Creation began on 05-07-17

Creation ended on 05-06-20

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Good Samaritan Doctor of Miracles

A/N: Had this idea lately, but only got to it because the laundry dryer of my building is broken! Say there was a choice you had to make that was against a choice made by others? Say it was between life and death, and you chose the lesser of two fates to do right?

"…Ahh…ahh…ahh…" The little boy breathed, or rather, tried to breathe, and the nurse checking his pulse looked at the doctor and confirmed his fears.

Dammit, he thought, leaving the room to locate the boy's aunt and uncle. Who the Hell are these people that just allowed this child to suffer?

-x-

"…Okay, just so that we're all clear on this delicate matter," said the female chief of the medical board, "the patient is Shinji Ikari, five years old, who was self-admitted less than twenty-four hours ago here with a high fever and respiratory problems, later confirmed to have contracted the measles, which he caught from prolonged exposure to his cousin, Kai Ikari, and his guardians are…refusing him medical treatment?"

"That's correct," the doctor that had brought this to her attention confirmed. "The worst part is their excuse for denying the boy medical treatment when they were informed what was wrong with him."

"His life is in the kami's hands now," said the aunt to them.

"He shouldn't be denied medical aid because of some belief."

"Our son didn't need medical aid when he got the measles," said the uncle. "Why should we bother with our nephew?"

"His case is more severe than what your son had gone through," the doctor told them. "For now, we're just delaying the inevitable. He needs surgery or else he'll die…and neither of you will consider it."

"Because it's unnecessary," the aunt defended. "Do you even know who his father is?"

"As a doctor, I could care less who this boy's mother is. I see him, I see someone that needs help. He certainly isn't getting it from either of you."

"It's still our decision," the uncle responded, "and we say 'no'."

-x-

Until tensions were lowered, the chief of the medical board had the boy's guardians sent home until tomorrow, while the doctor returned to the boy's room to check his status again.

"How is he?" He asked the female nurse, who was checking his pulse.

"His temperature's not going down," she told him. "How'd it go with trying to get his aunt and uncle to reconsider?"

"They're refusing him the surgery he needs to get over his condition. They knew he was really sick…and they won't lift a finger to help him."

"So, then… What now?"

"You still keep in contact with that other medical firm?"

-x-

When the aunt and uncle returned to the hospital the next day, they were surprised to find that their nephew wasn't where he'd been left, and they came to take him home.

Security found the female nurse that was last seen with him, but she merely stated, "You're going to have to take it up with the boy's doctor. All I did was what he asked of me."

"And that was what?" The aunt asked her.

"Try the Internet, lady. Look up medical technology…cybernetics…medical saints."

-x-

Shinji felt hazy, like the first time when he had to drag himself over to the hospital when he wasn't feeling so good, just like the previous day, and his uncle wouldn't help him. And then, he opened his eyes and saw that he was in a different room, much bigger and didn't smell as awful as the other room. It was a sweet smell, like cinnamon, vanilla or something. As he got up, he noticed a painted mural on the opposite end of the room, that of an angelic woman dressed in white and pink robes, almost like a nurse, with a stethoscope around her neck.

"Beautiful," he whispered.

The door to the room slid open and a woman he hadn't seen before stepped inside. She was probably in her mid-twenties, with short, brown hair and green eyes, dressed like a nurse, but with a green choker around her neck.

"How are you feeling, Mr. Ikari?" She asked him.

"Fine," he answered, worried.

"That's good to hear. You gave your doctor quite a scare during your operation."

"My…my operation?"

"Yeah. I mean, I've seen mild cases of the measles, and those are easy to deal with. Just give the person a vaccination shot and they're all set within a few hours to two days. Your case was extreme, though, and you needed a spinal tap to help us figure out what you needed. You should be fine within another day. Do you need anything?"

All Shinji asked for…was a cup of water. As much as he wanted to ask if his aunt and uncle were nearby, he didn't feel that he should ask about them. A part of him still felt resentment towards his guardians for not taking him to the hospital after he got sick from being around their son.

-x-

"…You had him transferred to Medical Angel where they did the surgery?!" The boy's aunt demanded to know from his doctor.

"That's right," he answered her.

"You bastard," the uncle declared. "What right did you have to go against our decision?!"

"What right did either of you have…to watch as he suffered from prolonged exposure to your son?" He asked them. "I followed the oath to do no harm, and I wasn't about to watch any child die because their parents or guardians are either blind, deaf or unwilling to do the right thing."

"Where the Hell is this Medical Angel?" The aunt asked him.

"Fukuoka. That's where their eighth branch is. It is a global entity, you know."

-x-

There were few children his age around the place, but Shinji noticed that some of them had an arm or leg that looked like they were made of metal or plastic. He had been told to get out of his room and be around others after recovering from his surgery, but he wasn't sure how to mingle with anyone.

"So, how'd you get here?" He turned around and saw a girl with long, greenish hair and wearing a hospital gown over her left arm, which was a prosthetic limb.

"Uh, I was sick," he answered her. "Measles."

"That's awful. Well, it's good that you're here. Medical Angel is a good place to get medical care you can't get from other hospitals or when people you live with make decisions that aren't always the right one."

