Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Because of You ❯ chapter 22 ( Chapter 22 )

Because of You

 

Sequel to: This I Promise You

 

Written by: Chocho

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

 

Summary: The only thing they have in common is their abhorrence for Shuichi. Karin claims he murdered her brother. Scott maintains that he is responsible for the death of his daughter. Karin and Scott's meeting may have been coincidental, but their plan to assassinate Shuichi is not.

 

Chapter summary: The children were the first casualties and might not be the last if the police don't find and arrest the driver of the black Honda Civic and soon.

 

Warning: Angst, m-preg, language, m/m sexual content

 

Inserts: Slight reference to “This I Promise You”

 

A/N: Hey, Guys! First, I want to apologize. This chapter has taken longer that I would have liked to get out. Secondly, I want to thank everyone for their continued support. It means a lot. Anyway, here is the next installment. I hope you enjoy it.

 

 

***

 

 

Chapter 22

 

 

[He dropped his head onto Eiri's shoulder and sniffled. He was just so worried. Who would want to hurt a bunch of children? His children? His babies?

 

Oh, please let them be alright! Please!

 

Sobbing, Shuichi turned as much as the seatbelt Eiri had secured around him when they left the house would allow and buried his tear hidden face into his husband's shoulder.

 

What was going on? Why was this happening? What had he ever done to deserve having his children ripped out of his arms?

 

“Please, God, not again. Please! Not again!”

 

From the front seat of the van, Tohma took his eyes off the road just long enough to glance at his brothers-in-law in the rearview mirror.

 

He would find out who was behind this and make sure they paid.]

 

 

***

 

 

There it was.

 

Eiri's throat closed. His anxiousness about learning the fate of his boys turned into dread as the hospital loomed large and imposing before him. He felt nauseous.

 

On a normal day, Osaka University Hospital was more or less a half an hour drive from their house in Nara, but on this day the ride into the city seemed to stretch on forever.

 

Eiri knew when Shuichi had spotted the hospital when he felt Shuichi's death grip on his shirt tighten. With a waterfall of tears sloshing down his wet face, Shuichi turned away from the sight and wept into Eiri's shirt, praying to whatever higher power might be out there to spare his boys.

 

With one hand gently stroking Shuichi's back, Eiri fingered some stray stands of hair out of his husband's face with the other. He planted a chaste kiss on top of Shuichi's head and whispered words of comfort in his ear.

 

Suddenly, a series of swift jolts stole Shuichi's breath.

 

Hearing a hitch in his husband's crying, Eiri grew immediately concerned. With Shuichi being pregnant, they had to be vigilant. Not only was he a pregnant male, which was extremely dangerous in and of itself, but it was a high risk pregnancy with him carrying triplets and because the nerves in his leg had not properly healed after the incident with Rinjin Yasashii nearly a decade ago, one misstep caused by his leg giving out could cause another miscarriage. And added to the stress was the frightening reality they were heading to the hospital to confront. The shock of what they might find could cause Shuichi to miscarry.

 

“Shuichi? What's wrong?” he demanded lightly.

 

Shuichi's hand flew to his swollen belly as the agitated movement continued. He shook his head. “Nothing.”

 

“Shu…” Eiri warned.

 

Shuichi continued to shake his head. “…It's nothing, Eiri…They just kicked me.” Kicked was an understatement. It felt more like there was a chorus line in his belly.

 

Eiri nodded slowly. He was not sure if he believed him or not.

 

Wrapping his arms around Shuichi, he drew him back against him. “They'll be okay,” he promised, more to comfort himself than Shuichi.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Eiri saw it. He glanced out the windshield and froze.

 

“Damn,” he muttered.

 

This was the last thing they needed. He watched the swarming mass waiting to greet them when they pulled up to the hospital in trepidation.

 

“Tohma,” he drawled.

 

“I see them,” his brother-in-law said calmly from behind the wheel of the van. The Uesugi-Shindou family could not even sneeze without it making the headlines. He would expect no less then what was about to confront them.

 

As curious as he was, Shuichi did not want to see what kind of media circus would be meeting them. He had only one thing on his mind and that was getting to his boys.

