What? You thought that I would end this story just like that? No way. I don’t like my ending hanging. This is supposedly the last chapter before the epilogue. Oh wait; I added the epilogue in here too. Well, go on and read.

Chapter 20 Start of a New Life

Ryoga bursts into the hospital with a limp Ranma in his arms. Her blood covered his and her body.

“I need a doctor!” Ryoga yelled. Immediately, some four or five doctors came to Ryoga. One of them rushed a stretcher towards him. Quickly they lifted Ranma and put her on it. “Save her. Please,” Ryoga begged.

“We’ll do the best we can,” one of the doctors said. The group rushed Ranma towards an elevator. Ryoga was following too. The elevator stopped on the third floor and they all rushed out as the door opened.

Ryoga stopped following as Ranma was rushed into the emergency room. He watched the doors swung back and forth. Ryoga went to the toilet to wash the blood off of him. He then returned to the hallway and sat on a chair that was provided and buried his face in his hands as he waited.

Approximately two hours later, one of the doctors earlier came to Ryoga. Ryoga saw him and stood up.

“D-Did it go well?” Ryoga asked. The doctor shook his head sadly.

“I’m sorry. She lost too many blood and we couldn’t stabilize her,” he said solemnly.

“Wait, that couldn’t be. She’s stronger than that!” Ryoga said.

“We couldn’t close the wound in time,” the doctor continued.

“No, no,” Ryoga whispered as tears formed in his eyes. He brushed pass the doctor and barged into the emergency room. There she was, lying on the operation table, lifeless. He ran towards Ranma’s side. The other doctors just stayed back.

“Ranma, please. You can’t die. You can’t leave me,” Ryoga said through his tears. He ran his fingers across her face and through her hair. A few tears dropped on her pale skin.

“Ranma, please, don’t leave me. I need you,” Ryoga said as he cried. He held Ranma’s head close to him and continued to cry.

Ryoga woke up suddenly from his sleep. He panted heavily as a smile slowly formed on his face. He wiped his face with his hand. ‘It was just a dream. It was just a dream. Oh God…But it felt so real,’ Ryoga thought as he continued to breathe heavily.

He was sitting in the hallway in a chair. He relaxed and rested his arms on his knees. He let out a long sigh. Then, he heard footsteps. Ryoga’s face shot up and looked at the doctor coming towards him. He stood up and walked over to him.

“Is she okay?” Ryoga asked. Seeing the doctor nod, Ryoga sighed in relief.

“She lost a lot of blood, but we managed to control the situation,” the doctor explained. “It’s a good thing you applied pressure to the wound. That really helped her save some.”

“Is the injury bad?”

“No, it wasn’t critical. But she’ll have to stay here for a while. It might take some time for her to recover.”

“How long?”

“Maybe a few days.”

“C-Can I go see her?” Ryoga asked.

“Yes. Follow me,” the doctor led Ryoga to a room and he opened the door. Ryoga thanked the doctor and went inside. He looked at Ranma’s sleeping form and went to sit on a chair. He brought himself closer to Ranma and just looked at her.

“I’m sorry Ranma,” Ryoga said after a long silence. “If I brought you along with me, you wouldn’t be here right now.” He took Ranma’s left hand in his. “I promised your mom that I’ll take care of you.” He rubbed her hand with his thumb. “But, I’m glad you’re okay now.” He then kissed her hand.

“I have something to tell you when you wake up,” Ryoga said as he traced Ranma’s face with his finger. He then ran his fingers through Ranma’s hair. “You’ll wake up wont you?” he whispered. Ryoga looked outside the window and he noted that it was already dark. He yawned before he laid down his head on the bed, his hand still holding hers.

“Good night Ranma,” he said before drifting off to sleep.

Ranma’s eyes fluttered open as sunlight flooded into the room. She didn’t know how long she had been sleeping but she felt quite tired. Ranma felt numbness in her left hand and she looked down to it. There, she saw Ryoga sleeping while holding her hand. She smiled and took off the oxygen mask from her face with the other hand. With the same hand she patted Ryoga softly on the shoulder.

Ryoga stirred and then woke up. He looked up to Ranma and smiled; his little fangs poking out.

