CHAPTER 3

When Usagi got home that night she was in an elated mood but it stopped short at the sight of her mother when she entered the doors. Her mother's eyes were red and puffy, again Usagi could see the lines that symbolized her aging face, more advanced than other women her age.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Usagi questioned immediately.

"Your brother's in the hospital." It was her mother's reply.

Usagi gulped. "What?" She shook her head. "When did this happen?"

"Half hour ago. Your father's there now, taking care of the formalities." Ikuko told her oldest child.

"Why aren't you there?" Usagi asked amazed.

"I decided to wait for you." Ikuko explained, every time it didn't get any easier and every time she'd have to make up some excuse.

"Why didn't you call me?" Usagi demanded.

"You were having fun, I didn't want to ruin this night along with every other one." Ikuko whipped away her tears. "Now come on, lets go."

"MOM!" Usagi's voice rose and Ikuko stopped to look at her in curiosity. "You're bleeding!"

Ikuko gently touched her lip, which had a gash in it. "And so I am, it's all right dear, and it'll be fine, nothing worse than usual."

Usagi made a soft noise of protest and wet one of their dark towels. She filled it with ice and pressed it carefully against her mother's lip. "You might need stitches." Usagi admonished her mother for taking it so lightly.

"I should be the one taking care of my children, not my daughter caring for me." Ikuko groaned as she took the cloth from her daughter and wincing at the pain. "Thank you." She mumbled out past the ice pack.

"Would you like me to drive?" Usagi suggested.

"Please." Ikuko handed over the keys and followed Usagi out of the house and into the garage.

When they got to the hospital Usagi's father was just finishing the paper work. His slow smile meant many things, one of which was that Shingo was ok and other was that the alcohol was starting to set in.

"You let dad drive Shingo here drunk?" Usagi rounded on her mother.

"Smart lass." Kenji muttered as he leaned against the sterile orange chairs, a failure attempt to add color.

"It wasn't like I had much choice." Ikuko sighed. "I wasn't feeling up to driving."

Usagi plopped down a few seats away from her parents. "Fine then." She grumbled not in the mood speak to either.

"What are you wearing?" Kenji finally got a look at her and grew angry.

"A costume, from the theme party?" Usagi's father wasn't home enough to remember her telling the whole family about it last week. They just knew that she wasn't going to be home that night until late.

"What was the theme?" He questioned trying to find a hole in her lie.

"Fated." She answered calmly.

"And what were you supposed to be?" He challenged.

"Rose from the Titanic with her fated destiny of being sunk." Usagi shrugged. "It was an American movie, I doubt you saw it."

"The rose was in Romeo and Juliet. A rose would smell as sweet by any other name." Kenji quoted, rounding on her with burning eyes. "You didn't go to that party with that boy, pretending to be Romeo and Juliet did you?"

"You really do hate the English don't you?" Usagi didn't answer his question and that's what infuriated him the most.

"Are we going to be having a married child on our hands pretty soon because some boy got my daughter pregnant?" He roared.

"Sit. Down." Usagi glared at him and he looked around realizing his mistake and subsided into his chair.

"We will finish this conversation at home." He told her.

"I don't think so." Usagi responded indecently. "There's already been enough trouble for tonight."

Kenji stood up again and started to stalk towards his daughter when his wife's sad voice caught him off guard. "Ken-chan, she didn't do anything wrong. Our daughter's the perfect one, remember?"

Kenji whirled around towards Ikuko. "She's perfect?" He blustered. "She goes romping off with that poor fool every day and doing you knows what with him!"

"If you keep believing that of her, she might just say, heck with it, I'm already getting blamed for something I don't do, why not just do it and face my crimes head on?" Ikuko warned. "No, our daughter's going to be just fine."

Usagi was silently steaming; her father didn't know when to shut up or what things weren't allowed to be said. She decided she would ignore the little digs for now, exploding only when it was very important. Right now there were more important things to worry about. She walked over to the nurse's station and asked the question that was most pressing. "Can I see my brother now?"

"Actually you can, I just got word and was about to tell all of you. Would you like to wait until I tell your parents?" The young intern wondered, his green eyes traveling over to the older couple.

