Hida and Co. Pay a Visit
Another day was passing in the life of Doctor Jou Kido. Rie was resting peacefully in her room, Shin was off-duty, and Pete was nowhere to be found. He took his glasses off and cleaned them, taking a moment's luxury to lean against the nurses' station and take a breather. In just a couple of hours he could go home. He wondered how the contest would go? Chances are he wouldn't win, but even so he felt that making Rie happy was more rewarding than any vacation to anywhere. He put his glasses back on and tapped them back on his nose, then decided to help himself to a cup of water from the cooler. Yessir, nothing unexpected today at all.
Iori entered the hospital, almost wairly as the bag on his back seemed to quiver as Armadimon snacked on some Pocky that he had found in there- that Iori could not stop and tell him not to eat. Why had he come to the hospital exactly? He remembered about a week ago Jou had posted something about his recent patient, he had mentioned it to his grandfather and had said he'd like to do something to
help as well. In the end his grandfather had said to go up their with Armadimon, so there they were, and Iori having no idea what area of the hospital Jou would be located. The reasonable thing seemed to be to go the receptionist- so he did.
Jou was rather enjoying his free time. Predictable days like this only came periodically. And then something unexpected happened that he was rather not expecting.
The low hum of hospital activity was broken by a PA announcement.
"Doctor Kido to reception. Doctor Kido to reception."
Jou stared at the speaker in the ceiling for several moments while he cast a number of silent curses upon it, then sighed and left the solitude of his workplace and headed to the receptionist's desk.
However, upon entering the lobby, he found Iori wearing a bulging, quivering backpack.
His face lit up. This wasn't such a bad surprise. "Iori-kun!"
Upon his request the receptionist had given Ioris bag a suspicious glance, before calling Jou through the PA system. Iori hoped he wasn't interrupting Jou with a patient, and waited patiently wanting to tell Armadimon to stop eatting the Pocky- though it would be suspicious to talk you your bookbag- that was already quivering- and would unnerve people.
He didn't have a long wait, as less then ten
minutes later the familiar blue haired doctor entered the area. Iori smiled at the older Chosen. "How are you, Jou-sempai?"
Jou approached and bowed to Iori. "Good, actually. I've been having a surprisingly good day. And you?"
Iori quickly returned the bow, only slightly-which is why he hadn't earlier- due to the fact it might mean Armadimon falling out. "Good as well, though some people are giving me a bit of an issue," he replied eyeing his bag as if to point out what he was talking about.
Jou looked at Iori's bulging backpack and nodded. "Well, why don't you come on back and we can stow it in the on-call room. There's someone I'd like you to meet," Jou said as he motioned toward the double doors he'd just exited.
Iori nodded realizing that Armadimon had now taken to chomping down on the Pocky, as if to say he was tired of being stuck in there. Iori mentally sweatdropped. "Alright."
Jou led Iori and his bag through the doors deeper into the interior of the hosptial. As usual, the nurses were especially flirty with him, but it did take them a moment to notice Iori. One of them stopped to hand Jou a chart to sign and then noticed Iori.
"Oh! Who's your friend?" she asked Jou, leaning on her knees to face Iori.
"This is an old friend of mine, Hida Iori. We go back a ways."
The nurse nodded and looked at Iori and smiled. "Nice to meet you, Hida-san!"
The boy returned the smile and bowed slightly, "It's nice to meet you too." he replied.
She nodded kindly and stood back up to look at Jou. "Really sensei, you should know better than to bring boys in here that are too young for us!"
Jou clenched his fists and shook them. "For the last time, I am not bringing my friends here for you to pick up!"
Iori blinked at what the woman said and looked at Jou. Wanting to say something about it, but quickly decided against it by his friends shaking fists. In the end he remained silent
[tag]
Jou sighed and immediately covered his frustrations with a smile. "Well, let's take care of your bag. That thing looks really heavy."
"Alright," he replied realizing just how heavy Amardimon,"it's, I think, is at least twenty pounds now." He thought his estimate was wrong by at least a few pounds- but after lugging Armadimon around for the amount of time he did it felt like it was much heavier.
Jou led the way into an on-call room and shut the door behind them. The room contained a pair of bunk beds and Jou sat down on one of them. "I hope the trip wasn't too uncomfortable, Armadimon."
