Digimon Fan Fiction ❯ Fighter ❯ Chapter nine ( Chapter 9 )

Fighter

By Marie Darkholme

Ninth Chapter

Mimi and Yamato made their ways from the gynaecologist's hall to the emergency room, where Taichi awaited for them in the waiting room. In the way they exchanged worry looks, not only about their two friends but about them as well. "What did they tell you?" Yamato asked as he looked once more to Mimi. He just couldn't help being concerned about the issue. He didn't feel ready to be a daddy and this all pregnancy wasn't coming in a good time for Mimi either.

She looked over to him. She could tell by his looks that he was worried and she knew it wasn't about Sora at all. She slapped herself mentally. `How can I be so selfish? My friend is in surgery and I'm worried about an unexpected pregnancy.´ she thought, but she really couldn't help being worried. After all she had lots of plans for her and Yamato before they get married. Only then she would like to have a family. But she wasn't going to even think about abortion either. Anyway she worried that her baby might not have the life she wanted to give her children.

"I'm six weeks pregnant." She replied. Yamato thought for a while, and then something hit him. He gasped and stopped in the middle of the hallway. Mimi stopped and watched him. He gave her an understanding look, like a light had been lighten in the dark. "I know." He replied. Mimi watched him confused. What the hell was he talking about, then it hit her too.

"That day in the office." They both replied at the same time. They looked embarrassed around to see if anyone had seen them, but fortunately the hallway was clear. Yamato approached her and started whispering. Someone looking from the outside might have thought they were planning something evil. "That day was the only time we did it without protection." He replied. He slapped his forehead. "I can't believe. We make one mistake and it happens." He half uncovered half stated.

Mimi giggled. She approached him and pulled him by the collar of his shirt. Then she whispered into his ear. "That means you have good swimmers." She smiled. Yamato smiled too and then they both gave a clear and strong laugh.

Taichi paced from one side of the waiting room to the other. He really couldn't stop wondering and in only fifteen minutes he had discovered more then in one month. He wondered about the origin of Sora's scars. He was really shocked when the paramedics showed him the scars on her back, but just the ones she had on her hands made him worry with her. He couldn't quite figure what could she have done to gain such horrible scars.

He walked to the other side of the room. Sora was in surgery for about half an hour now. He really didn't know why they were taking so long. They had said it was only for them to retrieve the bullet in her shoulder, but now he was worrying that that might be something else they hadn't told him. He finally decided to sat down on one of the chairs in the room. He just hopped she wouldn't have any serious damage. Now that he had finally met a girl that he knew he could love, she was in the hospital. He had such a bad luck with women.

He stood up once more and started walking around again in a nervous way. Suddenly he heard a door opened. He quickly turned expecting to see a doctor whom he might ask what was Sora's status, but as he looked over he saw the two lovers coming in hand in hand. They both had smiles on their faces. He felt like to snap them, but he really couldn't blame them, so he just kept walking hoping they didn't had notice that he had seen them.

Yamato watched as his long time friend walked from one way to the other without stopping. It was quite obvious that he was nervous. In fact Yamato had never seen his friend so worried. Well maybe except that cursed day, when Hikari got really sick. He remembered that day as it had been yesterday. He was still very clear, Taichi's panic face as he saw his sister tumbling to the ground. His concern as he waited for the ambulance to arrive. How he had made sure they treated well his sister. But now it was a little different though.

He couldn't see the brotherly worry but a lovely worry. The worry we only have with those which we love for live. The concern we only give to those whom we want to spent the rest of our lives. He couldn't figure if his friend already knew the huge crush he had on Sora Takenouchi, but for anyone else who didn't know him, they could say it was his wife in the surgery.

He walked towards him and patted him in the back. "Don't worry. Sora's made of stone." He told him in a reassurance voice. Only then he managed to see his wet tears forming in the corners of his eyes. He was astonished cause he had never seen Taichi crying. He had just too much pride to let others see. In a way that remind him of Sora. He only remembered to see her cry once. And that was when Taichi had grabbed her and knocked her to the floor the day she got suspended. Even then he could see how these two would somehow be together. They were soul mates.

