Yamato, with Sora tagging along behind him, rushed into the hospital and descended upon the unsuspecting receptionist sitting on the other side of the desk. She was quite unaware that she was the only one sitting between one thoroughly panicked older brother and his younger brother (who he had thought was dead for a little while just months ago) only to find out today that he had collapsed and was in the hospital. He had a brief sudden urge to punch Taichi, and couldn't think of why for a moment (despite their fights when they were younger, he usually had a pretty good reason these days before he actually decked his best friend) until he remembered Taichi's words from last night. Of course as soon as Taichi thought nothing could go wrong and voiced that opinion out loud, something would go wrong. Jyou was always telling them not to say "it could be worse" because it usually got worse from there. Yamato was beginning to think he had a point.

"Can I help you?" the unfazed receptionist asked. Yamato was glad at least that she wasn't smiling and trying to be cheerful. He wasn't exactly sure what his face looked like, but he knew from experience that he wasn't very good at controlling his emotions when it came to Takeru.

Luckily Sora was there to keep him as calm as possible. She placed a hand on his arm before she spoke to the receptionist. "We're looking for the room of Takeru Takaishi. He was admitted this afternoon."

"All right," she replied and turned to her computer and began typing. She asked for Sora to spell the last name, which she gladly supplied. "He's in room C-121," she told them. "Go up to the third floor and the desk can direct you from there."

Sora thanked her and nudged Yamato in the ribs with her elbow. He breathed out a "thanks", rubbing his side certain that Sora did not have to prod him that hard. They walked to the elevator and took it up to the third floor. Once there, they got more instructions from another receptionist. Yamato suddenly found himself at the door to where his brother lay. Neither of the receptionists had given any indication of what Takeru's status was, but Yamato thought that it couldn't be that bad if they were allowing visitors. He walked into the room.

Takeru was laying on the bed, hooked up to an IV and an oxygen tube. It pained Yamato deeply to see his brother lying so still and pale. Ken was sitting in the chair to his side and looked up when Yamato and Sora walked in. Ken's face broke into his small smile, and Yamato sighed in relief. Ken wouldn't be smiling if Takeru wasn't going to be okay.

"He'll be fine, they say," Ken said without being prompted as he stood to walk over to them. "They managed to bring his temperature down and regulate his breathing." He frowned. "They haven't said it outright to me, but I think they are a little worried that he hasn't regained consciousness yet, despite that they have his fever under control. They want to keep him overnight, in any case, to keep him under observation."

Yamato nodded. "Thank you, Ken, for being here with him."

Ken ducked his head shyly. "That's what friends are for, right?" he said, softly. He edged past them while he said, "If you'll excuse me, now that you're here, I'll just go."

"You don't have to leave, just because we're here," Sora was quick to assure him.

"Oh no, it's fine," Ken replied. "Miyako will probably want to hear everything about it anyway, and I have to get home before my mother worries too much."

Sora nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll let you know of any changes," she said.

Ken nodded one last time before he slipped out of the room and closed the door behind him. Yamato walked over to Takeru and placed his hand over Takeru's forehead. His shoulders slumped in relief. His brother was going to be all right. Takeru's face creased and his body stirred just slightly. Yamato hoped this meant he was about to wake up; he softly spoke his brother's name. Takeru's eyes opened slowly, but there were confused and unfocused, just staring at the ceiling blankly. "Yamato?" Takeru muttered softly and questioningly.

"I'm right here, Takeru," he said, smiling brightly. He heard the rustle of clothing behind him and he glanced back to see Sora heading for the door. She was probably going to find a doctor. He looked back at Takeru, whose gaze was still distant and hadn't looked at him at all.

"There was…a girl," Takeru said so falteringly and so quietly that Yamato barely heard him.

"That's right," Yamato said, trying to reassure his brother. "Sora came with me to see you."

He grasped Takeru's hand with the one not still resting on Takeru's forehead. Takeru gasped suddenly and he startled, his body jerking slightly. He blinked rapidly for a few seconds, his face creased once again, but this time in confusion. His eyes finally focused onto Yamato; they were much clearer than they had been just a minute ago. "Yamato?" he asked again and Yamato wondered if his brother had been truly awake when his eyes first opened. Takeru's eyes cast about the room. "Where am I? What happened?"

"You're in the hospital," Yamato answered. "Don't you remember?"

Takeru's furrowed into confusion again and he began to rub his eyes with the palms of his hands. "No," he muttered. "I feel terrible though."

Before Yamato could answer, a doctor hustled into the room carrying a clipboard with Sora trailing along anxiously behind him. The doctor swept Yamato aside from Takeru, set down his clipboard on the table next to the bed, and began to examine him. As he was checking Takeru's pulse, he said, "Well, you've had us all quite worried, young man." Takeru frowned at the doctor's words, and opened his mouth to reply, but closed it once again, his brows still furrowed. The doctor looked at Yamato, pausing in his examination and asked, "And who might you be?"

