Moonrise

Part Six

The monitor beside the bed barely beeped. All her vital signs were so low as to be nearly non-existent. She had been unresponsive for the last two days; all they could do was wait. The doctor and his nurse had done everything they could to keep her alive, as she had wanted, but her sheer stubbornness to stick to her medications or rest when directed, didn't help her overall situation.

Grandmother was dying. It was only a matter of time.

He'd notified Washijo and Irihata first, as directed, and they'd come to see her one last time. The doctor reminded them that they were now under strict secrecy: no one else could know. Whether they'd listen to him or not remained to be seen. They left a few minutes later, muttering to themselves about a will and if she'd made any changes to it in the last year. The conversation was shut off as soon as the door closed, so the doctor didn't hear the answer. Sighing, he slumped in his chair beside the bed.

"You haven't eaten since yesterday," his nurse reminded him, none too gently, from his desk across the room.
"I know," he replied. "Haven't been hungry."
"You know better."
He looked over his shoulder at her. "You really need to work on your bedside manner," he admonished.
"Why? Most of the patients I've been around didn't need me to be all sweet and chipper."

The doctor blinked. She had a point. They'd both been hired at roughly the same time, but she had been fresh from college. If there had been a time for her to learn a gentle bedside manner, working here had ruined it for her. He almost pitied her. Out of the numerous patients they'd had over the few years they'd worked here, all but one died. And there was no assurance that one would survive, now that he'd been sent back out before he was fully healed. He turned back to face Grandmother. Or rather, what remained of her. The monitor was showing him numbers, most in the low double digits, and a few had gone to zero readings.

"Fine. I'll eat something. But not now."
"Good. Anything in particular?"
"Not really. Maybe something light. Some soup, or something."
"I'll go to the kitchen."
"Thank you."

She left almost immediately, leaving him with the dying woman. With nothing else to really do concerning his patient, he rose to his feet and tugged the blanket a bit higher, and then walked over to the window. Without Grandmother's... guidance... or her exact decisions, her three councilmen moved ahead without her.

They made the decision to put all their people out into the field, casting a wide net for their intended targets. The older men stuck to what amounted to her last wish from their final meeting: capture, not kill. However, from there, they really didn't know what else they could do. She didn't get the chance to give any further orders.

Omizu, naturally, had wanted to revoke her orders and continue with the mission before she'd changed it: kill her youngest grandson. Word got to the doctor that he'd gone so far as to assume control of the residence, though how he'd managed that with Washijo and Irihata agreeing was still a mystery. At one point, Omizu tried to demand entry to this room, but the doctor had absolute dominion here, and he denied Omizu's demand.

Needless to say, the doctor was fairly certain he was already on the man's bad side. Maybe not the first one on the man's shit list, but a decent jump up into the top ten, surely.

Maybe once the old lady finally died, he should make himself scarce. Take the nurse with him. God knew the girl had an attitude that could get her killed, and he wasn't about to let that happen. She was a good nurse, for the most part, and he'd hate to see all that potential lost. He'd ask her when she came back.

If they were lucky enough to make it out alive. If Omizu was truly in charge, then the odds were... unfavorable, since they both knew too much.

Just then, the doctor noticed movement beyond the tree line which kept Grandmother's suite from full view of the main residence. His eyes went wide the moment he recognized who he'd just seen. In that same moment, he realized the room was silent. No beeping noise; nothing at all. Turning and moving toward the bed, he placed two fingers on her neck, and used his stethoscope to confirm what he knew had happened.