A/N Here we are, the last chapter before the big reveal. I'd love to hear any new theories once you're done reading it. I hope you enjoy and I will see you all back here Halloween night, October 31st.

Watcher

Chapter 4

Part 1

Later in the afternoon, on the day after Rhonda's party, Arnold sits up in his hospital bed. He is joined by Helga, who sits next to him. His grandparents sit in chairs close by. With the four of them is a detective from the Hillwood Police Dept. At first the incident was labeled a mere accident brought on by a not too bright teenager in a metal suit combined with four cups of Wolfgang's special party cocktail. But, once Arnold mentioned the feeling of purposely being pushed Rhonda's backyard became a crime scene with Arnold as the intended victim.

The detective questions Arnold repeatedly always receiving the same answers.

Frustrated, Arnold answers the detective yet again. "Like I've already said, I remember us all being out back. The music was turned up and a drunk Sid and Eugene were in the middle of some crazy dance off. It was crowded and everyone's attention was on the guys when Eugene made some wild dance move and the crowd went berserk, cheering and yelling. That's when I felt what seemed to be an arm hit my stomach and push me back into the deep end of the pool. After that all I remember is that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't swim up to the surface. My costume was weighing me down. I tried to slip out of it and couldn't so I tried to make my way to the shallow end, but before I could I guess I passed out."

It took effort to speak and after he finished talking a coughing spasm came on and he had to stop.

With a worried look on her face and tears in her eyes all Helga could do is rub his back until the coughing subsided.

The detective turned his attention to Helga now and asked, once again, for her version of the story.

"Well," she starts, "it's like Arnold said. We were all watching Sid and Eugene act like morons in front of everybody. Arnold was in back of me. After a bit I heard him give a yell and felt his hand grab at my arm but slip away. I turned to see him fall into the pool. My full attention was on him so I didn't notice anyone running away or anything. It was awful, the pool was dark and the water was so deep I couldn't see the bottom until Rhonda finally turned on the lights. When she did there was Arnold, barely moving on the bottom of the deep end."

She's crying profusely and now it's Arnold's turn to comfort her.

Through sobs she continues. "While Rhonda ran to turn on the lights I got the attention of Gerald and he got Harold and they jumped in to get him, then a few other guys jumped in after to help. I knew I wouldn't be of any help in lifting him so I ran to the shallow end to help drag him out. I guess I kinda lost it cause when the guys finally got him onto the pool deck I couldn't function. All I could do was cry. Thank God Phoebe had her wits about her. It's because of her quick acting that Arnold's alive right now."

She turns to Arnold, the sorrow in her voice is heartbreaking. "I'm so sorry I couldn't be the one to save you. My inaction could have caused you your life if Phoebe hadn't of been there."

He pulls her close to him telling her that it's okay, trying his best to calm her down.

After two long hours of questioning the detective says he will get in touch with them if he has any more questions. Shortly after he leaves the doctor comes in giving Arnold his release orders, telling him he's okay to go home but will have to take it easy for at least a week. His lungs suffered quite a trauma and would need time to heal.

Once back at the boarding house Helga leads Arnold to his room and tucks him into bed. She sits with him keeping him company. They talk about the previous night, running through it over and over, trying to think of anything they could have missed. Every now and then Arnold goes into one of his coughing fits and all they can do is sit and wait for it to pass. They try to recall who was standing around them and what they were doing but it was no use. They kept coming up with the same scenario, Sid and Eugene jumping around, encircled by a crowd of their peers, all attention on them.

"I don't know, Helga." Arnold says through a small cough. "I just can't think of why anyone would purposely push me into the pool. Especially knowing full well that I was in a metal suit."

Helga's eyes glance up across the alley to the dark window, a shudder runs down her spine. "I know, I can't think of anyone either. You haven't pissed anyone off lately have you?"

"Not that I know of, but even so, I can't imaging ever pissing anyone off so bad that they'd want to kill me."

"Maybe it was just an accident." Helga says, trying to convince herself.

Arnold begins to nuzzle into her neck now, his hand running up and down her inner thigh. She turns towards him, hooking a leg over his body and straddles him as they start to kiss. His hands run up her back and he starts to lift off her shirt. That feeling of being watched comes back to her. She thinks of the window that gazes down upon them and freezes. She slides off Arnold and pulls her shirt back down.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He asks, his face is flushed and he's breathing hard.

"I just remembered that your doctor said for you to take it easy and I don't think a romp in the sheets right now is the best thing for you is all."

He starts to complain that he's okay when another coughing fit hits him.

"See!" Helga says. "Besides, you really should rest. I'm going to head home. I'll see you after school tomorrow. Okay?"

She places a small kiss on his forehead and heads for the door.

Reluctant to let her go Arnold agrees and watches as she walks to his bedroom door, gently closing it behind her.

Part 2

She exits the boarding house and sits on the front steps. She covers her face with her hands and starts to cry. She can't get the image of Arnold laying at the bottom of Rhonda's pool out of her mind. The "What If's" start running through her head. What If Arnold's hand hadn't brushed her arm as he fell and she didn't notice he was gone? What if it were only the two of them out back when he fell, how would she have gotten him out? What if Phoebe weren't right there to start CPR? She didn't want to be alone right now, and she didn't want to go home, so she decided to walk over to Phoebe's house.

