SailorStar9: With Chapter 23 uploaded, this is Chapter 24 of this fic and I'm officially restarting this. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Pairings: Furuya Rei (Amuro Tooru)/Mizuno Ami

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.

Chapter 24: The Troublesome Emergency Patient

Time passes...

"Ai-chan, do you want to come to my house?" Ayumi offered. "We have some cookies my mom baked yesterday."

"Sorry, but I'll pass." Haibara replied.

"Then, I'll eat those cookies." Genta beamed.

"Genta-kun, you like broiled eel." Mitsuhiko reminded. "I will eat the cookies."

"Wait!" a policeman hollered from the back, chasing after a man. "Stop!"

"Stay back." the man knocked the children over and grabbed Ayumi as a hostage. "You'd better stay back. I'm sorry." he muttered. "I'm really..." he mumbled and passed out.

At Beika Hospital later...

The severely injured man was hurried into ICU as Dr. Kido Tatsuhiko and nurse Morita Natsumi prepared for surgery.

"You don't know who he is?" Inspector Megure echoed.

"No." Takagi confirmed. "All he had on him were a knife and wallet. He had nothing identifying on him. His fingerprints didn't match any criminal records, either."

"Why are a policeman chasing him?" Inspector Megure asked.

"For questioning." Detective Chiba answered. "While being questioned about 100 meters away from Conan-kun and his friends, he suddenly ran away."

"Since he had a knife, was he trying to commit a robbery?" Inspector Megure wondered.

"Do you think he got into a fistfight with a policeman?" Conan suggested. "The man had an injury on his head."

"Apparently, he was already unsteady when he was questioned." Detective Chiba stated. "He was stopped he was acting suspicious."

"What happened to him?" Inspector Megure asked his subordinate. "We're with the police." he flashed his badge to the attending surgeon. "What's the patient's status?"

"He's suffering from intracerebral hemorrhaging from a blow to the head." Dr. Kido replied. "It's a very dangerous and unpredictable situation."

"Did someone hit him?" Inspector Megure inquired. "Or did he fall?"

"I can't be sure." Dr. Kido answered.

"I see." Inspector Megure sighed. "We don't know who he is or what happened."

"Are there any signs of dental work or surgery?" Conan asked. "Maybe his medical records can tell us something."

"And?" Inspector Megure prompted.

"There are no signs of surgery." Dr. Kido replied. "I'll have one of our dentists to see about his teeth. We should have answers for you later."

"Inspector." Mouri entered the scene. "I see." he noted after Inspector Megure summarized. "You have no clues."

"We'll just have to wait for him to regain consciousness." Inspector Megure was resigned.

"Detective Takagi, what is this thing sticking out of his wallet?" Fumio peered closely at the tab of paper poking out of the victim's wallet.

"It's a newspaper clipping." Takagi pulled out the newspaper cutting. "See?"

"That's the political and business scandal that has the media buzzing." Mouri recognized the headline.

"Could this have something to do with this?" Detective Chiba gasped. "Could someone be trying to kill him?"

"If that's the case, they may try to kill him again." Takagi realized.

"Station officers at the hospital immediately." Inspector Megure instructed. "Coordinate with Department Two. Ask the district public prosecutor's office for assistance, too."

"What do you think?" Haibara turned to Conan and Fumio.

"Ayumi-chan," Conan stated. "Just before he collapsed, did he say anything to you?"

"Now that you mention it..." Ayumi recalled. "Conan-kun, let's investigate." she declared. "I just can't believe he's a bad man. I want to help him."

"Okay, let's give it a shot." Conan agreed.

"He came from that way, right?" Genta pointed down the street, the group revisiting the crime scene.

"He was being questioned about 100 meters away, right?" Mitsuhiko confirmed. "Then, he ran."

"Let's check it out." Conan took the lead and the group split to question the residents and storekeepers.

"I remember him." Kijima Ine recalled. "Over there." she pointed to the road opposite of her store. "He got out of a taxi right over there. The person who got in after him was rather violent."

"Maybe he go the injury on his head then." Mitsuhiko reasoned.

"I"m not so sure." Fumio went into musing mode. "Kijima-baa-san, do you know which company that taxi belonged to?"

"Who knows?" Kijima smiled lightly. "My eyesight hasn't been very good lately. But, I remember the rough fellow very well. He's a naughty kid who's been shopping here since he was little. Around this time, he should be..."

At the gaming arcade...

The group found Ishii Atsushi in front of the gaming console, who explained that the reason he pushed his way into the taxi was because he was already late for work and would be fired for being late again.

"He told me to hurry up because he was nearly late for work." Sasano Hideto confirmed.

"Then, do you remember the man that came before him?" Fumio asked.

"The customer before him?" Sasano mused. "He didn't seem very well from the moment he got in."