"No, they need some time to talk out here. I'll come back out in a few minutes." Usagi told him and walked into the room the intern told her he'd be in.

Shingo was lying in bed breathing semi-evenly. "Hey Nee-chan."

"Hi little bro." Usagi rested placed her hand over his and giving it a gentle squeeze. "How are you feeling?"

"Ok considering that I feel the marching band is doing a detrimental beat in my head." He told her.

She laughed lightly. "You know so many big words, I'm always amazed. How did this one happen?" She returned to the real subject at hand.

"I was… hmm…" He paused. "I actually don't remember what happened this time." He raised a tired hand and rubbed his smooth jaw, one yet to receive the first shades of a shadow.

"It's all right, don't try to remember if it causes pain." She soothed. "I'll spend the night here if you wish. Out of the three of us, I have the most flexible schedule."

"It's all right, I'm perfectly all right with staying here by myself." He told her gently. "We'll be trying something new pretty soon though, right?"

"Mom hates it when you go under for surgery." Usagi sighed. "But if it will help from any relapse, then I'll help her through it."

"Good girl." He smiled tiredly at her before drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

Usagi soon fell asleep unknowingly in her chair and wasn't disturbed until the next morning by a beeping alarm. She looked up groggily and looked at the numbers, which read, nine o'clock in the morning. She was about to go back to sleep with a noise interrupted her thoughts again. It was her phone.

"Hello?" She asked fuzzily.

"Usako." She heard the soft, teasing voice and woke up. "Where were you last night? I called you as soon as I got home."

"Oh, Mamo-chan, I totally spaced it out, I fell asleep on the couch last night almost as soon as I sat down." She lied with such ease she was ashamed, twice now she couldn't just make a round about comment and get away with declining to tell him.

"Perfectly understandable." His voice was still teasing. "We really tired you out last night."

"Of course." That wasn't a lie; she would probably have crashed after the phone call if it weren't for the events following. That reminded her, how did she get home?

"Are we still on for lunch with the girls?" He wondered softly.

"Um…" Usagi hesitated.

"Usako, you said you would." He sounded disappointed, she disappointed a lot of people by backing out of her word, the only promise she never broke was the one to her brother.

"I know, but something's come up, there's somebody I know in the hospital and I have to go visit them." Usagi felt relieve that it wasn't an outright lie.

"I'll go with you, and we'll still have plenty of time to spare to go to lunch." He suggested.

"No!" Usagi said quickly. "I mean they don't like to be bothered, they're very private type of people and would want me to stay with them for a while."

She heard his growl before she heard his reply. "You're lying to me again!"

"No I'm not!" It was true she wasn't lying; telling half-truths were more like it. She just conveniently forgot that every lie had some truth.

"Yes you are! I don't know what's gotten into you! You've suddenly decided to break our trust and lie to me constantly now."

"No I don't." She frowned. "Why on earth would you believe that?"

"I know you are because there's differences in the way you talk, the way you act and you don't look me directly in the eye until you put a little will power behind it and even then its only for a couple of seconds before you look away and finish your sentence with a lie."

"I'm not lying." She told him firmly.

"For some reason you want to keep me out of your life, or at least part of it." He amended at her sound of protest. "If you want to keep your life a secret, fine, as long as it doesn't harm you. Just don't lie to me, tell me it's none of my business, tell me that you can't tell me but you aren't doing anything that betrays us or harms you. Just tell me the truth as much as you can, but don't lie to me."

"I am going to the hospital to visit someone." She stated simply, she'd keep his words in mind; he just gave her an easy out. "No, you can't come because that person can't have outside company. I will not be able to join you and the girls for lunch. I'm sorry."

"That wasn't that hard, now was it?" His voice lost all trace of bitterness, he'd had a bad history with liars and it reflected every once in awhile. It was one of the reasons besides trust that she was so adamant about telling the truth and feeling guilty about when she did lie.

"It was basically the same thing I said earlier." She pointed out and he only sighed. "I'm sorry, but I should get going."

"I love you Usako, stay safe. Goodbye."

"I love you too, and that's no lie, bye." Usagi hung up the phone and skipped to the bathroom to take a shower. Then she stopped and groaned, she always forgot about her brother's terrible predicament after she talked to Mamoru.

