Chapter 8……Downfall

"Kimiko pulled up to a front desk where two ladies were searching through folders. Kimiko said something to them in Japanese and Rai and Jack shrugged. They followed her down a white hallway. People in wheelchairs passed them. Raimundo smelt hospital smell and couldn't believe that he had been in so many of these lately. He looked in a door window to see and mother of a child crying on his bed. Kimiko walked up to a door while Rai and Jack sat in two of the three available chairs as she talked to a doctor. Raimundo saw her crying and instantly knew what had happened. She sat next to him and he hugged her. She didn't hug back she just sat weak in the chair but didn't want him to let go. He sensed this and didn't let go until the doctor came back about an hour later. Rai let go as she followed the doctor into a room. Jack was playing with a piece of hair and obviously didn't know why he was here.

In the hospital room………

"D-D- Dad," she said leaning down beside him. His eyes were slightly opened and his heart monitor went slowly.

Sweat dribbled down her forehead as his mouth started to open. He was bound to die she had assumed that when the doctor told her what all had happened.

"Kimi make me prou…" he said slowly and drifted off towards the end.

The heart monitor went straight and she sat their on the ground for a second staring at his dead body. She wanted to slap it and she walked out breathing and sat down next to Raimundo. She started bighting her thumbnail until she caught her breath. She looked at Rai and then over at Jack.

"Raimundo we need to talk,"

"What is it Kim,"

"I have to marry Jack,"

She turned away from his face and started to cry again.

"Kim no you don't what's going on?" he asked using his muscles to turn her to him.

She waited a minute to say anything and still looked down at the ground even though he had control of the rest of her body, "Rai my dad just died, she started to cry again, "and the last words he said were for me to make him proud and the only way I can do that is to marry Jack."

He wrapped her up into a hug even though she had just said that. Jack opened his mouth like he was about to say something but quickly shut it. Raimundo looked at her and smiled, he wiped her tears again with his thumb.

"Kimiko knowing my father he'll call it off without your dad theirs no future for the company anyways, in his opinion."

"Thanks Jack but he'll want to get married more because then you'll take over the company, wow I lost the company, my dad, and the love of my life all in one day life couldn't get much worse I think,"

She wanted to say so much but couldn't. If her dad was still alive and well maybe he would have understood how important Raimundo was to her and just let her be. There was a lump in her throat that wouldn't go away no matter how hard she swallowed. More tears fell from her eyes as Raimundo kissed her. Jack wasn't jealous in the least bit which made her sad in a way to. She had to at least make the best out of this marriage and here another man was kissing her and Jack didn't care.

"Umm I'm going to go get something to drink and I'll be back please don't leave me here I can't walk that far," he said walking away but something fell out of his pocket,

"Jack you dropped this," Kimiko said noticing he was to far away for him to hear her.

She flipped it over and there was a picture of his girlfriend and him. On the back it said, "I love you Jack , XoXo Ashley."

Raimundo put his hands on her shoulder and peered over at it.

"Oh so Jack had a girlfriend," Raimundo said.

Kimiko couldn't help but roll her eyes at the comment. Jack came back carrying three sodas and gave one to everyone. Jack started to look okay to her. He wasn't as tall, tan, or muscular as Raimundo but he had a unique look. Raimundo knew he had to stop wrapping her arms around her but it was hard. To him she was his raven haired beauty and he didn't want to share her. Kimiko's tears had let up and she could finally breathe. The doctor came back into the room and came out of the room shaking his head until he saw Kim. He pulled her back over and they had to arrange funeral processions.

"What do you want to do with his body Ms. Tohomiko?" the doctor asked her starting to write on his clipboard.

"Well umm I'd umm like to get him cremated and then umm well keep his ashes."

"Okay are you going to have a funeral at all?"

"No, no daddy didn't have to many friends." She whispered.

He wrote things down and shook her hand. She looked at her dad one last time and a flood of anger went through her. She walked back over to them and Rai had a gleeful smile across his face as she walked. Jack didn't pay any attention to her. She had to limit her cons and focus on the pros of Jack, it was seriously hard with Raimundo sitting right next to him. Kimiko drove them down to a little restaurant. She thought most of the time about anyway to cancel the wedding. So far as everyone had known it was on for good this time but she had other plans.

"Kim you look like your thinking really hard wanna tell us what it's about?" Raimundo asked showing off his nosy side.

"What I'm not what?" she said barely hearing a word of what he said.

He nodded and then went back to talking to Jack. Kimiko had to pick up her dad's ashes two days before the wedding which was creeping up surprisingly fast. She would have liked a traditional wedding with few guests and in a church. But instead she had to wear a kimokno and these terrible shoes. The wedding was placed outside in a garden. She did have to admit when she saw it was gorgeous but wished the guy she was marrying wasn't Jack.

"Rai your still coming to the wedding right?" Kimiko asked.

"Yes of course!" he said grabbing her hand which was lying on the table just waiting to be held.

