For a moment everything was perfect. She had love, money, friends and fans. But this type of life is a burning rope. It can't support her forever. ---Nature 2. Read Disclaimers in Part 1. Give me the Passion Part 2 of ~12 Asynca "Sir, I really think you should get some sleep..." The doctor tapped Haruka on the shoulder. Haruka recognised him as the doctor giving orders in the critical recovery unit from last night. Shaking her head, she stifled a yawn, "No, I had some last night." The doctor smiled and nodded, leaving the room. Liar, liar. Haruka shook that voice out of her mind. It had taken Haruka and Setsuna some finagling to even be allowed to stay in the room; but after Haruka's outburst, the doctor had had another bed wheeled into the room for Haruka. However, Setsuna had returned from another random wandering and fallen asleep in the chair by the bed, and Haruka had felt obliged to lift her from the chair onto the spare bed. Haruka hadn't minded, really; she hadn't intended on sleeping anyway. Not with the apparent threat that was haunting them. A moan from the other bed reminded Haruka of the other presence in the room. Setsuna was curled up in a foetal position, white sheets strewn all around her. She must have also had a restless night. Her jacket had lost a couple of buttons, her skirt was turned sideways and some of her hair had caught in the side of the bed. Without her usual personal guard and the cool air she liked to hold over people, she looked quite cute, Haruka reflected, smiling slightly. At least she was asleep now. Michiru, on the other hand, hadn't moved at all. Haruka bit her lip, and pulled the chair as close to the bed as she could get it. Taking one of Michiru's hand, she rubbed it gently between her own. "Michiru..." she whispered gently. She wasn't particularly surprised when she received no response. Sighing, Haruka glanced at the pulse machine. Last night it had read 48, and this morning it was 62; at least it was picking up to a normal speed from the blood bags that the doctors had been feeding the drip at several intervals during the night. The doctor returned, this time with a tray containing a wet drip and some other cords. Haruka closed her eyes as the doctor replaced the drip in Michiru's arm with the wet drip. "Will Michiru be all right?" Haruka's firm voice made the doctor turn around. He regarded her reflectively for a moment before turning back to the machines and recording her vitals on a clipboard. "Well...the situation looks promising," he told her. "But you can never tell." Her turned back to her and pulled Michiru's sheet down to her waist. The stab wounds were sewn, but around them her abdomen was swollen and a strange yellow-purple colour. Haruka looked up sharply at the doctor, not bothering to disguise the concern of her face. "What does that mean?" "She's bleeding internally. We'll be operating on her in about two hours, when she's had this liquid," he indicated the wet drip. "It doesn't look severe, but try not to get your hopes up. All sorts of things spring up in the theatre." Setsuna yawned openly, turning over. Her hair pulled at the joint of the bed, and stopped her turn short. She employed some colourful language as she tried to locate the rest of her hair and disentangle it from where it had caught. The doctor laughed gently, and exited the room, analysing the data on his clipboard. Setsuna glared at him as he disappeared into the adjacent room, and tried to regain her demeanour while straightening her clothes and searching for the elusive buttons. Haruka couldn't help but laugh at her as she flopped down in a heap on the other hospital chair. She looked the scruffiest Haruka had ever seen her look, even her mascara had rubbed, making her look like she had heroin bags under her eyes. Setsuna scowled at her, and in her sulking, managed to drift off back to sleep. Haruka was suddenly aware of footsteps coming towards them from the other end of the hall. Judging by the short intervals between each step, the person was running. A young woman called out, and seconds after that, a little girl burst into the room. "Haruka-papa!" She noticed the other two motionless figures, and realised her mistake, clamping a hand over her little mouth and giggling at her accident. "Hotaru!?" A shy blue-haired girl rounded the door way after the bubbly child, blushing. "Hello, Haruka-san." Hotaru made a beeline for Haruka and climbed into her lap, whispering, "We have to be quiet, don't we? Michiru-mama and Setsuna-mama are sleeping." Haruka smiled reassuringly at the little girl, before twisting to glance pointedly at Ami, wondering vaguely how she'd managed to get Hotaru here and in here...How on earth did Ami end up looking after Hotaru, anyway? Ami read Haruka's eyes, and looked at the floor, waiting for Hotaru, who