Chapter Text
Inko paced anxiously across the nigh sparkling hospital floor, a soft dialing tone ringing in her ear. “Please pick up Hisashi, please.” She murmured quietly.
“The person you are trying to reach is not available, please leave a message at the tone…”
“Dammit!” Inko’s arm jerked up, wound tight above her head to throw the cause of her current frustration, tears burning in her eyes. She needed his support right now. Was she such a terrible mother that she couldn’t handle this alone? She lowered her hand, throwing her phone wouldn’t help her, she needed to calm down. She slumped down on the nearest chair, sinking into the uncomfortable faux leather cloth. Why couldn’t he pick up? This was important. Their son could be- could be- no, she can’t follow that train of thought. Her son needed her to be strong for him, and if she had to do that without the support of her husband she would.
Pinching at the bridge of her nose, she choked back sobs. Things had gone down hill so quickly after Hisashi left for that business trip of his. It wasn’t normally so hard to get calls for him to go through. To think just a small time ago they had been having their last vacation together they’d have for a while…
“Midoriya Inko?”
Inko glanced upward tiredly, a numb curiosity compelling her to figure out who was trying to get her attention this time. A fairly tall attendant seemed to loom above her, clipboard in hand. She glanced at what Inko assumed was a page of her son's information.
Inko scrambled to her feet, desperate to know what information the attendant might have on her son. “Is there any news?”
The attendant glanced at her with poorly concealed sympathy and gestured down the nearly empty hallway. “If you’d follow me this way ma’am…”
The attendant pulled a page off her clipboard and tucked it under the rest of the neatly stacked pages. “Our hope to move your son out of the ICU within the week won’t be possible if his fever doesn’t stop rising. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to pass the tests to see if he can stay off of life support and his fever has only gotten higher. I’m sorry ma’am, but he’s not going to be moved out for a while.”
She pushed open a large door and they turned a sharp corner.
Inko inhaled sharply and almost sobbed. Her poor baby looked so small covered in the tubes, wires, and blankets that were barely keeping him alive. The respirator covering the lower half of his face made him look so vulnerable.
At least the room was filled with quiet beeping, beeping that showed her that she still had hope.
Izuku thrashed uncontrollably, his arms grabbing at anything within reach. “No no NO— come back mama! Mama, mom, mama please, come back!”
His screams echoed down the hallway, melting into the blend of sobbing and screaming of other patients and visitors. He begged and begged and begged. He seemed to always be begging nowadays. Though the answers to his begs he never heard.
The doctors said he was hallucinating, a side effect of his condition. What he saw, no one was quite sure. But whatever it was never seemed to loosen it’s tight grip on his consciousness. But Inko griped just as hard. She was determined to make sure her little boy made it through this traumatic experience, for all three of the Midoriya family.
Still, it hurt her terribly to hear her kiddo screaming for her, even as she sat right in front of him. Surely it couldn’t get worse than this? Oh how wrong poor Inko was…
The first time Izuku was seemingly lucid enough to understand what they were saying to him, Inko nearly cried with joy. It didn’t last long.
Izuku stared at her in terror, recognition not gracing his eyes. Turning to the nurse he sobbed “You said you would get my mommy! That’s not my mama. Where’s my mom?”
Horrified at the fact her son wasn’t recognizing her, Inko took a step towards Izuku. Hand stretched outwards to attempt to comfort him.
Izuku recoiled violently “NO! Go away! I don’t know you. You aren’t my mom! Where is my mom?”
In an attempt to stop things from getting worse the nurses sprung to action pulling the curtain around Izuku’s bed shut and gently escorting Inko out.
Izuku’s panicked cries followed Inko down the hall along with the quiet whispers of the nurses' attempts to calm him down.
Inko sobs herself to sleep shortly after that, unsure if things would really be okay after this.
Many tearful and desperate days later Inko was allowed back in Izuku’s room after the doctors decided that her presence wouldn’t cause him stress. Inko was very grateful for this, having been quite distressed by the incident herself.
As soon as she was able to Inko clasped his tiny hand in hers, gently holding it to her tear stained cheek. Her bottom lip twitched stubbornly, no matter how much she told herself she shouldn’t cry anymore.
In a painful silence and through sorrowful eyes, she watched her little boy suffer.
It didn’t take long for her muddled brain to disconnect from the situation, everything around her turning into a colorless blur. Only the stark contrast of the vibrant green against the white kept her from tuning out entirely.
She startled out of her scattered thoughts when a hand settled on her shoulder. Her phone was held in front of her, displaying a familiar caller ID.
Tears welled up unbidden in her eyes once again, she hadn’t been able to get a hold of him for so long, she had been beginning to worry. She thanked the nurse and silently slipped out of her son's room.
“Hisashi?” She whispered almost not daring to hope.
“Is this Midoriya Inko speaking?”
Inko paused and looked at the caller ID again, had she been mistaken?
No. See? There in bold letters was her husband's name. She tentatively put the phone back up to her ear.
“Yes, this is she.” Who was she speaking to and why were they using her husband's phone?
“Ah, good. This is Dr. Garaki speaking and I have some unfortunate news for you. Your husband has been in a terrible accident and is currently in critical care. We don’t expect he will be conscious anytime soon. He did howev-“
“What do you mean by an accident?” Inko interrupted. She was borderline hysterical at this point and didn’t care about social niceties right now. “He’s hurt? How so? Will he be okay?” This was Inko’s breaking point. Both of her boys were in the hospital? And she wouldn’t be able to visit her husband because she couldn’t possibly fly to America with her baby Izuku in the hospital here in Japan.
“I’m sorry ma’am, but it’s hard to tell at this point. We’ll be sure to keep you updated. And as I tried to state before, don’t be concerned about any bills you might have at home. He recently set up his bank account to send you money whenever you need it. Just give them a call.”
“He what?” Inko sobbed confused about the situation. It was hard to wrap her head around the fact that her husband was injured and alone.
“What about him? Is there any way we could get him back here to Japan? So he can be home?” Dear Kami, please give her the comfort of being able to see her husband again.
“I’m afraid he’s not stable enough at the time for any such transportation at the moment Mrs. Midoriya. I’m sorry ma’am, I’m afraid I am currently out of time to discuss such matters. Please feel free to call anytime if you have more questions about his condition. Goodbye”
Dr. Garaki hung up on her before she could even say a polite goodbye back, leaving Inko even more flustered than before.
She sat staring at her blank screen long after the upsetting call had ended. Tears ran down her face in now familiar trails of sorrow. Inko, as she had almost every night for nearly a month, cried herself to sleep in a very uncomfortable hospital chair. Her phone dropping to the floor shortly afterwards.