Sure they disagreed on a few things but in the end just talking to him proved to be a great spirit lifter. For the first time in her life she regretted having her brother. Not having her brother per se but she was getting tired of having to help out her little brother.

She now felt extremely guilty for all of her thoughts. She was a terrible, terrible person.

Usagi finished showering by turning the knob off and dried off before exiting the stall. She dressed quickly and made her way to the hospital, her parents had already left that morning, her mom to the hospital and her dad to work.

So she had to take the bus to the subway, from the subway to the hospital. She walked to the waiting room to wait patiently with her mother, her brother had already gone in for his surgery and now all they could do was wait.

"You are such a good child." Ikuko said resting her head on Usagi's shoulder. "Always so brave and strong, what would I have done without you?"

"Relied on dad." Usagi answered simply, the bond that had been between them years past had faded recently as Usagi learned what happened at home wasn't exactly right and she learned how to stretch her wings and be on her own so completely.

"Your father is a good man, he helps provide for us, he works hard and he loves his family dearly." Her mother chided.

"I know." Usagi sighed leaning against her chair and closing her eyes. "I know."

A few hours later there was still no sign of how her brother's surgery was going. Usagi shifted from her comfortable position. "When do you go back to work?"

"Monday, I'm meeting with Mamoru's grandfather tomorrow, did he tell you?"

"Mamoru or his grandfather?" Usagi questioned lightly.

"Either?"

"No, I hadn't heard anything on the subject since you brought it up two weeks ago." Usagi answered stretching. "Here comes that nice nurse." Both stood to greet him.

"Your son will be fine Ms. Tuskino." He told her. "They hope this one will be better than the last few. An American girl had really great results with it when it was still a proto type."

"Thank you." Ikuko cried.

Usagi rolled her eyes before asking what was really important. "When can we see him?"

"Actually you can bring him home in a couple of hours, I see that you've become very adept at handling this." His implication didn't get missed on Usagi but her mother was oblivious and took it for the obvious.

"Yes, you're quite right, thank you." Ikuko dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. Behind her Usagi made a small nod towards the male nurse, a slight smile curving at her lovely lips. "Usagi."

Usagi tore her eyes away and looked at her mother. "Yes?"

"Can you see to the requirements? I was so frazzled this morning I clear forgot. Can you see to getting some on loan?"

Usagi agreed and walked back down the hall that she had come down and went to the nurse's station to get what she needed. The cute guy followed her and leaned against the desk. "He'll be unresponsive to it for a couple of days, his body will refuse it."

"What can we expect?" Usagi asked, thinking she already knew the answer.

"It really depends on him and how his body reacts to the invasion. But he should be no worse than which he has been."

Usagi nodded carefully, her thoughts on her brother.

"Usagi, about your father…" He tried.

"Don't start, there's nothing wrong, he's just stressed by all of this." Usagi changed the subject quickly. "Have you heard about the new medical advancement in the cancer research? I heard about something new popping up and since you're in the field…"

"No, sorry." He smiled broadly knowing she was trying to get out of talking about what they needed to discuss, he followed her path. "Usagi, would you be interested in going out on a date sometime?" At her frown he quickly continued. "I know there's an age difference and I'm your brother's nurse but that doesn't actually mean anything, considering that nurses don't have to abide by that guideline and I'm only two years older than you."

Usagi ran a tired hand down her face as she regrouped in how to tell him this. "I think you're a very sweet person, but I can't, I-"

He cut her off. "You can't or you won't?"

"Both." She said simply.

"I understand." He wasn't taking it as well as she hoped.

"Let me explain, it isn't what you think. I'm already dating somebody I love very much." She clarified.

"I see." He took it in his stride, not terribly as sadden by the turn down as earlier. "He's a very lucky man."

"Thank you." Usagi smiled turning slightly pink with embarrassment.

"Usagi!" A familiar female voice called her name and she winced as she turned.

"Hi Ami!" She forced cheerfulness into her tone when she hadn't wanted to see her friend. "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be with everybody else."

"Oh!" Ami laughed lightly. "I was but then I had to do something for my mother before I went back." Ami's gaze flickered over to the man Usagi had just been talking to. "Who's that?" She pondered to Usagi, expecting an answer.