was in a fairly chatty mood, to tell Haruka what had happened. However, when Haruka delivered the same questioning look to Hotaru, the little girl stared at her foster-father for a moment, then looked away, shrinking back into a ball in the woman's lap. Haruka raised an eyebrow. It was almost like Hotaru was ashamed of something. Setsuna opened her eyes to see what all the noise was. Immediately on laying her eyes on Hotaru, she froze, her face unreadable. "Oh, Lord..." She mouthed, then slapped her hand to her forehead. "I forgot all about Hotaru!" Something snapped inside Haruka. "Do tell, Setsuna," Haruka felt her own voice freeze over. For several seconds, the only thing the four could hear was the steady beeping on Michiru's monitor. At last, Hotaru spoke. "I woke up and there was nobody there." The tone of Hotaru's voice almost broke Haruka's heart. "I called and called but no one came, so I went out into the kitchen, but Setsuna-mama wasn't in there, or upstairs, or getting the mail..." Hotaru looked like she wanted to cry. "Then I remembered the way Michiru-mama taught me to press the numbers on the telephone if something was wrong. So I pressed the red button and a number, and Ami was there." Hotaru cuddled into Haruka. It took a moment for Hotaru's words to sink in. Setsuna had felt some premonition, or whatever it was that she felt, and rushed to the hospital, forgetting about Hotaru napping in her upstairs room. Hotaru had woken up, and been all alone. Haruka knew being alone to a little child like Hotaru was very different to the way Haruka liked to be alone. Hotaru would have felt unloved and forgotten, betrayed by one of the people she trusted most. No matter how confused Setsuna was, she shouldn't have forgotten Hotaru. Haruka gritted her teeth. Not wanting to make a scene in front of Ami or Hotaru, she said as evenly as she could manage, "Setsuna, I'd like to talk to you in the corridor." Setsuna, still shocked at her own mistake, followed the stiff figure out in the hospital corridor. Haruka grabbed Setsuna's wrist in a vice-tight grip, making the older woman gasp. "How could you?" She whispered. "Why Hotaru?" Setsuna stared at where's Haruka's fist was wrapped around her arm, shaking her head and frowning, as if she couldn't understand how it had happened. "I must have...forgotten..." Her voice wavered as she tried to disguise the fact Haruka's grip was causing her a great deal of discomfort. Haruka didn't give her a chance to continue. "I don't care how sick or confused you are. You need some sense knocked into you!" She raised her other hand, ignoring Setsuna's horrified stare. A sharp, precise swing of Haruka's flattened hand met Setsuna's cheek and the slap echoed throughout the long corridor. Setsuna crumpled at Haruka's feet, tears welled in her eyes from surprise more than pain, her hand lightly touching the skin that Haruka had mercilessly beaten. For a moment the bewildered woman looked up at Haruka, then folded her head to her knees and began to sob violently. Haruka's malevolent expression faded, as she watched one of the women she'd most respected crumble at her fingertips. Not a very reassuring sight. A little ashamed of her outburst, the taller woman bent down and helped Setsuna stand up. The guardian of time wiped her eyes, and made to walk down the corridor. She was stopped. "I shouldn't have hit you," Haruka tried not to sound too apologetic. "Excuse me, love birds." A tall nurse with long auburn hair and a very short uniform made them turn. The nurse put on a pair of wide-rimmed glasses. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to stop all this... romping." Haruka bristled at her sarcasm and obvious attempt to make herself superior. Haruka resisted the urge to slap the nurse as she had Setsuna, understanding that another display of her temper would most definitely get them thrown out of the critical ward. "Yes, nurse." Haruka gave her one last evil glare before helping Setsuna back into the room. "I should go..." Ami watched tear-stained Setsuna trying to hide her tears by facing the window and stifling her sobs. Hotaru, who was also looking forlorn, detached herself from the foot of Michiru's bed and walked slowly towards Setsuna and wrapped her arms around Setsuna's legs, open-heartedly forgiving the woman and letting Setsuna offer her apologies. After some consideration, Haruka bent down so her mouth was close to Ami's ear. "Do you think Michiru will recover?" Haruka kept her tone low to keep Hotaru from hearing. "Mother's always coming home with stories of miraculous recoveries...and all of them were a lot worse than Michiru-san," she paused, thinking. "Besides, she's a Senshi. We're stronger." Haruka considered Ami's words for a few minutes, and the girl, feeling uncomfortably surrounded by people she wasn't well aquatinted with, began to move towards the door. "Thank you, Ami." Ami blushed, and smiled slightly at Haruka, before disappearing down the corridor. *^*^*^*^*^*^* Haruka had held Michiru's hand as they wheeled the unconscious woman towards the operating theatre. Haruka had felt the situation was quite simular to several movies she'd seen. With the wife in labour, they'd rush the couple towards a room, the husband yelling, `Breath! Breath!'