(A/N) Well…I have no excuse. I got tangled up in the Red vs Blue fandom, then the holidays were busy, and then there were family issues, all leading to the fact that I haven't written much of anything since January, so I'm sorta just easing back into things. Not that I expect anyone's still reading my lowly story, but if you do happen to still be out there, I sincerely hope you enjoy this long-awaited continuation. The first scene was particularly difficult to write and I did my best, but I'm also not a doctor of any kind, so for all I know, I've done it completely wrong, but at the very least, I hope it's satisfying.
Love Don't Die Easy
Chapter 10: Guard Dog
Not knowing what she would see, Suri had locked herself into professional mode the moment she and Baymax had touched down on Akuma Island. She kept her head firmly on her shoulders as Baymax led her through the quarantined compound, toward the sounds of battle. They emerged in the portal chamber just in time to see Tadashi plunge his blade into Hiro's body.
"DON'T PULL THE SWORD OUT!" she screamed as she raced forward, immediately seeing the look of panic in Tadashi's eyes. She didn't allow herself time to feel any of it, though. She was needed. Her own feelings had no relevance.
When Tadashi defied her order and pulled the katana out, she immediately moved in to catch Hiro as he fell, lowering him slowly to the ground so he wouldn't further injure himself.
"H-hey…Rosie," the boy mumbled, clearly in pain.
"Don't talk," she ordered firmly as she began to strip the armor from his chest. When she got down to the fabric of his flight suit, she cut it open, exposing the badly bleeding wound. Already a disconcertingly large pool of the life-sustaining fluid was spreading around them. The detached, surgeon's portion of her mind was aware the wound was bleeding so heavily simply because the liver had been punctured, but it was still unnerving to see so much blood pouring from a friend. Quietly acknowledging that part of herself, she neatly severed it from her current line of thought and locked it away to be addressed later. Right now the doctor was needed, not the concerned friend.
"What are we looking at, Baymax?" she asked as she removed her lab coat, bunching it up and shoving it underneath Hiro to put at least some kind of pressure against the exit wound. The med bot could give her a complete catalogue of damage, but he was also programmed to defer to a surgeon if one was present.
"The liver has been completely perforated. There is not yet significant bleeding into the abdominal cavity and there is no other internal damage. Hypothermia, hypovolemic shock, and exsanguination will prove immediately fatal if left untreated. Suggested course of action would be to repair the damage to the liver while maintaining core temperature."
"Right," she said with a nod before beginning to pull the supplies she'd need from her kit. "I'm going to need you to hold him down."
"'m right here, y'know," Hiro grunted. "Don't have to talk about me like I'm not."
"Of the two of you, Baymax is the one who's not going into shock, so his is the word we'll be taking," she explained as she prepped a shot of antibiotic, injecting it before he had a chance to say anything more. When Baymax moved to hold down his arms, Hiro started to struggle.
"What…what's…I don't-"
"Calm down. Calm down," she urged, keeping her voice level as she placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "I don't have time to give you an anesthetic. You'll bleed out long before anything in this kit takes effect. I need to operate now. Baymax is going to hold you down to prevent you moving too much while I work."
"Okay…okay," Hiro said, nodding faintly as he let the nurse bot pin his arms to the floor. While Suri straddled his legs to keep them pinned, Baymax activated his heat pads, keeping back the cold Hiro was already feeling.
"Don't fight passing out," Suri encouraged while wiping an antibacterial pad over the injury site. The location was far from ideal for performing surgery and the wipe was the best she could do under the circumstances. Grabbing a sterilized cloth from her kit, she jammed it between Hiro's teeth. "I want you to bite down on this if you have to."
Wasting no more words, Suri made a quick, clean incision across the stab wound, widening her point of access. All the while, Hiro screamed in agony, struggling involuntarily against the hold on his body, his voice only slightly muffled by the cloth.
Doing her best to ignore him, Suri cut down to the damaged liver. His hideous cries pierced her ears and she was aware she would hear them in her nightmares later, but her ability to block out unnecessary detail during an emergency was one of the things that made her such a brilliant trauma surgeon. Fighting against her patient's thrashing, she spread a clotting agent over the injury to prevent further bleeding while she worked. The stab wound was small, but the liver bled heavily, just the same.
She noted other panicked voices in the background while she did her work, but she tuned them out. Like her own feelings, their fear was not relevant right now. It would not save Hiro's life. The only voice she let herself hear was Baymax's, keeping her up to date on the younger Hamada's condition from moment to moment.