"This is my friend Zhang." She elbowed him, sending a warning glance. "Zhang, this is my, other friend, Ami."

"Nice you meet you Ami-san, if Usagi-san here had told me your last name I could have been politer." He told her on a bow of greeting.

"It's all right." Ami said returning the bow. "Pleased to meet you as well Zhang-san. Do you mind if I talked alone with Usa-chan for awhile?"

"Not at all, please do." Zhang walked away giving a wink to a nearly blushing Usagi, Ami missed the wink, noticing how good-looking the man was.

Ami blinked and turned her attention back to her friend. "Yee-gods." She sighed. "Minako's going to have a field day."

"What?" Usagi asked confused.

"Nothing, nothing, never mind." Ami shook herself out of her knowing mind. "How long have you known Zhang?"

"For awhile." Usagi refused to say for two days. "Why?"

"Oh, I just didn't know he was assigned here, I know most of the newer people."

"Okay." Usagi forced the conversation to die. "So helping your mother, eh? What are you doing?"

"I was sent down here to look at a patient, give my opinion and all." Ami stated proudly.

Usagi was happy for her friend's accomplishments but at that moment she wished she wasn't as smart as she was. "That's really good!" Usagi barely had to force the glad tone into her voice, yet it was still forced.

"Why are you here Usa-chan?" Ami asked oblivious to her inner turmoil.

Usagi shrugged noncommittally. "You should probably get onto your patient Ami." She suggested pointedly.

"Ok. I'll see you." Ami paused then thought better of it and walked down the hallway in the direction of intensive care.

Usagi breathed out a deep sigh of relief and picked up the items she abandoned when seeing her friend and bringing them back to her mother.

"Thank you Usa-chan." Ikuko praised with a large smile. "You are the best daughter a mother could have."

"Thank you." Usagi responded dutifully and slid into one of the ugly orange chairs. She decided she was going to sit there until her mother wheeled her brother out of his room and found them. As she waited she fell asleep curled up on the chair.

When she awoke her mother wasn't around and there was a blanket over her. She turned her head and was greeted by the smiling face of Zhang. "Hi." He said softly when she slowly blinked away the fogginess in her eyes.

"Where is everybody?" She asked.

"Your mother is attending to your brother right now, she said she'd be back out shortly, I saw her go in with several other nurses."

"Oh." Usagi forced a smile onto her face. "Thank you. I suspect you're the one who put the blanket over me?"

"That was completely your mother, I had thought about it but she beat me to the punch. She's trying Usagi-san, she's trying, even I can see that. I don't know about your history but I see the here and now and I know that your mother feels guilty about something and trying to make it up."

"I know." Usagi agreed as she stretched. "And I'm letting her try, we'll see how it turns out."

Zhang nodded. "Now, about Ami-san,"

Usagi cut him off. "She's single, but she'll be a challenge, she's quote, unquote, allergic to romantic endeavors."

Zhang laughed. "Is she a spitfire too?"

"No, she's quiet but with a lot of passion behind her flimsy wall, now Rei is most definitely a spitfire."

"Like you." He pointed out, and when she made to protest he contradicted her. "Remember I saw you last night when you were with your father, that was not something a modest, serene mouse could do."

"I suppose but that was extenuating circumstances that you wouldn't understand."

"You'd be surprised. My father was a certified alcoholic who attended all his AA meetings and played a good tune to the courts but at the end of the day when nobody was looking he hit the bottle hard."

Usagi's eyes widened. "That's terrible, but my father's not an alcoholic."

"He doesn't have to be. But an alcoholic has many personalities, anger, loving, aggressive, smooth, cheerful, brave, sick, they all arrive to the same outcome. They are all victims to a drug that holds more power over them then they'd care to admit."

"Again, my father's not an alcoholic." She denied adamantly.

"Denying it doesn't make it go away. I never used to believe my father could be an alcoholic and then I finally saw it." Zhang pursued.

"But he's not, trust me on that one. I know the signs of an alcoholic, I work with them often enough." Usagi gave out a degrading laugh. "My father had something to drink last night, he had come back from a party. He's a mean drunk but not abusive. I can count the number of drinks my father's had in the last six months besides last night on one hand. My father is not a alcoholic."

