Chapter 24
Mission: Recuperation
Tomoyo Daidouji steeled herself, keeping a blank expression even when Eriol's arm draped over her shoulders in a gesture of comfort. She stared at the Room No. 666. Li Xiao Lang's room number.
Symbolic? She hoped not, or else the hospital would pay with their arses.
When she turned the knob open and stepped inside, her amethyst eyes zeroed upon the teenager lying on the bed. A soft sob echoed out of her as she sat near the bed. This was too much, even for someone as unusually cheerful as her.
"Why, Xiao-Lang?" she cried.
Eriol tightened his grip around her shoulders. "There wasn't anything we could do, Daidouji."
That only made her cry harder.
"You idiotic hara-kiri committing emo-boy! Idiot idiot idiot—!"
"Let's just pray to the gods that he'll rest in peace—"
"WHAT THE HELL—I'm not dead, you two! Shut it, Eriol. You still can't have my cars, and Tomoyo, you're freaking me out."
Li angled his head towards his best friends, giving them a flat and amused look. His normally tanned complexion was now a pasty white, contrasting starkly against his brown hair. He was like Dracula, only ten times more attractive and with no fangs. "Seriously," his chapped lips quirked. "You haven't cried since you were about, what, five?"
Tomoyo sniffed and retorted sarcastically, "Oooooh, I'm sorry. I mean, it's not my fault they come out when I think of how I nearly lost one of my best friends because of UTTER IDIOCY! HARA-KIRI to the second degree! Why I oughta…!"
Eriol sighed. "You just had to let her rant, Li."
The heir groaned and stuffed his index fingers in his ears.
It was a useless technique.
"And at least the samurais did it to die in honor or something. YOU did it because you were off playing hero! DON'T YOU DARE COVER YOUR EARS—(slap! "OW!" Xiao-Lang cried)"
"Where's Sakura?" Li demanded, wincing as he rubbed his right hand's index finger.
"Any SANE person would've stopped once they had a 3-inch hole in their stomach. I don't care if you have killer abs, you moron! The police may have had jutting bellies but they DON'T HAVE HOLES IN THEM, DAMMIT! There were, like, 200 different things you could've used as cover instead!"
"Why am I not in the same room as her?" Li continued, his eyebrows twitching.
"Where's your ungodly reflexes and training, huh? That was completely unnecessary! No, you're not what I wanna call a brave Mel Gibson, Li. You are what I like to call a…a..." Tomoyo struggled to say the words, etiquette battling with emotions.
Eriol decided to help her and offered, "a prick? Idiotic arse? Noble and brave moron?"
"YES! EXACTLY! Oh, if you weren't injured so bad, I'd castrate you myself and--!"
"Tomoyo?"
She blinked at Li, who was looking at her. "What?"
"I'm alright."
Her rage evaporated and she slumped down on her seat. "I know," she murmured. She accepted the tissue Eriol offered her, then glared at Li. "You're so lucky the bullet missed any vital organs, or else we'd be looking at a corpse with mashed organs and—and punctured blue skin—and—dammit!"
Eriol groaned. "Oh, for the love of—stop being so melodramatic!"
"Well, it's a good thing I only feel like my insides are melting, hm?" Li pointed out. "And besides, only my stomach feels like it's being cooked. The only head injury I got was when that stupid intern banged my bed against wall and nearly threw me off when we were getting off the ambulance!" he growled, pointing at the bandage on top of his head.
"That was because you ripped off the IV and TRIED TO GET OFF THE BED, you twit!" Tomoyo glowered at him, poking him in the shoulder. "The poor guy was only trying to get you back!"
Eriol smirked. "Well, in a totally objective light, that was probably the funniest thing I have ever seen—"
Xiao-Lang's head slowly turned to look at him. His black-rimmed bloodshot eyes complete with twitching jaw dared his best friend to say anything.
Eriol hurriedly changed course. "I mean, in a totally stupid—I mean, stupendous way. The force of your flop—er, landing created a mini-earthquake and made you glow like Superman. Extremely awe-inspiring!"
Tomoyo promptly whacked him on the head.
The Li heir abruptly spoke, "where is she?"
His two friends immediately sobered. Eriol smiled softly and asked, "You're never going to get distracted, are you?"
"Nope," he said flatly. "Is she okay?"
That question immediately brought Tomoyo to tears, causing him to panic. "What? WHAT?" he panicked, almost going out of his bed. "She's not—?"
Tomoyo hushed him. "What? Of course not!"