Iori put the bag on the ground, Armadimon soon tumbling out with a piece of,unmistakable, Pocky. The digimon finished the sweet quickly, nodding. "It was cramped and stuffy, but the Pocky made it better." he replied in his cheerful demeanor.
"I can imagine!" Jou answered. "Although they're used to seeing Digimon around here. Taichi-kun and Sora-kun both brought Agumon and Piyomon in here without any trouble."
Iori to sat down as Armadimon went back in searching for more Pocky. "It was more Ojiisans idea. I'm surprised Digimon are even allowed here- after the Christmas Party." the boy said
Jou slapped his forehead. "That's right! The Christmas party!" He knew Gomamon was more or less banned from the hospital, but he wasn't sure about Armadimon. "I'm not sure if it matters in this case. Rie really wants to see Digimon, so they may be relaxing the rules anyway. If they behave themselves I'm sure they'll be more welcome here.
"
"You mean, I could've come in here without being in the bag?" Armadimon questioned as he came back out with his prize- the last piece of Ioris pocky.
Jou shrugged. "I'm not sure. I think they still remember what you and Gomamon did last Christmas." Jou shuddered as he recalled all of the insanity of that fateful Christmas Eve. Digimon may make the best partners, but they certainly do cause trouble at the same time.
"I don't think any of us will forget that anytime soon- or those of us who went to Hanami," Iori said to his friend remembering oh so well how Miyako had made him sing that song with her. It was at that moment of silence that Armadimon decided to chomp down on the Pocky stick. "Shouldn't you be a little more cautious about the sweets you consume now?" Iori asked his partner.
(tag~)
Jou cleared his throat in an attempt to clear the tension. "Anyway, why don't we go see Rie? She wasn't expecting anyone today, so I'm sure she'd appreciate a surprise visit from a digimon and his Chosen.
Jou opened the door and stepped out, only to find a wall of uniformed muscle standing in his way. It looked down at him with a crew-cut head and said "Hey! You know I've been looking all over for you."
Jou gulped loudly. "You have?"
"Yeah!"
"Hai, alright." Iori replied picking up the now empty bag as he stood up. The voice startled him momentarily- him not expecting it- he looked up at that to see Jou, in a what looked to be nervous state.
"Oh, I see you brought a friend, too!" said Pete as he looked over the top of Jou's head at Iori. "Another visitor and his uh, what do you call it, Pokemon?"
"Digimon," Iori stated in a defensive tone as Armadimon frowned up at the man. How could anyone mistake him for one of those silly creatures on Television?(Armadimon only knew of the series through his hours of watching T.V. while Iori was at school. "The names Armadimon!" the digimon said in his cheerful tone, trying not to sound offended.
"Digimon. I'm sorry, my mistake," said Pete in an apologetic tone. "Forgive me for ever getting them mixed up." He turned back to Jou. "Now what is it I wanted to tell you? Oh yeah. I just wanted to say, you better watch yourself today."
Jou blinked in confusion. "Watch myself? What do you mean?"
"I mean I'm on to you, Kido. First you tried to sneak a can of polish out of a shoe shop, and now you're sneaking people and Digimon into hospitals."
"Next thing I know you'll be helping whoever it is sneaking supplies out of the hospital and mister Kido, I will not stand to let you spiral back into a life of crime."
Jou stuttered. "I..I didn't steal anything! It was a total accident back then! I would never steal supplies from the office!"
"That's what they all say," said Pete. "I wanna trust you, but I can't let my guard down. I've got my eye on you, and you, and you." He pointed to Jou, Iori, and Armadimon in turn, and then walked sideways out of the doorway and around the next corner.
Iori listened to the conversation..Jou took something from the hospital? That didn't sound like him...Then again Jou did seem to admit to it. He watched the man point at each of them in turn before leaving. "What a strange man." he muttered. "Got that right!" Armadimon said looking up at his partner.
Jou turned around, an embarassed look on his face. "Don't mind him. He's only out to get me. Let's go ahead and see Rie before something else unexpected happens." He led the way out of the room and down the hall.