. Haruka cringed, wishing that they were there for such a reason. Because of the stress of the operation they were to perform to reconstruct Michiru's left lung and kidney, Haruka wasn't permitted to be in the theatre, not that she'd really want to be, anyway, not with all the knifes, scissors and other sharp instruments being poked into unconscious Michiru. At the door, she was ushered away by a counsellor who asked if she'd like to talk. Haruka had quite rudely stated that a shrink wouldn't solve her problems or bring her Michiru through the surgery. Haruka sat in the waiting room, reflecting on the past twenty-four hours. A day ago, Haruka could have sworn she had the happiest life that had ever belonged to anyone. Michiru had been by her side, she had been sleeping properly and they had just finished another concert arranged by popular demand. Now... Now Michiru was struggling for her life, because Haruka had left her for perhaps fifteen minutes. That fifteen minutes had been enough for someone to force into the room and defile her Michiru, and almost succeed in killing her on the spot. An hour after that, Michiru had been wheeled to her room, in a coma, and Haruka had met with suddenly confused Setsuna. An hour ago, Hotaru had been ushered by the redheaded nurse to the nursery with the other healthy children, despite Hotaru's protests that she should come into the theatre and make sure that Michiru got better quickly. Setsuna had disappeared immediately after Hotaru left, to appease her guilty conscience. She sang quietly to herself, then, trying to forget about the knives that might be cutting Michiru up in the room down the hall, she reached over and picked up a women's magazine. After flicking through it and skim reading some, she almost hurled it across the room. It's all rubbish, she decided, who cares about the people in Hollywood? These are all lies, anyway! However, she continued to read until she found a small article about the racing champion Tenoh Haruka and `his' appeal. One women even had claimed to have slept with `him', and said it was fantastic. Haruka snorted, and almost laughed out loud. Well, at least they'd said `he' was good.... Looking down at her clothes, Haruka realised she was still wearing what she'd been driving in yesterday, and that Michiru's blood was still on her suit pants, it had dried and become flaky. Haruka made a face, and tried to brush some of it off, making a mess on the floor. It made her want to throw up, having Michiru's blood all over her. She wished she could take the pants off. Thinking Michiru brought all sorts of happy memories to mind, when they had first kissed, first ridden a motorcycle together, when Michiru had played a song she'd specially written for Haruka, and all the victories that they had shared. They'd even died together on separate occasions. This time would be no different, Haruka realised. If Michiru weren't to make it through the operation, Haruka would slip off quietly and swan dive off Michiru's favourite rocky cliff over the sea, at low tide. Haruka would have cried, if she thought it would help Michiru in anyway. It would be safe to cry, she decided, realising she was alone in the waiting room, and no one would see her. In fact, Haruka almost obliged to cry. Haruka gave a half-hearted attempt at a sob, before realising that she wasn't going to be able to make the tears come to her eyes. She felt guilty. Everyone else cried when they were frightened about losing a loved one, and there was nothing they could do to help them. Even men did. Haruka tried to sob again, but ended up sounded like she had the hiccups. There was a word for people who were incapable of feeling normal human feelings. After an hour or so, Haruka began to get edgy. The doctor had said it might take up to four hours, but Haruka hadn't really believed him. A few minutes before, a couple had rushed in after an emergency squad, screaming and wailing about `their little baby', who turned out to be a six year old who had been drowning in their family pool. The deathly pale, dangerously silent child had been rushed down the hall, and the couple had been asked to sit in the waiting room, with Haruka. The woman disappeared to use the bathroom, and the man was left uncomfortably with Haruka. He let out a deep breath. "What are you here for?" Haruka raised an eyebrow, staring