Hello, Everyone. Shadow here. This was originally intended as a tragedy, but hey. I just can't write that. I'm too sentimental towards my favorite characters. Moving on, it takes place at the end of the Burning Body chapter of the manga. I don't know if the episode goes by the same name, so to be clear, towards the very end of when Hattori makes his first appearance and Shinichi turns back into his real self for the first time. Just as a warning, if any of the medical stuff seems wrong, just go with it. I didn't research anything before writing this.

Shinichi clenched his chest as an intense flare of pain ripped through his heart. Voices faded away and lost meaning as the ringing in his ears overtook all of his thoughts. His whole body felt like it was burning slowly in the middle of some inferno. He knew this sensation well. It was one you don't tend to forget. He was turning back into "Conan."

No! He couldn't. Not here. If he shrunk here, then everything would be exposed! Ran would be in danger! H-he had to leave. He had to do something. Anything!

A fierce coughing fit fell over him and he heaved painfully with each cough. A vaguely familiar voice broke the sound barrier as he pulled himself to his feet. "O-oi Kudo, you okay?"

Who was that? It didn't matter. All that mattered was that he had to get away.

A shaking foot slid forward. The room was out of focus. A grey haze was hedging in from all sides of his vision. The inferno burned ten degrees hotter. His chest felt like it was collapsing on itself. It probably was.

The other foot haltingly carried Shinichi forward. Where was he? He couldn't remember. Everything looked so unfamiliar.

He found himself in a hallway at the top of a flight of stairs. His failing eyes saw Ran running towards him, doctor in tow. He couldn't hear what she yelled. All Shinichi could think about was that he couldn't let her see that he was turning into Conan.

What could he do? What could he do? She was getting closer.

His knees collapsed out from under him and Shinichi lost his balance. It was all a blur as he tumbled down the stairs. He couldn't even feel the pain of striking the stairs because he already felt like he was falling apart.

It felt like forever until he stopped falling. He already felt his body imploding, crushing in upon itself. He couldn't stay. Shinichi picked himself up off the ground with shaking arms and noticed a bathroom through his narrowing tunnel of vision. There!

But Ran... He had to talk to her. He had to tell her! If only he could just stay Shinichi a few seconds longer, if only he could just say those few words to Ran...

A harsh scream erupted from his throat as he collapsed onto the toilet and his vision cut out completely. And then, just like that, it was over. The ringing in his ears ebbed away to a tolerable level. His body temperture dropped so much that it was almost freezing in comparison, and he could see again.

Conan was back. Footsteps echoed outside the room. Crap! Ran was coming. Conan quickly put on the glasses that he didn't realize were clenched so tightly in his hand. Not a second too late, either. Ran threw open the door to the bathroom, expecting to find Shinichi.

"Eh? Conan-kun?" Conan let out a nervous laugh. What if she figured it out? She was looking at him so piercingly... "Where were you!" the annoyed girl snapped. "I looked everywhere for you! And why are you dressed in that shirt?"

"Oh, ah, I was sweating a lot, so I borrowed it from the room," Conan stammered, hoping it was a good enough excuse.

Ran seemed to ignore that faulty statement and asked, "Did you see Shinichi?"

Good, so she didn't realize what was going on. "He said something urget came up, so he changed and ran out the front door!" Conan said.

"What? Again?" Ran wondered aloud. "Damn that guy."

"And he said that no one should know he was here," Conan mumbled. His eyelids were sliding down heavily. He suddenly felt so tired, but he had to finish what he was going to say. "And..." Then everything went dark again.

"Conan-kun!" Ran cried in concern as the boy hit the floor. The doctor finally made it to the bathroom, hands on knees from running around so much. But Ran didn't care about that. Conan obviously didn't have a normal cold. He needed medical attention, right away.

She yanked the doctor to the ground. "Please help him!" she pleaded as the doctor put a hand to the boy's forehead. The man immediately yanked his hand away in disbelief.

"He's burning up! Bring me some cloths soaked in cold water and some ice packs! We need to bring down this fever."

Ran obeyed instantly, taking wash clothes from the bathroom and rinsing them in cold water. She handed them to the doctor before running off to find the kitchen. It took a few minutes, but she finally found it and pulled as many bags of frozen vegetables from the freezer as she could.

