Always with You

Disclaimer: I do not own SkipBeat! or any of its characters.

Chapter 22 – The long wait

[Tokyo Morning News:

Good Morning Tokyo. This is Tokyo Morning News and I'm Mitaki Nori.

Our top news this morning is the story of the car and motorcycle chase that took place around 3am this morning. The chase resulted in the death of one young man and the med-evac rescue of one young woman. The woman is currently listed in critical condition. Our sources tell us that both young people were celebrities. Let's go to our woman on the scene, Nosaka Miki. Nosaka-san, what can you tell us?

Good morning Mitaki-san. We've just received confirmation that the victim in Fugiyama Memorial is Mogami Kyoko. She is currently listed in critical condition, but we have no details about her injuries as of yet. Police Chief Fujita has notified the press that he will be making a statement at 6:30 am.

Thank you Nosaka-san. We'll check in with you again as more details become available. Meanwhile, we have been able to obtain satellite footage of the chase. Our technical people tell us that this imagery was originally used in an attempt to locate Mogami Kyoko and rescue her. As you can see, the camera is set at a wide focus, so we are unable to get a high degree of detail.

I will attempt to… Wait one, please… Ok, our sources have confirmed that the driver of the car in this fatal chase was former Olympic swimmer and would-be actor, Choshi Kazu. You might remember that Choshi-san was originally cast as the lead for a current movie project named Ronin's Children. We'll give you more details on that as they come available.

Ok, now let's look at the footage…]

The emergency waiting room at Fugiyama Memorial Hospital was beginning to look like a gathering for the Japanese Film and Music Arts Festival; not that there was anyone looking festive. Thankfully it had been a slow night in the emergency room, because every seat was now filled. Most people assume that celebrities lay in bed until noon and party into the night. This may be true for some, but for this particular crowd of professional actors, singers, and agents the day often started before the rising of the sun.

Like a flock of seagulls, every head would look up in unison whenever anyone passed through the double doors leading to the surgical center. Finally, a stocky looking man in surgical garb walked out of the doors and up to Kotonami Kanae. Kanae was the only one who was on the hill-side without a vehicle, so she had won the draw to fly with Kyoko to the hospital. When paperwork was needed she had listed herself as next-of-kin. The doctor looked around now for the first time and his eyes widened as he looked at the expectant faces.

"Um, should we go someplace…?"

"No, please, doctor. We're all family, of sorts. Can you give of some news?"

"First of all, she's out of danger," he let that sink in. There were gasps of relief among the group. He paused for a moment as there was a commotion at the door. Several of the nurses were excited at the entrance of Tsuruga Ren. He walked up beside Kanae as she gestured for the doctor to continue. "She has a broken left leg, and two broken ribs, but no signs of internal injuries at this time. She has bruises all over her body, but those will go away. Our biggest concern is her brain. She has suffered from blunt-force-trauma, though there are no signs of blood clots or severe bruising to the brain."

He took a breath before finishing, "Mogami-san is not currently listed as 'comatose,' but she shows no signs of emerging from her unconscious state. We've treated all of the other injuries. With the head trauma we'll just have to wait and see."

Ren spoke up, "Can we see her?"

Doctor Okada looked up and saw the desperation in the young man's eyes. "I'll try to arrange for single-person visits within the next hour. Until then, this is a working emergency room. Could we see maybe see about clearing some of you out? With all respect, we get very busy here starting around this time of the morning."

The LME building was within a mile of hospital, so Lory Takarada opened up his dining area as a waiting room annex. Ren, Kanae, Mari, and Amamiya remained. The Darumaya couple wanted to stay, but they needed to open up their business for the day.

When too many people recognized the young stars, they were escorted to a private waiting area set aside for that purpose. Kanae, grasping for anything to talk about, turned to Ren, "What about you're schedule today?"

"Yashiro is working on it. I'll probably have to go to my modeling shoot and my current movie project. The rest can probably be put on-hold."

"Did you call Julie-san?"

"Yes. Mom and Dad are both clearing their schedules. They're going to try and catch a morning flight out of L.A." The other two girls looked up in confusion. Amamiya was the only person who had gotten a decent night's sleep, so she was the first to understand. Her eyes went wide in disbelief.

Kanae saw her reaction, "I'll explain about that later. Right now we need to decide who will go in to visit her and in what order. Tsuraga-san, I expect that you will want to spend longer with her, so would you be willing to go in last?"

"I shouldn't be included," Aiko Mari interrupted. She had barely spoken since Kanae had come into Kyoko's room early that morning, "It's my fault that this happened to her. I failed…"

"Stop!" Ren's voice was deep and commanding, "It's not your fault at all. You've been a wonderful friend and protector to Kyoko. She woke up and left of her own accord. She was upset because of a horrible misunderstanding with me. If anyone is to blame…"

"The one who is to blame paid for his sins at the bottom of that gully." Kanae's voice was firm and cold. "None of us can be any help to Kyoko-chan if we spend our time having guilt-fits."

* * *

It was an hour later when Ren was left alone in Kyoko's room.

His words were simple and straightforward. They were the words that he wished he would have said so long ago, "Kyoko, I love you. I've been deeply in love with you for so very long. Please wake up and come back to me."

When Nurse Noyasami looked in several minutes later she saw something only a few other people had seen. She saw Tsuruga Ren crying.

* * *

The directors and photographers had been amazingly understanding when Yashiro had called and explained the situation. By the time that he had called them they had all heard the news. It turned out that it was almost universally "known" in the industry that Tsuruga Ren was in love with Mogami Kyoko. Men and women who made a living by recording expressions and words knew; they had seen his expression when he looked at Kyoko, and they had dismissed his words of denial.

And so Ren was still sitting with the girls in the private waiting room when a tall, skinny, blond figure walked into the room. Aiko Mari and Chiori Amamiya looked at him in shocked surprise. Kotonami Kanae almost hissed at him as imaginary hackles rose.

Fuwa Sho looked despairingly into Ren's eyes and said one word, "Please."

Ren looked at the man who he had once believed to be the biggest rival for Kyoko's heart. He saw the sincere concern in Sho's eyes; he nodded.

* * *

It was close to the noon hour and the three young ladies had needed to leave to take care of different responsibilities. Sho sat alone for the moment, his long legs stretched out, supporting a music tablet. His pencil hand was flying as he wrote out the words that materialized into his mind without any conscious intervention.

When his pencil came to a pause, a hand extended a can of coffee. Sho turned to look up into Ren's eyes as the man asked, "Can we talk?"

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Notes: Sorry for the short chapter, but I didn't want to leave you hanging too long.

Thanks again for all of your reviews.