Last Edited: 29.12.o5

Written: 28.1o.o5

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Do You Still Think of Me?

PART TWO – Picking up the fragments

Chapter Four

By Flipstahhz

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Tears blurred her vision. She hated to cry. She knew that she was making a fuss over nothing. She knew he didn't intend to hurt her. She knew that. But seeing such a sorrowful side to him had hit her really hard. And it hurt.

The sun was glaring outside as she drove the vehicle. The weather was beautiful. Unfortunately, for her, she mood was the completely the opposite. She was overreacting. She hated being so weak, it made her feel petty and fragile. She had sworn to herself that she'd never be weak again…and here she was…already a woman bawling her eyes out. Her bottom lip quivered … all the overwhelming emotions breaking inside of her, and soon enough she had begun shaking. It seemed her body couldn't take hold of her any longer.

Get a grip of yourself…

Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel, so hard that they turn an abnormal shade of white. Her quickened breathing steadied down as she halted the car at the red traffic light. She switched on the radio, becoming a bit satisfied and pleased with herself that she had moved a level up from dwelling after what happened about fifteen minutes ago. Her mind was plunged into the music. The soft rhythm played and filled the whole space in the vehicle…

When I look into your eyes 


Then I realize

That all I need is you in my life.

All I need is you in my life.

'Cuz I've never felt this way about lovin'. 


Never felt so good.

Never felt this way about lovin' 


It feels so good.

How it takes my breath, 


Starts a pounding in my chest,

Makes me weak, when

I think about you. 


Makes me wanna give my all, 


Life wouldn't mean a thing. 


Not a happy song to sing, 


Just emptiness if

I had to live without you.

She glowered, pushing the off button. She wasn't in the correct sanity for 'love songs' at that moment. It made her angry. Sora hardly got angry, not unless it was over something terrible. And getting enraged at the radio wasn't typical of her and her actions. It was most likely that all the mixed emotions hadn't settled and instead were tearing her apart…mainly her heart

The lights flashed green, and she drove on. She felt nauseous, the song was still stirring in her mind…she never knew that the words could effect her that much. She now had a good reason why Yamato loved music after all…

Yamato

She swerved the car into a spare parking space on the main road. Driving in her current state wasn't safe. It was absurd. Then she let it all out. All the grief, frustration, pain and anger into a lump of sobs. Not the loud wailing sobs like the ones in movies where the protagonist actress would burst tears. But the type of choking sobs that one would only hear when they were in real agony and would find it hard to breath because it hurt so much. She was tired of it all…she wanted to forget everything…no anything to do with him. Why couldn't she just move on? Why had he wrapped his fingers around her soul?

But how could she when all she did was think of him?

Of how he was and how he was feeling at any particular moment of the day. She sucked in her breath, still trying her best to stay solid strong. She didn't want to break anymore. She swiped her sleeve over her swollen eyes and a firm confident line displayed on her lips. She couldn't stay like this any longer. This time, she was going to face her fear of rejection straight in the face. She had waited long enough. And she…she didn't want him out of her life again…she didn't want to see him leave her without any of her final words and what her mind was truly thinking.

It was now or never.

She gave a wry empty smile. Her mother used to say that quote to her whenever she had exams and it to give it her all. It was about time that she would 'give it all her' now. She gyrated the vehicle swiftly…not knowing that she'd slip into unconsciousness subsequently when another car collided with hers.

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He hadn't seen it coming…

He was unable to even take any gasps of air for a few seconds as he sat there in incredulity shock. Most of the glass in front of him had shattered into many scattered pieces after the accident, many of them were sent jabbing his unprotected face and body. He couldn't believe he was even alive. He couldn't belief what had just happened. It felt as if he was captured in one of his surreal nightmares.

He could move, he was breathing…he was fine. But how about the person he had crashed into?

He hauled himself out of the wreck that acquainted to be his old vehicle, and hurried to the victim in distress to see whether he or she was injured or hopefully not. He swore curses when he took a look at the scene. The person's car was way damaged more than his was…meaning that that person could be…

He shuddered.

