Work Text:
Sae couldn't even tell you what time it was if you asked. All she knew was that her shift had officially ended hours ago, and she was still in front of her computer going over case files. The place had long since emptied of all but essential night shifters, leaving her with relative quiet to work.
This quiet was interrupted by a buzzing from her phone. She sighed and looked away from her computer, rubbing at her strained eyes. She picked up the phone and saw an unknown number calling her. Against her better judgment she swiped to accept the call and pressed the phone to her.
"Niijima speaking."
"Ms. Niijima," an unfamiliar voice said from the other side of the line. "This is Tanaka from Eastern Metropolitan Hospital. I am calling on behalf of a recently admitted patient that has you listed as an emergency contact."
Niijima had been only half listening at the start of the call, sandwiching the phone between her ear and her shoulder so she could go back to her computer while they spoke. This shock was enough to snap her out of that, all her attention on the call.
"What? What happened?" She asked, all of the worst possibilities flying through her mind. Makoto was her only dependent. She was supposed to spend the evening out with her friends before heading home. Had something happened while they were out? Her chest felt like it was constricting, and her mind decided now was the perfect time to remind her of the last time she took a call like this. The time her father had died. She shook her head to dislodge the thought, turning her attention to Tanaka.
"I am unable to disclose the details over the phone," the other said. "The doctor will update you when you arrive."
Sae was already on her feet, grabbing her jacket. She took a second to squeeze her eyes shut and take a deep breath. She couldn't panic yet, not when she didn't know what was happening. "I will be there shortly," she said.
The trip to the hospital was not very long. The police station was only a few blocks away. With the lack of crowds at this hour, almost one in the morning Sae now knew from looking at her phone, it was faster to just rush down the sidewalks than try to catch one of the few late night trains. Before long she was walking through the sliding glass doors. She was hit with frigid air conditioning and the sickening smell of antiseptic cleaner as she made her way to the front desk.
"Niijima Sae," she said to the receptionist. "I was called as an emergency contact."
She was directed down a hallway until she hit a nurses station, and was led by a nurse through the emergency department. There wasn't separate rooms here, just rows of curtained off beds that left very little privacy.
"He's in pretty rough shape, but he's going to be okay," the nurse said as Sae followed her, dodging other nurses and patients being transported. "The doctor has ordered blood tests. Until then we've got him on fluids."
Sae almost stopped in her tracks, confused. He? She briefly thought that maybe she and Makoto needed to have a conversation after this, but her many questions were answered when the nurse pulled open the curtain to one of the beds and it wasn't Makoto that sat there.
It was Akechi.
He looked like shit, to say the least. He was deathly pale, his hair stuck to his forehead with sweat, his breathing ragged. An IV was hung by the bed, a tube running down to Akechi's arm where the other end was taped town. The area reeked of vomit, and Sae saw the half full bucket in Akechi's lap that explained it's source.
Akechi weakly lifted his head, squinting his eyes at Sae in confusion. "What are you doing here?" He asked. The words sounded like he had to force them out with effort.
"I'd like to know the same thing," she said, her voice coming out sharper than she necessarily meant it to.
"I'll leave you two to talk," the nurse said, swapping out Akechi's full puke bucket for a fresh one before stepping out and closing the curtain to give them an illusion of privacy.
Sae studied Akechi intently. He seemed just as confused as she did, although she wasn't sure she could say he looked very capable of lucid thought in general at the moment.
"I was called as an emergency contact," she explained.
The gears turned in Akechi's mind for a moment before a look of realization came across his eyes. "I forgot I did that," he admitted. "The precinct recently made me put down an emergency contact on some of the consultation paperwork a few cases ago."
And he'd chosen her? That was raising more questions than it answered, but she didn't have time for this right now. "Where are your parents?" She asked with a sigh as she pulled out her phone. "Give me their numbers and I'll call them for you."
"They're dead," Akechi said bluntly.
Sae's thumb froze where it hovered over the number pad on her phone. She looked up at Akechi, who was looking away from her with an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. A wave of guilt washed over her. She should have known better than anyone that not everyone has the traditional family life, but she had never even considered what Akechi had.
"Someone else, then," Sae said after collecting herself, her voice softened.
Akechi shook his head. "It's just me."
"You mean you're on your own?" Sae asked. Too late she realized maybe she was pushing too much.
"And doing quite well for myself, thank you very-" Akechi had begun to retort before suddenly going silent. His hand tightened around the blanket on his lap, looking at the ceiling as he took a deep breaths. Sae had taken care of a sick Makoto enough times to know exactly what was coming. She grabbed the bucket the nurse had left and shoved it into Akechi's lap just in time for him to double over and vomit.
