Chapter 10 – Alive
Ranma's eyes fluttered open to the darkness surrounding him. He lifted his hand and rubbed his forehead as the wave of pain hit him again. He swallowed hard and felt his tongue scratch his palate as how dry his mouth was. He used his hand to feel around him and felt he was lying on top of a bed. He was not under the covers and he was still wearing normal clothes. Waking up like this, with no immediate recollection of what had sent him to bed in the first place, it reminded him of when he woke up at Nerima hospital after…
"Oh, my god! No! No! No!" he told himself as he stumbled to get off the bed.
He walked around blindly looking for a switch, and when he finally found one and turned it on, his fears multiplied. He was standing in what he could have sworn was the same room he had woken up in before. The same bed, the same heart monitor machine, the same window, and the same two doors in the room he had seen when he woke up were there. He began hyperventilating, his mind racing with the possible implications of what he was seeing.
Did he ever go to China? Did he ever find Akane? Were they ever truly reunited, again?
"Was I dreaming this whole time?"
A knock on the door made him jump as he headed to the door and pulled it open Behind it, was Nodoka and a nurse. His eyes widened at the familiar scene. "Ranma! You're awake!"
The familiar phrase pushed him over the edge. He slid down and sat on the floor, holding his head as it throbbed in pain. Everything was so familiar, had he been drugged again? Had he just woken up to reality after months of sleep? "Mom, where's Akane?"
Nodoka turned to face the nurse, who nodded and left immediately, knowing another round of relaxants were probably in order. Nodoka kneeled down in front of her son and caressed his head. "Ranma, honey. Are you OK?"
Ranma grabbed Nodoka's arm and pulled it away from him. He looked up to face her and tried his best to read her eyes, but he just could not. Whatever they had given him to knock him out, was still lingering in him. "Akane, where is she?"
"Ranma, Akane…"
"RANMA! Are you OK?"
Ranma looked up and saw his dad running towards them. Seeing him sit next to them on the floor, and having asked the question twice without obtaining a response, Ranma knew he was getting nowhere, extremely fast. He stood up and pushed his parents out of the way as he wobbly walked through them and shakily made his way down the bright halls of Nerima Hospital, holding his weight against the walls.
"'Akane…where is she?"
"Ranma! Stop! You can't hold yourself up!" Genma screamed from behind him.
Ranma heard them approaching him, and he knew they were going to drag him back to the room. He focused as much as he could in gathering energy, and when he felt his parents were on his heels, he released his ki as a small whirlwind, blowing both parents away from him.
"AKANE! AKANE!" he began screaming her name, as he picked up his pace.
When he finally reached the corner, he saw a swarm of doctors running towards him. He stopped and extended his hands in front of him, ready to invoke the mother of all Shi Shi Hokodan he could conjure. "Stay away! I will blow this place to pieces!"
The medical staff, some of who had been watching the tournament at home, knew what Ranma was capable of. They stood there, unmoving, telling the other staff that the man in front them was dangerous. When Ranma saw that were not attempting to sedate him again, he spoke again. "Tell me where she is! Where is Akane?"
They all remained silent and stared at each other. One of the nurses, the newly acquired one, scratched his head, allowing his rookie status to show.
"Are you related to the patient?"
Ranma's anger rose even more, allowing further overriding of the after-effects of the drug he had been injected with. He slowly walked to the rookie while the other doctors just stared, none of them daring to stop him. Once he was close enough to him, he grabbed the nurse by his collar and pulled him closer to his face.
"She is as close to being my wife as you are to being sent to your grave, right now. Now, where is she?"
One of the doctors witnessing the scene walked up to Ranma and placed his hand on his shoulder. Ranma turned, ready to kick the living lights out of the man who dared touch him, but he quickly recognize the doctor as being the one that had treated him last time he was here. Ranma stared at the other man's hand still on his shoulder, but did not attempt to push him away. When the doctor saw that Ranma was willing to listen, he spoke.
"She's in the operating room. If you promise to calm down, I'll take you to her."
Ranma breathed heavily as he considered his offer. He stared at the other doctors and heard Nodoka behind him, pleading him to listen to the doctor's request. Once he realized he needed their help to find her, he dropped the rookie nurse and faced the doctor. "After you," Ranma said.