 

 

~*~

 

 

The darkened room appeared to be empty. The flickering light from the television set that sat on the dresser across from the bed in the small, second-rate hotel cast eerie shadows on the walls. The covers on the bed were thrown back and gathered at the foot of the bed haphazardly. A trail of clothes cut a path across the room to a shut door opposite the door that led out to the hallway. A thin strip of light shone out from underneath the door. A special news bulletin went unheard as the sounds of a shower rumbled from behind the closed door.

 

“We have breaking news out of the entertainment world this afternoon.”

 

There was a slight pause.

 

“It is being reported that Shindou Shuichi and Yuki Eiri's adopted son, Kitazawa Riku, was driving his six year old twin brothers to do some last minute Christmas shopping when another vehicle apparently crashed into them from behind before fleeing the scene. Kitazawa lost control of the car and plowed into a pillar. He and his brothers were rushed to the hospital. Their conditions are unknown at this time.”

 

“The Osaka City Police Department is looking for the car seen fleeing the scene,” continued a different reporter. “It is a grey-black Honda Civic with tinted windows and would have severe damage to the front end and driver's side. It was last seen heading eastbound out of the city. The police warn that if you spot this vehicle to call them immediately and not to approach it. The driver is to be considered armed and dangerous…

 

“In other news, Prime Minister…”

 

 

~*~

 

 

Digging into the dark, cavernous confines of what was more like a bottomless pit than a designer handbag she spent nearly all of last month's wages on, Shido Hela grumbled as she strode with long, irate strides across the empty parking garage from the elevator to her car. Stray strands of hair wiggled free from the tight, severe bun at the nape of her neck and teased her face as the breeze began to pick up.

 

Today had not been the red letter day her horoscope said it would be. It had been one thing after another. She was glad it was the end of the work day because she wanted nothing more then to go home and relax with a glass of fine wine and a nice bubble bath.

 

Finally finding her car keys, she pointed the little black device on her keychain at her car and deactivated the car locks. They unlocked with an echoing “ching”. After depositing her purse and briefcase in the backseat, Hela slid behind the wheel. Keying on the engine, she clicked on her seat belt then turned on the radio, switching the station to the news program “News Nation” that she always listened to on the way home from work. As she pulled carefully out of the parking slot, the deep voice of the station reporter spilled over the speakers and filled the small confines of her compact car.

 

“For those of you who are just tuning in, here is a recap of today's top stories.”

 

Hela drove cautiously down the spiral ramp towards the exit.

 

“The Osaka City Police Department is looking for a black Honda Civic this afternoon that was involved in a hit-and-run. The Honda Civic, witnesses claim, deliberately hit a car repeatedly that was occupied by three of Shindou Shuichi and Yuki Eiri's children…”

 

That grabbed Hela's immediate attention. She reached towards the radio and turned the volume up.

 

“…sending the car spiraling out of control towards a pillar in the parking garage in the parking lot near Kinokuniya (1), a bookstore in Osaka. All three occupants were rushed to Osaka University Hospital (2). Their conditions are unknown at this time.”

 

“Oh, wow,” Hela breathed. She said a silent prayer for the family's wellbeing.

 

Suddenly, a car pulled out in front of her. She braked hard.

 

“Come on!” she cried in growing agitation as she laid into the horn. “Where'd you learn to drive you moron?!”

 

The incompetence of some people, she thought. The idiot wasn't even looking! Today just was not her day.

 

The driver, who appeared to be a youngish looking woman, braked when she finally looked over her shoulder and saw her idling there, but Hela waved her on in annoyance.

 

“Might as well seeing as you're already out,” she mocked.

 

The other driver raised her hand at her. She inclined her head slightly in return more out of politeness sake than anything.

 

“Jerk,” she added under her breath.

 

As she waited, Hela's attention was caught by a dark colored car in the parking space besides the now vacant one the car she had allowed to pull out of had been in.