When she came back, the doctor lined Conan's body with the frozen vegetables. One of the cold clothes was put on his forehead. The poor boy's breathing was rapid and uneven.

Hattori appeared from around the corner and gasped in surprise. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Ran replied with a half-sob. "All of a sudden, Conan-kun just collapsed."

"Don't just stand there, boy!" the doctor yelled. "Go call an ambulance!"

"R-right!"

Hattori ran off again, and Ran focused her attention back on Conan. What had happened? Why was he so sick? Ran grabbed the boy's small hand, hoping for some sort of response. The burning hand remained limp and lifeless. But more concerning than that, it was absolutely terrifying just how hot Conan's hand felt. Ran had had her share of high fevers, but this was in class all of its own. It had to be at least 42 degrees!

No wonder he collapsed. It felt like Conan was burning up from the inside. She sat numbly while the world rushed around her. The diplomat's wife was arrested, an ambulance rushed to the house. All Ran could manage was to stay by Conan's side. Hattori had left in the midst of the confusion and her dad had left with Inspector Megure, but only after making sure that it was okay with Ran.

She was allowed to ride in the ambulance with Conan, but was forced to sit in a silent waiting room for hours before it was determined that Conan was stable enough for her to visit him. But there was a serious problem. While Conan's body stabilized, he had not woken up yet. The word coma made its way into Ran's head.

Her body went cold. There was no way. He couldn't be. It was just a cold, wasn't it? Right She walked on weak legs up to his room.

Against the stark white of the room, Conan looked even more sickly and pale. An oxygen mask was fixed onto his small face, and an saline drip was attached to his arm. Ran gently set a hand to his forehead and felt the soft burn of a remenant fever. At least it was in a reasonable range now.

It was strange seeing Conan lay there, still as death. His face wasn't twisted in pain, but it wasn't full of its usual thoughtfulness, either. It was like looking at a discarded rag doll. There was no sign of life coming from him at all.

Seeing Conan laying on that stiff gurney reminded Ran of Shinichi. He'd been really sick too, hadn't he? In that mansion, he seemed to have a hard time breathing and was sweating really badly, as if from a terrible fever. Not only that, but he had fallen down the stairs. At the time, she had been so focused on Conan that she hadn't thought about Shinichi. But how could he be okay after falling down a flight of stairs?

And there was what he said earlier that had her concerned...

Don't worry, Ran. I'll be done soon.

Somehow, it felt like Shinichi was saying something far different. It felt like a goodbye.

Too exhausted to keep thinking, Ran let her eyes close and fell asleep. She was shaken awake by Professor Agasa sometime later. One glance outside told her it was nighttime.

"Ran-kun, wake up."

"Eh, huh?"

"You fell asleep," the old scientist said simply. He threw a worried look at Conan before turning back to her. "Visiting hours are over. How about I drive you home tonight? I have something important to tell you anyway."

Ran didn't want to leave Conan all alone, but found herself in the scientist's Volkswagon Beetle fifteen minutes later.

Agasa got in on the driver's side, looking uneasy and silent. He quietly started the car and drove out of the hospital's parking garage.

"So what did you want to tell me, Professor?" Ran asked.

The man remained silent, as if debating whether or not to actually tell her. Then a sort of steely resolve settled itself over the professor's features and he spoke. "It's about Shinichi."

Normally, Ran might've said something like 'who cares about that mystery nerd?' but the old professor sounded serious.

"What about him?" Ran pressed, hoping for more than another vague answer.

"You're not going to believe it..."

"Just please tell me," Ran said shortly. She was tired and not in the mood for round-about answers.

"Well, do you remember suspecting Conan-kun and Shinichi-kun to be the same person?" Professor Agasa asked suddenly.

"Yeah, but what does that have to with anything?"

"It has to do with everything!" the old man snapped, surprising Ran with his out-of-character anger. "Because you were right."

Only a whisper escaped Ran's lips. "What?"

The old professor didn't seem to hear her. He just continued with his explanation. "The day that Shinichi disappeared, he ran after some men dressed in black. He heard some things he shouldn't have, and was caught and poisoned with some sort of untested drug. It was supposed to kill him and not leave any traces in his body, but instead shrunk him down to the size of a six or seven-year-old.

