Chapter two; Broken

"Melissa?" She instantly knew this couldn't be good news. Her smile dropped and she froze to the spot.

"Kaname, I am sorry to tell you this. Sousuke is... hurt. Real bad." You could hear Melissa was having trouble bringing the news. She wasn't just talking about some co-worker, Sousuke had also been her friend for some time now. It was probably for the best to pull this bandaid off as quickly as possible. Not just for Kaname, but also for herself.

Taken aback from the message she just received, Kaname sunk back in her chair.

"Why... What... How is he?" Kaname asked when she finally regained her strength to speak again.

"He is still in surgery. Medics got to him fast, but the damage had already been done. I can just say it doesn't look good." Both sides got quiet for a few seconds.

"Hello? Kaname? Are you still there?" Melissa Mao asked after a few seconds when she got no response whatsoever.

Kaname shook her head to get out of her thoughts. ".. Yeah, yeah I'm still here." Memories flew by, how they met, how he saved her in the hijacking, how she got to Hong Kong to bring him back to his senses. And to kick his ass for leaving her like that.

Unknowingly, she always felt like Sousuke was invincible. He surprised her when he got that Savage running back in North Korea. It had been the first time she knew he wasn't just an Otaku. After that, he proved to be a damn good soldier and an even better AS pilote on several was, just like he said, a specialist.

But of course he was still a human being of flesh and blood.

Tears started to fill her eyes.

Melissa continued. "I thought the least I could do was let you know." She knew how close Sousuke and Kaname had gotten, even though neither of them would admit that at this point. She saw Sousuke's behaviour in Hong Kong, how much leaving Kaname had effected him.

"Thank you for calling me. Please keep me updated."

"Of course. Take care." Melissa said. With that, Kaname closed her phone and ended the call.

"Chidori-san? What happened?" During the call her classmate, Kawamura Masao, hadn't left her side. It looked like his classmate could use some help.

She was lost in her thoughts. "Chidori?" He took a step closer. Just before his hand reached for her shoulder..

"I.. I have to go." Kaname said all of a sudden, got up and grabbed her bag. "Please tell the teacher I won't make it to the next class." She said without looking at him. She didnt even wait for a response and walked out. Leaving her classmate in disbelieve.

00000000000

"How did she take it?" Kurz Weber jumped up from his chair when Melissa got back in the waitingroom.

Because of hospital policy, she had to get outside to make sure the phonecall didn't disrupt any hospital equipment. Even if it was allowed, it was almost impossible because of the thick conrete walls and the therefore terrible reception.

"How the hell do you think she took it? She sounded.. I don't know. Lost, I guess? Anyway, I think we should discuss how to proceed now that Sousuke might be gone for some time..."

A lot of other things were on her mind right now. So after the conversation ended, she tried focussing on stuff that needed to be handled. Not that she didn't feel sorry for the girl or terrible about the shape Sousuke was in, but her job continued after bringing bad news. A valuable member of the team wouldnt we able to participate in missions for at least a couple of weeks. If he would even return.

"Melissa!" Both Kurz and Mao looked up to see who called her name.

It was TDD-1 captain Teletha 'Tessa' Testarossa, she came running though the hallway. Her hair was loose, the top bottons of her wrinkled blouse were open and she wasnt wearing the jacket that came with her uniform. Clearly she just handed over command when the news came in that Sousuke had made it to the base.

She practically jumped in Melissa Mao's arms. All the subordinates of Tessa were important to her, but Sousuke had a special place in her heart. It was for the better sake that only Kurz and Mao had been there, because this action might have been difficult to explain to everyone, since she didnt exactly respond the same way with other wounded personnel.

"How is he doing?" Tessa asked when she finished hugging. Her comrades looked at her with despair. "It's that bad?" She asked them. They nodded in unison.

"I thought the medics were able to stabalize him?" Tessa asked.

"As did we" Kurz said. "But they only got him stabilized enough so he could be safely transported back to base. He is in surgery now."

A door opened, and the three of them turned towards a doctor leaving the OR. Since they were the only onces in the waitingroom, she walked directly towards them. Her expression was still unreadible because of her surgical mask, so they hold their breaths.

"He lost a lot of blood, we had to fix several internal bleedings and his heart stopped once. But he's stable, for now at least." she told them.

"And he will live, right?" Melissa asked.

The doctor sighed. She needed to be realistic. "We still don't know the full extent of damage that had been done to his organs. So I can't say for sure. The next 48 hours are crucial. But I have to be honest, we aren't very optimistic."

"Can we see him? Tessa asked.

"First he needs to recover from this surgery and get installed at the ICU. After that we can see if you can pay him a visit." The doctor said. "I'm sorry, I need to get back now. Would you like to be kept updated, madam Captain?" At first, she didnt recognize the captain from the TDD-1 without her signature braid and standard uniform. She had seen the captain only twice before, and she hadn't been on base for long. So it took some time to notice.

"Yes, please call my office when there are any significant changes or when we will be able to visit him." Tessa said.

"Of course, madam Captain." With that, she turned back towards the restricted area.

A/N
Hi everyone, sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoyed :) I rewrote this chapter about six times, I think. So it toke some time to finish. I've got some ideas about were to head the story, but if you got some ideas, let me know!