The doctor signaled to his colleagues to leave them alone, and the mob quickly scattered, not tempted at all to be the next in line to be beaten to a pulp. A couple of the other nurses lifted the man Ranma had scared enough to leave a wet mark on his pants, and dragged him away from the martial artist's grasp.
After a few minutes of following the doctor through the maze of halls, and seeing his parents walking next to the doctor, he realized that the doctor was being true to his word. "I'm sorry, Doc. I didn't mean to hurt anyone."
The doctor nodded, silently accepting his apology. He had been treating Ranma for two years once he was asleep, and when he had woken up, he had not seemed to be the random aggressive type. However, from the small conversations with his parents, the doctor knew that the man behind them had an incredible soft spot for his girl.
"I understand. Though, I must warn you that if you try to pull that off again, I will have to have you arrested."
Ranma nodded, now ashamed of his actions. When no one spoke to continue his reprimand, he made a quick jog to walk next to the doctor and his parents. "Can I see her?"
The doctor shook his head. "I'm afraid not. She has been in the operating room since she was brought here. She has some internal bleeding and we haven't been able to figure out where it's coming from."
Ranma's hopes shattered. No, he had not been dreaming, but the reality was not much better either. He silently followed the trio of adults until they reached the end of the hall. Ranma looked up and saw the hall ended with two double doors. Right before the doors, there was a row of plastic chairs attached to either wall of the narrow hall. Soun, Nabiki, Kasumi and Ono were now occupying the chairs.
Nodoka and Genma sat as soon as they arrived, while Ranma stood and rested his back against the wall. He took a moment to stare at the occupants of the makeshift waiting room, noticing the grim faces on all of them. He remained silent, paying special attention to all the side conversations they had, waiting for any of them to slip further details of Akane's health status. The doctor he knew had disappeared behind the doors a while ago, and had not come out since then. After a while, one of the nurses came out and called for assistance from the family. She carried a clipboard with a stack of papers, and a pen.
She took one of the chairs and began asking questions to anyone who would be able to answer them.
"Did she say she wasn't feeling well?"
"She had been throwing up a little, sometimes even blacked out, but we didn't think any of it. She has been under a lot of stress, working and studying full-time. We just thought she was tired," Kasumi stated.
Ranma closed his eyes, remembering the occasions he had witnessed the symptoms they just described. He felt guilty for not pressing for her to ask for a second opinion after she told him that Dr. Tofu's visit found nothing wrong with her. Even after she had told him something was medically wrong with her, he still let her fight Shigeru.
"Was she taking any prescribed medication?"
"No," Soun answered, this time.
"Did she do any drugs of any kind?"
"Never!" Kasumi stated, offended by the implication.
The nurse nodded and continued taking notes. "Is she sexually active?"
The room fell silent as they all turned to face Ranma. He felt the stares burn holes in him before he answered without even looking at them. "No, she isn't."
The nurse cleared her throat in an attempt to clear the tension that had gathered in the room before she continued her questioning. "Does she have a history of previous illnesses or surgeries?"
At this point, doctor Tofu interfered. "Ma'am, I'm sorry to be rude but we have already answered these questions before. You have her file, why are you asking them again?"
The nurse understood their frustration. She knew that asking these questions was pointless, but the doctors behind the doors were stumped. All they had been doing so far with Akane had been patch work, as none of them had a clue how she was losing so much blood.
"The doctors feel that we may be missing some vital information needed to properly treat her. They wanted me to dig deeper."
Ranma opened his mouth, ready to give the nurse a piece of his mind when another nurse appeared from the opposite side of the hall. "Nurse Takahashi! Nurse Takahashi!"
The nurse who had been asking those questions rolled her eyes as she stood up, excused herself, and met the younger nurse halfway. "I've told you not to scream like that! You're going to scare the patients!"
The younger nurse, who rested her weight on her legs as she caught her breath nodded. "I know, I'm sorry. The doctors in the OR asked for more blood, but we've run out."
Ranma's attention was caught when the older nurse, the one that had been called Takahashi turned around to face them. Akane's blood type was rare, same as her mom's, so she knew it was going to be difficult to be found. The nurse was at a loss as she stared at the faces of Akane's family, realizing they knew what this meant.
