Hey guys I'm sorry it took me this long to update again, it's just that I've been busy and I haven't been able to write much. I've got more free now and I hope I will be able to write more and update more frequently. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I still don't own Code Blue (but I'm working on it XD)
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Mihoko looked over her laptop's screen at Keisuke's children, Sakura and Satoshi, who were playing happily with their toys. She had to say that, even if it was something that Megumi had gotten her into and even if she'd been reluctant to help at first, she liked taking care of the kids when their father was busy at work and no one else could do so. After all, while they weren't perfect, they were well-behaved enough to make looking after them an easy job and Mihoko had grown fond of both of them.
"Auntie Mihoko, can we watch a movie today before we go to sleep?" The little boy asked her, looking away from his toys
"I'm not sure. We might have to ask Aunt Megumi when she returns with dinner." The Doctor replied with a small smile. "We'll see."
"Ok. But if we do, I want to see Totoro again!" He said.
"'Otoro!" the little girl shouted excitedly. Mihoko chuckled. "My Neighbor Totoro" was the movie Haruka had shown them one of the first nights their father had had a night shift. The children had loved it so much, with Satoshi singing the opening and ending songs of the movie all the time and little Sakura adding the main character's name to her limited vocabulary, that Keisuke had been forced to buy the movie for them.
"Like I said, let's talk about it when Aunt Megumi returns." She said.
"She's been gone for a long time" Satoshi replied, a bit worried.
Mihoko chuckled again. She knew that it was more than likely that her best friend was on the phone with her boyfriend and that it would be a while before returning home. She often used the excuse of getting dinner, getting something they need from the convenience store or any other excuse that would get her out of the house to call Kōsaku. "Don't worry, she'll be back soon" she reassured the little boy
"I'm home. Sorry for the delay but their oven didn't work too well so I had to go to another pizza place." Sounded her best friend's voice a few seconds later, as she entered the apartment.
"See?" The Ob-Gyn winked at the little boy, who smiled in response. "And here I thought you had gone to Italy, or perhaps Canada, to get them" Mihoko told her friend.
"Would you help the children wash their hands before dinner?" Megumi asked, ignoring what her friend was implying. I'll prepare the plates, drinks and Sakura's dinner.
"Alright." She said before closing her laptop and rising from the couch.
"Auntie Megumi, can we watch Totoro after dinner?" Satoshi asked.
"Totoro" Megumi said. "That Studio Ghibli movie again?" She asked Mihoko, who nodded with a small smile. "I don't see why not. By the way, I talked with your father and he asked if you could stay the night."
"Yay!" Satoshi shouted happily as he ran towards the bathroom, making Mihoko follow him with Sakura in her arms and making Megumi chuckle before setting the table for dinner as well as preparing some baby food for Sakura.
"So, did the usual pizzeria's oven really break down or did you walk to the pizzeria just so you could have more time to speak with Aizawa?" Mihoko asked when she returned with the children and they all sat around the table.
"For your information, I did speak with Kōsaku. It wasn't a particularly long conversation though, since he had just arrived home from the hospital after a particularly long night shift and was more sleepy than usual." Megumi replied as she put a slice of pizza on her plate and another on Satoshi's and began trying to feed Sakura her food, the little girl seemed unhappy that she was the only one not to eat the same thing as the rest of them, but she ate obediently.
"I began looking for apartments today." Mihoko said, changing the subject.
"Really?" Megumi asked her.
"Yes" she nodded. "But I haven't found any interesting ones yet."
"Don't worry, there's no rush for you to find one" Megumi smiled. "You can stay as long as you need."
"I know, I know, but since this time I'm staying in Shohoku for good, I thought it would be good to get my own place, show that it's really permanent." Mihoko said.
"I see, well, like I said, there's no rush" Megumi said with a smile. "I mean, if you left, you would just begin to tease Kōsaku and I about living together until one of us gave in and finally decided to propose it."
"You mean me teasing you usually has such powerful consequences?" Mihoko chuckled. "Well, now that you mention it, if I tease you about something often enough, you end up doing things. Like, for example, going to Toronto and confessing your feelings. You are welcome by the way."
"Yeah, yeah, thank you" Megumi rolled her eyes as she continued to feed Sakura and Mihoko turned her attention to Satoshi who, whenever they had pizza, tended to end up so dirty that he needed a bath.
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Keisuke walked through the halls of the hospital with a depressed expression on his face after he finished the double shift he had pulled at the hospital. He had lost a patient today. Her body had rejected the heart that she had received a few weeks prior and the treatment given had not been enough to save her life. It wasn't something he hadn't seen before, every surgeon knew about the dangers of organ transplant and he supposed he shouldn't have taken it so hard. But the patient had been young, a girl of only 12 years of age, who'd spent the whole night fighting for her life with her parents by her side, praying to whatever god or gods there were to allow their daughter to live.
Life wasn't fair, sometimes the cruelest people in the world got to live long and somewhat healthy lives while children who seemed to be very sweet and could potentially grow up to be the best of people died with their whole lives ahead of them.
"Dr. Aragaki" a voice snapped him out of his thoughts and made him turn around to see two of the younger Flight Doctors, Doctors Haitani and Yokomine, approaching him. "We were heading towards the cafeteria to get a coffee. Do you want to join us?" Dr. Yokomine asked.
Keisuke forced a smile. Over the weeks he had been working at Shohoku, he had developed closer personal relationships with the people at Lifesaving than with the people at his own department. Not that he had a bad relationship with any of the doctors or nurses at the Heart Surgery Department.
