Now, new chapter! Fast update! Yay! Anyways, I love "Memoirs of a Geisha"! Good movie, if not a little long. Zihi Zhang is such a good actress! Even if she is Chinese acting in a Japanese based movie (since Geisha's are Japanese)!
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha & crew or "duck and run" by 3 doors down. I also don't claim Patrick and Kat.
Duck & Run
Hospital Visit
She must be in hell, because all she could feel was pain. Everything was too bright and her head ached and throbbed with every thought that pulsed through her mind. Groaning, she forced her eyes even further open to stare up at a florescent light. Well, if she was in hell, then hell looked an awful like a hospital.
She groaned out loud and threw one of her arms over her face to cover her eyes from the bright lights. She finally decided that she wasn't in hell when she noticed the IV's sticking out of her frail arm. At first she thought she was all alone in the room and frowned a bit, miserable again. What is it that happened before she was lost in this oblivion? How did she even end up in this hospital?
Voices suddenly began to flood her ears like the sound was suddenly turned on high from mute and they were atrociously loud and bothersome. Finally a familiar face popped into her vision and smiled excitedly and hugged her fiercely. Souta was talking faster than she could understand and she cringed slightly as he continued to grip her in a hug, "Sis! I thought you were dead and then Inuyasha did something and saved you! I don't know what I'd do without you! I love you sis!! Please don't ever leave me here all alone like that again!"
A friendly voice came into her hearing and soon a new face was presented to her as he gently shoved Souta away. She looked up into Patrick's face as he talked to Souta, "I know you worried about her, but I think Kagome would appreciate her space. She just woke up and must be pretty sore."
"Of course she's sore! She's got broken ribs and everything! The whole works. Man, you all are idiots!" Kat's face swam into her vision and Patrick and her began their regular banter.
Something gripped her hand and she slowly craned her neck to see Sango kneeling beside her, crying slightly, "Kagome, you had us all so scared. Why didn't you tell us?"
A second broken up voice traveled to her ears as she saw Miroku kneel down beside Sango and smile shakily, "Geez, I don't think I've ever been so scared. Don't do it again, eh Kagome?"
"Yah man! You totally freaked us out! I was all like WOA, Kags is checkin' out of this world and I ain't cool with that!" Logan was leaning on the end of her hospital bed, his handsome, usually laid back face serious and outraged at the same time. He glared at nothing for a moment before he went back to his calm state and said evenly, "Whoever did this to you deserves to die. Don't worry; we can take care of him."
She suddenly found the will to speak, her voice coming out in a raspy whisper so everybody had to become silent before they could understand her, "Where's Inuyasha?" Her eyes were slightly frantic and she realized that she couldn't move her head around enough to view even more than two people's reactions.
Patrick looked the most hurt from her question and he kneeled down beside the bed, frowning deeply as if he struggled not to cry. He took her free hand and said silently, "They told us that he somehow carried you in here and passed out. They started taking care of you first and then him, because they thought it was just exhaustion. His red clothes hid the blood for a while… I guess he was stabbed by whoever was attacking you and lost a lot of blood. They had to bring him back to life once and he hasn't woken up since. It's been a few days and he's still not quite stable."
This brought her to an agonizing sitting position as she started to try and get out of her hospital bed. For a few minutes none of them moved to stop her but finally Patrick and Miroku moved and tried to lay her back down. She was beginning to sweat as her movements became more frantic, "I want to see him! Let me go!"
Sango had grabbed her hand and Kat was cradling her face as they each soothed her, "Shh, there's nothing you can do Kagome. They're doing everything they can to save him. Please calm down, you're only making it worse for him the more you hurt yourself."
Her breaths were coming in horrible sobs and heaves and she began to realize how hard it was getting for her to breath. She still fought against Patrick's hold on her shoulders and Miroku's on her legs, which felt like a couple of lead weights bearing down into her skin. Suddenly it felt like her body was being swallowed by the bed and a sharp ringing reached her ears, the intensity pitching even higher each time she moved until her whole world was spinning and caving in.
She couldn't hear any talking at first and then her vision began to fail her. Everything was static and ringing like a broken television until everything suddenly faded to black. When she had finally passed out all of her friends heaved sighs of relief and took their seats again.
The only reason all of them were in Kagome's room was because the doctors wouldn't let anyone in Inuyasha's room for a while. They had said his condition was too fragile to allow any visitors in.
Souta was sitting by his sister's side now and had laid his head on her thigh, crying a bit. Silence lay heavy upon them for a while until Patrick said lowly, "If he dies, she'll know. One can't go on without the other."