"What do we do, Takahashi?"
"What blood type do you need?" Ranma asked.
The younger nurse, just noticing his presence, narrowed her eyes at him. "Who's he?"
The older nurse, knowing Ranma's current short fuse, shushed the younger nurse immediately. Takahashi opened the file and showed him the type. Ranma read it before staring at Dr. Tofu. "Take mine."
Nodoka frowned, unaware that Ranma and Akane had the same blood type. She knew her son had a rare type, but the odds of matching Akane's was news to her.
"Ranma, you yourself lost a lot of blood at the tournament. You can't be losing some more so fast," Tofu argued.
Ranma growled as he walked up to the doctor, who was set on his argument. He knew that Akane needed the transfusion, but having his two closest patients hanging by a thread was something he was not going to be responsible for.
"I can't let her die because you're worried about me passing out. She needs me, and this is the only thing I can do for her right now other than being me lying on that table. Take my blood."
The older nurse, knowing the doctor was right but fearing for the girl in the OR shrugged when the doctor asked for backup on his argument. Dr. Tofu, seeing that no one was going to argue with Ranma, spoke again. "I'm sorry, Ranma. I can't recommend that. Your defenses will be low, leaving you open to…"
"I don't care. This is my fight now. I can't let her go like this."
Dr. Tofu crossed his arms. "What if the transfusion is unsuccessful and she dies, anyway? You'll be so weak after it that you won't be there to say goodbye."
Ranma felt the doctor's words strike a nerve. He weighted his options and decided that trying to save her life was better than to just sit here and cry like the rest of them. "I'll deal with that if the time comes. I don't need your approval, anyway," Ranma said as he turned around and faced the two nurses. "Let's do this."
The nurses nodded and led Ranma away from the waiting room, taking him to a small lab to draw his blood. The moment the blood started leaving his body, doctor Tofu's fears came true. Ranma began feeling dizzy and weak. He attempted to remain awake as long as he could, but soon the stress of the day took its toll on him, sending him to a dreamless sleep.
xxxXXXxxx
Ranma sat on an uncomfortable chair in the waiting room of the emergency room of Nerima hospital. Flashbacks of when he had woken up in this place, lost and confused, plagued his mind. Here he was again, but as a visitor, not a patient, and yet he felt that his life depended on the doctors and nurses that were treating Akane inside the operating room, behind the bolted doors. After he donated his blood for her, he passed out for several hours. Once he woke up, the nurses were quick to guide him back to join the family. When he arrived, he was surprised to see Ukyo among the stressed bunch. Other than a nod, he had not spoken to her, still upset that she had kept from him that she was engaged to the man he had just defeated. Yet, at this moment, he had better things to worry about.
He rubbed his face with his hands again, spreading the dried blood in his hands all over his face. Just hours ago, he had been celebrating his victory over Satoshi's school to obtain certification for the Tendo Dojo, and in a matter of seconds it had all been turned on itself. Here he sat, surrounded by family and friends, who were also on the edge of their seat, waiting for any news of the status of Akane's health. They had all been there for almost twelve hours, with nothing else than useless peeps coming from the doctors and nurses that precariously walked between them, inside and out of the operating room.
No amount of threats from Ranma would make them speak after he almost blew half of the medical staff caring for Akane to pieces when he first woke up, and he had almost punched one of the doctors on the face, but Genma and Soun had stopped him just in time.
He wanted to clean his arms and hands from Satoshi's blood, but he was afraid that the moment he left the room, Akane's surgery would stop and the doctor would come out of the OR. He debated with himself that if something happened, he would hear it, as the restrooms were just a few feet away from the OR, but his need to be there for her kept winning. After a while, and after reaching the end of his patience and disgust of carrying the other man's blood on his skin, he stood up without a word and locked himself inside the restroom. He turned on the faucet and poured exaggerated amounts of soap on his arms, and he began scrubbing vigorously, making sure no trace of Satoshi's fluids remained on his skin. Once he was satisfied with his work, he thoroughly rinsed his arms and hands before grabbing a handful of paper towels and patting himself dry.
He threw away the used paper towels on the trashcan before he unlocked the door and opened it just in time to hear the conversation between the main surgeon and Doctor Tofu.
"Thank you for your input doctor, we figured that with your years of treating her, you could shed some light on this unusual case."
