Author's notes: I'm well aware of how pointless and straightforward this story is, hehe. Forgive me for that. I'm just blowing off steam after a hard day's work so troubling myself with convoluted storylines, that's too much like schoolwork for me, more of which I sooo don't need. So I hope you'd all just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. )
Above All Others: Chapter 2
"-look, spending so much money on that mutt, it's just not worth it! Well, I suppose it is, but not that worth it!"
"Demo...Shigure-san's going to be so happy when he sees what we've bought him!"
"Yeah, but haven't we bought just a bit too much? This is all your fault rat, you let her spend all her money on such frivolous-"
"Honda-san can do anything she pleases."
Tohru tilted her head sideways, letting her hair cascade down her shoulder. She smiled sweetly. "Shigure-san could use something to eat, something light-"
"You call three dozen jelly buns light?"
"Ritsu-san once bought him three dozen jelly buns and he ate them all in one sitting!" Tohru recalled, raising her index finger at the memory.
Kyo sweat-dropped. "Really?"
"Tadaima!" Yuki was the first one to walk in the front door.
"Tadaima!" Tohru and Kyo chorused after him, struggling a little with their shoes, what with all the plastic bags, almost overflowing with jelly buns, dangling from their fingers.
The house was still.
"Oi! Shigure!" Kyo plopped his burden onto the floor, and a bun rolled out ceremoniously from the bag.
"Ah!" Tohru marched forward to grab it before it rolled even farther. She gathered the plastic bags in her arms and started to head for the kitchen. "I'll just put on the kettle, and we can have tea together, ne?"
"Sounds good, Honda-s-"
Then they heard her gasp suddenly, before uttering a strangled cry.
Yuki and Kyo's heads whipped up in a flash, and they rushed into the house, fearing for Tohru,wondering what had gotten her so distressed. What they saw made their jaws drop.
Yuki instantly dropped to his knees. "Shigure!"
What the hell-?
"Oi, Shigure!" Kyo crouched next to his cousin, who was lying face-down in the middle of the hallway, unmoving. He lay a tentative hand on Shigure's back and started to shake him a little.
"Shigure. Oi. It's Kyo. Come on, wake up!" There was no response.
Kyo's eyes met Yuki's, fear evident in his voice
"Should we move him?"
Yuki's throat went dry; he didn't know if they should. Has there been a break-in? Did Shigure have an accident? Did he fall down the stairs? If he did, then moving him could aggravate any possible injuries. He tried desperately to remember what he had learnt from the first aid course he'd taken over the summer.
"Yuki, come on!" Kyo's voice rose a notch. What do we do now? That was the desperate question he could read in the cat's eyes. Yuki's head snapped up.
"We need to see if he's breathing. Help me roll him over!" He urged authoritatively. For once Kyo complied and hooked his arms around Shigure's upper body, and together they gently turned their cousin over onto his back. Tohru's heart nearly stopped; she had never seen anyone looking so pale in her entire life.
She could only watch helplessly as Yuki carefully tugged Shigure's chin slightly upward. He bent over and tilted his head sideways, placing his cheek an inch from Shigure's colourless lips.
Come on, come on...His heart racing, he counted silently for 10 seconds. Yuki sucked in a breath abruptly when he finally felt it. There it was. The warmth of breath against his cheek. Thank God. But it was very shallow, he had almost missed it.
"He's still breathing." Kyo sagged visibly in relief. Yuki shared with him a worried gaze.
"He's really warm." He rocked back on his heels for a second, before scrambling to his feet. "Stay with him. I'm going to call Hatori." Kyo nodded wordlessly, his eyes clouded with anxiety. Next to him, Tohru went down on all fours, still in a state of shock.
"Shigure-san..." she whispered, horrified. They had only been gone for a few hours; he had been fine! Dimly she could hear Yuki's agitated voice as he spoke on the phone, but her eyes, wide with disbelief, could only stare at Shigure's pallid face. What happened to you, Shigure-san?
Hatori barged in the front door, his movements jerky and tense as he impatiently kicked his shoes off. Without so much as a word, he strode into the living room and dropped to his knees next to his patient. He spent the first few seconds simply observing, noting at once the pale skin and the shallow breathing.
"Shigure," he called out his cousin's name loudly, pressing two fingers against Shigure's ribs, prodding him in a circular motion, hard. "Shigure. Wake up."
Shigure remained slack. Unresponsive to command and pain stimulation, he noted, ticking off the mental checklist in his head.
Using his thumbs, he pried Shigure's eyelids upward and peered in. With a penlight, he flashed it in from side to side, checking from one eye to the other. Pupils dilated, skin burning hot to the touch. Hatori slid his hands gently down Shigure's temples, his fingers raking through the sweat-dampened black hair, probing the scalp further to the back of the skull and upward, feeling for any bumps. He found none.