He wasn't willing to be exposed to any more deaths, especially if he was the one that may have had killed that person. He avoided the trails of blood that covered his pale face and pushed the jagged driver's seat door open, letting the person drop lifelessly into his arms.

No it couldn't be, this was….

" Sora?" he whispered her name in panic, absolutely terrorized and mystified with what just happened. " W…wake up."

He could feel a crowd of people gather around them in curiousness, panic, sadness and worry. Yamato's tired arms began to tremble becoming infuriated with the surrounding and that public weren't doing anything to assist them.

A man took a step towards them, " Are you okay? Is she fi-"

" DOES SHE LOOK FINE!" Yamato shouted in rage.

Why the hell did the darn man have to ask an idiotic question? Especially right after seeing her state…wasn't that answer enough already?

His azure eyes pierced the group and filled his heart with bitterness, then bit his lip for being a complete idiot when he realized that the man was trying to handle the situation as calmly as possible considering he most likely was off the edge to insanity.

" Call triple 0, quick!" the man ordered a woman besides him.

Yamato's eyes fell onto her again. From one glance at her, it was obvious that she had slammed her head against something and her legs seemed to have crammed together when her car took the blow considering they were bleeding like hell. He ran his hands through her startling auburn hair, now drenched in blood. It saddened and sickened him at the same time how this was his first chance to hold her in a solicitous affectionate way at that moment. He didn't know how long he sat there, on his knees, staring at her with nothing but sadness depicting through his normally inscrutable eyes.

Soon enough, the ambulance's whining was to be heard and as soon as the paramedics got out of the vehicle and attended to the emergency. Yamato carried her over to the ambulance, carefully placing her light body onto the stretcher. All he saw was scarlet.

"Here, take my handkerchief," the man offered kindly.

He hadn't realized that his tears had blended with the blood on his face.

Without a word, he accepted it gratefully and roughly wiped his face, glad that the red liquid of blood wasn't anymore making it difficult to see. He lifted his head, just to see the ambulance speed off as it vanished around the curb leaving him left with a mystified crowd and two wreckage of cars.

What had he done?

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He tilted his head upwards, daring to look at the starless unlit sky. He bit his lip, if he looked down he knew that the tears in his eyes would overflow and roll down his face. That was why he continued to stare up at the night sky. All that he could do was hope…hope that she'd be fine. It had been almost seven straight hours since she had arrived and she'd been in a critical condition – needing to go under operation straight away. After Yamato had been treated from the minor glass scratches from his body, he was off to visit her. But unfortunately for him, the doctor's in charge hadn't let him in because he wasn't part of her family. It was terrible. He felt so helpless…he wanted to do something to ease the pain…but he couldn't. It was all up to her now…up to her will to survive…

He dug his hands into the pockets of his black blazer. He was still attired in the suit he had worn to his mother's funeral. He wasn't fit for another funeral. Funerals tended to make him such an emotional wreck…and he despised it. It was his weakness. He shivered. Spring wasn't supposed to feel like winter, yet the cold night breeze outside was giving him chilly sensations.

He had been standing at the parking lot of Odaiba Hospital for almost an hour. Since he hadn't been allowed to be in the same room as Sora, he stood besides her window outside. Even though he knew he was turning an unhealthy shade of white, it didn't matter. It was his fault that she had to be stuck on that bed. And he wasn't just going to walk away. He was guilty for hurting her. He wished it was him laying there, not her. He could barely make out shadows of the operating surgeons through the curtain-draped room.

His neck hurt from staring at the sky so Yamato sat onto the cement footpath, letting the tears had been holding silently fall down. He quivered when the droplets touched his lips as he stroked the salty tears away. The day had worn him out pretty badly. He thought a funeral was enough, but another tragedy had to happen next. And it was intended for her

Lights flashed at his direction, making him lift his head and try to put a barrier from displaying grief on his face. The car headlights turned off and soon enough he heard a woman run through the hospital doors. He continued to sit there and remained silent when another figure sat next to him.

" When the shit hits the fan?" the new comer said.

" When the shit hits the fan," Yamato repeated, confirming the quote.

