The Purpose of a Heart
Chapter Fifteen
Bakura made quite a spectacle of himself, coming into the poison-control center. He was covered in blood, carrying Yami, and tripped on the doorstep on the way in, cursing loud enough in both pain and irritation to be heard throughout the building. Some workers, he supposed they were nurses, were convinced he was the one that had come for help and tried to tell him that the hospital would be a better place to go, before he pointed at Yami and they got the idea. Balancing himself against the wall, still holding tight to his friend's body, he demanded to know if Jared Fletcher was there. One nurse nodded.
"Yes, he stayed late tonight, what a coincidence-"
"Well, get him in here!" She looked startled, but called him into the room anyway.
"Bakura!" Jared and Bakura were more or less friends, since Bakura had one time stopped some guys at the shooting range from beating Jared, (who, much like Yami, was vertically challenged), into a pulp during an argument over who had the most custom work on their pistols. Jared had been extremely grateful and reminded him that he'd repay the favor at any time. He hadn't known that the only reason Bakura had bothered to help was because he had a severe dislike of one of the attackers, and that it actually had nothing to do with compassion, but Bakura had let it slide-favors could be hard to come by. He'd since completely forgotten the incident, till tonight anyway.
"Jar, I need some help."
Jared furrowed his brow. "What kind?"
"Yami, he's been poisoned. It's some weird stuff, it slows down his whole body till he's dead. I can't say what circumstances it was under, but he's in a coma and his heart's beating all funny, and I don't think there's much time-"
"Forget it, here, bring him in this room." Jared motioned toward the nearest door and Bakura laid Yami down, his arms aching. He reached into his pocket and produced the vial.
"I think this might be the antipoison, but I don't know for sure. It might just be more of the stuff. I don't have the slightest clue. But you've got to try it, he'll be dead pretty soon. Jared, please tell me you can help him." For the first time that night, Bakura's voice took on a frantic edge through the exhaustion. "He's got to be okay."
"I'll do my best-"
Bakura shook his head. "You don't understand, "best" isn't good enough, he's got to-"
"Bakura, I promise, I'll do my extra-best, how about that?" Jared replied. He shook the bottle. "What were those symptoms again?"
Bakura repeated what Blair had told him.
"Hmmn, it could be some type of benzodiazepine…" Jared muttered to himself as he gathered up IV equipment. "I've got Mazacon, so that wouldn't be a problem, but a lot of poisons will induce convulsions and comas like this, so I couldn't be sure…I could do a test on this on this antidote to see if it's Mazacon but-"
Bakura, loosing his patience, reached out despite his pain and grabbed the man by his collar, shaking him. "Yami doesn't have time for you to act like a nerd!" he shouted. "To hell with testing whatnot, just give him something. HE NEEDS HELP NOW!"
Jared blinked. "Sorry, I'm sorry, but if I gave him the wrong antidote, it could only make things worse."
Bakura, breathing rather heavily, saw the sense in this and let go of Jared's collar with a scowl. "Just do something. Anything at all."
"I promise Bakura, I'll do what I can. Hold this for me, will you?" He held out a small bag of thick black liquid. Bakura took it and eyed it warily.
"What the hell is this?"
"Activated charcoal." Jared replied calmly, as if this were a common thing. He didn't offer any other information, instead busying himself with vial of liquid Bakura had given him, as well as another bottle he'd fetched from a shelf.
Bakura wrinkled his nose. Even to him, it sounded like nonsense. Right, like barbeque fuel was really going to help anything. Maybe he'd heard wrong. "Char…" he trailed off and glanced at the bag warily. "Charcoal." He repeated, as if to clarify. Jared took it from him.
"Look, I know it's not pleasant, but it's one of the best detoxifiers in the world. I might have to set up a feeding tube for him with it." Seeing Bakura's uneasy stare at the bag, he added, "You don't have to stay and watch, you know. When he wakes up, he'll probably be sick, so if you get nauseous easily, you might want to leave."
Bakura shrugged and leaned back against the wall carefully. "Whatever helps." He repeated.
