WR: well here we go, I just needed to get the Op chapter out of the way… :D lol my mate read this and told me in made her cry, I'm glad my work has such an effect, anyhoo, away we go.

The next morning, Kai awoke feeling distinctly groggy, his fist aching a little from the force at which it had collided with Tala's face. He swung his legs out of bed, his mind still fogged by sleep, and the mild ache from alcohol. He stepped into the shower, he knew something important was happening today, although he couldn't remember what…

Stepping into the shower he turned on the water, he breathed in sharply as the icy water hit his body, and gradually warmed. He slowly rubbed his fist with his other hand, why had he punched Tala? What was the reason? Why was Tala even here? … He was here with Hael.. that was the answer! Hael was here, then what was that important thing, which was happening today?

His heart pounded when he finally remembered. Her operation! Shutting off the water he dashed to check his clock… 9:45am… if that was true she had already been under the knife for almost four hours! He swore furiously, and grabbed his clothes. In bare minutes he was almost flying down the corridors to the medical wing, she would be in the largest operating theatre…

The doors banged open before him as he stepped into the room, a ring of seats faced a large glass panel, which gave a view down into the operation room. The other occupants of the room turned as he came in.

He saw Mrs. Kinyonova, she looked at him steadily for a moment before facing back to watch the scene below. Dane's fury at seeing Kai here was more readable, his huge fist clenched and he scowled sourly. Mariah, Emily, Max and Ray sat a little further away, and barely took notice of him, other than a frown from the pink haired woman. It was Tala's eyes though, which bored hatefully at Kai for the longest. His nose was wrapped in a swathe of bandages and splints, and he sat, dwarfed, beside Dane's huge form.

Stepping forwards, Kai looked for a place to sit.. he spied a seat near the back, not that close to any of the other people of the room, and took up his position there. He looked at his watch… 10am. The operation would continue for at least another 10 hours, and for the first time allowed his eyes to descend to the action below.

There she was… her hair was tied tightly away from her face, and a breathing mask was over her lips. She was limp and still, other than the steady rising and falling of her chest. She wore a simple hospital robe that came to her knee, and spread around her on the metal operating table. Every thing was clean, shining and sterilised, and Kai had to take a moment to admire his facilities… A life support machine bleeped every couple of seconds showing her heart beat, and various drips were attached to her arms.

Kai could not help but wince when he looked at her face. Her eye lids were being held open by tiny metal hooks, allowing the surgeons to work easily. They were working solidly on her right eye, clearly deciding to do one at a time rather than transplant both right away. Various scalpels, and other sharp implements lay in a tin of clear fluid, or at least it had been clear before, now small swirls of blood from the tools skidded around its surface. Slowly a hand moved involuntarily to cover Kai's mouth… her once silvery grey eye, was now empty, the bare socket gaped like a toothless mouth. A doctor was leaning over her, silver objects poking around in the hole, a short trail of new nerves and muscles were being fused into place, and attached to what would be her new eye. Her blind eye lay sadly, and oddly shrivelled-looking in a small dish to the side. Kai winced, this must be hard to watch for her friends and family.

Sure enough, Hael's mother looked like her body was drawing in upon itself, she looked hunched and worried, and alternated between chewing her fingernails nervously, and wringing her hands at her chest, muttering up silent prayers. For the first time Kai felt some real affection for the woman. She loved her daughter fiercely, and clearly hated him marginally less than Dane, Tala or Hael's old friends, why he could not fathom, but she was a kind, and sweet person. She was a lady who had worked hard all her life, to provide for her children, and one of them now lay unconscious below, having her retinas tweaked about. Kai's mother had died when he was very young, he could barely remember her, so he had never really known what it was to love a mother. But as he watched the woman some rows in front of him, he saw her shoulders tremble, and she then let out a wretched sob, just loud enough for him to hear.

For some reason that pulled on some of the stings in Kai's heart. He automatically stood and shifted down the rows until he settled in the seat beside her. Her eyes were shut, but some tears still ran to her chin. Kai raised a hand and rested it on her shoulder. She jumped slightly, as if just becoming aware of him, her eyes opened, and she looked at him for a few moments… then she crumbled, she sobbed again and leaned into his chest, her body shaking. Kai was surprised to say the least, but he awkwardly managed to hug her back, silently offering what comfort he felt he could, as they watched the woman they both loved more than any other fall to the mercy of the surgeons below.

