21

Z

Alive?

The word echoed numbly in my head. It kept reverberating through my skull the whole time I waited for Hanna to pick me up off a street corner. I spent the car drive through random streets pondering what the attempt on Han's life would do to Sean. I doubted DK let Neela go. If Sean was okay, then something had to have happened to my friend. I was worried for both of them; Sean would have a hit out on him, and Neela might already be dead.

Hanna took a detour by her house to clean me up and get me some clean clothes. We never really spoke. I was still in too much shock to ask how or why she saved Han. She didn't offer the story either.

Before long I was standing in an empty hall wall in the old hospital on the run down side of Tokyo. It was shut down when one of the new ones was built and used to hold the outdated equipment. It still held the bleachy, pungent smell of disinfectant, but it had an overtone of stale air and mold. The building was almost completely dark except for the occasional lit hallway. They didn't cast much light because of the amount of burned out bulbs.

Hanna had left me alone in the semi dark hallway outside of Han's room so I could go in when I was ready. I was a little afraid to be left alone, but I was also afraid of what I would see behind the door. I had seen myself in the bathroom mirror at Hanna's and I definitely didn't want him to see me in the shape I was in. I finally steeled myself enough to walk in.

What I saw scared me. Han was laying flat on an ancient hospital bed hooked up to a pre-historic heart monitor and an IV. His tan face was pale and scraped. He was shirtless with a few layers of sheets tossed over him. His visible skin was covered in blotchy, purple bruises and burns. A second hospital bed had been pushed up next to his to make it a double bed.

I slowly walked over and ran my hand through his messy black hair. His lips pursed together and his eyelids scrunched at the contact. I removed my hand and sat heavily down in a rickety wooden chair placed beside the bed. A pain shot through my ribs as I struggled not to cry again.

"You must be Eliana." The croaky voice of an old man said from behind me. I glanced over to see a small, grandfather age Japanese man.

"Yes." I answered shakily. I felt a few of the tears slip.

"He's been asking for you." He told me. He extended a box of tissues towards me. I took them gratefully. "None of that, now. You're both safe here for a while. This place is basically condemned."

"Are you the doctor?" I asked.

"Yes. I set his right leg. I have his femur splinted and wrapped now." He pulled the blankets aside to show the tightly wrapped bandages and an old leg brace. "He also has some fractures on his hip and bruised ribs. He'll be hurting for a long time, but he's going to be okay."

"Thank you for doing this." I told him. I felt a lot better hearing that Han hadn't broken his spine or something.

"You're welcome. It feels good to do something to defy Kamata." He spat. A smile twitched at my split lips. He was a cute little old man and the words didn't fit in his mouth.

"You too, huh?" I asked jokingly.

"I lost my practice because of him forcing me to treat a few of his men. Almost spent a few years in jail for it."

"I'm sorry." I said.

"Don't be. He just messed up my job; feel bad for the people whose lives he totally destroyed." I looked at Han's pale face for a few long minutes. I could feel the doctor's eyes boring into the side of my head.

Had Kamata really destroyed what we had? Probably not. We were all still alive and we had a golden opportunity to escape. Sean and Neela were the ones he could do the most damage to. Neela was probably not in a good place right now and Sean was entirely too stubborn to just go home.

"Everyone else has to go home tonight in case people question where they were. You should be safe here. I knocked him out with some drugs, so he should sleep through the night, but there are no pain meds here if he doesn't. It should be alright for you to sleep on his left side; just be careful not to get to close to him. I'll be back to check on him when I have a chance tomorrow." The doctor turned to leave.

"Wait!" I cried as he was shutting the door. It stopped an inch from closing. He didn't open it again, but I knew he was listening.

"Is Hanna still here?" I asked.

"At the top of the stair well." I saw his shadow head off in the opposite direction from the crack in the door. I slipped off my chair and walked out in the hall.

I saw the doctor's back as he turned the corner to go out another exit. I looked back in the direction Hanna brought me and saw nothing but blackness. When my eyes adjusted to the light in the hallway, I barely saw her silhouette. She was sitting with her back against wall with one leg outstretched and the other pulled up to her chest. She was resting her forehead on her upright knee.

She lifted her head when I got close to her. She gave me the same helpless look I'm sure a gave Han in the storage room after Sean yelled at me. I sat down beside her and waited until she was ready to talk.

"You want to know why I did it, don't you?" She asked bluntly.

I nodded silently.

"I was walking back from a restaurant with a few of the guys from the base. One of the older guys knew the doctor from something and invited him to go with us. When I was on the phone with you, I saw Sean in a red Evo go flying across traffic, and two seconds later a charcoal grey Nissan Z shooting at an orange and black Mazda Rx-8. I figured if he was getting shot at, he was the guy Kamata was after. He knocked the Z out of the way, but got T-boned and flipped at the intersection."

She sighed tiredly. She ran her hand through her hair and it got snagged. When she finally got it untangled, I noticed it got hung on her engagement ring sitting on her right hand.

