Inbred

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Chapter 43

When he awoke, he found he wasn't dead. He was alive and laying upon a hospital bed, but this time, Uchiha Sasuke was glad to be alive.

He blinked against the harsh fluorescent light and clamped his eyelids shut when his corneas burned and tears stung the corners of his eyes. His head was still throbbing and he rose a heavy hand to rest it against his forehead and was surprised when it came into contact with the bandage wrapped tightly around his head.

What the hell happened to him?

The last thing he remembered was driving along the highway before someone swerved into his lane then crashed into him. He remembered the whiplash and slamming into his air bag before the car rolled over a few times and stopped on it's roof. He didn't recall much after that because he'd blacked out but he did remember having an out of body experience when the angels came.

They must have decided to spare his life because he was still very much alive...he could feel it. He couldn't remember what they had said but he did remember that one of them wore some pretty expensive shoes and he recalled wanting to tell one of them to take his hands off...

Oh my God...Neji!

Sasuke forced himself up on his elbows but his head swam and a sharp pain shot along his left arm. He forced back the nauseating effects of another black-out and grunted when his feet refused to respond as they should.

"Uchiha-sama?" It was a feminine voice, but it wasn't Neji's so he ignored it and managed to sit up and guide his legs over the side of the bed.

"Mr. Uchiha, you shouldn't get up," her voice was filled with concern and she clutched her clipboard in one hand and hustled over to her patient. "Mr. Uchiha you should rest!"

He stood on his feet and his body swayed as the room shifted and spun beneath him. Sasuke groaned and put one unsteady foot in front of the next but when his movement was hampered by some kind of leash stuck into his hand he grabbed the tube and removed the IV with one vicious tug.

"No! Don't!" she yelled and reached out to push him back against the bed but he slapped her hand away.

"Don't touch me!" he warned with a feral growl. A hazy glance around the room revealed that there were no other beds in this room besides his and he assumed he must have been placed in a private ward like the last time. Well, Neji wasn't here, so he'd have to check another room.

Sasuke padded over to the door and collapsed against it and tried to use his body weight to push the door open but it wouldn't budge. His hands gripped the large handle and he used what little strength he had to pull it open, but he could only get it to go so far so he slipped between the crack and stumbled into the hallway and fell face forward onto the cold, hard linoleum.

"Doctor! Doctor!" his nurse called out to a man down the hall and Sasuke heard the clicking of his shoes get louder as he approached him.

"What happened here?" the elderly man asked as he assisted the young Uchiha heir to his feet.

"He just got up suddenly, Doctor. I tried to stop him, I really did."

"Now, now it's okay, Suzume," he consoled the young girl who was now close to tears. "Let's just get him back into-"

"No!" The boy shouted and pushed himself away from the shorter man. He staggered backwards but managed to regain his balance just in time. "Where's Neji?" he rasped and clutched at his left arm that was suffering from a stabbing pain. In a way he was grateful, because each wave of pain washed away the befuddled haze that had settled around him.

"Who?"

Sasuke swallowed and gritted his teeth against another wave. "The boy that was with me."

"Boy? What boy? Oh..." and realization suddenly dawned on him. "Do you perhaps mean the girl that was in the passenger-seat?"

Oh...shit!

"Girl?" he echoed, suddenly playing ignorant and his worst fears were confirmed when the doctor nodded his head.

'Oh, just fucking great!' he thought to himself.

"You must still be a little dazed," admitted the balding man and he stepped closer to help the Uchiha who was slowly sinking into a seat in the hallway. "Is this Neji, person a friend of yours?"

Sasuke nodded. He was a local celebrity and everyone knew him so he wasn't surprised he received special treatment and was placed in the private ward, but Neji was known only among his peers so it would be highly unlikely for any of the staff to be familiar with him, but it would still be dangerous if they found out he was a Hyuga and even more so if they opened a file on him.

"Yeah, we're...very close," he confessed. "Where is she?"

"She's just down the hall," and the doctor pointed out the respective room with an index finger. "You know I'm surprised you recovered so quickly," he nodded and his voice revealed he was very impressed. "It was a pretty bad accident and most of the drunk drivers we get don't make it through the ni-"

"Drunk?" Sasuke glared up at the man and he was very appalled at the doctor's insinuation.

The practitioner apologized for having offended the Uchiha but proceeded to plead his case. "Well when the police brought you here they said you'd been drunk and ran off the side of the road then rolled down the embankment."

"What?!" he bellowed and immediately shot to his feet causing the shorter man to take a cautious step back and the girl to drop her clipboard.

"Forgive me, Mr. Uchiha," he stammered. "But I'm only telling you what the police told me."