The first thing she become aware of was pain. Her eyes felt so strange, a dull ache in the back of her lids, which when they twitched slightly felt damp and sticky. Her entire body felt dull and heavy, the aesthetic still gradually wearing off. It took her several minutes to be able to work movement back into her arms, and to gather the strength to raise her fingers to her face. Her touch was incredibly light and gentle, yet she still sent small flashes of pain across her face. Drawing her hands back she settled them at her sides, her upper face was swathed in bandages. She breathed deeply… someone would come soon, and tell her if the operation had been a success.

"Silver…"

She recognised Dane's voice instantly, and fumbled for her brother's hand. His found hers' too, and held it.

"Your awake.. how are you feeling?" he asked, concern evident in his tone.

"Like death warmed up." She replied croakily, realising how dry and sore her throat felt, like she had swallowed a cheese grater.

Dane chuckled and squeezed her hand gently.

"How did it go?" She breathed after a pause.

At first he didn't reply, trying to formulate what to say, in his silence her hand tightened around his and her breathing became ragged, the beginning of sobs…

"Woah there Silver, don't get all up. The truth is the doctors wont know what the result is until you do. The operation theoretically went perfectly, but of course, as this is the first time this operation has been carried out, they wont know. You sight "lessons" are going to start in three days. You'll have half hour bouts of your bandages off and practicing use of your eyes, and gradually they will build them up, until you have complete vision."

Hael sighed, then laughed, relaxing.

"Oh why didn't you just say that instead of getting me worked up then, you silly fool?" She said, smiling. She then heard a door open, and steps approach.

"Hello Hael, I'm your doctor, I was wondering if you could tell me exactly how your eyes are feeling."

Danes hand slid out of hers, and she heard him leave.

"Well, they ache.. and they feel like they are prickling at the back…"

"Good." He said, "That prickling is the stem cells connecting and becoming tissue, and nerve. Your new retinas and optic nerves should work beautifully, just make sure you don't scratch or poke them. If the irritation gets too much for you, then just buzz this button," he pressed the control into her hand, "and one of our staff members will bring you something to help, and in the mean time, you will be taking pain killers every six hours. You don't need to worry about it, our nurses will make sure you get all your medication."

"Doctor, how long do I have to stay in this bed?" She murmured.

"Well, its late, and most of the people staying here to see your recovery have retired to their beds, besides, it will take a while for the anaesthetic to completely wear off, I think you'll be fine to get up and about by tomorrow, someone will bring you breakfast in here, until then, I suggest you get some rest Miss. Kinyonova."

She was already trying to fight back tiredness, and managed a nod before relaxing back into the pillows.

It must have been hours later, but it seemed like seconds. Hael woke, her eyes were stinging unpleasantly, and her throat was still agonisingly dry. Her hand searched for the control with the button. Swearing to herself, when she couldn't find it, she rolled onto her side, her hand trailing to the floor, fumbling, trying to find it.

She gasped, losing her balance, and toppled over the side. With a quiet yelp of pain as she hit her side, her hand instantly went to her face, to check her bandages… but they were gone… She swore and tried to climb to her feet. Her legs were still unsteady, and so after three tries she resigned to her knees, and slowly managed to make her way across the room, her fingers came into contact with a dresser. It took a lot of her strength to manage to pull herself to her feet. She felt a smooth cool object before her… a mirror.

She knew that opening her eyes was foolish, she knew it was dangerous and could lose her any possibility of ever being able to see… But…

Kai's eyes flickered open, he cursed himself, he had dozed off. He had come down here a couple of hours ago, he had had to see her. There she had been, sleeping, the bandages obscuring all but her nose and lips. So he had sat in the corridor outside the room, watching her through the glass panels…. But what had woken him? He sat up, rubbing the grogginess from his eyes, and looked into the room. There was the bed.. but it was empty. Springing to his feet he ran to the panels, and his eyes widened. The bandages lay on the floor beside the bed, along with the small remote to call for help. His eyes travelled slowly across the room, and there he saw her….

Gradually, she cracked her lids open, it was like she had never done it before, the small amount of light from the corridor seemed agonisingly bright… but the mere fact that she could see the light sent bolts of awe through her. It had worked! She opened her eyes fully and saw an image before her, it was incredibly blurry, just a mass of greys, pinks, whites and bronze… of course, she had never before seen any colour and of course didn't know any of their names and so all she could do was gasp at its beauty… she realised what this blurry mass of colour before her was… it was her reflection!

There was a noise behind her, she jumped, someone banged into the room and she felt a hands on her shoulders. She gasped, she felt suddenly dizzy, her senses were throwing her. Her hand went to find the face of her rescuer, as did her blurred eyes.

