Finally done with this chapter! I'm sorry it took so long :( I kind of wanted to portray more emotion then I did, but if you imagine sad background music I think it'll work :) Hope you guys enjoy it.
Disclaimer: ...yeah, yeah, yeah...
Instantly, all thoughts of Tomatsu and Sanosuke left her mind. She had a job to do. This required, not Megumi the woman, but Megumi the Lady Doctor. She signaled the men to bring the convulsing man into one of the rooms.
"What happened?" she asked Miyaji-san, moving quickly to wash her hands.
The woman stared at her husband with wide eyes as she responded. "We were in town to buy some vegetables. He started complaining of pain in his chest and soon after that he stopped breathing." Tears ran anew down her wrinkled face and she covered her eyes with a gnarled hand.
Megumi motioned for Tomatsu to escort her out of the room and turned her attention to the patient.
His eyes were wide with panic and were bulging out of his aged face. His mouth was open in an "O", gasping for the air he was being denied. His face was beginning to turn a dark blue, almost purple.
Recognizing she was losing time she turned toward the two men who'd brought him in. "I need you to stabilize him." As they moved to restrain his flailing limbs, Megumi looked into the man's eyes and said firmly, "Sir, I need you to try to calm down. The more you panic the harder this will be."
He didn't seem to hear her, and she honestly didn't expect him to. Not much later, he passed out.
Megumi told the men to turn him on his side so his tongue would be out of the way should he start breathing again. Megumi sprinted out of the room toward the supply closet. She passed Tomatsu and Miyaji but ignored his questioning look and her desperate one.
She opened the door in the supply closet and found what she was looking for.
An oxygen mask.
They were invented a few years before and were highly expensive. Dr. Genzai had scraped together some money and bought one for her when she moved out. She almost didn't accept it but now she was glad she did.
She ran back to the room, mask in tow, and burst back into the room. The men had moved to the corners of the room and were looking nervously at the purple-faced man.
Megumi stepped forward and began to situate the device. She placed the mask over his mouth and squeezed the rubber ball to force the air into his lungs. After a few minutes his face began to revert back to its normal shade of pink. However, there was a more pressing issue on Megumi's mind.
Brain damage.
The human brain can only last for so long without oxygen. If Miyaji-san's husband went past that limit, he'd basically be dead. Megumi could only pray that wasn't the case here, and continue to pump the rubber ball.
Convinced he was alive, Megumi continued to pump the oxygen at a steady pace. There was no way she was going to let this man die. She refused to be the cause of any more death.
Pump...Pump...Pump...Pump
Pump...Pump...Pump...Pump
She refused to get distracted. Nothing screwed up her focus. A bead of sweat dripped in her eye but she continued. A fly buzzed around her head but she didn't remove her hands to slap it away. She didn't even notice when Tamotsu came into the room.
"Megumi?" he said quietly.
Megumi didn't even look at him. She continued pumping steadily. "I'm doing my best to ensure his breathing. Your distracting me isn't helping."
She couldn't see him but could imagine his raised eyebrow. "My apologies. However he was a wife outside who wants to know how her husband is doing. I thought she had a right to know."
Pump...Pump...Pump...
Megumi continued to stare at the man in front of her.
"He'll live," she whispered.
She heard his footsteps as he approached her. He pulled up a stool, sat down, and looked at her. She still didn't look at him.
"Is that your opinion as a doctor?" he asked, matter-of-factly.
Megumi cringed at the question. Sometimes she didn't want to be the doctor. Sometimes she wanted to be allowed to hope against all hopes. Why was it she had to be so cold all the time? She was tired of it.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
Megumi struggled against herself to find her professionalism. "It's a possibility. He also might have brain damage. A person can last for only so long without oxygen."
"So what should I tell her?" Tamotsu asked.
"I don't know!" she yelled, finally looking at him.
His face was calm and collected. She watched him study her for a moment before shame forced her to look back at the task at hand.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
Why was she supposed to know the answer? Why did everyone expect her to know? Just because she was a doctor didn't mean she knew everything.
"Just tell her it's too soon to tell," she said finally.
Out of her peripheral she saw him nod and get up to leave. She only began setting her mind back to her tasks when she heard the click of the door shutting.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
How did this happen? It was only supposed to be allergies. Megumi's stomach twisted in disagreement. She had known there was something weird about this case. She knew it but didn't send a message out to them telling him he needed to come to the clinic.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
What caused this? She forced herself to remember the conversation she'd had with his wife weeks earlier. She'd said he was a farmer. Megumi assumed he worked with animals since she offered to give her a chicken.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
She dug into her mind, thinking of reasons for one to stop breathing. There were tons, ranging from asthma to heart attacks. It could have been any one of them. It could even be from multiple sources. She needed to find connections.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
She looked into the face of the elderly man. His face was full of cavernous wrinkles. His eyes were sunk into his head and his lips were thin, bordering on nonexistent. He had the typical face of a man who was about eighty-five years old.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
How long did farmers work? It seemed like the kind of work that one couldn't and shouldn't do past the age of seventy. If what Miyaji-san said was true, then this must truly be a hardy man.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
What if he smoked? Smoking can cause one to look older than they really are. He could actually be sixty or seventy.
But how does that help?
Pump...Pump...Pump...
It could be Farmer's Lung. Farmers get it when they are in an enclosed area with moldy hay. The particles of moldy hay get into one's lungs and cause them to slowly shut down. Since he works with animals, it would make sense.