Jared glanced over at Bakura and said, "You look like you're in some pain yourself."
"I think I've broken a few things." Bakura admitted, moving gingerly. He rubbed his head and flakes of congealed blood rained down. He scowled at his hands and tried to wipe some of the blood on his jeans. But they were so saturated themselves, it did little good. Damn Blair, ruining a perfectly good pair of jeans with his blood.
"Do you need a lift to the hospital?"
"No, I'm not leaving here till he wakes up. Besides, not much of this is mine, it's not as bad as it looks."
"Okay." Jared slipped the needle into the crook of Yami's arm, taped it, and turned back. "This is what I'm going to do Bakura, I'm just going to start trying to get a mix of this stuff you gave me and also some Lidocaine, that's what we use to control irregular heartbeat, into his blood, and after that we'll try the charcoal. It might not work, you need to realize that. All things considered, the best move might be to call the hospital and-"
"No, no hospitals." Bakura suddenly snapped. "I don't trust them, they have too much damn paperwork, and anyway, Yami doesn't need a hospital. He can pull through just fine here."
"Bakura-"
"Listen to me, Jar. No hospitals. That's where people go to die, don't you realize that? Yami's not going to die." Bakura's eyes were starting to blaze again.
"Okay. I'm sorry I said anything." Jared fell silent as he left the room and returned with the IV bag, hooking it to the pipe that was taped into Yami's arm, and placing an oxygen mask over his face. "Okay, it's up to him now. You're sure you don't want a lift to a doctor or something? Because you look really beat, and broken ribs-"
"I told you, I'm not leaving!"
"Do you want a painkiller at least?"
Bakura paused, and shook his head, recalling how Blair acted when he'd been doing painkillers. "No, I'd like to be completely aware of what's going on right now."
"A Tylenol then? They won't make you sleepy."
"Okay, hit me with one."
Jared backed out the door and returned with the bottle, handing it to Bakura. "Call for me if anything changes, good or bad. And keep an eye on the vital-signs monitor, will you? You're lucky you caught me, I was supposed to be out of here, but I'm really busy tonight, it's like everyone decided to eat something they shouldn't have, and I could use some help, since it's mostly interns here that don't know much…"
Bakura cast an eye toward the machine that was now beeping periodically and lighting up with a bright squiggle line. He'd seen such things in movies before. "I'll do that."
"Thanks. It was right that you got here as soon as possible. You know, Yami's lucky to have a friend as good as you."
If he thought this would cheer Bakura up, it didn't. Bakura suddenly looked even more downcast and shook his head. "No, he's not. Had I been a good friend, it wouldn't have come to this. Yami doesn't like me, and he's got a lot of good reasons not to. He's not lucky at all, it's my fault he's here."
Jared didn't look at though he understood the cryptic statement,so henodded and vanished out the door. Bakura waited a few minutes before getting up and limping over to Yami's side, taking his chair with him. He studied the IV and needle, examined the oxygen mask over Yami's nose and mouth, and finally sighed. He dry-swallowed two of the Tylenol and set the bottle on the floor beside the chair, propping his elbows on the bed.
"Well Yami, you sure got both you and me into a mess this time." He said. "I hope you're proud. Had you just taken my advice and gotten out of town quickly, this might not have happened." He appraised the bag of charcoal mix and clear tube. "Now you might have barbeque pumped down your throat, and if you ask me, you deserve it." He gazed at Yami, almost fondly. "But you did spur me to take Blair out. That was good. I had some revenge to get on him anyway, for what he did to Louis. You never knew Louis, but you would have liked the kid. He was like those other friends you have. Blair killed him. So Blair deserved to die, you would agree. Besides, he was a filthy show-off. Irritated the hell out of me."
