Kaouthara, thanks for reviewing the last chapter! Sorry it took so long for an update to go up on this remake, so here it is… please enjoy!
Chapter Four~Monochrome Behavior
As the next day rolled by at Gemstone Hospital in Philly, Harumi's stomach felt like hell after waking up without nothing in her stomach to make it stop growling. She realized that she was left alone in the hospital along with her mother, Grace. She thought her father didn't have the guts to see her in pain while sleeping or even what happened to her a little while ago.
Once Ethan arrive back at the hospital after taking his son, Shaun to school which apparently causing the ten year old boy to be late to his class, when his father forgot to wake up and also him as well. When he arrived at his daughter's room, the doctor stopped him from turning the knob to his daughter's hospital room, as he walked down the hallway away from the room.
"Mr. Mars, I afraid that your daughter might be heading down a long path towards addiction." The doctor explained. The architect father was listening to the doctor's every word as he was worried about Harumi's health as well.
"I am worried about her too." Ethan sat down in one of the hospital chairs, without looking at the doctor. "I wish that she could change just for me, but now she treats me like I'm nothing to her."
"Everyone in her age has went through this before, but some people might not make." The doctor said. "Your daughter was one of the lucky ones who made it." Ethan wasn't still looking at the doctor was helping with Harumi's medical attention, until he called his name out once more and the architect father suddenly looked up at him.
"I suggest that you get her some help, by taking to a teen therapist to help with her problems and if that doesn't work the second option is sending her away to an addiction free center where she will learn how to obtain a sober free life. The choice is your, Mr. Mars."
12:45 pm
After two hours, Ethan had the chance to take Harumi back to his home after when she was discharged from the hospital. Harumi was looking out the window of her father's car as she was feel tired, but hungry at the same time. She didn't feel like eating the hospital food they provide for her, since it didn't feel right in her stomach.
Ethan was downstairs looking at his iPhone screen, which had a number that was hovering over his therapist name and office number. He pressed the call button waiting for his therapist, Clarence Dupree to pick up and answer one of his patients, hoping that he or another therapist can take Harumi's case.
Harumi was waiting outside of the therapist's hallway, as she slowly looked around the hallway. Her throat was suddenly dry, as she tries to swallow her saliva. She stood up from her chair to get herself a drink. She turned around to see her father walking out of the room, before walking towards her. She places her cup in the garage bin, before looking at her father's arctic blue eyes.
"Ok, I have talk to her about your problems and she's willing to help you." Ethan told his daughter, as she looked at him, like she didn't care.
"You can look at me like I'm crazy, Harumi Mars, but she's willing to talk to you." Ethan said, before sitting down.
Another door opened and Ethan's therapist, Clarence Dupree came out of his room, calling his name. He stood up and walked towards his room, before turning to see Harumi, just still standing in the hallway with her arms crossed. Harumi decided to walked into the room where she will meet her therapist, as she walked into the room, she was surprised of how expensive this room was to create for a therapist office.
"Hello, you must be Harumi," the teenager heard a woman's voice in the room as she looked to her left to see a woman in her thirties with shoulder length blonde hair and black rim glasses place on her nose, before pushing them close to her brown eyes. "I'm Satomi Oshiro and I will be helping you."
Harumi closed the door behind her, before walking up to her desk and sat down in the nearest chair in front of her therapist.
"Harumi, what I study is how teenagers your age are going through emotional problems and throughout the years of experiencing life." The therapist began while having her hands in her lap. "And I also help them by changing their life around into a new world, so they won't be abused by others."
She pulled out a notebook and started writing down her name. "Now, what I heard from your father is that you became a mischief-maker in your family. Is that true?"
Harumi wasn't looking at the therapist and she nodded.
"Did anyone tell you to become one?"
Harumi shook her head no.
"Ok, Harumi, can you put this on for me." Satomi said, holding a nerve headpiece for her head. Harumi slowly grabbed it gently, before putting it on her head. It was holding her long, but untamed hair into place. "I will be asking you some questions about your life. If you feel uncomfortable, please let me know."
Back with Ethan, he was laying across the chair looking at pictures that make what he thinks that he see. He needed an MRI scan to see if he physical damage to his brain, since he came out of his six month coma. As the widescreen zoom out from his face, he sat up while looking down on the floor with his hands intertwined.
"I have the results of your MRI scan." His therapist, Clarence Dupree said to him. "Everything seems to be in order. There is no physical damage from the accident."
Ethan stood up from the chair and he walked towards his desk to sit down in the chair in front of his therapist. "I know it's not easy, but you've got to start over, Ethan. You're not responsible for what happened."
Ethan looked up at his therapist. "It's my fault that Jason's dead. He'll still be alive if I been looking out for him."
"It was an accident." Clarence Dupree told him. "Accidents happen everyday. You can't blame yourself for your son's death." He pulled out his notepad to start taking notes. "How is Harumi today?" He decided to change the topic
"Harumi used to be this bubbly girl, who loved being around me every moment, but now since she started high school, she's more… distant and more of a troublemaker."