"Why do you work with alcoholics often?" Zhang asked confused, accepting her statement about her father.

"I work at a bar, it's how I make money. It's an upscale bar, but a bar none-the-less. The difference between where I work and the ones you always see on TV with drunks is that you get thrown out if you get rowdy and I'm usually the one to have them thrown out."

"Do your parents know about your job?"

"My job? You make it sound terrible. It's not like I'm a stripper or anything. I'm one of a handful of waiters that go around with nice small easy meals, clear the tables, and change the nut bowl at the counter if they run out. No though, they think I work at a restaurant, they've never asked more about it so I didn't tell."

"What's your problem with your father then?" Zhang took her hand in his, showing his genuine interest. Neither knew about the blue haired girl that had come around the corner and saw them, but couldn't hear them.

"It's complicated but it mostly stems out of his hatred towards my boyfriend." She groaned and pulled her hand from his to drop her head in her upturn palms.

"Your boyfriend? What could your father have against him if you've deemed him worthy enough to take into your life?"

"Part of it is because I'm threatening the perfect balance in the family. If I have a boyfriend, he's bound to find out about my brother and my father doesn't want that and neither do the other two. I don't know where the harm would be in allowing me to share my life with other people even if it isn't only my life. I guess though they'd start treating Shingo differently if they knew and his friends would find out but I'm surprised they haven't already figured it out."

"He's not that noticeable, with age there's less side effects and visual reactions."

"I know but it's still scary and he's getting so strong and the ones that do show are the deeper ones." She muttered her face pressed against her hands.

Zhang pulled her hands away and lifted her face by her chin. "That's why he's getting help, hopefully they'll be less of them and even the ones that remain will only be mild inconveniences that he can deal with himself."

"I pray your right but Kami can only deal with so many people at once."

"You'll see, things will look up as soon as his body adjusts to it." Zhang gave her a lop-sided smile in reassurance.

"I've never had somebody to talk to about my brother before. My parents refuse to discuss it at any length and they depend on me to help support and take care of him. Ami has medical knowledge but she isn't exactly the greatest person to lean on for a comforting explanation. She tells you the facts and tries to be kind and sympathetic but it isn't anything I can use because she's telling me what everybody's always told me. So I haven't even told her about my brother yet because of my promise to my family."

"You can always talk to me, I'll be here for you no matter what." Zhang told her honestly, empowering her to trust him.

"Oh thank you!" Usagi threw her arms around him in a hug and he caught her and hugged her back. She buried her head into his shoulder and wanted to cry but couldn't. "You don't know how much this means to me."

He ran his hand up and down her back in a soothing pattern. "I can guess, if I hadn't found aid when I learned of my father's problems I don't know where I'd be today."

Usagi nodded and pulled away. "I understand that. Passing on the help is always a valuable commodity so you can help bring out the next person and get them to deal with their issues."

Ami turned from the scene in anger; she didn't know Usagi as well as she thought she did! Oh, and poor Mamoru! He'd be devastated!

Ikuko walked out of the room at the same time Ami was storming down the hallway and bumped into her. "Oh Ami." Ikuko rested her hand on Ami's arm. "How are you dear." Ami was one of the only friends Ikuko knew about and even met once.

"Fine." Ami strained away.

"What are you doing here?" She asked politely.

"Finding some things out I never knew before." Ami grumbled unpleasantly.

"That's too bad. Have you spoken to Usagi recently? I know she was a little disappointed about not being able to attend you little get together this afternoon but she had other things she needed to attend to."

"I bet." Ami snorted and then caught herself. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little miffed at somebody, and you caught me at the wrong time." Ami apologized tight-lipped.

"All right dear." Ikuko smiled gently, now at ease about her son, she could worry about her daughter. "It was nice to see you again, you should stop by the house more often, I know how much your friendship with Usagi means to her."

Ami only nodded her response to that. "I'll see you then."

"Bye." Ikuko watched her fume away down the hall and then turned behind her to see her son being wheeled out by one of the female nurses, sound asleep. "Let's go get Usagi and go home."

Usagi stood up when Ikuko finally came back. She turned to Zhang as they prepared to leave. "Thank you." She whispered and he sent her a charming smile that read 'no sweat'.