“You’re up,” Ryoga said. “How’re you feeling?”

“Better, I guess,” Ranma answered “I still feel tired though. I think it must’ve been from all that blood loss.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Ryoga said “I called the cops yesterday and they caught the thief. He was still unconscious when they found him.”

“Well, that’s good news;” Ranma’s expression then changed “H-How did the talk with mom go?”

“It was…” Ryoga didn’t finish as the door opened and in came Akane.

“Oh hi. You’re awake,” Akane said as she entered the room “Ryoga told us about what happened yesterday. We just wanted to make sure that you’re all right.” At that, everyone else started coming in. Ukyo, Kasumi, Nabiki and Tofu were there. “We came right after breakfast,” she added.

Ranma looked at all of them and tried to search for someone else, if there is someone else. She sat up on the bed and sighed. Ryoga released her hand from his.

“Mom didn’t come did she?” Ranma asked them.

“Who said she didn’t?” Ukyo said. The door opened again and there stood Konatsu holding back the door. Then, Nodoka came in.

“Thank you young man,” Nodoka said. Konatsu nodded in response. “Oh Ranma, you’re awake,” she said walking through the crowd and to Ranma’s right side of the bed. She took her daughter in her arms and said “I’m so glad that you’re okay. I thought I was going to lose you.”

Ranma looked at her mother when the hug was broken. “So, you’re not mad at me anymore? You’re not going to kill me?” she asked.

“How could I kill my only daughter?” Nodoka said with a smile which made Ranma smile too. They shared another brief hug before Nodoka pulled up a chair and sat down. “So, how are you feeling?” she asked.

“A little tired but other than that, I’m all right,” Ranma said. “Um, mom, how did the talk with Ryoga ended up?” she asked.

Nodoka looked at the young man on Ranma’s left side and smiled. “We talked and I agreed to free you from the vow. And I allow you two being together,” she said. Ryoga smiled back at her. “Which reminds me, aren’t you going to say something?”

“Yeah,” Ryoga responded. He took Ranma’s hands in his and looked at her eyes. ‘Oh man, I’m so nervous. It’s all right, it’s just asking her that damn question,’ Ryoga thought. “Ranma,” he began “after what happened yesterday, I realized how close I was to losing you. I don’t want that to happen again.” Ryoga searched his pocket and pulled out the ring that Nodoka had given him. “And with this ring, I know that you’ll always be with me,” he said.

Ranma couldn’t believe her eyes. She fell into stunned silence. Akane however was feeling depressed but didn’t show it.

“Ranma,” Ryoga said. ‘Oh God,’ he thought at the same time. “W-Will you marry me?”

There was no answer for a while which made Ryoga sweat.

“Y-Yes,” an answer came from Ranma after a while. She immediately pulled Ryoga to a kiss. “Yes I will marry you,” she said happily. Ryoga sighed happily and pulled back his head which accidentally made him fall backwards.

“Ow,” Ryoga said as he got up and lifted the chair back up. The ring was given to Ranma and she wore it on her left hand. Akane was practically crying, both from happiness and sadness.

“When did you buy it?” Ranma asked as she looked at the ring.

“I didn’t,” Ryoga answered and he looked at Nodoka.

“This is your ring?” Ranma asked.

Nodoka nodded. “Well, I wish both of you a happy life,” she said “Take care of each other you two.”

“W-Where are you going mom?” Ranma asked.

“Ranma, I’m getting old and I feel that my time is coming,” her mother responded “I’m not sure if I could turn up for your wedding, and I know that your children won’t be able to see me.”

“B-But you can’t go yet,” Ranma pleaded “M-Maybe we could hold the wedding earlier. It’s just that, you have to be there.”

“Ranma.”

“Please mom,” Ranma said “Don’t go yet.”

“What if you moved in with us? That way you could spend more time with Ranma,” Ryoga suggested.

“Well…if it isn’t any trouble to you,” Nodoka responded.

“No, it’s not at all,” Ranma insisted.

“Well, if it’s okay with both of you, I think I’ll do it,” Nodoka answered which made Ranma smile wide.

As I said, I added the epilogue in here too. I hope you guys enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for all the comments and criticism that I got. They helped me to write this story until it’s complete.

