"Miss?" The nurse shook the sleeping girl's shoulder. "Miss?"
"It's Avena," said-person slurred sleepily.
"I say you your friend…" The nurse searched for the word. "He…he no sleep."
Avena shot upright in the hard chair. "Rowen's awake?"
"Hai," the nurse nodded.
"What?" Avena asked, confused.
The nurse's face was the picture of helplessness and frustration, for she knew the word but had always had a hard time remembering the simplest parts of English. "I not know word. Gomen."
"What word?" asked Randy, walking up with a paper cup of coffee.
"Who are you?" Avena asked him.
Randy raised his eyebrows. "Your translator, kid. Now," he said, "what do I translate?"
"Hai," the nurse repeated, looking sheepish for her forgetfulness but thankful to have a solution to her lingual problems.
"She said 'yes', Avena."
"He is?" Avena's eyes widened in relief.
"Who's what?" Randy asked.
"How long've I been asleep?" Avena turned to Randy, a tad excited. "And you didn't tell me who you are?"
"I'm Randy Carter, a friend of Mia's, who you seem to have a difficult time remembering considering this is the second time you've forgotten who I am. And you've been asleep for three hours. It's four fifteen a.m. now."
"Can I see Rowen?"
Randy repeated the question to the nurse, who answered and pointed toward the reception desk. Randy said, "She says that you have to sign in with the receptionist before they'll consider it."
"Has he said anything yet?" Avena inquired.
The nurse said to Randy, "Yes, something about 'not his fault' but that was it." Then she rushed off.
Avena rushed to the desk. "I want to see Rowen Hashiba, please," she said breathlessly. "And can I talk to a doctor who speaks English?"
Yawning despite the coffee, Randy translated. He was going to need a lot of sleep after this.
* * * * * * * * *
"It is remarkable that he survived as long as he did. The tear was at least two days old. It is a miracle."
Avena agreed. Rowen was asleep again but he had been awake off and on for the past two hours. Avena had been at the bedside, waiting for him to be focused enough to know she was there, for an hour and a half. An English-speaking doctor had only come in the room ten minutes ago.
"Such a surgery has never been performed before. Dr. Yajiri is unsure how he did it. The entire thing is quite amazing…" the doctor informed her. "However…we do not think he will survive. Too much has happened to him. He should not be alive even now… He is lucky to have made it half this far."
"Yes," said Avena simply. "Is it still icy out?"
"Yes. The roads are still frozen."
Avena looked directly at the doctor. "Is Rowen going to die soon?"
The doctor looked at her with sympathy. "Yes, most likely. I am sorry."
"They won't get here in time. I'll be the only one here for him." She wanted to cry over the injustice of it all.
The doctor seemed to understand. "Would you like to be alone with him now?"
"Yes, please."
As the door closed behind the departing man, Avena looked at Rowen and smiled. There were a lot of little tubes around him and a breathing mask on his face. His hair was messier than ever and the color didn't help the appearance. But he was alive. Even if it was only for a little while longer, he was alive.
"You," Avena said confidently, "are going to wake up before you do something stupid like dying. We're going to talk and I'm going to get the guys on the phone for you." She abruptly yawned. "But first, I'm going to take a nap."
She was asleep five minutes later, her head resting on Rowen's bed. The sun was coming up in the hospital window, discovering a city covered in ice and frost. And in the background, the steady whir-whir of the breathing machine counted Rowen's breaths.
* * * * * * * * *
There was blue. It was a light and it shone everywhere and it was so blue. Avena heard a funny whirring noise coming from somewhere but mostly she just knew the blue light.
She knew, somewhere deep inside her, deeper than the place where she'd often retreated in times when life became unbearable, that the light, this blue light, meant life and it was holding Rowen to it. Like it wouldn't let him go.
She was dreaming, of course. She knew it and she'd probably wake up now that she'd realized it. And sure enough, she could already feel her sleep backing off.
Shame. She kind of liked this dream. Blue was nice.
* * * * * * * * *
"Hey…hey, you," someone was saying softly in a welcoming tone. She could feel a hand fingering her hair. "Welcome back to the world of the living."
