Phoenix Odyssey

Book XII: Mekong

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.”

“I’m surprised the other girls aren’t here,” Ranko said with a tinge of frustration in her voice. I flew ten hours to be here, and they couldn’t find a taxi to come a few blocks?!

Ranko’s wife gave a slow nod. “It’s not their fault. They’re only letting one of us in there at a time, so I ran home and put on my scrubs after they got her settled. When they see I’m on staff with the hospital, they usually don’t count me as a visitor even though they know I’m family. Mei was planning to be here a little while ago, but since you were already here, I called her and told her to get a little more sleep and take the next shift instead so you could have some time.”

“Is everybody else…” Ranko’s sentence was interrupted with another yawn and a stretch, but Akane got the idea.

“We’re doing,” Akane said, leaning heavily on the wall of the hallway. “Mei, Izzi and Aya have all been up here throughout the day. Yui… she’s a mess, babe. She’s the one that found Mom.”

“Do we have to… worry about her? With… ya know?” Ranko cringed, not wanting to even speak her concerns into the universe, but she mimed toward her mouth with her hand as if she were lifting an invisible drinking glass to her lips.

Akane shrugged with a weary shake of her head. “I don’t know, princess. Maybe. But Yui’s gonna have to be strong and take care of herself for the time being. We’ve got our hands full looking out for Mom.”

Ranko bit her lip, tentatively stepping closer to her wife. She was hesitant to reach out for her, much though every thought in her head, every feeling in her heart and every nerve in her body was screaming at her to do so. She’s probably still mad at me. We haven’t spoken in weeks, and now, it has to be like this.

“How are you doing? Are you okay?” Ranko lifted her shaking hand to her lips, trying not to let Akane see her frayed nerves in her facial expression. She was failing miserably at her attempt to hide her worries, both for Hana, and for the state of her marriage.

Akane nodded slowly, her voice hollow and worn. “I’ll be alright. I’m just bone-tired. I’ve been here for…” She checked her watch with another heavy sigh. “... almost fifteen hours.”

The redhead winced, leaning on the wall next to her wife. Her back covered a poster describing the hospital’s procedure for patient evacuations during a fire. “Why didn’t you go home and rest? If everybody else is taking shifts, you don't need to stay the whole time.”

With a shake of her head, Akane turned to face her partner. “I promised you I’d watch over your family until you got home, didn’t I? I wasn’t about to stop now.”

Ranko gasped quietly, covering her mouth with her hand again. “Akane, I…”

Akane put her hand up, and Ranko trailed off to listen. “Ranko, look. I love you. I'm sorry I didn't take your calls. I was angry and I was… a lot of things, really, but none of that shit matters right now. We can talk about it later if you want, but it’s not important. Right now, our focus needs to be on all of this, and on Mom. You don't have anything to worry about with us. We’re okay, you and me, and I don’t want you walking on eggshells on top of everything else you’re worried about. I’m just glad you’re here now.”

Ranko rushed forward, pulling Akane into the tightest hug the elder girl had ever felt in her life. “Akane, I love you so much. I’m so sorry about everything. I missed you every single second.”

Akane nodded, her chin bouncing gently on Ranko’s shoulder through her mother’s jacket. “I missed you too, princess.” She released her wife, wrapping her hand around three of Ranko’s fingers. “I'm sorry you had to fly back like that, not knowing what things were gonna be like when you landed. That had to have been the loneliest ten hours of your life.”

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Ranko sighed. She wasn't sure how Akane would take the information she had to share, but the last thing she needed at the moment was dishonesty between herself and her wife, especially where boys were concerned.

“I… wasn't alone. Crash flew back with me, so I wouldn't have to be by myself. I hope that’s okay. He was gonna start calling around, waking up Nabiki and the Yokai people to start trying to figure out what to do about tomorrow's show. The rest of the band - except for Ken, of course - is still in Sydney. I left my bags and everything behind. Even Joey. I left right from the show. Emi’s gonna get my stuff and Crash’s together and bring it back with her. I think the plan is still for them to take their original flights back, but I’m not sure.”