For once Kat didn't argue with him and the others all nodded sadly. Soon a nurse came in and dismissed them all and said it was past visiting hours. They all got up, one by one, and left her side. The last one by her side was Souta, who squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek and wished her to get well.
They all walked out and the police officers were still waiting outside the hospital for news to see if the witnesses were well enough to tell them what had happened and if the person who had done that to them was still around. Souta refused to say anything and told them that he had been hiding in the back of the car and didn't know what happened or who did it. He was still deadly frightened of being caught by his stepfather or by his gang members.
As they all walked out of the hospital he once again realized that he had no where to go. He refused to go back to his house and immediately started to walk towards the park that he and his sister used to spend mornings at and where he'd been sleeping the last couple of nights. When he got halfway across the lot some woman in a suit walked up to him and smiled, "Hello, are you Souta Higurashi? I'm from social services and we're here to take you to a foster family."
"What? No thank you, ma'am, but I'll wait for my older sister to get better…" He felt her hand wrap around his wrist and began to get worried that they were taking him away. He jerked his arm towards himself to try and detach himself from the woman.
"Now, I know this is kind of scary, but you're sister isn't well enough to take care of you or old enough, so we're here to take you to a nice family that will take care of you. Don't worry." She started to pull him towards a van with other children inside of it and he began to struggle even harder and make a scene.
Right before he was pulled into the van another, stronger and rougher hand grabbed a hold of his arm and a voice with an Australian accent came across from behind him. Patrick held out his free hand to the lady to shake, "Hello, I'm Patrick Verona and my wife and I have been taking care of Souta for Kagome. We've been looking after the two while their parents are away, and I assure you that they are in completely capable hands and that removing him from everything he knows and loves is completely unnecessary."
The woman looked in astonishment at the odd couple before her, smiling cordially at her as she shook his hand. She gave him a bit of a glare and said, "Fine then, but be assured that we WILL be checking in on him often."
"Oh, we wouldn't expect anything different." Kat wrapped her arm in Patrick's now free arm, his other arm around Souta's shoulders. She smiled kindly to the woman and held that look until the woman had gotten into her van and driven off.
Once the van was out of site Patrick sagged and then hurriedly turned Souta around, kneeling down in front of him with his hands on the younger boy's shoulders, "Why didn't you tell us you didn't have anywhere to go?"
Souta ducked his head and tried to jerk out of Patrick's grasp, "Because I don't need your help or sympathy! Kagome taught me how to take care of myself!"
Patrick smiled and shook his head, laughing, "You're just like a younger Kagome. Untrusting and naïve as all get out. I'm sure she taught you well, but I'm betting that she never intended for you to look after yourself on your own. Now, you can stay at our place. You know what? Since we've adopted Kagome into our family, we'll do the same with you! You are now my little adorable adopted brother! Yup!"
Souta couldn't find the words to thank the pair as Patrick bounced him up onto his shoulders and took him to their car. They went out to his house not far away and ate lots of pizza and played games to distract the young boys mind.
Back at the hospital it was around eleven at night and Kagome woke up, and took a while until she remembered all that had happened that day. She slowly made her way out of her bed and was gripping the railing for support while looking around for some other thing to support her. Nothing else was around so she just sighed and began to remove all the IV's and then started to stumble towards her doorway.
She looked out into the hallway and saw that the nurses at the desk were all occupied with watching some television show and she began to stumble towards the elevator, gripping the entire wall railing type things on the way. By the time she got inside the elevator her knees were knocking together with exhaustion and she was starting to feel a little cold from the draft up the back of her hospital robe.
Her eyes searched the buttons on the elevator, trying to find the button that would label the floor of the ICU ((That's intense care unit for those of you who don't know)). She finally found it and shakily pushed the button and stumbled around the elevator as it plunged downward. Everything about the ride down was making her sick to her stomach so when she finally reached the level she had to run quickly into the bathrooms present to throw up.
"Ok, it's decided. Elevators and sleeping gas don't go well together." Her voice shook as she began to quietly make her way down the hall, checking all of the doors to find that none of them were ICU. She saw an official looking door at the end of the hall that was labeled ICU.
When she reached the door she read all the directions and realized that not everybody was allowed to enter the door after 6 p.m., and that she would have to have some sort of card to get through the door. She cursed to herself and then heard footsteps coming down the hall.
The realization that she might be caught and taken back to her room struck her hard and she ducked behind the door of the closest room. Once inside she checked to make sure none of the patients were woken and then waited impatiently for the footsteps to fade away.