Avena raised her head with an effort. "Rowen?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"Yeah. Who'd you expect? The Easter Bunny?" He grinned.
"You're awake!"
"Nah, you think?" Rowen said sarcastically.
Avena grabbed his hand as it toyed with her hair. She wanted to squeeze it till her hand ached but she held herself back. "How do you feel?" she asked.
He slipped her hold and combed her hair with his fingers. "Good enough to want to play with your hair, apparently. There's nothing better to do that I can see… Your hair sure is soft."
"I saw the blue thing on your head," blurted Avena.
Rowen grinned. "What, my hair?"
"No. On your forehead. It flashed when I gave you CPR."
Rowen swallowed, his grin forced now. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do. It means life, doesn't it?"
He gave up. "Yes. Did anyone else see it?"
"I don't think so. I was a little out of it. But what was it?"
"A kanji. Can I tell you later?" He glanced around at the hospital equipment. "I have a few questions of my own. For one, what was this doing on my face?" He held up the breathing mask.
Avena's eyes widened. "You took it off? You idiot! That's what was keeping you breathing! You should've called a doctor before you took it off!"
"Avena!" Rowen interrupted. "How could I call someone with that thing on my face? And besides, I'm breathing fine. Now, why would I need breathing assistance anyway?"
"Cuz you had a tear in your lung. The doctors said it was a miracle that you were still alive and Randy—"
"Whoa, whoa. Okay, start at the beginning."
So Avena told him the whole story. She couldn't look him in the eye as she came to the part where she'd told about his father. But when she did look up at him again, he just smiled sadly.
"I guess I knew that he'd get caught eventually… I just didn't want it to be my fault…"
Avena blinked. "But it isn't your fault! He's the one who got drunk!"
"Because my mother died!" screamed Rowen.
Avena leapt to her feet. "People! DIE!!! That's part of life, Rowen!" She was furious, her face an image of rage. "Look at Cye! His father died and he's not like you! His mother doesn't drink, his sister doesn't mope!"
Rowen was adamant. "So?"
Avena's fists clenched. "Alright then…" She sat down and stared at her knees until she could calm herself. Taking a deep breath, she looked up again. "Okay," she said, her accent carrying emotion. "When I was thirteen years old, my best friend went into the school bathroom and shot herself. Guess who found her?"
"Avena—" Rowen began, suddenly regretting pushing Cye's cousin to these words.
"That's right! Avena found her. I walked in there and found a puddle of blood and a dead best friend with a gun in her hand. Now, how do you think that made me feel, Rowen?"
"I…Ave…"
"Like hell, Rowen. Like hell," she growled, leaning down till her face was mere millimeters from his. "But guess what?"
"What?" Rowen asked carefully.
"I got over it. I hurt and I cried and I got over it. And now it's your turn, Rowen. There's more to getting over it than accepting the death. You have to pull others who were left behind along with you over it. That means your father. And if pulling him along means having to get help to do so, well…then that's what you have to do. You should've turned him in, Rowen."
"No, I—"
Avena slapped him. She was shaking with rage. "Dammit," she hissed. "I'll kill him. That's what I'll do. I'll kill that bloody bastard and all your problems will be solved."
Rowen was shocked. It was common knowledge among the Ronins and Mia that Avena was "slightly disturbed", but none of them, excepting Cye, had ever seen her in one of her 'episodes'. Apparently, she was experiencing one of them now. Cye had once explained her episodes were brought on by too much stress or traumatic experiences, and that when she was having one, it was wise to believe almost anything she said and to get her subdued quickly.
As the British girl stormed around the room, Rowen found and pushed the button beside the bed, the one that summoned a nurse. A mere minute later, a nurse trotted in. She looked surprised to see the patient awake and mask-less. Rowen put a finger to his lips, signaling the nurse to be quiet, and gestured for the woman to come to him. Glancing nervously at the teenage girl who was stalking back and forth by the window, the nurse came to Rowen's bedside.
Speaking in Japanese, Rowen said, "Don't startle her. She's a disturbed young woman but she's also a close friend. We need to keep her locked up for a little while, preferably with now possible weapons within her reach. Maybe you could even see if it's possible to give her a sedative or a tranquilizer or something. Can you do that?"
