6. The Recovery

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She didn't know how much time had passed by the time she regained her consciousness. The first sense to wake up was her sense of smell. There was the antiseptic smell. Then her hearing began to collect sound waves from her surroundings. Several things hummed and beeped. Machines? She was in a hospital? She remembered the incident at the cabin. Her lower right abdomen still ached faintly. Did someone find her and save her? It'd better not be that moron. Ai managed to force her eyelids apart as she realized it couldn't be him.

The room was bright. It was large and clean, too, she observed. For some reason, it wasn't what she expected to see. And she was relieved by that. As her gaze wandered around the room, she found herself looking into a pair of soft and concerned eyes. She was looking at a feminine face that was smiling. Her sister? No, it was someone else.

"You're awake," she said quietly. It could've been a comment or a question. But Ai could tell that the woman was trying to suppress her excitement and relief.

After a couple whispers escaped from her throat, Ai found her voice – shaky and coarse – and asked, "Who are you?"

The woman hesitated, bit her lower lip, cast a short glance on the floor, squared her shoulders, and announced, "Mizunashi Rena."

Mizunashi Rena, Mizunashi Rena, Ai repeated in her mind. It sounded familiar, but she didn't think that... Then it clicked in her mind. Mizunashi Rena, the reporter, the trouble – a member of them. Ignoring the pain and the tubes attached to her, Ai tried to jerk up. The fear was much greater than any pain. The only thought going through her mind was, I'm caught. What will happen to the professor, the kids, him, her, and everyone else?

"Calm down!" Rena caught Ai by her shoulders and pushed her back onto the bed, but not ungently. "You're safe. You're safe."

Ai didn't believe her, but she couldn't fight anymore. She was exhausted, and the pain was getting the better of her. Before she could ask Rena questions, the door to the room opened.

"Yo," a voice said softly and a head poked into the room. It was a boy of seventeen or eighteen years old and he looked so much like Rena. "If you want to rest..." his voice trailed off when he noticed that Ai was awake. He looked at Rena, then at Ai, then at Rena again. "Why didn't you yell for the doctor?" he asked Rena, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Well, I haven't – "

"Heeey! She's awake!" he hollered down the hallway, disregarding Rena's protest that they should be quiet in a hospital. He remained at the door for a short moment, as if waiting for some response to his shout, before he came into the room, grinning.

Ai didn't know what to think. She lied on the bed, frowning, confused. These two (brother and sister?) were not acting as if they were on the grounds of the Organization. It was as if they were her old friends just dropping by a normal hospital to pay her a get-well-soon visit. Maybe it was all a trick. But if it was a trick, she didn't understand why the Organization didn't leave her out in the woods to die. They wanted her dead, didn't they?

"You're a trouble, you know," the boy scolded in a half-teasing and half-serious tone. "You freaked us out badly twice. Once was in the Organization a couple days ago. We found you half-dead from the loss of blood in the cellar. You didn't rip off the bandage that the people in the Organization put on for you to stop your bleeding, did you?"

Ai raised her eyebrows. This boy was not making sense. She supposed he didn't realize that he assumed she knew more than she actually did. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

At this moment, the door opened again, and several people entered the room. There was a middle-aged man that Ai decided was the doctor. Then there were faces that she recognized: Akai Shuichi, Jodie Saintemillion... Interesting, she thought. Either the Organization and the FBI merged into one, or I'm seriously behind current events.

"Well," the boy said after watching the people enter the room. "We know Gin found you injured in the woods. He brought you back to the Organization and the doctors there treated your injury. But when the FBI broke into that building, we found you half-dead with the bandage partially ripped off. We think that the only person who could've done that was... you."

Ai shook her head. "I still don't know what you're talking about."

The doctor interrupted. "Any questions or clarifications may be done after the patient has recovered. I'm afraid we should let Haibara-san rest now."

Ai shook her head again and said firmly, "No. I want explanations now."

Everyone looked at her, startled. Jodie asked, "Are you feeling well enough?"

Ai paused before responding, "I don't want to waste any more time."

The boy nodded in agreement. The doctor sighed.

"You don't remember anything?" Rena asked. "About the bandage or... anything?"

"I remember how I got injured, but I don't recall ever regaining conscious until just now," Ai explained. There was a moment of silence in the room before she spoke up in a quiet voice, "If you really want to know... I only remember being afraid, losing the desire to live, seeing black and red..." And I saw my sister, she added in her mind. She told me that I was going to be late, and then she shut the door and left. "Maybe it was all a dream," she said softly.

The doctor coughed uncomfortably. "It might be, uh, might be something similar to what some people have experienced when they die for a short period of time before coming back to life again."

Ai turned her head and looked at the doctor. He was tired, but he seemed to be in good spirits. "Are you suggesting that I died but you saved me, doctor?" Her voice was harsh, but she didn't mean it to be.

"Oh, no. I didn't. I didn't save you," the doctor said, and everyone stared at him. "You did. You saved yourself."

Ai had never felt so confused in her life. She almost wanted to tell them to start over at the beginning.

"You left us for twenty minutes in the ER," the doctor continued. "One of the nurses told me to stop, because after fifteen minutes, if the patients are still gone, they're usually... gone. For good. It was a miracle when your heart started beating again – on its own. Weak, but it was beating. There was a small cheer in the ER."

"And that was the second time you freaked us out," the boy concluded, gesturing at the doctor with a crazy, melodramatic wave of his arms.

Stunned, Ai took a while to accept what the doctor had said. A part of her thought this whole thing was crazy. Another part of her couldn't help thinking of her sister. Her sister woke her up, told her to catch up... "So what is the whole business going on between the Organization and the FBI?" she asked, putting on an emotionless facade. She was expecting the worst.

The brother and sister looked at Jodie and Shuichi. Jodie cleared her throat. "Mizunashi Rena and Hondo Eisuke here are... working for us."

"Technically, only me," the boy said. He nudged Rena with his elbow playfully with a smirk on his face. "She herself is just recovering. Woke up from coma a week ago." Rena smacked the back of Eisuke's head with her hand, and Eisuke stumbled onto the floor, knocking his head against the edge of the bed. "Ow..." he cursed as he clutched his head and glared.

Rena humphed.

"I see," Ai said in response to Jodie's statement. Was it relief she was feeling? Did everything mean that the Organization was brought down? There were so many questions, so many concerns. But... "How's Kudo-kun?" she decided to ask instead. When she believed that she was with the people on the justice side, she started to feel disappointment but pushed away the feeling. He wouldn't be here, she told herself sternly. Why would he?

"He's... fine." Jodie's eyes slid away, and Ai had the feeling that it was not the entire truth. Ai was about to ask when Jodie continued in a low voice, "He's frantic. He doesn't show it, but he's extremely worried because he hasn't found you yet."

"But you have," Ai pointed out. Then it hit her. "You haven't told him yet?"

"We've decided not to," Shuichi answered straight to the point. "The Organization isn't down yet. We want him to focus on the task at hand."

Ai almost sat up on bed again due to the unexpected answer. "You're using him!" she exclaimed, disgusted.

"Or would you rather have us tell him?" Shuichi asked, undaunted.

Ai paused. An old question returned – what am I supposed to do? Instead of going through and listing options A through C again, she looked away and said simply, "No, don't tell him." She shut her eyes, trying to stop her thoughts from flowing.

The doctor hinted that the people should leave. And that was the last time they spoke about the Organization (except when they informed her that it was over – the Organization lost; she'd fly to Hawaii for recovery after that). And that was the last time they mentioned the Great Detective of the East in front of her.

Until three months later, when she asked for him.