Strawbeby - warning: there is a good amount of violence in this chapter. Also some real world things that one of the characters thinks is happening...you'll know when you read it. If you don't want to read something really blunt, just email me and I can send you a revised version which is better for younger minds.

Readers comments:

Ainominako - Smack dab! I bet he enjoyed having her run into him!
Hands you a picture of Richard

Moon Shaddow - Great story! By the way, 'drug' is not the past tense form of 'drag'. It's 'dragged'. And the spaghetti stain from Jimmy kicking a plate of spaghetti at Rachel, that was funny. PLease update soon!

(if you don't get the picture of Richard then you haven't been reading my little notes have you? See bottom note/Chapter 5)

Well enough boring you with unending tangents and on with the story!

What the Tide Brings in Chapter 6 - A Twist, a Hospital, and an Elevator Ride.

By strawbeby

Jimmy Kudo and Rachel Moore both fell abruptly to the carpeted floor right outside of Jimmy's room in the Lily Pad. Jimmy had stood back up after a moment on the ground, but Rachel remained there, taking the collision a bit worse. He really didn't expect her to try and stand up right away though, figuring she'd be a little fazed after seeing him for the first time in six months.

"Hey, Rachel," Jimmy greeted, with a bit of anxiousness in his voice.

Rachel opened her eyes, looked up, and saw that she had ran right into Jimmy Kudo himself. "Jimmy?" she said, like she was having a day dream or a fantasy or something like that.

Jimmy absentmindedly lifted his hand to ruffle his hair as he replied, "I'm surprised that you haven't forgotten my name, Rach. You haven't seen me in a while. Thank corn dogs that I know your telephone number, or I don't know who I would've had to talk to."

Rachel's eyes were glazed and her head looked like it should've been filled with helium. "What are you doing here?" she said with a bit of a waver in her voice.

The arm that was ruffling the hair came down to grasp his other arm, as Jimmy said, "Well, uh, I had some time off from my case, just a week, but I remembered the trip was this week, and I wanted to join you guys. You don't know how much I have missed just being myself."

Rachel still clearly thought that she was seeing an illusion before her. I don't have time for fantasies, she thought. I need to get ready for dinner. Ryan is going to be waiting for me to arrive in 10 minutes. But when Rachel tried to stand up, her left ankle gave a searing pain, then she fell to the ground with an ear splitting shriek of pain.

Jimmy grew worried as he said, "Rachel are you hurt? Here, (at this point Jimmy tries to lift her up so she could walk with the support of his shoulder) let me help you up. Then I can get you down stairs where Mr. Cartier can take a look at it." Like I said, he tried to help her up. But she resisted his help, and she started yelling.

"You are just a dream, Jimmy Kudo! The real Jimmy would have started talking about how this had happened to Sherlock Holmes once and then took off without warning (Ouch! That's below the belt Rach, Jimmy thought)! Wait a second... How can I feel pain if you are not real? Is this really happening?! Stop it right now, Jimmy!" Rachel yelled with much confusement in trying to get her words out. She looked like she was just told that 1 1 doesn't really equal 2.

"I'm just trying to get you some help, Rach. So, stop struggling." Jimmy grunted as he lifted the flailing girl onto his shoulders.

And of course who should come around the corner besides Ryan Sebastian, the man she is supposed to going on a date with. He had thought he could be even more of a gentleman by escorting Rachel to the restaurant and heard Rachel's scream from the bottom story of the building. So Ryan screeched up the stairs, recognizing the scream as having Rachel's tone. And what exactly did Ryan thought was happening to Rachel, seeing her being lifted into the air by a strange guy as she was angrily trying to fight back? He thought that Rachel was going to be raped. So Prince Charming here to save the day!

"Put her down, creep!" Ryan shouted, as he ran at a break neck speed down the hallway. Jimmy looked up to see him, but couldn't pay a lot of attention to him because Rachel had just kicked him really hard in the gut.

"Put me down!" Rachel screamed.

By that time Ryan had arrived and was attempting to get Rachel away from Jimmy. Wham! Ryan gave a right hook to Jimmy as Jimmy was just setting Rachel back down. This made Rachel tumble to the ground, slightly landing on her left foot, giving another shriek, then laying belly up on the floor. Ryan went to her side to help her along with Jimmy, after he stepped back for a moment to try and recover after being inflicted with injuries. But Rachel is far worse along and this guy doesn't look smart enough to know that, Jimmy thought as he went to her side.

"Ryan?" Rachel said weakly, having seen him first.

Ryan smiled, nodded, and saw Jimmy come up. Then her reacted by leaping over Rachel and hitting Jimmy again. "Oh, no you don't, creep!" Ryan said.