But they were coming closer and finally she saw a doctor at the door to the ICU and slipping his card in. Now was her chance to get in to see Inuyasha! Her breath was excited and slightly noisier than usual as she watched the doctor walk in through the ICU doors and keep walking, never looking back. When he was a good distance away the doors began to close and she quickly dove through them into the ICU and shoved immediately shoved herself into a corner due to the loud noise she made as she entered.
For a few minutes she waited anxiously until she realized that nobody was coming to find her. Her world began to spin again but she refused to pass out and shook her head violently. She was so close to her destination that her resolve strengthened.
Looking around at the ICU she remembered the few times that she'd been in it herself after a hard beating. The clear, glass like walls amazed her still, because almost all of the patients were clearly visible to the doctors outside, but not to their neighbors. How was she going to get in to Inuyasha unnoticed and then stay unnoticed? Maybe she could use the curtains to cover her being there and hope that the nurses didn't notice the change in position.
First room, some man with severe burns. Second room, a woman who had pneumonia and a few severely cracked ribs and a punctured lung. All of the patients had their symptoms posted like name tags outside of their doors. Once she grew close to the desk halfway through the hallway she realized that Inuyasha's room must be past all of this. Beeping sounds from all the heart regulators reached her ears and she prayed that those would distract the people at the desk.
The sound of one going off the haywire made her jump and begin to panic. What if it was Inuyasha? She could hear screaming from somebody down the opposite hallway and once all of the people at the desk ran to go check on the person Kagome began to run down the hallway, checking each room for Inuyasha. She wanted to make sure that it wasn't him yelling in agony.
But his name was nowhere to be found down that hallway. Her steps grew heavy as she stumbled towards the hallway that the yelling came from. As she passed the desk and made it to the other hallway she heard the monitor of that person begin to flat line slightly and pang hit her heart deeply. Her breath came in heaving sobs now and she no longer cared who knew she was there and she said fiercely to herself, "Oh god, it's Inuyasha!"
She ran, stumbling and falling down the hall to where she could hear doctors yelling and nurses asking questions. Kagome ran to the room and could see a clawed hand hanging over the bed, unmoving. She ripped the door open and immediately a few nurses began to yell at her, trying to drag her out of the room, but all the while she ignored them and yelled at Inuyasha, "INUYASHA! He needs me! Let me through! GET OFF!"
She finally made her way through and the doctors were using the fibulators to try and start his heart up again. They yelled angrily at her as she threw herself against him during the last punch of energy they gave him. But they all became quiet as his eyes suddenly flashed open and he began to cough violently, grabbing a hold of Kagome fiercely.
Both were panting heavily and struggling to calm down and Kagome began to cry. A clawed hand reached up to stroke her face, "Don't cry, stupid. You know I'd never leave you behind."
None of the nurses or doctors dared to say anything until one of them noticed the blood upon the floor and the paleness of the girl who seemed to have brought back the patient they were sure to lose. The nurse pointed at the girl and said in a panic, "The girl! She's losing too much blood!"
As the doctors tried to pull her away from him, Inuyasha's face began to pale again as the smell hit his nose full force. She was bleeding heavily and here he was, greedily allowing her to stay by his side. He gripped her face and said angrily, "Let them take care of you, you idiot. I'll be here, waiting for you. You better hang on for me, too."
He let go of her and she slowly sank to the ground, void of any more strength. He watched as the doctors carried her over to the room next to his and he heard them all yelling orders and for a while Inuyasha fought the temptation to go and find out how she was. A larger nurse would shove him down every now and then and she would shake her finger at him and chastise him. An hour went by until a doctor came in and shook his head heavily.
Inuyasha's breath hitched in his chest and he immediately got the strength to bolt up from his bed and grab the doctor by the collar and shake him one, "What do you mean?! Well is she alright? Why are you shaking your head?! Tell me, damn you!"
The doctor panicked for a moment until the large nurse picked Inuyasha, screaming and kicking, up and carried him to his bed and strapped him down. The doctor brushed himself and glared at the struggling Inuyasha, "She's alright. Lost a lot of blood, foolish girl. We just stabilized her yesterday, too!"
Inuyasha sagged down in his bed and looked up at the ceiling and let out a deep breath and started to thank everything he knew. He finally looked at the doctor and said evenly, "Thank you for saving her. She means the world to me."
The doctor nodded and smiled as his most difficult patient finally settled down and slept. The staff continuously passed by the two rooms all throughout the night and day to make sure neither were up to anymore trouble. Both of them had been restrained but seemed to be improving rapidly.
Two days later the doctors moved them both into hospital rooms upstairs to recover the rest of the way because both had stabilized. They shared the same room and were watching the TV.