Kai supported her, without the dresser her legs were still weak, in one of his hands he held the remote, and pressed down on the button. Her slim fingers found his neck, and came up, skimming his face as they once had, and she turned her face to his, and he gasped.

No longer were her eyes slate grey and blank. Though they were red and her face was still a little puffy, not to mention that she had some stitches, which were visible, as well as countless stitches on the backs of her eyes, but the irises… they were sparkling green and complimented her hair beautifully.

Hael's fingers ran across the contours of the blurred face before her, and she knew every one of them, she didn't know it yet, but a blurry mass of dark blue topped a pale, smooth face..

"Kai…"

Before he could say anything, lights came on in the room, and Hael yelled out in pain, squeezing her eyes tightly closed against the brightness. Two nurses came forward, and took her from him, guiding her back to the bed. One picked up the bandages and re-applied them to her eyes, and another pressed a glass of water into her waiting hands.

"You can leave now Mr. Hiwatari." They told him once they had her settled. "Miss. Kinyonova will be fine."

He glared at the young woman.

"You're a nurse from the hospital in Moscow aren't you?" he asked.

"Yes sir I am…" She said, confused.

"Well then, you and your people have already slacked off and allowed her to fall out of bed for one, and unable to call for assistance. I therefore do not trust your judgement of this situation… I'll have some of my personal staff on close watch for the rest of the night." He said scathingly, then turned and left.

Hael listened to him leave… why did it matter to him what kind of job these people did in the way of caring for her? She sighed, and lay back on the pillows, once again in darkness. Sleep slowly stole over her again, but she was filled with hope, that she truly would regain full vision, and that her rash actions tonight hadn't destroyed the delicate nerves which were still healing and forming.

A week had passed, and Kai had not seen her once, but the image of her, bright green eyes, and the look of slow recognition on her face.. and.. the fact that she was looking directly at him…

Hael's mother, who had taken a slightly warmer countenance towards him since he had comforted her at the operation, had come to him sometimes to update him on Hael's ever improving vision lessons. With word spreading that the operation had been a total success spreading like wild-fire throughout the medical world, there was a report on the news every single day.

Today, Kai sat in his office, Mrs. Kinyonova before him, talking animatedly about Hael's progress.

"Well you see, she has always been able to write normally, and so that has helped her in recognising the characters and she is reading well, at least big letters, her vision isn't good enough to read small print yet but…. But all in good time hmm?"

"Hn.." Replied Kai.

"Why don't you come and see her? I'm sure she would be pleased to see you… Oh you don't know how good it feels to actually say that! For her to actually see you…"

"No thanks.." Kai said standing. "I'm sorry Mrs. Kinyonova, but I have a lot of paper work to do, so…"

"Of course, I'm sorry for taking up your time, but me, my family and Hael's friends are all going out tonight to a restaurant, its all funded by the television programme, please, you must come with us, my daughter will be delighted…."

"You say that Mrs. Kinyonova, but I do not believe you… you know more than anyone what I did… I cant see that she would ever be pleased to meet me again. Besides, your son hates me, and Tala…"

"Tala, he is your friend isn't he?" She asked confused.

His short laugh was enough to tell her no. Kai turned to face the window and sighed, if he were to tell her the truth; that it had been Tala's idea, Tala who had egged him on, and that Tala was only with Hael because Kai was in love with her… Even if she did believe him, it had been Kai who had ultimately led Hael into the mines and left her there.

"I was once what some people might call 'friends' with Tala. But… he has done … well its easier to say that he is the person I hate now above all others." He growled.

She blinked at his back.

"I can tell your not going to tell me why, but from what I've seen of the boy, he's perfectly charming, sweet, and he's very kind to Hael, he…"

"Its an act, your being deceived! Can't you fools see that!" Kai suddenly yelled, turning and slamming both fists on his desk, fury was flooding him, how could they not see that all this was Tala malicious attempts to get at Kai!

Mrs. Kinyonova scowled and stood.

"I am no fool Mr. Hiwatari, why do you think I've been coming to see you? My daughter still pines after you, even after you left her in those mines! I don't know why but I've felt that perhaps you felt something for her, even now…. Anyway, I don't want to disturb you any longer, see you tonight Mr. Hiwatari."

Kai shook with rage as he watched her leave, he opened the draw of his desk… and pulled out a new bottle of scotch.

WR: And that's me done for today, hope u liked….