That was a long time of not updating, but now that it is summer, the updating will be much quicker; I promise

That was a long time of not updating, but now that it is summer, the updating will be much quicker; I promise. Thanks again for all the reviews! I really do appreciate all of them. You guys are sweet.

To Heal an Injury

It had been about half an hour, and Willy and Anne were almost to the top of the mountain. Anne had been surprised to feel sweat gracing her hairline and the crooks of her elbows; it was really a strenuous job to make it to the top of the Fudge Mountain.

"How you doing down there?" Willy called, a couple feet above her.

She panted and puffed angrily. "Fine," she said shortly.

"Don't worry. You'll love the view once we get up there."

Anne couldn't see how wonderful it could be when she barely had the ability to breathe at the moment. She wiped the sweat off her hairline and continued to climb up the slope, reaching for different chucks of fudge.

"Almost there!" Willy cried excitedly.

"Great."

It was a couple more minutes of agony before the two of them finally reached the tip of Fudge Mountain. Willy was smiling down at Anne as she took her final steps to the peak. As she hit the flattened plateau, she let out a sigh of relief and sunk to a sitting position.

"Don't sit down!"

Anne looked up at Willy with daggers in her eyes. "What did you just say?"

"Hey! I don't mean to upset you, Anne, but you really must see the view. That's why I brought you up here in the first place."

She was still breathing heavily. "Really, that's fine. I'll look at it later."

Willy shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself."

His tone gave the impression that he felt sorry for her, and she could not stand that above anything else. Amanda gave a huge heave and lifted herself off the ground to look out over the room with Willy.

"Let's see how spectacular this-this…"

It was wonderful.

In some unknown way, Willy had set it up that it looked like they truly were on top of a mountain in the beautiful countryside rather than in a factory room. The sky was blue with wisps of clouds brushing close above them. In the distance, it looked like there were more chains of mountains facing them. The air that hit Anne's face was not air conditioning but fresh air from the outside. Before closing her eyes, she turned her head and looked at Willy in shock. All he did was nod his head with a huge grin.

"How did you do it?" Anne whispered.

"Magic."

She turned to him with a smile on her face. "Magic?" she asked.

He nodded again.

"Willy, I'm not a child. You can really tell me how you did all this."

She was surprised to see a frown cross Willy's face. He turned away from her and looked back out on the scene he had somehow created.

Anne walked closer to him in puzzlement. "What? Aren't you going to tell me?"
It seemed he wasn't going to talk to her again, but then a look crossed his face. He quickly turned his head to her. "You know? That's the problem with you, Anne."

"Um…what's the problem with me?"

He sighed and looked back out at the mountains in the distance. "You always have to know everything."

She was so taken aback by his words, she could think of nothing witty to say back to him. She merely repeated the words he had said to her. "I always have to know…everything?"

"Yes, you always have to know everything."

Silence.

"How do you figure that, Willy?"
He turned to her again. "Do you really want to know how I figured that out?"
For a split second, Anne imagined that Willy knew about her being a journalist. She felt her heart clench. "No. I guess I don't really want to know how you figured that out."

He nodded. "Completely understood."

Wonka turned back to the scenery while Anne stood in her place, her head spinning in spot. She wanted to know what he had meant by his last comment, but at the same time, she didn't want to give him the pleasure to find out that she really wanted to know more about her faults.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Willy suddenly asked.

She stared at him. "What is?"

He slowly turned to gaze at her. "Whenever you tell someone something bad about them, they always get quiet." Anne felt her cheeks go red, but Willy continued. "Is that because you know that I'm right, or is it because you never had any idea that you were like that in the first place?"

Anne immediately wanted to agree with the second choice, but then she thought of past times in her life: badgering kids right after a school shooting who had just lost their friends, calling different scientists who knew the true explanation of falling in love with someone, and even calling up her parents to ask how and why they got divorced.

"I want to know everything," Anne said passively.

Willy turned to her with wide eyes. "Hmmm?"

She looked up at him. "I want to know everything."

These words surprised Willy, and he looked slightly uncomfortable. "Well…I didn't mean that you wanted to know everything. I just wanted to- …"

"No, you're right," Anne interrupted. "I need an explanation of everything right as it comes. I need straight facts, nothing else. That's all I want to know. That's all I need to know. I don't need anything else."

"You never knew this before?"

"Oh, I knew it!" She grew quieter. "I just never wanted to admit it."

The only sound was the clanking of the Oompa Loompas' hiking gear hitting the fudge in the mountain as they climbed higher and higher.

Willy suddenly said, "You know…we all have mistakes." She looked at him with a grin. "I know that you find that cheesy to hear, Anne, but it's very much true."

"I know it is."

They stood there for a moment in a silent hiatus. Thoughts were rushing through Anne's head that she couldn't really explain.

"How about we sit down?"

"Hmmm?"

She looked up out of her trance and saw that Willy was pointing towards a large boulder that was composed of a very dark chocolate. "Would you like to sit?"

