Ch 10: Order.

A/N: Yeah, T.K's mother (Nancy. When do we learn her name?) is out of character. I didn't think anyone would care, because I thought that there wasn't a sufficient amount of information about the character for anything to be really called OOC. Also, I'm disappointed in you ALL :P The last three chapters names all started with the letter 'C' and no one noticed... or at least, no one mentioned noticing. I'm sorry if the chapter is choppy,

Kari's POV

When we arrived at the hospital, a stretcher was rushed out for T.K, and he was carried inside. I, being perfectly capable of walking and well past the point that stress would cause me to pass out, was allowed to walk under my own power inside. I was directed to an empty room, and told to lie down on the hospital bed in said room. A doctor came in to pick glass out of the wounds with tweezers, and then stitch the worst of the lacerations shut. The stitches hurt a little, but not as much as the wound did.

"Alright. We're going to want to observe you for thirty minutes, but you should be fine. You'll need to come back in two weeks, for the stitches to be removed. After they are removed, you'll have to keep a bandage on the wounds which they were in for two weeks or so." He explained, as he bandaged up the wounds on the back of my hand.

"Alright. I assume that I can't go visit my boyfriend, who is here because his hand got broken and because he passed out on the way here?"

"You should stay here." He said, and then left.

I sat up, blood rushing to my head, and looked around the dull room. It was small, almost claustrophobic. My hand hurt, and I didn't really have much to distract me from the pain. Worse yet, I had no idea how T.K was doing.

It hurt, not knowing. Because, for all I knew, he was dead. Even the thought tore deeply into me, into my very sanity. But he couldn't be. One, it was immensely unlikely. Two... I couldn't bear that. Mentally, I was healthy, I was stable. But if T.K was gone (which, I reminded myself, he wasn't), that alone would break me, and throw me into depression worse than the time I'd been to the Dark Ocean.

Because I'd been there with him. He'd always been there for me when I'd needed him most. When the Dark Ocean had taken me, he'd come after me, when no one else did. He and I had experienced everything together. Of the oldest group, we'd been the youngest. Of the younger group, we'd been the veterans who'd already been battle hardened.

And thus, he'd understood me, unlike anyone else. He'd fought for me, when no one else could. And I loved him, in a way I could love only him.

And if he was dead, or even seriously injured, it was MY fault. If so, I had failed to act in the way that he'd acted for me. Because I could have broken that window so much sooner. He could have gotten out sooner. We could have run until our ride arrived, warning them that we had needed to run.

I had failed him, in ways he'd never failed me. The question was only how much pain I'd caused him. It was certainly greater pain than he deserved. My heavy, shamed pondering was ended when I heard a voice.

"Are you alright?"

The voice was my mother's. I smiled a little, feeling loved.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, still terribly downcast.

"You don't sound alright." She said.

"I'm fine. I'm just worried." I asserted. It wasn't really true, I wasn't really worried so much as I was terribly guilty, but it was all she really needed to know, or so I thought.

"I know what worried looks like, this isn't worried." Mom said, with a knowing smile.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Alright... You saved T.K's life, you know. You are a hero." She said.

"I'm no hero. I could have acted so much sooner!" I snapped, and then lowered my head, "And you don't need to be yelled at, you are only trying to make me feel better."

My mother looked at me quizzically, as if she didn't understand, "You saved his life either way. Why does it matter when you acted?"

"Because he's injured." I replied, thinking it was painfully obvious.

"But he's alive." She was still confused some how.

"He'd have done more for me." I answered, feeling vaguely sulky now.

"What more could he have done than what you did for him? You risked your life to save his." She asserted.

"I guess." I said, "I... I just wish I could have done more."

It was then that Cody entered the room.

"T.K is conscious." He said.

"Is he alright?" I asked, glad that he was, at least, alive.

"Well, aside from a broken left hand, he's fine. He wanted to know if you were alright, so I'm going to have to go tell him that you are fine. Sorry I couldn't stay longer, but if I stay too long, he might convince himself that I had bad news that I didn't want to come back and give him." Cody answered.

"Alright." I said.

T.K's POV:

"Where is he?" I asked, worried. Cody still wasn't back from checking on Kari, and I felt a guilty that Kari was injured. After all, she'd risked her life for me, because I'd made a mistake, and impulsive decision... well, actually, a number of impulsive decisions.

