A/N:
Since you were very responsive to the last chapter- I felt that I would update before I got my butt on the jet plane. By Saturday, I will be out of the countryཀ But I suppose you only care about the updates... tear.
Ok, so did she die? You know I wouldn't do that... or would I?
Anyway, enjoy and thanks for the reviewsཀ
After being pushed away from Sora to give Kari room, Tai's life seemed hazy. As Kari, Ken and Tk worked to stem the bleeding, Tai knelt there not moving.
He had to look away as Ken and Kari began a modified version of CPR on Sora's unresponsive body. Closing his eyes he didn't want to even think that she was going to die here. Not like this…
For some reason when he opened his eyes he was facing the dead body of the 'bug.' Getting on his feet, Tai staggered over to the remains of his short time comrade Vincent and the creature who was responsible for so much pain.
Looking it over he was amazed to see the amount of protective shell it had on its body. Of course since the damage done to it by Sora and then Ken, the creature's defenses didn't save it.
'You son of a bitch monster.' Tai screamed at it in his mind. 'Why? Why couldn't you just leave us alone?'
"WHY?" He screamed and began to kick the carcass as if it would make the creature hurt more.
"Taiཀ" A stern voice called to him. "Get yourself togetherཀ We're leaving." It was Ken, who was standing up while TK and Kari finished tying a shirt around Sora's shoulder.
"Not without Sora." Tai said forgetting about the creature and returning to the group.
"I never said without Sora. We need to get back to the old base and then home. Kari's little patch job won't hold for long."
"But the claw… it's still…"
"If we take it out now, Sora will bleed to death. She's lost too much blood already. We need to keep it in till we can meet Joe at the hospital." Kari replied standing up.
"Once we get back to the old base, we can get something to cut it down a little more." Tk added as he knelt down and took Sora's uninjured shoulder. "We have to carry her… I'm not sure how.."
"You take that side, I'll grab this side." Tai said moving in, not wanting to be left out in helping. Both men lifted her carefully by the shoulders and created a seat of sorts with their arms. Sora slumped against Tai's shoulder as the two men began to walk with her sitting on their connected arms.
It was hard to coordinate with Kari so that they were walking in a triangle shape. Ken lead the group, weapon in hand still weary about letting their guard down.
The brisk walk lasted all day. They finally arrived at the old compound after the sun had already left the sky above. Ken lead the group back into the old medical bay and began searching for a saw or some cutting utensil.
"We stay only long enough to get her ready for the next part of the journey." Kari said after using another garment as a dressing. "She needs to get to a hospital. All that blood loss, she's in and out of consciousness… we need a blood transfusion."
"What blood type?" Tk asked knowing that their donor's at the moment were highly limited.
"Um… I'm not for sure on this but.. I think she's that rare blood type- O something."
"Ken, what's your blood type?" Tk asked while he and Tai set Sora down on a table.
"A."
"I'm a B." Tk added.
"And I'm not going to help her with mine… Tai, what blood type are you?"
"Um… I'm not sure… I think I'm 'O'…" The question caught Tai a little off guard. He never really bothered to remember things like blood types. It didn't seem important. But now… now it meant life or death for the woman he loved. Trying to recall the last time he gave blood, there was something the old nurse had told him…
"You think or you know?" Kari spoke sternly catching everyone off guard a little.
"I'm O. I remember the nurse telling me that." He said taking off his shirt. He knew they needed to get some of his blood right away. He smiled as he felt a little relief that the crazy sounding nurse had given him a small lecture on new research claiming that O was no longer a universal donor like they had once said.
As soon as TK cleared off a slightly higher table Tai was ready to jump on and help. Kari quickly gathered up some make shift supplies added to the ones she had with her, and began to work. Tai winced as a needle was inserted into his arm. He never did like needles and doctors, but this was no time to get a little phobic.
"I hope this works..." Kari said as she opened the tube flow and allowed some blood to transfer to Sora.
It was only a few moments later that Kari pulled out the need from Tai's arm.
"She needs more..." Tai began to say but was cut off when Kari bandaged his arm up.
"We don't have time and it's too dangerous to give her too much blood right now." Kari said as she continued to bandage up Sora next.
"Don't worry Tai, you'll be the main source of the blood once we get back to the city." Tk added as he helped Tai sit up. "We don't want to drain you now."
"Why do you think I will be the only one to help her?"