"I don't know why I did it. I just reacted. Two of the other guys rushed over with me and we got him out right quick. Not two seconds after we had him free, the car exploded. The guy chasing assumed we didn't get him out and drove off."

"I'm glad you did it." I told her quietly.

"I guess, I just," She huffed in frustration. " I kept thinking, 'what if someone had done that for Brent'. I know that's completely irrational, and there was nothing anyone could have done, but still. I would be getting married next week." Her voice started to choke with tears.

My heart wrenched inside my chest. I had forgotten about the wedding date. I had forgotten how much she loved him. I felt selfish walking back into her life after all this time. She had probably just put it passed her.

I didn't know what to say.

Z

I had no idea where I was when I woke up, or how I fell asleep when I was in that much pain. My aching face was an inch from a bent metal bar. I tried to sit up and felt a sharp pain from my rib cage. I stayed still long enough for the sharp pain to subside and a dull ache to set in. I felt fingertips brush against my spine. I suddenly remembered where I was; crammed against the side of a hospital bed beside a very hurt Han.

"Han?" I whispered.

"I'm here." He said quietly. He sounded like he was in pain.

I carefully pulled the blankets off of me and slid over the railing. It hurt, but it was better than crawling over Han. He watched me try to stretch my stiff muscles without hurting myself through half open, sleepy eyes.

"What did he do to you?" He asked quietly when I got most of the stiffness worked out of my knees.

"Just the face and some hurt ribs." I moved to touch one of the worst bruises on my cheek. I noticed the cuts and bruises on my wrists from being tied. " And that. You're a lot worse off. The doctor said there wasn't anything for pain, but he-"

"Don't worry about me." He cut me off. He took in my face for a few seconds. I felt extremely self conscious under his gaze. "You shouldn't have been put in that position."

"That would have happened to me any way you look at it, Han." I retorted. "Eventually he'd find a better driver to take my spot and I would've been gone. "

"You wouldn't have been beaten half to death." He said stubbornly. I could tell he was in horrible pain, but neither one of us wanted to stop this argument. "What happened exactly?"

"I got too independent, he didn't like that I had someone out of his nephew's watchful eye, so he had me beaten and locked in a closet. He was going to let Takeshi handle the rest." I told him. I was glossing over the fact that he screamed at me about Han taking the money. I was hoping he wouldn't notice, but when he snorted I knew I was about to start another argument.

"You left out the part where he accused you of helping me take some of the money, didn't you?" He asked. Even in too much pain to move, nothing got passed him. He took my silence as a yes. "You should never have been with me, Ellie. This world is too dangerous for you."

"I was not exactly sheltered, Han. My mom was an addict and my dad couldn't stop hotwiring cars to save his life. I saved myself and you, in case you didn't notice. I shot somebody and-" My voice kept getting louder and louder.

"You did what?" Han cut in.

"I left the closest door open. He noticed and came after me. He was raising his gun-I had to." I sat heavily in the chair. He reached out and put his hand on the back of my neck.

"You never told me about your mom." He said quietly.

"Yeah, she was a racer chaser. Didn't adjust well to motherhood. When I was working for Kamata, I always felt like I was causing other people to go through what I did."

"It's over." He told me.

"Yeah. I guess."

"Let's leave together." He said suddenly.

"What?" I glanced over at him. He looked a little out of it and completely serious at the same time. "What ever happened to 'you shouldn't be with me'?" He gave me a glare.

"There's nothing here for us now. If you stay here with Sean you're going to die and get Sean killed. My garage has probably been seized at this point, so I'm out on the street."

"Fine, let's leave together." I said slowly. I was still giving Han an incredulous look.

"You don't like the idea."

"I do, but what are we? Bonnie and Clyde? Destroy the town and then leave on to the next one?" I asked.

"I'm cool with that. Minus the dying in a hail of gunfire." I chuckled and winced at the pain it caused.

There was a knock at the door and both our heads snapped towards it. I picked up the gun from where I had put it on one of the ancient machines.

"It's Twink and the doctor." Twinkie yelled. I threw open the door and gave him a one armed hug with my good side. He dropped my duffel bag that I had packed on the inside of the door then wrapped his arms around me. "I'm glad to see you too."

The doctor nodded to me and immediately slipped past to check on Han. I felt Twinkie move to look over my head and stiffen at what he saw. He stiffened even worse when I pulled back and he got a good look at my face.

"Would you two mind stepping out for a moment?" The doctor asked with quiet authority. We slipped through the door and closed it softly behind us.

"What's going to happen with Sean?" I asked bluntly. Twinkie sighed.

"He's gonna race DK on his mountain. Loser skips town." He looked upset at the idea.

"Did he find a car or do we need to get him one?" I asked without hesitation. Twinkie looked shocked.

"You're okay with this?" He asked incredulously. I nodded my head.