It didn't fell the same he hadn't rubbed his thumb over her knuckles and he let go right away. They left and Kimiko invited them both in to spend the night or the rest of the week since her dad wasn't ever going to come in and stop her. Everything he owned was hers now, even the factory which she would have to shut down for awhile or forever. No she couldn't she just wasn't going to be over obsessive about work like her father was ever since third grade. She yawned and lay down on Raimundo's lap with her feet across Jacks. She knew Rai was off limits but it could have been an accident. They fell asleep sitting up because they couldn't move with her in that position. The next morning she was unsurprisingly the first one up. Raimundo was a late sleeper and Jack seemed pretty tired the night before. She got up slowly trying not to wake them and put a blanket in place. She yawned and walked into the kitchen. She sent all the maids and stuff home paying them as they walked out the door.

"Hmm one big house, two boys in my living room, and some socks, now what can we do with these? Slide around the house!" she said running upstairs. She slid around everywhere until Jack came up and she quickly stopped. He passed her and started the coffee pot and then a minute later Raimundo popped out. He looked down at Kim who was wearing knee socks she had gotten a long time ago. He shook his head and sat at the table. She pulled the socks of fast and through them in the plant standing next to her and checked her hair. She walked into the kitchen and sat opposite sides from Rai well Jack brought over the coffee pot and three mugs. Her cell phone rang and it was Kieko.

"Hey Kieko what's up,"

"There's a huuu-gge sale!"

"Oh my god! No way let's go,"

"Totally! When?"

"Well soon otherwise good stuff will be out," she looked at the two boys and then asked, "Can I bring two other people?"

"Sure whatever I don't care I'll pick you up in like a half an hour bye,"

"Boys were going shopping so get ready it's a 5 bathroom house ya'll can go any one you want but mine because I'll be in their."

She grabbed something out of her closet and put her hair up and brushed her teeth. The boys were waiting outside for her and she ran outside. Kieko's car pulled up and Kim got into the front and Rai and Jack sat in the back. They arrived at a cute strip mall with one big store. It wasn't to crowded and they easily got through. Raimundo and Jack held all the bags automatically. Then Kieko came back to the house. The wedding was only four days away and it was way to soon. As she laid in her bed later that night with Kieko in the room next to her and Jack and Rai in the two other rooms she became slightly confused. When she was little she would have been devastated that her dad died but now she was sort of glad. She didn't understand why she had decided to make her father happy even though she would have to trade the company over to Jacks dad anyway. She sighed noticing the sun rising already. Last night they had stayed up incredibly late and new that everyone was going to have a mild hangover. She fell asleep and woke up to the noise of Kieko stumbling around in her bathroom. Kieko could become a heavy drinker sometimes but only when she was around friends.

Kimiko knocked on the bathroom door and asked, "Kieko are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine just a little hangover, hey you got any headache medicine or whatever?"

"Yeah it'll be down on the kitchen table when you need it," Kimiko said leaving her to be then she scurried over to Raimundo's room where the door was slightly cracked. She knocked on it.

He came to the door in his boxers and she couldn't help but bite her bottom lip and how hot he looked. "Oh hey Kim come on in I'm just getting dressed."

He opened the door a bit and she walked in. That room had been the main guest room until they had built onto the house so it was furnished nice. Rai seemed to have little to no hangover but then again he could drink a ton and nothing would happen.

"I just came to check since well one isn't doing so well," she said thinking about poor Kieko.

"Oh yeah I'm fine you know me, you okay?" he asked sweetly.

"Yeah I'm fine I'm going to go check on Jack." She said taking one last glance back at him.

Jack's door was opened fully and she walked downstairs. He, to her surprise was making breakfast already and had set the table. She stood at the door way watching him flip pancakes. He was humming a familiar song until he noticed her. The pancake fell right in his hair and she looked worried.

"I'm fine," he said throwing it in the trashcan.

"You get up early don't you?" she said.

"Yeah I guess so who all is joining us for breakfast?" he asked remembering the small party they had, had the other night.

"I think everyone but Kieko," Kim said looking down at her freshly painted toenails.

"Oh I like your friend she's nice, I think I know a recipe that cures hangover just let me check."

He dug out a PDA close to Kim's but in a different color and pressed a few buttons.

"Yup I knew it I'll start making some now,"

"Jack you are way to nice!" she said smiling

She walked back upstairs and pulled on a skirt. All she had on was a tank top and decided to throw a low cut shirt over it. Jack walked up the stairs and knocked lightly on her door. She opened and he held a steaming drink in his hands. He handed it over to Kim and then left to go back to breakfast.

"Kieko open up," Kim said handing her the drink.

"What the hell is this?" she asked looking down at it.

"It's something that should cure your hangover; it was made by our own little chef Jack."

She chugged some of it down and shivered but then her eyes grew perky.

"Oh my god my stomach feels so much better now he's good!"

"So then you'll be joinging us for breakfast?"

"Yeah but I probably won't eat much,"

Kim grabbed her hand and drug her down the stairs where Raimundo was sitting reading a magazine and Jack was making more stuff for breakfast. He smiled at Kieko who mouth thank you to him.

Authors Note:

If you are sensing that Kieko and Jack have one of those minor crushes on each other I'll spare you the thought and just tell you they do... that info will come in handy maybe! I hope you liked that chapter in the next chapter or in two Kim is going to get kind of mean! Dum dum dum dum! So please review and I'll update soon!