(I don't own any Hey Arnold characters)
It had been a long day on the wards. Arnold had seen patient after patient. His shift was supposed to have ended three hours ago, but he didn't feel like going home. He never did these days. Things between him and his wife had been strained of late.
It had started of with a hiss and a roar, but had cooled into first, a comfortable friendship, but now, slowly, resentment.
Lila just couldn't handle Arnold's work. It would keep him late, sometimes away for a couple of days. And even when he was home he was still on call.
"Your damn job is more important than me!" she had screamed at him the last time he was home. "You never come home anymore!"
"Any wonder when all you do is scream at me and put my work down?" he demanded.
Arnold shook the memory out of his head. That had been yesterday morning. He had slept in his office last night, cleaned up in a hospital shower, and started his day again.
His next case was a cancer patient. He looked through the folder: Michaels, Kieran. He looked up and to his surprise saw Phoebe talking to one of the nurses at the station.
"Phoebe?" his voice asked, shocked.
Phoebe looked at him confused then smiled.
"Arnold? Oh my God!" she shouted in glee and came forward to give him a big hug.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, pulling back and taking her in.
"Oh, um, a patient," she said.
"No kidding? But you don't work at this hospital do you?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No, but I'm here as a favour to a friend."
"Anyone I know?" he asked casually, looking again through the pages in the folder. This guy had been through a lot but he was still fighting. It looked to be pretty aggressive. His body was resisting treatment. Arnold frowned. It didn't look good. From what he could see, he was here for "comfort" this time, rather than treatment.
"Helga," Phoebe said.
"Helga Pataki, Helga?" he asked, looking up shocked.
Phoebe nodded.
"Her husband, Kieran, is in here," she said.
"Kieran Michaels?"
"Yeah, you know him?" she asked, leading him to the room.
"Only what I have browsed," he said, holding up the folder.
Phoebe stopped, and pulled him aside to sit him down on a chair in the empty waiting area.
"Arnold," Phoebe bit her lip. "Helga lost her son, two months ago," she told him quietly, tears making her eyes shine. "She's an absolute mess at the moment, afraid she's going to lose him next."
"He passed away?" Arnold asked.
"Meningitis," Phoebe explained. "It hasn't been a pleasant few months for her at all. And now this . . ."
Arnold just nodded. He didn't have high hopes that it was going to get better for Helga, either.
It had been many years since he had seen Helga. The summer after graduation in fact. They stayed in contact for a while, but Arnold became busy with University, Helga the same he guessed, and the letters became emails that came few and far between, until one year there wasn't even a Christmas card. And it wasn't until after New Years that year he had realised it. He had friended her on Facebook, but she had closed her page down after about six months. And everyone just lost track of her.
Except Phoebe.
But after Phoebe and Gerald broke up, he didn't hear anything about her for a long time. She hadn't been at any weddings of their old friends. She was living out of state, and it was at Sid's wedding to Sheena - most bizarre, out of the blue couple ever! - that Arnold overheard Phoebe telling Lila that Helga had gotten married. Arnold had felt a small pang of hurt, but it passed quickly enough. It had been so long since they had communicated.
Later that night he and Lila were talking about old times. They became friends, then lovers, and after two years husband and wife. Arnold was working by then, and although she had started out supportive in the beginning, slowly they drifted back into the friend zone, and now they couldn't even stand to be in the same room with each other. Arnold often stayed in his office and used the hospital showers and ate from the cafeteria to avoid going home.
Lila wanted children, but Arnold just didn't see them in his immediate future. Lila wanted the white picket fence, or would often mention returning to the country. To raise their children. The ones Arnold wasn't ready for.
"I'll be as sensitive as I can," he said. "But it's not good, Phoebe."
"I know," Phoebe said, looking down.
Arnold nodded.
They both got up together and made their way to the room, where Arnold set his eyes on Helga for the first time in ten years.
Her long blonde hair was in a plait that ended at her waist. When she turned to see who had entered, Arnold noticed she had two eyebrows, and although she looked the same, she also looked so different. Arnold wasn't sure if he would recognize her enough to approach her if he saw her on the street, but he would definitely look a few times as if trying to figure it out. He could tell she was an attractive woman.
But at the moment, her face was blotchy, her eyes puffy and tired. She looked absolutely shattered.
She got up and left the room. Her husband was asleep.
"I can't lose him Phoebe," she moaned. She looked in the direction of her husband's room. "He's all I have."
Phoebe and Arnold looked at each other. Helga had obviously not recognized Arnold.
"I know Helga," Phoebe said, coming forward and wrapping an arm around Helga's shoulders. Arnold saw tears start to go down Phoebe's face.
"Helga?" he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. She shook her head and refused to look at him.
"I cant."
"Helga, he wont be going home today," he told her.
Helga sobbed. She looked like she was going to break.
