Litanya: Hi... firstly I'm sorry this is so late. It was a combination of having not written a fic in ages, cleaning my room, work and catching up with friends. Hopefully the next chapter won't take me so long. Secondly, thank you so much for all of the lovely reviews I received. I hope that this chapter is enjoyable to read. Thirdly, this fic is still dedicated to Steph for her (now-long-gone) birthday =). Anyway, I don't own Digimon and here's the chapter!

Untitled

Chapter Two:

Jyou Kido loved being a doctor. Okay, so maybe he hated the sight of blood and gore hanging out of people, but he felt that the joy and satisfaction of saving someone's life more than made up for the horrible things he had seen during his years at medical school, and now as a doctor. He loved his job. He had to admit that the hours weren't all that great though, as he logged into his work at eight o'clock that night. As he was relatively new to the hospital and being a fully-fledged doctor, he had to settle for working the night shift. The hours sucked and it annoyed him that he couldn't spend many evenings with his wife, but until he had been at the hospital for a few years, he wouldn't be able to change it.

He grabbed a file off the receptionist's desk and he was about to open it and begin reading when he saw a familiar blonde standing in front of the vending machine. Seeing as he was ten minutes early for his shift and so wasn't expected to see any patients yet, he decided that he would make sure that everything was alright with his friend.

"Hey Takeru," the blonde jumped as Jyou's hand landed on his shoulder. He turned to face Jyou and the doctor was concerned to see that Takeru looked a little stressed.

"Jyou... oh I forgot that you worked here," there was something off about the blonde's voice as well, as though he was a little lost. Jyou frowned at that.

Takeru and Hikari had left their gathering of friends relatively quickly and unexpectedly that afternoon. After they had left there had been a small debate about whether or not the others should follow them to make sure that they were alright. Yamato had made the point though that if Takeru and Hikari had wanted them to know what was wrong, then they would have told them. Jyou was fairly certain, by the conversation Hikari had had on the phone that something had happened to Taichi. That had made him agree with Yamato to keep from following them. Looking at Takeru now though made him think that he shouldn't have been so quick to agree.

"Yes I just started my shift. Is everything alright? You and Hikari seemed in a bit of a hurry to leave before," Jyou didn't want to pry, but he wanted to help. His two friends were good people and he hated seeing them upset. He also hoped that Taichi was alright, if he had indeed been in an accident.

Taichi and Jyou had always had a weird relationship, with the younger Taichi respecting Jyou because he was older and more responsible, whilst Jyou admired the way that Taichi could befriend everyone around him with seemingly no effort and also Taichi's leadership abilities. Other than mutual respect, they didn't really have anything in common. Taichi was much more laidback than Jyou, and their talents lay in completely different areas. When Taichi had left, Jyou had been a little upset that Taichi never wrote to him, but at the same time it didn't surprise him too much. He had known that something was off with his friend for a short while before he had left, but he had done nothing about it. He knew that he didn't really deserve Taichi's friendship.

Takeru hesitated before he answered Jyou.

"I guess we did rush out a bit fast. We er... we received some bad news, as you probably figured out. Hikari isn't really dealing with it well, but I'm still hopeful that everything will be alright," he smiled tightly, but the worried look in his eyes didn't leave.

Jyou was about to ask if there was anything he could do, when a small blob rushed past him and appeared to attach itself to Takeru's legs. The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"I see you have been let loose on the world again Tam-Tam," he said with a small smile as he bent to remove the blob- which actually turned out to be a young girl- from his legs. The girl looked as though she was going to say something, but then she noticed how close Jyou was standing. She blinked at him once before slowly trying to hide herself behind Takeru.

"Jyou, what are you doing here?" he turned to Hikari, who was holding a small pink backpack in one hand. Hikari's eyes were rimmed in red.

"I work here. My shift starts properly in about five minutes or so," he noticed that the young girl had poked her head around Takeru's legs when she had heard his name. She was now considering him with a small frown, as though she was trying to piece him together.