He paused. He knew that people in comas could often hear everything around them. It was a well-known fact. The beeping monitor was showing no sign of progress. He feared maybe this was Blair's final trick against him, purposely carrying around a vial of water or something to fool Bakura into optimism. But he had also seen, firsthand, Yami pull some amazing turn-abouts in both dueling and in life. He hoped that the pharaoh could find the strength to pull off one more, and tried to think of what might be able to help. So he turned to his knowledge of action movies, (Once the Millennium Items were gone, he'd had a lot of spare time on his hands.), and recalled that people could be "talked" out of comas. There was no harm in trying, so he glanced down at Yami and began,
"Look, if you're in there someplace thinking about dying, then you and me have to have a little talk. People say that you can hear in a coma. So listen up! You can't go around dying, got that? Wimps die. You're not a wimp, I know it and you know it. Besides, if you go, then where's my motivation? You're the whole reason I did all that stuff…killed those people and tried to find a way out and fought Blair and I think cracked a few ribs in here during that. I even scratched one of my brand new Tonfa Blasters, it's going to cost me now to get that buffed out! You go and die, and all that will be for nothing! I don't like to do things for nothing."
He glanced at the monitor. Nothing seemed to be happening, and while that wasn't bad, it wasn't good, either. Yami lay, silent and inmoving. Bakurascowled.
"Okay, maybe that reason wasn't good enough for you. Well, if you die, what will all the people in the world that need second chances do? You're one of those people that'll give others second chances. People like me. People that've messed up and you put your trust in them and they betrayed you…and still, you offer them another chance. Others would have just given up, said to hell with it. But you're different. If you die, all the people like me in the world'll be back to square one with no one to believe in us." He stopped and looked around one last time, making sure no one was watching. Then he reached out and touched Yami's hand. His fingers were cold; it was as if he were already dead. Silently, Bakura put his own hand over Yami's in hopes to warm it up, and he felt a small lump rise in his throat, which was odd. It resembled the way he'd felt the other night, just before leaving Yami's apartment to return to the Compound.
Finally he sighed and closed his eyes. "Look…Yami…I can sit here and make excuses all night. But…when you come right down to it…if you die, my whole life is going to die with you. You're the only reason I'm alive, the only reason I'm not out on top of a building picking people off for fun. Because I swore I'd change and I'd become someone you could like…I guess I blew that one. You'll never like me once you get the whole story. Once you know that I've lied and killed and…and I betrayed your trust, again. But I really did want to become someone new, I really did try. It just didn't work out, but you shouldn't have to take the fall for that. Yami, please, this is the one last thing I'm asking you for. I'm asking you as…asyour friend…don't die. Tell that poison to vanish out of you and just…don't leave me here alone."
Bakura blinked, his eyes suddenly stinging and to his surprise, salty trails of tears ran down from them. With his other hand, he touched his cheek and pulled it away, staring at his fingers. Tears? He was crying? He hadn't cried since…since that night back in Kuru Eruna. He'd forgotten what it even felt like to have tears run down his face. As he let himself imagine a world without Yami in it, he found an empty ache growing inside him as a result. A terrible dark spot, all the fear and pain he'd locked up throughout his life, it was spreading now throughout his body.It was just like that night all over again, watching the only things meaningful to him be taken away by forces he couldn't stop and wasn't even sure he understood.
"Don't leave me here…I don't want to be alone anymore, Yami. I don't want to be left alone again…Please-" He lifted Yami's hand and pressed it to the side of his face in a desperation he hadn't felt since he was a child. "Don't do this. Wake up, wake up and give me that idiotic smile of yours. I'd do anything, anything for you to get up and start giving one of those stupid honor speeches right now….You're the only thing important to me left here, don't you realize that? Even if the boss makes that stupid laser and destroys the world, that won't matter if you're gone, don't you understand?"
He suddenly sat bolt upright. "Oh no. The laser."
"If the scene before you doesn't garner your full concentration, I'll gladly explain the laser to you, but I'm pretty sure once you see it, the laser will be the furthest thing on your mind. Which is good, I need to keep your mind off it while it's being prepped for tonight."
