Kagayaki Days - Part 2
Author: emmachase
Requested by: No One
Title: Kagayaki Days - Part 2
Rating: PG
Genre: ???
Pairing: OkaJimaTaro
Summary: Ryutaro joins Kagayaki hospital as one of its new cardiology interns, when he discovers theres more to Dr. Okamoto than it seems...
Notes: I'm so nervous about this one... it's been such a long time since i've written anything so this one is a test of my skills!
The first surgery was rather routine, another pacemaker insertion, one that I’d see done multiple times. Except this patient was still in his early 20s, and required one after a chest fracture injured his sinoatrial node.
What I didn't know is that, the second procedure, another somewhat familiar surgery would all be on me.
“Ryutaro, you’re taking the lead on this one.” Keito suddenly said, stepping up to the opposite side of the table.
“W-What!?”
“You’ve observed enough, you’ve read enough, now it’s time to really practice it. “
“B-B-“
“Replace the valve and complete the stitching carefully, I’ll be your assistant.” Unfortunately for me, he flew into action before I could protest any further.
The scalpel sat in my hands and I tensed as the anesthetist nodded the patient was sedated.
“Begin the incision, remember not to use excessive force, just enough.” I nodded, taking a gulp of air and……
---
“You did good in there Ryutaro-kun.” I smiled weakly back as we scrubbed out of surgery. It was draining for me, standing there my entire hand tensed to keep from accidentally moving or accidentally cutting something.
“It really wasn't like anything we did in school….” Keito grinned and gave me a pat on the back and walked off.
“Hey! You said if there was time! It’s still a little early…. It’s time to uphold your end!” I called as the automatic doors slid shut between the surgery prep room and the hospital hallway. But when I got close enough for the door to open, he was already gone.
After finishing my rounds that I was already late for, I dragged myself to the cardiology office and plopped onto the couch, dropping all my case files onto the small coffee table that had seen more years than I had.
“Still working so hard I see Ryutaro-kun.” I jumped up again.
“S-Sorry! I didn't see you!”
“It’s okay… It’s okay, sit down.” Keito chuckled, standing up and walking over to the small water dispenser and pressing the button for hot water. He poured it into a small ornate tea set. In moments a light jade green stream of water hit the small white cups and the room smelled of fragrant tea leaves.
“Drink, it will make you feel better.” I gratefully took the cup he offered and made room on the couch for him to sit.
“So now, what about him do you want to know?” At that point I must have been almost ready to spit out my tea because he offered me a napkin and caught a small dribble that fell between my lips and the cup.
“Uh…” I couldn’t think of just how to phrase the questions.
“You want to know who he is right?”
I nodded
“Yuto was…. very special to me. We started in residence here and after we finished our training, we started working here in the cardiology department. At first…”
Keito chuckled a bit, standing up to reach the small picture that was on his desk. Undoing the small pins in the back that held the frame together he pulled out another photo, hidden behind the one that showed through the glass. He handed it to me, and I stared at a much younger version of him, and the man that I knew only from the videos I’d seen. They seemed to be yelling at each other.
“At first…. We fought constantly, sometimes even about the stupidest things… Miki took that picture.” He explained with a reminiscent smile.
“But then..?” I nudged him on
“But then, there was a single case that came to us… a young 16 year old boy suffering from an advanced case of dialated cardiomyopathy. We were still fledging doctors, both assigned to the case and both working harder than the attending that was supposed to supervise us. We couldn't cure him, the surrounding heart muscles didn't strengthen after surgery and eventually… we lost him. It was our first lost and attending the boy’s funeral, we apologized over and over to his parents. He was so sad….. and I saw a part of him that was so different than the one I’d been arguing with. We talked so much afterwards that we started to spend nights together at the hospital. We didn't mind taking the occasional night shift because it just meant we were going to be able to spend just that many more hours with each other. Whenever we performed surgery, it was like he could read my mind, everything I did he knew and understood in an instant. At the same time I grew to understand and compliment him. It was hard to know who was the surgeon sometimes. Eventually….. we moved in together. We worked here for a long five years, until…. He developed his condition. A latent congenital defect in his heart manifested, decreased function in his sinoatrial node slowed his heart rate, nothing we did could make it better. Putting in a pacemaker was our only hope until… it got worse and it all went downhill from there…”
“I-I’m sorry….” I could tell how hard it was for him to remember, and I felt terrible for asking him to.