Taichi looked up to his friend and he felt the tears forming in his eyes. He immediately wiped them away as he looked to the other side turning his back on Yamato. His friend watched him but he did not try to turn him around. He knew him just too well to be doing something like that. He knew that right now Taichi needed time to heal his wounds. And he knew Taichi had been through a lot. Just like Sora.

The time passed by rather quickly. Mimi was sitting in a chair eating some crackers that Yamato had bought for her. They were in each others arms. Taichi had managed to calm himself when some minutes earlier a doctor had passed by and ad told them the surgery had gone well and they were running some tests. He had sat himself in the chair again and was no buried in his hands watching the happy couple.

He could almost see himself with Sora that way, but something else cracked in his mind. They were sitting under a tree kissing and just having each other in a warm embrace. They knew they could spent hours, day, months, like that. Sora was no longer the stone hearted girl. She was now a lovely wife and a caring mother. He watched as his and Sora's kids run around the park playing football. A girl that had Sora's eyes and Taichi's hair. She looked a lot like his sister when she was little, and an older boy, with his eyes and a massive wild light brown hair. They kicked the ball to each other and Taichi couldn't help but smile as he heard them giggle.

A sound of wheels with a really great need of oil, brought him back to reality. His daydream vanished quickly as he saw the stretcher being pushed by a little blond nurse. In it, Sora lied. Her arm was crossed on her chest and her shoulder was bandaged. He followed the stretcher. Yamato and Mimi did the same. They awaited that the nurses ended up putting Sora in her hospital bed and then entered the room.

Besides her bandaged shoulder, she had her head bandaged as well. Her eyes were closed and she slept peacefully. Taichi watched her carefully. Her lip was cut in the corner and she had some bruises in her face and arms. She had also a mark of hands around her neck. The nurse made them promise they would leave soon, so they eventually had to leave.

Yamato and Mimi entered Yamato's car, a light grey daweo mattis, and said goodbye to Taichi that stood in the walk way. "Are you sure you don't need us to get you home?" Yamato asked. He somehow founded hard to believe that Taichi might actually be coming home. Taichi smiled trying to reassure his friend he would got home and shook his head refusing the proposal. Mimi though, decided to give it another try. "You know you can come to talk with me anytime." She blinked at him.

They finally left and Taichi started heading towards his dark Subaru. He opened it and entered. He sat on the front sit for a while. He couldn't get his mind of Sora. He then stood up and headed again towards the hospital. He entered Sora's room and sat in the chair next to her bed side. He looked into her angelical face as she slept and he felt like kissing her lips. But that wasn't fair, since she was asleep. He wouldn't do that to her.

Instead he turned his gaze to her hand. He raised his hand towards her. He stopped for a while but then he started touching her scars in the back of her hand with his fingers. She shivered and he took back his hand, but then, he grabbed her hand in his. He felt its warmness and the softness of it. He leaned against the chair in a comfortable position for him to sleep. As he was drifting away in his sleep, he felt her grip around his hand tight. He only opened his eyes for briefly seconds. As he did, he saw her turning her head to her hand and put his hand next to it. And then she smiled. After that lonely moment of affection he got back into his dream world.

In the middle of the night, a nurse entered the room. She saw Taichi lying next to Sora. She was about to tell him he shouldn't be there, when she saw he was asleep. She then followed his hand to the patient hand and she smiled. She got a cover and put it over Taichi's body, then she walked off again, smiling to herself, remembering her young time.

The rain still dropped heavily outside. A young boy pushed his gabardine to his head trying to cover himself from the hard raindrops. He stopped in front of an old building. Some of the bricks were showing. He smirked, his face was covered but his grin was still noticeable. He entered the building and shook himself inside of it, to dust some of the rain off. He then walked upstairs and knocked at one of the old doors. He waited for several minutes but as no one replied he then reluctantly turned back and made his way back down. Inside the apartment, the few light from the new rainy morning shone over a couch that stood in the middle of the room.