 

“The car,” the news reporter was saying, “is a black Honda Civic with lightly tinted windows and would have severe damage to both the front end and driver's side. It was seen heading east out of the city…”

 

The reporter's voice faded as Hela's full attention turned to the car before her. She was no car expert. Far from it. She could not even tell the difference between a Toyota and a Mitsubishi. So she had no idea what a Honda looked like, but what she did know was that this car was black, had tinted windows and that it had massive damage to its front end and along the driver's side.

 

Putting the car in park and flicking on her hazard lights, she flung off her seatbelt and pulled her purse onto her lap. Digging through its crowded borders, she found her cellphone. Her heart was pounding as she dialed the number for the police.

 

She was not sure if this was the car they were searching for, but it was better to waste the police's time and look like a fool when she turned out to be wrong than to ignore the slim possibility that it was the car and be racked by guilt for the rest of her life for doing nothing when she could have done something.

 

 

~*~

 

 

Someone had spotted the black Honda Civic that the Osaka City Police Department was looking for abandoned in a parking garage in the heart of downtown Kyoto, just like dozens of other people who had seen it since the news stations had reported the police were looking for it. As he had been the closest to the scene, Officer Ehara had been dispatched to check out the anonymous tip they had received. He was not holding his breath, though. Nine times out of ten, these so-called “leads” lead nowhere.

 

When he arrived and gave the car in question a quick once over, he understood why the tipster had been so sure that this was the car they were searching for. Yes, the car was a black Honda Civic with tinted windows, but that had not meant that this was the car in question, but then he saw the extensive damage to the front and driver's side and he knew the odds just skyrocketed.

 

Officer Ehara ran the plates. From prior experience, he knew in situations like these the car was going to either have been reported stolen around the time of the incident or someone had switched the vehicles plates, but the information that popped onto the screen proved his assumptions wrong. Not only had the car not been reported stolen, but the plates were registered for a black 2002 Honda Civic, the same car filling his windshield.

 

With a snort, he shook his head. This guy was obviously no pro.

 

The driver had no priors and no traffic violations, not even a parking ticket. His record was so clean it squeaked.

 

Ehara whistled.

 

Was this really the person they were after for the hit and run on the Uesugi-Shindou kids? Maybe if it had been an accident and the perpetrator had panicked, or something, then he would believe this was the person they were after, but according to the eyewitnesses, it had been no accident. So why would someone who appeared to be so “saintly”, as it were, deliberately try to run a bunch of innocent children off the road? Had it been a case of road rage? He had seen that before, but never to this extent, though he had heard horror stories from other cops. So it was not out of the question.

 

“Rinjin,” the officer sounded the name out loud. His forehead scrunched in thought. Where had he heard that name before?

 

He typed the name into the computer and the answer popped onto the screen.

 

“Rinjin Yasashii…Deceased…,” he paraphrased from the report.

 

Now he remembered. This was the guy who stalked Shindou. He ended up murdering Shindou's two bodyguards before abducting Shindou as he was leaving for the studio. The guy held the singer captive and tried to murder him. There was a struggle. The railing, which had been loose, snapped under their weight, sending Rinjin and Shindou plummeting from the second floor of the condo. Rinjin's neck snapped in the fall. He died instantly. Shindou had been left temporary paralyzed.

 

“Only living relative is…Rinjin Karin!”

 

The owner of the Honda, Ehara realized with a start.

 

“Relationship to the deceased…Sister.”

 

Sister? If she blamed Shindou for her brother's death, then that certainly would explain a lot.

 

Sirens sounded in the distance.

 

This lady had to be stopped. She may not a pro, but she was dangerous. That was evident in the fact that she had no problem going after three innocent children and attempting to commit vehicular manslaughter. If she would go that far, then what else would she do?

 

 

***TBC***

 

(1) Real shopping center in Osaka, about 18.77 miles from Nara, Japan. Apparently specializes in English books.

(2) Real hospital in Osaka. (I was not sure which one would be more specialized to a car accident or which one would be closest for the kids to have been taken to so I just picked one. If you know let me know.)

 

A/N: So, what you think? Do you think this whole incident will affect Shuichi's pregnancy? Are the children going to okay? Will they catch Karin and Scott? Find out next time!!