“Eventually his body was too weak to handle the operation, and his heart weakened along with it… I performed the surgery myself to put in the pacemaker and extract the weakened muscles, but… it was too late. Yuto had this odd saying whenever he’d look at me, he said in my eyes he could see my heart. When I began the surgery, it felt so surreal, I could see his heart, but I still couldn’t fix it…. I could fix every other one of my patients, except….except his. We could both look at a patient’s heart and tell you everything that was wrong, except this one, except his.”
I noticed the tears that began to well up in his eyes.
“I-I’m sorry… I-it’s okay, you don't have to say anymore..” I wanted to take it all back, my curiosity, my pushing, everything.
“He smiled at me everyday I went to see him, laying in that hospital bed. He got paler and paler every passing day. He told me that he was so grateful for me but at that time I was too busy trying to save him to listen. I should have listened to him when he said he wanted me to stay by him… I felt too guilty that I couldn't save him and poured over books and medical case studies. When that day came… I was in the office and I got the page that I’d been hoping I’d never see. When I got to his room, his eyes were closing and they stared at me with such… sadness. It wasn't enough… the time we had…. It wasn't enough….”
By now the tears were free flowing, Keito closed his eyes now and he kept talking.
“I remember that was the last time I saw those soft brown eyes, I held his hand as he drifted away…”
“I’m so sorry…” That was all I could say, I said it over and over again, but it never felt like it was enough….
---
I never asked about Yuto again, I never dared to. Life moved on and I worked as hard as I could to do my job. I treated patients with all that I knew, and Keito was next to me the entire time. In surgery, I didn't dare to use the techniques I’d learned from those videos. I started from scratch and developed methods of my own, but it never felt good enough.
Even though I kept myself in check, Keito was still different, he was perhaps… a little sadder than usual. But he never talked about it, and I was too scared to ask.
My fellow doctors in training were a rowdy bunch, none of them wanted anything more than to say that they had added another cured patient under their belt. But aside from dealing with them, nothing else changed.
“Dr. Okamoto, here are the case histories I need you to sign off on.” I said stiffly, handing him three files. I heard the door to the office close and he grinned, scribbling his name in the folders.
“We’re still playing that game are we?”
“What? I cant call you Keito in front of everyone…”
“Sure sure…” He nodded, handing back the file.
“Oh, don’t forget, our next procedure is in two hours. “
“Yeah, because I would forget that…”
“Well…..”
“I was late once! Just once! And only by three minutes!” I pouted.
My life had become routine, I’d get in around eight in the morning, begin my morning rounds before meeting with Keito who got in at nine. At 9:15, after we’d had our usual breakfast of coffee and whatever the cafeteria offered, we would talk about the day’s procedures, and around ten we would go through the day together. I had gotten used to it, and I prayed that my training here would go just as smoothly.
Naturally, things never worked out that way.
About two months after Keito had our little discussion, things hadn’t changed, except that he seemed to be growing more and more depressed. He wouldn’t talk about it, but instead smiled gently the way he always did. Unfortunately for us, a combination of being short-staffed and a series of earthquakes made for a dire need for any available doctors to take on additional shifts. After finishing a 18 hour day, Keito and I threw our scrubs out, the air outside felt great rushing past us.
“Jya… Ryutaro-kun, let’s go relax a bit…. “
Even more unfortunately for me, his idea of relaxing meant going to one of the nearby bars that serviced the area. About seven shots of some odd drink I’d never heard of, he was so drunk….
“R-Ryutaro… Ryu-taro…”
“What?”
“I…..” That single syllable was followed by a slight thump as his head rested against the bar’s countertop.
“Keito? Can I ask you something?”
“A-Aaaanything…” His answer was slurred.
“Why… are you so sad lately?”
“Because….”
“Why?”
“Because…..”
Tonight seemed to be the worst day of my life… right at that moment our forgotten beepers began to sound.
“We’ve got to go!” I called to Keito who was staring at me from the bar with drooping eyes. Dragging him along back to the hospital proved to be a whole challenge in itself.
“Miki!” I called when we got to the hospital.
“11 year old patient, collapsed on the way home with his mother and older brother. Weakened heart rhythm. Scans show that the heart is enlarged, and possible backflow of one of the valves. We’re prepping him into surgery, which is why we called you two back. Where’s… Keito?”
“He’s….”