"Hiro has lost consciousness," the nurse bot reported to her as she stitched up the entry wound, even though she didn't need to hear it, the boy's lack of struggle by this point speaking for itself. "Core temperature is holding stable. Heart rate remains erratic at-"
"Right," Suri interrupted before he could give the exact number. She didn't need to hear it. If the core temperature was holding, they still had a shot at this. Climbing off of Hiro, she looked back up at Baymax. "On my count, I want you to move him onto his front. One, two, three, go," she ordered in a clipped tone.
Being both gentle and precise, the robot lifted Hiro and moved him onto his stomach. Once he was in position, both the bot and the surgeon resumed their positions, holding Hiro down incase he should regain consciousness before Suri had finished her work. Grabbing another antibacterial pad from her kit, Suri mechanically repeated the same process step for step on the exit wound, not letting up until she'd completely closed it up and bandaged both injury sites. When there was virtually nothing more she could do, she looked up at Baymax again.
"How'd we do?"
"Heart rate has returned to normal. Core temperature has remained stable. We were in time to prevent further bleeding into the abdominal cavity. For the moment, Hiro is stable," the nurse bot reported, and it took everything the young surgeon had not to look at the blood smeared along his vinyl exterior.
"So…he's gonna be all right?" Suri finally allowed herself to hear Wasabi's fearful question. Turning in the direction of his voice, she saw he'd crawled closer to them, the wound in his side still seeping trickles of blood.
"He's not dead," Suri said with a sigh. "That's the best I can give you right now."
"I have transmitted our location to Heathcliff," Baymax reported. "The others have injuries that need tending. Shall I assist with their care?"
"No," Suri said firmly, even though she could feel herself starting to shake slightly. "I can handle everything else. Right now I want you to keep Hiro warm."
"Acknowledged," the nurse bot said with a nod, keeping his position over Hiro.
"Thank you, Baymax," Suri said before gathering up her kit and moving over to Wasabi. "Just this then?" she asked as she knelt beside him, her fingers ghosting along the slash wound.
"Yeah," he answered with a wince.
"Should be an easy fix," she said as she set the kit back down and retrieved yet another antibacterial pad, taking a moment to clean her hands of Hiro's blood. "Need help getting the armor off or can you handle that yourself?"
"No. I can do it," he said before slowly beginning to strip the armor from his body, clearly in pain all the while. The poor guy obviously wasn't used to this kind of pain. Once he'd managed to remove the armor and role back the undershirt, Suri had gotten her hands clean and had actually taken a moment to put on gloves, having been in a little too much of a hurry before.
"It's not too deep," she explained once she'd examined the injury and had begun to clean it. "The bleeding's mostly stopped. I think we'll be fine with some skin glue and a bandage," she said, figuring Wasabi was the type who needed to be talked through each step. So as she worked, she talked him through everything she was doing in an effort to keep him calm, and all the while, the broad-shouldered man struggled not to whimper. Once he was all patched up, she gathered the kit yet again and moved on to the last group.
GoGo, Abigail, Krei, and Tadashi were all grouped together. Callaghan she knew to be dead with a single glance. Krei, whether from fear, shock, or some combination thereof, had thankfully passed out. Suri was just as content to leave the man where he was cuffed. When GoGo saw her looking between her and Abigail, she immediately nodded toward the other woman.
"I'm fine," the engineer grunted. "Help her."
Suri had a feeling that Abigail Callaghan would need a lot more evaluation after her ordeal, but that wasn't her top concern at the moment. Right now, all she wanted to concern herself with was the stab wound in Abigail's shoulder. The test pilot had already removed her flight suit from the injury site, knowing what needed to be done, even though she was still plainly dazed from everything that had happened. She didn't have anything to say when Suri explained what she needed to do, just nodded her consent. As such, it didn't take Suri long at all to get her patched up as well. With the pilot resting and immobile, Suri was finally able to move on to GoGo and Tadashi.
GoGo was sitting against a chunk of fallen debris with Tadashi resting against her, still mildly clinging to the shorter woman, even in sleep. GoGo looked strangely at peace with the world, holding her best friend as if he were a child who'd had a bad dream.
"How much do you think you can do without moving him?" she asked, making sure to keep a firm hold of the sleeping man. "I'm not sure what might happen if he wakes up."
"Assuming you've got nothing vital damaged in the torso area, I should be able to handle the full catalogue," Suri said, taking stock of each injury as she carefully removed the armor from the smaller woman's body. So far as she could divine, there was nothing life threatening, just a patchwork of stab and slash wounds where Tadashi's blade had gotten through her under suit. As she worked to treat each injury, she was careful not to disturb Tadashi in any way.
