Yosuke Hanamura cringed as he forced his legs up another flight of stairs, cursing his luck of having all four Tatsumi Memorial hospital elevators broken. As he reached the platform onto the surgical pavillion, Yosuke took a few seconds to lean up against the wall and catch his breath.

Damn, he was out of shape. He jostled out of the stairwell and into the lobby where he nearly collapsed on the desk of the nurse’s station.

The time was 3 p.m, and the lobby in the surgery wing was empty, so Yosuke’s entrance was quite dramatic for the lone nurse cradling a chart to her chest. She looked at Yosuke with one raised eyebrow before reaching over to the cooler beside the desk and filling a cup with water.

Yosuke panted a raspy “thank-you” to the nurse after she handed the cup to him.

“Chi. . . e. . . Saton. . .naka. . .”

The nurse smiled sadly.

“I’m sorry. Satonaka-chan is no longer here.”

Yosuke registered this piece of information for a few seconds before letting his head drop to the desk with a thud.

Perfect.

No one, not one single person had picked up the phone when Yosuke had called. Not even Yukiko, whom Yosuke thought would have jumped on the quickest train to Port Island at the news of Chie being shot.

He should be fair though, it had been fortune that had allowed Yosuke to see that news program where and when he did, just mere minutes before a meeting with the Junes Supervisors. Yosuke imagined that he’d be getting plenty of phone calls tonight from his panicked friends once they turned on the evening news.

Now, what was killing Yosuke was his complete and utter ignorance about Chie’s life. He had learned from Yukiko that she had transferred to Port Island, but that was it. Yosuke had been calling everyone trying to get Chie’s address, phone number, work information, anything to lead him to a place where he could start looking for information about her condition (the news was no help), but no one was answering their phones.

The second he’d gotten off of the train from Inaba, he’d been running nonstop. His first hunch had been to go to the Port Island Police Department, but after getting lost and meeting some very unfriendly police officers, Yosuke decided to forego trying to coddle information out of Chie’s co-workers and go straight to the source. So he called Tatsumi Memorial Hospital.

“Chie Satonaka,” Yosuke had demanded “Do you have a Chie Satonaka there?!”

“One moment please. . .”

New Age music.

“I’m sorry sir, but it seems like I cannot divulge this patient’s information without municipal authority.”

“God damn it, I’m not asking for her credit card, I’m just asking if she’s there!”

“One moment please.”

“. . .”

He hadn’t listened to the soothing jazz music for long before angrily slamming his phone shut and getting directions to the hospital. He’d make these people deal with him in person.

So he’d arrived at hospital in the same state as he had been all day; frazzled and ready to strike. So it had taken some impolite yelling and cursing on Yosuke’s part, but he’d finally been referred up to surgery only to find that she was gone.

“They told . . . me an hour . . . ago,” Yosuke gulped. “She was. . .”

“Satonaka-chan’s condition changed, and so she was taken elsewhere.”

“Changed . . .?” Yosuke’s breathing dropped dramatically, and his body suddenly grew heavy under the exhaustion.

“Hey now,” the nurse said firmly, noticing Yosuke’s panic-stricken reaction.

“I didn’t say anything about her condition getting worse; I merely said it had changed.”

Yosuke looked at her dumbly.

“Are you family?”

“Uh, no. . . just a friend. I. . .” Yosuke started but then shook his head wearily and sighed.

She paused to inspect Yosuke thoroughly.

“Listen, I’m going to go get you some more water to drink.” The nurse pointedly set down her clipboard and it made a clacking noise against the desk. “Wait here.” She tapped the chart with a manicured fingernail.

Yosuke looked at her in confusion, but nodded and watch numbly as she walked away. Soon, seconds turned into minutes, and still no nurse.

He glanced around impatiently. Come on, come on, what the hell was she doing getting more water for him when he still didn’t know if Chie-

Yosuke gaped for a moment before almost face-palming himself as he dragged his eyes across the chart sitting before him.

Patient Information: Satonaka, Chie

Status: Discharged

Address-

Damn, that was some shifty nurse.

Chie stopped her walking, feeling tired and dizzy.

How long had she been wandering in this fog? She stared down at her feet for a few moments before looking back up. It wasn’t like the fog in the T.V. world, but it still left Chie feeling skittish.

She was standing at a train station platform.