The nurse nodded. "I'll get some help, first… Will you be alright alone with her?"
"Yes. Remember to be quiet when you come back."
The nurse left. Rowen watched Avena and thoughts spun through his mind.
* * * * * * * * *
Ryo and Sage gave the car one last shove and then ran to jump in the moving vehicle. Cye and Mia were already in the front seats and Sage didn't even have his door closed before Mia was speeding out of the drive. Snow and ice were everywhere, mostly ice, but by now, enough of the roads had melted for vehicular transportation to once again be relatively safe. It was 10:00 a.m. and they hadn't gotten word from Avena since 5 o'clock. Cye was in near-panic mode, thinking of all the things that might have happened to his cousin. Ryo was still mad as hell and Sage was still being unusually quiet. Kento's part of town was still ala Ice Age so he wasn't going to be able to get anywhere for a while longer. Randy had called Mia once to say, "Sorry, but I can't stick around any more. Even off-duty officers are getting called in, so I gotta go to work."
As Mia hit the turn that led into the city, Sage finally spoke up for the first time in five hours. "He isn't dead."
Cye turned around and looked at him, too tired to fully comprehend much of what was said around him. None of them had slept well, except Mia. She'd given Sage some pills to help him sleep a little and offered the same to Ryo and Cye, but Wildfire and Torrent were too wired to let the meds work. "Wha'?" asked Cye.
"He isn't dead. We would've known if he died."
Ryo perked up a little now. "You're right! Remember, I knew when Cale and Sekhmet and Kayura died. If I could feel the Warlords' deaths, Cye, I could definitely feel it if a fellow Ronin died."
Cye sighed. No matter how hard he tried to pay attention to what the others said, he just couldn't seem to understand the words. "Mmm," he responded, deciding that that could reply to almost anything.
Sage gave the exhausted boy a wry grin, understanding. "How long till we get there Mia?"
The woman said absently, "An hour at the most, thirty minutes at the least."
"Can I try to call the hospital again?" Ryo requested.
Mia silently tossed him the cell phone. Ryo dialed the now-familiar number but sighed in disappointment and frustration as an automated electronic response met him. He handed the phone back. "Lines are still out."
For another ten minutes, nothing happened. Then, Cye simply fell sideways, asleep. Mia, surprised, glanced down at him and in the split second she did that, the SUV hit an icy pothole. It spun around so that they were facing the wrong way and the car that had been behind them bumped into their fender. But that was it and the four people breathed again. Cye was now wide awake.
"I hate these bloody roads!" he shouted, blinked, and then calmed down. "I'm okay now."
Ryo and Sage burst out laughing. Mia smiled.
Seven minutes later, they were moving down the road again. Sage could tell that everyone was more relaxed now. Strange how something so tense could loosen them up, almost ironic. Even he felt some of the tension leave him, though the intense headache he'd developed didn't lessen much. Now, if Rowen could just hold on a while longer…
* * * * * * * * *
Ryo stalked up to the desk and began demanding to know where Hashiba Touma was. Cye wasn't far behind, asking for Avena. Mia grabbed Ryo and glared at him till he shut up, while Sage gently pushed Cye aside. Sage got the room number and permission to go there. But as the group headed for the elevator, another nurse called to them.
"Which of you is Mouri?"
"Me!" Cye grabbed the nurse's arm.
The man smiled soothingly. "We had to sedate your cousin, sir. She's been secluded, too. Hashiba-san told us that was what was usually done with her in these situations."
Cye nodded hurriedly. "Uh-huh. Where is she?" As the male nurse offered to take him to Avena, Torrent glanced at the others. They understood and Ryo nodded. Cye followed the nurse away, asking questions with every step.
When the remaining three of the group finally reached Rowen's room, they paused outside the door. Mia watched the boys' faces, the emotions playing across those young, too wise countenances. It almost broke her heart to see her young friends like this.
Ryo opened the door.
A girl sat near the bed, talking about a video game. At the entrance of group, she sighed and smiled. "Hey, Touma," she said, "look who's here."
Rowen opened his eyes, looked at them. And grinned.
