Herbal Love

Chapter 03

Date: Summer 03, Year 05

"I like to have the pizza dish and a side of fries."

"Anything else?"

The sound of a page being flipped was enveloped by the surrounding noise from other customers. Claire glanced at the menu. "Maybe some frozen yogurt would be nice." She handed the menu back to Nick. "That's all. Thanks."

Nick smiled warmly at his favorite customer. "I'll have it done right in the jiffery."

After he left, she sighed. These past few days have been daunting. The atmosphere between her and the doctor was intense-not the good kind, but the bad kind. It felt like a cat preying on a mouse type of thing. Claire swirled her drink around as she took another sip. Life on the island wasn't really that dangerous, no matter how much the inlanders believed it to be. So far, there hasn't been any critical injuries on the villagers, but with the winter season coming up—that might change a little bit. A plate of food entered her vision and she was distracted by the delightful aroma smell. To a couple of tables from her left, a loud conversation was taking place.

"Have you seen the new doctor?"

"No. Is he good-looking like everyone said?"

"Definitely, and a fine personality to boot as well."

"I wonder if he has somebody back in Mineral Town?"

Claire decided to ignore any further conversations from that particular area. Suddenly, she lost her appetite. A bell rung and Claire was out the door, with a take-out box containing her leftovers. Waving, smiling and greeting to the villagers, she quickly made haste to the clinic. Inside, there was a long line of miners waiting in the lobby. Claire noted that almost each and every single one of them had a large cut somewhere on their body or some bruising. She quickly rushed over to her side of the clinic, grabbing some creams and whatnot before heading over to Trent's office. She stopped right in front of his door, hand still inches away from knocking. The door opened by itself, and Trent appeared on the other side—he looked shocked seeing her standing there, in front of his office.

"Creams?" Claire asked, holding a box of medicinal creams for him to see. Trent took the box, thanking her politely.

The intense stare from him made her fidget a little. "Do you need any help?" Claire offered to do the menial stuff such as cleaning the blood and bandaging some cuts; she did took a first aid class back in school.

Trent merely looked down on her, reminding her that a doctor would need a 'certified' nurse or someone who was supervised under an experienced nurse. "No, I can handle everything here. I've already given a prescription to some of the miners. I believe they are waiting for you to give it to them."

That, there, was a double bitch slap and Claire felt the nonverbal wound. She couldn't stay in his presence for one more second. "Sorry for intruding you then." Out of the hallway, shrouded in darkness, and back into her own section of the building where warmth was flowing. As predicted, there were people waiting for their medication. How she missed them in the first place, Claire did not know. "Time to start working," she muttered to herself as she hurried over to her desk and gathered the prescriptions.

It was all over now. Claire wiped the sweat off her brow. She felt like her eyes became crossed from staring at the drugs too hard. Sometimes, she wondered if it was worth all the studying and putting together the drugs like this. Sure, the pay is good and all, but on the course of her path she had to sacrifice a few things. Once she was in the confines of her room, she let her guard down.

Ring, Ring, Ring

Startled, Claire glanced over at the source of the noise. The phone was moving with life. Curious, she picked up the handle. "Hello?"

A male's voice was on the other. It was distinctively familiar. "Claire?"

"This is her speaking. May I ask who is this?"

Chuckling was heard on the other side. "It's me, Rick. From Mineral Town."

Claire brightened up when she realized it was her dear friend. "Rick! I'm so glad to hear from you." Then she stopped, remembering something. "But, how did you get this number? I don't remember giving it to anyone besides the doctors."

"Dr. Hardy gave it to me, once I found out that you are working over at Sunshine Islands as its pharmacist." Rick answered, his eye was watching over Jack as he browsed around for some chicken feeds. "How have you been?" Rick wanted to trend this conversation carefully, as he was well aware of the current doctor that's residing in Sunshine Islands and the calamity that could possibly happened.

With that single line, everything—all the thoughts, the fears that Claire kept tightly inside of her—burst opened as she spilled them all to Rick, who made listening comments (occasionally "uh huh"'s "I see"'s here and there). From the cold treatment she received from Trent to her self-promises of mending the bridges between Trent and her, but never could. She didn't know why….It just never did. At the end of the tirade, Claire felt better then she had ever since she reunited with said person. "What am I doing wrong Rick?"

Rick was silent; trying to take in all the information that he could in his mind. It was hard to do so when Claire was being very descriptive and detailed with her run-ins with Dr. Trent. Not to mention the whole emotions that was plaguing her body. Finally finding the words he wanted to say, Rick started off slowly. "Do you think…perhaps that you're running away from the situation?"

Claire twirled a lock of her hair; not knowing how to respond.