He felt torn now, between staying, or returning to the Compound. If he went back, what would it achieve? He was hurt, the likelihood that he could stop it was slim, and he'd promised…he'd promised to stay till Yami woke up…
But, on the other hand, his Uzi was still in his room at the building, and he didn't like the idea of leaving it there for some random person to find. And also…well, wouldn't this be proof, at least a little, that he'd changed? He went back to try to stop whatever the boss had planned? So yeah, he'd made a promise to Yami, but surely the pharaoh could forgive his breaking this one, if it would mean saving the world. Besides, he was unconscious, he'd never even know he'd been lied to…and he'd probably be really proud, if Bakura was able to stop some evil plan…He'd actually be proud of me, for the first time ever…I'd have done something right…
Bakura struggled to his feet, gently placing Yami's hand back alongside his body, and somehow, something inside him knew that Yami was going to be okay. "You keep thinking on what I said." He told him. "I've got to go finish something, and I expect you to be alive after it's all said and done, because at least one of us has to make it out of all this." Turning, he stumbled to the door, demanding two requests of the startled intern outside.
Jared appeared from another room where two young boys were being treated for eating too much bubble-gum flavored toothpaste in a contest, looking hectic. "Bakura…what's going on…?"
Bakura handed Jared a folded piece of paper. "Give this to Yami when he wakes up. And don't get that "if" look on your face, because he's going to wake up. Give this to him, preferably before you shove charcoal down his throat, because I want him to be paying attention when he reads it."
"Okay-but-I-Where are you going?" He finally asked.
"I've got one last piece of business to contend with." Bakura called back as he rushed from the building as fast as his injuries would allow, getting into the station wagon and inserting the screw driver into the ignition.
Jared stared in confusion, then down at the paper in his hand. A sound from behind him made him spin around. Yami rolled his head to the side and moaned as he began to regain his bearings. "Wha…?" He blinked sleepily, feeling as if he'd just woken up from a long nap. But he knew that couldn't have been it. The last thing he remembered was seeing someone standing outside his apartment, and when he opened the door, the man had tried to attack him. He vaguely recalled fighting back as best he could, but he couldn't remember anything after that.
"Yami, you're awake!" Jared was delighted. He'd really been worried about how Bakura might react if Yami died while he was gone. "I guess that was the antidote after all."
"Where…?" Yami mumbled as he started to sit up, but stopped now as the room spun around him and he felt extremely sick.
"You're at the Poison-control center, in Domino. Thank god you woke up. Your friend was really worried about you. You were practically dead." Jared unhooked the oxygen mask and fetched a pail so Yami could take care of his need to vomit. "Sorry about that, your body's natural defenses are up." he explained. Yami blinked, hazy-eyed, back at him as a response. Jared shrugged. "Understandable. Want some water?"
"What…what about who?" Yami felt dizzy as a flash of a voice penetrated the fog in his mind:
…I'm asking you as…asyour friend…don't die. Tell that poison to vanish out of you and just…don't leave me-
"Bakura?" he asked aloud, confused as to why he'd hear those words in Bakura's voice. They weren't the sort of things Bakura would ever say. Whatever had happened must have seriously messed up his head. "Who was here?"
"Your friend, Bakura." Jared replied as he filled a cup at the tap. "Here you go."
Yami gingerly tried to sit up again and this time didn't feel as woozy. "Bakura was here?"
"He sure was and damn was he freaked out. It was sort of…touching, really."
Yami glanced down at his hand for some reason and shook his head. "It couldn't have been Bakura, that's not like him. You must have been mistaken. How do you even know him?"
"No, no, it was definitely him, he had those bunny-ear spikes in his hair. I met him at the shooting range one time.Oh!" Jared pulled the paper out of his pocket and held it out. "He told me to give this to you, I almost forgot. He ran out just a few minutes ago, he looked like he was in a hurry."
Yami took the paper with his other hand and shook it open. Sure enough, it was Bakura's handwriting. He read the note and found himself at a loss for words.
"Hey, something wrong?" Jared asked, concerned.
