Disclaimer: I don't own sCRYed, yada yada. Yeah, more spoilers so don't hate me if you are reading before you finish the series- esp. if something is going over your head.
Chapter 2a
As the truck speeds towards Tachibana's house Urizane looks nervously over at Elian, his young charge, feeling guilty and out of sorts. The kid is pale as a zombie with eyes just as wide, and he keeps fingering the seams of his shorts. He has said absolutely nothing the whole trip.
Urizane can't blame him, though. Not with what might be the dead body of their friend back in the bed of the pickup. This is not what Commander Zigmarl had in mind when he made me your guardian, kid. He figures he'll have to have a good, long sit-down with Elian about this, regardless of the outcome.
Not that Urizane is that much older than the boy. He is bigger, oh yes, but he only has about five or six years on him at best. But so much happens to kids from their 'tweens to their teens. Urizane figures there's likely a coaster of thoughts and emotions running around Elian's head. Or maybe he's trying to get a read on Cougar with his Alter…
"What'cha thinkin' about, kid?" The words escape Urizane's mouth without his consent. Knee-jerk reaction. He hadn't planned on asking because he isn't entirely ready for a response.
"I'm hoping Ms. Mimori can help him," he replies softly, fighting the urge to cast a glance through the back window at the sprawled figure in the truck bed.
"Oh, well no worries there. She's a genius, remember? And she knows all about science and medicine. If anyone can help it'll be her." He prays he sounds convincing. He's relieved to see Tachibana's house pop up around the next corner. "Okay we're here. You go in the house and get help. I'll be right in with Cougar."
When the car stops Elian dutifully runs to the front door of the house and rushes in as Tachibana's girlfriend opens it. Urizane heads to the back of the truck and grabs the front of the limp man's blue and white uniform, sits him up and hoists him over his large shoulder. There is neither cooperation nor protest from the dead weight. Not a good sign…
The girl at the door has run out to help him, but there's nothing for her to do except hold the door for him. He trudges up the steps with his burden, hoping that a miracle is waiting inside.
It takes Mimori a second to grasp the full meaning of Elian's words. Cougar…dying? The point is driven home when Urizane's hulking frame fills the front door with a pair of legs clad in a HOLY uniform draped over his shoulder. Her stomach gives a quick see-saw and she can suddenly feel her pulse beating in her temple. Don't throw up, just do something.
Pulling herself together Mimori immediately takes charge of her emotions and the situation. "Put him on the kitchen table." Tachibana clears off the centerpiece and Urizane tries to gently lay him down. "Tachibana, where's that medical kit you salvaged?"
"The one from the wrecked ambulance? In the barn…"
"Bring me everything…go!" and at her words Tachibana disappears out the kitchen door. Turning back to her patient, she gives him a quick once-over. The witty, dashing speedster she knows is nowhere to be found in the man lying before her. There is no trace of cocky assurance in his unfocussed eyes, no wry smile curling the lips. Instead he is pale and waxen. Mimori finds herself more than unsettled seeing him this way. Stop thinking like a friend and move!
She leans over Cougar's head, positioning her ear just centimeters from his mouth and nose and places a palm on his chest over his heart. "Tell me what happened! Was he like this when you found him?"
Urizane proceeds with his story, unsure if she can listen to him speak and do what she's doing at the same time, but he guesses she wouldn't have asked if she wasn't expecting an answer. "Yeah. After the fight between Ryuho and Kazuma some kids found him slumped in a deck chair. They said he'd been watching the guys go at it overhead, bragging." He's distracted by Mimori's intense concentration… "They said some HOLY guy was dead."
Mimori cringes a bit at the last words, but is reassured by a shallow breath that gently warms her ear. Still, she isn't sure she can feel a heartbeat yet. "I need some shears," and Cammy disappears to retrieve a pair from a drawer somewhere.
"Here, how're these?" Cammy has materialized across the table and holds out a pair of large scissors, handles first, towards Mimori. Mimori takes them silently and, starting at the collar, she cuts halfway down the length of his long uniform jacket. As she is cutting, Tachibana returns with a large red bag in both hands.
"Right here Tachibana." She motions to the chair that has been pulled out next to her. She hands the scissors to Cammy, "Finish this. The undershirt, too," and the girl picks up where Mimori has left off. Mimori places two fingers on Cougar's neck and closes her eyes, waiting to feel a pulse against her fingertips. After a long five seconds she is unsure if she felt anything steady. Or anything at all.
