Winter's Fate

Chapter 4

Itachi groaned, an odd creeping pain making its way down his left side and ending at his knee where all feeling stopped. His entire body felt strained as his head lolled to the left. He could just barely make out voices, the world sounding like he was sitting underwater with a strange whooshing underlying everything. His heartbeat pounded in his ears and for some reason, it felt reassuring to him. He tried to shake his head clear but could only manage to slowly turn it in the other direction.

"Whoa, sir, please. We don't want you to give yourself whiplash." The male voice broke through and popped the bubble of distortion he'd been in. Sirens blaring replaced the whooshing noise and voices were suddenly shouting all around him, not that he could decipher what they were saying. His brain seemed to be working far slower than normal. He blinked a few times as his eyes fought to get used to the lights all around him, contrasting the darkness of the sky. He recalled it had been raining earlier... or was it snowing?

"Shisui? What- What happened?" His eyes focused just long enough to see a man who was most certainly not his driver, looking at him with concern before everything went blurry and he had to blink repeatedly in his attempt to see again.

"You were in a car accident. What's your name? Who's Shisui?" When his eyes finally refocused he saw a pale ginger with green eyes and worry lines etched into his middle-aged face.

"My driver... Shisui is my driver. My name is Itachi Uchiha. Is Shisui okay?" His head was pounding and the pain in his side was growing into something unbearable while his right leg felt nothing but the crawling sensation of pins and needles from the knee down. The man seemed to look up at someone else briefly before returning his attention to Itachi. The Uchiha tried to follow his gaze, but his head barely nodded in that direction before falling back into place while his eyes refused to focus on anything again.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Kenshin." He quickly smiled before continuing. "I'm a paramedic and my partner over there is working on your driver-"

"Friend." Itachi didn't know why he felt the need to correct the man, it wasn't an important detail, maybe it was the impending sense of doom that seemed to cloud his mind.

"Well, from what he tells me your friend's lost a lot of blood. He's unconscious now, but more emergency units are almost here-"

"Kenshin, where do you want us first?!" Another male voice boomed loudly and Itachi realized more sirens had been added to the mix before they all turned off. Blinding red and blue lights still flashed around him, but at least the sirens were gone. His eyes, which had been going in and out of focus the entire time, seemed to be growing dimmer. Black clawed at the edges of his vision, threatening to rip him from consciousness and plunge him into the dark.

"The drivers out and Airi's moving him into the truck. Where's that second ambulance I was promised?" Kenshin went from concerned and caring to annoyed and overworked in a split second.

"Don't get your panties in a twist, Kohaku's five minutes out-"

"What?! Is no one else nearby?!"

"Oh, we're gonna need the jaws for this one." The man yelled orders to others outside of the Uchiha's line of site, too fast for Itachi to comprehend before turning back to the paramedic. "And no, no one else is around. There's a three-car pile up on Main Street. You're lucky anyone was left at the firehouse."

"Great." Kenshin huffed. "Itachi, since it seems we'll be here for a bit while Mrs. Priss drives like he's got all the time in the world-"

"He's not that bad-"

"Back to the point, you should know that you have a few broken ribs, a concussion, and your leg is pinned. The best thing for you to do right now is focus on your breathing and try to stay conscious." He gently wrapped a neck brace someone handed him around Itachi's neck as he spoke. The brace was uncomfortable, but it could have been worse. He recalled the first time he'd wiped out on his skis. He had to be taken to the ambulance on a rickety stretcher while he froze his ass off because of the snow that had gotten into his suit. The memory tugged at his consciousness, begging him to follow the story down the rabbit hole and into dreamland. His eyes drifted closed and refused to open no matter how hard he tried. There was a loud noise and a pressure he hadn't realized was on his leg released. Pain raced through his body, a bulk of it landing in his pelvis and spine. An agonized cry left him along with his consciousness.

Shisui and Itachi were about thirty minutes from the hospital when the accident occurred, though the roads delayed response and arrival times, and the overly cautious driving of a certain paramedic was a factor as well. Shortly after arriving, doctors crowded around the ambulances as paramedics unloaded their occupants. Itachi briefly regained consciousness to see florescent lights flashing over his head as he was quickly wheeled through the hospital to the OR. For a split second, he'd thought the crash was all a dream, but the oxygen mask strapped to his face said otherwise. The pain was there, but it was dampened by what the raven assumed was the effects of drugs. His mind felt like it was swimming, the familiar sensation bringing back the memory of the ski accident and confirming that he was on drugs. He blinked, his eyes still weren't focusing right.

"Uchiha-san. Uchiha-san, wake up!" His eyes adjusted on the man who was not Kenshin. He was tan with brunette hair and copper-colored eyes. Stubble covered his jaw in a very recognizable 5 o'clock shadow. "Do you know your blood type?" He didn't know why they asked. It was standard procedure to check no matter what the patient said. Maybe they were trying to keep him conscious again. Where was Kenshin?

"AB." He breathed heavily and closed is eyes again as the pain flared. "Kakashi... Kakashi Ha... Hatake." His eye fluttered shut, the effort of speaking becoming too much. Why couldn't he sleep again? Where was Shisui?

"What? Uchiha-san? Uchiha-san?! What was he talking about?"

"Holy... Sir, this is Itachi Uchiha. I called the emergency contact on his phone, Kakashi Hatake, the CEO of Uchiha Corp..." That was funny, the voices faded and he was suddenly in a very familiar bubble of muffled noise that reminded him of water. He couldn't think of a reason to fight the darkness that pulled incessantly at his mind and quickly succumbed to it.

Suddenly, amongst the chaos, a doctor yelled, "Page Inuzuka now! We have a Code Blue!"