"He can do it. He's grown up a lot; if he can walk up to Kamata and work this out, then he can keep his head in a race with DK. Takeshi will get over emotional and screw himself over." I answered. Twinkie couldn't see the flaw in my argument, but he still wasn't happy.

"The race is in three days. Are you going to be there?"

"No. I can't be seen. Speaking of which, how'd you find out about this place?"

"Army brat. " He answered.

"Can you do me a huge favor?" I asked slowly.

"Anything."

"Don't tell anyone, or bring anyone by. Let them find out after the race." I told him seriously. He agreed.

We weren't standing there long when the doctor came out of the room. He pulled me into the room next door to check over my injuries and left Twinkie with a now doped up Han.

"He has to wait a month before he leaves, but you should go the second your bruises can be covered with make up." He told me when he was done examining my ribs.

"I'll wait for him." I said stubbornly. We'd been through this much, a little more time wouldn't hurt.

"I hope that doesn't come back to bite you."

Z

It was the night of the race, and I couldn't be still. A very annoyed, semi-conscious Han was glaring at me from his bed as I paced the floor. The more annoyed he got, the further out he pushed his lips. Finally he couldn't take it anymore.

"Either stop doing that or give me something to knock me out." He grumbled. I stopped my pacing and went to stand beside him.

"Sean's racing tonight!" I reminded him.

"He's got this. Both of us know it." He told me.

"Yeah but anything can happen-" I continued ranting on what could go wrong. Han shook his head and started looking through my bag which was sitting on the chair beside him. He pulled out the book of poems and tossed it at me. It bounced of my stomach, but I caught it before it hit the floor.

"There are nicer ways to ask someone to read to you." I joked. Han shook his head and laid back flat again. I had been reading him random sonnets every night. My slight accent and the Spanish words put him right to sleep.

I flipped to a random page and started reading. By the end of the first page his eyes were flickering shut. I went a few more pages before deciding he was asleep and shutting the book.

"Why did he do it?" He asked me quietly out of the blue. I stared at him for a few seconds thinking he was talking in his sleep before I saw his eyes open again. "Why'd he do it?"

"Do what?" I asked. I wasn't sure if he knew what he was talking about.

"Your dad retiring. Why?"

"He was older. A new generation had kind of taken over. He had been around long enough to see the people he raced against or worked with get shot or arrested. He found out a psychotic racer chaser he was with was having Brent. For some reason, he couldn't let his kid get turned over to the state or something. He kept pulling jobs for a while, but with Brent at home, he didn't want to be one of the unlucky ones that didn't make it back."

Han was silent. He shut his eyes again and mulled it over. I stood beside his bed trying to figure out if he fell asleep or was going to answer.

"I think I know someone that can get us out of here. " He trailed off and I waited to see if he'd connect the two things. "We could leave tomorrow if I call now. Kamata puts his more injured people here, and we could still get caught."

"Where would we go?" I asked quietly.

"Where ever we wanted. " Han looked at me like he couldn't believe I didn't get you.

"That's the pain killers talking. You can't leave for another month." I informed him.

"Private plane. Steal an ambulance, load me on a gurney and take me to the airport." He huffed when I raised my eyebrows and started digging for my phone in my bag.

I handed it to him and listened to him work out a plan.

"We're going to Columbia. We leave at 3 o'clock tomorrow morning." He told me. He sounded tired after talking so long. "It's not going to be like this, Elle."

I glanced at him from my place beside his heart monitor. For a long time the steady beep was the only sound in the room. He seemed to be resting a second before he continued. He had been exhausted after staying awake most of the day. He moved his arm by his left side and I took that as I signal to lay beside him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and waited for me to get comfortable.

"I have enough money to start us over. We should be able to stay there for a while; I don't think either of us will be doing anything more illegal than street racing." He chuckled humorlessly. "And what you do when we get away from this place is your choice; if you want to walk away, when the plane touches down and I can get you a flight to where ever you want to go. I think your dad had point; you can't live like this forever. You have to take care of what's important."

The phone Han still held in hand started ringing. He was too tired to answer it, so he handed it to me. On the other end was an ecstatic Twinkie, a safe Neela and a victorious Sean. After hearing the story of every twist and turn I told them we were leaving. They wished us the best and we hung up. I looked at Han to see him wearing a triumphant smile.

"It's nice to leave on a good note." I told him. He leaned over and gently brushed his lips against my healing split ones.

"I'm glad I won't be alone this time." He muttered before dropping off to sleep with his chin on my shoulder. I started to think about everything we had to do as I drifted off to sleep with dreams of the ocean.

I knew this was going to be the hardest thing I had ever done, but he was right; it felt good not to be alone. Getting started was going to be rocky; especially with Han unable to walk. But if we got away from the toughest mob boss in Japan, this was going to be a piece of cake.

I was glad Han had given me a choice about staying in Columbia. Deep down, I knew I would stay with him at least until he was able to take care of himself again. If things worked out between us, I might even stay there permanently.

After all, what was Bonnie without Clyde?