Maki sucked in a breath as she read over the injuries again.

Neck bruising, a stab wound, head bruising, which Maki suspected would be a concussion and multiple bruises over her body.

She sighed deeply and tapped the clipboard against her knee, trying not to gaze even in the general direction of either of her friends.

She couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible. She was weighed down with the constant thoughts of what she could have done to prevent this, and what she should have done instead of taking the day easy.

All she had to have done was do what Umi had said. Drop in. It wasn't hard. She could've stopped this and yet she didn't. She shook her head.

"What happened Kotori?"

She finally broke the deafening silence in the room and Kotori raised her head with a start, until she realised it was only a simple question.

"I got a phone call from Hanayo-chan. She sounded really scared. Then I heard a noise, Eli-chan's voice, and then… Nothing. The call cut off," Kotori stared down at her lap, "I then called the authorities and, well, now we're here."

"Right…" Maki paused for a second, "Can you do me a favour?"

Kotori nodded slowly.

"Call Nico and Umi, tell them to come here."

"It's really late Maki-chan."

"I know what time it is and I don't care!" Maki winced at herself as she rubbed her temple, "Look, just… Call them. Please. I'm sorry for raising my voice at you."

Kotori stood, "Okay."

Then, she laid a reassuring hand on Maki's shoulder, not saying a word more before she left, pulling up her contact list and sighing as she went back out into the biting Winter cold. She figured she would call Nico first, rubbing her stinging eyes before dialling the number.

Kotori groaned as it went to voicemail, but she wouldn't be beaten by an automated message, so she hung up and called the number again.

It took a lot of rings before a bleary voice answered on the other side, "Kotori? You know what time it is?"

"Yes Nico-chan, I know what time it is," She sniffed, "But this is more important than your sleep schedule."

"What is it then?"

"Listen, you… You need to come to the hospital."

"What? What's happened?" Her voice suddenly had a sense of urgency in it.

"It's… It's Hanayo-chan… Look, you just need to come, I really can't… Explain things over the phone."

"Right… Right! Yeah, I'll just… I'll be there in a bit. Nozomi will be too."

"Nozomi-chan too?" She paused, biting her lip, "Are you sure?" She hushed her voice, despite the fact she was outside with no one around.

"I can't just tell her to stay home, can I? When one of our friends is in hospital? Besides," This time, Nico hushed her voice, "She really needs this as a wake up call. That two of her best friends need help."

Kotori sighed at the word 'both'. Her attention had been so focused on Hanayo and about the current condition that she was in, but she had just about forgotten about Eli's problem. She couldn't bring herself to hate Eli, but that didn't mean that she was going to be exactly kind to her when she next saw her. But currently, Kotori assumed Eli was locked up in a drunk tank at this moment in time, and the victim of her was unconscious and needed more attention.

"I'll see you soon Nico-chan."

"See you soon."

As the call was hung up, Kotori mentally prepared herself for the next one. Standing around and making a call on a Winter night whilst outside a hospital was not only depressing, but various parts of her body were getting numb. So, with a sigh, she dialled Umi's number.

This time, Kotori didn't have to dial again, in fact, she was impressed how fast Umi had responded, deciding to be thankful as she rubbed her nose.

"Hello?"

"Umi-chan, I know it's late, but can you come to the hospital?"

"The hospital? Are you hurt?"

"I'm not hurt, no. But… Hanayo-chan is."

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Kotori could only imagine what filled it. If Umi was willing to slap her best friend turned girlfriend over quitting being a school idol that many years ago, God knows what she would be willing to do to Eli.

"Hanayo? Damn it…" Kotori heard a long breath over the phone, but it was gone soon enough, "I'll be there."

"See you."

"Honoka will have to come too. She's awake and I can tell she's stood in the doorway behind me and is going to want to know where I'm going, so…"

Kotori heard a faint voice through the phone which she assumed to be Honoka complaining about being called out which did something to relieve the tension. Honoka just seemed to have that effect and she let the first small smile of the night grace her features. But was Honoka being here really the best thing? She had no idea how she would react. She only hoped Umi would prepare her for what she was to see and find out about.