"Alright.." Iori replied uneasily- but dropping the subject of the man as it seemed Jou no longer wanted to think about the mans sudden arrival. "Lead the way!" Armadimon cheered grinning up at Jou- oblivious to the emberassment that appearntly had just happened to him
Jou led them down the often-traveled hallway to Rie's room.
"Wait here for a second. She may be asleep." He slowly opened the door so as not to make the bolt click too loudly and slipped inside, slowly closing the door behind him.
"Hai, alright." Iori replied as Armadimon frowned from having to wait again- that's all he was ever doing lately- waiting! Iori leaned against the wall to wait for Jou to return. [done]
It really only took a moment. Almost as soon as the door had clicked shut Jou burst out of the room and shut the door behind him, his face as red as a boiled octopus. He leaned against the wall and stared straight ahead.
"We, uh, may need to wait a couple of minutes. Before we go in, I mean."
Iori blinked at the suddenty on Jou bursting out- bright red. Wondering momentarily what he had seen that made him look like that, but quickly decided it better not to think about it. "Er... alright..." he replied trying to keep his face straight at his sempais reaction- and face.
It was hard to do.
Jou leaned against the wall casually and turned to Iori. "So how's school treating you these days? I'm sorry if I don't ever get to see you guys very much."
"It's not your fault, actually lately it seems everyones busy," Iori replied,"As for school, it's the same as always, aside from the Penpal program, study"
Armadimon nodded at Ioris comment, "It seems Iori's always studying lately!"
"It's not too difficult for you, I hope? Where is your penpal from?"
"No, just more studying. Eden-san? She's from Britian." he replied, "the Northern part of England if I'm correct."
"Sounds like you're keeping busy. Reminds me of my old days of studying hard, but I didn't have a penpal to keep up with back in my day." He looked back at the door, as if expecting to see something new there, but instead only found the door and turned back to Iori. "By the way, I never got the chance to tell you that you're a pretty good singer."
Iori turned red in emberassment at his comment about being a 'pretty good singer'. "Don't remind me of that!" he replied with a grimace. He had decided- never again to be near Miyako when others were doing duets do to that emberassment.
Jou turned when he heard the door open and a nurse exited with a basin, sponge, towel, and some soap. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Kido-sensei. You can go in now."
"Thank you," said Jou. As she left, she gave Jou the "aren't you a doctor?" look and Jou breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay, now we can go in." He opened the door and let Iori and Armadimon inside. Rie was smoothing out her hospital gown and watching a Japanese drama on the television when they entered.
"Oh hello, Jou-sensei!" She said, her eyes bright with pleasant surprise.
Jou nodded. "Rie, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine." He motioned to Iori and Armadimon and stepped aside.
Iori raised a brow now knowing why Jou had been blushing so badly earlier and thinking about it mentally he laughed.
When Jou addressed her Iori bowed slighty, "it's nice to meet you, I'm Hida Iori." he said. "Armadimon- pleasure!" the digimon said cheerfully.
Rie sat up attentively - as best she could just days away from delivery - at the sight of the yellow Digimon. "A Digimon?" She said. She took a moment to look Armadimon over. "Are they all this cute?"
"Nope! There are some of us that aren't cute- more ugly! Like Numemon!" Armadimon responded grinning.
Rie tilted her head to one side and looked at Iori and Armadimon quizzically. "What's a Numemon?"
"They're these green slug like creatures that throw-" Armadimon was soon cut off by Iori's hand who thought it wise not for Armadimon to go thorough on that specific digimon.
Rie shuddered. "Oh, I guess I shouldn't expect all Digimon to be like Piyomon or Agumon. So how does Armadimon like the real world?"
"It's great!" the digimon said enthusiastically, "Expecially the sweets! Though the dancing is odd.."
Rie scratched her head. "Isn't it hard for you to dance with four legs?" Looking at Armadimon she could tell that he certainly did enjoy the sweets in the real world.
"I do jigs!" the digimon replied happily," I'm just saying some of the human dances are bizarre."
"Armadimon... are you forgetting some of the dance digimon do are 'bizarre?" Iori questioned his partner, glancing at Jou for a sort've confirmation.
Jou cleaned his glasses and looked away in distant thought. "I guess if you go by human standards, then Digimon dances are wierd. But I'm not a very good dancer, I have to admit."