"How do you feel about her? How did she make you different?"
"She's treats me like an illusion, like something that she can walk through and never looked back. Sometimes, I ask myself why did she go down this horrible path of hell instead of trying to walk on the bright side."
"Harumi, how do feel when you're around your father, Ethan?"
Harumi was thinking about him, before taking a deep breath before answering to Satomi. "My dad. I love him, but he changed. Sometimes I treat him different from my mother, my brother, Shaun, and my friends." Harumi replied to the Satomi's question. "Sometimes I wish that he could disappeared from my life, just like my first brother Jason."
"But, what if he truly disappeared? How will you feel if that happens?"
"Miss. Satomi, whenever I'm around my dad… I can't feel anything. Nothing, just like an empty black hole in my heart waiting to be filled."
"Ok, Harumi, let's talk about something else." Satomi said. "Your father said that you're being bullied at school and also you've have been drinking and smoking to solve your problems. Is that true?"
"Yes, I have." She looked at the therapist. "Do you mind if I have a smoke?"
"No, you can't, Harumi." Satomi rejected her question. "Smoking at a young age like yourself is horrible for your lungs. It can make you very ill."
She looked away from Satomi. "Ethan and my mom smoke when they were in high school. Why can't I?"
"Ethan, sometimes you have to let her go. She's not a little girl anymore. She must learn how to grow up and be accepted into the world."
"She will always be my little girl. I don't want her to grow up." Ethan confessed, softly. He was sitting on a red expensive table close to the wall in the middle of two art sculptures. "I missed seeing her going into highschool. When I woke up, she wasn't there anymore. She… she doesn't know how to smile anymore."
"What about Shaun? How is he? How does he feel towards you and her?"
"Shaun is a solitude child whose focus within himself. He seems close to his mother, but to me he's more… distant. With Harumi on the other hand, he was really looking out for his sister. He warned me last night about her drinking problem, before she ended up in the hospital, but Shaun and I were too late."
"And what about you, Ethan." Clarence Dupree asked. "What do you feel?"
"I… I no longer want to live…" Ethan replied sadly. "I should have listened to my daughter when I had the chance… I have no reason to continue."
"Not even for your son?" Clarence Dupree asked him. "What about Harumi?"
"Harumi and Shaun are different now." Ethan said. "I couldn't save Jason. They don't need a father like me."
"Is there something that you wanted to tell me, Ethan?
Ethan felt scared. There was terror in his thoughts as he remembered last night after putting Shaun to sleep and walking into his daughter's room, reading the letters. After when he left her daughter's safe haven, he started to feel sweat coming out from his head as he started to feel dizziness. He was looking around the upstairs hallway, until a bright light appeared in front of him, as his blizzard blue eyes widened before closing his eyes.
"Ethan, Ethan, wake up!" The architect father woke up to see his ex-wife, Grace Garner over him, as she was shaking him. He opened his eyes slowly to see that he was next to Harumi's hospital bed.
"Grace, what happened?...How did I?"
He raised his body up to see that Harumi wasn't in her bed. It was empty and her IV was taken out of her elbow, leaving just a small drop of her blood.
"Where's… where's Harumi?" Ethan asked, touching his head. He looked down to see a broken flower vase on the floor, with James' yellow roses spread on the floor.
"Harumi!" Ethan called out.
"Sweetie, are you in there?" Grace asked.
"Ethan?... Mom?" They can hear Harumi on the other side of the bathroom door. Her voice was soft as she was crying softly, before running out and immediately hugged her mother, Grace.
"What?... What happened?" Ethan thought, before looking into his hand to find an origami dog, before placing it in his back pocket.
"I sometimes have these… blackouts." Ethan explained. "Times that I don't know what I'm doing. But I recover consciousness and I have no idea how I got there. Last night, I was at home and the next minute, I blacked out. Then I ended up in the hospital room where Harumi was." Ethan explained about what happened to him last night, as it left him frighten in his mind, instead of showing it. He thought about it for a second, until he provided an answer.
"Do you think this could be related to the accident?"
"You suffer a massive head concussion and were in a coma for six months." Clarence Dupree replied to Ethan's question. "We really don't know what affect a shock like that can have on the brain."
"Is there something that you wanted to tell me, Harumi?"
Harumi was sleeping in her hospital room, as her mother step out for a second to take a phone call. She was sleeping peacefully as her stomach stopped hurting, until she felt a pair of cold hands wrapped around her neck. Someone was squeezing her trachea. Her eyes widened like saucers, as she tries to fight back by pulling off the attacker's hands off her windpipe. Her left hand reach out to the flower vase as she grabbed and uses it to attack back.
She heard a low groan from the attacker as he fell on the floor. Harumi was too nervous. Too frightened to see who attacked her. All she heard was a familiar voice and remember that the attacker was wearing all black and something was covering his face. She immediately ran into the bathroom and locked herself.