I dropped my coat onto the couch in the office and grabbed my scrubs and operating gown while simultaneously pointing to a near unconscious Keito in his desk.
“Geez… really….?” She folded her arms and sighed, grabbing one of the syringes in the supply cabinet.
“Go ahead and get everything ready, the room should be prepared by now and the anesthetist should be putting him down now. He’s stabilized but…. well you know… things change in surgery.” She said, filling the syringe and with little ceremony injected Keito with it.
“Ow…” He complained
“I’ll take care of Mr. drunkard here.”
“But… I’ve never had to do one by myself before…”
“You’ll be finneee.” Miki said dismissingly.
“But…”
“You’ve done this exact procedure a million times. You’ve observed it a million times, you can do it.” She said, pushing me out the door.
Entering the surgery room, the entire staff glared at me, expecting the obviously much more experienced Keito in my place. But I was all they were going to have, and I had to make it work.
I made the incisions, and the boy’s heart came into view, it was ridiculously huge and getting weaker by the second. Draining the blood I pulled the muscles forward, stitching the segments together, but that wasn't it… Miki had mentioned that there was a possible backflow from one of the heart’s valves…. And she was right…. The way the heart was enlarged stretched the valves so they couldn't close anymore…. I’d have to repair them… but how…”
“Doctor.” One of the nurses alerted me as my hands froze above the body.
“Doctor…. “ Came the anesthetist who was trying his best to keep the boy alive.
“We have to act now! We cant keep him on the artificial heart machine too long!” Came another warning
“I don't know what to do!” I shouted, silencing everyone,
“Shimura, keep this boy alive and under anesthesia do you hear me? Miki, take over the assisting nurse position, as for you two nurses, go get the blood from the blood bank and prepare to add it to the machine.”
I looked up at the voice who was doing the commanding to find a scrub dressed Keito standing at the door way. Miki took over the spot to my right and smiled as she pulled the scalpel from my hand and handed me tweezers instead.
“Ryutaro.”
“H-Here! Take it, save him!” I said, pushing the instruments towards him, but he shook his head.
“I’m in no condition to operate, but you are. Now listen very closely, and I’m going to talk you through this…”
“T-This is impossible!”
“Ryutaro! Listen, if it isn’t you, there is nobody else in the department who can perform this surgery. Do you understand? If you don't do it this boy’s life ends here! Now LISTEN.” Keito’s voice rang in my ears and my protests forced their way back down my throat.
“Begin by making a small near the valve, use the tweezers to gently extend the valve, and remove it. We will need to replace the valve. Gently and avoid cutting the walls around it.”
My hands trembled a bit as they floated in the air.
“Ryutaro…. If you don't start now…..” Keito warned
I closed my eyes and collected myself, this was the only way.
My hands sprung into action, performing the small incision under Keito’s eyes. He watched as I removed the damaged valve and began to suture in the replacement.
“Don’t be afraid to move the stitches inward a little more, we don't want the valve to become loose.” He coached and I followed, avoiding the small area he warned not to stitch into.
Two grueling hours later, we returned to my original task of wrapping the heart muscles, a procedure I was much more comfortable with. I performed the wrapping and stitched everything together before finishing the procedure in total.
“Good job.” Keito said as he walked out of the room, leaving me to finish the last few bits of bandaging.
“What did you give him?” I asked Miki as she handed me the cotton gauze.
“Just some adrenaline…. Nothing like it to wake you up right? He’s going to feel terrible when it wears off though…” She chuckled, replacing the gauze in my hand with bandages.
---
Just a few minutes later I stepped back into the cardiology office and plopped down to a obviously very hungover Keito.
“Are you okay?” I asked
“Yeah… Miki’s adrenaline moved things through me faster, but that also means I got the effects of it faster…” he moaned closing his eyes and falling back onto the couch.
“Thanks… for coaching me….” I said, handing him the bottle of water on the table he was reaching for.
“Ryutaro…. You did a good job… you’re just like him….” The last part came to sound more reminiscent than I had been used to.
“H-Him?”
“Ryu…. You asked me why I was so sad lately… right?” He asked, his voice dragged.
“Y-Yeah..”
