Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina; Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.
WARNING: Contains descriptive trauma, a few "choice" words and brief nudity. Reader Discretion is advised.
MINDS WITH A MIND
Chapter 2- Waiting: Part 1
"SHINOBUUUUU!" whales Naru as she plunges her face into Shinobu's chest starting to cry bitterly. "Wake up! Oh God please wake up!" she cries out some more.
The sound of some screeching tires and a siren indicate that the ambulance has arrived. Moments later a Police officer and 4 paramedics bash through the busted door and into the store.
The police officer comes over and grabs Naru by her arms and gently lifts her off Shinobu. "Come on ma'am please let the paramedics work on her now." commands the officer in a calm tone of voice. Naru stands up and allows herself to be pulled back a few feet away from Shinobu by the police officer.
The 4 Paramedics go to work on Shinobu. The one that looks the youngest of the group, probably a rookie, lifts Shinobu's shirt up to expose the wound. He jerks back in shock a bit. Having probably never seen a gunshot victim before he's a little confused at what he sees. "My God! What happened to this poor girl?" he says aloud probably not knowing that he did.
After hearing that Naru starts to cry again and she puts her face into the police officers sleeve.
A man and a woman come into the store out of the crowd. The man says he's a doctor and the woman says she's a nurse and they ask if they can help with anything. One of the older looking paramedics points to the back of the store to a man who has a bloody shirt wrapped around his left hand. The doctor, nurse and the young paramedic rush over to him to see what they can do.
Naru, still crying in the police officer's sleeve, is shocked to hear one of the paramedics shout out suddenly. "I have a pulse! But it's really weak!" They immediately gently lift Shinobu up and place her on a backboard and rush her out to the waiting ambulance. The head paramedic allows Naru to come along since she would be the only one who could get up with her closest family and friends.
The police officer helps Naru into the ambulance and then closes the doors behind her and pats the doors indicating to the driver to go. The ambulance does a 180 and then speeds off in the direction of Toudai.
As the ambulance heads to the closest hospital one of the paramedics takes a pair of scissors and cuts off Shinobu's shirt to get easier access to the wound and then places a couple of pads with wires onto her chest while the other paramedic starts putting guise and bandages over the wound trying to get it to stop bleeding. Almost immediately the heart monitor built into the wall of the ambulance comes to life and starts to beep. The beeps are few and far between but at least there is a heart beat. That is until it flat lines!
"Shit! V-fib!" shouts one of the paramedics. "Oh God." Naru says quietly. The paramedic takes the pair of scissors and begins to cut off Shinobu's bra.
"Why are you cutting off her bra?" Naru asks in protest. "Because we have to shock her heart now to try to get it to restart. We have to remove all metal touching her skin, including her bra." (IE the wire in her bra) answers the older paramedic as he gets through cutting off Shinobu's bra. He removes it, and reaches for 2 paddles.
He quickly puts some gel of some kind on the paddles then rubs them together and waits for them to charge. Once they do he places them on Shinobu's chest.
"Clear!" he shouts. The other paramedic backs away quickly. The older paramedic pushes a button on the paddles and a shock courses through Shinobu's body causing her to jump. Naru jumps in surprise at the same time and begins to cry again.
The monitor stays flat. "Argh." the older paramedic growls in frustration. "Start compressions!" he commands to the other paramedic. The 2nd paramedic places his hands on Shinobu's chest and begins to do evenly time spaced compressions onto her chest.
As the paddles fully charge again the older paramedic shouts again. "Clear!" he shouts as he places the paddles once again onto Shinobu's chest. The other paramedic backs off quickly. He pushes the button once again and another electrical shock goes coursing through Shinobu's body causing her to jump once again. The monitor stays flat as the other paramedic begins compressions once again. Naru, unable to bare watching this, looks away crying some more.
This goes on for a minute to a minute and a half when the ambulance finally pulls into the emergency trauma entrance of the closest hospital. Naru gets out quickly and reads the name of the hospital on its doors. "Tokyo University Emergency Trauma Center. Wow this is the best hospital in all of Japan." she says to herself quickly.
A shocking noise behind her gets her attention. She turns around quickly to see the paramedics just get through shocking Shinobu again. The monitor finally starts to beep again. "Got her back!" shouts the older paramedic. Naru breaths a small sigh of relief.
Naru follows the paramedics as they quickly wheel Shinobu into the hospital. She follows them all the way to the front desk but is stopped by one of the paramedics.
"I'm sorry ma'am but you're going to have to stay here now." he says. "But-" Naru begins. "Sorry ma'am hospital policy, we need you to try to get up with her family and friends." he commands as he runs back to the cart and resumes wheeling Shinobu down the hall to the closest open emergency room.