"So if Digimon can dance, does that mean they live in towns or villages or something?" asked Rie.
"Yep! There are very few digimon that live by themselves!" Armadimon replied to the girl in his cheerful demeanor.
Iori glanced at Jou wondering what he was thinking about since he looked so distant.
[tag]
I wonder who the first person who decided dried, baked seaweed would be appetizing was? Jou wondered. Because it sure does help the taste of Sushi. Jou shook himself from his reverie when he noticed Iori staring at him and pushed his glasses up his nose in a very authoritative manner.
"Yes, there are a few Digimon who like to live by themselves such as Ogermon and Leomon, but for the most part Digimon like to group together just like humans."
"Don't they normally stay among their own? I mean Yokomons' with the Yokomons' and Koromons' with the Koromons'?" Iori asked, directing the question towards Armadimon.
"Most of the time!" the digimon replied
Rie sat back in her bed and chewed on her thumbnail. "Wow. I guess Digimon can be just as complicated as humans, huh? So if they're from the digital world," she addressed Iori and Jou, "does that mean he's data, flesh and blood, or both?"
Iori looked at Armadimon. "He's data, even here. Though he's as good as Flesh and Blood." the boy replied recieving a grin from his partner.
Rie nodded. "I see." She paused for a moment, as if to lock something important away. "So what grade are you in, Hida-san? You look a lot younger than Jou-sensei."
"Well I am," he replied with a soft smile,"I'm in my first year of high school."
"Really?" said Rie. "You're just a year younger than me!" She flashed Iori a look that read "and pretty cute, too."
Iori turned slightly pink and made to avert his eyes to look at Armadimon- who was being abnormally quiet.
Rie giggled. "It's nothing to be ashamed about, Hida-san. Jou-sensei here has been crushing on a girl since forever and he's too wishy-washy to do anything about it."
Jou's normally pleasant smile vanished in an instant when Rie mentioned his secret. His head slowly turned to her and his mouth opened to let out a loud "EEEEHHH?! I thought that was supposed to be between us!"
Rie stuck her nose in the air and looked away from Jou. "Well you never asked me to keep it a secret, so I don't have to!"
Iori and Armadimon both blinked at the scene, both intrested.
"What do you mean?" Armadimon questioned Rie.
"Jou-sempai?" Iori asked looking at his friend who looked to him hotrrortstruck.
"I think it's time to go!" Jou squeaked.
"What? Don't you guys want to hear more juicy details about Jou's love life?" Rie teased.
"Yes!" Armadimon cheered curiously.
"Armadimon.." Iori said softly to the digimon, it really wasn't right to pry.
"Well apparently," Rie continued despite Jou's emphatic motions to stay quiet, "Jou is still swooning over a girl I remind him of and alas, there is nothing he can do about it because she is committed to another woman!" She finished her speech with a swooning motion and fell back in bed. "Poor Jou-sensei!" she exclaimed.
"Oh really?!" Armadimon said excitedly looking up at Jou,"who is it Jou?" he questioned.
Iori on the other hand, though it was wrong to do so, thought about who Rie reminded him of with the other Chosen, knowing it was possible that it was someone else, coming to someone that seemed- by what he knew of Rie- a bit like Rie.
Jou waved his hands dismissively and blushed heavily while shaking his head. "It's nothing, really! Just a crush! We're probably both better off apart anyway because I'm interning and she's interning and, you know, we're both really busy and have other commitments, you know? Hahaha, aren't I silly?" he said a little too enthusiastically.
"Sempai....?" Iori questioned looking at his friend oddly. Interns? If he was correct Mimi-chan was interning, wasn't she? Was his guess correct. He wanted to ask but thought better of it.
"You said it not me!" Armadimon said adding in an undertone,"though I've always thought humans were silly.
Jou froze. He realized he'd probably just said too much. "Um, Iori-kun, didn't you have that thing you needed to do with Armadimon?" he said, not looking at Iori and instead focusing on an imaginary moth on the opposite wall.
"Er...no.." Iori replied truthfully- what they had to do was to come here as Ojiisan had told them to do, and they were here. So inless Jou-sempai was trying to get rid of them...
"We're just going home and eatting pocky!" the digimon said cheerfully.