“You remind me so much of him… so young, and so full of potential. You performed that complex surgery just with no practice at all…. In that sense, you two are so alike…. Yuto was…an exceptional surgeon… but he never liked to do it….. he said it hurt him to cut into the heart, so instead he assisted me instead. He had so much talent, just by reading books he could understand even the most complex of procedures and guide me through them flawlessly. Without him…. I was lost… but at the same time…. I see him in you…. And getting him back…. Almost seems painful…”
“Y-You’re sad… because I remind you of…”
“Yuto… isn’t that stupid?” Keito sighed, as the tears began to roll down his cheeks again.
“N-No…”
“It’s stupid Ryutaro…. It’s stupid…” He repeated, trying, but failing to laugh it off.
“It’s not….” I tried to reassure him.
“I miss him…. I really do…”
“It’s okay… um… w-why don't I just… take you home?” Changing the subject seemed like the right thing to do.
“I-I’ll be fine….” Keito tried to stand but fell back into the cushions again.
“Yeah…. I’ll take you home okay? Just let me go and talk to the parents and I’ll be right back okay?” I stood up, putting on my white boat and headed to the door.
“Ryutaro…. be sure to get their consent to add their son to the heart transplant list.” He said on my way out.
“Heart… transplant?”
“That valve is a temporary thing…. The way those muscles expanded, the heart will only continue to weaken, the muscles were stretched too thinly, his young body hasn't fully developed the walls yet.”
Before I could ask for any more explanation, he was asleep again.
Talking to the parents, I fell silent as the mother broke into tears and eagerly signed the papers, her only hope of saving her son.
Immediately after that I went back to the office and scooped Keito up, driving him back to the small house address that Miki had given me. Fishing out his keys, I hauled a semi-conscious him up the stairs and into his bed room, where he promptly plopped on the bed .
“Ryutaro… it’s… very late, don't go home now, just stay here.” He mumbled from underneath the blankets he had managed to cocoon himself in.
Sighing, I knew he was right, I was tired and fatigued, the short drive from the hospital to his house was more than a challenge for me. I agreed as I shut the door and made for the stairs again. Instead I passed another room, the guest room and I made the best of the situation as I pulled off my coat and lay down on the soft bed.
Closing my eyes I fell into a deep and well deserved rest.
------------------
Uwa. minna, sorry this chapter is a little shorter..... but I managed to cram it in between studying for biochemistry exams..... gah... let me know what you think as always!
~Emmie
Requested by: No One
Title: Kagayaki Days - Part 2
Rating: PG
Genre: ???
Pairing: OkaJimaTaro
Summary: Ryutaro joins Kagayaki hospital as one of its new cardiology interns, when he discovers theres more to Dr. Okamoto than it seems...
Notes: I'm so nervous about this one... it's been such a long time since i've written anything so this one is a test of my skills!
The first surgery was rather routine, another pacemaker insertion, one that I’d see done multiple times. Except this patient was still in his early 20s, and required one after a chest fracture injured his sinoatrial node.
What I didn't know is that, the second procedure, another somewhat familiar surgery would all be on me.
“Ryutaro, you’re taking the lead on this one.” Keito suddenly said, stepping up to the opposite side of the table.
“W-What!?”
“You’ve observed enough, you’ve read enough, now it’s time to really practice it. “
“B-B-“
“Replace the valve and complete the stitching carefully, I’ll be your assistant.” Unfortunately for me, he flew into action before I could protest any further.
The scalpel sat in my hands and I tensed as the anesthetist nodded the patient was sedated.
“Begin the incision, remember not to use excessive force, just enough.” I nodded, taking a gulp of air and……
---
“You did good in there Ryutaro-kun.” I smiled weakly back as we scrubbed out of surgery. It was draining for me, standing there my entire hand tensed to keep from accidentally moving or accidentally cutting something.
“It really wasn't like anything we did in school….” Keito grinned and gave me a pat on the back and walked off.
“Hey! You said if there was time! It’s still a little early…. It’s time to uphold your end!” I called as the automatic doors slid shut between the surgery prep room and the hospital hallway. But when I got close enough for the door to open, he was already gone.
After finishing my rounds that I was already late for, I dragged myself to the cardiology office and plopped onto the couch, dropping all my case files onto the small coffee table that had seen more years than I had.
“Still working so hard I see Ryutaro-kun.” I jumped up again.
“S-Sorry! I didn't see you!”
“It’s okay… It’s okay, sit down.” Keito chuckled, standing up and walking over to the small water dispenser and pressing the button for hot water. He poured it into a small ornate tea set. In moments a light jade green stream of water hit the small white cups and the room smelled of fragrant tea leaves.
