Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon and I'm not making any money off of this, I own Hazel and Needlemon's entire alias please ask if you wish to borrow them. Warning so suicidal thoughts.
Home Again…….well sort of
By Day Dreamer
Copyright.© Day Dreamer20001, all rights reserved
Hazel sighed in contentment, they had been travelling for several weeks after she had nearly be killed by Ladymegamaniacmon then Gennai sent Izzy an E-mail offering them to come and stay for a while in his house under the lake. While the other's chowed down in the dining room, Hazel had found the bathroom and was now enjoying a nice long bath. There came a loud knocking on the door, and a voice called.
"Keeper of Determination? I need all of you in the living room" It was Gennai, Hazel sighed and reluctantly got out of the bathtub, grabbing her stuff and wound a bathrobe around her. She entered the living room brushing her long brown hair, the curls were driving her mad. She sat down besides her best friend Izzy, Needlemon was nearby.
"I believe I can send you home using my computer to create a portal" Gennai announced while the rest cheered Hazel remained silent.
"What's wrong Hazel?" Little TK noticed, she half smiled at him as the others turned round to her,
"I was just thinking that I'd have to say goodbye to you all, I live in England remember?" She reminded them, the others looked uncomfortable then Tai had a bright idea,
"Let's not say goodbye, let's say see you later!" He suggested, she smiled at him, nodding.
"Yeah, see you all later!" She addressed them all, they all said 'see you later' to their Digimon, Gennai started up the portal and they felt the familiar upwards pull, Hazel must have blacked out on the way.
When Hazel opened her eyes, she saw she was back in the gym, she sighed as she sat up she heard a groan behind her and turned round to see all of her friends including their Digimon. Joe was the first to wake up and looked at the gym,
"Where are we?" He asked, I smiled standing up pulling him up too.
"We are in Pete's gym, north western London" She said calmly. Joe gaped at her and roughly shook the others awake yelling,
"We are in England!!"
"Guess Gennai got it wrong again" Kari tried to joke but was met with silence. Hazel looked at their gloomy faces,
"Hey don't worry! We can use our Digivices to go back to the Digiworld and try again! But I don't know about you but I'm starving and I would like to sleep in my bed for once, I only live around the corner come on!" Hazel offered. She was about to go running out of the gym when she realised she was still in the white bathrobe, she skidded to a halt,
"Oops!! Give me a sec to change" She smiled embarrassed. The others laughed and looked around the gym, they saw the uneven bars and the balance beam, which as they had often seen were Hazel's specialities, but she had told them that she used the rings a lot. They were about finished looking around when Hazel whistled for them, she had retrieved her coat from her locker it was denim and she let it hang open.
"Come on this way" She called leading them out of the gym, they walked for about five minutes they came to a semi-detached house with a baby blue front door. Hazel stuck a key in the lock and opened the door,
"Mom? Dad? You here? That's strange" She called as she walked in the house, she saw a note attached to the bulletin board,
"Come in guys! My parents are out for the day and they won't be back till tomorrow night so come in and make yourself at home! The bathroom is that way help yourself to a shower, living room is that way, watch some Tv and I'll fix us something to eat" Hazel told them chucking her jacket on a hook. Tai and TK soon found the cookie jar and were tucking in to them before Patamon accidentally knocked the jar over and it smashed, Matt helped them clean it up and he tried to give Hazel some money for a new one but she just laughed while she was stirring pancake batter,
"Put that money away Matt! It was an accident I break things all the time!" She said, Mimi and Sora had grabbed the bathroom and were washing with their Digimon, Izzy and Kari were sitting on the couch watching Tv with Gatomon and Tentomon. Joe and Gomamon had found the pool and had just pushed Needlemon in it. Hazel took a break from cooking for a second to show Agumon and Gabumon how to work the stereo system but when she returned the toast was burnt. When Sora and Mimi finally left the bathroom Hazel threw a lot of towels in the others direction,
"Just a little hint!" She laughed turning back to the bacon.
