An Angels Wings

It had been a lovely date, they'd gone for dinner at a little cafe he'd found last weekend, then wandered around the park, just talking and laughing. They'd agreed to call it a night when the rain had begun. She hugged herself in her pink blouse, white Capri's letting the almost non-existent breeze play around her ankles as she leaned over the railing to wave good night to him, let him know that she was home safe.

Reeeeeeeech!

Tires squealed loudly on the wet pavement as a car slid wildly on the road, slamming T.K.s small figure hard against the wall of Heightenview Terrace.

"Oh no, no, T.K.!" Kari raced back down the steps to his crumpled form. "Please! T.K.!" She cried, shock settling itself firmly in her mind. "You have to wake up!" T.K.s image blurred as tears flooded into her eyes.

The person in the car, aman, was talking on his cell phone to an emergency dispatch. The brown suit he was wearing looked wrinkled, as if it hadn't been properly cared for, and his voice was thick and slurred, he sounded drunk.

"Kari..."T.K. turned his head slightly, so he was looking at her. His eyes were a cloudy blue, glazed over with pain.

"I'm here Takeru, you're going to be just fine. I promise." She whispered

"Don't make promises you can't keep..." His words dissolved into a shout of pain as he tried to move his arm. She could see the blood starting to seep through the blue and yellow of his favourite shirt, that'll be difficult to wash out after this is done... She stopped for a second, why such a pretense of normalcy?

Tai, who had heard Kari scream, came down the steps to investigate. God, if anything happened to her...When he saw the scene laid out before him, he swore and snatched the cell phone away from the drunken man. "Hello? This Tai Yagami, I need an ambulance right now! A guy just ran into a thirteen year old boy named Takeru Takaishi." Pause "Yes, he is. . . . ."

Kari stopped listening after that, "See, Tai's calling an ambulance, you'll be fine." She said the words not only to convince T.K., but herself too. A siren sounded in the distance, Tai was still on with the dispatch.

"Have me cremated, ok?" The siren came closer, and flashing lights of blue and red accompanied it this time. "I love you Kari. . . " He said softly as he passed out in her arms.

"No, no T.K.! You'll be fine! You'll be ok!" She cried into his hair, the salty water tasted sharp on her tongue

"Step aside please." A curt voice said as strong hands pulled him from her arms, and pushed her to the side. In the time it took for Tai to gather his sister in a hug, they had T.K. on a stretcher and in the ambulance. One of the men in his blue jumpsuit turned as his patient's stretcher was secured inside the square vehicle. "Would one of you like to come?" Kari nodded and was ushered in just before it left.

While the paramedics worked around her, she reached out and took T.K.'s hand in hers. It was soaked with blood from the horrible gash on his upper arm, and freezing cold. She squeezed his hand lightly in reassurance, there wasn't any response. He looks so fragile... so little... the teenage boy was easily dwarfed by the paramedics, and the white of the stretcher pad did nothing but make him seem smaller then he was. They swung around another corner; gravity pulling on everyone, Kari could feel it pushing her into her seat. It's going to be alright...

When they arrived at the hospital, T.K. was wheeled away to E.R.. Kari couldn't follow him there, she was ushered instead to a waiting room, mostly deserted. Clutched in her hands was his filthy bucket hat, she curled up in a ball on one of the hard green hospital chairs, and waited.

Tai arrived five minutes after the ambulance; he'd stopped to pick-up Matt and his mother, both whom followed Tai in with Mr. and Mrs. Yagami. Kari didn't give any sign of acknowledgement that they were there, she continued to stare straight ahead, her eyes rimmed red from lack of tears.

---

T.K. was moved out of E.R. that night, and into the Intensive Care Unit. Kari went straight through the door to see him, to her great relief, he was awake.

"Oh T.K., I was so worried." She cried quietly and hugged him tight.

"Ugh, it's good to see you too." She gently lowered his torso back onto the bed, and let Matt through. "Hey Matt"

"Hi T.K." there was a short silence as the two brothers took one-another in. Matt in his clean shirt and jeans, T.K. wearing a blue hospital gown under the sterile white sheets, a few stitches along his temple and a bandage wrapped around his arm. "T.K. ,I'm going to drown you when you get out of this bed." The older boy managed, grinning.

T.K. returned the smile. "Ok, the water better be warm though."

His mother, and Matt made arrangements to stay the night with him, and after a few hours, Kari's parents repented and let her stay the night as well. Matt dozed off in the chair across the room, while his mother fell asleep not long after on one side of T.K.'s bed. Kari moved one of the softer chairs over, pulling down the blue pad in front of her, she gently tucked her small hand into his. Relaxing, and using a small portion of the matress as a pillow.

---

During the night, her eyes fluttered open slightly, a flat green line greeted her, there was a relentless ringing... Somewhere in the back of her mind, someone screamed. People in blue smocks were everywhere...a familiar voice lifted her away from T.K., and the last clear thing she could remember was being placed in her warm bed at home. . .

---

What do you do when your best friend goes someday, somebody takes their life away; don't wanna wake up Monday, morning.