"I'm his older brother, Yamato Ishida," he replied.

The doctor frowned and checked the clipboard. "I have him down as Takeru Takaishi," he said, putting emphasis on the last name.

Yamato's eyes narrowed at the doctor's tone. "Our parents are divorced," he said defensively.

"I see," the doctor replied. His eyes flicked to Sora. "And who is this young lady who had the sense to come find me?"

Yamato bristled at his words since to him it sounded like the doctor was implying that Yamato himself wouldn't have the sense to go get the doctor himself. Sora had gone so there was no need for him to leave Takeru and go find someone as well.

"I'm Sora Takenouchi," Sora said politely as she put a calming hand on Yamato's arm, probably sensing his bad mood rearing its head again. "I'm Yamato's girlfriend. Takeru's like a brother to me to." As she said this, she smiled at Takeru, who smiled back.

"I see," the doctor said again. He continued, "Well, I'm Doctor Kimura. It's a pleasure to meet you." He smiled and turned back to Takeru. "You seemed to have caught quite the nasty cold today, Mr. Takaishi," he said. "Why don't you tell us what you remember?"

Takeru's gaze turned away in thought. "I wasn't feeling well this morning," he said. "I probably should have stayed home, but I went to school anyway since we didn't have to be there very long. I talked to Ken after school. I kept feeling worse and worse, but my mind was all fuzzy and I couldn't think straight." He shrugged. "Then I was waking up here."

Doctor Kimura nodded, making notes on his clipboard. "I have a Ken Ichijouji here as the one who came with you to the hospital. Is that your friend?"

Takeru smiled and nodded, looking a little bit more like himself, Yamato thought.

"What were you doing yesterday?" Doctor Kimura asked.

Takeru frowned. "We took some exams at school. I went to get ice cream. Ken and Miyako, that's Ken's girlfriend," Takeru added, probably so the doctor wouldn't ask. "Well, they found me and we talked. Then I went home."

"Anything else?"

Takeru now looked at Yamato, and Yamato narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He knew that look of Takeru's. It was the look that Takeru was about to say something he knew Yamato wouldn't like and would possibly get mad about. "I went for a walk," he said tentatively.

"When?"

Takeru sighed heavily. "In the middle of the night," he confessed.

"I see," the doctor replied.

Yamato was about to explode and ask his brother what on earth would possess him to take a walk in the middle of the night, when he felt Sora's hand on his arm once again. He looked at her and she shook her head briefly, her eyes full of warning.

"Well, it seems that could be the reason your health deteriorated as much as it did," Doctor Kimura said. "You probably were already getting a cold; it is not uncommon this time of year especially with students. The combination of the stress from exams and exposure to the extremely cold temperature was probably the factors that most likely caused your fever to run so high, which in turn caused you to pass out." He frowned. "Normally, I would release someone in your case, since we got your fever under control and you seem to be on your way to mending, but it troubles me that you were unconscious for so long. I'm going to keep you for tonight, just for observation, to make sure nothing else comes up." He nodded to them and went out of the room with a quick farewell.

Yamato turned to Takeru after watching the doctor leave and opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when he saw Takeru. Takeru was gazing out the window into the falling snow and he looked so tired and ragged. "I know you want to ask, Yamato," he heard his brother say quietly. "But I can't give you a reason why I was out last night." He buried his eyes in his palms. "Somehow, it just suddenly feels like my life for the past few months is just a blur, like I can't really remember much of anything." He sighed again, his hands dropping back into his lap. "I don't know. I thought it was just burnout from the exams, but…I don't know," he repeated, his shoulders slumping as he started to pick at the sheets. "Yamato, I think…" he trailed off, biting his lower lip in hesitation.

"What is it?" Yamato asked. "You can tell me anything, you know that."

"Yeah," Takeru said, but instead of saying anything, he shook his head. "Never mind. It's nothing," he said, giving his shoulders another shrug. "Probably just the aftereffects of the fever."

Yamato stepped forward and placed his hands on Takeru's shoulders. "I will always be here for you, Takeru," he said. "No matter what." He was deeply worried about his younger brother. The sad, pale individual on the hospital bed was such a far cry from the bright, cheerful young man he usually saw that Yamato was desperate to know what was wrong with his brother. He didn't know what it was yet, but he somehow knew he would dread finding out what it was.

Something was definitely wrong.

Gatomon and Wizardmon sat together, enjoying the peace of the newly restored Digital World. It had taken a while, but the data had managed to reconstruct itself back to what it was before Daemon had gone on his rampaging destruction. The Digidestined had been around too, helping where they could. Gatomon knew because she had seen them around. She was somewhat grateful to them for getting rid of her cruel master, Myotismon, especially when Wizardmon sacrificed himself to save her, but there really nothing to associate them anymore. The Digidestined had let her go back to the Digital World and…

Gatomon suddenly blinked in confusion. She turned to her friend. "Wizardmon," she said.