Li narrowed his eyes at them in exasperation. "Can somebody just please tell me what the hell is her condition? I mean, mother is too busy crying for my so-called 'demise' and frying the arses of that asshole and his spawn. Meiling is too busy expertly wheedling every crap on said asshole's history to stay more than two minutes. The Egg Brothers are way too insane to even give me straight answers and NOW Tomoyo's too wrapped up on the whole my-best-friend-committed-harakiri and —ARGH!!" He was cut off when his rant and wild arm movements triggered an onslaught of pain from his abdomen.
"Li Xiao-Lang! You stop moving like a deranged hole-less maniac or I swear I will make you stay inside this hospital for a year!" Tomoyo near yelled, trying to catch his flailing hands.
Eriol, on the other hand, carefully but firmly pushed him back to his lying position and sighed. "Fine, we'll—well, I'LL tell you the facts, but you have to promise me that you won't go into another of your rampages and go after Jake Li again." His blue eyes stared at defiant brown ones, one eyebrow raised.
Li twitched. "Fine."
Eriol beamed and continued. "Well, aside from the mental damage that was inflicted, 5 of her ribs were broken and she's now suffering from mild asphyxiation. Coupled with a few other head wounds that might result in a Grade 2 or 3 concussion, she had her left arm dislocated and—do you honestly want to hear this?" he asked, crossing his arms and seriously looking at his friend.
Li was quiet for a moment. Then, he asked the question that was most important: "Does she remember?"
Tomoyo exhaled slowly and looked at him dead in the eye. "She remembers everything."
"I want to be put in her room NOW."
-oooo-
Eggy paced agitatedly in front of his student's bed, keeping himself from wincing whenever he snuck a glance to the lonely prostrate form on the hospital bed, connected to almost every life-saving machine the medical world has to offer.
Sakura was like one big bruise. The parts of her skin that wasn't covered in tubes, bandages or clothes, it was colored greenish black and puffy. Her eyes were closed and her normally pink lips were pale and dead-looking. The only thing that indicated she wasn't a corpse was the slow and shallow rise and fall of her chest.
Hands twitching in agitation, Eggy leaned on wall and fought to clamp down the string of extremely un-Eggylike expletives threatening to fall out of his mouth
Unfortunately, his twin brother didn't have any qualms with showing how he felt.
Sitting on a chair near the foot of the bed, Fatty was nearly clawing at his bald head (having no hair to tear and twist) and hissed, "The fuck is wrong? She's been like this for a while now! Why isn't there any bleeding improvement? What did the old coot say? Crapping shitty crudmuffin!" His left eye seemed to have acquired a permanent twitch.
"Calm down. I'm sure she'll be fine. And while you're swearing will never cease to amaze me, it will do no good."
Edging closer to the bed, Fatty stared Sakura at intensely as if willing her to wake up. "Sakura? Sakura, you hot mama, please open those doe-like eyes of yours! PLEASE? See, the fatso is bullying me and I need your help! Pretty please with Li's face on top??"
No response.
Suddenly, the door opened and in came Touya and Nadeshiko. The former was as bad as Eggy, and his fisted hands were deep in his pocket. His brow was furrowed. "Any improvement?" the younger man asked brusquely to hide his agitation.
Eggy shook his head. "I'm afraid not."
Touya sagged and muttered a few choice words before standing next to Eggy. He stared as his mother sat next to Fatty and watched with worried and red eyes as her daughter lingered somewhere between reality and dreams. "Just what the heck is wrong with her? It's been about a week and she seems to be getting worse and worse!"
"She's… having a hard time accepting everything that's happened," Eggy said quietly. "I was here when she first woke up, and it was horrible to watch when all the memories came back full force. She was screaming and thrashing and… very stressed, to put it mildly. She's been asleep for the last 8 hours."
On Nadeshiko and Fatty's side, the former suddenly asked, "How is Yelan's child? He was hurt, right?"
"Yep, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't handle," Fatty told her. "Li Xiao-Lang is too pigheaded to let himself die. At least, not before he sees Sakura."
At the mention of the patient, they both turned to look at her again, and nearly toppled over in surprise when they saw that her eyes were partly open, revealing slightly glazed emerald. They were a stark contrast to her auburn hair that was spread around her head like halo.
"HOLY—!"
"RAPHAEL IGNORAMUS!" Eggy hissed a second later, already by his brother's side, his hand throbbing from the smack he delivered.
Fatty glared. "Why I oughta wedgie—"
"SHHH!" Nadeshiko said suddenly. "Sakura?" she said softly, leaning towards her daughter. "Can you hear me?"
Touya was already sitting on the other side. "Hey, monster," he greeted, a pained smile on his face. "Your big brother is so going to get back at you for this WHEN you're outta here, got it?"