Naru stands there and watches them wheel Shinobu down the hall and into a room 6 doors down to the right. She watches as about 4 doctors (At least she thinks they're doctors) and several nurses with medical supplies rush into the same room.
She stands there staring down the hall for a moment when a nurse approaches her. "Ma'am?" she says as she places a hand on her shoulder snapping Naru out of her stare. Naru turns her head to face the nurse who is a few inches shorter than her. "I heard what he said. There are some payphones over on that wall if you need to make some calls." says the nurse as she points to the wall over to Naru's right.
Naru looks over the wall to her right and sees the payphones. "Thank you ma'am." she says looking back at the nurse. Naru takes another quick look down the hall way before she starts walking to the pay phones. She only takes a few steps when she realizes she doesn't have her purse with her.
"Oh no! My purse! With all the rush to get Shinobu here I must have accidentally left it at the store." Naru says to herself.
The nurse looks over and sees Narus plight. She reaches behind the desk and grabs something and walks over to Naru. "Here Miss. Use this." she says as she hands something to Naru. Naru looks at it for a second and realizes it's a phone card.
Oh thank you so much!" says Naru as she bows. "No problem, the phone companies let us have some for free incase of emergencies like this." says the nurse. The nurse goes back and sits behind the main desk while Naru walks over to the closest payphone and places the card into the slot.
"I had better call her parents 1st since they live the furthest away from the hospital." Naru says to herself. She presides to call Shinobu's father 1st since he lives all the way on the other side of Tokyo and would take him more than 2 hours to get to the hospital.
Meanwhile, back at Hinata Sou, Kitsune is just getting back from her hair appointment. "Hey guys im back!" she calls out. She looks over to see the others including Haruka sitting watching the T.V. intently. "Oh Hey Kitsune." says Kietaro. "Man you have to come and see this." he adds as he waves his arm at her to come over.
Kitsune walks over and leans against the back of the couch and looks at the T.V. She sees the main female reporter for the T.V. Tokyo news standing front of a destroyed shop. "Oh. A breaking news report?" she says curiously. "Gee what happened?" she adds to her question.
"They say there was a drive by there at that store." answers Sara. "A drive by? Wow those are rare even for a big city like Tokyo here in Japan." she says amazed. "Shhh! Im trying to listen." says Kietaro. "Oh sorry." says Kitsune in a whispering voice.
Suddenly the phone in the hallway rings getting everyone's attention. "Don't worry I got it!" says Kitsune with a smile. "Just tell me what I miss ok." she adds. She walks through the doorway into the hallway and picks up the phone. "Hello?" she answers.
"Again less than 20 minutes ago reports from witnesses say that a white car raced up to this store and 2 to 3 gunmen stuck out guns out of the car windows and shot up this store behind me for a good 30 seconds before driving off. At last report, 2 people are confirmed dead and they happen to be the owners of the store, while 2 other people were rushed to the Tokyo University Trauma Center less than 2 miles away. One in seriously critical condition and the other with only a gunshot to the hand. He is expected to make it. The police have not given out any names about the other 2 people yet but as soon as we get more information we will bring it to you." says the female reporter.
"Tss. Using a gun to kill someone is a very dishonorable act indeed." says Motoko in a ticked off voice.
"WHAT!" they all hear Kitsune shout from the hallway. They all rush into the hallway wanting to know why Kitsune just yelled. There is a short pause. "Where?" Kitsune says loudly into the phone. Another short pause as Kitsune listens intently into the phone. "When?" she says. Again she listens into the phone. They see a small tear form in Kitsune's eye which startles them. "Ok. We'll be there as soon as we can." says Kitsune in a very saddened voice almost about to cry it sounds like.
She slowly lowers the phone down and hangs it up. She then leans against the table that the phone is on looking very distrait about what she has just heard.
"What is it Kitsune?" asks Kietaro. After a moment Kitsune turns to face the group. "Guys….." she hesitates. "It's Shinobu." she says with a tear rolling down her face. There's another short pause. "What do you mean it's Shinobu?" asks Su confusingly. Kitsune can only look at the floor with a very sadden look.
Motoko suddenly gasps and gets a pale look on her face. She looks over at the T.V. seeing a live picture of the front of the store. "Oh God." she says as she turns her head back to face Kitsune. "Don't tell me."
Back at the hospital, Naru has gone over to sit in a chair in the waiting room. She lowers her head feeling very confused and shaken up at what all has just transpired. As she looks down it's the 1st time she notices her black panty hoes and the bottom of her red dress are heavily stained with blood.
