A/N - i do not own Skip Beat! unfortunately...

sorry its been a while since my last update. i have been kind of busy.

Chapter 5 – The Hospital

Kyoko was in surgery for five hours. The police had already been called, and were looking into what happened, they were currently at the studio where the attack happened. Eventually someone would have to interview the cast and crew, but as of yet, the police were just talking to the security personnel. Lory had been informed and was now waiting with the rest of the cast, along with Kanae, and the couple that Kyoko had been staying with. Ren was getting more impatient by the second. After what felt like days the doctor finally came out to talk to Shinozuke. Ren, Yashiro, Lory and Tagami all gathered around waiting for news. "Will she be alright?" asked Ren without preamble.

The doctor seemed grim. "We had to put her into a medically induced coma because of how much blood and various other factors. It seems that one of her lungs was punctured by a one of her 4 broken ribs, and there is massive internal and external bleeding. Semen found on her body give evidence to a rape, but we will need to do further examinations to be sure. She has a cracked skull and a massive concussion and her windpipe was severely damaged. There are crude cuts across her lower abdomen, and she has other minor bruises and lesions over her body. We have brought her out of the coma, and if she wakes up she should heal fine." Everyone looked relieved. Everyone, that is, except for Ren.

"What do you mean 'if'?' Ren asked in a steely tone. The faces of the others around him hardened instantly.

The doctor looked as if he was hoping they wouldn't notice that bit. "Her body has received so much trauma in various locals that there is a high possibility of her body just not being able to handle it and collapsing from the stress, leaving her organs to shut down one by one. Even if she does wake up, we aren't sure what kind of mental state she will have. There is an equally high probability that her brain shuts down and her mental state is reduced to it being a handicap."

"What is the probability that she makes it through ok?" asked Lory gravely.

"I would have to say that there is a roughly 47.5% chance of organ failure, and something similar for brain injury. So, if I had to guess, then there is probably a 5% chance that she makes it through all this perfectly." Said the doctor. The faces around him fell. "However, even if she does physically recover, there is not telling what her emotional state will be. There is a 95% chance, if she fully recovers, of there being emotional or mental stress which she will have to deal with, which could take years longer than the actual physical recovery."

"So even if we get her back," said Yashiro depressed, "we still may not get her back."

"She is currently in the ICU, and you may visit, but I can only let 5 of you see her at a time." The doctor said, turning and walking back down the corridor.

A few minutes later a nurse came over to the waiting area. "Are you all here for Mogami, Kyoko?" she asked sweetly? Dozens of heads nodded their response. "Which five of you are going first?" Lory, Ren, Yashiro, Tagami, and Shinozuke all stood up and followed the nurse to the ICU. "She is very lucky to have so many friends to look out for her, poor girl." She said to no one in general. "I cant believe anyone would do something like that to such a sweet looking kid."

As Ren walked into the room she directed them to he muttered under his breath "nor can I." The five men walked into her room and couldn't help but draw in a collective gasp. Kyoko's beautiful face was bruised and purple, and there was a bandage down one cheek. Her hair was dirty and a bandage, which wrapped around her head, covered most of it. There was tube taped to the side of her mouth, going down her throat and was attached to a machine in a corner. Her body was covered by blankets, but there was obviously had been large amounts of damage done there as well.

Her face, which still hadn't been wiped clean, still had tear tracks running down the purpling cheeks, but her eyes were closed, and she looked rather peaceful.

Ren grabbed a chair and pulled it close to Kyoko. He stroked her damaged cheek with one long slender finger. "She's alive." He muttered to himself, only loud enough that Yashiro, who stood directly behind him, could hear. "The dream was almost completely true, but she is alive."

/\

Ren refused to leave Kyoko's side; he didn't care if she never woke up. He would forever be close to her. After The director, the stage manager, and Yashiro and Lory left, Ren continued to watch the girl sleep and prayed for the moment when she woke up.

When visitor's hours started the next day, Kanae, Rumi, Yuka, and Honami found Ren in a chair next to Kyoko's bed, holding her limp hand. He looked up at the girls, when the entered, but didn't move. Rumi's face was wet with silent tears as she stared down at the stoic figure of her co-star. "I'm sorry, Kyoko," she said quietly, to the floor. "If I had only been able to find my own costume, then Chyuto wouldn't have ever left your side." Ren's hard sad eyes softened for a moment as he looked at the girl.