His reply was a weak half-smile and a glazed stare that affected him way more than he can say.
"Wait!" Eggy said frantically. "She's trying to say something!"
They all leaned as close as they could without invading the proverbial bubble. 5 seconds later, it was Nadeshiko who first understood what her daughter tried to say.
"Sakura, do you want to see him?" she asked gently, tears springing up her eyes.
Comprehension dawned in the faces of the other inhabitants of the room. Touya stood up and went to do the unasked request of his sister, leaving Eggy and Fatty as the only men in the room.
Fatty tried to lighten up the mood and whispered, "aw, don't worry, you sexy lady! Superman's all right and I bet right now he's just itching to see you. I said he was a stubborn piece of humanity, right?"
Eggy inched closer and asked again. "Sakura," he said quietly, "do you want to see him? Do you wanna see Xiao-Lang?"
Sakura swallowed. Turning her head slowly to face them, her mouth quirked up so that they can see that their efforts to help her be at ease were appreciated, and she rasped out:
"Yes, please."
Oooooo
"Okay, Sakura, so what color is my hair?"
Sakura gave and tired smirk. "You have no hair, you bald old coot."
Eggy threw his hands up in triumph. "HAH! Thank you for dispelling my imbecilic brother of any more delusions!"
Fatty blew him off. "Screw you. You're 'balder' than me!"
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT—is that even possible, you turnip?"
"Ignore him, Sakura. He's just pissed that the only one who ever got to tear his pants off was a rabid dog that wanted to make his arse into butt sushi."
She blinked and opened her mouth, but Fatty plowed on.
"SO next question… AHA! Who is Eriol's future girlfriend?"
The girl smiled wanly and played along. "Tomoyo Daidouji."
"Hm. You're sharp, Kinomoto. Kudos to you."
Eggy pinched his brother's double chin. "Oh, for the love of—this is exactly why you'll never get a wife, you imbecile."
"This comes from the guy who's married only to his cheeseburgers?"
"I DO NOT EAT THAT GREASY FOOD!"
"Sakura!" Fatty whispered. "This is where you'll see this so called socialite piss his pants 'cause of…well… being too pissed. Watch. His nose is already blowing up."
Sakura snickered despite the pain it caused. "You guys are so… amusing. It's disturbing."
Eggy and Fatty looked at each other and beamed. "Oh, yes," Fatty said. "We definitely are. It's called appeal."
"Anything to get back the Ms. Kinomoto who gave me hell during lessons," Eggy said firmly. "We absolutely detested the crazy and depressed one who kept trying to push everyone away and wrap herself in a cocoon of bedsheets."
She clutched their hands. "Thanks, eggheads. I owe you two a lot."
Fatty made as if to swat a fly with his right hand. "Oh, pish-posh! Just as long as you and Xiao-Lang go and finish this angsty comedic love story of your lives and—"
BANG!
The three occupants of the room turned towards the now open door. "Speaking of the devil…" Eggy said wryly.
In the doorway, a wheeling bed carried Li Xiao-Lang into the room with his feet facing the hallway. The sound of his deep baritone voice jolted Sakura into upright wakefulness, although what he said made her want to smile. "Are the Eggheads there?" Li was demanding indignantly. "I heard their girly voices! THAT IS SO UNFAIR! How come they saw her so easily and I had to fight every freakin' doctor in here just to get permission, dammit! What the—HEY!"
"Please stop trying to get out of the bed, Mr. Li."
"AGH! I can't see anything! Turn me around so I can see Sakura."
Eggy and Fatty rolled their eyes. "Because, Xiao-Lang," the former answered dryly, "as opposed to our sexy and whole bodies, you have a hole on your stomach that we can probably stuff an egg into."
"And you look like shit," Fatty offered helpfully.
Li muttered, "oh, I will show them shit. Sexy bodies, my…" the words stopped when he saw Sakura.
He was now in the proper position with his headboard just next to her, and he can see how her head tiredly rested against the pillow and how she was all black and blue and haggard and too thin and beaten up and…
…Crap, how he wanted to rip out that bastard's throat.
But she was looking warmly at him. She was there and alive, and that was all that mattered.
Screw the bastard. He would have his throat—and head—just a little while longer.
The other occupants quietly exited the room, with a desperate-to-watch-a-happy-ending-movie-scene Fatty silently being dragged by an exasperated Eggy and an amused nurse. Neither patient noticed.
"Hey there, Kinomoto," Li smiled softly.
"I heard…" she said quietly. "I heard that you shielded me from my brother's bullet, nearly attacked him again when he slighted Mrs. Li and fell off the ambulance to see if I was okay."
