(That took me long enough, huh? Hopefully, chapters will be a bit shorter from now on.)
"Erk! Ouch!" Jules yelped.
"Oh, settle down, Jules," Charles scolded. "It's just a tuxedo!"
"It's also the tightest, itchiest thing I've ever worn," Jules complained.
"Oh, c'mon, Jules! Don't you want to look nice for your own wedding?" Charles said.
"I sure do," Jules said. "I just wish that 'nice' didn't have to be so uncomfortable." He finally managed to squeeze into the tux. "Ah! Finally!"
"Oh, I just know you and Bernie are going to be the happiest pair on Mobius," Charles said.
"Of course," Jules agreed. "I've loved her from the moment I set eyes on her, years ago, and I know she'll always love me too."
"All I have to say is that I'm very happy for you, bro'," Charles said, cuffing Jules on the shoulder.
"Aw, thanks," Jules said. He turned to look at his friend, Jerry. "Ready to be the Best Man?"
"I've always been the Best Man," Jerry replied with a wink.
"Heh, don't I know it," Jules said. "I'm going to check on Bernie." The blue hedgehog walked into the room where his fiancee was wearing a lacey white wedding dress.
"Ohh...do you think this is too excessive?" Bernie asked.
"No way! It's beautiful!" Jules said.
"I'm glad you think so," Bernie said. "I think it might be a size too small, but it's comfortable enough."
A little lavender hedgehog danced into the room and tossed flowers in the air. "I'm going to be the flower girl!" she sang.
"Oh, it's a very important job, Kalie! Sure you're ready for it?" Bernie said.
She nodded vigorously and tossed a few more flowers. Bernie giggled and looked lovingly at her future husband.
Charles rushed in the room. "Hate to interrupt, but we have to finalize the guest lists."
"Alright," Jules said, following his brother into another room. Charles flipped through the list, saying the names and asking if Jules approved. He did, all the way until they came across the name "Ivo".
"Oh, well...I wasn't planning on inviting him," Jules said.
Charles was startled. "What? Why not?"
Jules sighed. "It's kinda hard to explain, but he's your friend, not mine. I've hardly met him, and we haven't gotten along when we have."
"But he's descent, and you two don't dislike each other that much. I'm sure he'd be honored and willing!" Charles insisted.
"Eh, he's not my type," Jules said casually.
"Well, if that's the case, Abdulkareem Martin probably wouldn't be your type either," Charles growled.
"Yeah, well, he's Bernie's uncle," Jules said.
"Yeah, well, Ivo is my friend," Charles replied.
Jules sighed. "Look, I don't want this to seperate us, but...oh, well, I guess that he might as well come, if it would make you happy."
"Thank you, Jules," Charles said. "And I'm sure it would make him happy, too."
"Alright," Jules said, strolling out of the room. "And where's my ring bearer?"
"Right here!" A little brown hedgie bounded up.
"Hi, Ethan," Jules replied. "How's it going?"
"Great!" he said. "I'll be the best ring bearer on Mobius!"
"I'm sure you will," Bernie said, strolling in. She and Jules sat down next to each other.
"You think we'll have everything prepared in time?" Jules asked.
"I'm not sure, really," Bernie admitted, "but I think we'll probably be fine."
"Oh, we'll be more than fine, sweetheart," Jules said. "Trust me."
The wedding day came in the wink of the eye, and it was indeed a simply glorious day. It wasn't just because the decorations were pretty, or the snacks were scrumptious, or the guests were pretty - it was something much more.
It was that Jules and Bernie were united with the binding ties of marriage, and they were now one flesh - bound to be together, forever. Jules couldn't imagine anything so happy.
After the ceremony, there were, of course, festivities and fun, pleasent conversation, and the consumption of little triangle-shaped sandwiches. Oh, and the wedding cake. Ah, yes, the wedding cake was the icing on the cake, if you will. All of the guests were happy and excited - well, most of them.
Ivo, for instance, was not particularily happy and not particularily excited. In fact, he felt a strange unrest.