"Rosie…how's Honey?" GoGo asked her after a time, and Suri was at least relieved to be able to offer her current patient a comforting smile.
"All patched up and resting comfortably by now, I imagine…and with a few choice words for you when we get back. When I left her with Heathcliff, he was just about to fly her and Fred back to the Lee mansion. He's coming for us now. You'll see her when we get there," she reassured her.
"Good," GoGo said with a relieved sigh, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back to rest against the makeshift wall. Once Suri had managed to cobble the younger woman back together, she turned her attention down to the man sleeping in her arms.
Suri was gentle with all of her patients, but when she turned her hands toward putting Tadashi back together, she knew there was something more carried in them. There was a tenderness in her touch she knew no other patient would ever feel. Hiro had brought Tadashi back from the dead with his sacrifice. It would be up to her to help them both come back to life.
I couldn't do anything before, Tadashi…but we have a second chance now. I won't let any of you go. Not this time, she vowed as she worked to close and bandage each wound.
Right up until Heathcliff entered the ruined chamber to help her and Baymax move everyone, the young surgeon worked, knowing that if she stopped, even for a minute, she would likely pass out, and she knew she couldn't afford to. This little band of unlikely heroes had done their job. Now they needed her to do hers.
Suri Avicenna had no intention of resting until she knew for certain that each member of Hiro's team was going to live.
XxX
"Are you satisfied?"
Tadashi looks up to see Yokai standing over him. The demon sneers down at him, looking as if he's bathed in blood.
"What…do you…"
"You got your name back. It only cost you everyone you ever loved."
Unbidden, images flash through his mind…Fred slammed against the concrete…Honey Lemon pierced by a microbot…Wasabi pinned by them…GoGo covered in slash wounds…Suri trapped beneath him…
…Hiro impaled on his sword!
"No!" he cries in horrified anguish, looking away, anywhere but at Yokai…at his own blood-stained hands.
What have I done?! Suri…the guys…Hiro! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!
"I warned you," Yokai chastises him. The sneer is still in place as the demon kneels before him, but there's a strange sort of pity in his voice at the same time. "I told you you didn't want to go down this road. I warned you. You should've just stayed asleep. Was this name of yours worth it…Tadashi?"
"SHUT UP!" Tadashi snarls, struggling to pull away from Yokai, only to find himself pinned to the floor with the demon's fingers wrapped tightly around his throat.
"Do you really think it's that easy to get away from me, Tadashi?" the specter hisses in his ear. "I'm no less part of you than your own beating heart. You created me, after all. Allowed Yokai to be born in order to protect this broken soul."
"No," Tadashi whispers, struggling futilely against the creature's hold on him. "I didn't want this. I never-"
"But you did," Yokai interrupts, tongue briefly flicking out to dart along the shell of his ear. "You see, it's not in you to let yourself die. It wasn't for Callaghan's lack of trying to destroy you. In the end, you were too strong to be conquered. You created me so you'd survive…to bear what you couldn't, to do what you wouldn't…and we did survive, didn't we. The person who hurt you is dead."
"C…Callaghan," Tadashi chokes out, the memory of his former mentor's blood splashing onto his face burning itself into his brain.
Thank you.
"Mm, yes. You did that…or was it me who stabbed our maker through the heart? You don't know, do you," he says with a chuckle. "Anymore than you know which of us it was who tried to rape Suri…or which of us killed Hiro."
"Oh, God," Tadashi cries out, not bothering to struggle anymore. There's no escaping it. "Oh, God."
"What will you do now, beloved Nii-chan?" Yokai taunts him. "What now that you no longer need me? What are you for? What is a big brother without a little brother? What is a tool without a master? What are you…Tadashi Hamada?"
"I-" he started to answer, only to realize that he had no answer, and even if he had, there would've been no one to hear it. He found himself waking up in a hospital bed, bandaged and attached to an IV. He couldn't see it, but he could feel that there was some sort of neural sensor band attached to his forehead. He was just reaching up to try and remove it when the door to the room suddenly opened up, admitting Suri.
"S- Suri?" he called out hesitantly. His partner offered him a smile, but it was caught somewhere between hopeful and professional. For a moment, she didn't seem to know what to say, but then professionalism won out.
"I'm sorry if this seems harsh, but I need to know. Who am I talking to right now? Is it Tadashi…or Yokai?"
The young man returned her pained gaze for several moments before ultimately turning away, shrugging miserably as he sat up. "I don't know the answer to that question."