Sora awoke suddenly from another nightmare. She didn't sit straight on the bed she lied, but she opened her eyes in a sudden way. Then she felt a breeze washing over her hands. She looked besides her and for her stupefaction Taichi sat quietly asleep in the chair next to her. A cover that had been probably covering him was now on the floor, but more surprising than that, she noticed she was holding hands with him.

She took her hand from his and looked at her surroundings to realize she was in the hospital. Her shoulder was bandaged and she felt her head bandaged too. She then looked over her hands and so she wasn't wearing her gloves. She instinctually covered them under the sheets. Her mind was too confused, not quite about the reason she was there, cause that she remembered quite well. She caressed her throat as she thought about her feeling of drowning. What she couldn't understand was the reason Taichi sat there and why she had woken grabbing his hands. She blushed at the thought of it, but then she quickly regained her composure, shaking away any kind of thoughts about Taichi.

Suddenly a nurse came in the room. Sora sat on her bed and watched as the nurse came towards her, all of her smiling. "How do you feel today?" she asked. Sora didn't reply right away as she watched the nurse walking towards Taichi and picking the cover and putting it over his body again. "I had to spend most of the night covering him." She smiled to her. The nurse then started taking her pressure and checking things. Sora looked at the nurse and then again to Taichi.

She watched him sleeping for a while. He seemed so peaceful. He looked like a baby. She envied his sleep. he slept peacefully without nightmares and all his face transmitted calm and serenity to all the people looking to him. He was just like a child. She glared at his smile. He was smiling in his sleep. In her mind she could only see his smile and how beautiful it was, but then she remembered his eyes. She had never thought of how beautiful they were. Shining in a soft tone of brown. A pool of kindness and affection.

"How long has he been here?" she asked distraughtly looking over to him. the nurse ended her duties and looked over to the young girl before her. Once again, she noticed something. She deeply knew this girl and this boy were meant to be together, but she also knew their path wouldn't be easy as this girl had deep traumas.

"He has been here all night." She replied as she walked off leaving Sora alone with her thoughts. `All night?! Shit, he might have seen my hands. And the others? What I'm going to do?´ she asked. A tear rolled down her face but she quickly wiped it. She turned to the window. The raindrops beat in it creating a soft melody. She couldn't believe this was happening to her. All those years trying to hid her past and in one simple accident, she had blown up everything. No one was suppose to know about her anguish years. The years she would try to stay as far as she could from the place she called home and the man was suppose to be her father.

A hand suddenly shook her off her thoughts. She turned frightened and faced Taichi warm eyes staring concerning at her. She immediately motioned to cover her hands, but he grabbed them. She lowered her head not to meet his gaze as tears kept forming in the corner of her eyes. He raised her head with his hand and made her look into his eyes.

"You don't need to hid from me." He said. His voice echoed in her in her head. She couldn't forget it, she wouldn't forget. She concentrated on him. There he was, a man willing to give his love to her, and deep don she knew she loved him too, but she couldn't forget about the past and surrender once again to love? She didn't think so. Not after the pain of being heart broken. Her pass was only pain and the nightmare still haunted her in the present. He would hurt her too. She was sure of it.

He let go her hands and she covered them with the sheets, but she didn't lied on her bed, she remained sit. Taichi watched her. Her behaving like a lost frightened animal. He couldn't bare seeing her like that. He liked her fighter spirit, but right now, she was like a child longing for support and love. Love that he was ready to give her, but he wasn't sure, she would accept.

There were moments of silence. The only sound they could hear was the sound of the raindrops on the window and the thunders. It was only for a few minutes, but for both of them it looked like centuries had passed. Still none was able to break it. It was a painful silence, like expecting the eruption of a volcano. It takes years and years but one day it explodes and no one can escape from it.

Sora was the first to break the silence. No matter how it hurt she needed to know. She was ready now. "Did the other see my…my…?" she whispered, not louder then the breath. Taichi, though, knew exactly what she wanted to know. He shook his head and he could see her face relaxing a little bit. But he knew she would never relax, because he had seen it and for her that was painful enough. He wanted explanations. He wanted to know what had happened to her, but he didn't want to rush her into those type of questions because he knew that that too was a painful issue, not for her body, but for her mind. But even then, some doors opened because now he knew what he was facing. He wasn't walking in the dark anymore. At least, now he knew what made her so cold. He knew the answer relied on those hands.