Ryo was at the bedside in an instant, Sage not far behind. Mia stood at the foot of the bed calmly and waved at its occupant with a smile. Rowen acknowledged this with a half-wave of his own, almost laughing. The girl, a volunteer, stood back and watched.
"How do you feel?"
"How long've you been awake?"
Rowen answered Ryo first, seeing how anxious Wildfire was. "I feel great, actually. But Kyoko here says the hospital probably won't release me for another week at least. Doesn't that suck?"
Ryo laughed.
Sage's headache was gradually diminishing.
"I've been awake for several hours. Kyoko's been keeping me company. We were discussing video games when you guys showed up."
Sage grinned. "Several hours? I think that's the earliest you've gotten up for years, Ro."
At this comment, Rowen's grin shrank. "No. I've been up at dawn for a couple weeks now…"
Ryo was no longer laughing. "Ro…"
"Ry, I know I shoulda told you guys about…Dad…but I just…I just couldn't…"
"We understand, Rowen," said Mia, saving him from having to struggle with an explanation. "But I'm still disappointed in you about one other thing."
The teen looked puzzled. "What?"
"You never called me back about lunch!"
Rowen stared at her for a second, then burst out laughing. He stopped quickly though. "Owww, that hurts."
Kyoko spoke up now. "Excuse me, but I think that you should rest now, Touma. Your friends can visit more later."
Rowen sighed. "Yeah, guess so. See ya later guys?"
"You bet!" Ryo assured him and squeezed his hand. Sage ruffled his hair, evoking a protest. Mia just smiled.
Right before Kyoko closed the door behind them, Mia turned around. "But you still have to have lunch with me," she told him, and then walked away, the door closing after her.
Rowen laughed.
* * * * * * * * *
Cye was waiting for them in the lobby. He had a zombie-like Avena sitting beside him. Seeing them get off the elevator, he stood up. "Hey! How is he?"
"Good, thank gods," said Sage. "Awake and ready to go, though he isn't going to be allowed to leave for some time yet."
"Oh good…" breathed the British boy, relieved. "I'd go up and see him, but I can't leave Avie and they don't want her up there."
"Why'd they sedate her, anyway?" asked Ryo.
Cye rubbed his neck. "Well, she had one of her episodes. She's a danger to herself and anyone she doesn't like at the time when she's like that. Thank God that Rowen remembered what to have done with her. I should really get her out of here, though."
Mia nodded and glanced back at the other boys. They looked exhausted. "Hmm…well, let's go. And our first priority is for you all to get some rest." She led the way back to the SUV.
* * * * * * * * *
Ryo finally hung up the phone. "Okay, Kento says he can finally get out of his neighborhood, so he'll go stay with Ro or hang at the hospital or whatever for a few hours." He stretched a spine-popper and yawned.
Mia absently handed him a cup of tea. "Drink this," she commanded.
Ryo glared at her, muttering something about female control-freaks usurping his authority, but drank the tea. Cye and Sage were in the living room, watching the news. Avena was sound asleep, sprawled on the couch with her head in her cousin's lap. Sage had had the great misfortune of becoming her footrest. Ryo sat in the armchair. "Tea tastes kinda weird," he observed.
Cye nodded and looked at another pair of empty teacups on the coffee table. Sage said, "Yeah, almost bitter, huh?"
Cye fell asleep first, then Sage. Ryo, already, feeling a little bleary, looked at the bottom of his emptied cup. A strange ooze glazed the insides. He blinked hazily at Mia, who stood in the doorway. "Hey…" he yawned. "You drugged us…" And then he was asleep.
Mia came all the way into the room now, and started collecting the teacups. "Well, at least you'll get some rest now," she told the sleeping Ronins, smiling.
* * * * * * * * *
Three months later…
Rowen screamed, "You asshole!"
Ryo laughed and danced out of the way again, holding the book just out of Strata's reach. Rowen's hand pressed his face as the younger teen tried to get to the novel. Ryo bit one of Rowen's fingers and held the back of the waistband of his friend's jeans to keep him back.
"Ow!" Rowen jerked his hand away. "No fair! Mia, tell him to give it back!"