Karis awoke to her alarm clock, as usual. What's going on, wasn't I at the hospital? No, that was a horrible, horrible dream...It's monday... school... getup...Kari sighed, and crawled out of bed.

"Hi Mom."

"Morning dear."

She ate her breakfast, ran a comb through her hair and pinned it up with her traditional barrettes, then left the apartment. A strange feeling of intense nausea washing over her as she turned the final corner coming down the stairs, someone had run into the building the night before. Kari shook her head. It wasn't real.

She turned away and took a longer route to school, which put her entering the yard as the warning bell sounded.

Miyako found her as everyone was pushing to get through the main door. "Hi Kari."

"Hey Miyako, where's T.K.?"

"I don't know, haven't seen him this morning. You look tired" She commented. They passed through the main hall, turning up the stairs and away from the elementary.

"I had an awful nightmare, didn't get a lot of real sleep, that's all." She smiled. "Dreams aren't real, right?"

"Yeah" The bell rang, and they all went to their homerooms. Dr. Matsuda had just started to tell them about a new project when an announcement came over the P.A. system. the students slowly stopped their chatter, waiting respectfully for their assistant principal to finish speaking.

"Attention all students, and staff." There was a slight pause as the final few stopped rustling coats and shoes. "Late last night, a student was taken from our midst by a drunk driver. His name was Takeru Takaishi."

Kari stared dumb-struck at the speaker. "The name of the driver is not available at this point in time, but a proud service will be held Wednesday, at the church on 52nd street. All are welcome to attend, that is all."

"No. . . ." whispered Kari, she collapsed onto her desk, crying quietly. Davis and the others in her homeroom class could do nothing but watch.

and now are you supposed to deal with everything you gotta do, when you can barely believe it's true; don't wanna wake up Monday, morning

Throughout the day T.K. was all she could think about. Nothing reached her, she knew that it probably would have been better if she had just gone home, but all she was doing at that point was functioning. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye... he looked like he was going to be fine... she remembered a small clip of someone's voice in her nightmare.

Matt was in his regular green jacket, his jeans level with her nose as her head rested comfortably on the hospital bed. "What's going on? Where are you taking him? What's wrong?"

Another voice, not raised in pitch by panic answered him. "Internal bleeding, we didn't think it would be a problem, we're going to drain it."

The tension in the room went up drastically, "He'll be alright though...?"

---

At lunch she sat alone under a large shady tree, hunched in a ball, not even touching her food. "T.K.," she whispered.

And missing you is something that I never thought I had to do, you were always there I was there for you too; don't wanna wake up Monday, morning

Later that night, she was watching the news; a new theft had been committed, and a serial killer was still evading police. Ever present, T.k. floated back into her mind.

Of all the evil souls that do survive, how could this world take such a beautiful life? Don't wanna wake up Monday, morning

She turned off the TV and walked down the hall to her room, trying not to think about it, the attempt was useless and only made it hurt more. If nothing had happened, T.K. would be walking up the apartment stairs and ringing the door right now to take me to a movie... She knew it wouldn't happen, there was a whole school that would testify that they had heard the announcement that morning...

The door bell rang. Kari stopped dead, it's not possible... she ran down the hall to answer the door. Hope etched plainly on her face. "T.K.?"

"No, I'm sorry." It was Ken, Kari hung her head. "Would you like to talk about it?"

She nodded, grabbing her jacket and letting Ken lead her to the park. "It's going to be so different without T.K... what are we gong to do in the digital world? It's not... right..."

Something's coming over me I'll never be the same, now that this same world that brought you in has come and take you away,

Before she left, Ken gave her a small, comforting hug. "If anything ever goes wrong, you can always find me to talk about it with you."

"Hm kay" She sighed; and he turned to leave. "Ken?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you, for understanding."

"No problem" He smiled.

Kari pushed all her thoughts away until she was home in her bed. She was restless for a long time, rolling over, changing position, never comfortable. Finally, she relented and began to drift off... After a moment, a bright light grew above her bed, T.K.'s head and torso emerging from the center; followed by a pair of beautiful, brilliant, and huge, snow white wings.

"Kari," he said softly, "It was just, my time." He reached down and gently dried her tears.

"T.K." She sighed, and smiled for the first time since that morning. He carefully lowered himself down, and let his lips brush hers before holding her small body in a tight hug.

Once their lips had parted, he whispered softly in her ear, "Go to sleep, Kari, I love you. . ."

'an if there is a way that you can hear me when I pray

She closed her eyes, relishing the kiss and the embrace. "I love you too, T.K...." Kari sighed before slipping into a deep sleep.

"You'll be just fine... " He kissed her forehead again lightly, and vanished in a cloud of softly falling feathers.

When Kari awoke the next morning, she remembered her visit from T.K.. Smiling, she got dressed and tucked a feather into her pocket. Then headed to the kitchen, looking like an angel herself, and knowing that everything would turnout right...

...when I wake up Monday, morning

---

s/k: The song used is Monday Morning by Prozzak, they are quite brilliant but I do not own them in any way, shape or form