"Well…if you were Yokai, you would've said so. It's a step in the right direction. Do…do you know who I am?" she asked, and whatever the expression on her face might've been, he could hear the pain in her voice. He knew she had to ask him this…because he'd fooled her before with the sound of her own name, and that he remembered with sharp, painful clarity.
"Your name is Suri ibnat Hassan ibn Sina al-Rashid," he began, still not looking at her. "Your father was Hassan ibn Sina ibn Tariq al-Rashid. Your mother was Salima Rachel Davis. They met when they found themselves on opposite sides of the Raqi War. You were born in Raqana. When your parents brought you to the States, ibn Sina became Avicenna. That was the name I saw in my email when the med school recommended one of their students to work with me on the Baymax project. Suri Avicenna. I remember it was raining the day we met. I remember you coming into the coffee shop out of the rain and apologizing for looking like a drowned rat. Maybe you did, but I never noticed. I always thought you were beautiful. I know you…Suri," he said softly, finally turning to face her. Her professional expression was still in place, but it was marred by tear tracks. "And I know what I did to you."
Suri shook her head as she moved closer to him. "That…that wasn't you. You'd never…I know you, too…Tadashi. It's not your fault," she tried to reassure him, resting a hand on his knee.
"Maybe Tadashi wouldn't," he whispered around the lump in his throat, "but I don't know if I am Tadashi. What- what sort of man kills his little brother?" he choked out, the simple sound of the katana piercing Hiro's body repeating over and over in his head.
"Tadashi," Suri started slowly, her grip on his knee becoming more firm, "Hiro isn't dead."
For a moment, it didn't sink in. Tadashi didn't see how he could've possibly heard such a thing. After all, he'd seen it happen. He'd been there. But when he finally started to come to grips with it in his head, he looked up into Suri's eyes.
"Not…dead?" he repeated, hardly able to believe it. Without thinking, he reached a hand up to grip her shoulder.
"I was able to perform surgery in time. I managed to stop the bleeding. But Tadashi…he's still in bad shape."
"What do you mean?" he pressed, not really noticing the way his grip on her tightened.
"The facility on Akuma…it wasn't anywhere close to ideal. An infection's set in. Hiro hasn't regained consciousness yet," she explained, her free hand moving up to cover his.
"Can…can I see him?" Tadashi made himself ask, half of him not sure he really wanted to.
"I don't think that's a good idea just yet," she said, the look in her eyes pitying but firm.
"Why not?" he demanded, something angry beginning to snarl in his chest.
"We're still very touch go right now. Except for my regular checks and Baymax, I'm keeping him in isolation. Until I know for certain one way or the other, I'd rather not risk that the infection become worse."
"Suri, please. I have to see him. You've got to let me see him," he argued, moving to grip both her shoulders in desperate hands.
"I can't do that, Tadashi," she said, her expression completely unyielding. "We're so close now. I know what it would do to you…to lose him. I'm not going to take that risk."
"You don't understand!" he shouted at her, fingers digging into her shoulders. "I did this. I have to tell him I'm sorry!"
"Do you honestly believe he'd blame you for any of this?" she asked, remaining infuriatingly calm in the face of his anger. "Hiro made a choice…no different from what you would have done for him."
"Suri, I swear, if you don't let me see him-"
"You'll what, Tadashi? Kill me?" she challenged, and almost before he'd realized it, his hands were around her throat, squeezing. The woman was an obstacle. She was in his way. He should remove her.
"If I must," he hissed in a barely recognizable voice.
"Callaghan said…we couldn't help you," his victim choked out, fighting the lack of air in her lungs. "Was he right? Are you…anything more than a weapon? I bet…my life…you're still in there…Tadashi," she rasped, expression still very much in control, even though her fingers were beginning to involuntarily claw at his wrists. "If I'm wrong…you'd better kill me now."
He might have. He well and truly might have strangled her or broken her neck had he not suddenly glanced down and seen the bandage peaking out from beneath her shirt – from where he'd hurt her before…when he'd tried to-
Suri!
"Oh, God!" he cried out in horror, immediately releasing his hold on her. Suri dropped to the floor like a stone, coughing violently as air rushed back into her lungs. He had no idea why he hadn't noticed it before, but there suddenly seemed to be shouting and banging coming from the other side of the closed door.
"I…Suri, I…almost…couldn't control it," he choked out, hardly able to breathe himself. He couldn't make himself look down at her. Again! Again! He'd hurt her again! Instead of retreating from him in fear, though, she reached up to him, resting a gentle hand on top of his.
"They didn't want me to come in here," she admitted quietly, hand verging on clinging to his. "They thought Baymax should come. Baymax…he's wonderful, but I thought you would need a person. I sealed the door behind me…because I didn't want to risk them trying to interfere."