Before her was a docked train, kicking up the rail and getting ready to depart. Chie stared at the train for what seemed like years before his face appeared in one of the windows.

“Yosuke. . .?”

He looked at her, features slightly twisted with concern. He opened his mouth and began to speak, but no sound escaped the capsule of the train.

“Yosuke, I can’t hear you.”

His lips continued to move, but his face became angrier. Yosuke started to point accusingly at Chie.

“Hey, don’t get mad!” Chie yelled. “I told you I can’t hear you, stupid!”

Yosuke paused before glaring at Chie. The train began to move, and suddenly, Yosuke began to react like a caged animal. He pounded his fists against the glass, making the entire compartment shudder. She watched in shock and confusion as the train began to pull away, leaving Chie feeling helpless and worthless.

She shook her head angrily.

“No. . . I won’t let that happen anymore!”

Chie violently uprooted her own feet from the ground and started to jog after the locomotive. The train began to pick up pace, so Chie started to run at full speed down the platform, shouting- no, screaming Yosuke’s name.

Yosuke was too caught up in his own rage, flinging his fists and random objects at the compartment window.

The train was shooting away, but the banging noises coming from Yosuke’s window intensified-

“Yosuke, please don’t go!”

Chie’s foot snagged on the ground.

“I’m sorry!”

Down she went-

The banging grew sharply louder and panicked as the train disappeared into the fog. Something shattered-

Crash

Thwack

“Owww. . .”

She knew she should have gone with the apartment without hardwood floors.

Chie followed her involuntary cry of pain with a whimper as she tried to raise herself up. She realized what an ill-conceived motion it was when she tried to use her bad arm to lift herself and fell back to the ground in defeat.

“Man. . .” she mumbled. “What a nasty dream . . .” Especially all of that panicked and erratic pounding-

BOM BOM BOM BOM BOM

“Open the god damn door!”

Chie looked sharply to the door, hissing as her sore body protested with pain. That voice didn’t sound like Captain Kurosawa. . . And didn’t her captain say he’d be back later in the evening to check on her? Chie looked at her alarm clock which burned with the numbers 3:47 before shaking her head.

Chie grabbed the edge of her futon with her left arm to lift herself up and nearly screamed again when she felt the pull of her wounded chest. The painkillers were wearing off

BOM BOM BOM

Chie opened her mouth to yell that she was coming, but stopped mid-air when she looked at the broken glass a few feet away from her bed. She must have thrashed around in her sleep and knocked it off her nightstand.

That would explain the shattering noise.

Chie groaned loudly.

“No more glass, damn it.” She mumbled looking down spitefully at her hand, thankful she hadn’t been awake when the doctors had removed shards of her car window.

BOMBOMBOMBOMBOM

“Five more seconds and then I’m breaking down this door, I swear to God Satonaka-”

“I’m coming.” Chie moaned as loudly as she could. Her voice was still raspy and she cursed herself for sounding so weak as she began the long journey from her bedroom to the front door.

Honestly, couldn’t they just leave her alone for another couple of hours? It wasn’t like she was in any danger of dropping dead, at least she was pretty sure she wasn’t. She just wanted more sleep.

Chie’s shaky legs wobbled into the hallway.

BOMBOMBOM

“I’m serious, damn it! One. . .”

It had taken Chie at least fifteen minutes to convince Kurosawa that she was fine and no, she didn’t need him to stay. No, she wasn’t hungry, no she didn’t need a policeman to stay guard outside of her apartment. Yes, she was fine after almost getting shot through the lung and no, she wasn’t worried about the little girl who had nearly been killed because of Chie’s slow reaction time, not at all.

Past the bathroom, and past the bloodstained and punctured police uniform.

When had walking become such a chore? It was taking forever to get to the door.

BOMBOMBOM

“Two-”

She just wanted to sleep, to dream good dreams, to forget about the pink shoes and gunmen, forget about nearly bleeding to death without saying goodbye to Yukiko, and having her last thoughts about him and how she was sorr-

Past the sofa, almost to the door. She was exhausted.

“Three-”

Chie meant to throw open the door and roundhouse kick whatever jackass was being so pushy, but when she put her hand on the door-handle all she could muster was a slight pull to open it.

She went rigid.