"Her blood type is rare. It must have been a fluke that she got the blood type since the majority of cases are found only in the outsiders." Kari answered finding that things were stable with Sora enough to be moved.
"Do we risk leaving for the transports now or do we stay for the night?" Tk asked Ken.
"We better try and go tonight. We did bring the night vision sensors and we already made our location known with that light." The stoic Ken replied.
"Sora, we'll have you back to base by morning. Just hang in there." Kari said as she squeezed the unconscious girl's hand.
Tai said another silent prayer and helped Tk pick up their wounded friend.
Tai's heart was racing as he and the others made their way out of the compound and back towards the transport. The darkness caused many problems, but the trip was uneventful.
As Tai helped lay Sora down on one of the transports benches, Tk was already starting up the vehicle. With Kari and Ken safely inside, the transport took off as fast as it could go.
The low whimpers of pain from Sora were in a strange way comforting. It was a way of knowing she was still on the same plane as he was... she was still fighting to survive.
Holding her hand and applying a damp cloth to her forehead kept his mind off details about her condition. He knew she would survive. She had to survive...
The ride back seemed to take forever to him. The speed of the transport felt like a snail's pace but in reality Tk was pushing the machine to its limits.
"Tai," Kari's voice broke him from his own thoughts. "Can I check on her? We radioed in to Joe. We're not that far out. He wants me to check something."
Tai moved back to give Kari some space, but never letting go of one of Sora's hands.
"Don't worry. Sora won't give up without a fight." Kari smiled after finishing the check. Tai knew that the emotion in his eyes gave away the fact that he really cared for the injured woman before them.
At the moment he didn't care either. They could think what they wanted- screw what he was suppose to accomplish with political ties- to hell with this time, this world... Tai couldn't break the feeling that his world was tied to Sora's.
'You're going to make it. You hear me? You'll be back up in no time. Gennai said you never let things like injuries get in your way before. This is not anything different.' He told her without speaking a word.
Without warning Tai felt a light pressure on his hand. Looking at the face of the person responsible for the squeeze, he was once again assured that she wasn't going to die so easily.
"You look horrible." She forced a smile.
"But you still look beautiful." He returned the smile moving in closer to hear her weakened voice.
"You don't have to look so worried. I've had worse scrapes than this... can't really think of when... but I'm sure I've survived worse."
"So I've heard. I have no doubts that you will be fine." He assured her. "We're almost back to the city. There Joe can patch you up and nothing will be different."
"Good." Sora replied as she let her eyes close once again. "Wake me when we get there ok? I want to be well rested for when we arrive at the old base, then we need to get you to that spot Gennai talked about."
'Old base? We just left there...'
Tai looked at Sora with a strange expression. He knew that severe loss of blood did cause the body to do weird things. From what she had said, Sora sounded like they had just left the city at the beginning of their journey. Her memory of the incident must have been effected.
Tai was glad that she didn't seem like she was in any pain now, yet for some reason Kari was sitting closer and watching Sora more closely.
"Is something wrong?" Tai asked as he looked over to the girl.
"She's going back into shock." Kari said never taking her eyes off of her patient. "Her body and system is so thrown out of the loop that her mind is trying to tell her nothing is wrong. I'm a little worried. We need to get her to Joe... I'm in over my head."
The two met eyes and the worried expression was mirrored in each other's eyes. The fear was only intensified as Sora began coughing and wheezing for air once again. Tai knew they had little time.
As Sora once again broke into a fit of coughs, the transport came to a screeching halt.
The back doors of the transport were nearly ripped off as Joe and several med teams moved in to take over.
Tai watched as they pulled Sora's pale body out of the vehicle and onto a stretcher. One man injected her with some substance that seemed to calm down the coughing and hopefully relieve the pain.
"Tai, Kari told me you were Sora's blood type. We need you to come with us." Joe said as he took his eyes off his patient for a second. "Follow Stevens to the donation room."
"But I want to stay with Sora ... I..."
"Give blood first then we'll get you more info." Joe said not taking anything but a 'Yes Sir' as an answer. Tai was amazed. The seemingly timid man was now a strong and commanding force.
Tai listened and was taken away from Sora. He felt very dizzy once they were done extracting the maximum amount of blood they could. He was amazed that they created twice the amount by adding a clear substance to the bags of blood.
Hopefully that would assure Sora's recovery.
After getting a shot from the nurse, which made the nauseated feeling go away, Tai was ready to return to Sora's side. The impressive medical devices were no longer a source of amusement to Tai as he was led down the halls to a seemingly normal area.
