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 Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:27 pm
Something strange happened that day when Tek and Pash left Raven alone at the Hospital. Days passed, and she would eagerly wait for when Tek would come back for her, but she never did. Raven would ask the nurses as they attended her room if they'd heard any news about either her or Bryan, but they would always shake their head sadly.
After about two weeks without contact, Raven's condition mysteriously grew worse and worse. She refused to eat, let alone speak to anybody unless they had news about Tek, Bryan, Bird, Alex, or any other Eden for that matter. Eventually, a day came when Raven passed out from exhaustion and dreamed of finally going home with them. She dreamed of this for a long time, and it took the hospital staff [and Rumkai] a long time before they finally were able to wake her up. After that episode, the ever faithful butterfly refused to stop making a racket if she went to sleep without eating again.
All the while Raven was hospitalized, the staff was also trying hard to find a way to contact somebody that would take Raven home. They knew that somebody had visited her before, but it took them some time before they were finally able to come into contact with a person named Shouko, who would finally arrange to have the girl picked up, and have her bills paid for as well.
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:41 pm
Shouko had been surprised when the hospital called her. She'd known that Raven had lost her guardian, but it had been around the time she'd been called away into Eden and had never thought to check up on the situation. So it had come as a shock to her when the nurse on the phone told her Raven had been in the hospital for nearly a year in touch-and-go condition. It was an admittedly strange situation.
After considerable amounts of searching, Shouko managed to find Lena's records. There had been two prospective guardians lined up to take care of Raven should Bird vanish as she had. One, Tek, had already been dispelled as gone (people on Gaia vanished from time to time. It was a fact of life.)
But the other she had managed to get in contact with, and after a short conversation had arranged to meet at the hospital.
She was in the lobby now, waiting with a nurse who would take them to see Raven as soon as the man she had spoken to appeared.
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 7:57 pm
When Shane got the call from Shouko, he immediatly rushed over to the hospital, almost forgetting to drop off Pyren and Erika at respective babysitters. He didn't think that he'd be gone too long anyways, but if the reason for he being called to the hospital was for what he thought, then it was probably going to be high time that he finally invested in that van.
However, the situation being what it was, Shane threw on his cowhide jacket, hopped on his trusty motorcycle and dashed off towards the hospital at near double the speed limits, weaving in and out of traffic like a maniac. It was a wonder a hundred ambulances didn't follow him after the stunts he pulled when he skidded his bike into the parking lot and dashed into the waiting room, not really sure who it was he was looking for.
Dashing towards the nearest nurse, who was standing next to a pink haired girl, he sputtered out of breath.
"Shou...Shouko," he took a few seconds to catch his breath, "Somebody named Shouko told me to come here quick. Do you know where I can find her?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:41 am
"That's me," said the pink haired girl before the nurse could reply. "I spoke to you on the phone. Shane is it?"
The nurse coughed impatiently, as if eager to get going.
"We'd better talk and walk," said Shouko. "You were listed as next of kin for Raven in case her guardian had to leave her, you know."
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:47 am
Shane walked along behind the two of them, quickly racking his brain for what he could remember of the details. Something about kids and leaves and that one of them had had quite a fall.
"Yeah, I remember somebody telling me something like that a long time ago," he said, "But what happend?"
He didn't think he had ever met either Raven or her guardian, but from what he knew of how things worked on Gaia, people had a way of choosing others to look after their kids, and Shane wasn't one that would just leave one abandoned like this if there was room still left in his house.
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:17 pm
"I don't have the whole story," said Shouko as she followed the nurse, "But Raven's mother Bird disappeared in shady circumstances, and Raven spent a bit of time in Eden. Teklite was meant to take her when she was released from the hospital, but she never came back after a few visits."
She shrugged and turned a corner.
"Which isn't to say Raven's bad luck. She's lovely. You'll like her."
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:44 pm
Not wanting to sound foolish at this time, Shane withheld the fact that he had no idea about what she meant by Eden. Sure he knew about the biblical stuff from Earth, but what did that have to do with anything? Instead, he said nothing as they reached the door to Raven's room.
Anyways, Shane didn't think that it mattered too much anyways, he got the gist of what Shouko was saying, and felt rather sorry for the girl. Well, he was in this now it seemed, so he made a promise to himself then before he even met her to do everything to he could to be a good guardian for this 'Raven'...whoever she was.
Standing outside the door though, there was a pause as Shane looked to Shouko, and then back at the door.
"Umm...should, maybe, you go first?" he asked, figuring that she might want to see a familiar face before his.
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Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 8:00 pm
"Right," nodded Shouko. She gave the door a tap and then pushed it open.
"Raven?" she asked, sticking her head inside. "Someone's here to see you. Can we come in?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 12:33 am
With a start, Raven sat up in bed and stared at the face in the door almost as if she had forgotten it, but this expression was only on her face for a moment before she leaped out of bed and ran to hug a finally new but familiar face.
"Wh-what took you so long?" Raven said laughing and rubbing tears of joy out of her eyes.
Shane, feeling that he was probably in the way of this reunion, stepped behind the frame of the door and faced Shouko and Raven next to a wall. Shane's eyes widened when he noticed that the girl that was in the room, was not only rather malnourished, but also that she had blue wings that were her arms. Wishing to still stay hidden though, he decided not to comment on either of these observations, just yet.
After finally releasing Shouko from her long embrace, Raven finally got her senses back and stared directly at Shouko, still in a slight manner of disbelief.
"It's good to see you," she said, smiling a bit in her old way, though still looking worse for wear. "but, wait...you said there's another person here? I don't see anybody."