"No, no… I have nothing to share."
The computer showed deceiver.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Ethan walked into Satomi's office, before closing the door behind him. His daughter was looking at out the window as she was mesmerized by the the beautiful colors of the window art. Her nerve headband was still on her, not looking at her father or no even saying hello to him. The computer say that she was feeling sadness when Ethan walked in.
"Hello, Ethan," Satomi greeted him, once more. "Your daughter and I were having a conversation."
"Oh, really?" Ethan asked before sitting down. "What was it about?"
Satomi turned to Harumi. "Harumi, would you like to tell your father about the conversation?"
"No… no please."
The computer showed shyness.
"Ok, Harumi, can you wait outside of my office." Satomi said. "I would like to speak with your father alone."
Harumi nodded, before taking off the nerve headband off her head. She walked towards the door, held onto the door handle and she looked back at the therapist and her father, before leaving the room.
"So, how was she doctor?"
"She was showing every emotion in front of me." Satomi said. "Somehow, I figure out what is wrong with her, but this requires medication." Satomi reached into her desk and pulled out a small bottle of the medication.
"Medication? What do you mean medication?
"Ethan, I think Harumi is going down the path towards addiction and she's been diagnosed with MDD or known as Major Depression Disorder. Her depression lasted longer than a year, so she must take these to help her."
She handed Ethan the small bottle of pills as he looked at them. "She must take two every day, so she won't have any suicidal thoughts, but their are a few side effects, like fatigue and loss of memory."
"Thanks doctor, is there anything else that you and Harumi discussed?" Ethan asked.
"Well, I decide for her to draw pictures about her feelings during this session and some of them are serious and honest about her." She handed Ethan the drawings as he looked at them.
The first drawing was a stick figure of Harumi hanging herself on the ceiling fan.
Second drawing was her and Shaun and somehow a big black ghost was grabbing them from behind.
And the last picture was her stabbing someone in the stomach and that someone was Ethan.
Once Ethan and Harumi arrived back at the house, Harumi went straight to the couch, while Ethan was getting her pills ready for her.
"Alright, here take this." Ethan said holding out two white pills.
"I don't want them."
"I said take them."
"What are they?"
"These are for your depression. You must take two everyday to help you." Ethan said, as Harumi taken the pills out of her father's hand. She walked into the kitchen and swallow it while drinking out of the orange juice carton.
"How do you feel?"
Harumi shrugged her shoulders. "Still the same." She places the orange juice carton back in the refrigerator. She decided to lay down on the living room couch and turned on the TV to watch some anime, but somehow the ICN news was on with a special report when she turned on the TV.
Ethan was doing the dishes as he heard the ICN news on. Harumi would never watched anything that's educational unless it's anime or music.
"The Origami Killer has its eighth victim and he was found just like the other seven victims." Ethan turned around and dropped the plate in the sink, before walking towards the TV to watch the news.
"Jeremy Bowles, age ten was found under a highway near a railroad tracks, when a witness was just taking his dog out for a walk and he discovered the body and immediately called for police. In other news-"
Harumi immediately switch the channel. "I hate that channel." She mumbled to herself, before turning it to the anime channel. "Oh, great... Black-"
Harumi immediately fallen asleep when those pills had suddenly kicked in. She dropped the remote on the floor and started snoring with her mouth half opened. Ethan laughed to himself when Harumi was snoring which was strange for the teenager who doesn't snore like that.
Over an hour had gone by, Harumi was still asleep until she felt a nearby presence coming closer to her, until she grabbed it's wrist. "Harumi?"
"Dad, what do you want?"
"I… I just wanted to give you a kiss on the forehead." Harumi opened her blue eyes and looked at her father confused. "You look so peacefully, like an angel, except when you were snoring like a vacuum cleaner."
A small smile was placed on her lips, before it disappeared. "Ha, ha, very funny, Ethan." She remove her phone from under the pillow to check the time.
"Isn't it time for you to pick up Shaun?"
Ethan looked over the couch to see that it was two fifty five. "Oh, shit!" He said, before he stood up from the floor, as Harumi stretched her arms out and placed her shoes on feet. Ethan was the first person out the door, until Harumi was slowly behind him and he started up the car and left his daughter. He sped down the street, until he looked at the rear view mirror to see her waving at him to come back. He turned around and went back for her.
"Slow down sometimes, Sebastian Michaelis." Harumi commented while strapping herself to her seatbelt.
Bonjour! I'm back since I was busy with work and also working on my Vampire Knight fanfictions. Don't worry, I didn't forget about this remake of Ethan and his daughter. My brain was all over the place and I couldn't get it to sit still! And I also went to Books a Million to buy more anime DVDs and mangas of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and a collector edition of Fruits Basket volume one, which cost like $20 also and Usagi-chan or Sailor Moon and Luna plushies.
P.S~ I would have named this chapter Monochrome Frame after the Kanon Wakeshima song ;)