Sasuke put his hand on his head then sighed and sank back into his chair. This didn't make any sense. "What about the other driver?"

The doctor was almost afraid to ask. "What other driver."

Sasuke glared up at him then decided it didn't make any sense taking out his anger on the man that obviously knew nothing about what happened. "The driver of the other car that hit us."

The old man shook his head. "There was no other driver admitted to this hospital and as far as I was told, there was no other car either."

He was silent for a moment as he tried to piece together what the doctor was telling him. Apparently they got into an accident and by the time the police arrived on the scene there wasn't a driver and the other car had mysteriously vanished so they probably assumed that the Uchiha had been drinking. "What else do you know?" he asked and leaned back into the chair, all traces of his addled state had completely vanished.

"Well," the doctor sighed and shoved his hands into his pocket after dismissing the young nurse. "I wasn't told much but the boy who reported the emergency and rescued you from the car just before it exploded would be the best person to talk to?"

"Exploded?"

"Mmm, hmm. He said the car caught afire just before he got there and he managed to pull you out and drag you two to safety.

"A fire?"

The old man nodded and Sasuke tapped his chin and searched his memory for any recollections of a fire but the only one that came to mind was the one that took his family years ago. He didn't remember there being a fire that night and if there had been a fire then he would definitely remember something that traumatic. Something wasn't fitting together and the doctor's story wasn't consistent with what actually happened so as he'd said, the best person to talk to would be the boy that rescued them.

"Is the boy still here?"

"No, he's not," he replied with a shake of his head.

"Do you know his name or where I can find him?"

The elderly man paused to think about it then asked the boy to give him a minute while he went over to the nurse's station to ask her a question. She picked up the phone to make a call and the doctor waited patiently for the response before she hung up and returned to the young man. "The driver of the ambulance said that the boy who rode with you went by the name of Momochi Haku and judging by the uniform he wore he believes he attends the Kuni private school for boys."

Sasuke was familiar with the name of the school, he didn't know exactly where it was located but he knew which province it was in. Finding the boy shouldn't be a problem.

"Is there anything else doctor?"

"No, but um...wait!" he held up a hand just as Sasuke got to his feet and the taller man raised a thin, dark eyebrow. "A-Are you going to see your gir- umm...friend?"

Sasuke nodded and the man shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the next. "Mr. Uchiha, before you go, I'd just like to offer my condolences."

His body froze and his heart stopped beating at the same time he suddenly forgot how to breathe. He put a hand over his heart and he suddenly felt like blacking out again.

Was Neji...

"Con-condolences?" he stammered and his eyes dropped to the floor. " Neji...did she...die?"

"Ah, no no," he smiled in an attempt to console the Uchiha and clear up the misunderstanding. "She almost did but we managed to revive her in time, however," his shoulders drooped and he shook his head sadly. "The child didn't make it."

Sasuke had been washed over with so much relief that he thought he'd be lifted off his feat and float towards the ceiling but he came crashing back down and his head snapped up and he locked eyes with the shorter man at the last thing he said. "Child?" he echoed with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Yes," he started to explain. "Although your girlfriend survived the accident, her body suffered too much trauma and the fetus dislodged so we had to remove it to prevent further complications and...you had no idea did you?" and when the younger man continued to give him that wide-eyed and vacant stare the doctor immediately regretted opening his big mouth. "Oh dear, this is awkward," he murmured.

"Neji was pregnant?" The doctor nodded slowly.

Neji was pregnant...with his baby!

Was it possible to be overjoyed with happiness and overwhelmed with grief at the same time? Sasuke wasn't sure but for the first time in his life he was confused about his emotions. It was easy to hate itachi, it was easy to love Neji, it was easy to find Naruto annoying but to give the name to the feeling of finding out you were a father in the same second you found out you're not anymore was implausible.

"Mr. Uchiha I'm really sorry, I thought you knew-"

"How old was it?" he interrupted the man suddenly desperate to find out everything he could about the child he'd never get a chance to hold.

"Umm, if I were to estimate I'd say it was about two months old."

"Was it a boy or a girl?"

The doctor tried not to laugh at his ignorance. "I'm sorry, but it was too early to tell."

Sasuke's shoulders slumped and he looked at the floor again. He still couldn't get over this. Neji was pregnant with his child and it died!

His fingers curled into a fist and right now he wanted to be angry, he wanted to kill the mother-fucker that was responsible for this and he was going to find him, because no matter what the police had said, no matter what the doctor had said and no matter what that kid Haku said he knew that there was another driver and that driver had his baby's blood on his hands.

"Does Neji know about this?" he ground out through gritted teeth and the doctor shuddered slightly at the Uchiha's sudden ferocity. He shook his head because he was too intimidated to speak. "Are you going to tell her?"

