Hi again! Yeah, I know it took a while to get this out, but the reason for that is I was trying to make it as realistic as possible. This meant that I had to make this believable by knowing what I was talking about. You'll figure out what I mean later.

Soon enough, Ryo was sitting next to Henry in the waiting room, his face cleaned of all blood and his eyes directed at the floor. If one looked closely enough at him, they would have noticed that he was shaking. It'd been a half-hour since he had come storming into the hospital, and there was still no news about Rika.

As he had been cleaned up, he'd been told about what happened.

"She was nearly dead when she got here," the nurse's assistant had said, as she helped clean the blood from his face. He remembered she had been very tall and thin, and a bit twitchy and shaken. Her black hair had been cut boyishly short for one reason or another, but she still retained her feminine look. "From what your friend outside told us, he found her in a pile of trash on the main street." She continued, her voice growing solemn and a little shaky. "She had a stab wound in her torso, and she'd lost a lot of blood."

Even now in the waiting room, Ryo was still struggling to keep his anger at bay. This was no accident. Some creep had attacked Rika and intentionally stabbed her. Someone had tried to kill her, and for all anyone knew, they had succeeded.

Ryo grimaced at the thought and shook his head fiercely. 'No. Rika won't die. She won't let herself die. She's too tough for that.' Ryo reminded himself.

Then, as he finished this thought, eyes downcast, he saw the hem of a white jacket stop a few steps away from him. "Excuse me?" asked a female voice, "Are you Nonaka Rumiko?"

Ryo's head shot up so fast that it gave him a headache, which he didn't bother to notice. Nearby, the Henry, Takato, and Jeri all did the exact same thing.

In front of Rika's mother and grandmother was a female doctor. Her black hair was neatly tied back; there wasn't a strand out of place. She wore a pair of glasses with thin frames, and carried a clipboard at her side.

"Yes," said Rika's mother, rather anxiously. "Yes I am."

"I'm Dr. Tanaka," she informed them. "I have some information about your daughter.

"Is she alright?" Rumiko asked, getting straight to the point.

Dr. Tanaka closed her eyes, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and sighed. Uh oh. "Well," she said, "I have both good news and bad news."

'Oh God,' thought Ryo fearfully, his heart rate going up a few notches. 'Not that line!'

"The good news," continued Dr. Tanaka, trying her best to console a distressed Rumiko, "is that your daughter is alive."

This statement took a minute to fully sink in for Ryo in his panicky state, but once it did, it was all Ryo could do to keep from jumping for joy. Rika was alive! He hadn't been too late! He didn't have to turn around to know that the others were just as excited to hear this as he was. He could almost feel the radiation from Jeri's smile, and she was a yard away. Unfortunately, there was still the bad news.

"But," continued Dr. Tanaka, nervously. Ryo's happiness ceased when he heard the tone of her voice. It was that nervous tone people got when they were about to drop a bomb.

"She will be needing a blood transfusion." She said, pulling the clipboard from under her arm, flipping to the second piece of paper in the clip, and reading it. "Her blood type is A, correct?"

Rumiko nodded slowly. "Yes, that's right."

The doctor nodded as well and returned the clipboard to her side. "Her gene appears to be A2, if the tests are correct. Unfortunately, that blood type is not very common in Asia. We don't have any available for our use at the moment. Also, it is unlikely that there are any hospitals in the area that could supply us with as much as we need. It could take weeks to get a sufficient amount."

For a moment, there was complete silence among the group. Everyone stared at Dr. Tanaka, who in turn stared at Rumiko, waiting for a reply.

"Wh…what does that…mean?" Rumiko finally asked, recoiling slightly. She, like the rest of the group, knew the answer probably wasn't going to be good.

Dr. Tanaka looked down at Rumiko somberly before she closed her eyes, sighing, and rubbed the bridge of her nose again. Her facial expression showed that she was a person who had seen far too much tragedy in her years. "It means," she said, opening her eyes again, "that you're daughter may not survive."

Then, it seemed that the world ceased to spin.

Ryo felt like he couldn't see. He couldn't breath. He could barely even think. "I'm very sorry about this Ms. Nonaka." The doctor's voice echoed in Ryo's head. "We will do all we can for her." Ryo heard the sound of Rumiko sobbing. He heard Rika's grandmother trying to comfort her, even though she too was sobbing, just as before.

Then, as Ryo listened to the many voices and sounds echoing in his head, he was suddenly filled with rage.

He felt rage toward the doctors, who were too incompetent in his eyes. If they were really good doctors, they would do everything need to save Rika. They wouldn't let her die. They'd get the blood she needed.

There was rage toward the guy who hurt her, too. How dare he hurt his Rika??? Where did he get the gall to do something like that??

He even felt rage toward Rika herself. What was she doing out there? How could she let that happen to her? She was smarter than that!

But mostly, he felt rage toward himself. He dropped his face into his hands and did all he could to keep from sobbing. He gulped and wondered to himself. 'Why couldn't I have been there for her?'

Well, there you go. Now you see what I had to make more believable, right? See, I'm no doctor, so I had to do some research. It turned up some information, but not as much as I would have liked. So, please bear with me on that. I tried! I swear I did!

By the way, I was just thinking about this. If any of you want to know why my chapters are the length they are, it's that I try to make each chapter at least 1000 words, author notes and all. I know that isn't the best system, but it makes me feel good about myself.

Now, to other business. I've started to rethink the alternative endings thing. I'm not sure if I should do both endings or just do one. And, if just one, which one? What do you guys think? Tell me please! R&R.