Yami shook his head. "No, it's nothing. Just…I'm tired is all." He clutched the crumpled paper. Jared wasn't sure what that was all about and decided maybe the poison was still affecting Yami's mind, and poured him a cup of the lumpy black charcoal mix just in case. Yami surprisingly made no comment as he choked it down and struggled not to throw up again. Jared Fletcher's words were only a faint sound in his mind, and the awful taste in his mouth seemed irrelevant. The last lines of Bakura's note to him were what he was thinking about.
"There's one more thing to do before this'll be over, and for once I think it's something you'd be proud of. I hope I can make up for everything else this way. Yami, thanks for the second chances you've given me."
It had ended with that final sentence, tacked awkwardly to the end of the note, as if it were a shy afterthought. The rest of the letter had been hasty and unexplained. Yami didn't understand much of it. It was as if Bakura had just been writing random babble about a "boss", a laser, a secret society, murders, some people named Blair and Louis, and a lot of other things, and yet never offered any real explanation. The last paragraph was all that made any sense. But he didn't like the way the end sounded. It was too final, it read as if Bakura were trying to wish him good-bye in the only way he knew how.
"Be careful." He whispered.
Meanwhile, Bakura had driven back to the Compound. The place was oddly empty. The halls echoed every time he took a step, and every room he looked into was vacant. Maybe it was just nerves, but the emptiness made the hairs on the back of his neck prick up. Going to his room, he retrieved the case his Uzi was in and assembled it, clipping the shoulder strap on and securing it. There was no telling who or what he was going to have to face, and having the gun would surely help. He eyed himself in the mirror. Covered in blood, he certainly made a sight. At least the Tylenol were starting to work.
Before leaving, he took his picture of Yami out from under the pillow and slipped it into his pocket.
Downstairs in the basement computer room, most people had cleared out as well. The boss had wished them all well and told them they could go home. The only people remaining were the few that stood by to dictate how to use the laser. Currently they were busy destroying all the plans that remained to the weapon, and were finalizing the course.
The door suddenly burst open and Bakura clomped in. The boss straightened up. "Well well well." he clapped his hands. "The gang's all here."
"Blair's dead." Bakura said by way of greeting.
"Is he really?" For some reason, the man didn't seem startled by this news.
"And if you're lucky, Yami isn't." Bakura growled, taking a step. There was a collective gasp as everyone saw first, the blood, and then the sub-machine gun in his hands. "Because if he dies, I won't be satisfied with ordinary revenge. As it is, you pissed me off by dragging him into this mess from day one by using him as a threat. But when you hurt him…that was going too far. Blair ought to be an example, he got his face blown off, sonow you know what I do to people that push me."
"Hmmn, yes, well…I didn't expect Blair to survive. You see, I know the type of person you are, and I knew you would kill him. You thought it was a lucky coincidence I let you face off with him while you still had your Tonfa Blasters? I planned that."
"You wanted me to kill him?" Bakura asked, perplexed.
"Maybe, maybe not."
"I don't understand you, what is it you want out of all this!"
"Of course you don't understand. Maybe that's because I want something you're incapable of understanding." The boss replied. "What I want isn't your concern and never should have been. You shouldn't have come back here in the first place."
"YOU HURT YAMI!" Bakura roared, fed up. "He was completely innocent, and you poisoned him! How, tell me, HOW can you expect me to not be concerned about what you have planned! If you can do that to a stranger that you know nothing about, how can I not be concerned about what else you might do!"
"Please Bakura, watch your temper. Shouting won't help."
"How about if I shoot you, will that help?" Bakura growled.
The man before him sighed. "Bakura, Bakura, Bakura…you're still one of those people that thinks he can get anything just by making the right threats."
"And your point is?"
"My point is that one day you're going to run up against something that can't be threatened into your wishes."
"What are you talking about?"
"The laser, Bakura. You can't threaten a laser into switching on, or off. Machines have no emotions. I know you, you're the sort of person that will exploit others' weaknesses. But now, you can't. And it's too late for shooting anything to help."
Bakura narrowed his eyes.
The boss motioned toward the computer. "The laser is completed, the program set up. All I have to do is push the button, and after that, killing me, or killing anyone else, won't solve the real problem by a long shot."