Ivo and Jules did not know each other very well, and what they did know of each other they didn't find very pleasent. But it was more than that. Ivo knew there was something he had forgotten about for a long time. It was the day when he had discussed with Charles a way to prevent living things from being so delicate, a way to help them live longer. However, Charles and Ivo got busy with their own things and stopped spending much time together, and it had fell to the back of their minds. But now it was resurfacing, and it stirred a strange passion deep within Ivo. He wanted to remind Charles about it, but he felt it wouldn't be appropriate at the wedding.
Speaking of which, Ivo didn't feel that he himself was appropriate at this wedding. Charles was the only one around he remotely knew, and even Charles was busy talking to other people. He acted different from everyone else, talked different from everyone else, and looked different from everyone else. He wished he wasn't so different.
Just then, something popped into Ivo's mind, a conversation he had with his dad a very long time ago. Ivo was complaining about that very same thing he was complaining about now. Everybody teased him, and he could never fit in. He was different back then, just as he was different now. And he remembered what his father had said: "It's the people who are different who become great."
Great. He hadn't taken what his father said seriously back then, but...what if it was true? What if he, himself, was going to really, honestly be great? Greater, perhaps, than those before him? Than anyone before him, maybe? What if he could be that? What if he was that?
No. There was no "maybe". He was great, he would be great, and he would seize his potential no matter what it took. This was him. It had to be.
His head burned and he grinned madly. He would rise above. He would become great. He would do his duty. He would fulfill his destiny.
After chatting with various people, Jules and Bernie met back up.
"Oh, Bernie, I'm so happy," Jules said, half-laughing. "Want to have our honeymoon soon?"
"Oh, I would love that," Bernie said. "Where would you like to go?"
"Oh, I don't-" Jules twitched and looked off.
"What?" Bernie asked, perplexed.
"...Dad? Are you OK?" Jules asked, approaching his father, who was standing nearby. "You seem a bit shaky."
"Oh, um, don't worry about me," Maurice said. "I...I just have to sit down." He half-fell into a chair.
"Dad, your...legs. Are you sure you're OK? You look a little..." Jules trailed off.
"Wobbly," Maurice finished. "I don't feel well, Jules. I..."
Jules didn't have to be told twice. "Bernie, we have to go."
"Where? The doctor's?"
"Bingo." Jules looked at his dad. "Do you think you'll be well enough to come to the car, or should we carry you?"
Maurice grunted and tried to get up, but his legs twitched akwardly and then failed, causing the hedgehog to fall to the ground.
"Dad!" Jules yelled, grabbing his father and heaving him up.
"Oh, it hurts," Maurice groaned. "I'm in pain, I'm in pain.
Charles ran over. "What's the matter? What's the commotion?"
"Dad isn't well," Jules said, urgency in his voice. "We need to get him to the emergency room now."
Jules, Bernie and Charles looked on at Maurice laying down on the hospital bed.
"Do you have the diagnosis yet?" Charles said glumly.
The doctor solemnly nodded. "Yes, and we're afraid it's...WHS."
"No!" Charles exclaimed. "It can't be!"
"But...but...that's the disease that killed our mother! It...it...couldn't -!" Jules sputtered angrily.
"Arrgh...Jules, don't be afraid. I...I..." Maurice gasped for breath. "Ow, ow, it hurts. I can't move."
"Hang in there," Bernie said sadly. She looked at the doctor. "What will...happen to him?"
The doctor heaved a heavy sigh. "WHS is eventually fatal, but with the proper care he could probably live for up to two more years."
"Two years!" Charles sat down in a chair, overcome by grief. "Oh, no, the Heavenly King help me! It can't be so!"
"Ow, ow, ow," Maurice said, closing his eyes. Tears streamed down his cheeks. There was no help for it. He was going to die the same way his wife had. He hated to see his family so sad over him.
"Oh, Bernie..." Jules couldn't help but cry. Bernie hugged her husband's arm, and feeling the pain in his heart made her ache.