"That's Shinobu's blood." she thinks to herself. "Just less than 20 minutes ago that same blood was coursing through her veins keeping her alive. And now it is all over me!" she says to herself some more. She begins to zone out, not moving a muscle, just staring at the blood stains. She finally goes into shock.
50 minutes to an hour goes by before the rest of the group arrives (minus the parents). They all rush inside all out of breath from running all the way from the Bus stop. Except Haruka who walks in a few minutes later because she ran out of breath half-way there. (Hey she's a heavy smoker what do you expect!)
Kietaro looks to his right and sees Naru sitting in a chair staring blankly into the floor. They all walk over to her.
"Naru. We're here!" says Kietaro calmly. No response. "Naru?" he says again. Still no response. "Hey Naru!" he speaks a bit louder snapping Naru out of her stare.
She looks up at them slowly. Then all the sadness and fear rush back and is to overwhelming for her to take. She dives her face into Kitsune's chest and begins to cry loudly catching her off guard a bit. Kitsune slowly wraps her arms around Naru a tries to comfort her the best she can.
The others, knowing that Naru needs to let this out, precedes to sit a seat of their own. Naru cries for several minutes before she start yelling.
"I was so stupid! She didn't even want to come but I pushed her to come with me! Im so stupid!" she shouts. "Naru you're not stupid." says Kitsune trying to calm her down. "IT'S ALL MY FAULT! It's all my fault that Shinobu got shot. It's all my fault!" she shouts some more.
"Naru LISTEN!" shouts Kitsune as she grabs Naru's face. "You had no idea this would happen so it's not your fault! The only people at fault are the people who shot Shinobu!" she says right into Naru's face.
Naru looks at Kitsune for a second with a bit of shock in her face from hearing Kitsune shout like that but then the look turns into understanding and she goes back to crying, but not as loudly as she had been.
"Come on let's have a seat shall we?" says Kitsune pointing to the seats behind them.
Naru and Kitsune sit in 2 seats right beside each other. Naru lays her head on Kitsune arm still letting some tears fall. Kitsune has her arm around Naru rubbing her head a bit. After a few minutes Naru calms down some but still cries a bit.
About another hour passes very slowly when both of Shinobu's parents finally rush into the hospital. They both go to the front desk and get the nurse's attention. "We're here about our daughter, Shinobu Maehara, we were told that she had been shot." says Mr. Maehara in an urgent tone of voice.
"Ok just wait over there and I'll call one of the doctors to come tell you about her." says the nurse as the points to the waiting room. "Thank you." says Mr. Maehara.
He looks over and sees the others from Hinata Sou already sitting in the waiting room. Both of them walk over with out saying a word to anyone them and take their seats.
Mr. Maehara gives Kietaro and bit of an angered glare which catches him a bit off guard. He can't blame him because Mr. Maehara trusted him to take care of his daughter and keep her safe.
The waiting room is strangely eerily quite except for the ticking of the clock on the wall, and the occasional swinging of the Staff door as nurses and doctors walk through it. Even hyperactive Su is calm and collected although with a very sad look on her face. Naru has fallen asleep on Kitsune's arm out of exhaustion. Nobody has spoken a word since Kitsune snapped at Naru.
After a few minutes a doctor finally comes into the waiting room through the "Staff Only" door. "Mr. and Mrs. Maehara?" he says looking at everyone in the group.
Both of them stand up along with the rest of the group except Kitsune and Naru.
"Hello. I'm Dr. Haramara and I am one of the doctors that worked on your daughter in the Emergency Room." he says calmly.
End of Chapter 2
To be continued in Chapter 3- Waiting: Part 2
Author Note: I got flamed a couple times in my 1st chapter because of some grammar mistakes I made. Just to let you all know I am a horrible speller and have always been one all my life. After each chapter, I reread it at least 7 to 8 times correcting any and all mistakes I find. So if you find any please forgive them ok. Also I know many of you find this kind of style writing a Fanfic new. Please do not be afraid of it. I write all my stories in Paragraph form instead of Script form like so many other writers do. I do this because it helps me stay on track with the story line. After reading my stories a few times I know you all will get the hang of it and enjoy this way.
Story Hint: Guns, although legal, are very hard to get in Japan because of so many restrictions. Because if this, the number of people who are killed or shot by a gun is very low. It's not uncommon for a paramedic in Japan to be totally dumbfounded at seeing a gunshot victim, even some of the more experienced paramedics and doctors are sometime caught off guard when they have to work on a gunshot victim. Just wanted to let you know that incase you were wondering why the paramedic was surprised to see Shinobu shot.