He stood up. "I'm going to take a coffee but I'll be back soon." He smiled. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. He wasn't asking any questions; instead he was leaving her with her own thoughts. In that moment fissure appeared in her stoned heart. It beat faster as she saw walking away. In her mind his voice echoed and his smile flashed in millions of lights surrounding it. In her cold stoned darkened path she could see a light. And she was going to follow it. Step by step.

Koushiro had come back to his house. He was now trying to get a hold on Daisuke. He had tried several times to reach him but he couldn't as his phone went always to the message. He had phoned Yamato earlier that morning and had made sure his friend was okay. But he needed to get a hold on Daisuke. He was supposed to be looking after Sora and he failed, but that wasn't the point right now. The point was Daisuke had made him promise he would call him if something happened to Sora.

He walked around his house. It was a beautiful house. It had two bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. He was in the living room that was decorated in soft tones of cream. He had a big window in the room that had over it a pair of long heavy cream curtains. His sofa was a pale yellow and he had a single piece of furniture that held the television and several books. In fact, besides the television the only thing he had were books.

He sat on the couch and watched some television. Suddenly the phone rang. He went to pick it immediately. "Hello?" he replied to the speaker. From the other side of the line a familiar voice replied him in a concerned voice. "What's happening? You've called me all morning." Daisuke asked. Koushiro sat on the couch again with his mobile on his hand. "Look, you don't need to worry, but I promise I would call so I did it." He paused gaining his breath. The night hadn't been one of the best as he had been called to resume the happenings of yesterday.

"Is it Sora?" Daisuke asked. Panic could be sense in his voice. "I said to calm down. She's okay. She was lucky only to get hit in her shoulder. Some bruises but nothing else." He replied. Daisuke sighed in relief, and Koushiro could hear it. "Good. Let me guess. That cover operation she was on…?" he asked. Koushiro allowed himself to release a small laugh. "Yeah, you know how she is." "Yeah, unfortunately she can be too stubborn sometimes."

Koushiro let out a sigh. "I'm sorry for not having take a good care of her." He excused himself. Daisuke laughed from the other side. "Are you kidding? When I said you to take care of her, I meant you be there by her side when she needed it. You can't be her bodyguard. She wouldn't allow it to you or anybody else." He laughed. The red headed guy was happy to hear this. After so many years separated he wouldn't want to ruin his relationship with Daisuke again.

"I'm the one who should say sorry, you know?" Daisuke kind of sighed from the other side. "I should have told you about what happened to her, but she's just too damn stubborn and didn't allow me. I'm sorry." He said. This time Koushiro felt a hint of sorry of his friend. Keeping Sora's secret couldn't have been easy to him and even knowing how it was ruining his relationship he kept it. He was surely the best friend both him and Sora could have.

"So, how're things going there?" he asked changing the topic. "Well, you know, entraining and…entraining and…" Daisuke laughed.

Sora smelled something in the air. She hadn't smelled something like that in years. In fact, she couldn't quite remember that smell, it was a rare one. It smelled like flowers. For brief sweet moments Sora could almost see her mother. She had never met her, but she had seen pictures of her. She had a great smile and her eyes sparkled like two rubies. Her short brownish hair with a hint of red. She remembered her father complaining sometimes about how much she used to dedicate her time to flowers. Her mom had a flower shop.

That smell in some odd way made her remember her mother. It was like she could remember her first life seconds, short time before her mother died. And deep inside her, she knew her mother smelled like that. That delicate, fresh and sweet scent of flowers. But it was one flower in particular.

----Flashback----

Sora walked through the streets of Odaiba. There was a small gentle spring breeze that made her shoulder length light brown hair sail across it. She stopped and inhaled the soft breeze closing her eyes feeling a strange sense of liberty. Her two friends walking beside her looked behind to see where their friend had stopped. Koushiro slapped his forehead seeing Sora extending her arms and taking a deep breath. Daisuke on the other hand just watched her.