Li huffed. "I DID NOT FALL OFF THE VAN. It was the intern. He was a clumsy git with no compassion for the injured!"
She chuckled before sinking into suppressed tears. "Oh, you stupid parrot…" she hiccupped.
Li's eyes widened. "Oh… oh, crud. Aw, please don't, Kinomoto! Too many people in this damn building have already cried and—!"
She continued to cry, heaving sobs that he wasn't used to hearing from the strong girl. He knew she needed to cry, yes, but this was maybe too much. Her breath was coming in rapid and shallow intervals and so intense that Li was afraid that she'd have difficulty breathing.
He panicked when his chest began to tighten up and his vision wavered. "Argh, dammit, you're going to make me cry and I do NOT—" He cleared his throat and looked at the bright lights of the room to clear his vision. Then, he looked at her and asked firmly, "what's this I hear about you being all withdrawn and depressed?"
She stiffened.
Li continued, hoping to let her understand. "I know it's been crazy, but you can't keep it all bottled up, Sakura. That's what you've been doing for a long time, and it's wrong. I'm worried about you."
She closed her eyes and tried to even out her breathing even as tears still coursed down her cheeks. "Everything's just very overwhelming," she said slowly. "It's as if every dark secret of my life was suddenly flung out in the open and it's like everything I've done to keep myself safe from…them was useless and stupid."
He listened quietly.
"He went too far, I know that. I knew that even then but I was too weak and stupid to resist… to stop what he was doing to me then and because of this…" her eyes opened and emerald blazed with anger and anguish. "I hate him. I hate what he did to me. I hate what I let myself become."
"Hey, just calm down. He's never going to bother anyone ever again."
"Yes, but it's—"
"NO. He will pay. End of story. He's going to burn his evil arse in here with the law and in hell with a thousand years of pain, period. Just don't dwell on it, Sakura. You're just torturing yourself. Let's move on and put this in the past, alright?"
Her eyes narrowed and she exploded. She demanded harshly, "how the fuck am I supposed to do that? That's what I've been trying to tell myself for the last 2 years! He made me into a near whore, Li. How can I make myself forget? He ruined two lives! And now this!" she waved her arms desperately and gestured at their conditions, vainly trying to ignore the pain it brought.
"Not only was he able to get me because I am stupid enough to let my guard down again, but I also managed to drag you guys into this mess and got YOU injured! Move on? Impossible." Sakura turned to face the ceiling and breathed harshly. "He should've died. He and my father should've died. That's the ending I want."
Li was silent for a minute and then said sadly, "if this is what you get because of the memories, then I wish… I wish you did forget everything."
Sakura looked at him in surprise.
"I used to think that to snatch away someone's memories was like stealing his or her identity," he continued. "But I now see that maybe once the memories have become too much for someone to deal with, then maybe it really would be for the best that amnesia would jump in. I don't like seeing you like this, Sakura. It's… I wish you did forget. You're hurting."
She tried to catch his eye, but he refused to look at her. His eyes were closed, but she clearly saw that the tension was lined on his face as it faced the ceiling. His jaw was clenched.
How could she keep on being angry and so vengeful when there was someone who cared for her this much? Her chest suddenly felt extremely tight as her bitterness evaporated. "Actually, that was exactly what I wished for when I woke up. It was too much. I wished I forgot who I was, where I came from and start a new life. A permanent memory-loss, so to speak. But then…" she paused.
Li looked at her, an unreadable expression on her face.
"But then I realized that if I were to forget who I was," she continued, "then I'd forget all of you. I'd forget Meiling and Yelan's warmth… my new familiy's support… Eriol and Tomoyo's stupid denial of the fact that they're perfect for each other…the Egghead Brothers' insane habits and…you. I'd forget you."
"I can't let that happen. I refuse to forget how utterly annoying and stubborn you are, Li Xiao Lang. No way in hell," she said evenly, looking at him.
"Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence," he said wryly, although his throat was tight and his right hand was repeatedly pinching his thigh to keep from bawling like Tomoyo. "Yeah," he said, grinning. "No way in hell. After all, I'm too good-looking to be ever forgotten, chipmunk."
She laughed through her tears and smiled, a perfect happy smile.
Her beaten appearance failed to overpower the loveliness of her first full-blown real smile. The smile cemented Li's opinion that she was definitely the most beautiful being he's ever laid eyes on, as cheesy as it may sound.
He stared at her for a full minute before she asked, eyebrow raised, "what?"
Opening his mouth to answer, he shook his head and closed it. Instead, he stared at her… then him… then absorbed the fact that they were very much like mummies, unable to move and trapped in a coffin-like hospital bed.