Phoebe looked back at him, looking lost.
Suddenly Helga stopped crying, and took a deep breath.
"Okay," she said, calmly.
The skin at the back of Arnold's head prickled and a sour taste entered his mouth. Whenever he had a bad feeling about something, whenever he thought something bad was about to happen, he got it. He frowned and looked at Phoebe.
Helga leaned over and kissed her husband's forehead.
"I love you," she whispered.
…...
"Helga will be staying with me," Phoebe said.
"I think it might be best if she saw the counsellor before she left, Phoebe," Arnold said. "Something isn't right . . ."
"I know," she said. "I'll keep a close eye on her, I promise."
"Phoebe," he said worriedly.
Phoebe scribbled something down on some paper and handed it to him.
"Here's my phone number and address. If anything happens, just call me," she told him. "Anything at all, Arnold."
She turned and walked over to Helga who was waiting for her by the lift. Together the two woman entered and then left his sight as the doors closed. He sighed and looked down the hall in the direction they had walked from. Helga had finally realized who he was, but beyond a "Hello," she didn't say anything else. She was too wrapped up in her grief.
Arnold made his way back to the room and entered, looking Helga's husband over. He had once been handsome, Arnold could tell. But illness was taking it's toll. Arnold guessed chemotherapy hadn't helped. Part of him admired Helga for sticking with him. It would have been hard.
'She must really love him,' he thought.
It made him think of Lila. Would she stick by him if he were to fall so seriously ill? Would he stick by her? And if so, was it because they loved the other, or felt obligated? Did Helga feel obligated?
"Helga?" a weak voice suddenly called out. Arnold jumped and whipped his head around to look at the patient. "Oh, a doctor."
"Uh, yeah, hi. I'm Dr. Arnold -" BEEP BEEP BEEP! An alarm went off, and he saw nurses racing down the hall. He turned and poked his head out. "Need help?"
"No, we've got it covered," his colleague said, rushing past, and giving him a quick smile. Arnold nodded, and came back into the room.
"Where's my wife?" Kieran asked.
"Oh, she and Phoebe left about ten minutes ago," he told him. Kieran chuckled.
"How'd she pull that off?" he asked. "I've been at Helga to leave for a couple of days now. Stubborn woman."
"Yeah, she always has been," Arnold said, laughing.
"Always?" Kieran asked. "You know my wife?"
"Oh, uh, elementary school and middle school," Arnold explained. "Different high schools, lost contact in University . . ."
"Wow, sorry," he said.
"For what?" Arnold asked.
"Well, I know it's always nice to see old friends . . . just wish it was under better circumstances. I'm sorry it's under such bad ones," Kieran explained.
Arnold smiled. "Not your fault."
"So how high can you go with the pain relief before it kills me?" he asked.
"Your pretty much on as high as we can legally put you," Arnold said. "Okay-"
"We lost our son a couple of months ago," Kieran said.
"Yeah, Phoebe mentioned that. I'm sorry," he said.
"Never leave your kid with a Pataki," he said bitterly. "Helga warned me, but I didn't listen. I should've listened."
Arnold didn't know what to say. So instead he sat down to listen. Kieran smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Not at all," Arnold said smiling. "It's what I'm here for." Kieran just nodded.
"I want to be with my son. But I want to be with Helga . . ." Kieran said. "Thinking of our poor baby alone. It destroys Helga. I've been so worried I would find she'd joined him . . ."
Again Arnold got that prickly feeling.
"Phoebe is doing her best, but . . . you cant replace a child's place in a mothers heart. You just cant."
Arnold looked down. "I don't have children, so I wouldn't know."
"Oh, your choice or your wife's?" Kieran asked.
"Mine," he said. Kieran nodded.
"When I met Helga, I was engaged. But it never felt right, you know? You need to be with the right person, I think. Children aren't very good glue, and you see so many people trying to use them for just that purpose," he said. "My sister did. And it blew up in her face."
Arnold just nodded. They were silent for a while.
"Oh, you must be that Arnold!" Kieran suddenly cried out, again making Arnold jump.
"Pardon?"
"The one Helga wrote poetry about when she was a child," he explained. "She was so in love with you."
Arnold smiled. "Yep. Same Arnold."
"Do me a favour," he said.
"Sure," Arnold said smiling.
"Look out for her. Helga acts tough, but she's not really. She's very sensitive . . ."
Arnold smiled.
"I'll do my best."
Minutes later Kieran was asleep again.
…...
Phoebe got the call at three oh seven in the morning that Kieran had passed away. She got up and woke Helga, who just nodded and got dressed.
"I dreamt he was a butterfly," she told Phoebe. "In my dream, this butterfly landed on my hand, and it had his eyes, his beautiful eyes . . . then it flew away, and I knew, Phoebe . . . I knew . . ."