How We Met Again

Chapter 42: Reconciliation

Chapter 42:
Reconciliation

Beep... Beep... Beep...

A long, slow, rhythmic sound.

Quiet, almost fading into the background. Drawn out electronic signals, one after another after another emanating from the monitor up above. A white glow, cast by thousands upon thousands of LEDs, slowly changing as the small lines raced across the screen.

Her heart, on display.

The room was dark save for the dim light cast by the screen up above. Soft sheets, a warm blanket, both disturbed by my hunched over form. For hours, I had been sat in the plastic folding chair at her bedside. Now, finally, exhaustion had taken its toll, and I had slipped out onto my knees on the floor, my head buried in my arms on the bed before me.

Yet, in those hours of waiting, in the time since even her sisters had left, one thing had not changed.

Her hand, tenderly gripped within my own. A lifeline, desperately grasped, that extended between us.

She hadn't woken up yet.

For the last thirty minutes, I'd been drifting in and out of sleep, my psyche preoccupied by restless dreams and fleeting nightmares. My unconscious mind, turning over the weeks and months that had led us to this disastrous endpoint, was running amok, manifesting my anxieties in the form of wakeless visions in the dark.

I'd been terrified of it coming to this... yet even as I'd warned her of the possibility, even as I'd tried to reign in her self-destruction, I hadn't ever truly believed in my heart of hearts that it could really happen.

Yet, here we were.

Here she was.

Half-awake, my hand tightened in hers, a sudden shot of fear and adrenaline coursing through me.

"Yotsuba..."

A word, half-whispered, half-slurred.

Suddenly, a hand on my shoulder, shaking me.

I looked up through blurry eyes at a figure looming over me. A man.

"Uesugi-kun, I am afraid I must request that you go home. While your dedication to my daughter is... admirable, I have already allowed you to stay far past the end of visiting hours. The last train is in twenty minutes. I recommend you catch it."

Dr. Nakano.

Unsurprising.

We were, after all, in his hospital.

I closed my eyes, and breathed. A deep breath, a breath to steady myself. To prepare myself.

Then, slowly, for the first time in hours, I let my hand slip from Yotsuba's.

"...Alright."

The hoarseness of my voice caught me off-guard... but as I slowly pulled myself from the floor, I thought I caught a hint of empathy in Dr. Nakano's eyes. Or... was it pity? Picking up my bag from where it had been haphazardly cast aside, I slung it over my shoulder, and looked back at the still form on the bed.

Tubes running from her arm, a nightgown wrapped around her body. The gentle rise and fall of her chest under the blanket that embraced her.

I could feel my lip trembling.

"Is it alright if I come back tomorrow?" I asked quietly.

"Of course."

Another deep breath.