The first thing she noticed were his eyes; red from lack of sleep. He’d grown taller, she noticed, weakly appreciative of his growth. He was still as skinny as ever, but now his muscles had become slightly more shaped and visible through his shirt. His reddish brown hair, the foodstuff of all her favorite cracks at him, was just as long but was slightly more free; less styled. Brown eyes glared back at her.

“Y. . .Yosuke?” She murmured, dazed.

“What the hell?” He hissed, clenching his fists at his side.

Chie snapped out of her initial shock and shook her head.

“Whaddya mean what the hell? I should be the one pounding your face in for-” She sputtered angrily.

“Do you know how long I’ve been here? I’ve been pummeling this door for five minutes!”

Chie nearly unleashed a retort but grew faint upon beginning to fully comprehend Yosuke’s presence. He was here, at her door. He was angry, but he was here talking to her, acknowledging her very existence-

“Yosuke. . .” Chie breathed sadly.

“Chie-Hey, HEY!”

Chie felt her ankle go out from under her.

Yosuke rushed her and snatched her into his embrace. Despite the warmth of his breath on her neck and the comfort of him being so close to her, he was holding her much too tight against his chest. It had nothing to do with her being embarrassed with him holding her or feeling weak, no not at all.

“Urmf, Yosuke, let me go.”

“You idiot-”

“Seriously, Yosuke, my chest-”

“Oh shit,” he said, reeling away from her but keeping a firm grip on her arms, keeping well above the bandage on the mid-part of her right arm.

Chie resumed breathing, slightly panting, as she kept her tired eyes on Yosuke.

Yosuke, too was still shocked that Chie was this close to him again. He took this time to take it in that she was alive. Her hair, still up in that stubby ponytail, was slightly mussed and her face was pale. Her cinnamon eyes had faint black lines under them and she looked positively exhausted. Yosuke noticed the bandages wrapped around her right hand and elbow; felt the gauze wrapped around her chest graze against his fingers when he touched her back, but she was alive damn it and that’s all that mattered now.

“H-hey, what’s with that look?” Chie asked face flushed. Yosuke snapped out of his meticulous examination of Chie’s body and cleared his throat uneasily.

“Are you okay?”

Chie snorted. “I’m fine,” she said indignantly, pushing his hands off of her and closing the door.

She did a confident strut over to the couch, feeling Yosuke’s eyes upon her before standing in the center of her living room and folding her arms abrasively.

“What are you doing here?”

Yosuke frowned.

“I came to see you.”

“What, did you break that DVD I gave you?”

Yosuke winced and Chie was immediately filled with remorse. She sighed and gingerly touched her temple with her left hand as she began pacing her living room.

“Aw, geez, I’m sorr-”

“Will you sit the hell down? You’re about to give me a panic attack.” Yosuke barked at her.

Chie glared.

“You can’t just barge into my apartment and tell me what to do, I‘m an officer of the law, asshole!” The last part sounded pretty immature to Chie, but she stood by it.

“Oh yes I can, especially when all it would take is a simple tap on the shoulder to push you over.” Yosuke advanced on her until he was standing slightly over her. “Sit down.” Yosuke said softly, his eyes blazing.

Chie stared at him wide-eyed. If she were in any normal state she would simply snap back at him to leave her alone, and then give him the classic critical hit to the nads. However, the effects of the drugs and exhaustion (not that other tingly feeling that she pushed away, of course) lingered on, and now all she could do was stand down and observe how she and Yosuke had changed roles. Where she had once been the assertive fighter who always took charge, Chie was now in the passenger seat and Yosuke was calling the shots.

Yosuke gave an exasperated sigh before resting his hands on Chie’s shoulders and pushing Chie gently (but firmly) down onto the couch.

Chie spluttered again with rage but Yosuke was all ready moving into the kitchen and filling up a glass with water.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting a glass of water, calm down.” Yosuke muttered, loud enough for her to hear. He returned to the living room and set the glass down in front of Chie.

Chie looked up at him, still annoyed.

“So why’d you come here all of a sudden? Were you just in the area and thought you’d drop by ole Chie-chan‘s place like old times? How long‘s it been since you‘ve talked to me-” Chie tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice but took one look at Yosuke’s reddening before she realized her failure.

“No, Chie.” Yosuke spat, standing across from her, his arms folded tightly across his chest.