Ranma watched as Tofu received a copy of Akane's file before the surgeon returned to the OR. Ranma ran towards them and yelled the surgeon to stop, but he had already locked the door behind him. Ranma stood in front of the door and began pounding on it, screaming at the top of his lungs that they could not continue keeping them in the dark before Nodoka pulled him away from the door, telling him they did not.
"What do you mean?"
Ranma looked at his mom, with fresh tears in her eyes and thought the worse. The other women in the group looked devastated, and the men in the group looked at a loss. Ranma's eyes fell on Dr. Tofu as he read the contents of the folder he had, before throwing himself at him and grabbing him by the collar, making the papers fly up in the air in complete disorder.
"Ranma, you have to calm down," the doctor said, not at all intimated by the man's stance.
"I don't gotta do shit! Tell me what's wrong with her! Is she gonna be alright?"
The doctor watched as Genma and Soun again played hospital police and peeled off Ranma from the doctor's clothes. They forced him to sit down as they all awaited the doctor's prognosis. Nabiki and Ukyo helped gathered the mess of papers and placed them in some kind of order before handing them back to Ono.
"Ranma," he began, knowing that everyone had an idea of what was happening, except the young man sitting across him. After Ranma had passed out after his blood donation, they had all began discussing their knowledge of Akane's issues. Bringing all their ideas together, they slowly began discovering the real reason behind Akane's odd behavior and symptoms. Exchanging ideas and secrets they had all kept from each other, they were able to help the doctors figure out what was wrong with their unusually ill patient.
"Do you know what happened to Akane's mom?"
Ranma scoffed, not finding the connection whatsoever between Akane's mom and Akane's condition. He threw his arms in the air to show his lack of interest in the topic at hand before responding to the doctor.
"No. She died? Right?"
Tofu nodded. "How familiar are you with the circumstances of her death?"
Ranma made a face, growing frustrated with the doctor's attempt at avoid the subject. "I don't know."
"Did Akane ever mention anything to you?"
"No."
"Did you ever ask her?
"NO! Why is this relevant?"
The doctor turned to Nodoka who shook her head. He then turned to Kasumi who also shook her head. The doctor rubbed his forehead in anticipation of what was to come.
"Akane's mom died when Akane was very young."
"I know that much," Ranma spat.
"I thought you said you did not ask her. Were you never curious?"
"I didn't! Doc, come on! What was I supposed to say? 'Hey Akane, lovely weather! By the way, how did your mom buy the farm?'"
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what do you mean?"
"Akane's mom died of an unknown disease."
"OK."
"She had been ill for a few months before she passed. She began exhibiting prolonged and sporadic symptoms of common illness; coughing, fever, vomiting. She never thought much of them, so she would take medicine to treat the symptoms and she would soon forget them after they were gone. A few weeks after, the medicine was no longer stopping the symptoms, and she began experiencing periods of drowsiness, dizziness and morning nausea. Being still in her prime, she obviously thought…."
"That she was pregnant," Ranma finished for the doctor, painfully remembering how Akane had been labeled as a whore when she was thought to be with child.
"Right. She and Soun had tried having a boy, and after three daughters, they had finally given up hope. She was thrilled with the possibility that she could bear a son for Soun, so she hid her symptoms for a few weeks until she was able to test herself for pregnancy. She wanted to give them a son to heir the dojo in case…"
"In case me and Akane didn't like each other. I get that."
"Sadly, the pregnancy results came back negative."
Ranma stared at the doctor, not being able to piece together what he was trying to say. He saw Nodoka trying to avoid his gaze, as did Kasumi, both carrying a look of guilt on their faces. He then looked at the doctor, who had a serious look on his face as he held Akane's file.
He noticed that one else seemed shocked at this information, as if they were already aware of it. It was then he realized that he was the last one being told what truly was happening to Akane after all this time.
"Doctor, are you trying to tell me Akane is sick, like her mom?"
The doctor nodded. Ranma looked down at the floor, repeating to his mind the information he had just been given. He searched his mind for all the indications that Akane was sick, and it was not until then that he realized how blind he had been. Of course, it was more than just low blood count and all the other shit she told him, he could not even remember right now!