Gently pushing aside the flaps of the yukata covering Shigure's upper body, Hatori ran his eyes over his cousin's motionless form, scanning for any visible wounds or abnormalities. Then he did the same with his legs. No wounds, no cuts, no signs of fracture anywhere.
"How long has he been like this?" He asked, the lines of worry on his forehead belying the calmness of his voice.
"He's been unconscious since we found him, right before we called you. But we were gone for a few hours," Yuki answered quietly from where he was sitting a few feet away.
"Was he breathing when you found him?" Hatori glanced at Kyo, who was watching from across the table. He nodded promptly.
"We couldn't wake him up." The neko brought his knees up to his chest and ran his hand through his hair restlessly.
"Did he transform at all?"
Yuki's forehead creased. "No, not since we came back."
"Shii-chan," a small voice whispered softly from the direction of the door. Tohru looked up in surprise. Momiji? The blond boy's fearful gaze met hers, and he immediately rushed over to her. She held his hand as they sat together in silence, watching Hatori work.
Tohru's eyes followed his every move as he groped around in his bag, finally producing some smelling salts. He waved them under Shigure's nose, to try to bring him around.
"Come on," Hatori muttered, administering again the same pain stimulation, and the smelling salts together.
Shigure's eyes fluttered open slowly.
"Shigure?" Oblivious still to his surroundings, he blinked rapidly a few times, as if trying to regain his senses.
"H-Ha-san?" Hatori nodded grimly.
"Welcome back," he said dryly, allowing himself a small smile. He glanced at the younger members of the family, and their faces had brightened as well.
But just as Hatori was about to heave his first sigh of relief that evening, Shigure let out a cry, before abruptly curling into a foetal position, bringing his knees high up to his chest.
A deep frown creased Hatori's forehead. "What is it? Is it your chest?"
Shigure shook his head fought for a breath in between the sharp pangs of pain. "Lower," he gasped.
"Let me see." Hatori tried to gently pull Shigure's legs down. He could see how much it was hurting him. "It's just for a little while. Come on, straighten your legs for me."
"C-Can't..." His eyes were starting to water. "Hurts...too much."
"Yes, you can. Hold on to my hand."
Shigure whimpered, but he did lower his legs very, very carefully, one after the other, his grip on Hatori's hand so tight the doctor could hear his knuckles cracking.
Kyo's eyes were wide, unblinking. Just how much pain is the inu in anyway? He wondered, a whirlwind of uneasiness stirring in his own stomach. He watched as his sick cousin reluctantly dislodged his arms from around his midriff, after much coaxing from the Dragon.
"Is there a particular spot that hurts the most?"
A hand gingerly pressed against his lower right side. "Here."
Hatori's eyes narrowed. "Did the pain start in the central region of your stomach before radiating to your side?"
Shigure looked at him with feverish eyes, clearly surprised. "How did you know that, Ha-san?"
More for the dog's sake rather than his own, the doctor resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I am a doctor, Shigure. I know a thing or two about the human body. You've been feeling sick since yesterday, haven't you?"
Shigure winced. Shimatta-! Caught!
"Honestly, Shigure, the numerous times you've been playing sick with your editor, and now when you're really sick, you just refuse to admit it."
"Playing pretend is not that fun anymore...when it's for real," Shigure gasped through tightly-clenched teeth, his chalky-white face slick with perspiration. "And besides you're not half as adorable as Mii-chan is when she's stressed out of her wits."
"What's wrong with him, Hatori?" Kyo growled. "If you know something, you'd better tell us."
Hatori ignored him. Instead he started rubbing his two palms against each other vigorously to warm them up. "I'm going to press in quite deeply so it might be a little uncomfortable, all right?"
Shigure's face blanched, but his common sense told him it needed to be done. Incapable of words, he just shut his eyes and nodded, burying the side of his face deeper into the pillow. Hatori started palpating the upper left quadrant of his abdomen, before moving downward, all the while keeping an eye on Shigure's face for any sort of reaction. When he reached the lower right, Shigure tensed.
It really was quite tender, and Hatori was careful not to press too hard. "Does it hurt as much now?"
"No, not really," Shigure said, sounding surprised, almost relieved.
Hatori let go. And Shigure nearly fainted. His body bucked as a hoarse scream caught in his throat; he had never felt such pain in his whole life.
"Ha'ri!" Momiji cried out worriedly. Hatori's face had gone white as well.
"Hatori-san..." Tohru spoke for the first time. "Hatori-san, what is it? What's wrong?"
Hatori was really hoping he was wrong. But that scream just confirmed his suspicion. The signs were all there, pain in the lower right side, the rebound tenderness, nausea, pyrexia-
He swallowed hard.
"Shigure, I think it's your appendix." Damn, Shigure, why did you let it get this far?
"His what?" Kyo's forehead wrinkled.