It was about half an hour later when they sat down at Hazel's huge dining table, she laid down plates piled high with toast, boiled eggs, fried eggs, bacon and gammon steaks and there was enough orange juice to fill the swimming pool. Everyone tucked in greedily stuffing themselves to the brim, the Digimon enjoying the human food. Izzy pushed back his plate with a sigh of happiness,
"Man! That really hit the spot!" He said the others mumbled in agreement. They all went out on to the patio and as they should of expected Hazel dived in fully clothed, when she didn't surface Matt leaned over to see if she was ok, she burst out of the water wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in. He surfaced spitting water, Hazel was in fits of laughter, and TK jumped in nearly landing on Hazel making her lose her footing on the bottom of the pool. Izzy jumped in and splashed TK unmercifully. Kari jumped in next dunking Izzy under the surface. Mimi came over to tell her off but slipped on the side and fell in on top of Kari. Tai dived in to see if she was ok, pushing Mimi out of the way. Joe just shrugged and jumped in splashing everyone. Sora jumped in last shrieking at how cold the water was. All the Digimon, except Gomamon who loved water and had joined them, were huddled at the side of the pool,
"How can they stand to get wet all the time?!" Palamon asked,
"Yeah we cats hate water" Gatomon answered. After about an hour and a half of playing, Hazel looked at the time, she hauled herself out of the pool and threw a few leftover towels at the side of the pool.
"Well I think we should get some sleep now!" She said standing up and stretching she walked to a cupboard and pulled out an assortment of nightgowns and pyjamas throwing them on to an arm of a couch, as she disappears for a few minutes Joe said to Tai,
"She's giving us everything, food, drink and now night stuff!" Hazel stumbled in with an armful of blankets and pillows,
"And blankets!" Tai added. When everyone was out of their wet cloths and in to the warm pyjamas that Hazel had offered for them, Hazel took their stuff and shoved them in the washing machine,
"Why are you doing that?" Sora asked,
"If we are going back to the Digiworld then we might as well go back with clean clothes!" Was her response, Hazel came in and sat on the couch, Izzy on one side, Joe on the other side, Needlemon nestled in her lap. The rest were either sitting on the floor or on chairs, Kari gave Tai a nudge and he cleared his throat,
"I don't know how we can thank you Hazel, all this it's just too much" Tai said genuinely,
"I don't mind really, I like looking after people, call me a mother hen, but I do!" She responded,
"Ok mother hen!" Izzy teased, Hazel whacked him with a pillow, which inevitably started a pillow fight. Izzy swung his pillow at her, accidentally hitting Matt, he grabbed Izzy and smacked him over the head with his pillow. Tai joined in hit Matt over the head. Sora started to tickle Tai and Kari joined in. Matt had TK under his arm and was refusing to let him go. Mimi and Joe were having there own personal pillow fight and the Digimon had to work fast to avoid being hit. The pillow fight stopped when Needlemon accidentally ripped a pillow with his spines. Hazel sighed with happiness as she sank back down in to the couch,
"We'll never get any sleep at this rate! Right there are some guestrooms down the hall but I figured you would want to crash in the living room, I am going to bed call if you need anything! Goodnight" She called leaving the room,
"Goodnight!" TK called. Everyone settled down to sleep, Izzy and Joe nabbed the couch, with Tentomon and Gomamon on the arms of the couch, Mimi and Kari got a chair each cuddling their Digimon, Tai slept under the table with Agumon, TK, Patamon, Matt and Gabumon were as close to the kitchen as they could get, Sora and Biyomon were sleeping soundly curled up behind the sofa and Hazel was sleeping in her own bed Needlemon on her feet.
Tai woke up slightly then sat up suddenly and struck his head on the table, he cursed silently and crawled out from under the table, he carefully stepped over the sleeping brothers and headed towards the bathroom, he opened the medicine cupboard looking for aspirin for his aching head, while he was searching a packet of pills fell out, as he picked them up he took a second look trying to remember where he had seen them before, then it hit him. They were steroids! He remembered them from Hazel's memories in Megamaniacmon's lair. He clutched the pills tightly in his hand as he wondered what to do. He decided to wake Matt up, he knew how to handle people better than he did. He shook his shoulder. Matt didn't appreciate being woken up but one look at Tai's serious face shut him up. Tai dragged him in to the kitchen and showed him the pills,
"Oh my God! Tai where did you get these?" Matt asked eyeing him sternly,
"In Hazel's medicine cabinet, I don't want to jump to conclusions but I think she might have been lying when she said she didn't take them anymore" Tai told him. Matt shook his head,
"We would have noticed withdrawal symptoms or something" Matt refused to think badly of Hazel who had been so nice.
"How many people do you know that are recovering drug addicts?" Tai asked realistically.
"We should wake Izzy, he might have noticed something or maybe she even told him" Matt suggested. Getting Izzy up was considerably harder than Matt, considering the couch was in the middle of the room and Tai and Matt didn't want anyone else to know just yet. In the end they covered his face with a pillow, shook him and told him to come in the kitchen with them. They didn't show him the pills straight off, they questioned him instead,
"We know how close you are to Hazel and we were wondering if you noticed anything strange about her behaviour?" Tai asked, Izzy rubbed his eyes he wasn't best pleased about the way he had been woken up.