She's getting flustered… "Umm…" Air. He needs air. "Cammy, come here. We need to breathe for him. Help me tilt his head back." The girl moves to the top of the table and gets a quick how-to on mouth-to-mouth from Mimori. Cammy pinches the nose and makes a hesitant first attempt.
"Good, make sure his chest rises," Mimori coaches, then climbs up in another chair and starts resuscitative compressions in the middle of Cougar's bared chest. One hand on top of the other, she keeps her arms straight and puts all of her weight into each compression. "Tachibana…" pump "…go in the medical bag…" pump "…and get out the…" pump "…defibrillator…" pump "…it's a box…" pump "…about the size…" pump "…of a lunchbox…"
Wearing a look of slight confusion Tachibana dives into the bag, then moments later surfaces triumphantly with an orange and black box in his hands. Urizane takes over compressions from Mimori from the other side of the table and she climbs down to fiddle with the box. Please be automatic, please be automatic…
She flips open the cover and finds a bright green power button. She pushes it and after a second a mechanical voice blares out, "CONNECT ELECTRODES." Thank God!
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During the course of these frantic events Elian has been standing dumbfounded and ignored in the center of the room. He watches as Mimori sticks two palm-sized adhesive pads onto Cougar's chest. What should I do? I'm no use to anybody right now…he thinks to himself.
A noise behind him causes Elian to whirl around on a younger girl emerging from one of the side rooms. He had assumed that everyone in the house was now in the front room and wonders why she is only just coming out. When the scene at the kitchen table finally registers with the girl, Elian watches an all-too familiar expression surface. The look creeping across her face mirrors all the emotions he is feeling inside. Fear, awe, confusion- all there.
"What's going on?" she asks with a tremor in her voice, "Why is that man on the table? What's wrong with him?" The reactions of the others to this girl's arrival tell Elian that she doesn't belong there.
He quietly crosses the room to the girl and suggests, "We should probably go outside to get out of their way. I'll tell you what happened." Telling her about a friend trying to die on them is not the best idea he's ever had, but he figures telling her outside is better than having her stand there and watch them attempt to reanimate a motionless body. And he knows he could do without watching the rest of their efforts, too.
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Outside, Kanami and Elian have silently seated themselves at the corner of the front porch. Both are relieved to escape the tension inside the house, but neither is ready to talk about what they have seen. After several moments of silence Kanami realizes that, despite the pained look on the boy's face, she cannot read any of his emotions with her Alter. However, she is sure he was once a member of HOLY with Ryuho and Tachibana.
When curiosity finally gets the better of her, Kanami quietly inquires, "Who was that in there?"
Hesitant to keep his promise, Elian delivers a two word answer, "Straight Cougar."
He watches as her expression changes from concern to recognition. Then he remembers that Cougar was the one who saved Kanami from Kyoji Mujo. Could she remember that? Or does she know him some other way?
"Were you the one who found him?" Apparently her curiosity is not yet satisfied.
Elian is surprised by her question but jumps at the opportunity to unburden himself. "Kinda. Everyone was watching the fight between Ryuho and Kazuma over the mountains, and it wasn't until after that had ended that someone told us he didn't look well. When we finally got to him he looked like that." Elian gestures with his head towards the house.
Kanami can see the boy wants to talk. "Did you know him well?"
"Um…sort of. He used to work for my father at HOLY. We were colleagues; we used to have some of our missions together- Urizane, him and myself..." At his mention of 'missions' Elian suddenly becomes uncomfortable. Did anyone from outside the City really want to hear about the 'missions' from HOLY? After living in the Lost Ground for several months he had come to discover that every Inner had at least one horror story involving HOLD or HOLY.
However, Elian's discomfort doesn't register with Kanami and she probes further. "Do you know what's wrong with him?"
She still wants to talk? Strange… Elian feels inclined to share with her as much as he knows, even if it is not much. "Not really. But he told me once he would die young."
Kanami's eyes grow large with wonder. "How can a person know that about himself?"
Even if only hypothetical, this question stumps Elian. He has to admit to himself he's never given it that much thought. He is able to access so much information about people with his Alter ability that he rarely thinks about how other people endeavor to learn about themselves. He thinks hard before attempting to answer her question.
