Ch8.

Epilogue

His eyes opened slowly. They could not focus very fast. He could see a figure rising up to his right but could not see who. "Conan-kun, are you awake?" A gentle voice of a woman entered his ear. He wondered who was there. The sound he heard so many times, so fimiliar, but at the time he could not tell. He just knew that it was a fimiliar voice. The young boy reached up with his hands and rubbed his eyes. They slowly returned to focus.

Ran was standing next to his bed side, "Conan-kun? You're awake." Her eyelids moved downwards showing great relief. Lines of dried tears could still be seen on her cheeks.

"Where am I?" Conan asked softly.

"You're in the hospital." Ran replied smiling back.

Suddenly remembering what had happened, he jumped up and yelled, "Haibara, where is she."

"She just received her operation." Ran replied.

"and is she okay?" Conan pushed on.

"she's…of course she's okay, haha don't' worry yourself." Ran tried not to show her sad face.

-----flash back of Ran-----

The doctors came out of the operation room. The professor, Ran, Sonoko, and even old man Moori was there. They all ran up eager to here what happened. The doctor flipped his note book and checked on the patient he just worked on. The anticipation was murderous. The doctor looked up and opened his mouth, "the young lady was shot from the back on to her left lung. She is under intensive care and may stay there for the next few days. We still can't say for sure about her survival but if she make it for 24 hours then there should not be too much trouble from there on."

"And what about Conan," Asked Moori.

"The young man have suffered slight concussion and he may feel some headaches and possible high fever but I believe he will make a full recovery." The doctor reported.

-----end flash back-----

"You just rest for now okay? I'll be right back." Whispered Ran brushing his hair with her hands.

"Kay." Conan laid back down. He could hear the steps getting softer and softer, then to nothing.

Down the hall, Ran saw the professor sitting with a with his face to the floor."You were still here professor?" Ran asked.

"Yes. With Ai-kun so badly hurt I can't help it to think it was my fault." The professor spoke.

"Don't worry, she's a strong girl. She'll pull through. Just believe." Ran tried to cheer him up.

"Thank you Ran-kun." The professor forced a smile but his eyes didn't change.

Time passed and the sun rose from the hills. Conan woke up still feeling slightly weak from his "battle". Ran was still sitting by his side, now asleep. "Thank you, Ran." He whispered at the sleeping beauty, then reached over and put a sheet over her. He walked out to the hall way. Professor Agasa was stretching his arms as he breathed in some sweet morning air from the window. "Professor!" he called out.

"Huh, ohhh Shinichi. You're awake! I was starting to get worried when you slept for an entire day. That hit on the head must have got you good." Professor said brightly.

"Judging by your spirits, I take it that Haibara is okay?" The young lad deducted.

"Yea, the doctor said that she will live. She won't be able to do must exercise for a while but she will be fine." The professor laughed. Tention fell from Conan's face and he sat on the bench beside him.

"What happened with Hattori and Merlot?" Conan asked putting his hands behind his head.

"Merlot got away. I've told the police that You and Ai-kun was suppose to meet me at the Beika hall for supper but you never showed up. Right now they wish to ask you what happened that night. I hope you give a good explanation." The professor told him.

"Yea, I got that all figured out." Shinichi said.

As though on cue, Chief Megure came around the corner of the building. "Hey! Conan kun. Great, your up. Sorry for being so hasty but, tell us what happened that night. Who did this to you?"

"I don't remember too much but, I remember me and Haibara walking to a restaurant but we still had some time before we were suppose to beet with the professor so we decided to walk around for a bit. We reached that old abandoned factory and a man with a muff on his mouth grabbed Haibara in. I think the man was a kidnapper but we were seen by a lady and I think she called the police. We got into a struggle when I went in to chase him. It was during the struggle that he fired the gun and hit Haibara. I jumped at him but he knocked me down on the back of my head and ran away. That's about all I can remember." Conan explained his phony tale.

"Do you remember any specific detail on the man." Asked chief Megure.

"No, I can't remember much about him at all. It all happened so fast…" the little boy looked down.

"I see. We'll do out best to see if we can find this crook. Don't worry." Chief Megure patted the boy's head and walked away.

"Wait!" Conan called. The chief turned around wondering what he wanted, "What happened to the murder that killed that man."

"Oh! You missed all of it. It turned out that it was Nakamura-san that killed that lawyer. But, later when we searched for his records, nothing came up. His name wasn't in the data base, nor a matching picture in any of the files. His so called friends didn't exist or existed but they didn't know who he was. Everything is a big mess on that case and we still don't know what to do." Chief Megure announced back.

"I see." Conan replied then looked down pensively.

Ran standing behind the tubby inspector ran up and picked him up holding him to her chest. "You crazy little boy! Why didn't you call for help." Warm tears poured out of her eyes. "You could have died, do you know how close you were to being shot yourself."

"I wish it was me." He whispered.

Ran eyes widened, her tears flew off. Her memories of Shinichi came back to her.

-----Ran's flash back-----

"Do you know what my favoriate words were in the homes series?" asked shinichi with a bright face, "That's if I can put you at ease, I would be more than happy to take death to myself"

----end flashback----

Ran grined proudly, "Baka na ko (stupid little kid). My stupid stupid little boy."

The End…

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