"You're Jyou?" the little girl asked curiously, "Daddy says that you're really smart and help fix people when they get hurted." Jyou blinked. If he was right, then this little girl was Taichi's daughter, and if so, he was surprised that he had been mentioned to her. Hikari also looked a little surprised.

"Jyou, this is Tamika, my niece. As you've probably figured out Taichi and Tami were in an accident and Taichi is pretty seriously hurt," Hikari said after a seconds pause. Jyou nodded and pushed his glasses back up his nose for lack of knowing what else to do with his hands. He didn't really know what to do around kids. They made him a little nervous. Tami solved that problem. She emerged from behind Takeru and wordlessly held her arms up towards him. He blinked and hesitated for a second before bending down to pick her up.

"You fix hurted people, right?" she mumbled into his shoulder as he gave her a hug.

"Yeah I try to. That's what we doctors do," he told her softly, having the feeling that the little girl didn't want Hikari and Takeru to hear what they were saying.

"Can you fix my daddy then? He's hurted and Aunty 'Kari was talking to a scary doctor who was saying something about Daddy's head and how it's messed up and stuff. He made Aunty 'Kari cry and Uncle 'Keru looked like he was going to cry too. I don't like it when people cry," Jyou felt his heart melt. This little girl was so sad and confused and all he wanted to do was help her. But he couldn't 'fix' Taichi as a doctor- it was unethical.

"I'll try to help fix your daddy anyway I can, but the 'scary doctor' is going to have to help him more than I can here, okay?" he put her down and she gave a small nod before she turned to latch onto Hikari's hand. Takeru motioned with his head for Jyou to follow him, whilst Hikari distracted Tami with the small pink backpack. They walked a little bit down the hallway before stopping. Takeru sighed and seemed to visibly deflate a little bit. Jyou just waited patiently for him to speak.

"I'm sorry about all the secrecy and everything that has been going on. Taichi told us that he didn't really want anyone to know about his life and we couldn't really disrespect his wishes. He had his reasons I guess, but he never really explained it to me. I think he tried to explain it to Hikari, but... Anyway would you be able to keep this a bit of a secret until we have talked to Taichi... if we can even talk to him anytime soon?" Takeru sounded so frustrated that Jyou didn't hesitate to agree.

"Of course I will. What kind of injuries does Taichi have anyway? Maybe I can help explain what to expect if you didn't really understand what the other doctor meant," he kind of tacked the last part on the end to make it sound like he wasn't being nosy, but he knew that Takeru saw through it. The blonde sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"The doctor said something about a head injury and swelling of the brain I think. He said that it was likely that Taichi will find it difficult to talk when he wakes up, and it is also possible that he'll have weakness down the left side of his body, but they don't know how severe either of these symptoms will be," Jyou nodded slowly, his mind rapidly searching through the various disorders that he had learnt during med school.

"Those sound like symptoms of Broca's aphasia. With the help of a speech therapist, a neuropsychologist and physiotherapy those symptoms will probably clear up over time if they are due to swelling," Takeru looked a little relieved. He had been worried that the condition was permanent. The neurosurgeon who had come to talk to them hadn't really mentioned recovery time, or if he had, then Takeru had been too shocked to pay any attention.

"So he'll be okay in the long run?" he asked hopefully. Jyou smiled.

"He should be. There is a chance that some of the symptoms won't go away, but in most cases the patients get better in the long run. They may occasionally have problems, but Taichi is relatively young and I doubt that he will have too many complications. Did he have any other injuries?"

"I think that he had some bruised ribs... but the main injury was to his head. The airbags in his rental car didn't work and so his head slammed into the wheel. From what I gather, most of his other injuries are just bruises. It's a miracle really that Tami escaped the crash relatively uninjured. From what I can tell, it was a really bad accident. Several people were hospitalised and I think that someone died," Jyou's pager chose to beep at that moment, ending the conversation. He took a quick look down at the small device before looking apologetically at Takeru.

"I'm sorry but I have to go now. If you need anything at all, get the receptionist or one of the nurses to page me and I'll come as soon as I can. I'll pop back to visit you at the end of my shift- that coincides with the start of visiting hours. I'm assuming that the three of you will be here then?"