His mind brought to him the handful of occasions she had been dizzy or nauseous, and how many time she had thrown up. He remembered their first date and how she had thrown up after they had eaten Indian food, and how she and he both had attributed it to an upset stomach. He then remembered when they babysat Kasumi's twins and she got a fever, and how they had blamed it on the chicken pox. He remembered how he had forced her to go see the doctor after their graduation party, since she remained ill. Then, he remembered how she had thrown up nonstop, the night before the tournament, saying she was just nervous and possibly stressed, and he had still let her fight.
He berated himself for not going with her to the doctor. He should have been there with her, pushing for answers to her random symptoms. He should have done something about it, against her will. If only he had known…if any of them had known…
"Wait." Ranma thought.
After another moment of silence, his mind hit him with a realization. He stood up and walked to his mother. She knew the moment she saw the anger on his face that he had finally figured it out.
"Ranma, I can explain…" she attempted to calm his fury before it exploded in her face.
"YOU KNEW ABOUT THIS, DIDN'T YOU?"
"Ranma, I just thought she was…"
"PREGNANT! Yes, I know! You were taunting her me and her about it, when there wasn't even a chance in hell that she could be pregnant!"
"Well, you never denied that you and her…"
"To piss you off! I'd never dishonor her like that!"
Nodoka lowered her head, ashamed of her actions. He then looked at Kasumi, who was biting her nails, raw.
"And you! Her own sister? You knew too, didn't you?"
"Ranma," Kasumi began, "she made me promise, made all of us promise, not to tell you."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ALL OF YOU?" he said as he looked around and realized everyone had known something was terribly wrong with her, except him.
"How could you? You left me in the dark, not knowing she was suffering behind my back? I had to drag it out of her two nights ago, but you could have told me when it mattered to save her life!"
"But, Ranma, how could you not know? It was obvious she was sick!"
"Not to him, it wasn't," Nabiki said, jumping to his defense. "You know how Akane is; I bet she hid herself when she felt sick so Ranma wouldn't suspect a thing."
Ranma rubbed his face with his hands, knowing that had been exactly what she had done for months. "Why? Why did she do that to me?"
"She wanted to tell you, but after the tournament. She didn't want you to worry about her on top of everything else."
"She did! She did tell me, but I didn't think it was this bad. Did she truly think that I'd care more about the fucking tournament than her life?"
"No. But she knew what was at stake, and none of us thought that it was truly serious. We just thought that…"
"She was pregnant, I know! But, she never was. There was no way she was…or is."
Ranma's fists trembled in anger. He kicked the closest chair, making it hit the ceiling and break upon landing. He then turned back to Tofu and spoke. "So, what happened to Akane's mom?"
"Her symptoms worsened until she began coughing up blood," he said.
Ranma took his hand to his chest, feeling his heart crunch up.
"Just like Akane did, last night," Ranma said, wondering if that had been the last chance to save her; the last chance he had had to putting the pieces together and sending her straight to the hospital to save her life. However, he had not. None of them had. Instead, he rubbed her back as she threw up in their hotel room before letting her fight the next day. He just sat there and watched as she exerted herself, winning the fight that would open the doors for him to defeat the last school that stood in the way of their certification. He just, literally, pushed her to her limit and sent her on her merry way to die.
"Indeed. One day, Soun came home and found her on the floor of the kitchen, convulsing and spitting up foam."
Ranma closed his eyes and recalled the familiar scene the doctor had just described, as it had unfolded in front of him last night. His mind began making bigger connections, finally understanding where the doctor was leading with his story.
"What happened after that?"
"She was hospitalized, just as Akane is now. The doctors could not find anything wrong with her, and why she wouldn't stop bleeding inside. A couple of days after being admitted, her heart stopped."
Ranma fell to his knees and held his body weight as he lay on all fours. He heard the noises of defeat coming from his family and he knew exactly what Tofu was conveying to him.
"Doctor Tofu," Ranma began, swallowing the knot in his throat before attempting to speak again. "Are you telling me that this is the last time I'll speak with Akane?"
The doctor remained silent for a while, staring at the file in front of him. After a long pause, he closed the folder and crouched down to stand at Ranma's level. He placed a hand on Ranma's shoulder, feeling him shiver under his grip.