He cursed. "DAMMIT! Why is it that everytime I get the urge to do this there is always something that gets in my way!" he glowered at the bandages on his stomach, as if they were to blame.
She looked at him in confusion. "What?"
He shot her a boyish grin. "I got this urge to kiss you right now, but the damn situation is preventing me."
She reddened and, in an effort to push the blush down, she rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly…"
"Don't you 'oh, honestly' me! It's a very important matter!"
"You're insane."
"Ah, ah, ah! Insane? No. Insanely perfect? Yes. Insanely desiring to be close to you? Absolutely."
"Argh—STOP IT! I can't handle the laughter! My ribs are protesting!"
"Fine. FINE. Be that way."
"Okay."
"How about this: can you smile for me?"
She raised an eyebrow. "What? Smile?"
"Smile. Yes, smile."
"Why?"
"Because I like it when you smile… and laugh," he stated matter-of-factly, grinning at her. "I wanna be there to see you smile and laugh everyday, and I'll make damn sure that you do."
Okay, that was it. She can feel the heat. "Parrot, stop it."
"Ah, but I can't. It's making you blush… and smile. See. HAH!"
A crumpled piece of used bandage hit him straight on the face.
"HEY!"
"…you utter sap."
He smiled at her and then reached out a calloused hand, as if asking for something.
She stared at his hand curiously. "What?"
"You're a stubborn chipmunk, aren't you?" he said merrily. "Well, if I can't kiss you, and if you refuse to smile, than I wanna hold your hand instead."
She grinned and, without further ado, slipped her hand into his. It was an easy thing to entwine their fingers since there was just a little space between their beds. Sakura's small hand was engulfed by Xiao-Lang's warm big one, but they somehow fit together so perfectly. They were like puzzle pieces.
Peace reigned for a few moments before Li spoke, this time in a much more serious tone. "Sakura?"
"Yeah?"
"My injury is not your fault, you know. I know you're still inwardly harping about that. It's not, no matter how many times you say otherwise. I'm not blaming you and I never will, got it?"
Sakura looked at him, opening her mouth.
"NO. I don't blame you and I don't regret this injury. I would do it a thousand times over if it can save you. Do you understand?" he asked seriously, squeezing her hand to know that he was serious.
She was silent for a minute before sighing. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."
"Good!" he said, satisfied and happy. "And if you're really stubborn and dense to deny that, then think of it as your birthday present for me, okay? As a gift, forget all about it and continue being a chipmunk, got it?"
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said, though she was smiling.
A few minutes later, she piped up. "Hey, Li?"
"Yes?"
"I still haven't gotten you anything for your birthday. It's near."
"I thought I told you—"
"No. I refuse to consider that! I want to give you something, you prat. A memento or a ball or a golf set or something! Come on! Think of THIS, my offer, as way to make up for all the times I stole your sweets."
He tapped his chin. "Well…"
She raised an eyebrow.
Li smirked. "Ah, I got it! See, mum gave me 2 roundtrip tickets to Hawaii. The date is about a month from now, because that's the time the hotel the company built on the island would open…"
"Are you inviting me?"
"Why, yes, I suppose I am. I don't want stupid sports materials or whatever. I want you to come with me. Eriol and Tomoyo would probably go lovey-dovey somewhere and leave me all to myself. I wanna be there with you, you know. I mean, the Li heir must not be seen as an emo-loner who was refused by the love of his life because she wanted to get him golf balls instead…"
She laughed. "Fine."
"YES!"
…
"And yeah, Sakura?"
She quirked her mouth. "What?"
When she looked at him, he was smiling with his eyes closed, his face turned to the ceiling and looking very happy and contented. What came out of his mouth was the one sentence that she would always cherish with all her heart.
"Don't worry, because you were the best birthday gift I ever got."
a/n: I AM SO SORRY!
Yes, more than a year of hibernation, so to speak. You guys, you're all still there right? PPLLLEEEAAASSEEE , don't be mad! (looks at them wide-eyed)
It's so not my fault. Blame junior year. Yeah. It was a huge pain in the ass. The work was… bleargh. Upcoming third years, I pity you and I wish you luck (salutes
Not to mention that my old computer crashed and wiped out the original chapter I wrote! (fumes)
Anyway, I hope you all still like it. Tell me what you think! :D
And woah, people, it's not yet finished! I still have the epilogue, you know! I can't have the ending to be this cheesy! O.O I want it to be… uh… cheesy-funny or funny-cheesy! One more chapter to go people! :D read and review please! :D (hugs)
Lotsa Love,
CalCarrie