The Phoenix Saga Part III: Phoenix Odyssey

Chapter Sixty-One: Broken Hearts

Akane sighed in exhaustion, leaning wearily on the open door frame. Fuck, I need to find a minute and try to get a quick nap.

She gazed with bleary eyes into room sixteen of the Ikebara Hospital intensive care unit, where her wife's mother lay connected to every conceivable piece of medical equipment. There was a blood pressure cuff on her left arm, a pulse oximeter on the index finger of her right hand, and intravenous lines protruding from the insides of both of her elbows. A thick, clear plastic tube lined with ridges disappeared down her throat, secured around her lips with white medical tape. For the moment, all of the vitals on the monitors read green, and no alarms were blaring save the once-per second monotone beep of the electrocardiogram machine monitoring Hana's heart rhythms and the periodic alerts of the ventilator.

Akane's own heart, meanwhile, lay not much further away.

Curled up as tight as could be managed against the chill of the hospital room, and pressed against her mother's body on the corner of the narrow hospital bed with her cheek resting on the back of Hana's right hand, lay a young woman in an olive green sweater dress. Her red hair was terribly matted after a fitful hour of sleep curled up in less than a meter of space at Hana's side - not to mention ten hours on an intercontinental red-eye flight - the hair-styling product that had been applied in a hotel room in Australia helping it hold its disheveled form. She still wore the white high-top heels from her performance of Once Upon a Rhyme. She was wrapped in Hana's black leather jacket, having curled as much of herself under it as possible both for its warmth, and for the sense of safety she felt at its very scent - a sanctuary and serenity that was in short supply for Ranko Tendo and everyone in her family that night. A stuffed unicorn peeked its head out from under her right arm, tucked between her body and Hana's.

I hate to wake her, but...

"Hey, Ranko," Akane whispered, touching her wife gently on the shoulder.

After two more gentle shakes, Ranko opened her eyes, lifting her head off her mother's hand. "Hi, Akane. I'm... I'm sorry I didn't come home. I had the cab bring me straight here from the airport." She smiled blearily, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she started to sit up.

Akane nodded, offering her wife her hand and motioning to the door with her neck. "It's okay. I was here, anyway. Let's go talk for a minute. Let her rest."

Ranko bobbed her head gently, carefully extracting herself from the hospital bed and ensuring she was not entangled in any of the tubes and wires connected to the medical equipment. "Watch over her for me, Starlight," Ranko whispered pleadingly, leaving her unicorn companion to keep vigil at her adoptive mother's bedside. She took Akane's hand, walking with her out into the hall and pulling the door mostly closed behind her.

Akane wore a set of pale blue scrubs, her hospital credentials clipped to her breast pocket on a retracting cord, and a pair of gray sneakers that had been white once. She looked like she hadn't slept in days, her bloodshot eyes struggling to even focus on the love of her life as Ranko regarded her. "Sorry I wasn't up here earlier. I was down in the cafeteria getting something to eat. I don't know when you ate last, but they've got a pretty decent grilled salmon tonight if you're hungry."

Ranko shrugged through a wide yawn. "I'm not. I don't even know what time it is. My plane got in about 3:30, and I came straight here. There wasn't anybody around to ask what's going on, so I just... laid with her. I didn't know what else to do. Akane, what the hell happened?"

Akane sighed wearily. "She had a heart attack at her desk at the bar, about two o'clock this afternoon. We called an ambulance and got her here. They stabilized her and did a bunch of tests, and the last I heard, they were still waiting for the results to come back. I don't know many more details than that yet."