you think you're Superman, or something? You really expect to do much of anything on your own for, probably, the next several weeks?"
"Yare yare… I know that." Kiley sighed in a resigned sort of way, obviously profoundly irritated with himself, "It's just I've had to learn to deal with much worse stuff than this, but right now, I make Raggedy Ann look good. But, more importantly, I hate being a burden to you."
She forced herself to ignore the possible hidden messages in his words and shot back, "It's not like I'm going to let you overwork yourself and end up in a coma, you know. And I don't mind helping you out. After everything you've done for me, how could I do anything else?"
He gave her a half-smile and looked away, his voice suddenly much quieter, "Speaking of which, how's Toji?"
"Well, he's…" Flustered, she tried to keep her cool by taking a deep breath, "Can we not talk about him right now?"
Kiley was about to ask what was wrong, but she was saved from answering that complicated question when Miho, Rai and, at last, the paramedics burst in. Letting the professionals take over, she watched them strap him quickly to a stretcher and carry him back out the way they'd come. Shivering a bit, she rubbed her arm and stood up as the other two joined her. While her son sported a curious expression, his eyes on the "stranger," the nurse studied her with a thoughtful cast to her gaze. Momo wrinkled her nose and brushed off her clothing, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing, nothing…" Miho answered, though it was clear she didn't mean that.
Rather than get into a discussion she sensed she didn't want to be a part of, the blonde opted for taking Raimareo's hand and following the EMTs outside. I've got enough to worry about right now.
QoH: hehe shall i be so bold as to say that all is not quite kosher in Momo-and-Toji Land? and now that Kiley's been tossed into the mix, it certainly complicates already messy circumstances…. :D