Ok.  So, as promissed, heres the "sequal" to Ice Age.  If it leaves you 
feeling like the should be some kind of sequal to it, please don't be 
surprised.  If you have this feeling for a long time after this, please 
don't be surprised.  If you have been stalking me with a pocket 
fisherman, please stop.
   This fic is for Mike Loader, just 'cause he asked. (Not that that will 
work again mind you...)
   I have good and bad news.  Good news:  I'm getting out of the rest of 
my 595 project.  All I have to do is finish up the documentation and 
maybe clean up the filtering a bit.  Bad News: Now I'm teaching a class 
this semester.
   On my last post I said I'd write a CGI to do my fic page, and I did.  
I successfully reinvented Unix cat.  Yippeee.  Almost everything is 
available at this address:
   http://bobcat.tamu-commerce.edu/~trotter/fics
Its in plain text format, just like it was meant to be!  If the page 
looks like shit, its because I wrote 95% of it with a one line shell 
script. (Now you know why Windows can't kill Unix)  The two latest 
stories aren't on there yet.

Matthew Trotter, I'm off to try and avoid my shitty little RL for another
                 day.  Say, anyone have a used RL they can sell me?
                 That would be a URL ;)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Now I'm sitting here 
    in the middle of my heart
   Sick with the lonly 
    and the screaming and the dark
   And I'm waiting for sun rise
   Will I see another day
   And I'm waiting for sun rise 
   To come and light my way
------------------------
Matthew Trotter

In Darkness
------------------------
   He watched the monitor as it beeped out her heart rate.  Steady.  
Unchanging.  The slow relentlessness of deep sleep.  Was that better than 
before?  Words floated briefly through his mind.

                                   stabelized
waiting

                   coma

                                                      physical health

   There was no more doubt she would live.  She had passed that point 
long ago.  They never would have moved her back here if she wasn't 
completely out of risk.  Not that it mattered, the new danger was even 
greater than before.  An age old question, perhapse only his son would 
understand the signifigance, and the irony.  To be, or not to be.  That 
was the question.  No doctor could answer that question.  No priest, no 
psychiatrist, she was beyond them all.  Now the only one who knew was his 
daughter.  And as far as he could tell, she chose not to be.
   His son was out.  Not that he didn't care, but it wasn't healthy for 
him to sit here everyday.  Alone in a hospital room with his father and 
sleeping sister.  He needed to go out and lead his life.  To bring new 
stories to tell his sister as the darkness of evening closed in.  It 
probably wasn't healthy for him to be here all the time either, but then 
he owed his daughter years.  The least he could do was give her his days...
   Today his son was bringing another type of doctor to see his daughter.  
He could have stopped the endless parade of people, but then that would be 
like giving up hope.  And above all, one had to retain ones hope.  This 
doctor was recomended by his son's girl friend.  A friend of the family.  
He had missed his son falling in love for the first time.  He hadn't been 
there to console him at his first rejection.  He forced those thoughts away.
------------------------
   I'm sick with the screaming 
    and the yelling and the pain
   Inside my heart is burning 
    my mind and soul feed the flames
   The waters of sleep can't drown me 
    they only quench my thirst
   I float in them like a sea creature
    caught up in the surf
   Through endless days I'm drifting
    through endless nights I sleep
   The thoughts of home that surface
    quickly submerge into the deep
   And I'm waiting for sun rise
   Will I see another day
   And I'm waiting for sun rise 
   To come and light my way
------------------------
   Father was there.  Sitting like a statue.  his back was like an iron 
rod.  Just like he remembered it.  As a boy.  Father had not mentioned 
Hawaii in weeks...except in stories.  He constantly told stories.  
Tatewaki remembered that father had never told them stories before.  That 
was mother's place, or Sasuke's.  Now he was different.  Now he told the 
stories.  There were hundreds of them.  Stories of sharks and games and 
people and places.  Father was like a book that read itself to you.  He 
could sit and listen to his father tell stories for hours.
   He shook himself, Nabiki would be here soon with her family doctor, 
Tofu.  He had met Tofu before, his apprentice was some form of sorceror 
if memory served.  He had seen him raise the dead, Tatewaki tried not to 
speculate whether Kodachi counted in the same catagory.
   Father looked up at him, "Ah, daughter, your brother has arived.  Good 
afternoon Tatewaki.  I take it Miss Tendo will be bringing the doctor 
with her."
   "Good afternoon to you Kodachi, I hope this day finds you well.  
Father, as to the doctor, he should be here within the half hour.  Nabiki 
is indeed bringing him to our midst."
   "It's 'Nabiki' now, Kodachi, it seems as if you may have another sister 
soon."
   Was this really his father?  This man who nearly a month ago had 
abandoned Kodachi and himself to run away to Hawaii?  Tatewaki heard the 
door open behind him, that would be Nabiki...
------------------------
   Black rose petals fall like rain
   And with them comes the pain
   Romeo never came
   Alone and nothing is sane
------------------------
   "Ah, Nabiki Tendo, your entry to this..."
   "Can it, Tatewaki.  Doctor Tofu had to pop some of Ranma's joints back 
into place, that's why were late.  Hello, Mr. Kuno."
   "Akane?"
   "This is really putting them on edge.  Mr. Kuno this is my family's 
doctor, Tofu.  He...he's always fixed everything...."
   He watched Tatewaki lead the Tendo girl out of the room.  She really 
seemed to be upset...it was very touching, perhaps he WOULD have another 
daughter sooner than he expected.  The man Tofu entered the room, another 
man dressed in white entered behind him.
   Tofu looked behind him, and out the door, he looked quite concerned, 
"I'm Tofu, I'm glad to meet you.  This is my ..."
   The man in white spoke, his voice had the quality of granite about it, 
"Assistant."
   Tofu looked at the man behind him, and then turned back, "my assistant, 
Morphine."
   The man in white nodded to him, and interesting greeting to be sure.  
Very American.  Very young American.  Not what one might expect from a 
(what nationality was he?) man dressed in a white suit.
   The doctor began to examine Kodachi, he was familiar with this 
routine.  Poke here press there, take the pulse, look at the eyes, and 
then the same speech.  Like it was a built in doctor thing.  The doctor 
looked up at him, now for the speech...
   "I'm sorry, Mr. Kuno, there is nothing I can do for your daughter.  
Her physical health is fine.  What she really needs is a reason to wake 
up.  If there are any happy childhood moments you can recall, tell her 
about those."
   "Have you ever taken her to the beach?"
   He looked at Morphine, who was still looking at Kodachi.  It wasn't a 
very clinical question.  Still, there might some reason.
   "No.  To my knowledge she has never been to the beach."
   "Too bad, every child should go to the beach sometime.  It must be a 
metaphor then.  As are the roses."
------------------------
   There is but one thing left
   And I wait here for my death
   And as I draw my last breath
   $&^&(%^*(UJG^H%*^N%&^U ^M 

