Author's Note:

I would just like to point out that this story is not actually my idea, but rather my friend Emortal2000's idea, she-who-does-not-yet-have-a-fanfiction-account.

Enjoy!

- Now for the story -

The rain seemed to grow more insistent with each passing second as Rachel, Supreme leader of the Kids Next Door a.k.a. Numbuh 362, sat on her bed, flipping pages through an old blue book she had found strewn about in her living room.

This is so unfair, she thought. The day after Christmas and I'm sick in bed!

She continued to barely register the words on each page as she listened to the steady downpour beat on her roof. Her blanket grew warm from her sitting there so long and she shifted to her stomach.

A loud knock on her bedroom door startled her, and her book fell to the floor with a quiet thud as she got out of bed and walked to her door. As she wrenched it open, her eyes opened in surprise to see Patton, the Drill Sergeant for the Arctic Base, standing behind it, melancholy displayed clearly on his face and holding what seemed to be sheet of paper.

"Patton," she exclaimed, surprised and yet secretly delighted to have him visit her. But she did not express so, as she soon left the door and went back to sit on her bed, picking up her blue book on the way, sitting down and pretending to read though her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkling from his presence.

"Rachel," he said, making his way over to the bed. He was about to sit down when he suddenly paused and became rigid. He then loosened up, but did not sit.

She looked up once and raised an eyebrow. Then she went back to the book.

"Um, your mom let me in," he mumbled, fiddling with his hands in clear discomfort.

"Who else would have?" she replied, not shifting her gaze to him again, but rather staying uncaring… on the outside.

"I don't know. So, um… I hear you're sick?"

Her look and eyebrows raised and she said to him, placing her book aside, "No, really? Because it's not like I'm just sitting here on my bed, completely uninterested in doing anything else for fear that I might become even more ill. No, that's not what I'm doing at all." But as soon as she saw the reaction to her rude and sarcastic remark on his face, she felt guilty and said, "Of course, how could I expect you to know that?" and turned back to her book yet again in an attempt to appear as though she had not seen his face and yet reassure him that she had not meant what had caused him to show such emotion, for she did not wish to be rude or mean, but rather to seem distant… although she often got the two confused.

"Um… well, I just came to drop this off," he said, still uncomfortable as he dropped the piece of paper on the nightstand he was sitting by.

"I am not signing paperwork today, Numuh 60," she said, not looking up but softening her tone.

She could feel the atmosphere around them lift slightly as he said, "Oh, it's not paperwork. And it's hopefully nowhere near as boring."

She did not expect him to simply walk out of her door after saying such, but he did, leaving her mouth agape and her stomach rolling from sudden nausea that he had caused from leaving so abruptly.

She had half a mind not to read the paper, but her liking of Patton overcame her and she did. Scrawled on the paper was a song… notes and lyrics and all. Her lips moved quietly as she whispered the song to herself, her clear, strong voice soon overcoming said whisper as she began to sing it, the tune seeming to create an invisible harmony that seemed like magic as it floated in the air around her.

As the song came to an end, she flipped the music sheet over and saw a small, written note:

I'm still waiting

For you to see

Whatever you want

Right here in me.

She read the note silently to herself and then hugged it close to her chest, feeling as if her room was gone and behind her eyelids was something better than the best- Patton.