Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own Digimon. If I did, the 02 ending would have certainly been a lot different. Seeing as how I'm not, however…

Author's Notes: I am looking for constructive criticism! This is my first ever try at a tear-jerker. So… yes. Tell me what you think! There are a few very subtle, not at all important, mentions of pairings. That is it, however.

Summary: Kari receives an unexpected phone call from TK that changes everything. One-Shot.

"Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites, Hell threatens."
-Edward Young

Knells Call

"I mean really! How many times can men actually think about sex? Don't they have to think about other things as well? Such as how to get from point A to point B?"

"You'd be surprised—after all, why do you think we're always getting lost?"

Kari giggled as she listened to the talk show on the radio fill her car. She watched as familiar streets passed, telling her that she was going the right way. The sun was starting to set beyond the horizon, but that did not worry her one bit. What worried her was that the time was ticking closer and closer to eight o'clock—the time that Davis had designated the surprise party for Cody to begin.

The twenty-year-old slowed her car to a stop as the light turned red. A huff of annoyance fell from her lips. She tapped her thumbs against the steering wheel impatiently. "C'mon, please, c'mon," she muttered. Instead of the light turning green, however, her cell phone went off.

She turned down her radio before checking the caller ID. "Unknown," she muttered, reading it off her phone. She frowned at that but answered anyway, curious. "Hello?"

"Hey, Kari."

Her mood brightened considerably as an uncontrollable grin spread across her face. "Hey, TK!"

"How are you?"

It was such a simple question, but it sounded as though he really, really wanted to know. There was something odd in his voice, but Kari could not place it.

"I'm a lot better now that you called. I'm on my way to Cody's surprise party, but I think I may be late." The light turned green, and Kari drove onward, keeping a close eye on the road while continuing her conversation on the phone. "Are you there now?"

"No… no, I'm not." He paused. "Kari, I'm not going to be able to make it."

He sounded very sorry about that, but it did not stop Kari from feeling rather irritated. "But you promised!"

"I know, I know, and I'm really sorry, but…" He trailed off, as though unsure how to continue.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why won't you be able to make it? And it better be a good reason, Takeru!" she warned.

"I… something came up," he muttered.

"What did?"

"I can't… it's hard to explain."

Kari rolled her eyes as she turned left onto the freeway. "Try."

"It's just…" He stopped. "Are you planning on taking the highway?"

"Yes," she answered. "Why?"

"Don't."

"Why not?"

"You'll end up being later if you do," he answered. "There's an accident blocking up traffic."

"Really?" She said, getting out of the lane that would take her onto the highway. "How bad?"

"Pretty bad—a trucker fell asleep at the wheel." TK said his voice sounding slightly muffled.

Kari winced. "Did he hit anybody?"

"Mmm-hmm," he murmured. "He ran into a car and the car was pushed into an SUV. The car ended up pan-caked between the two."

"Oh my god!" Kari gasped.

"There had been a mother and two kids in the SUV. None of them made it."

"That's… horrible," Kari said, glancing up at the highway that she saw was backed up with traffic. She swallowed. "What about the eighteen-wheeler?"

"He's on the way to the hospital right now. He'll probably make it," TK answered.

Kari nodded. "That's good. What about the car?"

"Only one occupant—a twenty-year-old male—dead instantly."

"How awful." Kari paused. "Wait… TK, how do you know this? Is it on the radio?"

"No, not yet."

"Then how do you—did you know any of them?"

There was a pause. "I guess you could say that."

"You guess? TK, who do you know? Is that why you won't be able to make it to Cody's party?"

"Yeah, that's the reason, but—"

A sudden beeping startled Kari. She glanced at her phone. She sighed. "TK, can you hold on a moment, Yolei's calling."

"Wait, don't—"

"It'll only take a moment, I promise." She said. She then clicked over to the other line. "Yolei?"

"K-Kari?"

The brunette frowned. It sounded like Yolei was crying. "Yolei, are you okay?"

"N-no…"

"What's wrong, Yolei?"

She heard a hiccup come from the other line. "K-Kari… there's been a… there's been an accident… oh god!"

Yolei was not downright sobbing into the phone. Kari pulled over into a parking lot as she clutched the phone tightly in her hand. She knew it was not safe to drive when she needed to be focusing her full attention on one thing at a time. "Yolei, is it Ken? Did something happen to Ken?"

"N-no… n-not K-Ken…" she sobbed.

"Who, Yolei? What happened?"

"Th-the truck c-came out of n-nowhere, Kari, and he… TK… he c-couldn't… there was nowhere for him to go! Oh god!"

Her mind was numb. She did not know how to react. She held the phone tightly in her hand, so tightly that she could no longer feel the tips of her fingers. At last, she choked out, "TK?"

"I-I'm so sorry, K-Kari…"

"I… I need to… to go, Yolei…" She didn't wait for a response. She hung up on the purple-haired girl and clicked her phone back to the other line where she positive that TK was waiting. "TK?"

There was no answer.

"TK, are you there?"

Again, there was silence.

"Oh, god! TK, please answer me!"

"I'm here," his quiet voice said.

Kari sucked in her breath, as tears began to form in her eyes. She swallowed. "Am I dreaming?"

"No…"

"Are you really…?"

"Yeah…"

"Then, how…?"

"I don't know," he said. "But… um… I think I need to go soon. I don't think I'm supposed to linger too long."

"Linger? Linger where? And where are you going?"

"I… I really don't know, Kari. Someplace good, I hope."

Tears leaked out the side of her eyes, and before she knew it, she was sobbing into the phone just as Yolei had done earlier. She could hear TK's voice over the phone, trying to calm her.

"Oh, Kari, don't cry… please, don't cry. I hate it when you cry. Please, I don't want to be the one that made you cry. I want to be the one that makes you smile," he said, his filled with regret.

"H-how are you supposed to do that, now?" she said, shakily.

"You'll always have memories, Kari, and hopefully they'll be able to cheer you up when you're down. Can you do that for me, Kari? Can you think of me when you're sad and allow my memory to make you smile? For me?" he said.

"Y-yes," she whispered.

There was a pause. "I-I've got to go."

"I don't want you to!" was her automatic response. She held onto the phone fearfully. She did not want to hang up. She could not let this call end.

"I've… I've got to, Kari."

"But what am I supposed to do now?"

"You are supposed to hang up, gather yourself, and then drive home. Get a good night's sleep, and in the morning, start convincing yourself that this never happened—that you never got a call from me, that this was all a dream. Then live your life, Kari," he ordered gently.

"I c-can't," she gasped, trying to get the tears to stop.

"Yes, you can. You are my best friend and I know that you can. Just trust me. And, do me a favor… give Davis a shot. I know he can be an idiot at times, but he really does like you. I don't know, but he may even love you—"

"But I love—"

"I know," TK cut her off, his own voice now sounding thick with emotion. "And I feel the same for you, and I always will. But give Davis a shot, please. I know that he can make you happy, and when he doesn't work, you've always got me."

Kari took a deep, shaky breath. "There's so much I want to say—"

"I know me too, but I've got to go. I'm sorry, Kari."

"For what?"

"For this having to be goodbye."

Kari closed her eyes, as more tears feel down her cheeks. "Goodbye, TK."

Then the phone went dead.

That night, Kari went home, climbed into bed, and slept. The next morning, she began to convince herself that the phone call was indeed a dream. A month later, she went out on a date with Motomiya Daisuke and agreed to go on another and another until she eventually fell in love with him. Two years later, they were married. And four years later, when they had their first son, they named him Motomiya Takeru.

End.