It was about at this point when Shane figured that he didn't have much more of a choice. Stepping out from behind the wall he waved to Raven from behind Shouko with a slightly timid but friendly look on his face. He didn't know why he was acting so...well, more peculiar than usual, but perhaps it was simply the hospital environment that was making him uneasy.
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Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:43 am
Shouko enthusiastically returned the hug. Raven looked a lot happier than she'd been a while back, and that was a good thing for certain. This was the old Raven everyone loved, clearly!
At the bird girl's prompting, she motioned to Shane.
"Raven?" she asked, "I know you miss Tek and your mother, but this is Shane and he's going to be your guardian now, if you'd like it."
Eyes twinkling, she added, "You'll get to leave the hospital."
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Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:30 pm
"Huh?!" Raven said as she looked at the man behind Shou. He seemed nice, but, this was really sudden.
"I-I don't know Shou, I guess I could but, couldn't I just come back and stay with you?" she said with a blush. The truth was that, Raven was starting to think that she just might be bad luck to grown ups, so it'd probably be safer if she lived at HQ instead.
With Raven's sudden hesitation, Rumkai flew about Raven's face in protest.
"Sorry Kai, but I don't even know who this guy is! You can't expect me to just go off and live with him just like that...where does he live anyways?" Raven demanded.
Shane felt rather out of the conversation at this point, so he decided that if he was going to make a case for himself, now would be the best time. Besides, if he was going to look after Raven, then he'd much prefer that they developed a good relationship right off the start.
"Don't worry Raven," Shane said in his warmest parental tone "I live in a house...umm it's not a super-mansion or anything but I haven't had any complaints yet from anybody about its size. It's got a pretty big backyard too if you really don't like it, but you probably don't want to be out there at this time of year anyways. I also have two other kids named Pyren and Erika who I know will be really happy to meet you."
At this, Raven's protest seemed to come to a halt and she was left speechless as she looked from Shou to Rumkai for some other reason not to have to live with this guy. He seemed really nice, and that's part of what made Raven so frustrated right now, the fact that she was starting to see herself being able to live with him.
"How do you know he can look after me?" she finally asked "He looks pretty scruffy, I bet he's lying and that he's really poor and lives in a shack or something." Raven didn't really believe this, but she was just saying it to make conversation while her mind tried to figure out what to do.
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Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:40 pm
While Shouko saw that Raven was looking for a reason not to go, reason dictated that she didn't have room to put her up, and the hospital wanted her out yesterday. The was healthy and there was no reason for her to still be there.
"Of course it's safe for you to go with him," she assured the younger girl. "I checked up on him! He really does live in a house and have two other kids. What, you think I'd let you go home with a psychopath?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:42 pm
Raven had quite a few thoughts about who it was that Shou would let her go home with, but she decided to keep these thoughts to herself and slowly realized that there didn't seem to be any sort of way for her to get out of this. She really did want to leave, badly. If trusting this man was the way that it had to be then, it was the way she'd go, she really didn't see any bad in him except for the fact that he was a scruffy stranger. Taking another few moments to wrap her head around the change of life that she was about to undertake, she let out a deep breath and smiled at her fullest to Shou.
"Okay then, it doesn't look like I have a choice does it...eh Kai?"
The butterfly flew and landed on Shane's shoulder, and Shane looked at it curiously.
"Is there something with the um... butterfly?" he asked looking at Shou and Raven for answers on this.
"Yeah, that's my friend Rumkai, don't squish him please!" Raven warned.
"I wasn't going to...but..." Shane replied, still confused. Raven smiled.
"I'll...explain when we leave okay?" she said as the butterfly flew back to land in her hair.
"Alright," Shane said, beaming "and once we get back I'll fix you up a great breakfast okay?"
"I...I'd like that," Raven said with a small blush.
"Umm, so is that it then? Is there any sorta...well, paperwork I need to fill out or something?" Shane inquired, turning back to face Shou.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:11 pm
"I've got everything on file, though if you can come by later this week and sign some things that would be good," said Shouko, smiling again and directing it at Raven. Her friend had been in here long enough! It was time to bust out!
"The main nurse's station has a release form for you to get on your way out, though," she added, remembering the procedure as explained to her by an orderly earlier. "If you guys are gonna be okay, I've gotta get back to HQ soon."
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:10 am
"I think we'll be fine," Shane said with a nod, but Raven still shuffled a little bit. Regardless of how her day was going to turn out, she fully intended to give Shou a call at the HQ the next day so that she could let her know how things were going, and to hear a familiar voice. There was a bit of a pause after this and Shane looked at Raven.
"Well, shall we be going then?"
Raven gave a bit of a hesitant nod, but she really meant it. She really did want to get out.
So it was that the two of them left the hospital room, Shane leading the younger one out, and with every step Raven took along with him, she began to realize that this might not be so bad. The papers took about ten minutes for Shane to fill out as they were long and tedious, and Raven [and even one of the nurses] had to laugh at some of the satirical comments Shane made at the logistics.
When everything was finished, Raven waved goodbye to some of the faces she came to know after her lengthy stay and stepped outside with Shane into the chilly air.
"There's a spare jacket I keep in the sidecar if you're cold by the way," Shane said as he moved towards his vehicle, and when Raven gave him a confused look he responded by gesturing to his vehicle "I drive a motorcycle."
"Woah!" Raven exclaimed with a smile, it was actually pretty cool. She got herself ready in the sidecar and put on the spare leather jacket and helmet that was on the seat while Shane started the engine.
"Alright, let's go!" Shane said above the noise and they took off down the road.
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