The Secret
By Cybra
A/N: Hey! I picked up a few more readers! Who knew? Anyway, thanks for reading! Heh. It's like Hugo said in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. When it comes to hooking readers, give 'em some slack, then reel 'em in! Then give 'em some slack, then reel 'em in! There're two reviewers that I want to reply to, though.
Houkanno Yuuhou - You are so close! And yet, so far! evil laughter You're so close that I just had to reply! I couldn't help it! Nice guess!
JESS – You're even closer than Houkanno Yuuhou, but you're not quite hitting it! Good guess!
Disclaimer: You see me? The writer at the computer screen? Well, I'm not Joseph Purdy or any of the other writers of Hey Arnold!. Nor am I Craig Barlett. You figure it out. Oh, and the cat Rita is the same Rita from "A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way", so she's mine…in a way.
Chapter 4: Break Ins, Migraines, and Discoveries"Those files have gotta be here somewhere!" a masked man hissed to his partner.
The two of them were rampaging through the files of one Dr. Jay Pollock, a psychiatrist who had been killed in a hit and run accident about five years before. These files were in the care of Dr. Bliss, the same child psychiatrist to Helga Pataki and the former assistant of Dr. Pollock.
Breaking into Hillwood Medical Center was fairly dangerous with all the alarms. It would be a matter of minutes before the police would show up. The two crooks had to be gone by then.
"That's all of 'em!" the first man's partner hissed back.
"That can't be all of them!"
"It is! There ain't no more files! Wherever Doc Pollock hid those stupid things, they're gone now!"
Sirens in the distance. It was time for the two to leave empty-handed.
"The boss ain't gonna like this…" the first man moaned.
"He'll thinka somethin'. He always does."
The pair of masked men ran down the hallway to the window with the fire escape. Climbing quickly down it, they broke into a run once they reached the alley.
Even as the police were pulling up to the medical center, the two criminals vanished into the night.
The lingering scent of lavender was the second sensation that met him as Arnold awoke. The first was his alarm clock calling to him, "Hey, Arnold! Hey, Arnold! Hey, Arnold!"
The headache from the day before was still there but it wasn't as strong as before so he thought that it would go away during the day. He rubbed his eyes and opened them at last. To be honest, he really didn't want to go to school that day, but the class was picking topics for their history papers, and Arnold didn't want someone to take his choice.
A gray and white cat that had been resting on the pillow beside him watched him as he went through his morning routine. She waited as he went downstairs to take a shower and then came back upstairs to pull on his school clothes. She continued to watch as he readjusted his hat in the mirror (he was making sure it sat just the way he liked it).
The blonde turned to the cat. "Well, Rita, do I at least look human?"
It was an old joke. He'd once gone downstairs in such disarray that his grandfather had commented that he wasn't sure if Arnold was actually a human.
Rita meowed her approval, hopping off the bed and rubbing against his legs. She purred loudly, making him smile.
"I don't care what the Folgers commercial says. The best part of waking up is having a cat purr at you. Especially one as pretty as you," he commented, kneeling down and scratching underneath her chin.
She purred even more loudly, her ears – her left one having two bite marks – flicking back and forth with pleasure. She opened her eyes for a brief minute to see him rubbing a temple with his other hand. She stopped purring and mewed worriedly.
"I'll be okay. Let's go get some breakfast."
~@~
'All right…So maybe "okay" was a bit of a stretch…' Arnold thought as he sat down at lunch.
His head was pounding more than ever. He thought his skull would split right down the middle from the hammering inside it. As he looked at his lunch, he suddenly was revolted by the very idea of eating.
"Anyone want it?" he asked, pushing his lunch away from himself.
"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me! Me!" Harold shouted, reaching for it.
Gerald smacked the other boy's hand away before turning to his best friend. "Man, Arnold, are you feelin' okay?"
"Just not hungry, Gerald. I'm all right."
'Liar,' the voice in his head that sounded annoyingly like his grandfather told him.
"Are you sure? You've been acting funny all day."
Even as Arnold nodded, his right hand involuntarily reached up and rubbed his right temple.
Gerald gave his best friend a sympathetic look. "Still have a headache, huh?"
"Yeah…"
"Hey, Arnold!" Stinky's voice called, making Arnold flinch at the sound.
Stinky was on crutches for a few days so Sid was carrying both his own lunch and Stinky's lunch. The two joined Harold, Arnold, and Gerald at the table.
"I just wanted to thank you fer yesterday. I don't know whatcha did, but the doctor said that my ankle started healing itself a lot faster once the pain was gone. So, thanks."