" Take a fag, you have the darn right to be dubbed as a bloody chimney," the person said.

The man handed Yamato a cigarette, and in appreciation he took it and lit it up. Yamato only smoked when he was under stress and how he was currently going; he would be a heavy smoker for a week. They sat there in stillness for a long time. The only movement happened when Yamato had stepped on the cigarette after it was no use to him.

After that, the blond man suddenly felt the person slip his arms around him into a bear hug reassuringly. " I'm sorry. Everything will be fine, man. We'll carry this burden together. No use keeping it all bottled up, ya know?"

It was strange seeing this compassionate loving side to Taichi. The whole time Yamato had know his best friend, Tai never showed affection or any signs of 'feminineness'. Yamato shook in the embrace, his eyes tightening as he began to fall into another fit of melancholic sobs. He let go. Feeling stronger.

" Come on, let's go in," the brunette whispered. " You're freezing."

The best friends entered the hospital. The first thing that met them was the brightness of the white walls. Yamato had been outside in the dark for quite some time and suddenly coming inside made him catch his breath for a second.

" Yamato, are you okay!" a concerned voice said hurriedly as she kept blurting out, " The stupid secretary won't let me go and see Sora. How is she doing! If you hadn't rung us up…who knows when we would have found out!"

" He's fine, Mimi," Tai replied to his fiancé for his best friend.

" That's good to know. I hope the same can be said for Sora! I really hope she's fine," she sighed. She appeared rather flustered. Her hair was drawn back into a messy ponytail and smudges of her black mascara had faded down her face due to some perceptible crying. " I just saw TK earlier, he went to have a talk with someone in the nurse staff. If he succeeds, we can all hopefully get to see how she's doing. Oh, there he is!"

Sure enough, two figures walked towards them. The taller man had dark blue hair and was dressed in a white coat on, while the younger man had the same blond hair as Yamato himself. The man's azure eyes were bloodshot. It seemed that he wasn't the only one who had been crying. There had been a lot of waterworks going on that day.

He started an apology straight away, " I'm so sorry, Matt. If I hadn't told you to go after her…this wouldn't have happened…I-"

" I've thought it out too, TK. If I hadn't told her earlier that I cared, this wouldn't have happened either. It's not your fault. It's mi-," he stopped when he caught Taichi gave him a threatening glance. " It's no one's fault."

Yamato ruffled his younger brother's head, as if he were still a little boy. TK cracked a weak smile. The man besides him gave a cough, and attention was instantly drawn to him.

" Mimi, Tai, Matt…this is Jyou," TK introduced. " And Jyou, this is Mimi, Tai and my brother – Matt."

" So you want me to get these all these people inside?" Jyou arched an eyebrow not rather pleased with what TK wanted.

" Don't worry about it. This hospital is –"

Before Yamato had completed his sentence that was pretty much going to be an insult, the doctor interrupted him. " I would be able to do that, but it is not appropriate if I let four people go barging in there when they are doing surgery on her."

" So?" Yamato glared angrily, he was becoming insane and he knew it.

" We can't disrupt the surgeons from doing their job. Right now, I can only tell you her current state," Jyou said.

Curious eyes gazed on him. He continued, " Ms. Takenouchi was hit pretty bad. Unluckily, the crash may have vitally hit her spinal cord…"

They all became alarmed. A blow to the spinal cord could have so many terrible affects.

" As they are operating on her right at this moment, there is a high chance of her surviving…but there is also a high chance that she may never be the same again," the man delivered in a saddened tone.

" What can happen?" Tai perked up.

Yamato stayed standing there lucidly.

" There are many things that could happen," Jyou glanced at the four people in front of him uncomfortably and regretfully, " And one of them may is that she may not be able to walk ever again…"

The old blond headed man gave a stiff nod.

At least she was alive…and that's what all mattered…

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Song Used: Never Felt This Way by Brian McKnight. (A fantastic 'really' slow song that was used in this chapter. Has to be on of my top twenty favourite songs. Download it ;D - though downloading on the net is illegal…oh well. LOL)