I put Shinichi/Conan (there will be both) as the main character but
HATTORI, KAITO, AND RAN (In that order) Will also play large roles (for a short story that is)

I also got this idea from fantasyfanatic01 who is writting a simular but totally different story for this.
It's not up as of yet though.

DISCLAIMER: I NO OWN DETECTIVE CONAN! All praise goes to Gosho Aoyama! Hail! Hail!

READ ON!

Chapter One: Out of My Hands

It was late afternoon and the sun was leaving the world, setting the scenery a brilliant bright red as if the city were on fire.

Conan put a hand up to his shirt and clutched his chest. A habit he'd gotten into recently since the spasms of pain had refused to dissipate. He had little to look forward to these days and it was only a matter of time. Haibara had told him that, at most, he had a month of pain to look forward to before his body would be past the point of keeping itself together. He could already picture the bloody mess he was going to look like when the toxin finished what it started.

His breath caught in his throat but he choked it down, coughing when the oxygen refused to cooperate.

Ran had noticed his declining health but he was easily able to lie about a cold going around. He'd made sure to hide his harsher symptoms from her. How much he was fooling her with the reality of the situation though, he didn't know.

Shinichi had kept his little secret to himself, and Haibara of course. The professor still didn't know and he wanted to keep it that way for as long as he could. Shinichi chided himself for being so stupid. Haibara had warned him that her temporary antidotes could kill him, he had just always expected to beat the odds. Not this time. At least he'd been able to see Ran as his true self one last time.

His reasons for using the antidote that time were so selfish that he couldn't even say he'd done it to save someone's life like he had in the past. No, Shinichi had to beg for it so that the police would take him seriously when he figured out a case that had been puzzling them for more than a decade. The criminal had long since died by committing suicide but Shinichi had been able to point the police in the direction of the bodies that were left behind.

That gave the families of the victim's closure but the price for it was too high. You don't help the dead before the living.

His phone rang but Shinichi didn't feel like answering it. The glow of the sun was almost gone and he'd be locked back up in the Kogoro's office for the rest of the night. Why ruin what little time he had left in the fresh air?

The persistence of the caller eventually made the detective pick it up. Hattori's thick accent wafted over the phone and Shinichi mentally sighed to himself.

"Hey Kudo, why were ya ignorin' my calls?"

"I was busy. What do you want Hattori?" Shinichi had to make sure his voice was level even if the pain hadn't gone away yet. There were droplets of sweat falling down the side of his face and he wiped them away with the back of his sleeve while he waited for an answer.

"There's somethin' weird goin' on in Kanagawa. They've been all over the news recently with some guy who's goin' around murderin' tourists. I thought ya'd be interested in goin' with me."

It did sound interesting and Kanagawa was only a car's ride away but he wouldn't be able to fool Hattori in person. Shinichi didn't want sympathy, and to be honest, he simply wanted to live the rest of his life his own way without people worrying over him. Hattori had a bad streak of doing just that.

"I'm not interested."

"Really?" Hattori's skepticism was prevalent. "I could pick ya up on my way over there. If ya have somethin' goin' on though, I guess I can wait."

"I'm not interested Hattori."

Shinichi's hard tone shut him up. "What's goin' on with you Kudo? It's not like I'm askin' ya to come out to Osaka an' visit again. This is a case an' I've been asked ta come so I'm sure ya can get Mouri-san to go along if ya want a part of it too."

Shinichi had no choice but to remain silent while a particularly painful spasm shot through is body. It only lasted a moment and he put the phone away from his mouth and laid it on the bench he was sitting on to make some noise so the silence would be attributed to being 'busy'.

"Hattori I said I didn't want to come. If you're going everything should be fine and I've got things to take care of here."

"I can wait."

Damn it the Osakan was persistent.

"Kudo what's really goin on?"

"Huh?"

"Come on. Ya can't hide anythin' from me, I'm a detective." Hattori lowered his voice. "If ya need any help or yer in trouble just tell me."

Conan shook his head. "It's not like that."

"Then what is it?"

More silence and this time Shinichi didn't know how to fill it.

"I've got some things I need to deal with now and I can only deal with them alone."

"Well…" He could practically feel the Osakan thinking. "I'm here if ya need me. "

"I know," Shinichi sighed aloud. "I'll – I'm going to handle it."

"Ok."

The click as Hattori cut the line, leaving his irritation replaced with guilt. Hattori may not have been as… self-control as Shinichi would have liked, but that didn't mean he wasn't a good friend and the teen felt bad about lying to him so openly.