The act was almost violent in the way it tore through Akechi. His shoulders heaved and whole body shook as he threw up. He lurched forward, bile hitting the bottom of the bucket with a sickening splat. When he finished he was gasping for breath, still leaning over the bucket, hair obscuring his face.
"Just…go," he said, not looking back at her. "Writing your name was just a formality to get the paperwork pushed through. You have no reason to be here, I can handle myself-"
Another round of retching cut him off at the end of his sentence.
Hunched over the bucket, pale and shaking, with sweat slicked hair hanging limply, Akechi looked… small. It could be hard to forget when working along side him as an equal, but he really was just a kid. Not even graduated yet, Makoto's age. Sae thought about Makoto being in this position, sick and alone. She couldn't bare it.
Sae stepped forward, placing a hand on Akechi's back and rubbing it soothingly as he got sick. From this proximity she could feel the clamminess of Akechi's skin through his sweat stained shirt. She didn't say anything while he was throwing up, just rubbing his back to soothe him through it. It wasn't until he finished, pushing the bucket away from him and wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand that she spoke.
"I'm not going anywhere," she said. Her voice was firm, not leaving any room for negotiation.
Akechi looked up at her, hair falling away from his face. He was deathly pale, dark rings forming under his eyes, and Sae could have sworn that for a second she saw a look of surprise from him. That was blinked away before she could truly process it.
"Your choice, I guess," he said. "Besides, this could be beneficial, for us to start drafting the incident report to get the investigation going."
Okay, that was not what Sae was expecting him to say. "What?" She asked, brows furrowed in confusion.
"I was poisoned," Akechi said. He stated it so simply, in the same way someone would inform you that there is parking on the left, or that it might rain later.
Okay, that was definitely not what Sae was expecting him to say.
She crossed her arms, looking at him. He really looked like, and was acting like, he had a severe stomach bug. Or food poisoning, at the absolute most. But when Akechi said something, he was usually right. Still, it was hard to jump right to believing this.
"And what evidence do you have for this alleged poisoning?"
Akechi shook his head at that, a look of faux disappointment on his face. "Still so quick to doubt me," he chided teasingly, before launching into his explanation. "Yesterday, I give a live interview exposing the identity of the leader of a local extortion ring, a man infamous for use of poison against those that oppose him. The very next day, I fall violently ill after my weekly drink at the jazz club. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots. If you still don't believe me, the nurse will be in shortly to deliver the results of the blood test. It will be confirmed then."
It was a lot of information to digest all at once, and Sae found her mind latching onto one of the more inconsequential details. "Jazz club?"
"A cola on ice and some live music," Akechi said with a wistful sigh. "My one indulgence."
With the time to process everything, all that Akechi said was making sense. If he was in public with a drink, that could be targeted. This wasn't the first time that Akechi had gone against a powerful person who then made some attempt to silence him. This was, however, the first time any of those attempts had landed. Akechi had always been one step ahead before, often using the attempt in his plan to incriminate and apprehend. In hindsight, though, he never should have been left with that. If they were having a kid do this work for them, they should have provided better protection. This was a failing of the police department, one that Sae would rectify.
"You're probably thinking this should not have happened," Akechi said. "How did I let someone get close enough to do that without noticing? I agree, it's disgraceful." He had a deep scowl on his face, one that Sae had only ever seen before when Akechi thought he was alone. "There's no excuse. I was careless."
Sae thought about the amount of stress that Akechi had been under lately. His recent opposition of the Phantom Thieves had turned the public against him. She wondered if that was what had been making him work so hard on the case recently. She was around him more than anyone else because of their late nights at the office, she was the one that saw that almost manic fervor in his eyes while he worked on the case.
"It is not your fault you got poisoned," she said. She found that she no longer had any doubt in her mind that that was what happened.
That was confirmed mere moments later when the curtain was yanked open revealing several medical professionals and a cart with some equipment that Sae did not recognize. They were in action before Sae even properly registered they were in there. One was setting up a pump looking device besides Akechi's bed while another was getting something into his IV. Akechi, meanwhile, was watching them as if he expected them. Sae on the other hand was feeling a surge of panic.
"Your blood tests came back with traces of an ingested toxin," the nurse explained. "We need to pump your stomach before you absorb any more." She worked quickly and efficiently, but her voice remained calm and level, almost comforting.
"No objections here," Akechi said. He leaned back in the hospital bed, which was lifted to a sitting position, and tilted his head upwards like he knew the steps already.
The nurse grabbed Sae and pushed her to the head of the bed. "Hold him still," she said, before returning to the cart to grab and unfurl some thin plastic tubing.
"What?" Sae asked, confused. She was barely following what was happening.
