Dearest Ah Lan

Chapter 3: Wake Me Up

"For all intents and purposes, Zhao Yunlan is fine. He has a mild concussion, but otherwise, all results have come back normal."

"Then why isn't he waking up?" his words were calm, revealing nothing of the fear and worry clawing away at his insides.

"There seems to be no discernible cause. We've run all possible tests."

"Then run some more! How can you stop when you haven't even found the reason?" There. He'd allowed the reins to slip. He could see it when both the doctor and the nurse stepped back, discomfort and fear flaring in their eyes. It would do him no good to lose control. Taking a deep breath, he asked softly, "What can we do?"

"I'm sorry. All we can do is wait. He should awaken on his own soon."

"And if he doesn't?" He didn't say those words out loud, only nodding absently when they walked away. What would be the use? He had to wake up. He would wake up.

. . . . . . . .

Shen Wei sat at Yunlan's side, his eyes trained on the man before him. Upon getting that phone call, he had raced to the hospital, praying that everything would be alright, that it was nothing serious. He'd arrived here to find Yunlan unconscious, bruises and scratches all over the visible parts of his body.

When Shen Wei had demanded answers, he had found that no one could give him any. Even though they were at one of the best hospitals in the city, and Yunlan in the care of the best doctor in that facility, they did not know why Zhao Yunlan remained unconscious even days later.

"How is Chief Zhao?" a male voice asked from the doorway.

Shen Wei turned to look at the man standing there, his sluggish mind scrambling to remember just who he was. A moment of clarity supplied the answer; Deputy Chief Daqing, deputy to Zhao Yunlan's Chief position at his new job at SID. He was surprisingly young, but if you chanced to look into his eyes, you could see the wealth of experience hiding there. He was on the short side, slender, with a propensity to wearing overalls, even to work. He stood there, shuffling from foot to foot, and Shen Wei realized that he had been staring far too long.

"He's the same," he finally muttered in a clipped voice. His anger at this man wasn't rational. He had no reason to blame Deputy Chief Daqing for the fact that Zhao Yunlan had been out in the field when he wasn't even due to begin his job for another week. Knowing it was irrational did not make the anger disappear, it lingered and burned in the far reaches of Shen Wei's mind. Why had Zhao Yunlan even been there?

"Chief Zhao wanted to get a feel for the unit before he actually took charge of SID," Da Qing offered, coming to stand next to a seated Shen Wei, his eyes trained on the man lying in the bed. "He soon had the entire unit eating out of his hands. When the call came in for backup, he insisted on being there to help close the case. It was when we were chasing the suspect that we had the accident. That car came out of nowhere, and the Chief turned the wheel so that he could take the full brunt of the impact. He protected me, taking the hit himself." The words were softly spoken, an offering to the man sitting there. A confused expression crossed Daqing's face. He had spent years in law enforcement, had gone out many times to break the news of tragedy to grieving spouses; why was he treating this man the same way he would treat them?

Shen Wei nodded, realizing at the answer that he had asked the question out loud. "Damn impossible man," Shen Wei muttered, his hand coming out to carefully hold Yunlan's. His eyes moved over the hand that had a needle going into it, to the needle sticking in his arm, to all the wires attached to parts of his body, monitoring his vitals.

The hospital room was cool, the lighting harsh, revealing in all of its glaring glory the bruises and paleness of Yunlan's body. Everything was just too much. The hospital room, the bed, the personnel coming in and out, the medication . . . that sterile, bitter scent had taken everything over, until even Zhao Yunlan's scent seemed to have been drowned out.