"Where did he ask to go?" Ayumi took over.

"Nowhere." Sasano replied. "He just told me to follow the car in front. But I didn't see a car. So he said, 'Fine, I'm going out.'"

"Where did you pick up that man?" Conan inquired.

"Let's see." Sasano referred to his notes. "Here it is Haido-cho Sanchome."

"That's quite far." Fumio noted.

"Hey, isn't Haido-cho Sanchome..." Haibara trailed, after Sasano drove them to the secret pit-stop.

"Yeah, I was thinking of the same thing." Conan agreed.

"What?" Ayumi blinked.

"This is the next town over, but geographically, it's actually right next to that other place." Conan explained.

"What other place?" Mitsuhiko asked.

"That." Fumio pointed to the Beika Emergency Medical Center that was still under construction.

"That answer is in the hospital." Mitsuhiko concluded.

"Are these rubber skid marks?" Conan jumped back to avoid marring the evidence in the parking lot.

"Could he have meant this car?" Ayumi wondered.

"If that's true, then what is that car doing parked here?" Mitsuhiko inquired.

"The more important question: who does this car belong to?" Fumio posted.

"Kido?" Haibara read the owner's sign.

"This is..." Conan picked up a dropped button.

"It must be his." Haibara concluded. "Look, there's something that could be evidence here." she turned to the pieces of thread stuck to the painted bench. "There are two different types of clothing fibers stuck to the bench in two places."

"Now, we just need an explanation for his possessions." Conan noted. "Maybe..." inspiration stuck him when the 'Fresh Paint' sigh blew off the bench and flew right smack into Genta's face.

"Isn't this the article from last week's magazine?" Fumio peered at the electronic article Conan had downloaded into his phone.

"The question is what's behind this." Conan pulled the article's corner. "I knew it." he gasped.

"Inspector, why did you ask me to come here?" Dr. Kido asked, meeting up with Inspector Megure at the car park.

"Inspector!" Mouri had also ran into the scene.

Conan took the opportunity to fire his tranquilizer dart onto Mouri's neck. "Excuse me." imitating Mouri's voice using the voice-changing bow-tie, Conan presented the case's solution. "Allow me to explain. First, Dr. Kido, isn't that your car? "

"Yes, but what is going on?" Dr. Kido inquired.

"I'll be direct." Mouri stated. "The unidentified man ended up that way because of you, Dr. Kido. Conan."

Said boy ran out of his hiding place and stood in front of Ayumi. "Ayumi-chan, when that man grabbed you, did you notice anything?"

"Yeah," Ayumi nodded. "When he grabbed me..."

"What else?" Conan pressed.

"I smelled something." Ayumi remembered. "The same smell I noticed at the hospital."

"In other words, it's the common smell tying the victim to the culprit." Conan continued his explanation.

"This is ridiculous." Dr. Kido snorted. "If he smelled like a hospital, or in other words, disinfectant, he could've been a patient at another hospital. You're forcing the connection between myself and the culprit."

"It's not the smell of disinfectant, but paint." Ayumi cut in.

"Yes, that smell that stuck to the culprit and victim right here." Mouri declared. "The two of them fought here, and the freshly applied paint stuck to them. As the fleeing culprit tried to shake off the victim, his button tore off. He was thrown to the ground and hit his head. Then, he descended the stairs to the vacant lot and got in a taxi."

"Inspector Megure!" Takagi called, as he and Detective Chiba ran in. "We had forensics dust this car's windows for fingerprints at Mouri-san's request, and they match the patient's."

"Also, the button Conan-kun found here is the same as the ones on his clothes." Detective Chiba presented the fallen button.

"But why did he do this?" Inspector Megure was puzzled.

"His motive was the magazine clipping." Mouri answered.

"What?" Inspector Megure gasped. "Does this have something to do with the bribery case, then?"

"No, it's what's on the back." Mouri corrected. "Isn't that right, Doctor?"

"This is it." Takagi showed his supervisor the clipping. "It's an ad for Dr. Kido's book."

"It happened a month ago." Dr. Kido confessed, recalling how the patient had pleaded for him to help cure his daughter on the train and he had refused him. "I have a wife and child. I couldn't risk my relationship with the woman with me becoming public. It should've ended then. If he hadn't shown up this morning when I was returning from the night shift... he thought my behavior was suspicious and found me through the journal I was reading. According to his story, she died because her chronic condition took a turn for the worse. It wasn't about whether or not I could have saved her if I examined her then. He couldn't forgive me for lying. That's what he told me. And I agree. So, I thought it was divine punishment instead of coincidence or irony that he was brought to my hospital and became my patient. You may not believe me, but I wanted to save him. If I had regarded his daughter the same way, then maybe... I... regret what I've done."

SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.