"What in the Digiworld are you talking about Tai? There is nothing strange about Hazel" He said, Matt brought the pills from his pocket,
"We think she is still taking steroids" Matt told him, Izzy looked at the pills and shook his head,
"No way! She wouldn't carry on taking them after they had killed her brother!" Izzy insisted.
"Izzy, I know it's hard to believe but it could happen!" Tai reasoned, Izzy shook his head again fiercely.
"If you think this is so true why don't you ask her?" He asked so fiercely that he was shouting now and had woken up most of the people in the living room.
"What's going on Tai?" Kari asked, Tai gaped stuttering for a second, Izzy crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"Go on Tai tell her, tell her that you think the girl that gave herself up to Ladymegamaniacmon is a lying drug addict!" Izzy yelled, Matt put his hand on Izzy shoulder,
"We aren't accusing her Izzy, but a packet of steroids is pretty hard to explain" Matt reasoned,
"Really? Well maybe you should listen then" An icy voice came from behind the three boys, they turned around and gasped Hazel was standing there, Needlemon behind her legs, and she looked mad, "Go in to the living room I'll be there in a second" She said, the boys did what they were told and as they were waiting for her they told the others about it with Izzy defending her every step of the way.
"No she said….." TK protested,
"Sometimes what people say and people do are doing things" Joe interrupted. All the Digimon knew was that Hazel had done something bad before and now she was being accused of doing it again,
"You don't really believe that she has do you?" Palamon asked Mimi, Mimi closed her eyes and looked away,
"I must say the evidence is pretty convincing!" She said,
"I don't believe I'm hearing this! Hazel has nearly killed herself for us a million times and you are thinking about giving up on her?" Izzy yelled, Sora placed her hand on his arm,
"We aren't giving up on her, she is our friend and we will help her any way we know how" Sora comforted. From the doorway someone said,
"Well that would be just fine if I needed help" Hazel said, she had got dressed and had a shower, Kari came over to her and tugged on her sleeve making her sit down, Matt was sitting directly in front of her,
"We want to help you, but first you have to admit that there is a problem" Matt said very maturely, being in the Digiworld had aged each one of them so they no longer cared or worried about things that they used to, but they were now worried about Hazel,
"There is no problem because I don't take drugs!" She yelled standing up, Tai stood up too, yelling back,
"Then how come we found these pills?" Hazel shook her head and said,
"Why can't you guys trust me and believe me when I say I do not take steroids?!" She asked, all she got was silence and no one would meet her eye she looked towards Izzy, her best friend, the best friend that she had ever had,
"Izzy you believe me don't you?" She asked pleadingly, Izzy looked at her it was all in his eyes she knew even before he said it,
"I'm sorry Hazel but our theory makes sense" He told her, she glared at them in anger stormed out the room and came back with a box and an inhaler she threw them at Joe,
"You are the doctor in training! Read the box!" She yelled, Joe looked at it,
"Mr. J Star, 1.5mg of steroids to be taken when needed" He said he slapped his forehead "Of course! Your father is an asthmatic! He needs steroids in case he has an attack" He said, Hazel was still standing in the doorway she was so upset she was trembling,
"Yes! My dad has to keep steroids in the house to survive and every night he counts them, he counts them to make sure that I haven't taken any!" Her voice was breaking now "Even after four damn years they still don't trust me and for some stupid reason I thought my friends would! But I guess I was wrong as per usual!" She yelled storming out of the room, grabbing her coat and running out of the house, Izzy ran after her,
"Hazel wait!" He called but Tentomon stopped him,
"Izzy no! Leave her alone she'll come back and even if you did go after her you don't know where she has gone!" Tentomon told him. Izzy came back in and sat down, he was looking very ashamed of himself, and Matt was turning the packet of pills over and over in his hand,
"I can't believe we did that, she shared her house with us and we accuse her of this!" He cursed himself,
"Well to be fair we had a reason to be suspicious" Tai responded trying to counter attack his guilty conscience, Joe shook his head,
"We should have believed her when she said that she wasn't on them any more" He told Tai, he then addressed all of them "Guys we have hurt her really bad we need to make it up to her some how"
"But how?" TK asked
"I think I know how" Mimi started,
Hazel was crying as she ran, it was dark outside as it was still the middle of the night, but she wasn't scared she was running towards a place where she knew she'd be safe, as she ran up to a pair of large iron gates she stopped and looked through them, it was the park where she and Max used to play when they were younger. She squeezed through the bars and ran towards the large woodland enclosure near the pond, she went through the bushes and walked towards a huge oak tree, legend had it that it had been planted even before the Middle Ages but to be sure they would need to cut it down and nobody wanted that. It was summer time so all the leaves were open and green. The branches were homes to all kind of birds and the roots were home to a family of rabbits, Hazel sat down on the woodland floor, the ground was a little wet but she didn't mind she sat absolutely still and whistled a tune with only a few notes almost immediately a little nose poked out of the hole, it was her rabbit, Minka, she had found it nearly dead by the pond side and she had nursed it back to health whistling that same tune and when she had set it free, it had scampered away happily and she thought she'd never see it again. But one day she had been sitting under the great oak whistling her tune and she had jumped in her lap. Minka by now had bounded over to Hazel and she stroked her gently,
"Hey Minka, how are ya kids? Not driving you crazy?" She asked chuckling a little, Minka just twitched her nose at her, "Well Minka I hope you have been having a better time than I have, I wish people would trust me and not judge me because of my past" She complained then she stood up sharply scaring Minka back in to her hole but someone had called her,
"Hazel!" A little boy's voice called,
"Max? Max is that you?" She asked, her head was telling her 'It can't be! Max is dead!'