That guilt all but disappeared when the Osakan showed up the next day.

"Hey ya there Ku- ah, Conan-kun!" He greeted him enthusiastically.

"Hattori what are you doing here?" Shinichi asked when Ran left the room to get tea and Kogoro was too busy watching the races to care.

"I came by to see if you were really ok. It's on the way to Kanagawa so," Hattori shrugged "It's not like stoppin' by put me out of my way or anythin'."

Shinichi walked passed him and placed his book bag on the couch before jumping up to sit next to it.

"As you can see everything is fine so you can leave."

"I don't think so." Hattori closed his eyes and when he opened again he leveled Shinichi with the equivalent of a death glare. "I know yer hidin' something from me."

The phone for Mouri's office rang, startling the drunk and forcing him to turn down the TV. He didn't drop the beer.

"Hello? – Yeah. – I'm busy right – How much?" Kogoro started to laugh. "Sure thing, I'll be down there today." He hung up the phone.

"Hey Ran, I've got a case in Kanagawa to go to and they're going to pay be a lot of money too. Come and bring the brat and we can go out for dinner later!"

"That sounds great!" Ran exclaimed when she came back in the room.

"Imagine that," Shinichi murmured to Hattori who had a large smile on his face now. "I wonder who gave the client the idea to invite Mouri along when they've already hired a detective."

"I wonder" Hattori repeated, chuckling to himself.

…

The murder was easy enough to solve and Shinichi found himself irritated soon after they arrived.

"We can't get this guy."

"I noticed" Hattori said, just as aggravated. "There's no proof."

"To think, I finally find someone malicious enough to destroy all the evidence pertaining to him at a time like this."

"Huh, what's that supposed ta mean?"

"Nothing," Shinichi shook his head.

The murdered had used dogs to kill all his victims. The dogs couldn't be traced back to him because they'd all been purchased on the sly and no one was willing to testify to their own shady deals to peg the guy. On top of that there were no traces that the suspect kept the dogs in his house and there had been no sign of the dogs for that matter.

"He probably killed the animals after he was done with them and bought others ta replace them. Keepin' them in a shack and provokin' them so that they'd kill sounds good but how can we prove it!" Hattori clenched his fist and Shinichi watched on with glazed eyes as he thought.

"We can't. Nothing we find, even if it does show that he owned dogs, would hold up in court. If he did kill the dogs, which is the most likely scenario, then there's nothing we can do."

"We can find where they're buried and use that -"

"The dead body of a dog wouldn't prove anything and he wouldn't have buried them on his property. We couldn't even get him for animal cruelty."

"Then we wait 'till he tries ta get another dog."

Shinichi stared off in the direction of the suspect's house. The police knew it was him as well but were faced with the same problem of not having any proof to hold the guy.

"I don't think he's going to strike again when he knows the police are going to be watching him. We lost this one Hattori."

"I don't lose Kudo."

Shinichi's eyes darkened. "Everyone loses at some point Hattori. You have to face it when there's no other options open."

Shinichi ignored the hard look he got in return for his opinion. "When did ya suddenly become such a defeatist? We can get this guy."

"No we can't. Hattori," Shinichi sighed. "There's no evidence. He cleaned his trail perfectly. The police already know it's him so they'll be watching. He won't be able to hurt anyone again."

"But he gets away with murder. That ain't right Kudo."

"I know it isn't but there's nothing we can do about it."

"But what if -"

"Hattori quiet trying to do the impossible!" Shinichi shouted at the Osakan, getting tired of his eagerness to do something that Shinichi couldn't. "Sometimes there's nothing you can do."

They both sat in silence, Shinichi trying to steady his breathing after shouting so that Hattori wouldn't see how short of breath he was.

"I'm not the kind of person ta just give up. I didn't think you were either."

"It's not giving up when you can't go any further."

"Sure it is."

With the way Hattori was looking at him, Shinichi felt like they weren't talking about the case anymore and it made him uneasy. He didn't want to have this conversation, which was why he'd tried to keep the Osakan out of his life, whatever remained of it at least.

"I'm giving up then," Shinichi said as he slid off the bench seat and onto the floor. "Mouri will give up on his own soon enough. I'll see you later."

"Hey, wait a minute Kudo." Hattori got off the bench too, where he'd been sitting across from Shinichi. His long legs caught up faster then Shinichi could get away and the Osakan leaned to down to put his face near the other teen. "Ya know ya haven't been lookin' too good. Are you ok?"

