Day 7 - Hope/Despair: The Call
Takeru didn't know how long he had been sitting on his bed with his face hidden behind his hands. His phone was still lying on it, on his left, since the call was ended. He knew he was supposed to do something, but shock hit him so hard he couldn't move. The words were still echoing in his mind.

"Hello?"
"May I speak to Takeru Takaishi, please?"
"This is he. Who's talking?"
"Hello, Mr. Takaishi. This is from the Odaiba hospital. I'm afraid we have some bad news."
"Bad news?" Takeru felt his blood flow stop and his pressure go down.
"Your mother has been hospitalized."
"What?!" He asked in shock. "Is she okay?"
"She's stable now, but we advise you to come see her. She gave us your number for emergency contact."
"I don't understand, you said she was stable. What happened to her?"
"There's been an accident."
"Oh God! She's not dying, is she?"
"No, no, the paramedics arrived just in time. She should be okay."
"Thank God."
"Can you come over?"
"Sure. It might take a while though, I'm living in Kyoto in the moment."
"I see. Is there anyone who lives near you can get in touch with?"
"Yes, yes. My brother lives there. I'll call him and tell him to go there as fast as he can. Thanks for calling me."
"You're welcome."

Takeru grabbed his phone after he took his time to pull himself together and called Yamato.
"Takeru, are you okay?" Patamon landed on his shoulder and looked at him. "You seem worried about something."
"I will talk to you in a second, Patamon. I really need to talk to Yamato right now, it's important."
"Okay."
"Hello?"
"Yamato, can you talk right now?"
"Sure. Takeru, is everything okay?"
"I need you to do me a favor."
"Okay, but I'm getting seriously worried and scared by the tone of your voice."
"Mom got involved in a car accident."
"What did you say?!" He nearly screamed, feeling alarmed. "Is she alright?"
"I got a call from the hospital. They said she's stable and they want someone to go stay with her there. I was wondering if you could, since you're closest at the moment."
"Of course, I can do that. Does dad know about it?"
"No, I haven't told him yet. I'll do it when I get back to Odaiba."
"You're coming to Odaiba?"
"Of course I am. Mom had a car accident. I need to see her."
"Okay, okay. I'm heading there. I'll see you soon."
"See you soon." Takeru dropped the hand that was holding his phone and curled his other one into a fist.
"Takeru." Patamon landed on his usual place above his head. "I'm so sorry to hear about your mom. Are you okay?"
"I am." He tried to sound reassuring, but he didn't know whether to himself or to his partner. But he knew deep down Patamon wouldn't believe him, but he also knew when not to ask further questions. "I need to go back to Odaiba, but…"
"But what?"
"I don't know what I'm going to find there. What if they lied to me on the phone and I find out she…"
Takeru couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence; the mere thought of his mother not being there anymore made him wince and shiver for a moment.
"Takeru."
"Patamon, do you think… do you think I made the right decision coming here?"
"What are you talking about? Of course you did."
"If I was there, I could have… I would have…"
"This isn't your fault, Takeru. There's nothing you could have done to stop this."
"I know, but at least I would be closer to her."
"There's no way you could have known this would happen. Do you know if she had any enemies or something?"
"I have no idea." Takeru walked to his chest of drawers and started pulling some clothes out. "But I'm sure no one could ever hate mom, once they knew her deep down."
"So don't blame yourself. I know she wouldn't like it." Patamon landed on the bed. "What are you doing?"
"I need to go back to Odaiba." He replied in a hurry as he grabbed a bag and stuffed his clothes inside.

.

Takeru inhaled the Odaiba air as soon as he stepped out of the subway station. He could almost hear his mother scolding him for being out so late, especially coming from another city, no matter how close it was from Tokyo. Luckily for him, he didn't have to hail a cab to go to the hospital, since it was very near to the station.
"Did you tell Yamato you're already here?"
"No, he knows I was coming. There's no need to tell him. Besides, we're five minutes away from the hospital and Yamato is terrible at text messaging sometimes. By the time he reads it, we're probably gonna be there already."
"That might be true." Patamon glanced down at him. "Aren't we gonna go there?"
"We are, but…" He looked over his shoulder, to his left, and bit his lower lip. "I'm scared, Patamon."
"Scared of what?"
"I don't know. I've never felt anything like this before. Actually, I have. I felt the same way when all hope was lost and we had to fight Piedmon on our own."
"Hope wasn't lose back then. It was always inside you, you just needed to find it in your heart. Just like you need to do it right now. I'm absolutely sure your mother is fine. If something had happened, you'd have known by now."
"You know what?" He put on a brave face and started walking towards the hospital. "You're absolutely right. I was so scared about the whole thing I felt hopeless. Thank you for bringing me back to reality, Patamon."
"You're welcome, Takeru." The Digimon smiled. "Now let's go see your mother."
"Let's do it."

.

Takeru was feeling much less tense by the time he walked into the hospital, but he still felt apprehensive and nervous about what he was going to find upstairs. The receptionist said Natsuko's room was 723, so he quickly headed to the elevator. Patamon looked at him when they walked in.
"You seem much better."
"Thanks to you." He smiled at his partner and then looked all over to see if there were any cameras inside the elevator. "But try not to talk too much here. Someone else can walk in any second. The situation changed a lot, but we still have a rather long way to go."
"Got it." He looked ahead again and was quiet the rest of the way.