"You…knew this would happen?" he asked, feeling horrified guilt twist his stomach in ugly knots. Really, what more could he have expected? He was a monster.
"I wasn't sure what would happen, but I think you can understand why I can't let you see Hiro yet…when we don't know what might set you off," she explained as she slowly climbed to her feet.
"I…understand," he murmured after several moments. "I just…what am I supposed to do?"
"What do you mean?" Suri asked him, reaching forward to touch the new scar on his cheek – the one she'd given him.
"I didn't…I was…Tadashi…but Callaghan erased that…only…I'm still here," he hissed in anguish, feeling his eyes burn as he clutched at the thin sheets. "I wasn't…supposed to be here anymore. Tadashi was supposed to die so Yokai could do what he couldn't. I can't…I can never…Suri, what…what am I?" he finally managed to choke out, the words tumbling from his mouth as broken sobs.
Suri said nothing. She just enfolded him in her arms and held him against her chest, letting him soak her breasts as the tears came, wave after wave. She had no answers for him, but she also asked nothing of him. She simply held him, running her fingers soothingly through his short hair and down over the hideous burn scars on his back, never once flinching away from their ugliness. She let him cry until he couldn't cry anymore, and even then she just continued to hold him. Whether it was enough, neither of them knew, but it would have to do for now.
XxX
The moment Suri left the room, she was collapsing against the closed door, shaking and gasping for breath. She'd been prepared for how Tadashi might react, so she'd been better able to handle herself than the first time, but that didn't mean the experience had been any less harrowing.
"Dammit, Rosie! Why the fuck did you lock us out?" GoGo demanded, clearly resisting the urge to smack the young surgeon upside the head.
"That could've been awful," Honey Lemon put in.
"Would it…have gone any better…if you'd all come barging in?" Suri asked between haggard breaths. "The commotion might've driven him completely over the edge. This was better."
"Rosie…he could have killed you," Wasabi said, voice unusually calm as he sat down beside her.
"Well…that was a risk I was willing to take," she said, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back against the door. "It's better than risking him around Hiro."
"You really believe that? You think it wouldn't hurt him just as badly if he had to learn he killed you during a fit?" Cass asked from the opposite side of the hallway. "You matter to him, too, Suri. You can't be an idiot about this."
"No. I know that. I mean…I guess I'm just the only one with the authority to make the call outside of an actual psyche ward. Not that the Lee facilities aren't spectacular," she began to ramble. Fred was still under after his own surgery, so she'd have to ask Heathcliff why exactly the Lee mansion had its own onsite medical wing.
"Seriously, Rosie, why couldn't we have just had Baymax go in?" GoGo interrupted before she could become completely nonsensical.
"Honestly? Apart from wanting him to have some proper human contact…I don't want to take Baymax away from Hiro right now," she explained, only just managing to get her shaking under control as she re-immersed herself in surgeon mode. "He's set to let me know if anything changes."
"So…shouldn't you be getting some rest, then?" Honey Lemon couldn't seem to help pointing out. "You've performed two major surgeries in the last twenty-four hours with no sleep. Is you keeling over from exhaustion really going to help anyone?"
"No," Suri mumbled as she struggled back to her feet, shaking herself off, "but I know my own limits, and you can trust me when I say I'm nowhere near them. If I promise to sleep for a week once this is all over, will you all get off my case about it?"
"Grudgingly," GoGo conceded, looking at Suri through narrowed eyes. "We will hold you to that, though."
"Point taken," Suri said with a nod.
"Are we going to let him see Hiro if…when…he wakes up?" Honey Lemon asked as the young surgeon started to move away from them – down the hall to check on Hiro.
"Of course," Suri said absently as she reached a hand up to touch the finger-shaped bruises that were already starting to form on her neck. "If it…really comes down to it…Baymax should be able to deal with any mishaps."
Dammit, Hiro. You'd better not die on me now. You've put us all through the wringer as it is. I hope you know that if you die…Tadashi won't survive either.
Hiro didn't seem to have heard her, though, for no sooner had the thought moved through her brain than she received a call from Baymax on her phone.
"Suri, your assistance is required. There is an emergency."
XxX
At first, Hiro doesn't know where he is. He finds himself working at a computer terminal, but everything else is white. There's a schematic streaming across the holo screen, but he can't read it.
"What…what's going on?" he mumbles, fighting to try and look around, but failing to pull his eyes away from the screen.