"I'm telling you that if you –any of you, have something to tell her, you should do it now."
Ranma heard the loud sobs of Akane's sisters and her dad, and felt his soul tear in two. He knew what the doctor meant. Whenever he saw Akane again, there would not be any two-sided conversation. There would only be a teary goodbye from them to her. If they were lucky, she would still be alive, and could perhaps hear their voices in her unconscious stage. More likely at this point, the doctor was preparing them to pour their feelings out to a cold body, deprived of all life.
"Just as it was in Jusendo. Her cold body in my arms."
The only difference was that there would not be a final attempt to end their lives. There would not be another miracle bringing her back to him. There would not be another long stretch of fear and hope, waiting for her to return from the battlefield. There would not be another chance. He had been given his last chance, and his chance ended now.
How could it end like this? Her illness seemed so out of place! They had just finished high school, had been admitted to college, and had just earned their certification for the dojo. How could it all be for naught?
Ranma's thoughts were interrupted when he heard screaming coming from the OR.
"WE'RE LOSING HER!"
Ranma's eyes looked around as he saw a pair of nurses running towards the OR, rolling a defibrillator with them. Ranma stood up and ran after them, punching and kicking anyone who tried to stop him. He stood inside the OR, watching Akane's fla line, and the doctors trying to revive her. No one attempted to remove him from the room, recalling the earlier incident in the hall. He was not doing anything, anyway. He was just standing there, watching the scramble of doctors and nurses racing to save her life.
"CLEAR!" one of the doctors said as he shocked Akane's chest with what looked like two smooth metal plates. Akane's body slightly arched with the intensity of the shock. Her heart beat one time and flatlined again. The doctor stared at the flatline and rubbed the metal plates together before yelling his orders again.
"We'll do it again. CLEAR!"
Her body had the same response. He saw the doctors shock her five more times, stopping every time to see the small beep on the monitor and the continuous flatline that followed. They attempted five more times until they finally gave up, turned off the defibrillator, and gave Ranma a sympathetic look. At that point, they did not bother making him leave the room as they began leaving themselves.
"Time of death: 2:25 a.m."
Ranma took small steps towards her, not believing she was gone. Her eyes were closed, making her seem as if she was only asleep. She wore a hospital gown, which was in complete disarray after the chaos that had just occurred. The blanket that had been covering her lay sideways, half on her body and half hanging from the table. He noticed the scratch marks that covered her body, some of them still dripping blood. She had a few bruises on her face that he did not remember seeing there before, perhaps earned when she fell on the floor of the lockers at the stadium.
Ranma grabbed her hand as if doing so would make her stay in this world. He caressed random places of her body, as if attempting to convince himself that she was truly gone this time. After a few seconds, the initial shock was replaced by anger, and he began screaming at the doctors to stop.
"Where the hell do you think you're going? Shock her again!"
"Son, she's gone," one of the doctors said, tired and defeated after hours of being stuck in this room, attempting to win at a lost cause.
"No, she's not. Shock her again," Ranma said as he handed the metal plates to whoever would grab them. When no one did, he got on his knees and began to beg. "Anyone, please. Please, shock her again! I can't…" Ranma said, sobbing deeply as he did. He looked up at Akane and shook the table she laid on, attempting to wake her up.
"Akane, what makes you think you can just leave me?"
He again begged to the departing doctors to help her, but they paid no heed to him, knowing nothing else could be done. When he finally accepted that everyone in there thought their job was completed, he stood up and unplugged the metal plates from the machine. He proceeded to turn on the machine and stared at Akane.
"You're not getting away that easily, Akane! I'm NOT letting you go without a fight!"
One of the nurses saw him throwing the plates to the floor seeing as he could not figure out how to make them work. She tried to stop him, but he kicked her out of his way before placing a firm grip around the defibrillating machine. Seeing his aggression had escalated yet again, other doctors tried to stop him as they made time for security to arrive. He screamed as he gathered enough of his aura to send them flying away from him before placing an open palm on Akane's heart.
He closed his eyes as he concentrated in reproducing the technique Akane had been teaching him. He felt the energy from the machine run through his arm, across his chest and reach the hand that was pressing on Akane. With a sound of pain coming from his lips from the energy running through him, he channeled the energy to shock her heart.