"Oh! Sure."

The two of them sat down together on the rock. Anne curled her legs up onto her lap, and Willy rested his cane on the ground to get situated in a comfortable position as well.

"Willy?"

"Yes?"

Anne hesitated. "What would you say your biggest flaw is?"

Willy slightly laughed, but Anne could hear the nervousness in his voice to answer. "I would have to think really hard about it."

Anne turned to him giggling. "Modest much?" And she playfully hit him on the arm.

He followed suit and began to laugh, but he cleared his throat importantly. "No. I have many flaws indeed. Some of them are just much more discreet than the average person."

"Such as…?"

Willy looked up at the sky with a perplexed look. "Well…let's see." Anne saw he was counting on his one hand. "I'm too honest."

Anne scoffed, and Willy stared at her in surprise. She bit her tongue and stared to shake her head. "Well… you know that's true."

He shrugged his smile with a smirk, but then he soon got serious. "And…I'm always too afraid of telling someone how I feel for them."

Anne looked at Willy, her eyes wide. "Are you?"

Willy nodded, not looking at her. "I never have the courage to tell someone I love how much they mean to me. And sometimes it ends up in me losing them. I just never have the right words to actually say it." He broke off, his voice slightly shaking.

Anne gave him a minute to compose himself. She had never seen this side of Willy before, and it was quite strange to actually see him with these types of emotion.

"Do you think…" she started, "that you could show you love them in another way?"

He looked at her in interest. "What do you mean?"
"I mean…instead of actually saying the words 'I love you,' you could just do something that you know means the world to them."

"I guess I could do that," he said thoughtfully.

Anne smiled. "I suggest you do."

Another moment of silence.

"Anne?"

"Yes, Willy?"

"That's the longest amount of time you have ever stayed pleasant with me."

Anne turned to him and saw that he was grinning broadly at her. The corner of her lips twitched and then broadened into one of the biggest smiles she had ever given him.

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It was about two hours later and they had finally decided to make their descent down the mountain. Anne had realized, regrettably, that she had felt so comfortable when speaking with Willy. It seemed like she was just talking to one of her best friends.

"Be careful, Anne! The descent is much more dangerous!"

"I'll be fine, Willy!"

Willy was a couple feet behind Anne as she made her way down. He kept making nervous remarks to her as she jumped from boulder to boulder.

"Are you sure you wouldn't want to use my cane?"

Anne laughed. "How would that be useful?"

"It works!" Willy said in a hurt voice.

She laughed again and continued to keep going without any outside help.

There were no more Oompa Loompas on the mountain, meaning they had all gone to sleep. Anne figured that it was about midnight. No longer did her head hurt; she had a feeling of absolute lightness as she traveled down Fudge Mountain.

"How long did it take you to put this together?" Anne called out to Willy.

"About two years."

Anne gasped. "Two years," and looked behind her to stare at Willy.

He smiled and nodded his head. "It was a definitely long process."

"I can believe tha- AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

All of a sudden, Anne lost her footing and fell face forward down the mountain. She tried to grab hold of one of the boulders, but she started to roll down the chocolate mounds.

"Anne!" Willy cried out.

She couldn't respond but just kept on screaming. Anne could feel the rocks scratching against her skin, and pain shot up through her body. She continued to fly down the mountain, and then suddenly, her leg got caught around a rather large boulder.

"Ahhhh!" she screamed in agony as knives stabbed at her twisted leg.

It took about two minutes for Willy to reach her. He was sweating quite heavily and was all out of breath. "Anne?" he said, extending his hand towards her. His face was white.

"Oh God," she whispered.

"Oh dear! This is bad."

Anne's clothes were all ripped up, and her arms were quite bloodied. But the worst thing of all was her leg. She was scared to move it.

"Do you think it's broken?" Anne asked, her voice shaking.

Willy gently took her leg and made it so it wasn't twisted around the rock anymore. "Is that better?"

Anne nodded and gritted her teeth in pain.

"Anne, I'm going to have to check to see if it is broken." Her eyes widened. "Do I have permission?"

"No!"

"Anne," he said with a faltering laugh. "It's for your benefit."

"Benefit, my ass! You're trying to hurt me!"

Willy laughed again. "Trust me. I don't want to hurt you anymore than you are right now."

He stared at her for a second with his dark, brown eyes. Anne gazed into them, her chest rising and falling quickly. "You promise you won't hurt?"

"I promise," Willy said, putting his hand to his chest.

She sat there breathlessly for a little while more before she sighed regrettably. "Fine. You can check."

He smiled and put his hands gently on her leg. Anne took a sharp intake of breath, and Willy's head snapped up. "Did that hurt?"

Anne shrugged her shoulders. "I think it was mostly because I imagined it hurting."