"That's up to you, Hiro," an unfamiliar voice drifts into his awareness. At least…he thinks it's unfamiliar. He's pretty sure he's never heard it before…but there's still just…something about it.
"Up to me?"
"That's right," the voice continues. It's soothing, but at the same time, he feels a small bolt of fear shiver down his spine. "You did well. You've done amazing things. More than that, you've accomplished what you set out to do. If you want…you've definitely earned the right to rest."
"Rest…what…?" Hiro tries to ask, finally managing to tear his gaze away from the screen. When he looks back, he finds a familiar room beginning to emerge from the whiteness. It's Tadashi's lab at SFIT – as it was before Yokai got to it…the place where his life had changed in so many different ways. And standing in the doorway is-
-it's not Tadashi. He sees Tadashi in this man, but it's not his brother. He knows this because even though he's never seen the man before, he does recognize his face. It stares back at him daily from a couple dozen pictures Aunt Cass keeps hanging around their home.
"Dad?" he asks uncertainly.
"Hey, Hiro," his father says, looking at him with a fond smile on his face. "It's good to see you."
Hiro shakes his head. "This- this isn't real," he stutters, wanting to move further back but already stopped by the terminal. "You're dead. Tadashi saw you die. You and Mom both. You can't be here."
Tomeo Hamada raises an eyebrow at him. He doesn't say anything, just waits for Hiro to connect the dots for himself – and he eventually does.
"Oh," he mumbles, pain briefly flashing in his mind as he remembers the sudden and precise stab of the katana…the cold feel of it sliding through his body. He reaches a hand down to the place where he'd been impaled, but there's no wound there…no blood…not the slightest sign he's ever been injured. "That's right."
"You gave up your life to save your brother," his father says, moving a few steps closer.
"I…I'm…am I dead?" Hiro finally made himself ask.
"Well…as I said before, that's up to you. This place…it's a space between. It's why I can talk to you like this. You're not quite dead…but you are dying," his father explains to him, pointing to the window. When Hiro follows the indicated direction, instead of looking outside, he finds himself looking down into a hospital room. He sees himself lying in the bed, skin ashen and completely unmoving. Rosie and Baymax are moving around him, tending machines and supplying various drugs. He can see Rosie becoming more frantic by the moment.
"And I'm gonna go ahead and chalk this up as the freakiest thing I've ever seen," he mutters, more to himself than to his father. "What about Tadashi? Is he all right?"
"He's alive, if that's what you mean. I wouldn't go directly to all right. That will take time, but you saved him. You didn't give up on him. That's what counts."
Hiro sighs as he looks away from his own death, up to his father. "God, Dad. I'm sorry, but what did you ever see in Robert Callaghan?"
Tomeo Hamada gives a bitter laugh at this. "Hiro, I saw in Bob the same thing you saw the night you first met him – a good man, a friend who shared my interests. But anyone can be pushed past their breaking point. Losing his friends…losing his family…it changed him. He saw things I hope you'll never have to see, let alone understand. I just want you to know that the man you knew was not my friend. The man I knew…he died…a long time ago. If I had known…if I had only known then what it would all lead to…I never would've put those designs to paper. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I wasn't there to protect you boys. Tadashi's done the job I was meant to do for so many years…but he did well, he and Cassie both," his father says, offering him a tired smile as he lays a hand on his shoulder. "You're a good man, Hiro. Much better than I ever was."
"Well, thanks for that," Hiro says with a self-deprecating chuckle, turning back to the window when he hears the sound of his own heart monitor flat lining. He feels a faint electrical surge when Baymax applies his defibrillator hands to his chest.
"Clear," the nurse bot warned in the same easy voice he always spoke in before attempting another jolt.
"Dammit, kid, don't quit on me now," Rosie muttered as she monitored Baymax's progress with an anxious glare.
"It's weird," Hiro says quietly as he watches them struggle to save him. "I should probably be more scared. I mean…I'm watching myself die…but I just…I feel calm right now," he tries to explain.
"You were ready to die when you made the decision to face Tadashi one last time. This was an outcome you'd accepted, even if you didn't know exactly what might happen."
"Maybe it is time to go," Hiro muses, attention held captive by Baymax and Rosie's failing attempts. "I've seen so many awful things in the past week alone. I do want to rest. They don't…really need me anymore. Tadashi's got Rosie now. She'll take care of him. Maybe they can have the life they should've had."
"It is true that your brother would be in good hands. If it's what you want, you can come with me now. Your mother's waiting. You've definitely earned the right to be at peace," his father says.
"But…?" Hiro continues for him, sensing the caveat in his words.