"I'd be fine if there weren't a large roadblock in my way. Move, I want to go back."

"You – WANT – to go back to Mouri's? Now I know somethin's up."

"Hattori can't you just leave me alone? Not everyone wants to be in an upbeat mood when you're around."

"Come on, just tell me an' I'll letcha go."

"Hattori!" Shinichi yelled. "Just leave me alone!"

Hattori grabbed onto his shoulder before he could get away and Shinichi got really angry. The Osakan had upset him in the past but he'd never felt such hatred towards him before. Anger was a quick thing and he didn't have time to examine it before his thoughts switched paths.

Hattori couldn't even do something as simple as letting him be. Friends couldn't be trusted. They were constantly letting you down and they could never live up to your expectations of them.

"Hattori let go of me." Shinichi tried to remove the Osakan's hand from his shoulder but kendo had made sure the grip was impossible to shake.

"Kudo man, what's goin' on with ya? You've been actin' really strange lately."

"It's none of your business!" Shinichi coughed when the shout had taken more oxygen then he had. He tried harder to shake the larger boy off.

Friends couldn't be trusted. Look at how much he'd already let Ran down.

"Kudo what the hell is -"

"Leave me alone Hattori!"

When he noticed the boy had almost gotten away from him, Heiji settled on wrapping his arms around Shinichi's body so he couldn't escape. As a reward for his efforts he got an elbow in the face but he waited until the other teen let out whatever emotions were wreaking havoc on him.

"Ok now Kudo, tell me what's goin' on."

Heiji was shocked at how long it took him to notice that Kudo wasn't trying to escape, he was shaking. His body was trembling so much that Heiji was afraid he was having a seizer.

"Hattori - I'm scared."

The shock of hearing the words come from Kudo along with the stain he heard in the child's voice kept him quiet for a few moments until he couldn't stand the silence. There wasn't much that could scare Kudo to that extent and he was almost afraid to ask what it was. He'd never seen the other teen so rattled before.

"Scared? Scared a what?"

"Hattori I'm -" Shinichi shook his head. "Nothing. Let me go."

"I can't do that 'til I get some answers from ya an' I'm a very stubborn person so I can stay like this fer as long as it takes."

He'd wasted too much of his energy as it was and Shinichi felt his body start to sway and his eyes lose focus. He didn't want to pass out in front of Hattori but he couldn't find the reserves to draw on. He knew that pushing his body like he was would only speed up his death.

"Hey - Kudo!" Hattori shook him and Shinichi tried his best not to sag in Hattori's hands as they held onto his shoulders. It was no used and he felt himself collapse in the larger teens hands.

"Hey Ku-" Hattori's words were cut short and Shinichi felt as a smaller pair of hands take him from the Osakan. These hands were warm and he was content staying in them where he was uneasy in Hattori's.

Shinichi knew it was Ran and he smiled. Smiling when you were sick didn't leave the best results but doing nothing would have been worse so he smiled. As long as Hattori wasn't holding him anymore there was a good chance Ran could get him out of there before anything happened.

"What's the matter with him?" Heiji tired to peer at Conan through Ran's protective arms.

"There's a cold going around and Conan-kun seems to have -"

"This ain't no cold!"

Shinichi wanted to be away from Hattori, away from his questions and accusations, away from the whole situation. The way he grabbed onto Ran's arm told her as much because she walked away from the Osakan without giving him an answer.

"Conan-kun, are you feeling ok?"

"Yes," Shinichi lied to her. It was so easy to lie now. Most often it was accompanied with a smile, making him feel doll-like. "The fever made me dizzy. I'll be fine in a little while."

Ran kept him in her arms and he was thankful that he could still be close to her. If he told her now, and she rejected him, he wouldn't be able to face it. It was the main reason he was keeping silent. Shinichi knew it would hurt her more in the long run when both Conan and Shinichi vanished from her life, but he'd been selfish this long, it was hard to stop now.

There were too many lies and not enough reason for them that he could reveal to her.

But Shinichi was really going to die. There would be no need for the Black Organization to go after Ran when he was not longer around.

He couldn't believe it had taken him so long to realize that there were no more reasons to lie. He could stop now if he wanted. That meant the only reason Ran was still in the dark about him was because of Shinichi's own fear.

When Conan clenched his shirt, near his heart, Ran looked down at him to make sure he was ok.

"Conan-kun, does it hurt?"

Shinichi shook his head. Not on the outside.