“I came to see if you were still alive. Now that I see you’re just as bitchy as angry as always, I guess I’ll be leaving-” He made for the door.

Chie got up sharply to follow him, forgetting her wounds.

“Oww, tch, dammit.” Chie gripped her chest. Yosuke stopped and turned around upon hearing Chie’s cry of pain. He paused for a moment and went to take a step back to her, but Chie stopped him in his tracks with a glare and a huff.

“If you wanted to see me you could have done it a long time ago-”

“You didn’t even tell me you where here!” Yosuke yelled.

“How could I?! I had no idea where you were either!” Chie replied, getting winded again. Yosuke took a deep breath, realizing the more riled Chie became her chances of pushing her body too far became bigger.

He exhaled.

“I saw you on the news.” Damn that quiver.

Chie, obviously expecting more of a tirade than that, stumbled back onto the couch.

“Huh?” She queried, vexed by his statement. News? When had she been on the news?

Yosuke walked back over to her and sat down on the coffee table across from her. Chie tried to swallow the flutter that filled her stomach upon him getting so close.

“I saw you on the news, Chie.” Yosuke started grimly. “I saw you being carried away by a police officer. I saw your uniform- well, the blood on your uniform. . . you had your eyes closed.” Yosuke swallowed, forcing himself to keep his eyes on Chie.

“Yosuke. . .” Chie began quietly.

Yosuke shook his head.

“I had to see you with my own eyes. The news didn’t say if you were dead or alive, your pals at the police station weren‘t at all helpful, God, they didn’t say anything!” He muttered irately to himself. “I had to come down here and practically throttle the nurses at the hospital to find out if you were ok. I just. . . I had find out for myself, because if something happened to you, I. . .” Yosuke frowned, looking away and then sighed.

Chie frowned. That’s what he had meant when he said he wanted to see if she was still alive. She thought that he was just too angry at her to notice her injuries, but in reality that was the reason he had come.

Chie looked at him, trying to summon the courage to say it. Why did those mind-numbing painkillers have to wear off-

“I’m sorry.”

Yosuke looked at her briefly before shaking his head and rubbing the back of his neck.

“It’s fine-”

“No, Yosuke. I mean I’m sorry about. . . Ugh. I’m sorry about that summer after graduation,” Yosuke froze. “And. . . Not being there for you when. . .”

Yosuke wanted to tell her it was fine, but he couldn’t just brush off this opportunity to get things straightened out. Even if Chie was in no condition for it.

“Geez, Chie. If you had talked to me-”

“You were ignoring me, I thought I had finally pushed you too far.”

“You did but I wasn’t going to just walk away from you, stupid. I wanted to give you some room because I thought you were angry at me.”

“I was angry at you.”

“Why? What the hell did I do?”

“You left!”

“So that’s why? That’s why you ignored me for five years? Because I left? I don’t know if you noticed but I left everyone, but not forever-”

“It was different for me!” Chie shouted, flustered. “It was unfair-”

“What was so unfair about it, I told you-” Yosuke yelled back, matching her volume.

“Damn it, Yosuke when you have. . .” Chie choked when she realized what she was about to say.

“What?” Yosuke pressed, eager to get this argument over with. “When you have what, Chie?”

She frowned.

How many more brushes with death would it take until she finally yielded to her innermost desires?

“Agh! You idiot!”

Chie leaned forward, past the pain, and hooked her left arm around Yosuke’s neck and pressed her lips against his. At first, he reacted by stiffening, but it took him mere seconds to recover from his initial shock, and soon Yosuke found himself unable to resist the feel of her soft lips and eagerly parted his lips. Despite the warm feeling which pooled inside of his stomach, Yosuke’s mind reprimanded him.

Five years, five fucking years, you idiot. It wasn’t because you were mad at her, it was because you were too chicken to make the first move. Thank God one of you has some guts.

Chie was the first to break the kiss. She bit her lip nervously and let her forehead fall slightly against Yosuke’s.

“Um. . .”

“Just shut up.” He said laughingly. Chie gave a weak laugh.

Yosuke noticed she was leaning heavily over him and her breathing was winded. He frowned as he lifted her chin up with his fingers and examined her face.

“Are you okay?”

Chie nodded.

“I was sleeping when you came over here.” She said with a smirk.

“Oops. Sorry.”

Chie shrugged.