“Drink, it will make you feel better.” I gratefully took the cup he offered and made room on the couch for him to sit.
“So now, what about him do you want to know?” At that point I must have been almost ready to spit out my tea because he offered me a napkin and caught a small dribble that fell between my lips and the cup.
“Uh…” I couldn’t think of just how to phrase the questions.
“You want to know who he is right?”
I nodded
“Yuto was…. very special to me. We started in residence here and after we finished our training, we started working here in the cardiology department. At first…”
Keito chuckled a bit, standing up to reach the small picture that was on his desk. Undoing the small pins in the back that held the frame together he pulled out another photo, hidden behind the one that showed through the glass. He handed it to me, and I stared at a much younger version of him, and the man that I knew only from the videos I’d seen. They seemed to be yelling at each other.
“At first…. We fought constantly, sometimes even about the stupidest things… Miki took that picture.” He explained with a reminiscent smile.
“But then..?” I nudged him on
“But then, there was a single case that came to us… a young 16 year old boy suffering from an advanced case of dialated cardiomyopathy. We were still fledging doctors, both assigned to the case and both working harder than the attending that was supposed to supervise us. We couldn't cure him, the surrounding heart muscles didn't strengthen after surgery and eventually… we lost him. It was our first lost and attending the boy’s funeral, we apologized over and over to his parents. He was so sad….. and I saw a part of him that was so different than the one I’d been arguing with. We talked so much afterwards that we started to spend nights together at the hospital. We didn't mind taking the occasional night shift because it just meant we were going to be able to spend just that many more hours with each other. Whenever we performed surgery, it was like he could read my mind, everything I did he knew and understood in an instant. At the same time I grew to understand and compliment him. It was hard to know who was the surgeon sometimes. Eventually….. we moved in together. We worked here for a long five years, until…. He developed his condition. A latent congenital defect in his heart manifested, decreased function in his sinoatrial node slowed his heart rate, nothing we did could make it better. Putting in a pacemaker was our only hope until… it got worse and it all went downhill from there…”
“I-I’m sorry….” I could tell how hard it was for him to remember, and I felt terrible for asking him to.
“Eventually his body was too weak to handle the operation, and his heart weakened along with it… I performed the surgery myself to put in the pacemaker and extract the weakened muscles, but… it was too late. Yuto had this odd saying whenever he’d look at me, he said in my eyes he could see my heart. When I began the surgery, it felt so surreal, I could see his heart, but I still couldn’t fix it…. I could fix every other one of my patients, except….except his. We could both look at a patient’s heart and tell you everything that was wrong, except this one, except his.”
I noticed the tears that began to well up in his eyes.
“I-I’m sorry… I-it’s okay, you don't have to say anymore..” I wanted to take it all back, my curiosity, my pushing, everything.
“He smiled at me everyday I went to see him, laying in that hospital bed. He got paler and paler every passing day. He told me that he was so grateful for me but at that time I was too busy trying to save him to listen. I should have listened to him when he said he wanted me to stay by him… I felt too guilty that I couldn't save him and poured over books and medical case studies. When that day came… I was in the office and I got the page that I’d been hoping I’d never see. When I got to his room, his eyes were closing and they stared at me with such… sadness. It wasn't enough… the time we had…. It wasn't enough….”
By now the tears were free flowing, Keito closed his eyes now and he kept talking.
“I remember that was the last time I saw those soft brown eyes, I held his hand as he drifted away…”
“I’m so sorry…” That was all I could say, I said it over and over again, but it never felt like it was enough….
---
I never asked about Yuto again, I never dared to. Life moved on and I worked as hard as I could to do my job. I treated patients with all that I knew, and Keito was next to me the entire time. In surgery, I didn't dare to use the techniques I’d learned from those videos. I started from scratch and developed methods of my own, but it never felt good enough.
Even though I kept myself in check, Keito was still different, he was perhaps… a little sadder than usual. But he never talked about it, and I was too scared to ask.
My fellow doctors in training were a rowdy bunch, none of them wanted anything more than to say that they had added another cured patient under their belt. But aside from dealing with them, nothing else changed.
“Dr. Okamoto, here are the case histories I need you to sign off on.” I said stiffly, handing him three files. I heard the door to the office close and he grinned, scribbling his name in the folders.
“We’re still playing that game are we?”
