A/N: It took me within moments of reading the finished Carosel For Two to come up with this idea...( I'm good at writing sequels ^_^ ).
Also (yes I have to dedicate stories to people all the time, I know I know...) I MUST dedicate this to my friend Chris... some call him Takato (unfortunatly he's a Takato-look-a-like/act-a-like) or as the girls now call him... 'pooky'... (don't ask.. long story...). If it wasn't for him this whole sequel woulda never popped up in my head.. (he was tryin' to make fun of my 'Rika' phase I go in sometimes and he accidently inspired me...)
~
The sun set over the horizon, casting a beautiful orange glow on the entire city as Henry Wong sat in the apartment he shared with the rest of his rather large family, staring out the large window in the living room. He'd spend hours on long dreary summer days just staring out that window, mostly when it was too hot for the tamers to have their weekly meetings, tempatures soaring well past one-hundred this past Friday night. It was Monday now on this hot day smack in the middle of June. School hadn't let out too far back in the month, and the kids were already growing restless, being cooped up inside most the day from the heat.
Henry'd spent a full three hours on the phone with his girlfriend, Rika, who'd been with him in the relationship since the autumn before. They sat in their rooms chatting about random things until Rika's grandmother's voice was clearly heard, demanding for her to get off the phone. Henry had nothing to do since that one moment.
Suzy tugged on his sleeveless white shirt a few times earlier, begging for him to play with her, but he had objected and went back to being slumped over the bulky couch arm staring out at the sunlit city below, rarely seeing anyone out on the sidewalks that were usually packed with people this time of day.
IceRenamon, Terriermon's form that both tamer and digimon throughly enjoyed him being in, didn't brave the hot weather either, though it was clear to Henry the sky-blue fox digimon was going restless with the dark approaching.
Henry looked over at the digimon sitting on the top of the couch, invisible to anyone else who tried to see him. He had grown to see why Rika treasured Renamon so much in the past months, also understood Rika's problem with Renamon being gone more than five hours at a time, having had a scare of his own before when IceRenamon hadn't shown for multiple days at a time.
After a dense conversation with the digimon, though, it was agreed to come to the same terms as the other fox digimon and her tamer.
Henry's thoughts strayed back to the red-haired girl always on his mind of late. Her attitude seemed to change with the seasons, growing cold and harsh now in the summer month upon them.
She had gone from calling the brown-sugar colored haired boy from 'Takato' back to 'Goggle-head' like she always had, even snapped at Henry himself a few times. She couldn't sit amongst the group of digidestined for more than a hour at a time at the most, saying they were 'making her go crazy'. She rarely smiled, rarely cried, and it was impossible to come to the realization of a laugh.
He could remember the last words Rika said over the phone, probably not even noticing Henry had heard her as she hung the receiver up; "Look, Grandma, if I can't be with my friends then I'm heading outside... I don't care how hot it is I'm not staying cramped up in this stupid house without any contact with my friends!" and then the phone went dead.
He prayed silently that she was just threatening, the heat outside could take anyone out instantly, but, this was Rika we were talking about. Henry felt a knot grow in his stomach as he thought about Rika probably lying unconcious somewhere from heat exhaustion, no-one to help her, dyi--
His thoughts were cut off when the phone rang, making him jump half-way out of his skin.
His father picked up the phone that sat across the room from Henry.
"Hello?"
Henry settled back in the couch, trying to calm down his extremly fast beating heart as much as possible, and sighed. It was only hypothetical, after all, Rika was probably sitting in her room at home going over her cards, thinking up new strategies to kick Kazu's butt with the next time she saw him.
"What?!"
Henry's attention was diverted yet once again at his father's tone of voice going from casual to panicked instantly. Henry saw IceRenamon out of the corner of his eye bolt up alert as well.
"She's where? Okay... yes we'll be right there.."
The worried look on his father's face sent a bolt of fear through Henry's heart. Was Suzy in trouble? His mother? His sister? Maybe his grandmother that lived out of town aways...
"Henry..." his father said solemnly as he put down the receiver and looked up at his son sitting upright on the couch, his gray eyes filled with fear.