"None of this was your fault, Maruyama-san," He said to the girl, wiping away a tear with a long finger from his free hand. "You must not blame yourself for something you hand no control over."

Honami and Yuka went to Kyoko's other side, brushing back the hair in her face that hadn't been bound by the bandage. "Why did this happen?" asked Yuka quietly, kneeling down and resting her head by Kyoko's right hand. "How could anyone hurt someone so sweet?" Kyoko was well loved by the cast and crew. Even though she was playing a bully, and her previous role of Mio had given her a bad reputation among the audience, everyone who worked with her knew full well that Kyoko was the complete opposite of the character's she played on the screen.

"Was it because of her character? Did they hurt her because of the person she played on TV?" Honami asked, uncharacteristically quiet. Honami played second in command to the gang that Kyoko's character was the head of, so their characters, and they as actors, were very close.

Ren shook his head, silently agreeing with everything Yuka had said. "No, so far evidence indicates that they may have been fans of mine." He said with a steely edge to his soft voice. "It seems that some of my stalkers saw us together and got jealous." A fire blazed fiercely in his eyes, scaring the three actresses who were looking at him.

Kanae continued to stand silently at Kyoko's feet. Ever since she had met the other Love Me member she seemed to have taken her for granted. She got angry when Kyoko tried to be friends and got annoyed by all of Kyoko's energy. However, seeing her friend lying motionless in the sterile bed made her wish that Kyoko would wake up and be her old self again. Small wet drops fell onto her hands, where she was grasping the end of the bedframe. She put a hand up to her cheeks, momentarily confused, until she felt thin rivers flowing from her eyes. She wasn't even aware that she had been crying until she felt the tears fall onto her passive hands.

Suddenly Kanae felt small thin arms grab her around the waist from the side. She looked around to see Rumi on her left, hugging her tightly. She smiled absently at the girl and then, rather suddenly, she hugged the small girl back tightly, her black hair hiding her face as she dropped her head, not wanting to look at her prone friend lying so helpless anymore. Finally, after a few minutes holding Rumi to her, she bent over, kissed her friend's feet, then turned and left, tears still cascading down her cheeks.

Ren watched Kanae's interaction with Kyoko, only vaguely interested. He thought it was interesting how Kanae didn't say or do anything at the foot of Kyoko's bed, she just stood there, crying. It seemed that she didn't even know she was crying, for after a few moments she lifted her hand to her cheek and looked down at her wet fingers in amazement. After few minutes of the tight embrace between her and Kyoko's fellow actor, someone who, as far as Ren knew, Kanae didn't even know, Kanae bent down to kiss Kyoko's feet and left the room. Ren understood, of course, It was really hard to see someone you care about so very helpless, like Kyoko was currently, and it was just as hard without able to do anything in aid.

A few minutes after Kanae left, Chiori came in, just as silently as Kanae had left. She joined Yuka and Honami at the other side of the bed than Ren. She buried her face in the pillow by Kyoko's head and started crying. "Sempai!" she said, sobbing. "Please wake up!" Chiori had changed greatly since meeting Kyoko, so the fact that her mentor had been hurt this badly had affected her more than Chiori had thought it would. She wanted Kyoko to wake up and smile at her, tell her everything was going to be all right and that there was nothing to be afraid of. Chiori looked at Ren, "Tsuruga-san, Sempai will wake up, wont she?"

Ren didn't know how to answer her. He didn't want to lie to Chiori, but he also didn't want to crush her. "No one knows. All we can do, is pray" Ren said, lips smiling, but eyes still sad.

The four actors stayed for a few hours, but like Kanae, they couldn't stand the helpless feeling for so long, and so one by one, they left. Yashiro came back in the early afternoon, he wanted to check on Kyoko, but also, he wanted to check on Ren. Yashiro was slightly shocked at how awful Ren looked. His hair was untidy and he had he hadn't shaved. There were bags under his red eyes and Yashiro knew without even asking that the man hadn't eaten. "Ren, please go home for a while." Ren shook his head. "At least eat something." Yashiro insisted. Ren shrugged.