crookedly at the jittery man, realising that she must look equally as unsettled. "Err...my closest friend is in reconstruction surgery." There was a paused. "What happened to your friend?" Haruka was about to tell the man to mind his own business, when she realised that he must be sitting on the edge of his sanity, with his daughter in the emergency room. How would she feel if the man was her and it was Hotaru on that wheeler? "She was raped and stabbed yesterday." The father's eyes opened wide for a moment, and he offered his sympathies. Haruka simply nodded as the man continued. "My little Keseko was playing with her brothers, when they came inside and asked for a sandwich. Akie, my wife, asked where Keseko was as they ate, and they said she was with Aunty Bikkusen. Neither Akie or I have a sister that could have come to visit us, so we rushed outside, and when we couldn't find her, we uncovered the pool in a panic...and there was our little Keseko, trapped underneath the pool covering, bound and gagged..." The man broke down into tears. Haruka felt completely uncomfortable. She felt like telling the father that there was counsellors to listen to his laments. Thankfully, Akie returned from the bathroom also stained with tears and they cried with each other. Haruka leaned back and listened to the couple, glad that her Hotaru was safely in the care of someone other than Setsuna. She grimly realised that she would never fully trust Setsuna with Hotaru again until she could prove herself recovered from her present condition. A doctor appeared around the corner, looking serious. Haruka felt her heart stop, and stood up, but the doctor approached the couple, his eyes lowered. "I'm sorry, Tsuruto-san, we were unable to recover your daughter." The couple stopped crying, and a hospital bed with a small body covered by a white sheet was wheeled past them. The father fell back into the seat, and there was silence. The doctor continued. "We have counsellors available to talk to you, but...you said the last person to be with your daughter was an unknown woman. You may prefer to file a report with the police, first." "Yes...We should talk to the police." The couple stood and followed the bed with their daughter mechanically as if the umbilical cord had never been cut. Haruka watched the couple trail after their lost daughter, thanking the forces that be that it wasn't Hotaru on that bed. Haruka realised how lucky she was to have such a wonderful family...she didn't want to lose it because someone had decided they'd like to have some fun with Michiru. Without warning, Setsuna slipped into the waiting room, and picked out the magazine Haruka had been reading.. Haruka was about to recommend she read a Homes and Gardens magazine rather than that crap, when she realised Setsuna was only pausing on the fashions and designer pages. Well, at least parts of Setsuna were still typical of her usual behavior. Looking closer, Haruka could see a red mark where she'd slapped her earlier, and realised she must had hit her quite hard for a bruise to be forming. Setsuna was stooped a little, and looked like she was supporting chest pains similar to the ones Hotaru had before she died. Setsuna also sounded a little like she was wheezing. Setsuna eventually put the magazine away, and sat staring blankly at Haruka for a few minutes, as if she'd been put into suspend mode or something similar. The vacant stare began to pickle Haruka, and rather than tell Setsuna how stupid she looked, she picked up an outdated sports magazine and tried to read it while pushing Setsuna to the back of her mind. "I'm a bad mother, aren't I?" Haruka looked up from her magazine, surprised, and almost wanting to laugh. "You're just under a lot of pressure at the moment. When this....pressure....passes, you'll be fine." Setsuna didn't looked convinced. "I'm never going to be able to have children..." "Since when did you decide you want to give birth to one of *those*?" Haruka sounded a touch cynical, and she knew it. Setsuna's behavior had reverted back to the strange variation that Haruka had first come across yesterday. It was almost like she was a insecure teenager who needed to be stabilised again. "What the hell is wrong with you, Setsuna?" Setsuna frowned. "Please, Haruka. You make it sound so unromantic!" "I wouldn't worry about children yet. You're not even married." "Thanks." Setsuna said dryly, and picked up a `Vogue' to read, pretending to be engrossed in it. Haruka could see through her surface dismissal of the subject. There was something deeper than just the dissertation of Hotaru from her new-found confusion. Something deeper was plaguing Setsuna, and it frustrated Haruka that she wouldn't tell her. Suddenly, and nurse ran from the corridor into the room. It was the nurse that Setsuna and Haruka had met earlier in the day. She was holding a clipboard with a certificate on it. Haruka didn't want to look at it. Setsuna and Haruka stood, glancing at each other, then at the nurse, both feeling cold chills wash over them. "I'm sorry, we've lost her." Haruka felt the blood drain from her face. "We tried to save her, but the internal bleeding had given her an embolism..." ^*^*^*^*^*End Part 2^*^*^*^*^*^*^ Ring-a-ring-of rosy... A pocket full of posy Atishoo! Atishoo! We all fall down.... Give me the Passion Part 3 of ~12 Asynca Read disclaimers in Part 1. ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ A laugh echoed around the waiting room, and down the adjoining corridors. Haruka came out of her paralysis to stare in horror at the nurse. The red-head leaned against the wall to support her manic fits of uncontrolled, malevolent laughter. A quick glance at Setsuna affirmed she had re-entered a catatonic state. The nurse stopped laughing only to wipe her eyes. "Oh dear, you should have seen the looks on your faces...The treasures of working in a hospital and seeing this everyday..." "Michiru isn't....dead?" "Hah! Not even nearly. The little bitch came out of her anaesethic about fifteen minutes ago, after I gave her a little jolt of septazine, and tried to leap out of the bed and strangle me. Tore a set of stitches and is having them redone..." Haruka began to register what was happening here. "You played a trick on us." Her voice wasn't even a ghost of the anger and fury that made her feel like ripping the nurse to pieces with her teeth. She tensed up until the muscles in her legs began to throb. "You were only joking." Again, the quiet, mock controlled voice. The nurse laughed again. This time her laugh was high pitched and made part of Haruka's skull vibrate with its volume. She threw her glasses across the room and pushed Setsuna in the middle of her forehead, where Haruka would have expected to see her Pluto sign. The unresponsive woman collapsed, falling heavily against the chair she had been sitting in previously. Haruka was so shocked she could only stare at where Setsuna was slumped, detached from herself. "Why did you call my Michiru `the little bitch'?" "Oh, she gave me some trouble a few years back, and I thought I'd like to repay her a visit. I'd like to compliment you on your taste, `Ruka-chan. She really is a good screw, and the look on her face when I began to stab her..." She giggled inanely. "Not to mention the same expression when I told her I'd killed you as well..." Haruka was beyond the point of comprehension. "Everything about her was so enticing that I almost didn't leave before you came back, time control or not. I didn't have enough time to circumcise her or anything. Such a pity. Well, maybe I'll get another chance." She sat down casually. "Oh, and the little one, what's her name? That's right, Hotaru...I'd just love to get my----" "SHUT UP!! SHUT THE HELL UP!!" Haruka picked up one of the waiting room chairs and threw it viciously at the giggling nurse, reality catching up with her. This woman was going to die! This evil, filthy, sick-minded, insane.... "Haruka, I thought you said you were sporty? Not much a pitcher when it comes to chairs, are you?" To Haruka's horror, the chair she threw landed on Setsuna. "I don't know why Michiru ever loved you. You can't do anything except drive a fast car, and we can all speed..." Haruka felt for the henshin stick in her pocket. It wouldn't matter that this woman see her transform. She was going to kill her anyway... "Look at you, Dyke! You're a guy without balls!" She laughed at her own joke, while Haruka fumbled for her henshin stick and held it up in the air. "URANUS PLANET POWER, MAKE UP!" Nothing. Haruka tried again, only to feel the weird tingling in the middle of her forehead that accompanied the appearance of her sign and an unearthly glow. Haruka brought the stick down and stared at it, perplexed. This time, only that squeaking giggle. "Hee Hee! They won't work!" She looked thoroughly pleased with herself while jumping around with child-like glee. "By the way, did you know it's my birthday?" Haruka forged a path directly through the chairs and pot plants to the where the shorter nurse was standing, only to realise by the time she got there, the nurse was gone. Haruka felt a neat pinch between her buttocks. She turned around to face the nurse, who licked her nose, and disappeared. Yelling with frustration, Haruka punched a hole in the wall. ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^ "Michiru...?" Haruka carefully edged her way around the bunches of flowers sent in by a horde of fans who had heard what had happened and come to offer love to Kaioh Michiru, pushing some of them aside to make a path. Haruka had been firm to point out to the doctor that Michiru wasn't to be disturbed, and on no accounts were any nurses allowed into Michiru's room while Haruka could get the girl whatever she needed. Michiru's eyes snapped open, and she turned her head towards Haruka, despite all the cords connected to her. "H-Haruka? I'm still dreaming..." Haruka reached the bed, and sat on the edge, letting Michiru touch her, while she stroked Michiru's forehead gently. "You're not dreaming. Don't believe anything that nurse said..." Michiru smiled, convinced her Haruka was still in one piece, contrary to the descriptions of Haruka that the nurse had given her. The relaxed girl pointed to the cord that connected power to the respirator and the kidney machine. "I was just thinking about pulling that out..." she brushed Haruka's knee with her finger tips. "What are those?" She was indicating the papers shoved not at all carefully into Haruka's pocket that the doctor had delivered to her on her way back to Michiru's room. Haruka looked down at them, scowling. "A bill for the damage done to the waiting room, a speeding ticket and a tow-away notice about why I shouldn't park where I did and how they think a hefty fine and no car for two days will stop me from repeating my `irresponsible' behavior. Oh, and a warning that if I speed again they'll take my car away from me for 6 months." Haruka looked smug, "They won't do that. They know my agent will be down on them like a ton of bricks if they even try to suspend my licence." Michiru laughed without sound. "I won't even ask about the waiting room. Are Setsuna and Hotaru at home?" "They're next door. Setsuna had some accidents." Haruka cringed, remembering the flood of doctors and nurses that had come into the waiting room after they'd heard the racket, and saw glowing Haruka in a rage and Setsuna unconscious under two different chairs, one of which had obviously been thrown. Setsuna had come to, sworn that Mistress 9 was about to possess her daughter, and that it was Beryl who had thrown the chair at her, and had fallen over again. The doctors forgot all about Haruka and admitted Setsuna to the ward, claiming she had concussion and was still at a few ends. Haruka, after fixing the problem about the glowing symbol on her forehead with a strip of her parka, had asked Dr. Mizuno to fetch Hotaru and keep a keen eye on them both, `just in case something happened', while Haruka arranged to get Setsuna and Michiru in the same room. Dr. Mizuno had agreed to, laughed some more about Haruka's tattered and bloody clothes, and sent her daughter to get some stuff from their house. There was a prolonged silence. "She found us here, didn't she?" "..." "Vixen..." Michiru struggled to remember something. "I... keep thinking I saw her earlier, injecting me with something. All I wanted to was kill her, but the doctors came and put me back in the bed, and put another mask over me." Michiru sighed. "I suppose I must have dreamed that. I dreamt you were half naked and carrying me into a lift and you were scared. There were more doctors there, and then...there was lots of blood...no, that was earlier..." Michiru let Haruka wipe some tears off her face to stop the tape from loosing its cling. "I thought that was a dream, after she'd told me she'd killed you." Haruka finally felt the tears well in her eyes, but she blinked them away. Michiru needed her to be strong. "She told me she'd...raped you like she did me, and that she'd done all sort of horrible things to you... she kept telling me while she... she..." Michiru felt around for Haruka's hand and clasped it. "She told me that instead of using the handle, she'd used the blade, that she'd made you swallow the promise ring, how she'd made you do things to her... Then she told me that she'd beat you to death with one of my old violins... " I didn't believe her...I told her that how could she do all those things in just five minutes? The she told me that she'd done things to Setsuna, and she'd taken the time key, and planned to change things." Haruka had been accepting everything Vixen had told Michiru as a lie, until Michiru mentioned Setsuna. Haruka suddenly recalled the way Setsuna had been walking. The distress and confusion she was having, and how she'd told Haruka that she couldn't feel time any more... "Tell me what she told you about Setsuna." Michiru looked surprised, but continued. "She told me she'd trapped Setsuna between time and the gates, using a key that she'd stolen about 400 years ago after she'd succeeded in getting the staff from Setsuna, ten minutes later. Then, she'd caught Setsuna by surprise, wrestled the staff from her and bashed her a few times with it so she couldn't follow. She didn't want to rape Setsuna. She said Setsuna was a spoil-sport. "Then she said she'd gone back fifteen minutes and erased that point in time as Setsuna knew