Born to Fly

~Nagi, Jei just about decapitated your little pet-project,~ Schuldig sent down the mental link between Schwarz, watching Mamoru being wheeled out of the room, a grouchy expression on his face and murderous thoughts swirling around in his head. ~He sure is lively for just waking up.~

Several floors below them, Nagi looked up from the paperwork he was filling out, fixing his gaze on a piece of paper taped to the wall. /What? What does that mean?/

He hastily scrawled his signature onto the bottom of the paper, and hurried back to the elevator, wondering the whole time about when and why Takatori Mamoru had become so important as a patient.

Maybe when he passed out in your office and didn't wake up for two days, he answered himself.

~Two days? You mean he just collapsed like that and was out for fourty eight hours?~

/You're listening? It was actually closer to fifty. We put him into the coma ward because of it./

~I don't think he's realized it yet. He just went downstairs in a wheelchair to have a smoke.~

Nagi paused, considering his ex-teammate. /And you didn't go with him?/

~Nagi, Nagi, Nagi! I told you, I gave up smoking.~

Nagi rolled his eyes, and pressed the button for the first floor on the elevator. It went to the seventh, opened, and then went back down to the first without stopping again. He stepped out of the small room and looked through the doors towards the smoking area. Sure enough, Jei was leaning over a black-haired man in a wheelchair. Exiting the building quietly, Nagi stepped up beside them.

"You really shouldn't smoke," he said, and Mamoru blew smoke into his face.

"You really should know better than to tell me what not to do." the actor said nastily. Nagi reached out with his telekinesis and tugged on the cigarette by way of a warning. Mamoru shot him a nasty look, and held on tighter.

"Let go of it, you crazy doctor." Nagi releashed his hold on it, and if Jei had not been behind the chair, Mamoru would have jerked backwards in it, having forgotten to put on the brakes. Jei calmly reached down and pushed the lever to stop the chair from rolling, and Mamoru glowered at him. "If you let me up out of this damned thing, I'll be happy to show you that I can walk just fine, when you're not torturing me with my own pain."

Jei merely looked bored. "Considering the fact that the last time you were on your feet alone you collapsed, I can not, in good consciousness, allow you to injure yourself for your stubborn pride. You'll walk again when Nagi says you are strong enough for it."

"It was only this morning, for chrissakes, and- ... what?" He never finished what he was about to say, instead trailing off to inquire about the look the two doctors exchanged.

"Takatori-san," Nagi said placatingly. "You passed out two days ago. It's Thursday the nineteenth."

Mamoru looked a bit shell-shocked. "What? But I can't have been asleep for two days, it feels like... It... I..."

Jei reached down and plucked the cigarette from his fingers, snubbing it out into the ashtray provided. "I think you need to lay down and rest more. I'll get Schuldig out of your room if you don't like him being there."
"Schuldig can kiss my ass," Mamoru said hotly, and was rewarded with a laugh echoing into his head.

~Is that a threat or an offer?~

/Schuldig, please do not encourage him, he's enough of a jerk on his own without being baited./

*

Two weeks later found Mamoru still in the hospital, with Nagi still at his bedside. This time, the actor didn't have enough energy to even sit up, much less walk himself down to the designated smoking area. Nagi stared at his patient as he slept, wondering what was wrong.

It's like he's lost the will to live, the lithe telekinetic mused. It's like he's shutting down. There's nothing physically wrong with him, but he just keeps getting sicker.

~Hey, kid.~ Schuldig's voice lanced through his thoughts, startling him out of his daze. ~Brad says to pass on that you should give him a reason to live. Also, Kyoko's just been in a car accident.~

/What?!/ "Mamoru. Mamoru, wake up." He put his hand gently down on Mamoru's shoulder, and got no reaction. "Takatori san," he called. "Omi!"

Mamoru jerked awake, getting half-way into a sitting position before he stopped moving and looked around. "Oh... it's... it's you."

Nagi was startled enough by the action to think it through, and realize that the only people who'd called him Omi were his team-mates. His dead team-mates. He clamped down on the part of him that wanted to be sorry for the older man. "I have some bad news," he said, putting a hand on Mamoru's shoulder. "Schuldig just told me that Kyoko-"

Mamoru's phone rang, and he retrieved it from the bed-table to answer it, not caring that Nagi was speaking. "Hello?" He was silent for a long time. "What?"

Nagi watched the blood drain from his already pale face, turning his skin an ashen grey. "Mamoru-"

"Kyoko was in a car accident? Is that what you were about to tell me?"

Nagi found he couldn't look his patient in the eyes. He averted his gaze, fixing it on the machine monitering Mamoru's heart rate. "Yes," he said quietly. "Schuldig told me moments before you received your phone call."

"Doctor Naoe," someone called from the hall. A cute nurse poked her head in the door. "Sorry to interrupt, Nagi, but I need your help down here with one of the patients."

Nagi turned his attention to the man on the bed. "Stay here," he said firmly. "I'll be right back."

He followed the nurse out into the hall to assist her, and hoped that Mamoru would have the good sense to stay put.

(TBC)