"No problem, Stinky," Arnold answered, rubbing his temple a little more.
"Speaking of yesterday…" Sid began, leaning forward eagerly. "What did you do to Stinky's ankle yesterday, hmm?"
"Sid, lay off," ordered Gerald. "Can't you see he's not feelin' good?"
"But what was he doing to Stinky's ankle?! I mean, Phoebe said that it wasn't pressure points!"
Arnold's head throbbed even more. The faint ghosts of emotion he'd felt earlier became more solid as Sid's suspicion hammered away at him. Already, the blonde could tell a full-blown migraine was on the way.
"Does it matter?! I mean, he helped Stinky, that's all that really matters!" Gerald snapped.
"Yeah, Sid! You don't have to be so darn suspicious!" Stinky agreed, glaring at his shorter friend.
"Aren't you guys the least bit suspicious?! I mean, what if it was somethin' dangerous?!" Sid angrily shouted back.
"Stop it…" the blonde moaned, rubbing his temple even more.
"I doubt that Arnold would do something dangerous to one of us!" Gerald yelled, drawing even more attention to the fight.
"Stop it…" Arnold begged a little louder.
"Yeah, Sid! What – What Gerald said!" Harold joined in.
"STOP IT! RIGHT NOW!"
Silence reigned over the lunchroom as they all stared at the boy who had shouted. Arnold was almost sweating under their scrutiny, his eyes closed tightly and both hands rubbing his aching temples. His own voice had maximized the pain.
Migraine City.
Arnold's shout had been completely un-Arnold-like. He ordinarily tried to calm down combatants in a fight rather than scream at them. Immediately, the argument ended.
Arnold opened his eyes to look at his friends apologetically. "Sorry…"
"Arnold…" Phoebe began quietly, making him turn around to look at her. "Would you like to go to the nurse's office?"
Her concern was the straw that broke the camel's back.
She watched in horror as Arnold's green eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp, collapsing out of his seat and onto the floor.
~@~
"They didn't take anything," Dr. Bliss told the police officers questioning her. "All they did was go through Dr. Pollock's files apparently. It's almost like they were looking for something."
"Thank you, Dr. Bliss. We'll see what we can do from here."
"You're welcome, gentlemen."
The officers left Dr. Bliss alone to re-organize her mentor's files. She sighed.
"Well, I was aiming to get this done sometime," she noted as she reached for the wooden box the files had been contained in.
Something struck her as odd as she placed the files back in their places, something she hadn't really noticed before. It was almost as if the files were up on some sort of cushion or something since they stuck out at the top a few inches.
"Interesting…"
She walked over to her desk and pulled out a ruler that she had her patients use for making crafts while she talked to them. She measured the outside of the box first, then the inside.
The height of the outside was much larger than the height of the inside.
"That's impossible…" she murmured.
Forgetting about organizing, she examined the box more closely, turning it over in her hands. Part of the design almost looked like if you pressed just right, it would slide out the other side. She pushed against it, and it slid a little inward while the same pattern on the other side slid outward a little.
"A false bottom?" the child psychologist wondered.
Fortunately for her, she had already cancelled all her appointments for the day in order to clean up the mess so she didn't have to worry about keeping any appointments. She pushed against the design until it slid all the way into the box. On the other side, a piece of wood was sliding out of the other hole.
Encouraged, she continued pushing, occasionally pulling on the other side. Slowly, centimeter by centimeter, she was seeing more and more of a compartment under the piece of wood.
"Almost…got it…"
After what seemed like an eternity, the false bottom had been completely removed, revealing…
"Another set of files? Whose are these?"
Glancing at a corner of the top file, she saw the little doodle that signified that it was Dr. Pollock's work. There was no name on the file itself.
She opened the file and began to read, her eyes growing wide as she read the details of a study Dr. Pollock had never told his former assistant or anyone else for that matter.
"Oh, my word."
Below the main file with all the basic information were the files of his three subjects. The files obviously hadn't been updated in five years, but she hadn't expected her mentor's subjects to be that young.
Each opening sheet of paper held each child's first name, age, physical characteristics, and the strange "Level" status that Dr. Pollock explained in his opening file. Also included was a picture of that child.
It was becoming more obvious now.
Dr. Pollock had hidden these files in order to protect these children.
The first two of the three subjects she didn't recognize. The third one she knew immediately.
"It can't be…"
~@~
"Oh…" Arnold moaned as he came to awareness again.
He opened his green eyes and snapped them shut immediately, looking away from the unforgiving light and covering his now light-sensitive eyes with his hands. He moaned again.
"It's good to see you're finally awake! We were getting worried!" chirped the friendly voice of the school nurse.