“Joey?” Akane raised an eyebrow with a little smirk.

The redhead blushed furiously, managing a restrained laugh. “New stuffy. He’s a kangaroo. There’s a whole story. Don’t ask. Jake’s never gonna let me live it down as it is.”

Akane responded with a small smile. “O… kay? Remind me to thank Crash later. Coming back with you like that… that was sweet of him to do.”

“He was really… I think you’d have been proud of him, the way he looked out for me tonight. But you… you're not mad? After what we talked about in Hawai’i…” Ranko’s eyes were wide with worry, but Akane gave her hand another gentle squeeze.

“I'd have given anything to be there for you, to hold you, when you heard what happened. If I couldn’t be there, I’m glad he was. He’s a good guy. A good friend. I’m so grateful that you weren’t alone tonight.”

Ranko nodded in relief and a bit of incredulity. “Yeah, me too. I was so scared I wouldn’t get here in time.”

“I know, baby. I was holding my breath until you got here. But you did.” Akane gestured to the slightly-ajar door of the intensive care unit with her neck. “And she knows you’re here. I’m sure of it. I looked at her chart not that long ago, and right around the time you got here, her blood pressure and everything came back down into normal range. It’s like she was waiting for you to get home safe before she could rest.”

“Does that happen? When people are… out of it like that?” Ranko looked at her mother curiously through the observation window.

“Apparently. I’ve heard too many people that work here talk about stuff like that for it to be a coincidence. She must have just wanted all her girls with her. Like she always has.” Akane gestured to her wife, and the long, knee-length green dress she wore under her mother’s leather coat. The too-long sleeves of Hana’s jacket nearly obscured her hands. “New dress? Haven’t seen that one before.”

The redhead shook her head. “Borrowed it from Emi. Like I said, I left for the airport right from the show, and didn’t really feel like flying in a sailor fuku.”

The taller girl blushed a bit. “Can’t say I blame you for that one. Man, the Yokai people are gonna be pissed that they have to cancel tomorrow's show.” Akane sighed, slumping heavily onto a wooden bench without a back in the intensive care unit hallway.

The redhead joined her on the bench, resting her head softly on Akane’s shoulder. “They can cancel the whole fucking tour; I don't care. As it is, they got two more shows than they would have if Zoe hadn't bailed us out when Ken got sick. The gods themselves couldn't have kept me from getting on that plane tonight. I'll worry about the tour later, once Mom is back on her feet.” Ranko sighed, looking up at the display outside the room mirroring her mother’s vital signs. “If she gets back on her feet.”

Akane smiled reassuringly, patting her wife softly on the hand as it rested on her left knee. “Are you kidding me? That's Hana Takahashi in there. The gods of Death came looking for her tonight, and got sent back to the underworld empty-handed with a limp and a black eye for their trouble. She has no business being alive, but here she is. That woman is made of fucking titanium.”

“I… I just hope that's enough. Akane, I need her. I waited my whole life to have a real mom. I'm not ready to lose her yet. I don’t think I ever will be.” Ranko looked up to her wife with terror in her eyes, unsure if she really wanted the answer she was about to ask for. “You know medical stuff. Be honest with me. Is… is Mom gonna die?”

“I don't know, baby. But maybe he does.” Akane stood quickly from her seat next to her wife, stabilizing herself as she wobbled on her feet with the sudden head rush. Fuck, I gotta get some sleep. “Doctor Okano!” Akane waved to an elderly man in a white lab coat as he headed from the staff lounge toward the nurses’ station. “Could we get a moment, please?”

The stumpy man approached, greeting the pair with a gentle, grandfatherly smile that put Ranko a little bit more at ease despite the grim tidings he might well bear. “Hello, Miss Tendo. And this is…?”

Akane winced slightly. “Ranko. Another of my sisters.”