"I'm not sure. But Cougar is an intuitive guy. He always seems to know more about any situation than he wants to let on- like he's got some inside source. He gets away with a lot of indiscretions. Maybe he's just smarter than we like to give him credit for."
Kanami seems satisfied with this answer. However, she has one last question, "Do you think he'll be okay?"
"I really hope so," is all Elian can manage. Enough people have died already.
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Following the commands of the machine, the makeshift medical team labors through a cycle of multiple shocks from the defibrillator, accompanied by a round of CPR. Cammy still delivers mouth-to-mouth. Everyone is tiring and optimism is receding.
"ANALYZING," cautions the mechanical voice of the machine. "SHOCK INDICATED. CHARGING…" The device emits a low noise that steadily increases in pitch "…CHARGED. STAND CLEAR. PUSH TO SHOCK." Mimori once again presses the red 'shock' button once everyone has lifted their hands from the body, and again every muscle simultaneously spasms under the jolt.
"ANALYZING…" a deafening silence blankets the room, "...CAPTURE. CHECK PULSE."
"Wait… is that bad?" Tachibana worries aloud from Mimori's side.
"No, it should mean…" Mimori's reply is hesitant as she once again places two fingers on the side of Cougar's neck. A look of triumph creeps across her face, "…we've got a good heartbeat. I think it's getting stronger." A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth.
Cammy, let's see if he'll breathe on his own." At the girl's request Cammy leans back from his head, expectantly. Everyone stares at the bare chest, not daring to breathe themselves. After several seconds the chest gently rises then falls, signaling unanimous exhalations around the table.
"He seems stable now. Still, someone will have to be with him around the clock until he wakes up." Mimori hopes her words sound confident. "We can take shifts."
As everyone begins to relax a flood of relief suddenly overtakes Mimori. She finds herself lingering over the physique of the man whom she has just successfully resuscitated. He wears a peaceful expression on his face now and his complexion is starting to pink up from fresh oxygen.
She places a hand in the center of his exposed chest and observes how the skin is not as cold or clammy as when she first cut his shirt open. The flesh is warming under her fingers and she notes how well defined the muscles of his torso are. She guesses the rest of him must be just as well toned and marvels at how someone so physically fit could have been so close to dying.
He isn't going to die. She doesn't care what he told her those months ago about his time in the Mainland and the refining process. She won't let him die. Not when she owes him so much.
A smile crosses her lips as she recalls how he always made himself available to her at the slightest whim. He had saved her life twice, no, more… He was always attentive to her, often to the point of excess, but in his presence she always felt special and exquisite somehow.
He's as crazy as his hair. With a finger she delicately sweeps that untamed front lock of orange out of his eyes. Yes, she owes him for her life and more. She will do everything in her power to see to his comfort and recovery. She can do that for him at least.
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Cammy silently pushes open the front door and finds Elian and Kanami sitting very quietly a few feet from each other at the edge of the porch. Her footsteps on the boards cause two pairs of expectant eyes to seek out her face, and she reassures them with a warm smile.
"He's fine now. He'll be asleep for a while, but Mimori thinks he's going to be alright." She can tell the boy is having trouble believing her.
"You mean he's not dead?"
"Nope, not dead. It seems you got him here just in time," and she gives him another smile to show her sincerity. "Everyone's really proud of you." She finally gets a hint of a smile from Elian in return.
Cammy doesn't know that Tachibana has come to the door to listen to her deliver the good news. He can't help but smile to himself. She's going to make a great mom one day.
When Cammy comes back through the entranceway Tachibana playfully emerges from behind the door and grabs the nearest belt loop on her pants. She gives a little squeal as he whirls her into his embrace. They lock eyes and he whispers, "You are the best delivery girl in the world."
"Asuka!" said with only a hint of protest in her voice, until she sees that the room has emptied out. "Delivery girl, huh?" Then a mischievous tone creeps into her voice, "maybe when our company leaves I'll have a special package waiting just for you."
As she leans up and plants a light kiss on his nose both are suddenly embarrassed by two sets of giggles coming from the other side of the door.
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A/N: Okay, admittedly Chapter 1a was rocky, but I'm getting the hang of it. Any good? Sux eggs? R&R, please :holds up cheeky sign 'will work for reviews':
-Thx, Mira