Takeru walked down the hall on the seventh floor towards his mother's room. The bright white walls were almost blinding to him. He tried to push his thoughts aside as he stopped in front of the door of the room. He stretched his arm towards the doorknob, but couldn't bring himself to open the door.
"Do you want me to…?"
"No." He said firmly. "I have to do it myself."
He swallowed hard and pushed himself to keep going. Just as he was about to twist it open, Yamato opened the door from inside.
"Takeru? How long have you been here?"
"Not much, I just got here."
"I didn't think you were actually going to come."
"I said I would. I just couldn't stay in Kyoto knowing everything that was happening here."
"I know you wouldn't." He said in a sympathetic tone and placed his hand on his brother's shoulder.
"Is she…?" Takeru glanced at the door.
"Yes, she's awake." Yamato looked over his shoulder. "She's eating and talking. I'd say she might get discharged very soon."
"That's a relief."
"It is. I gotta go call Sora, she was worried too."
"Alright."
"She's asked about you though. Mom."
"Oh." He turned to the door.
"Don't take too long to go in. I guarantee everything's fine."
"Okay."
"Dad is in there too. I'll be right back."
The younger blonde grabbed the doorknob again and took a deep breath before actually going further this time.

Hiroaki turned around as soon as Takeru appeared in the small hall inside the room. Seconds later he appeared further in the room and finally got to see his mother sitting on the bed.
"Hello, Takeru."
"Hi, dad." He smiled weakly at him and then walked closer to his mother. "Mom, how are you feeling?"
"I'm much better now, thank you." Natsuko smiled kindly. "Did you come all the way from Kyoto?"
"Yes."
"You shouldn't have been walking on your own so late at night. You were lucky nothing happened to you."
"Patamon was with me the whole time though, nothing would happen." He grabbed her hand and looked into her blue eyes. "I just couldn't stay there. What happened? People from the hospital didn't tell me."
"Takeru."
"It's okay, Hiroaki." She assured her ex-husband with a smile. "I fell asleep while driving and crashed into a wall on my way home."
"Oh God, mom. You were lucky you didn't get hurt badly."
"Except a broken leg." Natsuko said with a small smile, but quickly became serious when she realized no one else smiled along. "You're right though."
"Why did you fall asleep while driving? Aren't you getting enough sleep lately?"
"Things at work have been a little chaotic these days."
"Have you been working overtime?"
Natsuko gave her answer away when she looked to the other side and avoided eye contact with him.
"Mom, seriously." Takeru rolled his eyes. "This isn't good for you, we've been through this before."
"I know, I know. But the house is so quiet without you I don't want to stay there that much."
"I can't believe this. You shouldn't push yourself so hard. In fact, you shouldn't push yourself at all because of work."
"I'm sorry."
"Takeru, you shouldn't be so harsh."
"Did you hear what she had just said?" He addressed to Hiroaki desperately. "How are we supposed to do when she's discharged and go home?"
"I don't know, but we'll figure something out."
"I'm moving back home."
"You're moving back home?" Yamato asked after he walked in. "Why?"
"Someone's gotta take care of mom."
"Yes, I thought I was going to do that."
"You have college and other things to worry about."
"So do you." He shot back. "Besides, you're living in Kyoto now."
"So what? I'll just take a break from college until she gets better."
"I'm not gonna let you do this."
"That's too bad, cause it's already decided."
"Boys, I don't want you to fight because of me."
"That is enough." Hiroaki said firmly and both men immediately went quiet. "We'll take turns in taking care of Natsuko."
"Dad, I can do this on my own." Takeru protested.
"Takeru, we've settled this already."
"Let him." Natsuko interfered and the three men glanced at her. "He wants to do it, so let him."
"But Natsuko, we can't do that to him. I can perfectly take care of you myself, we don't need to get in the way of the boys' lives."
"I know, and I completely agree with you. But you know how Takeru is like. It's pointless to talk him out of it."
"Yeah, you're right." He sighed. "Alright then."

.

A couple of days later, Natsuko was finally discharged and able to go home. Takeru had told Kimi everything that had happened and she offered to help him, which he politely declined. Then she talked to some of his classmates and they quickly agreed to help him with the subjects, so he wouldn't fall that behind when he got back to college. He was taken by surprise when she told him, but that made him even surer she was the one. She also managed to convince him to accept his father's and Yamato's help.

He had just finished his homework for the day when Natsuko walked in his bedroom.
"Is this a bad time?"
"Not at all." He shook his head, looking at her and smiling. "I'm done for the day. You seem much better."
"Of course, with you watching me 24/7." She said in a light tone. "I do feel much better."
"That's good to hear. Yamato is going to come on Sunday and spend the entire week with you."
"Great. Hopefully I'll be able to walk without these crutches by then. They are so annoying."
"But they were necessary, otherwise you'd have to lean on someone the whole time until you were able to walk properly again."
"Yeah… I'm glad you backed down and accepted their help, by the way. How did you change your mind?"
"More like who." Takeru couldn't help but smile. "Kimi convinced me. She said it would be bad if I missed too many classes, though I was catching up the content this week."
"I agree with her." Natsuko tried to put on a smile, but deep down she knew he didn't believe it."
"But?"
"It was great to have you back here again, I'm not gonna lie. Even for a just short time."
"I know, it brought me back to my teenage years."
"You sound like you're so old… this was about two years ago."
"That's true. So much happened during this time that it feels longer."
"I'll never be able to thank you enough for helping me out these days."
"You don't have to thank me, mom. It was the least I could do and nothing compared to everything you've done for me."
"When are you gonna come back to Odaiba again?"
"I haven't even left." He couldn't help but laugh for a moment. "I'm not sure, but I'll try to come as soon as I can, okay?"
"I know, I'm sorry. I should just be thankful you're here. How's Kimi doing?"
"She's great. She said college isn't the same without me there."
"You two seem to be getting along pretty well."
"We are. She's amazing. I can't wait until you start hanging out more."
"You should have brought her over. She could keep you some company."
"One thing at a time, mom. How about pizza for dinner?"
"I'd love that."