“It’s ok. I need to clean up the glass I broke in my room anyway.”

“Glass?”

“Yeah, I had this crazy dream and I guess I started thrashing around and knocked off a glass of water on my nightstand.”

Yosuke paused and then nodded.

“That’s what I must have heard.” He murmured. Chie gave him a quizzical look and he smiled softly. “I came and knocked on your door a couple times and then I heard a crash and a yell so I started yelling your name and knocking louder-”

“Ah,” Chie said, feeling heavier and heavier by the second. “I see.”

Yosuke nodded.

“Anyway. . . I’ll bet you’ve had all the excitement a Lieutenant needs for one day, huh? Why don’t I get your pajamas-”

Chie shook her head.

“It’s fine, you can go if you want to, I don’t need any-”

Yosuke rolled his eyes at her and cupped her face gently.

“It’s not like I have anywhere else to go. Besides, Chie Satonaka, it won’t kill you to let someone else take care of you for a change. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” He tacked on, half serious.

Chie frowned, and opened her mouth to argue but Yosuke had all ready gotten up and was heading into her bedroom. By the time she had risen to her feet (with the room spinning) and shuffled to the bathroom, Yosuke had emerged from her bedroom with her pajamas neatly folded in his arms.

“Thanks.” Chie said, not completely unhappy about being helped.

Yosuke smiled faintly before moving back into the kitchen as Chie went into the bathroom to change.

After finding the dust pan and carefully sweeping up the broken glass in Chie’s bedroom, Yosuke returned to the bathroom door and waited patiently for Chie to finish dressing. After several minutes of soft curses and sharp intakes of breath, Chie came out looking flustered.

Yosuke smiled at her briefly before bending over and picking her up in his arms. Chie gave an outraged squawk and punched Yosuke weakly in the shoulder as he carried her to her bedroom.

“Hey-hey what’s the big idea?!”

“It’s so much easier than watching you walk everywhere, geez. Slow much?”

“I resent that!”

Yosuke smiled at her flustered behavior as he set her down gently under the covers. Chie merely glared at him with a permanent flush on her face.

“Damn it, Yosuke, I left my socks in there.”

He waved her off, all ready heading back into the bathroom.

Chie opened her mouth to stop him, but he was all ready in the bathroom by the time she had started stammering a protest. He had all ready seen it, had all ready turned to stone as his eyes met the stark item of clothing. Her police uniform, folded neatly on the bathroom counter with Chie’s blood starting to crust over the perforated holes in the arm and chest areas.

Yosuke felt something akin to loathing flare up deep in his heart. There it was, one irrefutable testament to Chie’s mortality. Without knowing why, he picked it up and examined it closely, his eyes greedily absorbing every inch of blood and tear on the uniform. His hands shook as he gripped the black and red cloth. Yosuke gave a hard swallow and angrily stuffed the uniform in the bottom cabinet under the sink and nabbed Chie’s socks.

He gave her a false smile as he took her feet and slipped the stockings over them before wordlessly pulling the blankets over her. Chie merely stared at him, unsure of what kind of useful thing people usually said at awkward moments like these.

When he was done he sat next to her and asked frankly:

“Were you scared?”

An uncomfortable silence followed.

“Honestly? Yeah. I was really scared, but I just went into auto-pilot when I heard that kid screaming.”

“You know,” Yosuke started softly, taking her hand in his. “There are people in your immediate life who need you, not just strangers.”

Chie paused before nodding.

“Yeah. . . I-”

“Okay.” Yosuke said, matching her sad smile. “As long as you know.”

Yosuke suddenly remembered that he had meant to call Yukiko as soon as he got her. He felt around in his pocket before realizing his phone was still on silent. Feeling slightly worried, he pulled it out and made a large gulping noise when he looked at the screen.

Chie, nearly asleep, looked at him inquiringly.

Yosuke made a face.

“14 missed calls from Yukiko. . . God knows how many from everyone else.”

Chie’s face dropped.

“Oh, Yukiko. . . I totally spaced-”

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to everyone. For now, though,” Yosuke put the phone back in his pocket and walked over to the light switch and turned it off. “you need to sleep.”

“You know when I get well enough you can’t boss me around like this, but um . . . Is it okay if you-”

“Trust me,” Yosuke said, lightly sitting himself down next to her. “I’m not going anywhere.”

The End