"Yes Haze! It's me!" The voice answered, she gasped as she started heading for it,
"Where are you Max?" She asked,
"By the pond!" Came the reply, she ran towards it and she stopped at the edge of the pond,
"Max?! Where are you?!" She called panicking, when there was no answer she sank to her knees "Please Max, I'm so sorry, I feel so guilty and empty inside" She whispered tears dripping on to her reflection in the water, as the image stilled she gasped as she could see her brother looking back up at her, his blue eyes twinkling.
"I'm not mad Haze! And you shouldn't be mad at your friends either Haze! They were only worried about you cos they care about you" Max's image said, Hazel tried to touch him but she only succeeded in rippling the water again and when it stopped Max was gone. Hazel looked up at the sky and stared at the moon it was full tonight basking the pond in an eerie glow, she looked out at the water and thought how easy it would be to go in and never come out again,
"What is there to live for? Max is gone, my parents will never forgive me and now my friends don't trust me, I have nothing!" She whispered smashing her fist in to the surface of the water, she held her hand to her chest she hadn't seen the broken glass just under the surface of the water and had cut her hand the pain seemed to break her out of her depression,
"What am I thinking? I have my gymnastics to live for to prove to them all I can do it! And of course the Digiworld!! I am a Digidestined I can't give up!" She said standing up and clenching her fist, she started to walk away from the pond but not before glancing back over her shoulder,
"Thanks Max" She whispered with her eyes closed, it was beginning to get light as she slowly walked back to her house, she opened the door slowly and saw that the lights were off, 'Must have gone back to bed, I can talk to them later in the morning' she thought suddenly the light came on and she looked down to see Needlemon and Patamon,
"Hi where is everyone?" She asked them,
"In the living room waiting for you" Needlemon answered, Hazel took off her jacket and walked in to it, she gasped as she entered the whole room had been tidied from last nights activities when she was noticed Joe and Kari stood up immediately leading her by the arms to the best place on the couch. Gatomon and Gomamon removed her shoes and put on her slippers, she was about to speak when Izzy placed a finger over her lips and indicated that Tai wanted to speak, she looked over at him eager to hear him.
"Hazel I can't begin to express how sorry we all are at accusing you and doubting you, and I know we probably can't make it up to you but we are going to try that is why all of us are going to be your devoted slaves for the whole day" Tai announced it would have been an impressing speech if he wasn't wearing a pair of light green pyjamas. Hazel grinned widely,
"Thank you, but it really isn't necessary" she paused and sighed "I guess I should be used to it by now" She looked down at her hand rubbing her cut, Sora tutted and sat next to her pushing Izzy off of the couch, everyone ignored his protests
"Well we find it unacceptable, we are a team, the Digidestined, and to doubt one of our own is almost unforgivable and we are going to try and redeem ourselves" Sora told her tipping her face to look at hers. Hazel smiled weakly and yawned, TK put a pillow behind her head and Matt covered her with a blanket, Hazel stifled a laugh as they did identical bows in their matching orange pyjamas and sat back down.
"I shouldn't really sleep it was just getting light as I was walking home" She nodded to the window and they could see the Sun rising,
"Well we will get breakfast ready as you sit back and relax, come on everyone we have a breakfast to make!" Mimi said jumping up,
"One fit for a princess!" Palamon added, as they were heading in the kitchen Hazel over heard Needlemon say to Palamon,
"She is a princess" That made her blush all the way to her ears, Izzy chuckled from his position on the floor where he hadn't moved, Hazel rolled over on her stomach so she could see him,
"I thought you were supposed to be cooking" She asked, Izzy gave an almost invisible nod to Joe who was looking around the door, Joe returned with a thumbs up sign.