"Armadimon.. you already ate the pocky." Iori told his partner.
Rie clapped her hands cheerfully. "Yay! Then you don't need to go home at all!" She paused and her eyes lost focus. She pressed her fingers to her forehead and exhaled slowly as she laid back in bed.
Jou stepped forward. "Rie-chan? Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Just a little nausea. I wonder if my mom went through the same things with me."
Iori glanced at Armadimon, who had a frown of worry on his yellow face, he looked back up-towards Jou. "Maybe we should leave?" he asked.
Jou checked Rie's pulse. "You don't have to if you don't want to. Sometimes the medicine and her hormones make her a little dizzy, is all. But if you're going just let me call a nurse and I'll walk you out."
Iori returned his gaze to Armadimon as if to ask his partner, "What do you think?" silently. Armadimon grinned a bit- he always seemed to bounce back quickly.
"Well if you don't mind I'd like to stay! Since there's no pocky left to eat!" Armadimon said cheerfully.
Jou wrapped at inflatable sleeve around Rie's arm and began taking her blood pressure.
"That's fine with me. So what brought you over here again, Iori-kun?"
"Oh?" Iori started being brought out of his thought-having been recollecting what had happened-"Ojiisan told us to come visit you. Right, Armadimon?"
"Yep! I think some of his words were to scold you!" Armadimon replied thinking back
Jou looked up. "Really? Well thank you for coming up Iori-kun. I really appreciate it!" He took the sleeve off of Rie's arm and put on his stethoscope.
Iori nodded smiling a bit, "You're welcome." he said softly watching Armadimon look around impatiently- wanting something to happen so the atmosphere might change.
Jou finished writing notes on Rie's chart and hung it on the end of the bed.
"Isn't your shift almost over, Jou-sensei?" asked Rie.
Jou nodded. "Yeah, but I can stay a little longer."
Rie shook her head. "I'm fine. You should go home. All that's left to do now is for me to do my part in all this."
"You sure?" asked Jou.
Rie nodded. "You look like crap anyway. Or is that your normal look?"
"Oi!" exclaimed Jou.
Iori blinked, while Armadimon giggled, before he defended his friend,"It's not his normal look," he replied,"Jou-sempai, you really do need to go home and rest.."
Jou stood back from the bed and rubbed his eyes. "Two against one. Guess I can't argue with that. He looked down at Rie and smiled. "Will you be okay?"
Rie nodded. "Yeah. Thanks to you."
Jou nodded in return. "Rest well. See you tomorrow."
Rie nodded. "Don't stress out for my sake. You'll get gray hairs."
Jou turned to Iori and Armadimon. "Okay, let's go. Let me grab my stuff and we can get out of here."
Iori remained quite as the two spoke, and even Armadimon remained quiet- but for reasons the digimon kept to himself.
Iori nodded, "Hai, alright, Jou-sempai." he replied as Armadimon nodded enthusiastically.
"Remember, if anyone asks about Armadimon, he's here to see Rie. They should be okay with that." Jou led them out of the room and back down the hall to the on-call room so Iori could recover his backpack.
"You guys wait here. I need to get my stuff out of the locker room."
Iori nodded in responce, following Jou out stopping momentarily at the door. He bowed slightly once more, "It was nice to meet you," with that he quickly turned back to follow Jou and Armadimon- noting his Ojiisan would probably skin him if he forgot his manners.
Iori walked in quickly picking up the bag, deciding not to cary Armadimon in it again, before looking back at Jou, "Alright," he
replied as Armadimon looked around the room with a suspicious thoughtful look that only Iori, and his Kaasan and Ojiisan, could recognize.
Jou hurried around the corner and fished his bag out of his locker. It wasn't often that he was reluctant to leave the hospital for any reason, but since Rie came under his care he found that was actually the case. He stopped to look at the group picture of the Chosen Children he kept his his locker. As usual, he looked at Mimi and instantly noticed the similarity between her and Rie. He closed the locker door and shook his head, wondering if he was crazy for comparing the two. Rie was supposed to be his patient and nothing more.
He put his name tag and stethoscope in the bag and returned to the on-call room. "Okay, let's go," he announced to Iori and his partner. "I hope you enjoyed the visit?"