Jimmy stumbled backwards, realizing that his nose was bleeding from Ryan's first punch. He hastily wiped the blood away then started on Ryan. "Look, bud! I don't know who you are, but obviously you don't realize this. I am this girl's oldest and best friend. She's hurt herself falling down...so...I...need to...," Jimmy said, struggling to get through Ryan to help Rachel.

But Ryan had not been in a two person head on running collision a couple of minutes before, and had not had a bloody nose and a sore gut. So,as Jimmy unsuccessfuly tried to get to Rachel, Ryan said, "Can it, loser! Rachel's best friend is Serena Sebastian and I know that for a fact. So get your nasty little butt out of my sight, and I might consider not turning your sorry skin in."

Then, picking up the attitude of a perfect gentleman, Ryan turned to Rachel and looked over her for any major injuries on her. He then sympathetically said, "You look like you're in a lot of pain, Rachel. I will call an ambulance to get you to a nearby hospital. And don't worry about our date tonight. We can just make it up later."

Jimmy's eyes bulged out at what the guy next to him had just said. "Date?!! Rachel can't go on a date! She's...uh, well I, uh... Well, Rachel! Tell the boy who I am!"

But as both of the boys next to her stood looking thoroughly confused, Rachel fainted from the shock of her hurt ankle.

(stbb - Wouldn't you just kill me if I left a cliffie here? I was thinking about it but since I love you all so much and there isn't enough here to meet my standards of a chapter I won't. This will be your...Christmas Present! Christmas in October!)

When Rachel finally entered the state of consciousness again, she found herself in a hospital bed, between of those cottony white sheets and underneath of her was a plastic sheet underneath for all of those "accidents". She blinked twice to get her eyes into focus, then she noticed that there were two other figures in the room. Jimmy was at one side of her bed, staring with stern alertness at the screens that measured Rachel's heart activity and brain waves. Ryan was on her other side sitting on a hard wooden chair with his hands buried deep into his hair in deep frustration. Jimmy realized that she was finally awake and he smiled a large grin into her face as Ryan jumped up to greet Rachel in relief. Both of them wanted to be the first to talk to her and what Rachel ended up hearing was a jumble of both of the boys' words. "Rachel, you're awake! How are you feeling?" was what she assumed the chatter meant.

Rachel let herself relax more in her bed as she wiped a strand of hair from her face. She then replied, "I'm feeling better. What happened? The last thing I can clearly remember is running upstairs to, uh, get ready to go to the restaurant with you Ryan, then slamming into Jimmy. The rest is a vague blur."

Jimmy started to talk first, but Ryan cut him off. "HE gave you a sprained ankle, when he was trying to molest you. I rescued you, but then you had fainted from the emotional distress of being in that position."

"Shut up, pretty boy!" Jimmy sniped at him. "She ran into me then she fell. She must have hurt herself then. When I was trying to get her to a doctor then you came sticking your fat head down the hall, and of course that really upset her, and then she passed out!"

The guys tried to continue the argument that had obviously been going on for a while, but Rachel who was already really cranky, yelled "Boys, Shut Up!"

The doctor, who was coming into the room at the time to make the boys stop arguing (for what seemed like the millionth time that day), because there were other patients who needed their rest, gave a jump. Then he noticed that Rachel was up and as far as he could tell she was dong fine (though she wasn't really happy at the time). So he decided to give Rachel an update. "I see that you are awake, Ms. Moore. I'm sorry about the two gentlemen here. Normally we only let one visitor at a time, but in their case they argued so loudly about who would be the first to visit you that they were disturbing my other patients and their visitors." He cast a menacing glance at the two teenage boys then resumed talking. "Now four your injury, it is only a small twist. You'll have to stay off your foot for a day or two, but, if you stay completely off of it, you should be able to enjoy the second half of you vacation quite nicely. The only reason that you would've fainted was that you did have a slight concussion, but it was more likely of emotional stress. With these two around, I don't really wonder why. Now you are allowed to leave whenever you choose; just ask the nurse at the front desk for a pair of crutches." So, with the knowledge that his part of this job was done, he left.

Jimmy looked relieved at the report. "Thank goodness. Only a sprain."

"Only?!" Ryan shouted, defending Rachel. "She's missing half of her vacation because of you!"

"Yeah, and if it had been worse, then I would've felt awful. But at least she has the second half of her vacation to look forward to."

"Do you realize how much pain she's probably in right now, though?!"

Rachel had had enough. She could feel the dizziness coming back into her head, but this time it was more of a jagged pain than a day dream. So she told both of the guys to can it then said, "I think that I will be ready to leave in a few minutes. But I really need to talk to you Jimmy, so can you please leave, Ryan?"