it." Almost on cue, a Dr. Mizuno and a nurse wheeled Setsuna's bed, which also contained Hotaru into the room. Setsuna looked knocked out, her eyes half open and a drip with a diluter and some cream fluid was attached to her. "What's in that?" Haruka pointed to the cream fluid. "It's a medicine that will stop Meioh-san from hurting herself any more." "A sedative?" "Yes. She's got fractured ribs, it would be fatal for her to get up and wonder around like she was earlier. Do you know who `Endymion' is?" Haruka carefully kept her surprise from showing. "I may. Why?" "She keeps saying that she's got to get Chibi-Usa back to him before the portal closes." Dr. Mizuno shook her head. "Still, sometimes things people say in a state like this turn out to be metaphors. I thought she might have been baby-sitting Chibi-Usa or something. Never mind. It was very lucky she was in a hospital already when we found her." Haruka nodded and smiled as she left the room, immediately closing the door after her, taking two full strides to reach Setsuna's bed, and yanking the drip from her arm. Setsuna jumped a little, and turned her head slowly to watch a small pool of blood form around the vein the drip had been in. Hotaru watched the blood as well, and began to cry at Haruka's sudden, violent movement. Haruka lifted her into a tight embrace. Hotaru snivelled and wiped her eyes with the back of her fist as Haruka lifted the little girl into her arms. Michiru's eyes softened. "Hotaru, would you like to go somewhere else? Perhaps you would like to stay at Ami's again, or maybe with Chibi-Usa?" Hotaru shook her head. "I need to stay here and protect you from the lady." She sounded so certain. Haruka exchanged a worried glance with Michiru. "The lady?" "The Fox-lady. Her hair looks like a tail and she wears long boots and she has a whip. Ami was sleeping but I saw her." "She was at Ami's?!" Haruka had a sudden vision of little Hotaru cowering at the foot of the Nurse/Vixen, and Vixen saying and doing things that should never happen to a child. "What did she do to you!?" Hotaru looked at the ceiling, apparently not hearing what Haruka's most recent question. "She has a long rod. The rod doesn't like her. I don't like her either. She's not nice about Haruka-papa or Michiru-mama." "Could you have been dreaming, Hotaru?" "No. I wasn't asleep. I was laughing because Ami was cuddling a book like I was cuddling my teddy-bear." Hotaru smiled at the memory. Haruka realised that Hotaru didn't look at all disturbed, or even showing signs of confusion. In fact, being visited by someone they all knew was evil and dangerous didn't seem to bother Hotaru at all. It was almost as if she was describing an uninvolved stranger she'd seen on the streets. "Did she say anything to you?" "Yes. She poked me with the rod and said that she was here for my glaive. What's a glaive?" Haruka opened her mouth, and said carefully. "It's a weapon, Hotaru." "Do I have one?" Hotaru looked like she was groping for something at the back of her mind. "You used to." "When did I have one?" She squinted a little and tugged at a lock of shoulder-length black hair, as she might if someone had asked her to remember what she did for Christmas last year. Michiru cut in, suddenly. "It's not important, Hotaru. What is important is that you're tired and need a rest. We can ask Usagi if you can stay with her and Chibi-Usa." Hotaru frowned, shaking her head. "I have to stay here and look after you." "Hotaru..." Hotaru's dedication to her parents was really quite sweet, Haruka reflected. Hotaru poked out her bottom lip, looking defiant. "The other lady said I had to." Hotaru clearly gave the `other lady' more authority than Haruka or Michiru. "She had someone with her?" "The other lady wasn't with the Fox-lady. She made the Fox-Lady go away. Then she checked if Ami was still asleep as said that I had to stay with Michiru-mama and look after her until she came to get me." Michiru tried to sit up suddenly, a frown apparent on her brow, as if she'd just realised something. "What did the other lady look like, Hotaru-chan?" "She had hair like mine, a rod, a purple bow and a purple skirt." Hotaru looked at her fingertips. "And...she taught me how to do this." Squirming out of Haruka's arms, Hotaru scrambled across Setsuna's bed, and held her hand out towards the woman. There was a bright flash of pale light that left shadows on the other three's retinas, and Hotaru pulled back to examine her work. For a moment, Haruka couldn't find evidence that anything had changed, until she caught sight of Setsuna's arm where she'd yanked the drip cord out earlier. Where there had been a flap of torn skin and gathering blood, there was only a smooth, tanned elbow and an unharmed vein showing slightly through the new skin. *^*^*^*^*^End Part 3*^*^*^*^*^*