"Claire?" Rick's concerned voice echoed the small room.

"I'm here." She responded, snapping her attention back to Rick. "What made you think that I'm running away from something?"

There was a bit of hesitation coming from Rick's part. "Well, it seems that whenever there was an opportunity, you wouldn't take it. Instead, you just ran away."

She almost raised an eyebrow to the accusation, but stopped. Claire repeated his words in her mind. …Those words hit her. A gulp of air was swallowed in her throat. Just as Rick's comment changed her whole viewpoint so many years ago, it turns out that time hasn't change them at all. The words of wisdom opened her eyes now. Her body slumped against the wall. A couple of tears dropped to the carpet and she placed her head to her arms. Claire knew that Trent haven't forgive her, knew that she was the last person he wanted to see. She wanted to mend things between them—back to the easy going relationship they once had. But no matter how much she kept telling herself—in the end, she didn't do anything.

"Claire!"

A hefty sigh left her and Claire spoke, her voice trembled somewhat. "You're right. There were plenty of times where I could have done something, but I didn't. …I chose not to." Claire rubbed her eyes; it had gotten moist. I don't have the right to complain when it's all my fault."

On the other side of the phone line, Rick frowned as he listened to her speak. "Is it because you're scared?"

Silence answered his question. Then her voice was heard through the phone again. "Perhaps."

Rick's next question threw her off. "Do you still love him?"

Claire didn't know what to say. She was pretty flabbergasted as to how she could respond to that. "I…uh…I don't know." Claire answered honestly, though she could feel her heart pounding loudly against her ribs. "I still…well, I guess you can say that I'm still attracted to him. But it's been about four to five years now. We're not the people we were back then."

There was a loud sigh of aggravation from Rick's part. "Stop being so analytical and trying to reason with this," Rick reprimanded. "There's no logic in love. I mean, look at my sister! To this day I still don't know why she loves that sea-traveling jerk Kai."

Claire raised an eyebrow at Rick's rant. Apparently, he hasn't gotten over his dislike toward Kai. "Some things haven't changed have they?" She could hear Rick scoffing on the over end.

"Nothing has changed over here…except for a certain doctor but I'm sure you've already experience that already." Rick gazed outside his window and onto the street, where Elli was walking down with a basket of fruits heading over to the poultry place. "Listen Claire, I don't have that much longer to talk since I have to keep an eye on this place but please try to find some sort of closure with him. The two of you need it."

"Rick…." She found herself shocked at how weak she sounded when he suggested that. Already Claire could pictured the frown that appeared on his face when she called him out like that. What he said next only confirmed her imagination.

"Now Claire," Rick's stern voice reprimanded her once again. "Trust me on this. The two of you will be better off once you discuss whatever issues there are between you. Now I gotta go. Mom is feeling a bit weak today and someone is dropping by with something. Bye Claire."

"Give Lillian my regards and bye Rick." Claire said; sadden to have her close friend leaving her once again.

"I will." The phone clicked.

Placing the phone on the nearby stand, Claire walked over to her bed and fall on it. The shadows in her wall crept closer to her; showing the passage of time. It was only the light from the lamps placed around the room that hid away how her heart really felt. She wasn't surprised to see that it was already quite dark. After all, Rick was one of the very few people in the world where you just felt like you could talk to that person forever and there is always something to talk about. Remembering what Rick had told her, Claire moved around on the bed, moaning. How the heck was she supposed to bring the past up with Trent? Especially since it seems like he doesn't want anything to do with her.

Claire knew Rick was right in that both of them needed some type of closure. How things ended between them…well, there were some repercussions from that. Trent's new icy attitude and her sudden jitteriness around him. But at the same time, it was not like she could go up to him and say, "Hey! You and I need to talk about how I broke your heart through a letter and pretty much hid from you til now." She could only imagine what kind of facial expressions he would give to that comment.

No matter what, Claire knew that one way or another, it would be a very awkward conversation to bring up with unless…there was some sort of extreme external situation at hand. Claire frowned in her head. She had no clue what kind of external "hands" would be.

All of the sudden, Claire heard her stomach growling. Gently placing her hand on top of her stomach, she could feel the echo sensation vibrating through her skin from the stomach. She wondered for a bit what to eat but then remembered that she had her lunch in a take-out box. Searching around for the white carton box, Claire found it. To her disgust, it was cold and the fries were soggy. "I wonder if the kitchen has a microwave or something." She said to herself as she headed toward the kitchen. Claire had enough of eating cold pizzas as a student. She didn't need to experience that part of her life again.

"Ah that was some good warm pizza and fries." Walking out of the dining room, Claire was pleased.