Iori was still thinking about what Rie had said. The only one that remotely acted like her was Mimi- and possible Miyako- but then again he couldn't be to sure of his guess, could he? Jou had friends outside the Chosen... but he knew that both him and Mimi were interns.. so he couldn't help
Armadimon on the other hand, while waiting, wasn't thinking about any event expect there being no Pocky. He
hadn't had pocky in what seemed ages, seeing as he had been banned from it not to long ago for a short period of time. And then when it was in his graps again it was gone.
Minutes later when Jou returned Armadimon looked up happily, plan formulated, as Iori gave him a suspicious glance putting the backpack on his back. "Yes! It was a lot of fun!" Armadimon cheered. "More like odd.." his partner said remembering clearly the nurse, man named Pete, and what Rie had said and did.
Jou nodded. "Glad to hear it. I'll remind myself to invite you to Rie's post-baby shower." He led them down the hall, but when they turned the next corner, Jou stopped. Not because he wanted to, but because he had to. The entire hallway was blocked by a stack of large boxes four high and ten deep, leaving only a little space on the sides, just enough for a small child to crawl through.
Jou stood on his toes to look over the boxes. "What the?"
"Alright, sounds lik it will be...fun, neh Armadimon?" the boy asked his digimon who beamed. "Lots of fun! I like Rie!" he said cheerfully before the two followed Jou. Iori nearly ran into him when they turned the corner, but stopped himself from doing so just in time, unlike Armadimon. "What's going on?" Iori questioned despite the fact his older friend didn't seem to know what was going on
either. "Dag." Armadimon said under his breath.
Jou looked over the boxes like a dog scanning his master's table during dinner. "I don't know. There's just..a bunch of boxes here and I don't know why."
At that moment, Pete appeared at the other end of the boxes and waved to Jou cheerfully.
"Hey, Kido! How's it going? I see you have a friend here."
"Hey, you're security! What are all these boxes doing here? This is totally unsafe!"
Pete surveyed the boxes. "Oh these? Yeah, well there was a big delivery and the delivery guys didn't really know where to put everything, so I told them to put it all right here."
"But you can't do that! Didn't they think it was just a little strange to put a bunch of boxes in the middle of a hallway in a hospital?"
Pete nodded. "Yeah, you would think that. But you know, it's amazing what you can get people to do when you just act like you know what you're doing. Well, my shift is over. See you around, Kido-san!" Pete waved and walked out of sight.
Jou stared over the boxes and banged his head against one. "Why me?"
"Jou-sempai?" Iori started before his friend banged his head against one of the boxes. "Because- you're Jou! It's so easy to get under your skin?" Armadimon stated with a playful grin.
Jou glared at Armadimon, but didn't say anything both for Iori's sake and because one could never blame a Digimon for anything, really. "Come on, I'll take you out through the emergency room."
Armadimon gulped at Jous glare, while Iori realized he needed to teach Armadimon the meaning of 'tact'. "Alright," Iori replied glancing at the boxes, "is this going to get sorted out by someone else? You really need to rest and if you have to clean it up.."
Jou shook his head and held up his hands at the pile of boxes. "No no. You guys can go. I'll get someone to clean this up and I'll be out of here later." He did say he was reluctant to leave the hospital didn't he? Apparently, this is what they call irony. "The emergency is down the hall and take the first left."
Iori nodded something coming to his mind, "If you like.. maybe we can help? I mean.. we can't just abandon you- and it would get Armadimon away from the television," Iori suggested, already guessing his friend would probably to tell him to go home- but he still had to ask. The comment made Armadimon frown and mutter something inaudible under his breath.
Jou shook his head. "Only if you want him to turn into Digmon and give every patient here a heart attack and some of the nurses, too. Go ahead, I'll get someone to take care of this."
Iori sighed but nodded,"Hopefully it doesn't take you to long," he said bowing slightly- as Armadimon had already run off in the direction of the exit, "have a good rest of the day Jou-sempai." he said before following his partner.
"Thanks, you too, Iori-kun," Jou said as he returned the bow. Jou looked at the boxes and scratched his head. Just what was in these things? He opened one of the top boxes and looked inside. Paper clips. Millions and millions of paper clips.