The only kink in the signing of Sumire's contract came over something that wasn't even technically in her contract at all. The following day, Sumire, Martin Stabler, a couple of the producers, three lawyers and Nick were sitting in a building in Matsuyama, the prefectural capital of Ehime Prefecture, in an office borrowed for the morning for the signing.

Even after just a couple of weeks at the picturesque ryokan and on the set in the countryside of Shikoku Island, being in an urban setting, in a high-rise building with central air-conditioning and carpeting was a little jarring. Nick looked around, not really paying attention to the signing, since most of it was in Japanese, and he was really only there for moral support, anyway. If you came right down to it, Marty was almost a superfluity, too, since his Japanese language skills were non-existent, and Sumire was translating pertinent parts of the contract to him. The production company's own legal team had produced the contract and gone over it, which was technically a no-no; these were exigent circumstances if ever there had been any, however, and they were falling farther and farther behind The shooting schedule, so everything had to be done quickly.

Nick was pulled back into the proceedings when Sumire asked, "Why?" in Japanese. It was the tone of her voice, more than the word itself, which caught Nick's attention.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, leaning closer.

She just shook her head, waiting for one of the producers to answer. A lawyer leaned forward and said something in Japanese, smiling, nodding her head as if what she was saying was perfectly reasonable.

Sumire shook her head and sat back, her body language saying it all. Now she turned to Nick. "They want me to see a gynecologist and get on birth control so what happened with Minami doesn't happen to me," she explained.

"What?" Nick couldn't keep the shock out of his voice. "That's not even legal." He turned to his, now his and Sumire's, agent. "Tell them, Marty, tell them they can't put that kind of stipulation in the contract, it's against the law!"

Sumire shook her head. "It's not in the contract. They're calling it a 'soft condition' or something, I don't know exactly how to translate the words. It's something Murakami-sensei wants. It's not written down anywhere, but they're telling me the money they agreed on with Martin will be cut by three quarters if I don't agree to do this." She swallowed as though she felt sick. She pulled her cardigan closed at the throat in a gesture Nick knew well.

"I guess they were hoping that I was already on the pill, so we could avoid all this. When I told them I wasn't, they told me the rest," Sumire told Nick, her voice quiet. "They said they can take me to an American doctor on a military base nearby, since they're more used to prescribing the Oral Contraceptive Pill, but this is a non-negotiable."

"Well," Martin Stabler interjected, his voice carefully neutral, "would it be such an awful thing? I mean, the dosage for the pill is so low these days that the side effects are nearly negligible, right? What's your objection, Sumire?"

Sumire looked at Martin, pulled her cardie tighter, then turned to Nick. "I just really don't want to," she said with a little shrug.

She faced the Japanese people on the other side of the table and asked them something in Japanese.

One of the women smiled reassuringly, nodded again, and responded.

Sumire just looked at them, sighed, then finally, nodded. She motioned for the contracts, and began the long process of signing.

"What did you say to them?" Nick wanted to know.

"I said that, as long as the doctor was a woman, and you could be there, I'd do it," Sumire answered without looking up from the papers. "You will come with me, right? You don't mind?"

Martin blinked in surprise at her words and looked at Nick over Sumire's bent head.

"Of course, Mimi-chan, of course. If you want me there, I'll go," Nick assured her with a nod of his own.

One of the lawyers had been on her cell phone while Sumire was signing, and she spoke to Sumire as soon as she hung up. Sumire briefly stopped flipping through and signing to listen, nodded, then turned to Nick.

"They'd like to get all of this taken care of today, if possible, so they've found a doctor on a marine base just across the Setonaikai who can see me this afternoon, so they've arranged a helicopter for us as soon as we're finished here," she told Nick.

He nodded.

"Nick, I'm sorry to just spring all this on you," Sumire said, contrition and apology written all over her face. "I know this isn't how you intended to spend your day--"

"Don't be ridiculous," he interrupted her. "My only goal is to get this picture made, so anything to that end is what I want to do."

Sumire nodded her thanks.

An hour later they were buckling themselves into a military helicopter at a heliport on the water's edge as the pilot, Airman Simone Rutledge, did some serious fangirling over Nick.

Nick good-naturedly posed for a picture with her, flashing a peace sign, before sitting back next to Sumire and the lawyer.

"I don't understand, though," Nick began as the helicopter rose into the air over the sparkling sea. "How is this happening on a military base when you're not military?"

Sumire shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Someone's doing someone a favor for sure," she replied. "The pill isn't commonly prescribed in Japan. Condoms are the most commonly used birth control here, and when pills are prescribed they're really strong, and usually for hormonal reasons. I'm sure they--" and she gestured toward the lawyer, who was writing something on a legal pad, "--thought it would just be easier to go with an American doctor."

"So who's paying for this?" Nick asked. "How's the paperwork being handled?"

"Who knows?" Sumire shrugged again. "I'd rather see an American doctor anyway. Japanese medicine is quite advanced technically, but their bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired." She shivered, and pulled her sweater closed.

"So why, exactly, specifically, do you not want to do this?" Nick asked, trying to keep his voice neutral and normal. He didn't want her to feel threatened in any way. "Because if you're worried about me putting pressure on you just because you were so completely adorable and kissed me the other night--"

"No, god Nick, no."

Nick could see her usual blush creeping up her neck, and felt bad, but he knew it needed to be said.

Sumire looked him in the eye, though Nick could tell it was hard for her to do so. "I know you well enough to know you're not that kind of person," she said.