As she was heading back to her room, Claire noticed there was a new water fountain right in the middle of the lobby. Curious, seeing how this was the first time she saw, Claire walked over to it and peered over the fountain. One minute she was looking at the cleanest waters that she had ever seen, and the next thing she knows, she was wet all over. 'Damn the water is freezing.' She thought to herself as she straightens herself into a seating position. Claire felt a couple of hands grabbing her and pulling her out of the fountain.

"Fair maiden, are you alright?" A soft yet strong male voice spoke to her. There was a hint of an aristocratic tone in his speech. Claire figured that he must have been a European or something along the lines by his accent. Brushing her hair aside—they were in front of her eyes when she had fallen in—she was speechless when she saw the male.

Short blonde hair, fair, blue eyes and all. She could sum it up in one word. Princely. Remembering that he was waiting on her answer, Claire slowly nodded. She didn't think these guys existed now, but here was one right in front of her.

The unknown princely male smiled. Claire wondered how a smile could be so radiant and regal. "I'm glad to hear that." He said then faced away from Claire for a moment, but brought back his gaze on her. "My deepest apologizes for pushing you into the fountain. My back was turned and so I didn't realized you were there when I backed up. Forgive me for making you experience such a terrible moment." His deep blue eyes stared imploringly at her.

Charmed by his behavior, Claire smiled at him. "It's alright. You apologized and it's not like you purposely shoved me in. It was all an accident."

"You are so kind and thoughtful fair maiden. Might I know your name?" The guy asked. "Oh, I almost forgot. My name is William Terry Louis Andrew Junior Regison III. But for you fair lady, you may call me Will."

Claire's head almost reeled back at Will's introduction. That was quite a name and definitely proved her speculation that he must came from an old Western traditional family. "I'm Claire Howe. I run the local pharmacy here. Are you new to the island?" She asked, knowing for sure that she never met this guy before on this island. The island has a pretty small population. She thrust her hand out to shake.

Apparently, that action to him meant kissing the fingers. Before she could realized what he was doing, he had already grab hold of her hand and kissed the back of her fingers. "Oh!" Was all that Claire could muster up saying before feeling a bit flustered by Will's action. Now she could see why all the girls would feel embarrassed whenever a guy does that.

Will resumed back to his previous position once more after kissing her fingers. "Lovely name for someone such as yourself Claire. And yes, I am new around here. But that is a story for another time." Will noticed at how soaked Claire was judging by how her clothes stick on to her like glue. "Ah, forgive me once more for not noticing how cold you must be." He took off his white jacket and wrapped it around Claire, who was protesting against that. "We must take you to the doctor at once. I think there is a doctor at this inn."

"Will stop. It's fine. No need to bother the doctor. I'll just go to my room and changed clothes again." Claire said weakly. There was no way she was going to see Trent as this. A daft of cold air passed by and Claire sneezed. Seeing Will's stern expression when he saw her sneezed made her relent to Will's suggestion. Deep inside, she cursed the water for being too cold as she waited on one of the benches and watched as Will walked over to the front lobby and demanded a doctor. Huffing to herself, Claire wondered why Will was going overboard with this. By now, she would have been able to take a quick shower and into a clean dried pair of clothes.

Will was walking toward her, briskly. Standing up, Claire explained to him how it wasn't necessary and how much of a hassle that would be for the doctor. But Will was adamant about that saying how it was not very much of a gentleman to leave a damsel all wet and unattended without being look over by a doctor for any signs of the flu or cold. Put out by Will, Claire brushed past him and marched to her room. She knew that Will could not stopped her physically, for that would go against his code of gentleman.

Shouts were yelled out, but Claire ignored them. It didn't take long for her to get to her room. "Man, so troublesome." She said to herself as she grabbed a pair of clothing and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Ten minutes in and a loud pounding interrupted to what was supposed to be a quiet, alone time. Claire didn't blinked an eye as she ignored the pounding and continued on attempting to enjoy her shower.

Knock. Knock. KNOCK!

Deeply annoyed by the constant repetition of the knocks, Claire shut off the shower, wrapped a bathrobe around herself, and roughly opened the door to see Will and Trent standing by—the later looking irritated and the former agitated. "What?" She said harshly, snapping mostly at Will since the whole ruckus was started by him in the first place.

Will's eyes widened more than a centimeter when he saw her state of undress. Realizing what he was doing, he closed them quickly and stepped away from Claire. "I'm sorry milady for disturbing you." Blood rushed to his cheeks when he recalled Claire's choice of wardrobe. "Dr. Trent will see to you." Will gave a good nod then quickly ran back to the lobby, embarrassed to have seen a lady in her intimate level of clothing.