"Alright. Just… Make sure Honoka-chan doesn't make a scene or anything."

"I'll handle it. See you in a bit."

Kotori didn't know whether to be thankful when the two had hung up, on one hand, she got to go back inside, but on the other, she had to face what could only be described as one of the worst situations to be placed in in her life.

And it was all happening to the girl she had fallen in love with back in high school.

When Umi hung up the phone, she had no idea what to do. Rush into the car to go to the hospital, or stay back and explain to Honoka what was going on. She shook her head, she didn't have time to do one or the other, so she would simply have to do both at the same time.

Bustling Honoka into the car and promising to explain on the way, she began what should be an easy enough drive under different circumstances.

She didn't necessarily see Honoka as a child or as delicate, but this was something she much rather would have stayed with herself, Nico, Maki and Kotori and that they could have sorted things out and told everyone eventually, when nothing bad had come to pass and when both parties had gotten the help they needed.

But this was the worst possible thing to happen. They had realised too late and they hadn't done enough. In fact, Umi should have stayed for longer, she might have caught Eli, she might have been able to prevent this happening.

But Umi was a more practical person. The hypotheticals, whilst still invading her head, didn't matter. She had to pull through this, and possibly drag people through with her. She had done it before, she was sure she could do it again.

"Okay, so… What I'm getting so far is that we're going to the hospital and I don't know what else…" Honoka broke the silence with a frown, a frown Umi hated to see.

"Right… Hanayo is in hospital. Kotori was just on the phone to me."

"Kotori-chan? Shouldn't it be Eli-chan instead?"

Umi let out a long sigh as she thought of how to respond.

"Well there's… Something that's been happening without any of us really knowing until recently. Nico and Maki figured out that Eli probably had a drinking problem and that Hanayo had been taking abuse when she inevitably came home drunk."

"What?!" Honoka just about lurched forward in her seat, "Why wouldn't she tell us?!"

"Calm down," Umi sighed, "But love makes you blind. When all you see in front of you is the person you love, some people will continue to love them no matter what they do. Even if it affects them negatively. Or leads to something like this."

Honoka decided she couldn't come up with a rebuttal or anything like that, so she sat in her seat and mulled over, surprisingly calmly in Umi's opinion.

They fell back into an uncomfortable silence, and soon, they pulled up at the hospital.

Maki decided it was best to wait in the lobby seeing as Hanayo's condition was stable and she could gather herself before her friends arrived.

When Kotori came back in, Maki went outside to take a quick e-cig smoke to ease her nerves. She had seen a lot of things in her time as a doctor so far, but she never thought she would have to deal with this; with something happening to someone so close to her.

She leant on the front desk, sending her gaze to Kotori a few times. She knew moping wouldn't do much good, but at the moment, Maki was waiting for the moment Hanayo woke up. She had been unconscious for a while now, and even if she had been strangled, she wouldn't die from that. Her stab wound had been bandaged and the bruising didn't appear to be causing any internal bleeding. Hanayo was lucky on that count, she supposed.

It didn't take too long for one of the two cars to pull up, belonging to Nozomi and Nico, shortly followed by Umi and Honoka.

Although Maki felt like she wanted to lie down and hibernate for the rest of Winter, she propped herself up on her own two feet and went to do the nasty business of greeting them under such circumstances. Kotori raised herself up a bit, but otherwise remained sat down.

When the four of them inevitably entered, something Maki wished they would never have to do, Nico was the first to demand an explanation for what was going on.

Maki awkwardly cleared her throat and began that difficult process, "As Kotori explained over the phone, or, well, I hope she did," Maki glanced at her for only a second, "Hanayo has been admitted to hospital over some non-lethal, but nonetheless serious injuries."

"Can we see her?" Umi asked.

"I'm going to wait until she wakes up, which shouldn't be too long. I don't think she'll want people crowding her."

As if on cue, a nurse came over to tell Maki that her patient was waking up. She gave one final glance towards the rest of them before heading off in the direction of the room down the hall.

