A/N: This chappie was up and ready to go three days ago, but fanfiction had a lil problem so i couldn't update.
Chapter 28
Departure
(Kenshin's POV)
"SANO!"
Kaoru's voice echoed in the back of my brain. I can't believe this, she's moved on already. Fustrated, I turn back to Tomoe, surprised to see her standing up to see through the glass outside.
"Tomoe, what are you doing?" I said exasperated five minutes later.
"Oh, no." She whispered.
"What now?" my annoyance building.
Seconds after I asked, I heard a fire truck roaring down the streets like mad. Just another stupid accident.
"Tomoe, let's go, I'm not hungry."
When I got up, she sat in her seat, staring at her hands, and then suddenly started to stuff food inot her mouth.
"Whatever, look, I'll be in the car." turning around, I walked out the door.
The instant I stepped outside, Kaoru's sniffles reached my ears. I spun around, my hair whipping after me, to see the rescue truck was right next to Kaoru. Forgetting any anger, I sprinting down the sidewalk, spinning her around. I looked at her from top to bottom, checking if she was hurt, after convincing myself she's fine, I turned to the nearest fire man and grabbed him by his arm.
"What happened?"
"We're not sure, the man, Sagara Sanosuske, drove into the truck. Sir, if you don't mind, I have to take him to the hospital." Turning towards Kaoru, "Kamiya-san, are you ok? Would you like to come with us?"
Shaking free of my grasp, she nodded as she stepped into the truck after the rescue team.
Nailed to my spot, I watch the fire truck once again blaze down the street until it turned around the corner. "What just happened?" I whispered to myself. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I have the instant feeling that Tomoe was some how involved in all this.
(Kaoru POV)
"Dear God, I don't wish for anything more. Please, just let him be safe," I prayed silently, sitting on the bench outside the emergency room. I squeezed my eyes shut and clasped my hands together tightly, repeating the same sentence, over and over again in my head.
"Kaoru," came a breathless voice from down the corridor.
"Aoshi," I say, running towards him. I buried my head in his shirt and sobbed, my tears wetting his crisp silk shirt.
"Shhh…" he says, trying to soothe me. "He'll be fine," he says, his voice wavering slightly.
"What if he doesn't?" I ask, raising my head to look up at him. "What if he doesn't make it?"
"He will," says Akira, coming up from behind Aoshi, his eyes red. "I know he will. He won't disappoint any one of us."
"You okay?" asks Aoshi, patting Akira on the back.
"Yeah," answers Akira, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Then he turned to look at me. "Kaoru?"
"Coping," I say, as a fresh flood of tears streamed down my face.
"Hey," pants Soujiro running up to us, with Shishio right behind him. "We came directly from the airport after your call, Akira. How's Sano?"
"Still in there," I answered, pointing to the closed doors of the emergency room.
"Damn," Soujiro exhaled, running his fingers through his hair. "Come here, Kaoru," he says, enveloping me in a warm hug and kissing me on the top of my head. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right."
The moment the doors to the emergency room slammed open, all five of us jumped to our feet and ran towards the doctor.
"How is he?" asks Akira.
"There is nothing to worry about. He's in a stable condition now. He just suffered a few minor cuts and bruises here and there."
"Thank you," I say gratefully, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank you so, so much."
"When will we be able to visit him?" asks Soujiro, putting an arm around my shoulder.
"Not now, preferably. He needs a lot of rest. Why don't you all come again tomorrow? I'm sure he'll be up by then. By the way, have you all contacted any of his family members?"
"Yeah, I already have," says Akira. "They're on a plane ride back from Las Vegas."
"Oh, all right then. Sorry to trouble you."
"It's no trouble at all," says Akira, bowing slightly.
"Come on," says Jung Tae, ushering all of us out of the place. "Let's go get some much needed rest. You can all crash over at our house."
I groaned and rolled over onto my side, awaken from my nap by the incessant ringing of my cell phone.