Looking closer he noticed that the place was a buzz with activity. 'This must be the operating room wing' he thought to himself as he saw doctors moving quickly with equipment and other wearing bloody garments.
'Come on Sora. You can beat this.' He kept repeating over and over in his mind until a familiar face interrupted him. With the face, a punch to his own.
"What the hell did you do?" It was a furious Matt. The blonde was in a rage. He had Tai by the collar of his uniform, fists white with anger... Tai couldn't do anything.
"You shouldn't have messed with that bugཀ You were suppose to stay with the groupཀ Why..." Matt was abruptly pulled off of Tai by Tk and another soldier.
"Get a hold of yourself Matt, Sora's going to make it through all of this." Tk tried to calm his older brother down. "Tai didn't do anything wrong."
Falling back against the wall, Tai hit his head and the taste of blood filled the back of his mouth. Looking at the other man like he wasn't making sense, everything clicked.
'Matt is right... I didn't listen...'
The two men were separated shortly after Matt tried to break free of Tk and another man had to help get him off of Tai once again. However, this time Tai did defend himself by throwing a few punches- none of them connecting at all.
"Matt, don't you have better things to do? The party that went to meet with the outsiders should be coming in soon, right?" Tk asked knowing that as much as Matt wanted to stay by Sora's side, there were things that needed to be done. "Tai, maybe you should get some sleep. They need you rested. You're our only blood donor for her at the moment."
Tai hated the look Matt was giving him, but TK had a point. Sitting there and fighting would not help in the long run. With a nod, Tai took a step back.
The group's momentary fight was disturbed by Kari entering the room. She had been allowed to follow Sora and the doctors into the operating room, so everyone took notice when she came in.
"How is she?" Tai and Matt both asked.
Poor Kari looked at the state of the hallway and the men who occupied it. Tai knew by the way she looked that she was exhausted and that she didn't miss the tension of the room.
"Joe is working on her now. There aren't any new complications as of yet."
"That's good news." Tk said trying to lighten the mood.
"I need to attend to somethings. Will you alert me at any change in her status. I want to be updated on her progress through surgery." Matt said as he looked at his communicator and then to the room where Sora was being worked on.
"I'll do that." Kari assured the blonde.
'I'm glad he's gone.' Tai sighed inwardly as Matt gave him one last look and left the medical building. 'Seriously, of all the times to start a fight... Sora needs our support right now, not some fighting idiots...'
"Kari, is there a place for Tai to lay down around here? I'm sure he won't want to go back tot he house until Sora is out of surgery." Tk said giving the emotionally tired girl a hug.
"I can set him up in an adjacent room if that will do... but it will be a hospital bed..."
"That's fine. I'm not really that tired... adrenaline is keeping me active right now... Maybe you should be the one to get some rest." Tai countered as he looked over to Kari.
"I will. Don't worry. There's nothing more I can do to help her... It's all up to Joe to once again prove that he's the best doctor of all time." Kari nodded.
After a short nap, Tai couldn't take the silence of the small room. Getting up and quickly finding a bathroom, he tried to freshen up the best he could. The change of clothes and wash cloth were a godsend.
He felt ready to deal with the long road ahead. Leaving the room he noticed that things had settled down in the hallways leading up to the large operating quarters.
"Excuse me... I was wondering about Sora... do you.." He asked a nurse.
"Commander Sora? Well, I think they just finished surgery. The doctor is moving her to a monitoring room shorty."
"So things are ok now?" Tai's heart felt relieved knowing that Sora had made it out of surgery.
"We won't know for a few days. Her system is still in shock and she hasn't regained consciousness since they began..."
"Can I see her?"
"You'll have to ask the doctor. I have to get this over to the head nurse..." She said before she ran off down the hallway.
Tai sighed feeling much better. Word that Sora was out of surgery lessened some of the stress and worry off of his heart. As Gennai said the journey would be a hard one... he never knew exactly how tolling it would be on him.
'I think I need a vacation after that vacation.' He thought to himself as he made his way back to the area where Sora was taken when they first arrived.
He arrived just in time to meet up with Matt as Sora was being taken out of the operating room.
"Joe, how is she?" Matt asked as he watched the blue haired man following closely behind his patient. Tai looked over at the doctor while taking one of Sora's bandaged hands in his own.
"She should be fine. Knowing Sora, she'll be up and about in no time." The man was obviously trying to keep up a positive front. Tai knew he was not telling them the truth. "She needs rest, so I recommend no visitors for a few hours."