Sora smelled the air. There was freshness in it. She just loved spring time. She loved the big green trees and lying in the grass just staring at the crimson evening sky as the sun set on the horizon. Suddenly something shook her off her thoughts of liberty. A smell, a sweet delicate smell. She looked around trying to figure from where it came.

Koushiro and Daisuke watched as their friend looked around. "What is she doing?" Daisuke asked in a bored voice. "I'm getting sleepy." Koushiro glared at him as Daisuke yawned and stretched his arms. "I believe she's looking for something." He concluded.

The crimson eyed continued looking around trusting her nose to lead her to the place from where the smell came. She turned around in the opposite direction of the wind and started walking. It was a faint smell but she somehow found it familiar. She ended up in a flower shop and to her surprise there they were. A simple bouquet of twelve red roses causing her an enormous pleasure. She looked at them for a while until Daisuke and Koushiro appeared behind her.

Sora had never felt attracted somehow to any kind of flowers but those had a particular smell that remind her of her mother. She thought that was impossible, since her mother died giving her birth, but there they were and she was so sure that that particular sweet smell was just like her mother's.

She reached to the back of her pocked for her wallet. She picked it and counted the money she had. She wanted so badly to take a rose with her. The guys just watched as Sora entered the store and bought a single red rose that she held in her hands with caution. It was like she was spellbound by the rose as she looked at it in such an intense way.

Maybe if she knew what was waiting her at home for carrying a single flower she wouldn't have even thought about buy it. But then again, maybe she would.

----End Of Flashback----

Destiny has those kinds of things. As she opened her eyes there they were. Not a single rose like the one she had managed to buy with her few money but a bouquet of red flowers lying by her side on the hospital bed. She sat quickly and looked amazed. It was no dream, but she had to close her eyes and open them again to still believe. But it was real, there, besides her, lied twelve red roses involved in a lovely bouquet with a liaison and a note.

She reached for them and retrieved the note. It was a simple note made of recycled paper with a flower in the layer. She opened it. Inside she read:

Dear Sora:

I don't know what happened to you or the reason why you keep pushing me away, but I would just like to say that no matter what happens I would never hurt someone for who I care, in this case, I would never hurt you. I just wanted you to give me a chance. Please?

Taichi Yagami

She read it for several times until she had memorized what it said. That had been the sweetest thing anyone had ever given her. She didn't have many people who offered her presents. In fact, only Koushiro and Daisuke did, but none of them had ever bought her roses. That had its logic, since red roses were the symbol of love.

She held the flowers next to her as tears began to fall down her face. She wanted him too, but the fear of being hurt again was so bad that she wasn't sure it would be good to give him a chance. She couldn't possible survive another heartbreak. She had promise to herself. She couldn't break that promise, but… she cared for him. Could it possible be true love? She didn't know. She never did.

As she held the roses closer to her a thorn perforated her soft skin. She released the flowers that fell to her lap. She held her finger and sucked the blood around it putting the finger in her mouth. The blood kept falling and one drop eventually felt in the bed sheets. She then looked to the roses again. Even them so sweet and beautiful could hurt her, but still she couldn't help picking them up again and holding them in her hands again. Even so she couldn't stop her nose from approaching the danger petals that could be hiding more thorns and smell them once more.

Yamato and Mimi lied side by side in Yamato's bed. She was asleep, but Yamato on the other hand was quite awake. He stared at the ceiling trying to figure out what to do with his life. He really loved Mimi, but was it forever? Could he possible marry her? She was expecting his child. He couldn't let his child live in a home where his mother and father don't love each other. But he couldn't let his child live in a broken home either, where only one of the two would be there for him, while the other would only see it in the weekends.

He knew, though, that Mimi would never let her child stay away from her, so he would be the one to only see him or her in the weekends. He turned in his bed. Extending his arm he reached for a small black velvet box inside the drawer of the night table. He held it in his trembling hands and sigh escaped his lips. He opened it and watched the ring inside it. He wasn't sure about the future but he loved Mimi now and he couldn't think that he would not love her forever not that they had something that bounded them.