Claire closed her eyes, rubbing her temple. She still finds it amazing to see different sorts of people that exist to this very day. Will was the perfect example of that. Back to the problem on hand, she glanced at Trent. "I'm sorry for all of this," Claire gestured her hands out. "but you really don't have to do this or be here in the first place." She started to swing the door to a shut, but a hand suddenly darted forward and pushed against the closing door.

"If I don't check up on you, he will get on my case." Trent said rather coolly. Claire had no choice but to allow him in as what he said was correct. She may not know Will very long, but she had an impression that he would pestered Trent about her condition—if not from him, then from her as well. But, when she listened to what Trent had said just now, she felt sad or disappointed.

Not looking at Trent straight in the eyes, Claire sat down on a chair and muttered softly. "Let's get it over with." Her bare arm was sticking out in front of her. She heard rustlings of cloth and the sound of a zipper being moved.

It was all very much like a routine, Claire noted. Trent checked for her vital signs and everything. She shivered when his fingers slightly brushed against her skin. Trent took notice of that, but refrained from commenting on it thinking that it was probably from the small breeze from a window crack.

Trent moved away from Claire once he finished inspecting her. "Everything's fine. There's nothing wrong with you. I do suggest, however, that you shut the window properly and tightly so you won't run risk of obtaining the cold or flu."

Claire nodded. She felt the hair strands becoming less wet now. "Thank you doctor." An air of awkward silence settled itself between them. A cough came from Trent; his body rather stiff. Shoes shuffled as the door creaked opened and the doctor was heading out. Once the door was firmly shut, Claire released her breath that she did not realize she was holding. Sometimes, she wondered if she made the right decision in pursuing her career over love. Recalling the soft, delicate touches where his fingers met her skin, Claire knew that his ability to be compassionate hasn't dwindled at all over the years. In fact, it may have moved on to an even further level. For all that hatred he must have toward her, Trent treated her rather delicate. 'But that wouldn't stop him from emotionally hurting you now,' the negative part of her mind informed her. She fell back on the bed. "I swear, this is worst than taking the PCATs. All these emotional stress is going to give me gray hairs someday!"

Knock. Knock.

Groaning, Claire stomped over to the door and yanked it wide open. There stood Will, holding a steaming cup of hot cocoa. "Ah!" He gave the cup to Claire. "Dr. Trent insisted that I should give this to you, saying how it would make you feel better and not catch a chill."

"I see…." Sniffing the enticing scent of fresh, steaming chocolate, a sense of familiarity whirled around. Claire was about to take a small sip of the drink to see if it was what she thought it was when Will spoke again.

"Once again, I am deeply sorry for making you fall into the fountain and letting yourself get wet and cold," Will ranted, his hands were gesturing wildly. Apparently, his inner turmoil was so expressively shown that Claire was beginning to be a bit worry about his health.

Claire placed the cup on a nearby table and gently laid her hand on his shoulder. "Will, it was an accident. There was no intent, so all is clear." Slowly pushing him further down the hallway, she smiled at him. "It's getting late and I'm sure you have other things to do. Goodbye." The door quickly slammed shut. Leaning against the door from her side, Claire made eyes upward toward the skies. "Men." She doesn't think she would ever understand them sometimes.

Outside the window, it was already dark. Claire couldn't believed that so much time had passed by. Heading over, she unlatched the window and allowed the summer breezes to come in. Glancing back at the door, she wondered if life would be better if she had just gotten a kitten rather than getting into a relationship.

Her skin prickled at the ghostly touches Trent had bestowed upon her and she shivered involuntarily. Claire knew what has to be done, but thinking and saying about it was a lot easier than having to do it.

AN: So…ok, I know it's been about a year since I last updated and I'm sorry it's taken me this long. To be honest, I don't feel motivated into writing for awhile now. Along the way, I've just grown weary. It is only through reviews and story alerts that I forced myself to write this particular chapter. Which was rather difficult because for the longest time, I didn't know where to go from the last chapter. I'm sure you guys are annoyed at Claire's indecisiveness and just bull-shitting talk. But if you guys think about it, how would one go about talking to the guy, whom she broke his heart through a letter and it was mostly her fault for not going about it the right way. I hope this chapter is up to standard. For future chapters…at this point, I honestly don't know. I know that I will complete this story…however, that might take years from now because there's nothing to motivate me (to push out more chapters).

I had planned for this to be relationship-building and all, but I'm questioning myself, would I really have to? Who knows, maybe I'll find the answer to that one of these days.

Thanks to those who reviewed and added this to their story alerts. It's because of you guys that I was able to get this chapter done (and worked on it periodically). I hope this chapter is not a disappointment.

Also, this is unbeta'd.