They had heard from the staff that the police were waiting to have a talk with them but had been refused until now. The police were due to show up within the next day or two, and both of them felt the tension.
Around noon the nurse came in and gave them their food since they were both awake and then quickly left when she saw the look of irritation the male gave her. Once she left he grumbled out loud, "Crap food, you'd think they would give us something healthier."
"I wouldn't complain. At least its food. I'm starving! Sick of being fed through a nose tube! GROSS!" Kagome began to gingerly eat her food, staring at the television. Inuyasha had changed it to some motocross channel and she was beginning to grow annoyed with it.
She took up her own remote and changed the channel to VH1's "I love the 80's". For a few minutes, Inuyasha's attention was solely on his food and he didn't notice, but when he did he glared at her, "Hey! What's with changing the channel? I was watching that!"
She shrugged her shoulders and said lazily, "Yah right, then why didn't you notice my changing it a few minutes ago? Anyways, we've been watching your channels all day and it's giving me a headache!"
He took up his own remote and violently pressed the buttons while staring at her, smirking, "Well, too bad! I like it."
"Inuyasha!" she spat out as she took her remote and changed the channel back but as soon as it hit her channel he was changing it back to his own. Her glare intensified, "Stop being so selfish!"
And so it began, the fight between channels. They switched them back and forth like that for a few minutes until suddenly the TV simply shut down and a few other things in the room turned off as well. They sat there for a while, glaring at each other until they both yelled out simultaneously, "Look what you did now! You broke the TV!"
Laughing reached both of their ears and they whipped their heads around to glare at Patrick in the doorway, both of them yelling out again, "WHAT?"
Patrick and the others stumbled into the room, Patrick still laughing as he choked out, "You two… Are just… So much… Alike! You're exactly the same as we left you! Fighting and yelling! I mean, you wouldn't even know you two had been through something traumatic together!"
Both Inuyasha and Kagome looked at each other and nodded and at the same time threw their remotes at Patrick so they bounced off of his head. Now everybody was laughing except for Patrick who was glaring slightly and rubbing his head.
Souta bounced out from between Kat and Patrick over to his sister and gave her a big hug, "I'm so happy you're better Sis! Here, Kaede and Shippo wanted you to have this!" He held out an open box of chocolates, "Heh… I got kinda hungry so I ate a few."
Kagome grinned broadly and grabbed Souta into a bear hug and ruffled his hair, "I get the meaning behind it still. Thanks. Have they been nice to you? Sorry I didn't work out somewhere for you to stay. I really hope you've been ok."
Patrick was now at her side, ruffling Souta's hair as well, "Actually, Kat and I have been taking care of him. You never told us that you had an adorable kid brother!"
"Oh god, you've corrupted him! Poor kid!" Inuyasha scoffed from over in his bed where Sango and Miroku were sitting.
Kagome laughed and looked up at Patrick questioningly, "I hadn't? I could have sworn that I did. But you better not have corrupted him, or else I'm going to… Well I don't know."
Patrick raised his eyebrows and shook his head, "You're going to do nothing, not while you're lying like a lump in that hospital bed! You two have been bed ridden like a bunch of senior citizens for a week and half! Man, I think you're already starting to get a little chubby, Yashy!"
Inuyasha glared and growled out at his friend, "Oh yah, about as fat as you, you tub of lard!"
Kagome was laughing so hard that she began to cough and finally got herself back under control, "Geez, Patrick you're going to have two enemies to deal with once we both can move!"
"Well then I'm just going to have to figure out a way to make you guys not move! Hmm, I wonder if either of you can actually move." Patrick leaned over, close to Kagome's face teasingly and puckered up his lips, "Pucker up lil Kagome!"
The whole room was laughing except for the two that were pranked. Inuyasha was scrambling, trying to get up as he growled while Kagome was making as good of a growl as she could. Before either of them could do anything Kat was there and had smacked Patrick a good one, "Now, no hitting on other girls while I'm around. Especially severely injured ones!"
"Oh, ho,ho! I think we have a couple of people jealous of our love Kagome!" Patrick jokingly said as he squeezed one of Kagome's cheeks like an aunt would.
Both Kat and Inuyasha were fuming and yelled, "WE ARE NOT!"
Patrick dodged his girlfriend's fist as he hopped around, laughing, "Yashy has a crush! Yashy has a crush! Look! He protects her like a dog protects its bone!"
Now Kagome was in on it and finally yelled, "You're such an idiot Patrick!"
At the same time as her yell Inuyasha had successfully thrown his bowl and hit Patrick down. The whole room was laughing loudly before a nurse came in and scowled at them all and ordered all of the visitors to leave, that they were upsetting her patients.