"I'm sorry, but it has been a long shift and I need to pick up my children from Doctors Shiraishi and Hiyama." He said
"Actually, they just called us. They said they couldn't reach you and that they had already left the children at Daycare" Haitani replied. These words made Keisuke look at his watch, it was later in the morning than he had expected it to be, perhaps he had spent more time immersed in his thoughts than he'd thought when he was changing into his street clothes. Pulling out his phone, he realized he had a couple of missed calls from Megumi and Mihoko which he hadn't heard.
"Even so, I'm very tired today and I'll need to get some strength back to deal with my kids after daycare is over, so we'll have coffee another time" he said before walking away from the two young doctors.
"He doesn't seem to be just tired" Dr Yokomine said as they watched him exit the hospital.
Doctor Haitani nodded "I suppose he must have had a bad shift."
Keisuke walked towards his car, a Toyota RAV4 from 2019 that he'd bought shortly after going back to Japan, got in it and drove away. He hoped that a few hours of rest would help him pick up his kids from school with his usual smile. Driving away from the hospital he noticed Megumi and Mihoko walking towards it, but since didn't want to stop the car to talk he merely faked a smile and waved goodbye at them, which only Megumi returned since Mihoko didn't seem to notice who was driving the car that just passed them by.
Arriving home, Keisuke entered autopilot and walked from the parking lot of the apartment complex where he lived to his apartment's door without being fully aware of his surroundings, driven by the desire to forget the events of the night, temporarily at least. However, when he entered his place he couldn't help but notice a pair of women's shoes, the kind usually worn by women in their fifties or sixties, women like…
"Hello Keisuke" an all too familiar voice pulled him back to reality completely.
"Mom?" he asked incredulously as he looked at the 64 year old woman in front of him, his mother Tomoko Aragaki. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, as I told you on repeated occasions it was my intention, I came for a visit" Tomoko replied a little annoyed at her son's question. "I arrived this morning, but I couldn't find either you or the kids."
"Well I had to work last night, so I left them with some work friends… Never mind that! I remember you agreed to let me get settled in before you visit. How did you get in?" He asked her.
"Well, the landlord of course, he is a very lovely man, invited me for tea at a nearby cafe, we just got back about 10 minutes ago" she explained. Keisuke's incredulous expression deepened. There were many ways to refer to his landlord, for example "Grumpy", Keisuke didn't think he had seen him smile once since he arrived, it seemed that, the night he'd moved in, he hadn't been angry at Keisuke because he was late or because of the extra work he'd had to do that day because of the move, or at least he hadn't been angry just because of that, it was just the way he always was, "Cheap", he didn't want to hire anybody to do cleaning or repairs around his building, "Hard-working", he did all those things himself, often asking one or both of his sons if he needed any help, were all good ways to describe him. But "Lovely" wasn´t a word Keisuke ever thought he would hear used to describe the man. "As for you settling in before my visit, I think five weeks is time enough, don't you?"
"So. How much are you planning on staying?" Keisuke finally asked as he took off his own shoes and moved towards his bedroom.
"Just a couple, Kyoko told me to stay as long as I needed to help you." Tomoko smiled.
"A couple of what?" Keisuke asked, terrified that the woman hadn't used a measure of time.
"You look tired, why don't you take a nap? I'll wake you up when it's time for lunch" his mother smiled in response and Keisuke knew he'd have to live with the question on his head for a while.
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Keisuke wasn't too hungry when he woke up for lunch, but he made an effort to eat everything his mother had prepared. He hadn't been able to sleep at all when he'd gone to bed. Not because Tomoko had appeared at his house with the clear intention of staying until she deemed he no longer needed her help, but the memory of his dead patient's family.
"Keisuke!" his mother's voice brought him back to reality once again.
"Yes?" He asked.
"What's wrong with you? You've been very absentminded throughout lunch and haven't paid attention to any of the things I've said. You've only responded with nods, sounds and one syllable words" Tomoko said as he looked at him worriedly.
"I'm sorry. It's... Look mom, it's just been a bad night at work tonight. I lost a patient." He replied.
"I see" she nodded, her expression turning somber. "How young?" She then asked after a few seconds of silence.
"What?" Keisuke threw his mother a surprised look. "I've not said anything about her age. Why do you assume she is young?"
"Because I've seen you after you lost a patient before. You were nowhere near this devastated. You were sad, but not like this." His mother reminded him. "Knowing that, I just made a guess about which of the worst possible cases was it."
Keisuke let out a sad chuckle when he heard the explanation. "She was 12 years old, her body rejected her new heart" he said. "Her parents remained by her bed, praying for their daughter's life. We tried everything we could as well, but nothing worked. She died in the early morning."
"I see" his mother said, not knowing very well what to say for a few moments. She wasn't a doctor, she couldn't come up with some words to get his son not to be as depressed. "When are we supposed to pick up Sakura and Satoshi?"
"We still have some time, a couple of hours" he said, looking at his watch. "I will try to sleep a little before we go."
"Actually, I was going to suggest you take a walk" his mother said. "You used to do so when you were young and you were depressed, or simply bothered, about something. You always came back better after that."
Keisuke thought about it, he doubted a walk could help him, none of the troubles he'd faced when he was young could compare to losing a young patient, but he supposed it was better than futilely trying to sleep. He nodded. "Alright, I'll send you the address of the daycare so you can go when it's time to pick the kids. I'll try to be there too but, just in case, I'll call them to let them know you are picking them up today."
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Reply to xianiaHarMione's comment: Thank you for your comment, although I must apologize again for not updating in so long.