First, I'd run away. It'd been the right choice, but I hadn't planned it out as carefully as I might. Secondly, I didn't think that I might well be a fugitive, and so I'd thrown caution to the wind and thus I'd gotten sent back to my mother. And then, rather than carefully planning out my escape, I'd tried to run away immediately.

I mean, we could have had Cody there in the very beginning. Matt, who now stood over my bed, could have been there, too. Kari could have been there from the beginning, too, rather than arrive just in the nick of time.

"It's only been 5 minutes, T.K. Calm down." Matt said, jokingly adding, "Your girlfriend is fine."

"How did you know she was my girlfriend?" I asked, missing his tone of voice.

"I was kidding... Wait, she's..." He began, and then laughed, "Took the two of you long enough."

"Oh." I said, and then laughed, "What do you mean, took us long enough?"

"T.K... How you felt about her was very, very obvious." Matt explained, "And she pretty obviously was equally infatuated with you."

"And why did no one tell me she like me... and no one tell her how I felt about her?" I asked, feeling almost cheated that no one had told me in the years since I'd fallen in love with her. All those times when I'd needed someone to talk to, all those hours when I'd cried alone, with the whole world seeming to collapse down on me... to know that it hadn't needed to be that way was terrible, and infuriating.

"Because you wouldn't have believed us. Because we knew both of you valued the friendship you had and might have rejected one another. Because it would never have been as real for either of you.

"Fair enough." I admitted. He was correct, after all. I resented that he was correct, that it had taken me years to realize I couldn't lie to myself about my feelings and just hope they'd go away, but my resentment didn't make him any less right, nor did it have the ability to change the past. He hadn't told me, and no one Kari knew had told her, and both Kari and I were going to have to live with that.

Finally, Cody walked into the room, "Aside from some lacerations on the back of her right hand, she's fine."

I sighed with relief.

"Good." I said, feeling mostly relieved. I just wanted to see her now, to hold her in my arms, to tell her that I was sorry for acting so impulsively, sorry for putting myself in danger... and that I was immensely grateful for her helping me.

"Did she look angry?" I asked, a little worried.

"Angry? No, she looked kinda guilty." Cody replied, confused by my question.

I was equally confused by his answer. Why would she feel guilty? She'd just saved me. She was a hero.

"Uh... Alright." I said, very confused, "Hey, Matt. What happens to me now?"

"Dad get's custody of you, and unless Mom is found innocent, you get to stay with him."

"Good." I said, relieved, "When can we leave?"

"Now, if you want... I mean, I can take you to Dad's place, and..." Matt began.

"I think I want to visit Kari first." I cut him off.

"I have to go too." Cody said, "I'll take Joe home, if he needs a ride."

"Yeah." Joe said, "T.K, see a psychologist if you having repeated nightmares about today if they haven't stopped in a couple weeks. You are at risk of PTSD."

"Right." I said. Normally, I would have dismissed Joe's comment as hyperventilating paranoia, however, his warning sounded completely reasonable here.

"Yeah... And don't trying playing basketball with the cast." Cody said, with a laugh, and then left the small room.

I laughed, and then Matt and I left the room, and Matt lead me to where Kari was currently sitting up on the hospital bed, half way across the hospital from where I'd been. Kari's mother already visiting her, and I couldn't help but smile knowing that she hadn't been alone this whole time.

"Hey." I said, not sure what to say. She'd just saved my life, and I loved her. I didn't know how to state the first part of this, and I was unwilling to say the second in front of so many people.

"Hi." She said.

"So..." I began, pausing to try to figure out how best to express the enormousness of my gratitude, "Uh... Thanks."

"Thanks? I hesitated! I could have done for you! I..." She began.

"You saved my life." I said, cutting her off, "You did the largest possible favor for me."

"But, you would have done the same for me." She protested, "You HAVE done the same thing for me, except when you saved ME, I didn't come out of it injured."

"As may be, there are no debts between friends." I replied, "So I still have the right to be grateful."

"'Friends'?" Kari laughed.

"'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' both contain the word 'friend." I pointed out.

"I like the sound of that." She said, with a smile.

"I would say the same, but I would be saying I liked what I said, which would be both redundant and self-congratulatory." I said, with a small laugh.

She laughed too, "Alright. Well, I want to go home and relax, but I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure." I said, and Matt and I left for my father's house, which was now to be my home.

A/N: Yes, I used 'hero' as gender neutral. That was intentional.