   He was there, hanging in the air, just over the sea.  Looking at her.  
She did not care.  He was, as was everything else, just an illusion.  A 
bubble of thought that had floated to the surface of her contious.  
Someone from a long time ago.  Not a very important player at that.  Just 
a man.
   "The question is not me.  The question is the cat."
------------------------
   "I wouldn't worry, she should be fine in a few hours."
   "Morphine, ..."
   "Tofu, you are the doctor.  You said her body is fine.  I believe 
you.  Now you have to trust me when I tell you her mind is fine.  She 
does have a reason to live.  That's all that matters."
   "Excuse me..."
   Tofu looked embarrassed as he addressed him, "I'm sorry.  My assistant 
has some unconventional methods.  He believes your daughter will live.  I 
trust him."
   He looked at the man Morphine.  There was something about the way he 
looked.  It was almost as if he were mocking something with the way he 
was dressed.  The question was, what was it he was mocking?
   "Tell me, how can you be sure of my daughter's state of mind?"
   "Magic has many disciplines.  One of those is that of the mind.  One 
of the simplest tricks is to look into someone's mind.  As a practitioner 
of the dark arts I've always found it best to keep an eye on what people 
are thinking, so I've trained myself in that direction.  By the way, she 
enjoys the stories you've been telling her, they make her feel young."
   He watched them leave.  Magic.  That was possibly the stupidest thing 
he'd ever heard.  There were no sorcerers left.  Only a few old artifacts 
from the ages long since forgotten.  Still the wheel weaves as the wheel 
wills...hadn't he read that some place?  Strange how it seemed to fit.  

       She enjoys the stories you've been telling her

   He sighed, "I'm glad your enjoying these stories, Kodachi.  I should 
have been telling them to you when you were younger, its just...I didn't 
know how back then....have I told you about the lava caves on..."
------------------------
   There was something about the way the cat was looking at her.  Something 
more than just a cat behind those eyes.  It tugged at her.  She wanted to 
know.  Did the cat survive?  Did she?  She picked up her towel and headed 
for home as the first rays of the sun began to pierce the veil of the 
darkness.