Warning: Small lime at the end (I think)

Epilogue

A few days later, I checked out of the hospital. Mom had gone home earlier to pack her things to move in with us. Nabiki, Akane and Kasumi went to help her. She was already at the house when we came back. We cleaned up the mess that was in the guest room and settled in.

We then decided on when the wedding will be held on. We came to an agreement that it would be held in a month from now. Ryoga and I decided on a western style wedding. Luckily, Kuno provided us with the money. It turns out that Nabiki was married to him. I kinda saw it coming anyway.

Then, that day came. Ryoga was so nervous that he almost fainted at where he stood. He looked pretty handsome in that suit. We said our vows and exchanged the rings. Everything turned out pretty smoothly. And a special guest arrived. Akari, a friend of Akane came with a giant pig. Akane said that it would remind us, especially Ryoga about ‘P-chan’. I didn’t realize that she had known about P-chan. But she had forgiven Ryoga.

When the bouquet was tossed, guess who caught it. Akane looked like she had seen a ghost when the flowers landed in her hands. After that, we had a feast. The cake, although it was a lot, finished in under an hour. Then there was a dance. Poor Ryoga, he looked so flustered when he told me he couldn’t dance. I managed to get him enjoying himself after a while.

I don’t know how, but mom managed to get pop to accept me marrying Ryoga before the wedding. Then I found out how. Ryoga ended up getting adopted into the Tendo family. This meant that the deal between Uncle Soun and pop was successful. We inherited the school, but we let Akane take over it instead. We agreed that she takes hold of the school on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, while Ryoga and I took hold of the school on other days and the three of us on Sundays.

Ryoga and I didn’t go for our honeymoon yet. Mom insisted that we go but we declined. We took care of her when she got sick. It was really bad. She couldn’t leave the house at all. Dr Tofu said that she was getting weaker. I remembered the date when she died. It was on May 11th 2002. It was a sad day. I cried for many days and Ryoga had to stay home to take care of me. None of us has a job yet. We decided to do so after our honeymoon. It’ll be much easier then. I don’t know what happened to pop though.

For our honeymoon, we went back to the town I stayed for about nine years or so. We didn’t want to go to any place special since mom just died. Haeru had been taking good care of P-chan. He pretty much missed Ryoga. He stayed in his arms for a whole day once. I told Haeru that I’ll quit my job at the restaurant there. Nothing else happens really.

Ryoga sat at the patio, overlooking the yard. He thought about what they were talking about earlier.

Flashback

Ranma was sitting with Ryoga holding her close to him as they watched the evening sun. It was quiet, it was peaceful. Then, Ranma spoke.

“Ryoga,” she began.

“Yeah,” Ryoga answered.

“I have you, Nabiki has Kuno, Kasumi has Dr Tofu and Ukyo has Konatsu,” Ranma said “But who does Akane have?”

Ryoga gave that a thought. Ranma was right. Akane has nobody and surely she is lonely. “Maybe we could help her find someone,” Ryoga suggested.

“I was thinking of that too,” Ranma said. She suddenly got up. “I just remembered something. I’m going upstairs.”

“You need any help?” Ryoga asked.

“No it’s okay. I’ll call you when I need it,” Ranma said as she walked towards the stairs.

End Flashback

‘I wonder what’s she doing up there,’ Ryoga wondered.

“Ryoga,” Ranma called out from upstairs “I need some help.”

“Sure thing,” Ryoga answered her and stood up. He walked upstairs to her room. “What do you nee…” Ryoga didn’t finish as he saw what Ranma had done to her room. There were candles placed on the table, at the end of the bed, practically almost everywhere there were candles. The room was only lit by them and the moonlight from outside. Ryoga then looked at Ranma who was standing near the bed with a sexy smile on her face.

“Like I said,” she opened the first button on her shirt “I need some help.”

Ryoga lustfully smiled and closed the door.

Hmm, I’m not sure if there’s gonna be a sequel to this. If there is, it’ll be about getting Akane to hook up with someone. But I’ll leave that to you. Check out my poll at my homepage. Please decide on whether you want a sequel or not. Votes will be opened until 27th April. See you guys later.