"He came to my house, not knowing what to do, hoping I could help him. I didn't even believe it was him at first. But then he used his deductive skills as definitive proof that what he was telling me was true. Since I didn't have any traces of the poison he ingested, I couldn't help. That was about when you showed up and I got the idea of letting you take care of Shinichi. Your father was a detective, so I thought that it would be the best way to gather information on the organization that poisoned him."

"But why didn't he tell me until now?" Ran questioned angrily. Her rage grew with each passing second. "If he told me, I would've understood! He made me worry over him when he was right by me all along!"

"He didn't tell you who he was because he didn't want to put you in danger," Agasa explained patiently, as if to a pouting child. "It was really hard for him to keep the secret, you know. He wanted to tell you. He knew just how hard it was for you. But if you knew his secret, then the organization might find out that you know him and come after you too."

"Th-that's..." she couldn't finish her sentence. She didn't know how. All of her willpower left and Ran slumped onto the leather seats. "So why are you telling me now?"

"I wanted to tell you in case he doesn't wake up again," the old professor said sadly. "It seems like that drug has terrible side effects. Each time that he changes, either from Shinichi to Conan or vice versa, it uses an extraordinary amount of water and causes severe dehydration. He may have been okay if he was healthy. But because of his cold, he already was a bit dehydrated. Not only that, but he went through the transition twice in a day. The fever caused by the drug burned up all the water in his body, and he collapsed.

"But that's not all it does. Due to the lack of water, his heart has to work harder to pump blood through his veins. Needless to say, that has weaked his heart bit by bit."

Ran didn't want to hear anymore. She was horrified about what was she was hearing. But Professor Agasa didn't stop. "And not to mention the trauma of enduring that incredible amount of pain that comes with the change. It's a miracle that he's alive at all. And even if he wakes up and is able to go back to solving crimes, I'm worried about what will happen if he ever does find the antidote. The danger only increases each time there is a transition."

The car pulled to a stop in front of the detective agency, and Ran got out without a single word. She wanted to yell, scream, shake the professor, something, anything. Instead, she ignored the professor's cries and entered the building.

She was tired, so tired. Maybe this was all some stupid, elaborate prank set up by Shinichi and Professor Agasa. But she knew it was impossible. The professor spoke with the utmost sincerity, and this was not the type of thing that people joke about. It was too strange to believe, but Ran herself often found herself convinced that Conan was Shinichi. As much as she didn't want to believe it, everything the professor said was true.

Her dad was sleeping his chair, drunk once again amidst his piles of beer cans. Ran sighed and pulled a blanket over him before walking to her room and resting up against a wall. She thought of all the times that Conan-no, Shinichi came to her aid. All those times when he would help her father solve a mystery. She should've known. She should've seen.

Just how hard had it been for him to be so close to her, but have to lie to her everyday for her own sake? Ran fell asleep thinking about Shinichi and the memory of his reassuring smile.

Ran visited Shinichi every day for a week, desperately hoping that he would wake up. She even brought along books from his house to read, especially his favorites by Conan Doyle. He didn't respond once.

It was on the seventh day that there was a change. Apparently, Shinichi had woken up during the night. Ran rushed to his room upon hearing the news, only to be greeted with a peacefully sleeping face. At first, Ran was mad that he still wasn't conscious, but then she noticed that life had returned to his childish features. There was color in his cheeks and there wasn't an oxygen mask over his face.

Ran smiled softly down at him and pulled up a chair. She could wait a little longer.

Then Shinichi scrunched up his eyebrows with an expression of worry too many years beyond that innocent face of his and murmured, "I'm sorry, Ran."

He was worried about her even now. Ran's hand reached for him before she even realized it and brushed his hair away from his face with the utmost gentleness. "It's okay. I'll wait for you, Shinichi."

His features smoothed out and a small sigh escaped him. That was when Ran decided. She wasn't going to tell him that she knew his secret. If she told him, that would only make him worry more. Instead, she was going to treat him like she had been for the past weeks and let him believe that she was in the dark. But she wasn't going to worry anymore because now she knew. And one day, when it was safe, Shinichi would tell her himself.