"He may be able to live at home, but someone will need to take care of him," the doctor said.
Charles sighed. "I'll do it. I don't have a wife to care for."
"Alright. We'll have to discuss the proper caring methods with you, if you are going to be his guardian."
"Yeah, alright, sure. How about now?" Charles said. He was so devastated deep inside that he started to feel somewhat numb.
"I suppose so." The doctor glanced toward the newly-wed Bernie and Jules. "You probably don't need to hear this."
"OK," Jules said softly. "Should me and Bernie leave?"
"Yes, you may."
"Alright. I-I'll visit you as often as I can, Dad. I'm-I'm s-so sorry."
"It's not your fault. I-I love you."
"Yeah, me too. 'Bye," Jules said, running off quickly, hoping in vain that he could run away from his problems, only to slump down in a chair in the waiting room. "Oh, Bernie!" Jules wept. "It's too hard!"
It was painful for Bernie to see her husband cry. Part of her wanted him to stop crying, but she knew that sometimes you just have to cry. Instead, she just sat down and cried along with him.
The next few months were very, very hard for all parties concerned. Jules and Bernie had trouble focusing on their jobs and caring for each other. They had difficulty concentrating on anything but the impending death of Jules' father. It took all their strength to take their attention off it and try to proceed through their life. They would visit Maurice sometimes; sometimes this only made the problem worse, but sometimes it helped when it looked like he was doing well.
As for Charles, he too was going through immense difficulty, but not in quite the same way. Though he was indeed very sad, he was not only sad, but mad as well. Not simply mad, but enraged. And he didn't exactly know what he was enraged at or why, and this only made him more angry, and this made him more sad. It was a perfect cycle of despair, and it was torment for Charles as he went about trying to properly care for his ailing father. He felt hopeless, completely without ambition, until one day when he finally realized what he was so mad about.
It was at nighttime, when Charles was helping his father into bed. The WHS was taking a mighty hold on the sickly hedgehog, and he was so terribly paralyzed that only his face could move, and even that with difficulty. Charles had to drag him every step of the way before finally placing his stiff body into bed, and then he had to fluff up the pillow and place it under his head, and take the blanket and tuck him in.
After this was done, Maurice began to groan. "Ohh, Ch-Ch-Charles...I...my body feels so frail on...on every lev-level."
Charles' heart thumped loudly. He felt a strange sensation. He had heard that phrase somewhere before, said by someone else.
Maurice coughed. "My body is helpless, b-but...my spirit..."
Charles felt his body turn ice cold.
"M-my spirit...I-I'm going to leave right now..."
"No! N-no!" Charles said, but he could say no more after that. His voice was choked out with emotion welling up inside him.
Maurice's voice was no more than a thin, raspy wisp. "Goodbye...goodbye...I am going to see what Heaven looks like..."
Charles grasped his father's hand despearately, unable to say anything. But it was too late. He was gone.
At first, the overwhelming flood of sadness came, consuming Charles' whole body. Why? Why? Why? Why?
But the rain stopped out of sudden realization.
What his father had said...frail on every level...that was what people's bodies were. That described them. Perfectly.
A burning fire blazed in Charles' heart, mind, soul, being. A burning, all-consuming ambition.
He would find the way to cure mankid from weakness. He would find a way to make them into something which could resisit the forces of nature. He would find a way to make them into something perfect. And he didn't care what it took. This is what he would do. This was his very purpose.
First, he informed Bernie and Jules and all other concerned parties that Maurice had died. And he also told them that he wouldn't be planning a funeral, and that if there was a funeral, he wouldn't attend it.
"But, but why?" Jules asked, sobbing. "Ch-Charles, you loved him as much as I did. I kn-know we can't bring him back, but, but...please honor him with me. Why won't you? Please!"
"No," Charles said firmly. "I have a more important duty to fulfill, and if I do there will never be any funerals ever again."
"But...Charles, you are my brother and friend!" Jules begged. "In the name of reason-!"
"Reason?" Charles spat. "Reason had its day, brother!" And he stomped off without looking back.