“What? I cant call you Keito in front of everyone…”
“Sure sure…” He nodded, handing back the file.
“Oh, don’t forget, our next procedure is in two hours. “
“Yeah, because I would forget that…”
“Well…..”
“I was late once! Just once! And only by three minutes!” I pouted.
My life had become routine, I’d get in around eight in the morning, begin my morning rounds before meeting with Keito who got in at nine. At 9:15, after we’d had our usual breakfast of coffee and whatever the cafeteria offered, we would talk about the day’s procedures, and around ten we would go through the day together. I had gotten used to it, and I prayed that my training here would go just as smoothly.
Naturally, things never worked out that way.
About two months after Keito had our little discussion, things hadn’t changed, except that he seemed to be growing more and more depressed. He wouldn’t talk about it, but instead smiled gently the way he always did. Unfortunately for us, a combination of being short-staffed and a series of earthquakes made for a dire need for any available doctors to take on additional shifts. After finishing a 18 hour day, Keito and I threw our scrubs out, the air outside felt great rushing past us.
“Jya… Ryutaro-kun, let’s go relax a bit…. “
Even more unfortunately for me, his idea of relaxing meant going to one of the nearby bars that serviced the area. About seven shots of some odd drink I’d never heard of, he was so drunk….
“R-Ryutaro… Ryu-taro…”
“What?”
“I…..” That single syllable was followed by a slight thump as his head rested against the bar’s countertop.
“Keito? Can I ask you something?”
“A-Aaaanything…” His answer was slurred.
“Why… are you so sad lately?”
“Because….”
“Why?”
“Because…..”
Tonight seemed to be the worst day of my life… right at that moment our forgotten beepers began to sound.
“We’ve got to go!” I called to Keito who was staring at me from the bar with drooping eyes. Dragging him along back to the hospital proved to be a whole challenge in itself.
“Miki!” I called when we got to the hospital.
“11 year old patient, collapsed on the way home with his mother and older brother. Weakened heart rhythm. Scans show that the heart is enlarged, and possible backflow of one of the valves. We’re prepping him into surgery, which is why we called you two back. Where’s… Keito?”
“He’s….”
I dropped my coat onto the couch in the office and grabbed my scrubs and operating gown while simultaneously pointing to a near unconscious Keito in his desk.
“Geez… really….?” She folded her arms and sighed, grabbing one of the syringes in the supply cabinet.
“Go ahead and get everything ready, the room should be prepared by now and the anesthetist should be putting him down now. He’s stabilized but…. well you know… things change in surgery.” She said, filling the syringe and with little ceremony injected Keito with it.
“Ow…” He complained
“I’ll take care of Mr. drunkard here.”
“But… I’ve never had to do one by myself before…”
“You’ll be finneee.” Miki said dismissingly.
“But…”
“You’ve done this exact procedure a million times. You’ve observed it a million times, you can do it.” She said, pushing me out the door.
Entering the surgery room, the entire staff glared at me, expecting the obviously much more experienced Keito in my place. But I was all they were going to have, and I had to make it work.
I made the incisions, and the boy’s heart came into view, it was ridiculously huge and getting weaker by the second. Draining the blood I pulled the muscles forward, stitching the segments together, but that wasn't it… Miki had mentioned that there was a possible backflow from one of the heart’s valves…. And she was right…. The way the heart was enlarged stretched the valves so they couldn't close anymore…. I’d have to repair them… but how…”
“Doctor.” One of the nurses alerted me as my hands froze above the body.
“Doctor…. “ Came the anesthetist who was trying his best to keep the boy alive.
“We have to act now! We cant keep him on the artificial heart machine too long!” Came another warning
“I don't know what to do!” I shouted, silencing everyone,
“Shimura, keep this boy alive and under anesthesia do you hear me? Miki, take over the assisting nurse position, as for you two nurses, go get the blood from the blood bank and prepare to add it to the machine.”
I looked up at the voice who was doing the commanding to find a scrub dressed Keito standing at the door way. Miki took over the spot to my right and smiled as she pulled the scalpel from my hand and handed me tweezers instead.
“Ryutaro.”
“H-Here! Take it, save him!” I said, pushing the instruments towards him, but he shook his head.
“I’m in no condition to operate, but you are. Now listen very closely, and I’m going to talk you through this…”
“T-This is impossible!”
