Unbreakable Chains Chapter 2
After thinking, considering and working on this chapter I've finally gotten around to writing it! O.o I know what a surprise. Anyway thank you to everyone who's read and reviewed this so far, you guys rock and I hope you'll stick with me till the end, because at this point I think I know about as much as you do on where this story will go. I hope you guys enjoy chapter 2!
Shortly after introducing Dr. Sterling Dr. Hernolde dismissed the group to their various duties and asked Serena to give Dr. Hikari a tour of the place before excusing himself. After he'd left she'd introduced herself as Serena and both agreed that using first names between the two of them would be easier than titles and last names, except for when they were working with the others in their group.
Serena smiled to herself as she led Satoshi on a tour through the hospital, she was secretly happy that she finally had someone her age to work with. And it seemed like she and him would be on the same page knowledge wise since Satoshi was her partner leading the group of students and doctors. She didn't know much about him other than the fact that he was a genius who'd completed his schooling to become a doctor even quicker than she had and she was eager to get to know him.
As she pointed out different sections of the building Serena couldn't help but notice that unless she was speaking directly to him Satoshi seemed very distant. His whole manner had changed as soon as there wasn't a crowd to please, or at least that's what it seemed like. When she pointed at something to describe it he gave the object a passing glance and seemed to move on to the next subject, but if she asked him a question his attention was fully on her, like he'd been paying attention all along.
She was slightly disappointed by this because she'd hoped that since he seemed close to her in age they would possibly become friends. But his behavior seemed like he didn't really care about what she said, like this was all trivial to him.
Finally fed up with the whole charade she turned on him making Satoshi stop mid step in surprise. He took a moment to recover his balance and asked, "Yes?" politely as if someone turning suddenly to face him was commonplace.
This reaction only caused Serena's frustration to change into a flurry of anger, "What is with you?" she snapped releasing the words with everything that had built up in the fifteen or so minutes she'd been giving him the tour, "You've been completely different than when we were first introduced." She knew it was wrong to blame him for this seeing as they had only just met, but the turnaround was just too weird for her, too weird and too extreme.
Satoshi's expression at her outburst was one of shock, could he have not realized what he was doing? Serena wondered suddenly and her anger began to disappear as quickly as it had come.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you." Satoshi said slowly measuring his words, as if he knew whatever he said next would decide the course of their future relationship. "I…" he paused deciding whether or not to continue, "I've had a lot on my mind since moving here, I had a difficult time deciding whether or not to come." He finally said.
His response erased the rest of Serena's harsh feelings towards him leaving her both ashamed at her behavior and curious as to what he could have left behind that would bother him so much it interrupted his thoughts even at work. She shook her head, "No, I'm the one who should be apologizing, I shouldn't have snapped at you without stopping to understand your situation." Her tone was sincere and apologetic.
"Its fine, I should have been more attentive to your wonderful tour guide skills." He told her making a joke in hope of lighting the mood.
The joke worked making Serena chuckle, "Then allow me to continue to demonstrate that particular skill." She smiled. The rest of the tour went smoothly with no more outbursts. Satoshi paid more attention to what she was saying but he still seemed distracted. Serena let it slide thankful that he was at least trying.
When she parted from Satoshi at the end of the day she couldn't help but worry about him. Over the hours her curiosity at his odd behavior had changed from its initial irritation to and overwhelming need to know what was bothering him so badly, and if there was anything she could do about it. She knew she shouldn't but into his business. People told her all the time that she needed to mind her own business and stop trying to know everything about everyone.
But she couldn't help it. She had been doing better, staying quite when arguments broke out between family members of patients, leaving her co-workers alone, and she finally stopped pestering Dr. Hernolde about his first name (something he would tell no one, not even his superiors). But there was something about Satoshi that broke her resolve to do better, she was going to get to the bottom of his situation if it took her going to his old home to find out. She couldn't, absolutely couldn't, work with him and not know.
On his way home from the hospital Satoshi mentally berated himself for his clumsiness earlier that day. He hadn't meant to let his mind drift away from him, but something about the sterile white walls of the hospital made his mind wander. And wander it did. He'd fallen back into old memories, oddly enough they were memories of middle school. After Dark and Krad had been sealed away Satoshi had taken to walking to and from classes with Daisuke, they walked and talked together much like Serena had been with him earlier.
But those were the good memories, after that his mind had wandered to memories of dealing with his father after the museums collapse. Rescue teams had found him among other people buried in the rubble. The wound Kei had received from falling on the ax had put him in the hospital for weeks and Satoshi had had to take up most of his work. While doing so he'd discovered much about his adopted father that he'd never wanted to know.
