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The heart monitor was beeping regularly, slow, Sera could hear it even through the closed door while a female officer frisked her. Conan had asked her to come, she didn’t know how he managed to get her in. “Outch!” The officer had pinched her cheek.
“Sorry,” the woman said, “It’s part of the security check.” Sera raised a mental eyebrow. When the woman stepped out of the way, she took a deep breath and walked into the room.
Conan was sitting on the bed. Ran lay there, pale, unmoving, an infusion pump connected to her arm. Conan was holding her hand.
He looked up to Sera, his eyes full of pain and anger. He also looked like he hadn’t slept for days. “Conan-kun,” Sera greeted questioningly. She took another deep breath. It hurt to see Ran like this.
Conan nodded to her, gesturing to the chair next to the bed. Sera sat down, putting a hand on Ran’s arm without thinking.
Conan gave her a wry smile at that. “I need to sleep and do some things,” he said in a low voice. “Kisaki-san and Ojisan are working. Can you stay with her for a few hours?”
Sera looked at Ran. Absentmindedly, she noticed the heart monitor picking up speed. “So you want me on bodyguard duty?”
“Hope that’s not needed,” he said under his breath. “She seems to get nightmares when no one is there.”
Sera blinked, to get the image that had been all over the media out of her head. “I understand.” She took another deep breath. “How bad is it?”
“She lost a lot of blood. They had to do several stitches.” The voice was without any emotion, but Sera saw one of his hands clenching into the bed cloth.
Her own anger was searing. “What happened?”
“We don’t know who or how she got out. The whole place was booby-trapped with bombs, the police are still sifting through the rubble to find clues to the culprit..” He shook his head. “We just got another anonymous tip.” Sera knew him well enough to detect the lie. He knew who gave that tip.
“So it was a trap.” She saw him flinch at her wods.
“Yes.”
“Why me?” She turned her head to look at him.
He looked back, more pain in his eyes. “Because you love her.”
Her heart clenched. She looked down, looked at her watch. “I can stay for six hours.”
When he jumped down from the bed and bowed, she added: “Stay safe. It would shatter her to lose you.”
An hour later, her phone rang from a silent-mode override number. Sera stepped away from the bed. “Moshi, Moshi?” She made a face. “No, I can’t at the moment.” The angry voice on the other side made her wince. “Yes, this is about priorities.” More angry words. “I don’t care if you think it is an ideal moment. Keeping her safe now is more important that another try at something that failed the last 10 times.” She listened some more. “Sorry mom,” she said and ended the call.
She silently walked up and down in the small room to calm herself down.
A sudden whimper from the bed got her attention. She walked over to see Ran turning, grabbing at the restraint on her left arm. Before she could rip out the infusion, Sera grabbed her hand. “Ran.”
Ran struggled, nearly hitting Sera on the nose. The whole time, her eyes were closed.
“Ran, wake up!” With her free hand, she grabbed Ran’s shoulder and shook it. “Ran, relax, you’re in hospital. You are safe.” The heart monitor was going crazy.
A nurse came swiftly in, the police officer following. She hit some buttons on the infusion unit. “She should come round in a minute or two.” She didn’t try to touch Ran herself. But watched as Ran struggled some more before her eyes began to flutter.
“Ran, you are safe,” Sera said again, and this time, Ran’s eyes opened. She blinked, blinked again as her eyes tried to focus. Then she stopped struggling, let her right hand fall to her stomach. She didn’t let go of Sera’s hand.
“He said you being here would keep her from these episodes,” the nurse told Sera in an accusatory tone.
Sera sighted. “I stepped away from the bed for a minute to take a call,” she explained.
“This will keep you awake for about half an hour. Do you think you can manage?”
Ran nodded to the nurse, who briskly turned and walked out again, the police officer following.
As soon as the door closed, Ran took a shuddering breath.
Sera fiddled with the bed controls and brought her up to a sitting position. Then she passed her a tissue. Ran let go of her hand, and dabbed away the tears. More tears followed. Ran scowled at them. Sera sat down on the edge of the bed and Ran moved to give her more room. Cautiously, Sera put an arm around Ran’s shoulders. Ran tried to lean into it, but grimaced in pain.
“Bad angle?” Sera asked.
Ran took a deep breath. Exhaled. “Sit behind me?” she croaked.
It took a moment of careful shuffling, until Sera sat behind her, arms carefully, softly, wrapped around Ran, taking her upper body weight.
“Why?” Ran ask, her voice still croaky.
“Why I’m here? Conan asked me.” Sera replied. “He thought you’d have less nightmares if someone was there,” she added wryly.
Ran made a sound that could have been a sob or a laugh.
Sera just stayed there, her chin on Ran’s shoulder. She could feel Ran moving her mouth but she didn’t make a sound.
After some minutes of this, Ran asked, voice still croaky but more in control: “Sometimes thought he didn’t trust you?”
Sera softly stroked over Ran’s right hand. With a wry smile she said: “He knows where he can trust me,” after a long moment of thought. She made sure to breath evenly and deeply, to keep both of them as relaxed as possible.
Ran huffed. After a long pause she asked: “So, Masumi, do you lie to me as much as he does?”
Masumi blushed. Her breath caught at that question. “No.” She could feel Ran turn her head, so she looked into her face. “There are lots of things I haven’t told you, but I only lied to you …,” she was counting in her head, “… seven times.”
Ran studied her face seriously for long moments. At last, she nodded. Turning her face away, she relaxed into Masumi. “Is there a good reason for all this?”