To Be Continued…
Author's Notes:
Well, I've hit the 389 review mark, which means pretty soon I'll be sending out a "thanks for 400 reviews banner" to someone! Not that a banner is very interesting in the world of gifts…but it's still something. It'll be a pretty banner! I'll find some cute screencaps and use Paint to splice them into it and stuff. It'll be nice.
So, onto business…Yaaaaaay, Yami survived! Well, duh, he couldn't die, so it's not like that should come as a surprise, I rarely kill main characters, but…I did consider it. The first draft of this story actually had Yami die back in chapter five, because the boss shot him when he followed Bakura back to the Compound one day. (The first draft had a lot of strange things in it…) But he's not dead here. He needs a chance to explore his feelings for Bakura more. And I can't resist all the fun moral issues that will follow once he finds out what Bakura's really been up to, plus his angst over what will happen to Bakura. Hurrah for angst! (Besides, if I killed Yami, I know who I'd have to answer to, and the results would not be pretty. I'd have to run in fear for my life. So…yeah, he had to live this time around, end of argument.) The poor both of them. Bakura's in a no-win situation, and Yami's trust has been totally betrayed-again. The drama, the pain…this is what romance is all about! I'll tell you, trying to write a broken-spirited, desolated Bakura was next to impossible. It's just not possible to make it completely canon. It's easier to see him as psychotic, but really, he's a sad, lonelyperson. And who can blame him? He needs Yami more than anything else, and the thought of loosing him too is surely enough to put Bakura over the edge…again.
As a note, the information about how things proceed in poison control centers is realistic; I read up on it at the library. (There's this great book about poisons and antidotes there…that's also where I got the Lidocaine, benzodiazepine and subsequent antidote info. I think I may have scared a few people, going to the library every day at lunch and sitting in the corner by myself perusing a book of poisons. I already have my poor classmates convinced I own an Uzi and that their names are on my hit list. Now I'm studying poisons. No one's ever gonna trust me at my school again…) However, it's based on an American poison control center. In Japan they might not even have PCC's. But if they do, and if they operate the same way as American ones, (which, tell me, how many different ways can there possibly be to run a PCC?), then all the details are realistic. So don't go getting poisoned, 'cause they WILL shovel charcoal down your throat, (or your nose), and it is not pleasant at all.
Anyhoo, guess what else? Next chapter is going to explain who the bossman is and what he's planning to do with this souped-up satellite, and why. It'll also reveal his name. (Yes, the crazy dude has a name!) It's about time we all got to know the answers to those questions, ne? Well, I made you suffer through 15 chapters. You're still here? Okay, just wait one more week, then I'll tell you. :niko:
Replies!
Hershey-Kiss: Dead as a one-legged possum on a freeway…I like it! I like that saying, I've got to find a reason to use that sometime…Well, yes, you're sort of supposed to be confused about a few things, but of course feel free to ask me about what you're confused about…if you're confused, other people might be also and I might have messed up.
You Know Us:massive grin: Teeheehee, he's dead! D-E-D, dead! xD Sorry, couldn't resist saying it. He soooo deserved to have his face blown off with Tonfa Blasters. Syahaha…right on. Anyway, as for Yami…he's alive! So I do hope Michelle will calm down because he is alive. (BUT…he's still MY Yami-chan:smile smile: Sharing is nice.) The story will have an ending, yes, it will. But you've got to wait eight more chapters, and a lot can happen between then and now. Wait and see! Oh, but I'm so glad you enjoyed it…it was truly a highlight. :niko:
Well y'all, you'll notice this is up a day early. That's cause tomorrow I'm not only back to school, but also have an orthodontist appointment. I'll be lucky to have time to do HW and watch Yugioh, I seriously doubt I'll be able to get online. And Tuesday's prospects don't look good for online time either, and I'd hate to make you wait all the way till Wednesday. Thus, it's up today. Hope you appreciate the things I do for you all. xD Just kidding. It really wasn't that much of a hardship.
See you later-