His father had done more research and dug up more than probably even Satoshi could have on magic and the Hikari's. There were odd, terrible things hidden in his fathers office and once Satoshi had even found a book of black magic that had handwritten notes by his father in it. While his father had been hospitalized Satoshi had either hidden or destroyed all that he found hidden away, and when Kei returned to work he had been furious with Saoshi's meddling. The repercussions after that were terrible but Satoshi never regretted getting rid of his fathers research, only that he wasn't able to wipe the knowledge from his fathers mind.
He shook his head to clear it having reached his house. He didn't want to re-live memories that he'd so recently fallen back into. He was here to escape that he reminded himself again. Reminding himself of that was something he'd had to do far too often for his liking. He wished that he could just put everything behind him, but it seemed like it was going to take more work than just moving away from the source of the memories to accomplish that goal.
Entering his house his stomach growled and he made his way into the kitchen. In the excitement of his first day and with the tour he'd forgotten to eat lunch and his stomach was protesting. It had finally gotten use to being fed regularly and put up a fight every time Satoshi skipped a meal. For that he was surprisingly grateful. When he'd first decided to start eating right his stomach had rejected his first offers of regular meals. He'd gotten sick if he ate too much or anything too rich. But gradually his body started to accept the fact that it was no longer wasting away and it seemed like it wanted to catch up on lost time.
The first few months after Krad had disappeared he'd started growing, and growing, and growing. After a year without Krad Satoshi had gained at least 6 inches whereas before he hadn't grown properly in longer than he had cared to remember. He stopped being bone thin and actually gained some weight, not so much as to make him over weight but he finally stopped looking thin and fragile. He started jogging and working out and quickly got in shape. It was as if his body had been simply waiting for him to start acting human again so it could too.
Satoshi dug around in the fridge to see if he'd had any leftovers still in there and finding none he closed it and looked around his kitchen, he was well overdue to stock back up on groceries, but was he really out of anything worth eating for a meal? After checking a few cabinets he realized that yes he did have hardly anything left in his kitchen. With a sigh he lifted his car keys off a hook on the wall and decided to go out for dinner.
His car wasn't anything special to look at, he'd purchased a blue Nissan Ultima and it had been good to him ever since. Some would think that as a doctor he could afford something even better, but he'd decided to stick with what he had. A fifteen-minute drive took him to The Green Anchor, a small family run restaurant that was quickly growing to be his favorite one in town. The people there were friendly and it was a good place to either bring your family to or come alone.
Satoshi had the house special that seemed to change every time he came in. When it came he found that it was Spaghetti and Meatballs. One of the things Satoshi loved about the Green Anchor was the platter sizes, they always gave you so much food that nine times out of ten you ended up taking some home for the next day. It happened again tonight and soon he found himself leaving the restaurant with both a fully belly and a full take-out box.
When he got back into his car Satoshi decided that it would be safe to leave the food in his car while he did an emergency shopping run. He wouldn't have time tomorrow and he didn't want to find himself dinnerless again. He stopped at the grocery store close to his house and left his windows cracked open to let in the crisp night air as he went into the store.
Satoshi had just finished putting the last item in his shopping cart when he heard his name called. Surprised he turned to see Serena coming up to him with a smile on her face. "Why Dr. Hikari how nice to see you again." She waved.
Satoshi couldn't help it as a smile crossed his features as well, "Hello I thought we had decided that first names were easier than all those titles." He replied as she stopped by his basket. Serena herself was carrying a bag of apples and a sack of flour, and Satoshi vaguely wondered what she could be doing with those.
"That's right, I guess it just slipped my mind." She told him, "So what brings you here?" she asked eyeing his cart.
"Well as you can probably tell I'm in desperate need of groceries." He told her with a shrug, "I have a bad habit of forgetting to buy them." This time his tone was slightly sheepish, he really did let things like that slip his mind. Some days it seemed easier to diagnose a mystery patient than to remember to get more sugar.
"Ah, well I can see how that would slip your mind. I usually find myself coming back up here for things that I forgot to get the first time I came, like now for instance. I was just here not twenty minutes ago." Serena motioned with the apples and flour.
"So do you live close by?" Satoshi asked wondering if she'd had to drive far to retrieve the forgotten goods. As they talked both doctors made their way to the checkout stands at the front of the store.
She nodded at his question, "Yeah, I live a few blocks from here so its usually not too much of a bother to come back. What about you?" she asked.
"I live pretty close too." He replied. They had made it to the check stand and Satoshi let Serena go in front of him, she waited as he got his groceries then he walked her to her car, "Well I'll see you tomorrow." He said.
"Yeah, bye, and good night." She smiled one more time before getting into her car. Satoshi finished putting his groceries in his and headed home himself.
And that's it! I hope you guys enjoyed it! The next chapter will probably be back to the depressing feel of the first chapter, but who knows? Not me at least. ^.^