"Yes, Gatomon?" Wizardmon asked.

"Why did the Digidestined let me come back to the Digital World?" she asked. It was a question she was sure she knew the answer to, but reason seemed to be eluding her for some reason. Her tail flicked in annoyance; the sun caught and shone off her tail ring. She frowned at it; Myotismon hated her tail ring for some reason he had never told her. He punished her for it, just like he had for her eyes. He never gave an explanation why he hated them; it was always just an outburst of anger and his harsh red whip. Her focus landed back on Wizardmon as he answered.

"The Digidestined seemed to me like a group of compassionate children," Wizardmon said. "When you made it clear that we were no longer working for Myotismon, I imagine that they let you go back with them because they thought you were not an evil Digimon anymore."

Her eyes narrowed at the explanation. For some reason, it didn't seem quite right, but it did make a lot of sense. She had been plagued by grief for Wizardmon, so it was true that her memories of the time could be a little jumbled. But that still didn't mean that it was the truth. Suddenly, something else occurred to her. "Why did we stop working for Myotismon?" she asked out loud.

"I was never working for Myotismon," Wizardmon said. "I only worked for you, Gatomon. As to why you stopped working for him, I cannot say. You can only find the answer to that in your own heart."

"My own heart?" she repeated. She searched her memories, still coming up with no explanation. There had to have been a reason for her to turn on her master. She had been working for him for so very long, doing anything and everything that he asked of her, without hesitation or question. She couldn't understand why she suddenly couldn't remember after all these years. There must have been something to turn her against him. "Will you help me find it?" she asked Wizardmon.

"Of course," Wizardmon said.

It was a little while later, soon after Takeru slipped into slumber (real sleep, Doctor Kimura assured Yamato) that Taichi arrived. Sora smiled at her old friend, since Yamato hadn't seemed to notice him yet. His eyes were trained on Takeru's sleeping form. He smiled back before walking into the room. "Hey," he said casually. "I came as soon as I could."

Sora hid the smile behind her hand as Yamato jumped slightly when Taichi began to speak. Yamato smiled at Taichi, the first true smile Sora had seen since they arrived at the hospital. "Hey," Yamato said back, his hand rising just off his leg where it rested, in what Sora assumed was to be a wave.

"How is he?" Taichi asked as he came up to the bed to look at the boy Sora knew Taichi saw as his own little brother in some ways.

"He'll be fine," Sora said, replying for Yamato. "It seems like it was a cold that got a little out of control. They want to keep him here for observation, to make sure there are no complications, but he's going to be fine."

Taichi breathed out a sigh of relief. He pulled out his Digivice and looked at it. Sora was wondering what he was checking and was about to ask when Taichi spoke. "Do you guys need something to eat?" he asked. "I can go get something or call a nurse to get something or something," he finished with a vague wave of his hand.

Sora smiled. He must have been checking what time it was and trying to figure out how long Yamato had gone without food. "I think I saw a vending machine down the hall," she said. She stood up and walked over to him. "I'll help you grab something." She smiled at Yamato. "We'll be right back," she said, to which Yamato just gave another small wave of his hand.

She followed Taichi outside and as they walked down the hallway, Taichi asked, "So what's wrong?"

Sora looked sharply at him. She had intended to talk to Taichi about her thoughts, but didn't know Taichi had picked up on something. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Taichi glanced sideways at her. "Come on, Sora," he said. "I'm not that blind. If Takeru is going to be fine, why does Yamato still looked worried out of his mind?"

Sora glanced back towards the room before coming to a stop, thinking that Yamato probably wouldn't be able to hear them if they whispered. Taichi stopped with her, an eyebrow rising, indicating she should say whatever it was she wanted to. "Something else is wrong with Takeru," she whispered.

"Something…" Taichi began to say before glancing around. "Digital?" he finished vaguely with another hand gesture, but Sora understood what he meant.

She shrugged, honestly not knowing. "The thought crossed my mind, but I don't really know," she said. "He doesn't really seem like himself. It could just be the illness, since I don't think he's ever been this sick before, but…" she trailed off shrugging again.

"It could be something else," Taichi finished. "The kid can't catch a break."

"It could be nothing," Sora pointed out. "But maybe we could keep an eye on him, you know…"

"Just in case," Taichi finished for her again. He nodded and smiled at her, placing one hand on her shoulder. "We won't let anything bad happen to him, Sora."

She nodded in agreement and they continued down the hallway toward the vending machine to accomplish their other mission of keeping one worried older brother healthy as well.