However, Farmer's Lung, in order for it to be deadly, must take place over a period of about five years. The symptoms only began recently; not nearly enough time for the disease to run its course.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
Heart attack? It was possible. He was elderly and, if her guessing was correct, a smoker. However, even for a smoker, this man was incredibly healthy. It was hard for Megumi to believe that this man—still obviously showing muscle from the hard labor of a farmer—was the victim of a heart attack.
Pump...Pump...Pump...
What if it's a combination of the three?
Someone knocked on the door but, being deep in thought, Megumi didn't hear it. The door slid open and Tomatsu stepped inside. Tamotsu's face softened as he looked at Megumi's crouched form. She had been in that same position when he left.
"Megumi?"
Megumi jerked in surprise but kept her rhythm going. "What did I tell you? I said it was too soon to tell," she said rudely.
His gaze held pity. "Megumi, that was four hours ago."
Megumi blinked in surprise and looked out the window. The sun was descending past the horizon. She looked down at her arms and noticed they were shaking. She'd barely noticed the ache in her limbs.
Tomatsu came to her and grasped her forearms gently. Megumi looked up at him and saw sadness in his face. She refused to think of what that meant and continued to pump.
"Megumi, you need to rest," he said gently, his thumbs moving in small, soothing circles on her arm.
"I can't rest," she croaked. She blinked at how thirsty she realized she was.
His grip on her arms tightened and he pulled her up and away from the man. Megumi jerked in shock and scrambled to get back to the man. "What are you doing?" she cried. He crushed her to his chest and refused to allow her to move.
"He's gone," he whispered into her ear.
She pulled her head back and glared at him. "No he's not," she hissed. "He's fine. He'll start breathing soon. You'll see."
He stretched his left arm so it was encircling her whole body and lifted his other to cup her cheek. "Megumi, you've been breathing for him for four hours. The only reason he's still alive is because you keep pumping that thing." Megumi's eyes widened and she shook her head violently.
He couldn't be dead. If he was, then she failed.
Tomatsu's eyes were filled with sadness as he saw Megumi's face crumple. Megumi looked over at the elderly man on the bed and stared at his chest, waiting for the rise and fall of his torso. Nothing happened. She continued to stare. His heart just needed a second. It would jumpstart soon. Megumi tensed as the seconds went by.
She waited as his skin turned red.
Then blue.
Then purple.
The doctor in her knew it. The doctor in her knew that he was dead, that the essential life-blood had ceased flowing. She knew that the man wasn't coming back. With that knowledge came a deep, aching pain in her chest. Once again she'd failed. She caused the death of a human being. Due to her own weakness, the life of this man was extinguished.
Megumi slowly rested her head on Tamotsu's chest. His arms tightened around her as the pain constricted her further. Why was it that no matter how hard she tried, no matter how much she tried to redeem herself, she always failed? Just when she thought things were starting to look up one of her patients had to die.
Suddenly, something stroked her hair. She opened her eyes and saw that Tamotsu was repeatedly sliding his hand across her tresses. As seconds passed, Megumi felt herself calm down. Tamotsu's arms were warm and strong. In his arms she felt safe. She closed her eyes and let herself be held.
"You can't save everyone, Megumi," Tamotsu whispered, continuing his stroking. "It's impossible. Sometimes these things just have to happen. You can't change someone's destiny."
"You never struck me as the kind of person who believes in destiny," she said into his chest, desperately trying to distract herself from the corpse on the bed.
His hand froze at the middle of her back. "I didn't used to. I used to think I was in control. I used to believe that I decided how my life was going to work out." He removed his hand from her back and gently pulled her away from him. He gripped her upper arms as he looked at her. "I used to believe that I could keep or remove certain people in my life. I liked to think that it was up to me whether I could live without someone or not." His hands slid down her arms until they were gripping her smaller ones. His eyes softened and a small smile graced his features. "I've come to realize that I am meant to be where I am. I was meant to have the past I have just as there is a reason for my future. They are all entwined together to create my destiny."
Megumi's heart stopped as they continued to gaze at each other. She struggled to shut down the clenching in her stomach and heart and fought to disregard how much she wanted to be a part of his future.
"We should probably talk to Miyaji-san," she said quietly, trying to cover her breathlessness.
Sadness covered Tomatsu's face like a shadow and he nodded. He released her arms and headed to the door with Megumi behind him. He turned over his shoulder and asked, "Do you want me to tell her?"
Megumi shook her head. She rolled her shoulders back and, with the professional façade back in place, said, "I'm her doctor. I'll handle it." She approached Tamotsu and the door but before she walked out of the room she looked back at Miyaji-san's husband. His skin had started to take on a gray hue. It was already hard to believe he had been alive a few moments ago.
I'm sorry.
She straightened herself out and walked past Tomatsu who was holding the door open. Miyaji-san sat in the waiting room staring straight ahead. Tears had dried on her face and there was a lack of emotion on her face. Her body was rigid and her hands were clenched in her lap.
Megumi approached her and when she didn't look up she said, "Miyaji-san, come into my office. We need to talk." Miyaji-san slowly lifted her face to Megumi and nodded. Megumi led the way to her office and held the door open for her to enter. Before she closed the door she looked over at Tomatsu-san who was still in the doorway of the room with the deceased husband. His gaze was filled with grief.
She was sure hers was a mirror image.
A/N: i hope you guys liked it! Once again, forgive my lateness!
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