"A few hours? But..." Matt sounded annoyed.
"She won't be awake for another three hours at the earliest. So you both might as well leave and get some things done before you both come back and see her." The doctor said as he motioned for the nurses to take Sora away.
Tai let her hand drop gently back to the bedside, and watched as she was taken away.
"Once she hits the 48 hour mark, I think the worst of it should be over. We'll watch her closely for a time."
With that the blue haired man left as well. The two men were left to stare at the empty hallway and each other. Tai was a little worried about the current situation until Matt turned and began to walk away.
"Oh, Gennai has requested to speak to you. Do you want an escort over there, or can you not do that without killing another one of my men?" Matt asked with venom in his voice.
Tai was about to respond, but stopped. 'It will only make things worse...'
"I can find my way."
"Good."
'Why that son of a ... calm down Tai... stay calm... just leave.' And that's what he did.
"You look exhausted young one." Gennai's smile greeted him as he entered the cluttered room once again.
The look on his face told her exactly how exhausted he was feeling.
"So the journey was cut short. I knew that would happen." The old lady said as she motioned for Tai to take a seat near a small table.
"So I hear your group had some problems. I was relieved to hear that Sora is out of surgery and that there weren't worse casualties."
"Worse? I'd say it was pretty bad. Vincent is dead, Sora nearly joined him and we still don't know if she's going to be..."
"Don't worry. The road ahead is going to be hard, but now you can see the road... am I right?" Gennai smiled a catty smile. She knew something was up.
'How could she know about anything that went on between Sora and me?' He wondered.
"You did find what was truly important in life, correct?"
"What do you mean?"Tai asked not feeling up to the line of questions. "Are you saying that you knew what was going to happen on this journey? You knew Sora was going to be hurt and you didn't do anything?"
His anger seemed to get the best of him. He was on his feet facing the elderly woman who just sighed and shook her head.
"I can't see things, I get feelings. I didn't know what was going to happen, just like I cannot see exactly what will happen in your future. All I know is that I have this sense with you that you will do great things... however, there will be heart ache. Remember the good times and never give up Taichi..."
Tai looked at the woman before him with a blank expression on his face. Yet within he knew now a little more of that she was saying. His future with Sora was something that he was going to have to work for...
"So, did anything good come of this little trip?" Gennai turned to look back at a book she had opened on her desk.
"I... um... I mean..." Tai chucked a little in an attempt to hide his blush after the kiss he shared with Sora replayed in his mind. Something wonderful came out of this trip he wanted to say. However, that all still was pending a certain someone survived the next few days. Joe had said it would be a few days before he could best judge her recovery efforts.
"To tell the truth, several things came out of it... I got a chance to see a bug up close. I think that better understanding the things will allow us to find their weakness." In the battle Tai noticed that after Sora hit the creature in the same place repeatedly the creature was unable to keep up its hidden form... it caused its full form to be visible.
"That is an important point to know." Gennai replied after Tai told her the story of Sora's battle. "You might want to sit down with Matt later and discuss this further... I take it that the face you just made means you and Matt are not getting along..." Tai felt rather annoyed when the old woman laughed at his apparent reaction when she mentioned Matt.
"It's kind of complicated I guess. I don't think I did anything to make him mad, but he feels that Sora was injured because of me... which in all truth, she was..."
"Now, now. Don't you be placing all the blame on yourself. And certainly do not let Matt do that for you as well. Sora knew what she was doing. And that girl has a knack for getting herself into all kinds of trouble." The woman smiled up at him making Tai feel a little better. "And she always has a way of getting right back up on her feet and continuing on."
"I know, it's just that Matt won't hear any of that..."
"He's jealous." Gennai said bluntly.
"Jealous? Now why would he be jealous of me?" Tai asked not thinking he would ever measure up to the blonde man.
"Because you have managed to get a hold of something that he will never have. And he knows that it's a lost cause for him, but you have an opportunity. So don't mess things up."
"You mean with ending the war, right?"
"Are you really that slow? Sora. I am talking about Sora. I think I know that girl enough to know when something like this happens. She has opened up to you in a way she has never done with anyone else."
"Oh, that..." Tai blushed.
"Yes, that... so make the most of this chance..."
"I intend to." Tai replied.
A/N: And now Kate does a happy dance and is off!
Japan here I come... again.
Leaving on a Jet Plane People!