“Ah, yes, the singer! Your sister Izumi was telling me about you earlier. I'm glad to see you made it back from… Australia, was it?” The doctor punctuated his words with a gentle nod of approval.

“Doctor,” Ranko pleaded. “What happened? Is my mom gonna…” She could not bear to say the word aloud again.

“So, your mother’s had a heart attack,” the doctor began. “A pretty nasty one, from the looks of it. We are still working through a battery of tests to see how much damage there is to her heart. The good news is, she's through the worst of it. These things can happen in clusters, and so the name of the game now is keeping a close eye on things to make sure she doesn't have a secondary attack. If we can keep that from happening, she’s not likely to get any worse. The bad news is, we don't know how long she wasn’t breathing before your sisters found her, and prolonged lack of oxygen can cause all sorts of long-term issues. We won't have a clear picture about what, if any, lasting damage was done until she wakes up and we can try to talk to her. She's awfully lucky she has a daughter with medical training, though.” He looked up, smiling proudly at Akane. “If your sister hadn’t been there to perform CPR, we would be having a very different conversation right now.”

Ranko’s head whipped around to her side, looking up at Akane with eyes the size of saucers as if her wife had just transcended into godhood. “Akane?! You… you saved her?!”

Akane nodded gently. “I hope so.”

“But that means…” Ranko gasped, covering her gaping mouth with her trembling fingers. “... if you had been in Australia with me like I asked, Mom… would have…”

Akane bit her lip hard, and could only give another soft nod. “Maybe.”

Ranko threw herself at her wife, squeezing her so tightly around the neck that Akane thought her head might pop off. “Akane, thank you! Thank you so, so, so much!”

The black-haired girl sighed, hugging her back. “Hey, c’mon. What else was I gonna do? She's my mom too, ya know.”

“It would have been my fault,” Ranko said, a tremble in her voice. “She’d be dead because I threw a hissy fit about being lonely. Gods, how could I…”

Akane shook her head, her eyes darting to the doctor without facing away from Ranko as if trying to remind Ranko to watch what she said in present company. “Ran-chan, don’t think like that. None of us could have known she was gonna get sick. It wouldn’t have been anybody’s fault. We just got lucky that things happened the way they did. Let’s just take the win.”

Dr. Okano continued, pulling Hana’s medical chart binder from an acrylic bin mounted to the wall outside her room and flipping through it as he spoke. “Anyway, assuming we get her through this, she's gonna have to make a few changes. Diet, exercise, rest, those sorts of things. Can she count on you girls to help make sure she does that?”

“Yes, sir!” Both girls emphatically voiced their acceptance of responsibility, though neither had the slightest clue how anyone would get Hana Takahashi to do anything she didn't want to do.

The doctor smiled gently at their enthusiasm. “Well, one of the biggest things she’s gonna need is a lot of love and help while she fights back from this, and judging by all of you ladies I’ve seen watching over her tonight, she’s going to be in excellent hands. But, look, girls. No offense intended, but you both look like you haven't slept in a month. We’re going to keep her sedated for the next two days or so, to watch her and give her time to recover. After that, we’ll stop the medication, and she could wake up in five minutes, or…” He sighed worriedly. “... longer. Why don't you go home and get some rest, and we’ll call you if there's any change?”

Ranko shook her head. “I'm staying. I'll sleep on the floor if I have to.” She turned her eyes to Akane. “You should go home. I got a little bit of sleep on the plane, at least.”

Akane reached down, squeezing Ranko's hand. “I haven’t seen you in weeks. If you’re staying, I’m staying.”

“Then, it’s settled.”

Ranko and Akane both looked up at the source of the new voice, smiling at the bobbing pair of blue pigtails approaching them down the long white hallway.

“Both of you go get some sleep. I’ve got the watch.” Mei grinned gently, reaching out and pulling Ranko into a soft hug, careful not to spill the styrofoam coffee cup in her hand on her sister’s back or let it touch her. “I’m sorry it had to be like this, little sister, but welcome home.”