Chapter 46

"Jun, we got here as fast as we could." Jinpei shout from down the corridor as he raced towards her, followed by Ryu who was noticeably short of breath while trying to keep up with Jinpei.

"What's happening? Joe mentioned something about Ken waking up. Where is Joe?" Ryu puffed coming to halt next to Jinpei.

"He's gone to take Jason to a toilet and then he needs a nap and food- he'll be back as soon as he can." Jun informed them. She'd been pacing the hall for an hour waiting for them to show up.

"He woke up, but I don't know any more yet none has emerged from the room." Jun signed heavily in frustration, that's all she had to tell them so far.

Jinpei slumped his shoulders and accidently dropped his opened backpack to the floor, only to have some of the contents fall out of it. Jun leaned down to pick up some of the paper that had scattered around her feet something caught her eye as she was about to hand it back to him.

"What's this Jinpei." She looked up sharply at her brother, quickly taking in the picture and interesting notes at the bottom of the page.

Jinpei's face became sheepish. "It's nothing Sis…"

"Yeah." Ryu jumped in a little to quickly." Its mine, he was just carrying the picture for me in his backpack."

She turned her steady gaze back onto Jinpei, he was covering something up. "What do you mean 'it's nothing'? This says that you plan to buy a trawler together…what about our restaurant? And it has your name on the quote Jinpei so you can't lie to me." Jun shoved it into his face. The Swallow looked torn between them and he turned away from her. "We'll talk about it later sis, right now we need to focus on Big bro he needs us."

"Since we have nothing else better to do right now I think you need to tell me Jin what this is all about?" Jun glared angrily at Ryu and then back at Jinpei, the pair of them had been hiding something from her and she wanted to know the truth.

"Ryu and I…" He began, pausing to lick his lips nervously." Well before the war ended we talked about maybe going into business together…this was after the Snack J burned down. But in a way we kinda talked about it in passing years ago too just not seriously."

This was all new to Jun- Jinpei never mentioned it when she showed him the restaurant site she happened to be interesting in buying and asked what he thought about it only a week ago. He told her it would make a wonderful sea side restaurant with the huge windows overlooking Utoland Bay beach. Come to think of it he didn't really say 'us'… Just that he liked the location.

"This is what you really want?" Jun felt crushed by this, struggling to keep her pain out of her voice by staring at the picture of the fishing trawler, inside her heart was breaking." And…where do you plan to start the business."

Jinpei swallowed hard before he spoke again in a small voice." Back on the Island Ryu came from- his father said he'd show us the ropes to help us get started…"

Jinpei's eyes swelled up with tears and he walked over and put a hand on her arm. "The truth is Sis I hate working in a restaurant I always have that's why I tried to get out all the time…it's not my dream it's yours…"

That confession undid her totally and she burst into tears and sank into the chair close by. "I'm so sorry Jinpei…I never asked you what you really wanted…its so selfish of me to have assumed all these years that we'd be business partners forever."

She felt herself being pulled into a warm bear hug and Ryu began to talk. "Awe Jun…don't cry we shoulda discussed this with ya ages ago, its just we both felt you had enough to deal with…besides there's no way we would leave Utoland with Ken like he is…We're a team…we made a promise."

It wasn't just Jinpei and Ryu leaving, she felt like they were all going to leave her alone in Utoland again. Jinpei had grown up over night and he was getting taller by the day too, he had his own path to follow now his own life to carve. She felt like she couldn't hold onto any of them, Joe, Jinpei, Ryu or Ken.

"It's been a shocking day…I'm just a bit over emotional…But I'll be alright." Jun looked up at them forcing a weak smile that Jinpei saw straight through.

"You're crying and your saying your okay." Ryu looked totally confused. "Sometimes I just don't understand women."

"You're not supposed to Ryu, I'm younger than you and I've worked it out already." Jinpei rolled his eyes dramatically and looked back at Jun.

"I didn't mean to drop it onto you like a bird missile out of control sis…" Jinpei's shoulders slumped with guilt. She knew she had to do something or he might quit on his dream to try and make her happy and running a restaurant he has no heart for. She could see him staring out the windows at the ocean longing to else where.

"Jinpei…I'm so proud of you for having a dream of your own, I want you to do this…you and Ryu make great partners." She meant every word, how many missions did the pair of them team up and make things happen- she could recall a few.

"I love marine animals…I figure I could study Marine biology by correspondence and work on our trawler too. Ryu thinks it s great plan…I might be able to find new ways to fish in waters and preserve it at the same time, just like Dr Nambu wanted." Jinpei brightened up, his eyes widened with the excitement of her approval.

"Don't forget to write…" She said hugging them both. "And he'd be so proud of your idea Jinpei, he'd be right behind you in it." That made Jinpei smile even brighter at the thought of his old mentor's approval.

"We won't go until we're sure Ken is okay." Ryu reassured her.

Before she could respond the door opened and one of the doctors emerged. The serious man with steel grey hair and thick rimmed glassed walked towards her, she knew it was about Ken.

"I'm going to get straight to point." He said looking at the three of them. Jun sighed internally with relief. She wanted him to get to point, not spend his time skirting any issues. "He's healed…amazing, for months it looked like nothing was going change… its like we put the implant in and his body just shut down. But I think now for him that's what it needed to do to repair the damage. The thing that's go us stumped is that it literally happened in less than a week, like it needed to kick start his cells...or work on something else in his body first."

Jun found that odd too, since she was there when they ran a scan to see if any of the damaged cells in his body had changed at all. The result came up the same as it did a month before.

"Something must have just kicked into gear." Jinpei shrugged looking towards the door. "Big bros awake and well, that's all I care about."

"Can we go in?" Jun asked following his eyes to the door, desperately needing to be by his side.

"Yes," The doctor smiled. "He's asking for you Jun…"

Without hesitation Jun walked into the large white room with huge windows around it to see Ken propped by a few pillows looking weak from months of laying in coma staring directly at her. His looked clearer than Ceylon sapphires against his paled skin and dark hair. How has it been since I looking into them she thought. Too long.

"Jun." His voice sound hoarse and dry.

"Ken…we thought…" Shaking her head she didn't need to tell him her fears." I'm so relieved you decided to join us again."

"I'm tired…" He croaked. "Need to sleep…just wanted to see all of you."

"About time you decided to wake up!" Joe said walking into the room holding Jason's hand. Ken tried to smile, and he closed his eyes again to rest.

"He needs to rest to regain his strength- we'll wait a few hours and feed him some liquid food to start the process." Dr Hamilton said. From the corner of her eye Jun saw a marine commander standing in the doorway listening to the conversation.

"What kind of recovery do you expect?" He asked the doctor ignoring the rest of them- Jun had seen this man from time to time over the past few months. He rarely even acknowledged her most of the time.

"We expect a full recover from his responses…he needs time to build up his body and strength again. Rehabilitation will start as soon as he's ready." The doctor told him. The military man looked satisfied with his answer, nodded curtly and left the room.

"What's that all about?" Jun turned and looked at the doctor.

"You tell me and we'll both know." He responded and turned his attention back to Ken. "He needs time to rest…come back in a few hours and you can spend time with him then."

Jun glanced back at Ken, but could see he was sleeping again, this time his breathing was deeper. Ignoring the doctor's orders she walked over and picked up his hand in hers, and then she leaned over the bed and lightly kissed his lips. "Welcome back Ken…"

Then she turned and left the room to allow the doctors to monitor his progress.