"It's.. Rika..."
Worse then what he had originally thought, Henry jumped to his feet and gave a loud shriek.
"What? What happened? Is she okay? Where is she? When can we go? I have to see her now!"
"Calm down! I'll explain on the way to the hospital..." Henry's father slipped on his shoes sitting nearby.
"THE HOSPITAL?!?"
"Henry just get ready..." Mr. Wong said sharply at the screaming son.
Without another moment's notice, Henry had his shoes on and was already in the elevator heading down towards the car sitting in the apartment building's parking lot, tottaly oblivious to the fact that it was now ninety-seven degrees outside, the only thing on his mind was the auburn-haired girl that had stolen his heart almost a full year before.
Henry sat beside a long hospital bed, surrounded by Takato, Jeri, Kazu, and Kenta, all anxiously awaiting either the explaination or Rika to wake up.
The doctor walked in, tall with dark hair and a smiling face as he looked at the five worried teenagers surrounding the tough-looking girl, currently unconcious.
"Have your parents explained what happened yet to you?"
Henry was silent, just staring at Rika, currently bandanged up like a mummy in ancient Egypt from being banged up pretty horribly, letting Takato or one of the others answer the question.
"No sir." Kazu was the one who answered.
The doctor clutched the small board which held Rika's chart against his stomach and smiled again at the teens.
"The heat got to her, she collasped, fell down a flight of stairs, hit her head pretty hard. But she'll be fine. No broken bones, fractured limbs... I have a feeling she'll live."
A loud sigh of relief filled the room from the combined five.
The doctor smiled at Henry, the only person sitting down and touching a single part of the girl laying on the bed, holding her hand gently in his.
"Girlfriend?"
Henry nodded slowly, eyes never peeling off the girl.
"She'll be fine. She just needs to rest."
With that the doctor walked off, his steps being heard on the cold marble floor until he closed the door behind him.
The same eery silence that had gone before conquered the room as all eyes turned to Rika, the only sound was those of the intercoms outside the room echoing the calls to doctors and the sound of the beeps off the heart monitor attached onto Rika, giving a slow steady pace as she breathed peacefully.
Soon eyes turned to one another, giving silent remarks instead of words, and Jeri sighed loudly, collasping onto the edge of the windowsill, maintaining a clear view of who she considered to be her best friend laying unconcious on a hospital bed, a place that, even Takato, could never even imagine to ever see Rika.
Takato seemed to be at a loss for words, for Rika, or Henry. He turned thoughts of mean things he'd said to the girl before today that might've brought on the urge to go against her grandmother's will. He'd already been through the whole 'it's not your fault' conversation with Jeri earlier, but it really didn't seem to help, he still thought it was, and was completly sure Henry thought the same of himself.
Takato just put his hand on Henry's shoulder, a silent voice to him that everything would be fine as he went and sat beside Jeri.
Kazu and Kenta were much the same, more stunned that they were one of the people called when the accident happened then anything else.
"Uhhh..."
All attention turned back to Rika, now moaning as she opened her eyes, blinking a few times from the sudden light that hit her in the face overhead.
"Rika!" Everyone exclaimed at once.
She looked around the room, a bit dizzily at first then grew a confused look on her face, letting all anger and frustration in her voice vanish as she asked a simple question that anyone in her position would.
"Where am I?"
"You took a hard fall back there little lady." Kazu grinned. "Caused yourself to be in the hospital."
"Oh.." Rika responded quickly, then looked at the group, a sudden look of confusion crossing her face.
"Rika I'm just glad you're safe." Henry said quietly, trying to keep himself from breaking down.
The look on Rika's face grew even more confused as she studied his face. She shook her head softly in yet another confused motion.
"Who are you?"
The whole group exchanged nervous glances then looked back at Rika as a long strecth of silence followed.
~~ A/N: MWAHAHAHAHA I'M BRILLIANT I TELL YOU!! PURE BRILLIANT!! *clears her throat quickly* well I can only imagine what the reviews for this thing are gonna look like... *sighs* well... I hope this takes off as well as the other one did. R/R! ~