"I am not leaving her side." He told Yashiro. "I want to be here when she wakes up." Yashiro noticed how Ren said 'when' not 'if'.

"Fine," Yashiro gave up, "but you will eat." Said Yashiro. "Kyoko would want you to, you know she would. " Ren hung his head guiltily, knowing his manager was right. "How about I go get you something. You can eat while you are watching over her." Ren said nothing, so Yashiro left to get his charge some food.

As Yashiro returned to the room, he found two more people in there in addition to the two he left. He walked around the serious men in suits and handed Ren the onigiri that he bought at the convenience store down the street.

"Yashiro," Ren said, accepting the rice balls, "this is Detective Yamazawa, and Detective Tenshi. They are the detectives in charge of Kyoko's case." Yashiro nodded in understanding. He shook hands with each of the men individually.

"Do you have an update for us?" Yashiro asked, consciously leaving out formalities. The detectives looked at each other uneasily, it was clear they didn't miss the slight on their authority.

After an uneasy silence, one of the detectives, Detective Tenshi, spoke up, directing his speech directly to Ren. "We do, indeed, have a report. Using the report the doctors gave us on her condition, detailing the injuries, we are certain that the majority of the serious injuries were caused by stiletto heels. We think that this is the force that broke her rib to the point where her lung was punctured. Many of the other injuries were made with the pointed toes or heels of similar style women's heels. We have confirmed the presence of semen on the scene, in addition to semen found on her when she was found. DNA analysis has figured out that there are at least three different men involved. We wont know until we do a vaginal examination how many times she had intercourse, if she did in fact have vaginal intercourse and if it was rape or consensual. We would like to do this by tomorrow or else any other semen that may be present will have died. If she hasn't awoken by then, we may need to do it while she is still under."

Ren's eyes hardened at every word the detective spoke. He stood, hand still holding Kyoko's. "You want to do what?" he growled, the steely note in his voice matching the cold look in his eyes. Yashiro put a hand on Ren's shoulder, pushing him back down into his chair with gentle but firm pressure.

"Sit down, Ren," Yashiro said, also glaring at the detectives. "I will handle this." He turned to the men in suits. "If you would please not trouble my actor with this any more," Yashiro said, now so overly formal the detectives looked equally shocked as when he was impolite. "If you gentlemen would please accompany me to the waiting room, we may continue this discussion there."

Ren was rigid in his chair until Yashiro ushered them out, looking back at Ren one last time before leaving. Ren gave the man a thank you look, and then he turned back to Kyoko.

After much arguing, negotiating, and discussing, Yashiro and the detectives came to an arrangement. There would be a vaginal examination allowed, which a nurse or doctor would do, and they would not bother Ren or Kyoko any more with the case. They would deal directly with the manager, Yashiro, or Box 'R's director or stage manager, or the LME president, Lory.

/\

Ren still refused to leave Kyoko's side even when a doctor came in and said that he needed to an exam on Kyoko on the detective's request. Yashiro had come in earlier and stayed Ren's fury, telling him the negotiation that he made with the detectives. This was the last either of them would have to do with them, Yashiro would take over representation for the case.

Nurses helped place the unconscious Kyoko into a position where the doctor could work easily. They put up a sheet to keep her privacy, something they felt was necessary even if she wasn't awake. Ren stayed where he had been, sitting by her side, his hand on hers. His eyes never moved off of her face, still beautiful even though damaged. A little while later, time didn't mean much in the hospital, the doctor and nurses carefully replaced Kyoko's legs so she was lying undisturbed and unmoving once more.

Ren smoothed Kyoko's hair, and kept her motionless form company, hoping beyond hope she would wake up soon.

A/N - o.O did you guys like it? i hope so! let me know what you think, i love reading your reviews!

Translations - i dont think there are any new ones this time.

Sempai - elder, someone who is more experienced

Formalities - a big deal in japan. whenever you meet someone knew you are formal. Yashiro was informal on purpose- it is highly disrespectful.

BTW - i adore Yashiro, i think he may be my favorite side character in the manga... i wonder if you have noticed?