“Ryutaro! Listen, if it isn’t you, there is nobody else in the department who can perform this surgery. Do you understand? If you don't do it this boy’s life ends here! Now LISTEN.” Keito’s voice rang in my ears and my protests forced their way back down my throat.
“Begin by making a small near the valve, use the tweezers to gently extend the valve, and remove it. We will need to replace the valve. Gently and avoid cutting the walls around it.”
My hands trembled a bit as they floated in the air.
“Ryutaro…. If you don't start now…..” Keito warned
I closed my eyes and collected myself, this was the only way.
My hands sprung into action, performing the small incision under Keito’s eyes. He watched as I removed the damaged valve and began to suture in the replacement.
“Don’t be afraid to move the stitches inward a little more, we don't want the valve to become loose.” He coached and I followed, avoiding the small area he warned not to stitch into.
Two grueling hours later, we returned to my original task of wrapping the heart muscles, a procedure I was much more comfortable with. I performed the wrapping and stitched everything together before finishing the procedure in total.
“Good job.” Keito said as he walked out of the room, leaving me to finish the last few bits of bandaging.
“What did you give him?” I asked Miki as she handed me the cotton gauze.
“Just some adrenaline…. Nothing like it to wake you up right? He’s going to feel terrible when it wears off though…” She chuckled, replacing the gauze in my hand with bandages.
---
Just a few minutes later I stepped back into the cardiology office and plopped down to a obviously very hungover Keito.
“Are you okay?” I asked
“Yeah… Miki’s adrenaline moved things through me faster, but that also means I got the effects of it faster…” he moaned closing his eyes and falling back onto the couch.
“Thanks… for coaching me….” I said, handing him the bottle of water on the table he was reaching for.
“Ryutaro…. You did a good job… you’re just like him….” The last part came to sound more reminiscent than I had been used to.
“H-Him?”
“Ryu…. You asked me why I was so sad lately… right?” He asked, his voice dragged.
“Y-Yeah..”
“You remind me so much of him… so young, and so full of potential. You performed that complex surgery just with no practice at all…. In that sense, you two are so alike…. Yuto was…an exceptional surgeon… but he never liked to do it….. he said it hurt him to cut into the heart, so instead he assisted me instead. He had so much talent, just by reading books he could understand even the most complex of procedures and guide me through them flawlessly. Without him…. I was lost… but at the same time…. I see him in you…. And getting him back…. Almost seems painful…”
“Y-You’re sad… because I remind you of…”
“Yuto… isn’t that stupid?” Keito sighed, as the tears began to roll down his cheeks again.
“N-No…”
“It’s stupid Ryutaro…. It’s stupid…” He repeated, trying, but failing to laugh it off.
“It’s not….” I tried to reassure him.
“I miss him…. I really do…”
“It’s okay… um… w-why don't I just… take you home?” Changing the subject seemed like the right thing to do.
“I-I’ll be fine….” Keito tried to stand but fell back into the cushions again.
“Yeah…. I’ll take you home okay? Just let me go and talk to the parents and I’ll be right back okay?” I stood up, putting on my white boat and headed to the door.
“Ryutaro…. be sure to get their consent to add their son to the heart transplant list.” He said on my way out.
“Heart… transplant?”
“That valve is a temporary thing…. The way those muscles expanded, the heart will only continue to weaken, the muscles were stretched too thinly, his young body hasn't fully developed the walls yet.”
Before I could ask for any more explanation, he was asleep again.
Talking to the parents, I fell silent as the mother broke into tears and eagerly signed the papers, her only hope of saving her son.
Immediately after that I went back to the office and scooped Keito up, driving him back to the small house address that Miki had given me. Fishing out his keys, I hauled a semi-conscious him up the stairs and into his bed room, where he promptly plopped on the bed .
“Ryutaro… it’s… very late, don't go home now, just stay here.” He mumbled from underneath the blankets he had managed to cocoon himself in.
Sighing, I knew he was right, I was tired and fatigued, the short drive from the hospital to his house was more than a challenge for me. I agreed as I shut the door and made for the stairs again. Instead I passed another room, the guest room and I made the best of the situation as I pulled off my coat and lay down on the soft bed.
Closing my eyes I fell into a deep and well deserved rest.
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Uwa. minna, sorry this chapter is a little shorter..... but I managed to cram it in between studying for biochemistry exams..... gah... let me know what you think as always!
~Emmie