"Yeah it would be good to see you in the morning. The other doctor said that due to the anaesthetic and sedatives they have given Taichi, he probably won't wake up till tomorrow so we're going to go home now and get Tami to sleep. Have a good night," Jyou nodded before rushing off after another quick glance at his pager. Takeru sighed before heading back to Hikari and Tami. Even though it was barely eight o'clock, he just wanted to sleep. It had been a long day.

Sora sighed and changed the channel on her TV for what had to be the hundredth time in five minutes. She knew that the TV wasn't the problem though- there were at least two shows that she would have stopped to watch if it was any other day- but she just couldn't concentrate. Her mind kept on drifting back to earlier that afternoon. It hurt to know that Taichi was hurt, but it hurt even more to know that he was hurt and didn't want her to know about it.

It was obvious. Hikari and Takeru weren't the best at hiding their feelings and when they had left it was clear that something bad had happened to Taichi. It was so obvious that Yamato had picked up on it, and in Sora's opinion the blonde musician was one of the densest people in the universe. (Okay, so she knew that that wasn't entirely true, but if she was honest she was still mad at him for the way he had handled everything with Taichi and their break-up as well, so it suited her to think of him as being dense.) But Hikari had left without even bothering to tell them what had happened. Okay, so she might have been in shock, but really, they were Taichi's best friends...or at least they had been.

She admitted that she hadn't exactly been the nicest or the most supportive person during the last couple of years at high school. She had been so consumed with her own problems- which at the time had seemed impossible to solve but now seemed really immature- that she had forgotten to look out for the people close to her. She had known instinctively that something had been bothering Taichi, but she had felt that it was probably something insignificant and much less important than her own problems. She hated herself when she looked back to those high school years. She had ignored her best friend's depression for stupid things like looking good for her boyfriend and other immature and selfish worries. She had been such a bitch.

She really hoped that she had changed since then. She hadn't forgiven herself though, and it made her uncomfortable to be around Hikari and the others because it reminded her how bad of a person she had been. She threw herself into her work- she taught the first grade at a local primary school now- and tried to avoid social gatherings. Mimi wouldn't let her hide too much however- the fashion designer knew how Sora thought, and tried to get her to join in the social gatherings as much as possible. It was only due to Mimi's begging that Sora had attended the gathering that afternoon.

"Sora if you don't stick to one channel I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you," Sora jumped as her flatmate's voice rang out from just behind her. Her flatmate, Melissa- who happened to be Yamato's girlfriend as well (which was really quite awkward at times, but luckily he hardly ever came to see Melissa at their flat) was watching her warily from behind the couch. Sora sighed before switching to a random channel and tossing the remote onto the other side of the couch.

"I'm sorry... I'm just a little distracted I guess. I can't really concentrate on anything," she picked at a loose thread on the couch and avoided Melissa's eyes. The other girl was way too good at reading people.

"Has this got anything to do with why Yama is upset? The friend of yours who moved away that might have been in an accident?" Sora shrugged. Of course Melissa would know about this already. She had been on the phone to Yamato when Sora had gotten home, now that she thought about it.

"We don't know for sure that he was in an accident. His sister didn't tell us anything, but from the conversation we heard I'd say that he is in hospital," she really didn't want to talk about this. She didn't even want to think about it. Every time she thought about it, images of Taichi with various horrific injuries invaded her mind. Melissa came around the couch and perched on the edge.

"I'm sure that he will be okay. Hikari would have told you if he wasn't at the very least. I get the feeling that there is something else bothering you. You're really upset that he hasn't contacted you since he left, aren't you?" Sora decided that if she was going to talk to anyone at the moment, it might as well be Melissa. Mimi was good to talk to, but she was too close to this. It was the same with Yamato. She felt that she couldn't talk to the two of them about this because it was her fault that he left. If she had just talked to him about what was going on, or just noticed his behaviour a little earlier... well, he might still have been there with her.