He put the velvet box back in its original place and returned to his sleep. he wondered how his younger brother was so sure it would be Hikari the only girl in his life. But then again, their situation was a different one. They knew each other since little children. Whenever Taichi went to play to his house, Hikari would go with him and whenever he went to Taichi's house Takeru would go with him. While he and Taichi played naval battle, monopoly and playstation, Hikari and Takeru would go to his or hers room and would play by themselves.

Even as they grew and Yamato and Taichi grew slightly apart, thinking different and having different interests, Takeru and Hikari had remained together. Their relationship was from an awesome friendship to unconditional love. But he and Mimi; he knew her for five years but they had only started dating last year. It was a trustful relationship, but they didn't act like any in love normal couple. He didn't kept kissing her and sending her presents and she didn't kept calling him and hanging around with him

But that could partially be because they didn't have much time to spend together. He just wasn't sure about the whole situation. He just thought that it was better that he told himself that he truly loved her. That they were soul mates like his brother and Hikari and that their relationship would be the greatest. He turned around again, after had convinced himself and turn back to sleep.

Taichi stepped out the cafeteria of the hospital. He prepared himself mentally for whatever it was going to happen next. He didn't know. Sora was just a surprise box. When he thought he had seen her doing anything she came up with something different, so he couldn't really figure her reaction to his present. It had been the greatest idea he had had in quite a long time.

----Flashback----

The massive wild brown haired guy entered the police department. He quickly made his way to his desk and started searching through the tons of papers in the disorganized drawers for a phone number. He was interrupted several times in his frenetic search by some mates that wanted to know the last news about their female mate. He would give them quick short answers just to keep them away.

He was getting desperate when the damn paper finally crossed his fingers. He raised the paper in a triumph pose that made three quarters of the policemen in the floor stare at him. he quickly reduced himself to his insignificance and crawled off the department.

Already outside he entered his black Subaru and closed the door. He picked his cell phone that was recharging in the car and dialled Koushiro's number. He was desperately in need of useful information about Sora. Koushiro would normally send the guy for a walk, but since it was Taichi talking and he really thought he was a good guy for her friend, he kindly gave him the information he needed.

After that, Taichi drove to the nearest flower shop and bought a bouquet of a dozen of red roses. the guy in the flower shop smirked as he saw Taichi's excited face. "Do you have a new girl, Taichi?" he asked. Taichi glared at the younger boy. He was usually quiet and reserved but sometimes he couldn't get over his curiosity. The boy had short black hair and dark eyes. He had a pale skin and he dressed in a long cream tunic along with a pair of brown pants.

"You should mind your own business Cody." He replied to the younger boy. This one though, didn't seem to care about what he had just said and he kept peeking on what Taichi was writing in the card that was supposed to accompany the flowers.

"It's a mysteries' girl?" he half teased, half stated. From Taichi he only received another glare. Cody sighed and turned back to the flowers. He was now arranging some dark tulips. Very beautiful indeed. They were his favourites. He was capable of spending hours and hours just admiring how beautiful they were. He sighed once more. "You always pick the hard ones, right Taichi?" he sighed to his elder friend.

Taichi raised his eyebrow but then let out a sigh. "Yeah, it looks like I'm doomed to be an uncle." He put his elbows over the table and stared at the tulips that Cody was arranging. The two men remained like that for a few seconds, until Taichi broke from his trance. He paid the roses and left motioning goodbye to Cody.

He, then, entered Sora's room cautiously, in his tiptoes, and placed the roses by her side on the bed. He stared at her. Her pale skin contrasting with her rose faces just the same colour as the flowers by her side. He motioned to touch her but she moved and he regretted had even thinking about it. Her hair was so beautiful shining with the soft light that came from the window.

----End Of Flashback----

He sighed as he thought of her once more. He hoped that at least she wouldn't be angry with him because of the flowers. He just wanted a chance. A chance to prove her he would never do anything voluntarily to hurt her, because he loved her too much.

He took a deep breath and entered Sora's bedroom. She was awake and was holding the bouquet of a dozen red roses in her hands.

Sora looked at him. He looked at her. There was only silence as non of the two was capable of a single word.