Not being able to control the intensity of the shock, Akane's back arched so high it almost made her seem like she was sitting upright. Akane's heart beat once, and then flat lined, just as before.
"Akane! Come back!"
He shocked her again, and the heart monitor's activity did not change. He saw that his effort had not paid off, so he tried again, and again, and again, until he had shocked her a dozen times, non-stop. Exhausted from the efforts, and losing control of his spasmy muscles due to the electricity traveling through him, he slid down to the ground, holding her hand as he did so.
"Akane," he said between sobs.
The members of the family and medical staff could only look at the man on the floor. His clothes were torn, and he sobbed uncontrollably, his laments sending shivers down all of their spines. He cried, shamelessly. He cried with all his might. He cried, and screamed, and cursed and sobbed. The pain was unbearable to him.
"Akane, don't leave me! Akane! I love you, Akane. Please don't leave me behind!"
Nodoka could not bear the scene and held on to Genma, crying her eyes out. The two Tendo sisters and Ukyo hugged each other, attempting to comfort the other. Soun laid on the floor, on all fours, tears streaming from his eyes. Dr. Tofu rested against a wall, hiding his pain from the mourning family behind him.
"Akane," he whispered, thinking of ways of taking his own life. He could not go on without her, not all over again. It had nearly killed him the first time. He knew he could not do it all over again.
His grip on her hand became tighter than he thought possible. He kissed her hand before placing it on his chest, near his heart. He used both hands to crush her hand in his as a new wave of pain surfaced. "Akane, wait for me. I'll be with you now." He thought as he began gathering his energy to stop his own heart.
BEEP.
He remembered all the times they had spent together, and thought about how they would never come back.
BEEP.
He felt his body become cold at the thought of not feeling her hands explore his body again.
BEEP BEEP.
He remembered himself kissing her, and how her lips tasted on his, every time.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
His mind showed him a slideshow of her face, her smile, he heard her voice and it soothed what he felt were the last moments of his life. When he gathered enough energy, he felt the grip of her hand tighten one last time, only that he was not doing the tightening. He opened his eyes and saw that her fingers were moving. He released the energy he had gathered and it made the guards who had just recovered and were aiming back at him, be sent flying backwards yet again.
He saw her hand shaking in his, and it was then he realized the heart monitor was no longer flat lined.
"A-Akane?
He stood up and saw her eyes fluttering open, looking confused of her whereabouts. The beep he had been hearing had not been his own heart readying for its premature death; it had been her heart returning her back to Earth.
She opened her mouth to say something, but her mouth was dry. He leaned closer to her and rested his face on her chest, relishing as it moved up and down.
"She breathing…she's alive."
The doctors were finally able to get closer to her and stood there with their mouths open, unable to believe what had just happened. One doctor began taking note of her vitals and shrugged to his colleagues. "It's incredible, she's alive and stable!"
"How can this be? What did you do to her?" asked one of the doctors to Ranma, who now had half of his body on hers, holding on to her for dear life.
Akane cleared her throat and whispered an answer to the confused medical staff.
"It was Ranma. He showed me the way back."
Ranma cried again, this time tears of relief as he looked up and saw her looking into his eyes. He did the only thing he could think of that he wanted to do at the time. He kissed her hand, and then held her head in place with his other hand.
"Akane Tendo, I love you."
Akane smiled, happy that the journey back had been worthwhile. The doctors began calling orders around, orders that Ranma did not care to worry about. The nurses made haste to clean up the OR, and the doctors told the security guards to leave. The family who moments ago had just been readying to hold a funeral for Akane, again, hugged each other, happy to see the younger Tendo sister alive. Ranma heard the doctors talking about discharge papers, and other medical jargon he truly did not give a damn about. All he cared was that Akane was alive. He closed his eyes and before exhaustion took over, he heard Akane calling his name, thanking him for saving her life.
Akane closed her eyes, also exhausted after the ordeal, never letting go of his hand. She did not think she would make it back after being out of her body for so long. It had been just as it had been in Jusendo, only worse. With a last calming breath, she allowed her body to relax and sleep to take her over. One final thought crossed her mind as she felt the doctors taking both of them to be cleaned up.
"Ranma Saotome: He finds impossible solutions, to impossible problems, all the time."
A/N: Like?