The nurse turned to Akechi with the tubing. "This will be placed in your nose and reach into your stomach to clear everything out," she explained, getting positioned to begin the placement. "It will be uncomfortable, but I'll be as quick as I can with it, I promise."
It was happening so fast for Sae to keep track of, the rushed energy much different than Akechi's earlier isolated illness now that the cause of it was confirmed as poison. The nurse took the tube and began to feed the end through Akechi's nose.
Despite the almost relaxed energy Akechi had been trying to exude during this, even his instincts were activated by this. His head jerked to the side, trying to get away, but the nurse was prepared for that. She shot a look at Sae, and Sae finally processed her instructions from earlier.
Sae grabbed Akechi's head, helping to hold him still. She could feel the sweat that soaked through his hair, and the clamminess of his skin. He didn't fight her, the only resistance was him fighting against his own instinct to pull away. That somehow made Sae feel even worse. With her help keeping him still, the nurse was able to get the tube placed quickly.
"There, it's in," the nurse said, pulling back. A bit of tape secured the tube to Akechi's cheek before the nurse moved over to the machine the tube was connecting to, clicking a button to activate it. A light whirring sound indicated the activation, and Sae could see through the tubing as stomach bile was suctioned up.
"We will alternate between the suction and flushing with saline," the nurse explained. "This is a very safe and effective technique, so don't worry." Her voice was calm and professional.
Akechi, for one, did not look worried in the slighted. Instead, his features had been arranged into an expression that almost projected boredom. "How long will it take?"
"It typically takes around half an hour of cycling through, but I'll be monitoring for any adjustments."
Akechi gave a nod, then turned back to face Sae. He was deathly pale, the tone of his skin scarily close to the shade of the paper tape holding the tube in place. "That gives us time to get started?"
"Get started?" Sae asked. What could he possibly want to get started on when having poison pumped from his stomach?
"Opening the investigation, obviously," Akechi said, like Sae was the weird one for not being on track with this. "The sooner we get the report submitted, the sooner we can pursue the case."
Sae looked to the nurse, looking for help. Surely this was not the time. But the nurse gave a small nod to her, mouthing the words 'distract him'. Sae supposed it made sense, the stomach pumping sensation couldn't be pleasant, and Sae could see the discomfort etched in Akechi despite his calm facade.
"Alright," she said, sitting down in the plastic visitors chair beside Akechi's bed. She pulled a notepad from her coat pocket, the one she always kept on her for when she had to work on the go. "Let's get started."
For the next forty five minutes, Sae took down extensive notes on everything Akechi said about what happened. Every once in a while during this, the nurse flushed a bunch of saline through the stomach pump. During this, Akechi had to stop talking. His nose scrunched in discomfort, eyes squeezing shut as his hands balled into fists against the blankets on the hospital bed, his breathing stuttering. Sae would simply pause during this, not drawing attention to his moments of vulnerability.
"Last one," the nurse said, pushing a syringe of saline through the tubing. Akechi clutched as the blanket, gritting his teeth as it went in. Sae could only imagine how bad it felt.
"So this means I'm good to go?" Akechi asked once the machine switched back to suctioning everything out, allowing him to talk.
"Not quite," the nurse said, voice apologetic. "We will need to keep you here for at least another hour for observation to make sure there are no lingering effects. Once we are satisfied you are stable, and a secondary blood tests confirms that, then we can talk about discharge."
A look of devastation flashed across Akechi's face before he collected himself once more, and Sae couldn't say she blamed the kid. He looked exhausted, shoulders sagging and head resting heavy against the the papery cover of the thin pillow. His eyelids were drooping against his will, probably a result of crashing adrenaline now that the procedure was over.
"Why don't you get some sleep," Sae offered gently.
"But the investigation-"
"You've already given me all the information we need to get started," she said. "I'll get everything moving while you sleep."
"But-"
"I can wake you up if anything happens," Sae said, cutting him off. She knew that Akechi struggled to hand over control, but even as he attempted to argue against her, he was already nodding off.
A slight bit of tension melted from Akechi at the indication Sae was going to be staying with him still. "Fine then," he said. "If you insist."
"I insist."
After that, it didn't take long for Akechi to drift to sleep. After the events of the night, it was no surprise. He'd curled up on his side and within seconds of closing his eyes he was out. Taking a second to look at him, Sae thought that this was the youngest the Detective Prince had ever looked to her. When he was working along side her in cases, it could be easy to forget that he was still a high schooler.
Sae leaned back in her chair, pulling out her phone. She began to fire off messages, keeping her word about starting the investigation. But she also delved into an investigation of her own. One into Akechi, what had led to him being so alone that he had to write down a coworker as his only emergency contact, and what she could do to make sure he was never that alone again.