"Well I thought I should apologise separately, I acted rashly and judged you because of your past instead of the present and as your best friend I find that disgraceful" He muttered not looking up at her,
"Oh Izzy, it doesn't matter…" She started, Izzy looked her in the eye, her blue meeting his brown.
"It does matter, I hurt you don't try to say I didn't cos I saw it, just before you stormed out, it was there in your eyes we all hurt you bad" He interrupted,
"They say the eyes are the window to the soul" Hazel told him, Izzy nodded "What is in my soul right now then?" She asked putting her face so it was an inch away from Izzy's, he looked deep in to the dark blue portals and he couldn't see any resentment or hate no matter how much he tried the only thing he could see was,
"Forgiveness" Izzy murmured almost to himself. Hazel nodded and used the remote to turn on the stereo she had her Savage Garden album in and she started singing along to 'I Want You',
"Ooh I want you, I don't know if I need you but, Ooh I'd die to find out, Ooh I want you, I don't know if I need you but, Ooh I'd die to find out" She sang she was aware of little whispers and giggles from the kitchen area but she just carried on singing. She didn't stop until Agumon came in to tell her breakfast was ready, she chuckled as all the Digimon bowed as she past which was hard for Needlemon as he was on all fours. Breakfast wasn't as big as yesterday but there was plenty as she sat down she was about to start eating when she noticed no one else had sat down,
"Aren't you hungry?" She asked, Gomamon stepped forward to explain,
"Well we want you to eat to your fill first, servants don't eat with there mistresses" He told her, Hazel rolled her eyes she knew it was useless protesting and began to eat. When she had eaten her fill she stood up, Sora handed her a towel and Biyomon lead her to the bathroom,
"We ran a bath for you, is there anything you would like us to do while you bathe?" Biyomon asked,
"Yeah take a break and eat something! And if you want your clothes stick them in the tumble dryer!" She said as she closed and locked the door. In the kitchen TK hadn't wasted any time in tucking in to the food on the table. Gabumon turned to Matt,
"I feel really good making a fuss of Hazel, how about you?" He asked. Matt nodded with a smile,
"Making a fuss of people is almost as good as being made a fuss of" He said. He went and loaded the tumble dryer with their clothes and tried to figure out how to turn it on. There was a giggle from behind him and someone pressed the right button,
"Don't be embarrassed most men don't know how to do the washing!" Hazel said. She had a blue bathrobe on and a purple towel around her head holding up her hair. "My dad certainly doesn't! He dyed my school shirts pink once!" She told him. Matt laughed and they both headed in to the living room, Sora placed a cushion on the floor for her and Joe began to brush her hair gently, Gomamon had a hard time holding the hairdryer to it because of his fins but pretty soon it was it it's usually bouncy, wavy curls.
"You guys really shouldn't do this for me! I already said I forgive you!" Hazel insisted once more, Tai shook his head,
"Well it's also to say thank you for all the hospitality you've shown us" He explained, Hazel just shrugged and went out on to the balcony, she looked out at the awakening city and she soon felt someone place her jacket over her shoulders, she turned to see spiky blonde hair and a pair of bright blue eyes,
"I thought you might be cold" Matt said, Hazel nodded.
"Thanks" She answered softly. She ran her fingers through her hair and was soon aware that Matt was staring at her,
"What?" She asked,
"You're pretty you know that?" Matt told her, Hazel blushed deeply.
"Never knew you thought that way," She admitted,
"Neither did I before this morning when you ran out" Matt agreed "The first thing that went through my head was 'Oh my God! What have we done?' the second thing was 'She looks cute when she's mad'" Hazel almost burst out laughing,
"That was the second thing? Why wasn't it the first?" She joked. Matt chuckled and leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek. Hazel blushed again,
"I've been wanting to do that for a while, just wouldn't admit it" He told her,
"Well I've been wanting you to do it for a while" She responded, Matt looked like he didn't believe her then smiled.
"Come in you two!" Izzy called "Our clothes are dry so we can go back to the Digital World!" He told them.
About an hour later all the Digidestined were standing in a circle, their Digivices clutched in their hands,
"You call it Hazel" Tai offered. She nodded and raised her arm slowly, as did the others.
"Let's do it!" She said as the lights shot from the Digivices and the nine of them plus their Digimon disappeared.