Kagome and Inuyasha watched as their group of friends dragged their feet and headed out of the room. The nurse remained in the room and closed the door behind her and said cheerily now, "Ok, now who wants their bath first?"
Kagome was the first to stutter out the question, "B-bath? What?!"
"Oh, that's right! You've both been pretty much passed out whenever I'm bathed you! Now that you're awake, it'll be a whole lot easier on me!" The nurse cheerily said as she went into the bathroom and brought out a tub of warm water with a sponge.
Inuyasha's eyes practically popped out of his head as he asked in a panic, "You mean YOU'VE been BATHING me?!?! Naked?!!"
"Well, that's usually how its done, babe. Don't worry, it's my job!" She smiled goofily and walked over to him, setting the tub down on the floor and then began to untie his hospital gown.
"Wh-what are you DOING?!?! Get off of me woman!" He could barely struggle because he had little to no strength. In fact, his legs would barely move and his arms would barely lift more than half a foot off of the bed.
"This is perfectly normal, dear! I've seen EVERYTHING before, so don't be shy! Plus, if I don't you could get infections!" She smiled tightly at him and not so gently ripped his gown so it pooled around his waist. She started to peel away at the bandages around his abdomen as he continued to struggle.
"Come now! You're being so childish about this dear! The less you struggle, the easier it'll make it on you and I both!" She continued to struggle with him, but she was a trained nurse and knew exactly what to do. And he was so weak from all the medicines and his wounds that he couldn't put up too much of a struggle. She was gently washing his wound and then all over his upper body and then re-bandaged his wound.
By that time she was fairly soaked with water and then she gave him now warning before she slipped his robe down further and began to clean him down further, whistling as she did to try and make him feel more comfortable. The whole time he yelled and complained as if he were being killed. By the time she was done she efficiently slipped his gown back over his shoulders and tied it, smiling at him and clapping her hands.
He was laying, sprawled out on his bed which was now pretty wet from him struggling so much, "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it Mr. Taisho? Tomorrow we'll try a full bath in the shower stall! Don't worry, soon you'll be able to bathe yourself, but for now you'll have to get used to me since you can barely move on your own!"
The whole time Kagome just sat there, her mouth wide open. She hadn't seen anything but his chest, but even that much made her jaw drop. But the fact that the nurse was headed towards her next did nothing to sooth her nerves. It was going to be a long hospital stay. She hated the baths the nurses gave her, and she knew what they were like from before. Usually some itchy sponge scrubbing her already sore skin. Great, just great.
Yup, well that's the end of that chapter. A little soap-opera-ish. I know. Lol, well you can't blame me!
Umm, 12 reviews? Heheh pleeeeaaase? Since I updated so super duper fast!
Twilight Rose 1212: Umm… Not sure if you knew this, but… Heh, this story is a Romance/angst…
TurtleHugs: If you'd read my little commentary at the beginning of my last chapter you'd realize that it wasn't my fault I didn't update extra soon. It was fanfiction.
Katie: Thanks? I'm guessing you stayed up late?
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BlackParade: I LOVED your review! It made me laugh! Yes, yes the abuse is going down!
Pay Backs a Bitch: Umm.. Well if it made you want to kill people, please stop reading. I wouldn't want anybody to die because you got angry from my story… Hahah. X nervous laugh X
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SSJ04 MewTwo: Nope, Sesshomaru and his crew haven't popped up yet. Soon though.
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Neko-angel666: Kind of a mixture of people. Mostly my mom (physically). Not the most obvious of people to do something like that, right? Thanks, and same for you.
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To this world I'm unimportant Just because I have nothing to give. So you call this your free country, Tell me why it cost so much to live, Tell me why. This world can turn me down But I won't turn away, oh no I won't turn around. All my work and endless measures. Never seem to get me very far, Walk a mile just to move an inch Now even though I'm trying so damn hard I'm trying so hard. This world can turn me down but I Won't turn away, And I won't duck and run, cause I'm not built that way. When everything is gone there is Nothing there to fear. This world cannot bring me down, No cause I'm already here, oh no! I am already here, Down on my knees, I am already here, on no, I am Already here. I must have told you a thousand times, I am not running away. I won't duck and run I won't duck and run I won't duck and run No pass away. This world can turn me down but I Won't turn away And I won't duck and run, cause I'm not built that way. When everything is gone There is nothing there to fear. This world cannot bring me down No cause I'm already here. This world can turn me down. But I won't turn away, And I won't duck away Cause I'm not built that way. When everything is gone there Is nothing there to fear. This world cannot bring me down, No cause I'm already here.