At normal times, Yuki would have scoffed and called him an idiot for being so clueless, but he too, realized the seriousness of the situation and had gone white-faced as well. "Are you sure?"
Hatori nodded gravely.
"Oi. What is it? Why do you both look so scared?" Kyo glowered. "Yuki!"
Sweat had long matted Shigure's hair to his scalp, and his eyes shone with fever. "Is it that bad?"
"Yes, it is. We have to operate and remove your appendix before it bursts."
Tohru uttered a cry of horror. Operate? Maasaka-? Her mind whirled crazily around that one terrifying thought. No, that can't be! Shigure-san just has the flu, for kami's sake!
"You can't be serious!" Shigure groaned loudly. "Ha-san, youre being mean as always! You're just looking for an excuse to cut me open like a-"
"This is no joking matter, Shigure," Hatori snapped. "We have a bigger problem at hand here-I can't afford to have you transform in the middle of surgery. Your body's under enough stress as it is-"
Shigure shook his head, his eyes beginning to close. He was so tired, but the pain hammering in his gut was unrelenting. "I don't think I can take any more of this for much longer. It's only a matter of time."
"Can't you fix it, Hatori?" Kyo asked. "Don't you have some kind of medicine or something?"
"No, he doesn't." Yuki's face was paper white.
"What are you even talking about, Yuki? There must be a way to fix it if his detox bursts-"
Yuki didn't even bother to correct his ridiculous wordplay. "Not if. When."
Kyo blinked. A sudden hush fell over the room. "What will happen then?"
Shigure opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, already expecting the answer. Somehow.
"He will certainly die." Hatori's dark look deepened.
Stunned, Tohru fell backward, her back colliding with the wall with a loud thud.
Kyo felt as if someone had just punched him in the gut, the words he wanted to say dying in his throat. "You're kidding..."
"Excuse me for a second. I need to make a phone call. And don't you dare go dog on me while I'm gone." Hatori said brashly, sounding uncharacteristically but understandably distressed.
Shigure curled into a tighter ball, and gave him a small nod. "I'll try." He didn't sound very convincing.
Hatori leaped to his feet and hurried out to the hallway, punching a number he knew by heart, a number he would only call if there ever was an emergency, such as this. He felt a hand tug on his shoulder.
A pair of intelligent purple-silver eyes pierced through his shield, making him feel as if Yuki could see every single doubt in his heart.
"What are you planning to do, Hatori? When are we taking him to the hospital?"
"No. No hospital. Too many people. Too many things can go wrong."
The rat blanched. "But Shigure won't make it if we do-"
"I know, Yuki!" Hatori snapped, almost forgetting to keep his voice down. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. He had thought it all out and had come to the conclusion that there was no other choice. He might as well just tell them what he was planning to do.
"Look. I'm going to call someone, an acquaintance of mine who has his own surgery in his clinic. I'm going to have to borrow it for a while, since we don't have the facilities or the safety equipment to perform an actual operation at the Sohma House."
Yuki blinked. "Who's going to perform the actual appendectomy?"
Hatori was impressed. "You seem to know a lot about this, Yuki."
The rat's lips thinned into a severe, almost angry line. "I lost a close friend to appendicitis in middle school."
Hatori drew his head back and inhaled deeply, finally understanding. "I see."
Yuki unconsciously balled his fists. "Are you going to do it?"
"Yes. I have no choice." He couldn't risk someone else, some lay doctor in some hospital, operating on his cousin when the danger was always there, the danger of revealing the great Sohma secret. Hatori was ashamed with himself.
Am I putting really the Sohma secret above the life of a family member? Above Shigure? He wondered darkly.
"You're not a surgeon, Hatori."
"I'm beyond the point of caring, Yuki. I can't stand back and watch someone else do it. I have to be the one to take control of the situation if something goes wrong."
"If he changes, you mean." A ghastly whisper.
Hatori regarded him silently.
In a rare gesture of helplessness and desperation, Yuki reached out and gripped Hatori's sleeve; the Dragon had never seenhim this agitated. Deep down, he guessed the rat really cared for Shigure, as did everybody else. He did to a greater or lesser degree protect Yuki from Akito, after all.
"Please, do everything you-" Yuki hesitated, his eyes pleading. "Don't let him die, Hatori."
TO BE CONTINUED...
Author's notes: Hmm, I wasn't intending to make it this angsty. Oh well. I guess it just comes naturally to me, from being depressed all the time. Who wouldn't be, when there's relatively so few Shigure-centric fics in the fandom? I intend to correct this injustice! Don't worry, Shigure. Somebody loves you. Somebody loves you very, very much.
I reiterate the fact that all I know about FB, I learnt from the ANIME, and only the anime. Any OOC-ness or uncanonness was not committed on purpose. The thing with Yuki and his dead friend was all from my own twisted imagination.
A lot of love and labour went into this story. Please review! Flames only mean all the more reviews for me:-)