Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ The Rain Doesn't Grieve ❯ 04 ( Chapter 4 )

4

 

sometimes you have no choice, sometimes you've got no voice to say…

 

Omi ~ Goodbye

 

“Man, you look a mess.”

 

“Thanks,” I replied, smiling a little.

 

Yohji stopped a few feet from my bedside, the white paper mask covering his nose and mouth. He looked down, but not before I saw the flash of pain in his seawater eyes. “I wanted to say goodbye.”

 

“I know.”

 

Yohji frowned at me. “Did Manx tell you?”

 

“She didn't have to. Your work is done, isn't it. Why would you stay with Weiß now? You're a detective, Yohji, not an assassin. Go out and be brilliant.” I hoped he was listening to my words and not the tears behind them. With Ken still in serious condition, Yohji was the closest thing to a big brother I had anymore. I hated to see him go, but I knew I had no choice. I could watch him leave, or I could close my eyes.

 

“Omi, I… Thank you,” Yohji murmured, voice husky. “I'll keep in touch, if you don't mind. If it hasn't been burgled too badly, I was thinking about going back to that apartment I kept, you know, where I took my dates?”

 

“I know the place.”

 

“When they let you out, come by for a visit,” Yohji offered, smiling valiantly around his mask. He took a couple of steps closer, then leaned over and gently grasped my hand. “You'll be walking up my staircase in no time, my friend.”

 

Great, he had to say it. The tears spilled over and I clung to his hand and just let them fall. “And I'll bring Ken-kun with me,” I sobbed, “and Aya, and we can all have tea together…” My voice broke off as grief overwhelmed me.

 

“Hey, Ken's going to be just fine,” Yohji said with no hint of doubt. “You have to believe that, Omi. We're all going to be just fine. Me, I've just decided to take my retirement buyout while I still can. I…I don't want to do it anymore. And now they're kicking me out of the hospital, saying I'll finish mending better at home anyway. I'll be there when you come to visit. And bring Ken, and Aya if he'll come, though I think he'd rather be peeled and salted before setting foot in my apartment.” The old humor had returned to his eyes, turning them a darker jade.

 

“Thanks for coming by,” I told him, sensing it was time for him to go.

 

Yohji gave my hand one last squeeze, then turned and strode out of my room.

 

At least he had come by.

 

Ran had left without a word.

 

Before I could slide further into my sorrows, the door opened again to admit my physical therapist, a powerfully built young man who excelled at torture inflicted with a pleasant and bland smile. I groaned.

 

Within the next half an hour, my leg muscles were shaking and my back felt like it was on fire. Nothing wanted to work except my toes, but at least they provided a hopeful sign. If I could move them, which I could, I should be able to walk unaided within a few months.

 

My torturer tested the strength in my arms and hands, which had never failed even though I was confined to this hospital bed. I had tried to keep them flexible and strong, pushing my hands against each other and pulling up on the bar over my head the moment they said I safely could. With another bland smile he told me to wait a bit while he fetched a surprise from the hall.

 

I rolled my eyes; as if I were going anywhere while he was gone! But all my aggravation and fatigue vanished the second he returned, and most of my pain went with them. He brought me a wheelchair! True, half my team was now discharged, but Ken was still here, and now I would be able to see him!

 

With extreme care, the therapist showed me how to use the guard rails to lower myself from the bed to the chair. Sitting hurt my lower back, and he promised to work on that next, but, “I know how much you want to be free, this is the best we can do for now.”

 

“No, no, it's fine,” I gasped, willing the pain to recede. It didn't, so I resolved to ignore it. “Do I get to keep this?”

 

“As long as you're safe with it and get help returning to your bed,” he told me. “Now, would you like a push?”

 

“Yes, please! I want to see Ken-kun!”

 

“Hidaka-san is not awake,” he told me, “he won't know you're there.”

 

“But he'll hear me! I want to talk to him.”

 

The therapist bowed his head and wheeled me out of my room. Instead of feeling helpless, I felt strangely invigorated, as though I had just sprouted wings and taken flight.

 

We took an elevator two levels down, to the neurology unit. I felt the first real stirrings of panic in my chest. At least I'd been moved to a private room, for patients in recovery from difficult surgeries. They hadn't moved Ken.

 

My driver turned the chair around and entered the room backwards, pulling me in after him. When he completed the circle and I saw the bed, I wanted to get up and run away.

 

Ken looked as pale and slack-muscled as Aya's sister had looked. Tubes and wires connected him to drip bags and monitoring equipment. I found my gaze drawn to the little green blip of his heartbeat, plodding on with the calm regularity of an ox.

 

“I'm sorry, sir,” the physical therapist murmured, “but I told you he wouldn't know you were here.”

 

“Put me by his bed,” I ordered, growing unaccountably angry. At his hesitation, I reached down and, unmindful of the pain, grabbed the wheels myself. The strain of wheeling myself along vanished within seconds as the therapist apologized and pushed the chair toward Ken's bedside.

 

I remembered how soothing it had been whenever Manx had held my hand, and now I took Ken's limp left hand in mine. The veins on the back were all bruised from needles; apparently the doctors had only recently switched the IV line to the other hand. His skin felt reassuringly warm.

 

“Oi, Ken-kun, it's me,” I said, voice nearly breaking, “it's Omi-kun. I'm sorry I couldn't visit before, but I hurt my back and they wouldn't let me out of the bed.” I snorted a laugh and added, “If Yohji-kun had said that, you'd say it was a cheap line.”

 

No movement, no flicker of recognition. I didn't stop talking to him.

 

“When you're better, you and I have to go visit Yohji. He's moving back into his babe-trap. I know, it's not the best neighborhood, but he really wanted to go there. He…he doesn't want to be Weiß anymore.” I took a deep breath; it came out as a heavy sigh. “Aya…Ran…wants to reinstate the team. So you have to wake up soon, we're not balanced without you.” Because I have to leave too, and Ran will need someone he knows to be there with him.

 

I must have stayed there over an hour, just talking until my voice gave out and the pain in my back turned into numbness. I thanked my therapist for allowing me the time, then let him wheel me back to my room.

 

Tomorrow was another day, and I would visit my friend until he woke up and told me to stop.