It was late afternoon, the sun was beginning to set and her body cast a long shadow behind her as she walked. She kept looking across the street as she made her way along the sidewalk, looking for anything out of the ordinary. The street was empty and that made her nervous.

As she walked something on the ground caught her eye. There was a small chalkboard sitting outside of the butcher shop forecasting the daily specials. She saw what looked like an old fashioned photograph negative tucked under one of the sign's legs, obviously dropped and forgotten. She picked it up and held it to what was left of the sun and gazed at it. The negative was badly scratched and with the low light of the setting sun it just looked like a bunch of dark images. Squinting she could barely make out some trees and what she assumed was a bench. There was a figure sitting on it but she couldn't make out who it was. That feeling of being watched started to creep up her back again and she turned and looked across the street. Suddenly, the door to Green Meats swung opened causing her to drop the negative. The suddenness of it made her jump and give a little scream. Her heart almost jumping out of her chest. She turned wide eyed to see who it was.

"Oh, gee, sorry there Helga. I didn't mean to scare you." Mr. Green said when he saw the look on her face.

"Oh, no, that's ok Mr. Green, it was my fault. I wasn't paying attention I guess."

Mr. Green gave her a concerned look, "I heard about what happened last night. How is Arnold doing?"

"He was pretty shook up but he's better. The doctor says he should be fine in a week or so."

"Good, good. Maybe I'll stop by tomorrow and bring the family some nice lamb chops or something."

"Yeah, sure, I think they'd like that."

They said their good-byes and Helga scolded herself for being so jumpy. "Man, I gotta get myself together."

She took off again, this time walking a little faster, forgetting all about the dropped negative. A few minutes later she had made it to Phoebe's and was laying on her bedroom floor staring at the ceiling.

"Think again, Pheebs, are you sure you didn't see anyone near Arnold before he fell in?"

"No, Helga, I'm sure. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know what had happened until I saw you talking to Gerald."

"I just don't get it," Helga says talking to herself out loud, "I just don't see how someone could get close enough to push Arnold with no one noticing anything."

"I don't know, Helga. He did, after all, have four glasses of that spiked punch. Maybe his memory is just playing tricks on him and he just imagined someone pushed him."

"Maybe." Helga answered, but she really didn't think so.

Part 3

Last night, after the party broke up he made a detour to the apartment. He was eager to see how his pictures came out and needed to get the negatives processed. The neighborhood was quiet and as he climbed up the fire escape he was happy to see the lights were off in Arnold's room. Free of being watched he slipped through the window.

He made his way to the makeshift darkroom and closed himself in, then he set to work on developing his pictures. Opening the roll of film he winds it on to a spool which he then places into a canister and replaces the lid, He adds the developing fluid and rotates the container making sure the film is evenly coated. This goes on for a few minutes. The next step is to discard the developer and add the stop fluid. Again he rotates the container for the necessary amount of time. Finally he replaces the stop fluid with the fixer. When done the final step is to rinse the film then hang the strip to dry. Once those steps are completed he will have a strip of negatives that he can then take home and scan onto his computer. The process is slow but if there's one thing he is, that would have to be patient.

Turning on the regular lights now he hangs the freshly processed roll of film to dry, then he reaches into his backpack and pulls out the newest prints he's made and hangs them on the wall. He steps back and admires his work. He looks at the picture of her face that he took in the park. He reaches out and gingerly runs one finger down her cheek. If he closes his eyes he can see that face looking at him. He smiles at the thought of gazing back into her eyes.

He leaves the darkroom and goes back in to the living room to wait for the strip of negatives to dry. Walking to the chair he sits and lets his mind wander. He thinks back to last night and the few shots he was able to take as they pulled the boy's lifeless body up to the pool's surface. His face was ashen and his lips slightly tinged with blue. He pictures Helga as she came walking out of the water. The sheer material of her costume clung to her body accentuating every curve. He was sad that he had to put his camera down when he went to help in the rescue, he would have liked a shot or two of her in that wet dress. Once Arnold was hauled onto the deck she was shaking as she cried hysterically. It made her seem so frail and helpless which excited him. When she dropped down by Arnold's body he felt sure the boy was a goner. That is until that damn Phoebe had to step in and save him. As she worked on her friend and all the attention was now on them, he slowly backed away to the middle of the group, standing behind Sheena and Brainy he blended in as one of the gang. He watched along with everyone else as the paramedics took him away and Gerald and Phoebe ushered Helga off to go follow them.

As he continues to sit the silence grows thick around him and the voices start to come.

"You blew it." They begin in his head. "You had the perfect opportunity and you blew it."

Anger starts to rise within him. Partly at himself for not being able to complete the task at hand, and partly at the friends that came to Arnold's aid and saved the boy.

"You know what you have to do now, don't you." The voices say. "You really have no other choice."

He nods his head to no one and slips his hand into his backpack. There at the very bottom he finds the gun. His fingers brush the cool metal as he sits and schemes.

When the negative strip is finally dried enough to his satisfaction he packs everything up and heads back down the fire escape. Standing at the edge of the alley way he checks the street and finding no one there he melts into the night and heads for home.