"So childish," mumbled Sage from the safety of the sofa. Two pillows hit him in the face. "Hey!"
Ryo and Rowen each tried to grab another pillow, but ended up grabbing the same one. While each tried to rip the pillow from the other's grip, Sage battered them with the pair they'd thrown at him, face the picture of serenity.
Ryo dropped the book in the process of defending himself and Rowen lunged for the hardcover, leaving the pillow to the black-haired boy's hands. Sage and Ryo continued their pillow fight. Rowen, unnoticed, went to the sofa and found Sage's newspaper. He rolled it up and slapped the paper across Halo's rear.
Sage yelped and jumped. "Hentai!" he accused, now combating both Ryo and Rowen.
Mia, in her bedroom, typed up the finish of a lesson plan. "Quiet down in there!" she shouted. "And clean up that room! Cye and Kento will be here soon."
"So?" retorted Ryo. "The guys'll just start wrestling and make a mess anyway!"
"And White Blaze is probably gonna join in," added Sage.
Mia sighed. "Clean up anyway!"
"Why should we?"
"Because, Ryo, you don't want me to throw you out for a week again."
Ryo immediately started to clean up.
Only a few minutes later the doorbell rang and the door was bombarded by the pounding of fists. Sage went to answer it. He opened the door to Kento and Cye, who nearly hit him by accident as he interrupted their knocking. Behind them, someone was vigorously rubbing White Blaze's head, the tiger haven risen from a nap on the porch to greet the visitors. Cye and Kento tried to fit through the door of the same time, which resulted in more fist throwing. This only ended when someone yanked Cye back.
"Hello!" sang a familiar voice.
"Avena? What're you doing here?" Sage stood back, baffled, while the Brit hauled her cousin in with her.
"Oh, she just appeared without warning, as usual," Cye informed him, tugging his arm free.
"Yeah, and she isn't the only stray we picked up today, either." Kento stepped back outside and returned a moment later with another familiar young woman. "Look who we found walking in the rain."
Kyoko blushed and tried to step back out to the porch, but Kento prevented her. "I'm all wet. I'll drip all over everything." She looked apologetic.
Kento kept his grip on her arm, grinning. Sage sighed and smiled. "Just take off your shoes and socks and leave them by the door. I'll get you a blanket. What on earth were you doing out in this weather?"
She ran a hand through her black hair sheepishly. "Missed the bus again…"
Kento bellowed, "Ryo, your girlfriend's here!"
Kyoko immediately started blushing again… Until Ryo ran a pell-mell into the room and grabbed the smaller girl up in a fierce hug, kissing her on both cheeks before he set her down. "Ryo…" she gasped, blushing furiously.
The boy grinned and led her away from the front foyer, taking the blanket from Sage's hand and wrapping it around his girlfriend as they went. Kento and Cye had already made themselves comfortable in the living room, but nowhere did Sage see Rowen or Avena. "Hey," he said as he sat down, "where'd Ro and Crazy Avie go?"
"Dunno," Kento shrugged, pushing a videotape into the VCR. "But it's Rowen's turn."
Cye blanched. "I tried to convince her not to pick on you guys anymore, but she just grinned and ignored me."
"Mmm, well, as long as it's not me," said Sage.
* * * * * * * * *
Upstairs – Mia's Grandfather's study…
"So how's your dad?"
Rowen grinned. "Much better. They might let him leave the facility in a couple weeks if he keeps up the good behavior."
"That's great! And he understands that he was wrong, right?"
"Yeah. The psychologists say he subconsciously blamed me for Mom's death."
"What? Why?"
He opened a drawer of a desk and pulled out a wrinkled, stained paper. "Because of this. Mom wrote it the day before she got on that plane." Handing her the paper to her, he sat down in the big leather chair and spun it around.
Avena smiled at the way he was acting, then read the paper. "Oh, I see…"
Rowen nodded. "Mom was coming to visit me when her plane crashed. And Dad, well…"
She sighed. "Went a little insane."
He nodded again.
Avena leaned against the desk. Rowen had taken the only chair in the room. "Well, at least he doesn't think that anymore… If they let him out, will you be going back to him?"