"We-Well," the old man stammered. "We'll need to warn her about the possibility of future miscarriages and I'd like to suggest that you not attempt to bear another child so soon."

Saskue nodded and asked a final request of the doctor. "Let me be the one to tell her."

He honoured it with a nod of his head and the younger man turned and headed down the short hallway towards the room his lover was in. He gripped the door-knob tightly with one hand and took a deep-steadying breath before peeking around the door. Neji's head turned towards the source of the creak and his face lit up when he saw it was Sasuke.

"Hey," he whispered in a hoarse voice and Sasuke's heart melted at the weak, little smile that he gave just for him. He greeted him like-wise as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"How are you feeling, koi?" he asked softly and dragged a chair closer to the bed so he could sit at his lover's side and grasp one hand in his.

"Awful," he admitted with a frown on his unnaturally pale face. "I hurt everywhere, and they keep feeding me pain killers and sleeping pills, and pumping me with fluids I've never even heard of, and the nurses look at me funny Sasuke," he confessed and Sasuke knew he was worried that his deepest fears had suddenly surfaced. "They know about me don't they?"

"Shh," he brushed a strand of hair away from his cheek and planted a kiss on his white knuckles. "Yes, they know you're really a girl but they don't know you're a Hyuga, so as long we don't tell them anything they won't find out."

The look on his face was full of skepticism but he bit his lip and tried to have faith. "How are you doing, Sasuke?" and when he saw the anguished look on his lover's face Neji lifted his head and reached out to stroke his cheek with the other hand that was hooked up to the drip. "Sasuke, what's wrong?"

"Neji, I don't know how to tell you this," he sobbed and when the long-haired brunette saw his shoulders shaking he sat up and became very distraught.

"Sasuke, what's wrong...are you dying?"

He shook his head.

"Am...Am I dy-"

"Neji," he interrupted and got up from the chair and took both of his hand in his. "Neji, God knows I love you with all my heart and what I have to say is the hardest thing for me but-"

"Sasuke, you're scaring me," his voice was a low quiver.

Sasuke stopped trying to find the right words to say and decided to just blurt it out instead. "Neji, you were two months pregnant, but you lost the baby in the accident and they had to remove the fetus."

The boy stiffened and his breath caught in his throat as Sasuke's words started to sink in and he yanked his hands away from the Uchiha's grasp, "Don't fuck with me, Sasuke," he roared but the tears that welled up in those onyx eyes told him it wasn't a lie.

But he still didn't want to belive it.

"Neji I'm sorry-"

He shook his head and whispered a "No!"

"But it's the truth-"

"No! No!" his voice grew louder and he tried to drown out the other man.

"I know you don't want to hear this but-"

"No! No! No! No! NO!" Neji screamed the last word and broke into loud, ugly sobs. Fat tears streamed down his grieved face and he clutched at his stomach as if somehow that would bring his baby back. "Oh God! Sasuke, No!"

The doctor and his nurses suddenly swarmed into the room and immediately went to work trying to calm him down but Neji just screamed at them and warned them not to touch him. A few of the nurses tried to restrain him and he kicked at them and flailed his arms while the doctor prepared a needle and gave him an injection in his right arm. Neji cursed him and ordered the man to give him back his baby.

Sasuke's heart broke and he felt nauseous. He couldn't stay and watch, he couldn't stay and listen to his lover cry over and over again: 'I want my baby! I want my baby!'.

Sasuke exited the room but he could still hear Neji down the hall and the nurse at the station heard him too and looked over at Sasuke as if he was going to walk over there and tell her all the juicy details. He just ignored her and went back into his room. He collapsed into a nearby chair and for the first time in eleven years Uchiha Sasuke wept.

He cried bitterly as he had to endure the faint screams of his lover emanating throughout the ward and as his voice died down so too did Sasuke's tears. He wiped at his eyes and sniffled for a bit before finally getting up from his chair and climbing into bed but before his head reached the pillow he heard the familiar ring of his cellphone. He was going to ignore it but if it was Naruto then his friend was probably worried why he wasn't back yet.

Sasuke got off the bed again and headed over to the end table that had his clothes, wallet and other belongings. He picked up the little black flip-phone and checked the saved messages. There were two: one missed call and one text-message.

He checked the call first and recognized it as his dorm apartment number, received just about the time he was in his meeting, and he knew that one was Naruto. He pulled up the second message which was the one that he'd just received, he expected it to be Naruto again but it was traced as an unknown caller and when he opened it his blood turned cold.

The message read in large All-Caps: 'GET OUT OF THAT HOSPITAL, NOW!!'

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