"But what do you think it will do to Tadashi…to live knowing he was the one who put the sword through you?" Tomeo asks him with a stern look.
"Dad, that wasn't-"
"Do you really believe he'll see it that way? Will it matter to him who was in control of his actions at the time?"
"Hiro…no!" Rosie cried out, pounding a fist against the pillow next to his head as tears began to pour down her face. Baymax had already backed off. "Wake up…wake up! You can't do this!"
"How?" Hiro finally asks his dad. "How do I get back?"
Tomeo laughs at this, wiping an amused tear from his eye. "Oh, Hiro, if I knew how to do that, would I be here now? If you want to go back, you'll have to do it yourself. Of course, if you don't think you can do it, you're welcome to follow me," he points out.
And that's what does it. Something he can't do? He's Hiro fucking Hamada. There's nothing he can't do, even coming back from the dead. And when he realizes just what his father's pulled on him, he smirks, but there's also a little sadness behind it.
"Thanks, Dad," he says, moving forward to hug him. Tomeo holds him tightly against his chest, as if pressing the memory into his heart.
"We love you, Hiro," he whispers to him, "and we're both so very proud of you. You and Tadashi had better not show your faces around here for a long time," he scolds him as he backs away.
"No promises," Hiro snarks. "After all, I am just a dumb knucklehead."
"That you are," his dad says, holding up his fist for a bump. "Don't ever change."
Hiro grins as he bumps the offered fist. "You can count on that one, old man. I'll see you when I see you."
Tomeo Hamada just nods as the door to the lab slides open, and in the whiteness beyond there's an indistinct figure. When his dad takes the figure's hand, its features become distinctly more feminine, and for a moment, Hiro could almost swear he sees Aunt Cass's smile.
"Mom?" he whispers, but that's all there's time for, as the lab suddenly goes up in white around him.
XxX
The first thing Hiro became aware of upon blinking his eyes open was just how dry his throat was. Instead of words, he produced more of a croak when he tried to speak.
"Hey, you," a familiar voice said to him, though that familiar voice was strangely gentle. Hiro looked to the side of the room to see Aunt Cass sitting in a chair by his bed. When he tried to respond, all he managed was another croaking sound. His aunt laughed at the noise, sounding a little more like herself. "Feeling up to some water?"
Nodding, Hiro tried to sit up, but Aunt Cass stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Not yet, knucklehead. Let me take care of this," she said, reaching for a cup that sat on the stand beside the bed. Being careful to keep the cup upright, she offered him the straw sticking out of it. He rolled his eyes at her before gripping the straw between his lips and taking several grateful swallows of water. When he released the straw, he let his head rest back on the incredibly soft pillow.
"Y'know, I'm not a baby, Aunt Cass," he said when he was finally able to speak again.
"No, but you are an idiot who just about got yourself killed," she pointed out. "So if it's all the same to you, I'll go ahead and do all the silly little mothering things."
"It wasn't…for nothing…was it?" he asked slowly, remembering exactly why he was in a hospital bed. "How's Tadashi?"
"He's alive," Aunt Cass responded as she stroked his hair.
"And he- he's not…"
"Not Yokai anymore, no," she said, and he could tell there was more she wanted to say, but he wasn't really feeling up to pressing her for whatever that more was.
"What about the rest of the guys?" he asked instead. "What happened on the island?"
"That you can ask them yourself," she said with a tired smile. Then she nodded toward the door, which spilled open to reveal his brother's four best friends – his best friends. Each one of them definitely looked a little worse for wear. GoGo was heavily bandaged in several areas and he could see Wasabi favoring his right side as he moved. Honey Lemon's left arm was set in a sling, her shoulder bandaged and held immobile. Of the whole group, Fred looked the most different. His head had been shaved and there was a large bandage covering the lower right side of his head.
"Guys," Hiro called out in relief as they all came to the bed, gathering around the two with smiles on their faces.
"Hey, Hiro," they all chimed together.
"Good to see you awake again," Wasabi said.
"For a while there, we…we really weren't sure," GoGo put in. "You just about left us there."
"Not for lack of trying," Hiro said quietly, remembering scant images of a smirk that matched his own. "But somebody reminded me I'm just a little too stubborn to die. Though…Fred, what- what happened to your hair?"
"Oh, this? It's nothing. Rosie needed to get rid of it so she could get inside my head and drain off some kinda fluid buildup. Shouldn't take too long to grow back. We're all good, little man. You're the one we were worried about."
"And…Akuma…what happened with Callaghan?" Hiro asked.
For a long moment, they all fell silent. GoGo was the one to finally speak up with, "He's dead. Tadashi killed him."