"No." He spun the chair again. "My grandfather has legal guardianship of me now. He's only letting me stay with Mia until the school year is over."
"Ah. Do you get to talk to him? Your dad, I mean."
He smiled. "Yep. Talk to him on the phone every Sunday for an hour. He spends a lot of time apologizing."
"That's nice, I guess… Uh, I could've told you before but, well… Nice to meet you, Aerostar."
Rowen jerked the turning chair to a stop, blinked… "How did you…?"
"I'm Zanyloon." She became absorbed with trying to make herself comfortable against the desk.
He scowled, thinking. "Well, that explains why Zane—I mean, you—knew things had "gotten better" for me at that second chat after the hospital thing. But why didn't you tell me sooner? You just went back to London without saying anything about it."
Avena crossed her legs, uncrossed them, scooted around. She couldn't seem to get comfy on this bleeding desk. "Oh, um, I don't know. It just never seemed like the right time and we got to be such good online buddies anyway that I figured, why ruin a good thing?"
Rowen scowled again, but not because he was thinking. "What do you mean?"
She shoved her toes into the carpet, refusing to look at him. "I'm not stupid, Rowen. I know you guys don't like having me around and I'm crazy"—she growled that word—"and people like you don't hang out with people like me and I just thought maybe if you never knew who I was, I could keep being your friend…"
Strata wanted to sigh but lately, he'd been careful to avoid that expression. If he showed the slightest indication of being depressed or indifferent, Mia and the guys were all over him with worry. He'd also learned not to groan or moan, because then they thought he was in pain and went into a frenzy. Instead he reached out and grabbed Avena's arm, jerking her into his lap. "Ave, if I didn't want to be around you, would I let you be this close to me?"
She still avoided looking at him. "And I broke my promise—" she continued.
"I'm glad you did; it was best for Dad."
"—and I snuck into your apartment—"
"I might have died if you hadn't."
"—and I made you fall off a roof—"
"As long as it never happens again, I'll forgive that."
"—and I'm an idiot about Japanese—"
"Yeah, I heard that you tried to ask a medic if he spoke English in Spanish. You could take lessons."
"—and…I've had a crush on you since Cye introduced us."
He gaped at her. "…whoa…" She didn't look away from her hands in her lap. Rowen studied her profile in a new light. Crazy Avie had a crush on him? 'You're supposed to be a genius, Hashiba. How could you not notice this?'
Avena, meanwhile, was busily giving herself a good mental beating. 'Shouldn't've said that. Stupid, stupid, stupid!' She screwed her eyes shut, furious with herself. A second later, she opened them wide in surprise.
Rowen sat back again, avoiding her eyes. "I-I'm sorry." He felt heat in his cheeks. For god's sake, he was a Ronin Warrior! Why should he be blushing? It was just a small kiss, nothing to be embarrassed about.
Avena fumbled for something, anything to say. The possibility of this happening had never crossed her mind. It was impossible! Rowen couldn't possibly like her; she was crazy. 'Don't question a good thing, idiot. Take advantage of it!' She put her hands on either side of his face, resting her thumbs on his cheekbones. "Is this some cruel joke?" she whispered.
He forced himself to stop that damn blushing and look her in the eye. "No," he said quietly. "Not a joke. It's for real. Are you playing another joke on me?"
In answer, she kissed him as hard as she could, desperate to confirm that this wasn't just another one of those figments of her imagination. When she broke the kiss, breathless, she couldn't bring herself to stay still. How could she? This was so amazing, she wanted to get outside and shout for joy or mug Cye or something. She had to do something. Avena slid off Rowen's lap and bolted out the door, leaving him stunned and breathless.
A minute later, he recovered enough to laugh as he heard Cye screaming in protest. Grinning, he picked up the letter from the desk where Avena had left it. "So, Mom, guess things are getting better now," he told the paper. "I love you…See ya later!" He crumbled the letter, his mother's last words, into a ball and tossed it in the wastebasket across the room.
Still grinning, his lips still warm from Avena's kiss ('Sweet loon…'), he leaned back and spun his chair again.
…I've got loads to do before I can leave…Love you lots!