Ryan looked flabbergasted. "But...Why? He tried to hurt you then claimed himself as your best friend."

"But," Rachel sincerely said. "Jimmy is a good friend of mine. I don't know what possessed him to tell you that he was my best friend (she shoots a sideways glare at Jimmy), but I don't believe that he would try to hurt me. Serena probably hasn't said anything about him to you because he's been gone a while. But he and I really need to talk, so, please Ryan. Leave us alone for a while."

So acting solely upon Rachel's desire, Ryan hesitantly left the hospital room. Once he was out of sight, she relaxed herself more back into the bed thinking to herself why is my life always this complicated? To think that I'd actually thought that my problems would be put on hold when I came here. But I have to step up to do what life is calling me to do. With that on her mind she said, "So. Long time, no see, Jimmy."

Jimmy easily detected the amount of stress that this put on Rachel. Aw, crap! I came her to relieve her from worrying about me. To let her be at ease. To give her a good vacation. Now what do I do?! I screw it all up again. Aren't I always just the barer of good news? So he quickly replied, "Well, I've been thinking about you a lot Rachel. I'm still working on the extremely tough case. I still haven't solved it and it might be a while, Rach. But I remembered this trip and I just had to come, because I am getting probably my only time off that I'll ever get. I was just hoping to feel like a normal seventeen year old guy for one week without having the weight of the world on my shoulders. I've really missed spending time with you, Rach. But who is this Ryan-punk? I've never met him and he seems like a stupid nitwit to me."

It a snap Rachel switched her cap from irritated girl to Jimmy Kudo's favorite arguing competitor. "He's Serena's cousin, Jimmy. An exchange student. Great grade point average, donates money to the poor, knows exactly where he is going to college at. He is very nice and asked me on a date for this evening and I accepted. That's why I was running. To get ready for a date with him. And guess what? I bet if you ask him what he thinks about a guy who walked, talked, and thinks only detective that he would say it might be a good hobby, but they need to get a life." Rachel's eyes burned with the fury that she had felt toward Jimmy ever since he had left.

Jimmy was astounded. Rachel? A date with that pompous jerk? His only life is probably his math and science books. Like he already has a life! But she's throwing such painful words at me. Maybe I deserved a bit of it. But...she's... "Great, Rach. You think that the guy needs to get a life. What if he wants it to stop running his life, but he can't. The case is dragging him like a little boy on the leash of a great dame. If the guy just stops, danger would surely come for him, and not only for him but for all of those people that he loves and cares about. The ones that he had to leave in the first place." Rachel's face burned with Jimmy's careful stare as he said this.

But it only gave Rachel another angry question. "Then why did you come back at all, Kudo, if our lives are in danger from it?!"

Jimmy's gaze directed softly towards the window, then he said, "When I'm on my case, I'm in an almost unrecognizable disguise. The chances of them looking, let alone finding me here, are slim to none. But my peculiar situation only allows me tiny breaks with one week long break for the whole period that I'm on it. This is a good far away from my case, so even if they know that I was in disguise and I took a break, they would have no clue where I am."

This time Rachel let Jimmy's words sink in. "So it's only a week, is it? That's all I think I can understand Jimmy, because obviously you can't tell me what your case is about, can you?" A nod of the head was his reply so she continued. "But if you don't return something will get blown and the ones that you love with will be in serious trouble." Another nod.

Rachel inhaled deeply while trying to decide which point (the "you are a jerk Jimmy for being gone" or the "you're so sweet for coming here, Jimmy") of view to take. Her choice was made obvious by her next statement. "Well, I guess that we will have to make the most out of the week that we can, won't we Jimmy?" Rachel said, while sitting back up and smiling sweetly. Then she noticed the blood crust just underneath of his nose. "Jimmy! You're hurt, too!"

Jimmy looked startled, but then realize that she was talking about his nose. As he lifted his fingers up to touch the blood he said, "Yeah. In trying to save you from me Ryan gave me a right hook, and you kicked me hard in the gut. I had the doctor look at me too, though, and he said no harm was really done. The most is that I'll wake up really sore in the morning."

You could tell that Jimmy was expanding like a balloon with the hope that he had once had for the week, filling him back up again. Things might turn out well after all.

Of course the opportunity to talk kindly to each other was cut off, again by Ryan. "Rachel, I believe that I have renewed my reservation at the restaurant. I hope that we will be able to leave here in half an hourish or so of time, so we can still have a reasonable dinner time in about 1 ½ hours..." He trailed off because he finally noticed that Jimmy and Rachel had looked extremely happy, though now it looked like Ryan stuck a fork in Jimmy's balloon. "Or maybe we can forget dinner so you two can catch up some more..."