Hiro squeezed his eyes tightly shut at this, swallowing in pain. It wasn't so much the fact that Robert Callaghan was dead that unnerved him, more that there was yet one more death that would be laid on his brother's soul. He would've rather it'd been his own, but there was nothing he could do about it now. "Guess I can't blame him for that one. What about…Abigail? How's she taking all this?"
"She's recovering in her own room," Honey Lemon began to explain. "She tried to stop her father from killing Krei and she was hurt. We're not…really sure how much she knows about what's happening. She hasn't spoken a word since it happened."
"And Krei?" Hiro continued. "What happened to him?"
At this, Fred began to laugh. "Oh, man. It was epic! GoGo and Wasabi hog tied him and left his corporate ass with the cops. Damn, but I wish we could've been there for that."
"Cops?" Hiro asked, looking around at all of them. "But…what can they get him for? I thought-"
"Even if there isn't enough evidence to pin him with murder, corporate espionage is still a very major offence," Wasabi explained. "No doubt he's gonna be going to jail."
"Huh," Hiro started with a shrug. "Just like that." It didn't seem possible that it could really be over just like that, but there were still things he didn't know. "How…how's Tadashi holding up?"
For several moments, his friends and aunt looked at each other in uncertainty. Honey Lemon was the one to step in this time.
"It's been three days since Akuma, Hiro. Tadashi's only had one episode since then, but…he tried to kill Rosie. She managed to talk him down, but there's no telling what could set him off. He's been kept under lockdown."
"But you are going to let me see him…right?" Hiro pressed, glaring briefly at all of them.
"Rosie and Baymax went to get him when you first started stirring," Aunt Cass finally answered.
"So 'yes' would be the answer to your question," Rosie's voice came from the doorway. The group parted ranks so Hiro could the young surgeon standing there. When she entered the room and stood to the side, Hiro could plainly see his brother, with Baymax standing just behind and beside him, a steadying hand on his shoulder.
"Tadashi," Hiro whispered, feeling something burn behind his eyes. He saw his big brother stiffen at the name, but he didn't care. Even though he'd never acknowledge it, he'd been waiting for this moment ever since he'd been blown off his feet by the explosion that had first taken his sibling from him. Ever since learning Tadashi was alive, he hadn't really let himself feel the joy of that. He'd been so preoccupied with everything else – with saving him – and now here he was.
"Hiro?" his brother started uncertainly as he moved into the room, looking like he half wanted to run the other direction.
"Yeah. Still my name, bro," he tried to joke, even though he could feel the tears attempting to squeeze out of his eyes.
"Please exercise caution," Baymax advised when the elder Hamada finally reached the hospital bed. "Hiro is still recuperating from a major surgery and is in a fragile state right now."
For several moments, Tadashi just stood beside the bed, looking torn.
"Do…do you hate me?" his formerly confident elder brother made himself ask, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy.
"No, I don't hate you, nerd," Hiro answered around the lump in his throat as the tears finally began to fall. "Are you gonna hug me or do I have to do all the work?"
Tadashi seemed to need no more invitation than that. Though he still looked afraid, he moved forward and very gently pulled Hiro into a hug. Navigating around the I.V. he was still attached to, Hiro wrapped his own arms around his brother, burying his face in his chest as the waterworks started in earnest.
"Nii-chan!" he sobbed as he clung to him. "You don't know how fucking happy I am you're not dead."
"Hiro," Tadashi mumbled into his hair, his own tears beginning to wet the black strands. "I'm so sorry. I did this to you."
"That's the last time you get to blame yourself for this, man. I don't wanna hear it," Hiro snarled. "You didn't do anything. It wasn't you."
"Should've…left me to die," Tadashi choked out, his grip on Hiro tightening to a slightly uncomfortable degree.
"It's okay. We're okay," Hiro soothed, just talking his unbalanced brother down, like Rosie had done. "You never gave up on me…not once. Why the hell would I give up on you? I'll never give up on you, Nii-chan. Not ever. I love you."
Hiro knew he'd have to let go of his brother eventually, knew he probably wasn't going to be awake for much longer even, but that didn't matter to him just then. He didn't even care that said brother might be an inch from falling into a murderous rage. All that mattered to him was that he was hugging Tadashi – something he thought he'd never be able to do again. For as long as he lived, he knew he'd remember this moment, and he'd never believe that anything was impossible ever again, no matter how crazy it might seem. He'd fought so hard to have this moment and against all the odds, he'd gotten his brother back, and he was going to help Tadashi come all the way back to himself, even if it took years.
He was not giving up.
XxX