"Kaoru," grumbled Soujiro, who lay sprawled out on the couch. "Pick it up."
"I'm looking for it," I say, yawning while I searched through my bag for my phone. Finally finding it, I flipped it open and frowned slightly at the unfamiliar number. Just then, a pillow came flying towards me, hitting me squarely in the face.
"Yah, Soujiro!" I yelled.
"Serves you right," he mumbled. "Now, will you please pick up the phone?"
I stuck my tongue out at him before speaking into the receiver. "Hello?"
"Hello, may I please speak to Kamiya Kaoru?"
"This is Kaoru speaking," I say. "May I know who's on the line?"
"I'm Sae, from Tokyo Car Workshop. You sent in a black sports car bearing the plate number
8an08a6a earlier in the afternoon, am I right?"
"Oh, right. Is there anything wrong?"
"As a matter of fact, there is. I think it would be better if you came down here and take a look at what I found."
"All right. I'll be there in half an hour," I say, scrambling out of bed and jostling Soujiro's shoulder.
"Okay, I'll see you then," he says, before hanging up.
"What is it?" asks Soujiro, rubbing his eyes.
"The man at the workshop called me up. He found something wrong with Sano's car."
"Excuse me," I say, tapping a guy in blue overalls, with his back facing us, on the shoulder.
"Yes, miss?" he asks, turning to look at me. "May I help you?"
"Yeah, I'm looking for a person named Sae."
"You must be Kamiya-san," he says, grinning broadly, extending his right hand towards me, after he had rubbed it a few times on his overalls. "I'm Okita."
"Just call me Kaoru," I say, smiling back at him. "And this is my friend, Soujiro."
"Good to meet you, sir," he says, bowing slightly.
"You don't have to be so formal," says Soujiro, chuckling a little.
"So," I say. "What was it that you wanted to show me?"
"Oh, follow me," he says, leading us to where Sano's wrecked car was parked. "Look at this," he says, lifting the hood of the car and pointing to where a long black rubber was cut into two.
Frowning a little, Soujiro leaned forward and held onto one end of the rubber, inspecting it closely. He chewed his bottom lip thoughtfully, before straightening himself. Then, he turned to look at me, his eyes clouded over with surprise.
"It was cut."
I raised my eyebrows at him questioningly, not getting what he was trying to tell me.
"The brake lines were cut."
"Sano?" I ask, walking into his room.
"Hey, Kaoru," he says, smiling brightly at me.
"How're you doing?"
"Pretty good. Where are the rest of the guys?" he asks, patting the empty space on his bed. "Come and sit."
"They said they'll drop by later," I say, plopping down on his bed. "By the way, I brought you some chocolate chip cookies!"
"Awwww," he cooed. "So sweet of you! But do you know what would really make my day?" he asks. "If you checked me out of the hospital this instant!"
"No way, Sano. The doctor says you need to stay in here for at least one week and today is only your third day!"
"Come on, Kao," he pleads. "I'm doing pretty well. Can't you at least ask him to let me out early, if not today?"
"Nope. Even if he did, I wouldn't let you," I say, smacking his forehead. "Just in case."
"Hey, watch where you hit!" he says, covering his bandaged head with both his hands. "By the way, here's your tape recorder. I'm sorry it's such a wreck. I promise I'll get you a new one," he says apologetically, handing me the wrecked piece of machinery.
"Nah," I say, brushing his comment off. "It's all right. It's not like I really needed it anyway."
I fiddled around with the tape recorder, trying to muster up enough courage to ask him about the accident.
"Sano…" I began.
"Hey, Kao…" he says, at the same time.
We both turned to look at each other and burst out laughing.
"You go first," he says.
"Okay…well…" I say, twisting my fingers together. "It's…it's about the accident."
"What about it?" he asks, raising his eyebrows at me questioningly.
"How did it happen?"
"Oh, it was nothing, really," he mumbled, avoiding my eyes. "The road must have been wet at that time, causing me to lose control of my car. You know, the tires are pretty old after all."