"I'm not really surprised he didn't contact me. I wouldn't have contacted me if I were him. I was supposed to be his best friend and I didn't act like I cared about him at all. I basically ignored him for two years... but it still upset me that he has ignored me for so long. Even though I know that I don't deserve to be able to talk to him again, I still want to be his friend. If I could change the way I acted back then I would in a second, but I can't. I know that Yama feels guilty about this too, but it was different for him. He and Taichi had a very... complicated relationship. They were like best friends and brothers and enemies all wrapped up in one. They hated each other when they first met. Taichi and I were friends from the word go, as soon as we met. We'd always been together and we did everything together... but then I treated him like crap and now he could be dying and he'll never know how much I care about him," the words were pouring out of her mouth and she was unable to stop them. She felt like she had kept these thoughts to herself for so long that they needed to come out.

"We are our own worst enemies sometimes," Melissa started hesitatingly, "We have a somewhat distorted view of ourselves, so if something good happens, we believe that we caused it, but if something bad happens and we believe that it was our fault... then we take on more blame than we really should. What I mean is that maybe there was something else going on in the background, something else that was going on in his life that made him want to leave Japan and everyone here behind. He couldn't really stop talking to his sister, and so I guess by extension Takeru, but maybe he just couldn't handle whatever else was going on here and just wanted to escape. You may have had a part in it, but I think that there is more going on here than what either you or Yama know. To tell the truth I don't think Hikari knows everything either. I know that she is trying to understand her brother, but I know that she is finding it quite difficult at times. But you're mulling over more than just your part in his leaving, aren't you? There's something else worrying you." Sora felt herself blushing and hated herself for it. She didn't want Melissa to know the next bit.

"I uh... well... Hikari told Takeru that Taichi and Tami had been in an accident and... I'm wondering about who exactly Tami is," she confessed, refusing to look up from the couch. She could almost feel Melissa laughing inwardly at her. When she finally risked a glance up, she could see Melissa struggling not to laugh. She wondered why exactly it was so funny, but she didn't say anything.

"How exactly do you feel about Taichi?" Melissa asked once she had gotten herself under control. Sora shrugged.

"I-I don't really know. I miss him so much. He was always just there- he was pretty much always by my side for my whole life until the end of high school... and then he disappeared and it hurt so much that I could barely stand it. I just want him back. I know that he's probably changed a lot by now, but I would like to think that I've changed for the better and I just... I just want to know him again, if you know what I mean," she wished that she could say exactly how she felt, but it was so hard to know how she did feel. Taichi was never far from her mind, and she was confused about how strongly she felt for him. He had been her best friend for years, so it was only natural that she missed him, but she didn't really think that people were supposed to miss their best friends as much as she missed Taichi.

She had sometimes pictured what his life was like overseas. Whenever she pictured him with another woman, it hurt and even though the woman was purely an object of her imagination, she hated her. She supposed that she was jealous, but she wasn't really sure why. It confused her because she didn't know whether it was just because she missed being close to Taichi or if she was in love with him.

"I think that you should try to see him, when he is allowed visitors, if he is indeed in hospital. This sounds like something you need to work out with him, or at least whilst you are in contact with him. If you know where he is, then maybe you should go to him before he leaves again. Maybe not straight away, if he is injured, but I'm sure that you could find out through the hospital when you can go visit," Melissa watched Sora for a moment, then seemed to see something she liked. She stood up and grabbed her bag off the floor next to the couch. Sora hadn't noticed that she had had it with her.

"Are you going to Yama's?" Melissa shook her head.

"Nah, I think that he needs some time to think things through. I have someone else I need to see though. Please think about what I've said. I know that you'll do the right thing. I'll see you later, alright? Don't think too hard," and with that she left the apartment, tossing a wave over her shoulder. Once the door shut behind her, Sora groaned and fell so she could bury her face in the couch. When had her life gotten so complicated? What happened to the biggest problem being cooties? She supposed Melissa was right though. To sort this out, she was going to have to face Taichi...

To be continued

Litanya: Well, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Once again, I'm sorry that it took so long. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long. Have a good day/night/afternoon and drop a review if you want =). They are very much appreciated =).