When Hanayo woke up, she wasn't entirely sure where she was. She was groggy and her eyes were more blurry than usual. But as her mind cleared and things adjusted, she saw a nurse at the end of her bed, who immediately went over to ask her a few questions.

"Do you know where you are?"

She shook her head.

"You're in the Nishikino family hospital, okay? Don't panic, you're safe here."

Safe from…?

"Do you remember what happened?"

Hanayo was hit nearly full force with what had happened; when she had the flashes of what her memory had put together.

The nurse only managed a sympathetic smile, "I'll go and get Doctor Nishikino."

Hanayo nodded blankly and resorted to fiddling with the edge of her bedsheet as she mulled things over in her pounding head. But she wasn't able to get very far.

"Hey, Hanayo?"

Maki had just entered the room wearing something that she probably thought was neutral, but even in the way she was, Hanayo knew it was poorly masked worry.

"Are you feeling alright?"

Hanayo sighed, but wore a tired smile, "I'm fine."

Maki's hand fiddled with the metal clasp of the clipboard she was still holding, having to stop herself from making a comment that could be probably considered not helping at all, especially not to Hanayo's condition.

"Right. How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts… And I feel tired," She said, her voice slightly raspy.

"Mm…" Maki grunted and scribbled something down, before keeping an unpleasantly long pause, "Listen… We need to talk about how this happened. Later though. Right now, you have some visitors if you want to see them."

"Who are they?"

"Kotori, Umi, Honoka, Nozomi and Nico."

"Where's Eli-chan?"

Maki bit back a venomous word or two, "I'm… Not sure. I think Kotori might have an idea."

Hanayo appeared to be confused as to why Kotori would know the location of Eli, but she didn't comment on it, "Rin-chan?"

"At home. I could call her if you want."

"I think she should know…"

Maki couldn't argue with that.

"Do you want anyone to see you?"

"Well…" Hanayo couldn't help but pause, "I don't want to worry them…"

Maki sighed and drew up a chair, "Look… If anything, this isn't what's going to worry us. I'm going to tell you something. Nico's been worried about you, I have and a little more recently, Umi has as well. Nico figured out what was happening."

There was a look that Hanayo gave her, and if Maki dared to read further, she would probably find the question, 'Why didn't you do anything then?'

"We only confirmed what was happening until it was too late… In fact, this was our confirmation. I'm sorry."

Maki avoided her gaze whilst Hanayo let out a long sigh, which soon turned to a pained cough.

"It's alright… It's not your fault."

"I think they want to see you. I'll call Rin as well."

"What about Eli-chan?"

There were those venomous words again.

"I… I don't think I can let her in here. I can't do it in your best interests."

"What does that mean?"

Maki knew Hanayo was a difficult person to refuse in the very few occasions she did ask for something.

"She did this to you. I can't let her in here in good conscience."

Hanayo shook her head, "She didn't do this."

Maki's already thinning patience was cut even shorter, "You think she didn't?"

"She was drunk; it wasn't her fault."

"Hanayo," Maki's voice was low and cautionary, "That is not a healthy way to think. I don't want to think that she did it either, but this isn't a situation where it's no one's fault and you just magically turned up in a hospital bed. I acknowledge; alcohol changes a person, but she made the sober choice to drink."

She shook her head again, "She was always sorry…"

"Hanayo - who made the decision to drink when she knew what would happen to the one she loved? When she knew it would change her? When she knew that… Something like this would inevitably happen?

"I know how difficult this must be for you… And if you really want Eli to be able to see you, I won't stand in your way. You just have to understand that… She's not an angel in this situation."

Hanayo remained silent, but soon she managed to mumble, "If she comes… I want to see her.

Maki sighed, but she had made a promise, "Alright… What about the others? Do you want to see them?"

"Could you send Nico-chan in first please…? I feel like I need to talk to her first."

Maki stood and put the chair back where it was, "Yeah. I'm sure she wants to talk to you too."

She then left the room to send Nico inside and to make a quick phone call to Rin.