"But you just changed your tires two years ago! Look, after the accident, I sent your car to the workshop to see what they can do about it, and they found out that your brake lines were cut."
"What?" he asks, turning to look at me.
"It came as a surprise to me too, but that's beside the point," I say. "Can you think of anyone, anyone at all, who might want to cause you harm?"
He looked uncertainly at me for a few moments before averting his gaze once again. "No," he answered in a soft voice.
I could tell he was hiding something from me, but I didn't press the matter any further. "It's all right then. Don't worry about it," I say, squeezing his hand.
"Hey, Kao," he says, after a pause.
"Hmm?" I ask absently.
"I need you to promise me a few things."
"What for?"
"Just because."
"Well…let's hear it first, then."
"If…let's just say, if…something happens to me, and I may not be able to be by your side anymore, promise me you won't cry too much, okay?"
"What are you talking about, Sano?" I ask, frowning.
"Just hear me out, first, Kaoru. It's important."
"Right," I say softly, nodding my head.
"You'll have to eat all your meals, and never skip any one of them no matter how busy you are. You'll have to take good care of yourself, especially of your health. Try not to do anything that may risk you getting hurt. Don't be too saddened by my leave. You have to be strong and bounce back, okay? Never give up hope, even when you're down to all your last resorts. And most importantly," he says, taking a deep breath.
"Don't forget me."
"Sano..," I began.
"Promise, Kaoru?" he interrupted, scanning my face.
I closed my eyes and bit the insides of my cheeks. I was at a loss for words.
"Kaoru?"
I reopened my eyes slowly and gave him a small smile, which I managed to muster, with a lot of difficulty.
"I promise, Sano."
"Hey, I'm going out to get some coffee from the vending machine outside. Want anything?" I ask, nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie.
"Get me a cup of whatever you're having," he says, smiling warmly back at me.
"Alrighty!" I say, getting to my feet. "Wait for me, okay? I'll be back really quick." Just as I was about to shut the door behind me, he called out to me.
"Kaoru!" he yells.
"Yeah?" I ask, pushing the door open again.
"Remember your promise."
"I will, Sano. Don't worry," I say, assuring him.
I put some coins into the vending machine and pressed for a cup of café latte. I tapped my foot impatiently while I waited for the little cup to fill. Taking it out, I inserted a few more coins into the machine and pressed for another cup of the same type of coffee.
I walked back towards his room slowly, so that the coffee would not slosh all over the floor. Just then, from behind me, I heard the sound of many shoes tapping against the floor in a hurried manner.
"Make way, please!" yelled a nurse. "This is an emergency!"
Jumping to the side reflexively, three doctors ran past me, while another 3 nurses trailed behind them. As they brushed past me, I caught snatches of their conversation which made my blood turn cold.
"…patient in room 219…"
"…critical condition…"
"…out of the blue…"
The conversation I had with Sano earlier played over and over again in my head.
"If…let's just say, if…something happens to me, and I may not be able to be by your side anymore, promise me you won't cry, okay?"
"You'll have to eat all your meals, and never skip any one of them no matter how busy you are. You'll have to take good care of yourself, especially of your health."
" Try not to do anything that may risk you getting hurt."
"Don't be too saddened by my leave. You have to be strong and bounce back, okay?"
"Never give up hope, even when you're down to all your last resorts."
"And most importantly, don't forget me."
Don't forget me…
Don't forget me…
Both the coffee cups fell to the ground, splashing hot coffee all over my jeans and shoes, but I didn't care. I just stood rooted to the spot, staring at the open door of room 219-Sano's Room.
A/N : Sorry didn't tell u if he survived or not… but you probably can guess. Well the Recorder broke, will Kaoru ever get back with Kenshin? And will Tomoe get away with this? Good thing: Kenshin has started to suspect Tomoe!
Next Chappie: Sano's Good, and Some revenge on Tomoe's self bashing, her guilt is going to start consuming her as she realize what she's been doing.