"I know that no doctor will prescribe the pill without doing an exam, and I don't want one," she said simply. "Partly because I feel like it will be invasive and scary, and partly because I've never had one, and I'm afraid of what she might find, okay? I mean, what if she tells me I'm damaged, that I can never have children?" She took a deep quavery breath and leaned her forehead on Nick's shoulder.

"I'm such a chicken shit," she murmured in a voice Nick could barely hear.

"Hey. Hey now," he said, jiggling his shoulder until she lifted her head. "You're my brave, brave friend, probably the bravest person I know. Please never say that about yourself."

He risked putting an arm around her and pulling her close so he could kiss her forehead, and he felt her lean into him the tiniest bit, which made him want to cheer.

They landed at the base and were escorted into a gray building and up a flight of stairs to what looked like a regular doctor's waiting room. No one else was there, a fact for which he was grateful.

Sumire didn't fill out any papers, and they only had to wait for five minutes or so before they were led into an exam room that, again, looked like a regular room.

Sumire first had go give a urine sample, then she came into the room, where Nick was waiting for her.

"You sure you want me here?" Nick asked.

Sumire nodded firmly, so Nick waited while Sumire pulled a curtain and put on the thin gown and got situated on the examination table. Then he pulled up a chair near her head and sat down.

"Thank you, Nick," she said again.

"Shh," he told her, taking her hand and patting it.

The door opened and a woman in her mid-forties with salt and pepper hair entered, walking in that brisk manner that doctors the world over seemed to have.

"Hello, Sumire, is it?" she asked.

Sumire nodded.

"I'm Doctor Moran," she said, holding her hand out. "So we're doing your first pelvic, and prescribing birth control pills?"

"Yes," Sumire reponded.

To Nick, she merely smiled.

"Before we begin, do you have any questions or concerns, since this is your first time?"

"Well, this is all confidential, right?" Sumire asked, her voice tense.

Dr. Moran made a locking motion in front of her lips, then a throwing away motion of the imaginary key.

Sumire took a deep breath, and told her that she'd been molested when she was a child, over a period of three years, and she wasn't sure if there was any permanent damage to her body that would preclude childbearing.

Dr. Moran sighed. "Oh, dear, I'm so sorry. Have you sought therapy?"

Sumire shook her head. "No, but I plan to, as soon as I return to the states."

Nick looked at Sumire in pleased surprise and squeezed her hand.

She squeezed back.

"And was it a situation where we need to be concerned about STIs?" Dr. Moran continued, her voice gentle.

Sumire shook her head.

"Okay, then," Dr. Moran said.

She began the exam, being as gentle as she could, even though it was not a comfortable procedure. Sumire's grip on Nick's hand was very, very tight, and Dr. Moran had to tell her many times to relax.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, I know this isn't how you want to be spending your afternoon," she said to Sumire in an eerie echo of Sumire's words to Nick from earlier. "If it's any consolation, everything seems to be normal, I don't see or feel any damage to any of your organs at all, okay?"

Sumire squeezed Nick's hand again, and he saw a tear slip from her eye and roll down the side of her face.

He used his other hand to quickly wipe it away.

Poor little thing.

"Thank you, doctor," he said, his voice quiet and full of relief.

"I don't even think we need to do an ultrasound, everything feels like it's in place, nothing ruptured or anything," Dr. Moran continued. "You're a healthy girl, Sumire, okay? I took a swab to do a culture to check for cervical cancer, but if you haven't been active since all that mess happened, I'm sure you're fine." She patted Sumire's knee. "Of course we'll take blood and do a full work up as well, but I'm sure we won't find anything. We know where to reach you if we do, so no worrying, okay?"

She smiled at Sumire.

"I have no misgivings writing you a prescription for the OCP. The Oral Contraceptive Pill," she elaborated. "If you're going to be active right away, use a back up method, like a condom, for the first month or so, okay?"

She pulled off her gloves. "You shouldn't have waited so long to see someone, though I understand why you did," she said, her voice full of sympathy. "There was nothing you could've done, sweetie, being a child when it happened, and not being able to tell anyone. I understand how this happened."

She glanced at Nick. "It's nice that you have someone in your life now that you can trust, so you don't have to go through things alone anymore."

"He's just a friend," Sumire clarified, letting go of Nick's hand.

"Did I say he wasn't?" Dr. Moran retorted, winking at Nick.

"You take care, Sumire and friend. Your prescription will be for a full year, and will be waiting for you in a bag at the front desk, okay?"

She patted Sumire's knee again and left the room.

Nick, too, rose and left the room. He waited for Sumire out front with the very nice lawyer while she got dressed, then they all got back on the chopper for the short flight back across the Inland Sea.

Mino-chan was waiting for them at the heliport for the drive back to the ryokan.

"So, contract, signed?" he asked with a grin. "Sumire-san going to be big movie star now?"

"Yeah, that's right, she's going to be a giant movie star," Nick agreed with a smile.

Sumire just smiled.

They got stuck in the evening traffic, and Sumire fell asleep, leaning comfortably on Nick's shoulder, and he reflected that, for her, this was another huge milestone in a day of milestones. She'd signed a contract that would make her richer than she'd ever been, she'd told another person of the horrible events of her childhood, and she was comfortable enough to sleep leaning on another person.

He carefully lifted his arm and put it around her shoulders so he could cuddle her slim body into his and enjoy the scent of her hair and the weight of her slight warmth leaning into him. He happened to make eye contact with Mino-chan in the rear view mirror, and the man smiled at him, blinking happily as if they shared a secret.

"I drive slow today, okay, Nick-san?" he said with a nod.

Nick nodded back in agreement.