"No!" Rachel said. "I had said that I would go out with you and I will. I just need my crutches and then we can leave for the hotel, so I can get ready."

The two boys quickly fetched her crutches and finally they were off to the hotel. The hospital, Rachel had learned, was only about fifteen minutes from Ryuteki, so the threesome arrived at the hotel with a little more than an hour for Rachel and Ryan to get ready for dinner. At the hotel, Ryan wanted to help Rachel make it to the building and to her room, but Jimmy insisted otherwise. "I mean you have to get ready too, don't you?" Jimmy asked Ryan. "And a night out with Rach is nothing to be taken lightly, if you know what I mean." So Ryan headed up to his own room to get ready for the night as Jimmy led Rachel on her crutches to the main lodging building.

"What did you mean by that, Jimmy?" Rachel asked while they were waiting for the elevator. The elevator was the only one in the building and was usually crowded with people trying to get to and from their rooms, but when it reached the two, it was suprisingly empty.

"By what?" Jimmy all too innocently asked as he helped her on and pressed the button for the fourth floor. The rickety old elevator then started its ascend.

"That a date with me is not to be taken lightly. Just what were you implying by that, Kudo?"

"Oh, nothing, Rachel. Nothing at all."

Rachel didn't believe him, though. "What did you mean by what you said, Jimmy? And keep in mind that, though I'm not able to use my foot, my fist has plenty of power in it, too," she pointed out, making her voice more firm than before.

"All I meant was that he better be good enough for you." Jimmy found an amazing interest in a cobweb in one of the bottom corners of the small compartment. Maybe she won't laugh if I can't see her.

"Jimmy..." Rachel said. Here it comes, Jimmy thought. Now she's going to burst out loud laughing at me for being so protective of her. A moment or two of silence passed though, and nothing happened. When the elevator's door opened at their floor, Jimmy couldn't help it. He just had to see what she was doing.

But she wasn't laughing, or even trying to hold it in. Rachel was actually smiling at him. "That's really sweet Jimmy. That you would care whether or not a guy is good enough for me. It shows true character."

Jimmy smiled, again filling up with joy that him and Rachel were actually on good speaking terms. Maybe I can..., he thought. The two had almost reached Rachel's room when Jimmy stopped a door before it. His room. Jimmy turned to face Rachel. "Hold on a second, Rachel. There is something that I've been wanting to give you. It's really pretty. My mom had given it to me for Christmas once, it being a family heirloom. But she doesn't realize that guys don't wear jewelry...It's...well, I don't want to spoil the surprise for you." He had been thinking of the locket that he had on the train. He'd really been hoping to give it to Rachel so that she could always have something to remember him by. Now's the perfect opportunity, he thought.

Jimmy reached to open the door of his own hotel room, not really thinking of anything besides himself, Rachel, and the locket (maybe a little bit of Ryan with a black eye, but...). That's probably why he didn't even think of there being other people in his room at the time. But there was, and she gave a horrible high pitched shriek.

"JIMMY KUDO!!! HAVEN'TOTAL YOU GOT THE MANNERS TO KNOCK BEFORE YOU ENTER A ROOM?!!!" Amy's scream filled the building as she wildly reached for anything to cover her naked flesh, just exiting the shower at the time.

strawbeby - Wellll.....you've been naughty so here's your lump of coal! Muahahaha! Don't worry lots though because I have a 3 day weekend coming up so thanksgiving is going to be celebrated as well! Can you believe that I actually typed most of this in one night? Granted I made a lot of mistakes and had to go back over it the next day, and it was an at least 6 hr night, but I still did it. O.k. I don't own hospital sheets, Jimmy's blood, lockets, corn dogs, or balloons (to think there are some people who actually know what I'm talking about : P ). And a funny little thing to tag onto all of the violence that happened in this chapter. When I first started writing the story I had gotten to a little after this point and I decided that it was time that I named my story. Besides What the Tide Brings In, I also considered The Sand Slipping Through His Fingers; A Twist of Fate; and Chaotic Winds. And as a joke my bff, Sakinu, and I threw another title into the mixture. "Ryan must die..." we both loved the title, but I really didn't know if I wanted to kill him in the end... Oh Well. I thought you might enjoy the other title's name, especially since the only thing that Ryan was doing this chapter was be stupid. Another thing- I have no clue how long twisted ankles really take to heal. I'm just saying 2 days for my creative purposes. Do I really have to go through my usual "review and criticize" routine? Because it's getting a bit dull...you already know the drill!