"Please…" he whispered, her voice causing the pounding to hurt even more.
"Oh. Sorry," she whispered.
He heard her footsteps as she walked to the light switch and heard the click of the switch being flicked. Less light filled the room.
"Sheena, dear," Sheena's aunt quietly called. "Could you please pull the drapes on the window?"
"Sure."
Blessed darkness filled the room, and Arnold slowly opened his eyes once more.
"You scared us, Arnold," Sheena whispered, walking over beside him. "What happened?"
"Migraine…"
"Your grandfather is coming to pick you up, dear," Sheena's aunt told him.
"How long…?"
"Were you out? A good fifteen minutes."
'What took them so long to get me to the nurse's office?' the blonde wondered.
"People were panicking when you passed out. Nobody knew what to do. Helga finally got everybody to quiet down and had Sid and Gerald sorta half-carry, half-drag you here," Sheena told him, unknowingly answering his unspoken question.
"Remind me to thank her," Arnold requested. "Looks like I owe her one." He paused. "I owe you one, too, for taking care of me."
"I think we're only just starting to break even since you've done so much for us," Sheena modestly replied.
Arnold didn't have an answer to that and closed his eyes again.
"Take this," the nurse ordered. "It'll help make you feel better."
He swallowed the pill that she placed into his mouth and washed it down with the drink of water she gave him.
"I'm going to give you a pair of disposable sunglasses for when you go outside with your grandfather to his car. That way the sun won't hurt your eyes as much." The voice of Sheena's aunt turned stern. "I know how seriously you take responsibility, Arnold, but next time you're not feeling well, tell your grandparents that you need to stay home. I don't want to see you in here again like this."
Sheena was surprised by the way Arnold meekly nodded. She supposed he was in no mood to argue.
"Sheena, you may go back to class now."
Arnold's classmate gave one more worried look in his direction, exited the nurse's office, and walked down the hall.
~@~
"How's Arnold doing?" Gerald asked Phil.
Mr. Simmons' entire class – even Mr. Simmons himself – stopped by the boarding house to check up on their classmate after school. Sheena's report on his condition had made them remorseful for the panicking they had done before and made the boys arguing at the table at the time even more remorseful for not paying attention.
"He's in Mr. Pott's room right now, sleeping off the migraine. It's darker in Ernie's room than in his own room. He should be fine by the day after tomorrow if not tomorrow."
Helga was amazed by how calm Phil was. Arnold was their pride and joy, their treasure.
In reality, Phil was barely holding in his own worried feelings, just like the rest of the boarding house. He should've been more firm in telling his grandson to stay home, but Arnold had been extremely convincing in telling him that he would be fine.
Still, regret wouldn't help. He needed to stay calm for his grandson. Right now was not the time to get emotional. It would hurt Arnold more.
"Can we see him?" Sid asked.
"I'm afraid not. It wouldn't be a good idea."
"Please? Please?" the students begged.
Mr. Simmons interrupted their pleading. "Now, everyone, if Arnold's grandpa doesn't think it's a good idea, then it's probably not a good idea." He turned to Phil. "Could you tell him to get well soon for all of us?"
"I could do that."
"Thank you." With that, the teacher herded his students away from the Sunset Arms.
~@~
A few hours later, Arnold walked slowly into the hallway on the second floor. Mr. Hyunh poked his head out of his room.
"Arnold, are you feeling any better?" the Vietnamese man inquired.
"A little, but I could really use a few Advil right now."
Bring! Bring!
The boy and the adult stared at the telephone that dared interrupt the rare bit of peace and quiet. Before Mr. Hyunh could grab it, Arnold answered.
"Hello?"
"Hello. This is Dr. Bliss. May I speak to Arnold?"
Arnold glanced at Mr. Hyunh. "Speaking. How can I help you, Dr. Bliss?"
"I just recently found some files from my mentor, Dr. Pollock…"
Arnold's blood suddenly froze.
"…and I recognized you in one of the files."
He gripped the phone cord tightly.
"I just wanted to ask if I could ask you a few questions about it in my office on…say…Friday afternoon after school?"
She knew. She had to know.
"I think I can do that…"
"Good. I'll see you then. Goodbye!"
"Goodbye…"
Click! She hung up her end of the connection.
Arnold stood there, listening to the dial tone.
"Arnold?" Mr. Hyunh asked worriedly, fearing that Arnold might faint from the pale color he had just turned.
He slowly rested the phone back in its cradle, not speaking for a moment. Then, he turned to Mr. Hyunh, green eyes wide with fear.
"She knows."