Disclaimer: I hope you all know by now that I don't own Song of the Lioness.
Author's Note: This is a little longer, but still not super long. I'm having a slight problem – I've only written for TV shows before, so there was no writing style to follow. Now there is, and I'm afraid you can all tell you're reading a fanfic, not the actual book. Which I suppose is a good thing. But I know that many people expect the exact same writing style – and I'm sorry to disappoint you. I'm doing my best, but…it's very difficult to erase my personal style. Thankfully, in this book category people seem to be relaxed about writing styles!
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tamorapiercelover101: Thanks!
abyssgirl: That's where I got the idea from, actually! But this one will be different, I promise :)
It actually took seven minutes, not the promised five, for Gary to get down to the stable. "You're late," teased Jon, who was excellent at keeping time.
"No, I'm not. You're early," Gary joked right back, acting almost like his old self. Inwardly, Alanna relaxed. Maybe she had only been imagining the way Gary was acting. No you're not, she mentally scolded herself. You're not the only one who noticed! And besides, my instincts have never led me wrong before.
"Alan!" Jon called, breaking her out of her thoughts. "You ready yet?"
"Yes," she replied thoughtfully. "Let's go."
It hadn't taken very long for them to ride to the City, even with the continual conversation. And it also hadn't taken all that long to locate the Dancing Dove, since they went there practically all the time.
But Gary felt that it was taking forever for Jon and Alan to get back from their "little walk" that they had insisted on taking only a few minutes after they arrived at George's "palace".
He knew exactly why they had left, too. Jon had tried (unsuccessfully) to get Gary to talk about what was bothering him. Gary hadn't realized that his distance had been noticed by his friends. Still, though, he would have gladly told them his problem – if he knew what it was.
He supposed the smart thing to do would have been to go to his friends, so they could help him figure out what was wrong. But instead, he thought of how stupid he would look if he told them he didn't know what was wrong, so he kept his mouth shut.
And now it was coming back to haunt him, courtesy of one George Cooper.
"You don't know what's wrong?" George looked at him skeptically.
Gary nodded, rather ashamed. After much thinking, he finally decided to just tell him the truth. George was too smart for his own good – he might even be able to figure out what exactly was wrong.
To Gary's surprise, George smiled. "Normally when someone doesn't know what's wrong with them, it's because nothing really is wrong with them."
George smiled even more at Gary's confusion. "But…I've been depressed, and not myself! Doesn't that mean there's something wrong?"
George smiled yet again, mysteriously this time. "Not always, lad. Not always. But I'll wait to tell you what the problem is until Jon and Alan get back.
Author's Note: So, I wasn't too pleased with how this chapter turned out. And you can probably see why. Too repetitive. Notice I left this as a cliff-hanger. A not so annoying cliff-hanger, because given what the story is about you already know what the problem is. But that's okay. It made me happy to leave a cliff-hanger anyway. I'm working on the next chapter, so be expecting an update in a few days!