"What happened to you?" He asked her, pointing to her prosthetic arm.

"This? Car accident. My parents got bruised up worse than I did, though. They're still in recovery until they wake up."

"Does that hurt when you move it?"

"No. It's a little uncomfortable, but it's only because I'm still adjusting to it. But one of the good things about it is that I can move the fingers. They don't always move the way my old ones did, but I get better with each day."

Shinji then sat on the ground outside in the recreational yard where the other children were with the girl.

"I'm Yomiko, by the way," the girl introduced herself to him. "Yomiko Muyo."

"Shinji Ikari," he introduced himself to her.

"Nice to meet you."

"Thank you."

-x-

"…I can't believe that doctor does something like this," the aunt fumed as she and her husband, the uncle, had to go all the way to Fukuoka just to get their nephew. "He should lose his job and his tenure!"

"That medical board said this wasn't the first time he did something like this," the uncle responded, "going over a medical decision that he felt was not in the best interest of the patient. Four reprimands in the past eight years. If someone says no surgery, even if it is necessary, he'll look for a loophole and work around making sure that whoever it is that's in need of medical attention gets it. What a complete rulebreaker."

"Worse is that several of the relatives of the people he went out of his way for are actually grateful for his decisions. How can they be grateful when he goes against a decision that their relatives made?!"

"He saw hope when others saw none. You think he's the same way for this prick?"

"No doubt."

-x-

"…I can't believe they really work," Shinji told Yomiko, looking at her prosthetic arm move its fingers. "It's…it's like something out of a movie."

"I know, right?" She responded. "It's still a work in-progress, but for now, I'm just practicing how to move the fingers like how I used to with my original arm. It won't be long before the people responsible for making these prosthetic limbs develop the next step for it, which is a synthetic skin to cover the artificial limbs. And I don't mean discolored skin, either. I mean, real skin, with hair and nerves."

"Now, that's cool."

"Well, I see you're having a good time here," Shinji heard the voice of his aunt nearby, which made him cringe.

Yomiko turned to see two adults that didn't work here that gave off a rather unpleasant vibe that made Shinji feel uncomfortable around them.

"Are they your guardians?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he answered her.

"The same people that wouldn't take you to the hospital after you got sick by their kid?"

"Yeah."

"You're right, they don't seem like nice people."

The aunt and uncle approached Shinji and Yomiko and the uncle asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Shinji answered. "The doctors all say I'll be fine now."

"You do realize that you would've recovered on your own, right?"

"That's not what they told me."

"Who are you going to believe? Your guardians or some strangers with a medical degree?"

"You don't even want to know my answer to that, do you?"

The uncle gave a slight frown; he didn't want to know the answer to that at all.

-x-

Epilogue

"…So, you're the Good Samaritan Doctor of Miracles that I've been hearing about?" The head of Medical Angel's Japan branch asked the guy that ended up losing his job at the hospital to ensure that his last patient received medical treatment regardless of his guardians' beliefs, standing in front of the elder man in his office. "You're Haru Hitode?"

"Yes, sir," the former doctor, Haru, answered the man.

"I've reviewed your record, and…I must say, I'm quite impressed with judgement."

"I'm afraid I don't understand, sir."

"Against the wishes of the child's guardians, you went and made certain that he got the medical care he needed that made it so that he would live to see his teen years because his immune system was compromised by his exposure to the measles. You believe in heroic measures when you see how bad anyone's health has been affected."

"Whenever I evaluate someone's medical history, I always have to ensure that there's even the slightest possibility of making sure they have a chance at a full recovery. My reprimands mainly stem from the fact that I question the beliefs of others that don't believe that medical attention is necessary in making sure they live to see the next day…and their devotion."

"You choose to believe in people that are worth helping, regardless of what others tell you. I can respect that. I'd like to hire you to work for Medical Angel's Japan branch."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, sir."

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away from where Medical Angel was located, young Shinji Ikari, looking on the Internet for the doctor that helped to save him, was writing a letter to the Good Samaritan Doctor of Miracles.

"You do know that he probably lost his job because he made a big fuss over your health when you ran to the hospital," his cousin told him.

"I still owe him my gratitude," Shinji told him.

"It's not like you were going to die!"

"You don't know that. I don't believe any of you know that."

"What, you think my parents were trying to kill you?"

Shinji looked at him and gave him an expression that spoke volumes of what he thought regarding his cousin's parents. In a way, he felt his guardians had deliberately denied him medical attention just to see how well he fared against the measles.

"You're a loser," his cousin called him and left him alone.

And you're infectious, Shinji thought as found the address of Haru Hitode. He helped save my life…and he lives quite far away.

Do no harm

A/N: I wanted to put Shinji in a medical situation after reading the manga and seeing a scene in which Shinji appeared sick, but his guardians didn't do much to actually help him, instead just leaving him some food and ignoring him. Again, I enjoyed the use of Medical Angel acting as a free medical facility that pushes technology to be used to help people, and creating original characters that have morals that cross paths with others that seem to lack morality. And I can't believe it almost took me three years to finish this!