Willy rolled his eyes with a smirk and continued to go up her leg with his hands. His touch was warm against the clammy cold on her injured leg. As softly as he could, he would squeeze at random points on her lower leg to see her reaction. Only at times would she slightly pull away, and yet, he was still as gentle as he was in the beginning. Finally, he reached her knee and took his hands off her legs.

"So?" he asked, looking at her.

She stared at him. "Well…you're the one that should tell me. You clearly are more of a doctor than I am."

Willy grinned and shook his head. "It's not broken, Anne."

"It's not?"

"No, it's not. You might have just strained a large muscle in it." Anne herself reached forward to start examining her leg. "You should still probably stay off it for a day or two."

She looked up at him at that. "Two days?! You can't be serious, Willy. Two days?!"

He looked bewildered. "What's wrong with that?"

"'What's wrong with that?' I'm only the most stabilized challenged person in the world. There is no way I can't be on my feet for more than half a day!"

Willy laughed. "Well, you'll just have to live with it." Anne's mouth dropped. "Hey, look at it this way." He leaned towards her. "You can take advantage of the Oompa Loompa's hospitality," he whispered.

She sighed. "I guess that's one benefit."

"And here's another."

And with that, Willy stood up from his spot, brushed off his suit, bent back down, and scooped Anne into his arms.

It happened all so quickly that Anne squealed when he picked her up. "What are you doing?" she asked.

He looked her in the face. "What? I thought that you would like it." He was so close to her, she could feel his breath on her face and see the dazzling perfection of his teeth.

She gently laughed at that and looked at the bottom of the mountain. "I can't wait to see how this goes. Knowing my luck, we'll both pitch it and fall down the mountain together."

He started to slowly descend. "Hey! Unlike you, I'm a much stabilized person."

She turned her head to him to see he was grinning expectantly at her. With a laugh, Anne clasped her hands behind Willy's head to be steadier in his arms.

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"Can't we think this over?"

"Anne…"

"Really! We have to think this one over."

"It's my final decision. You asked for my doctor advice, and I gave it to you. You should stay in this bed for about two days."

Willy had carried Anne all the way back from Fudge Mountain. They had trekked back into the glass elevator and made it all the way up to her tree house in the rainforest bedroom.

Anne sighed angrily at Willy's last words and looked down into the dark hammock. "It seems so lonely," she whispered.

"I think you're being a little dramatic," Willy said. And with that, he lay her down on the netting bed.

She sagged right down into it with the comfort of it all. With a sigh, she let her leg stretch out, which was still throbbing with pain, and stretched her arms over her head. All thought of recording her memories of that day soared out of her head.

"Is there anything else you need, my dear Anne?"

"Yes," she said grumpily.

"And what is that?"

She looked up at him. "A tour tomorrow," Anne said with a broad smile.

Willy took a deep breath in and answered, "No."

She glared and looked back down in her lap.

"Anne," Willy said laughing, "I'm sorry, but you know that I just want you to not get any more hurt."

"Yeah…yeah."

Without any warning, Willy put his hand underneath Anne's chin and popped it upwards. She was forced to look into his chocolate brown eyes which were twinkling into hers. "Don't give me any attitude, young lady," he whispered.

Anne's voice slightly quivered. "I'll try."

Willy's twinkle suddenly left his eyes, and his gaze swiftly shifted to her lips. As soon as it happened, he coughed and dropped his hand away from her chin to stand up straight. "Well then."

Anne coughed as well and smiled awkwardly at him. The two of them shuffled their hands and tried not to catch each other's gaze.

"Sleep tight then." Willy turned to leave, grabbing his cane and hat.

"Willy!" Anne suddenly cried out.

He stopped and slowly turned around with a beam on his face. "Yes, Anne?"

She smiled. "Thanks a lot for what you did for me." His smile left his face. "It meant the world to me," she finished quietly.

He stared at her for a second before crossing the room to her. It seemed undecided to him for what to do. Willy slightly wavered back and forth in front of her hammock and then finally made up his mind. He picked up her hand and put it to his lips.

"It was my pleasure," he breathed.

Before Anne could make any reply, Willy walked out of the room with a slight bouncier step in his walk. Anne still held her hand in the position Willy had left it as he walked down the steps of her tree house, walked across the grass of the forest, opened the door, and walked into the hallway shutting the door behind him.

It was at that moment she finally allowed herself to let her hand drop. As if expecting to see something there, Anne looked down at the spot Willy had kissed her. She had no idea what was going inside that man's head, but it was beginning to frustrate her very much.

She turned on her side to let herself fall asleep. As Anne's eyelids began to close, she thought back on her last thought. She had to admit that while Willy's thoughts did have a way of frustrating her, but she noticed that they intrigued her as well.

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The sound of a jaguar woke Anne up. Her eyes snapped open and she saw the night table beside her where her cell phone lay. It read that it was 11 in the morning. She yawned slightly and stressed her limbs. She made sure not to move her leg so much.

After sitting up in her bed, she looked down at her injured leg and shocked at the transformation.

The whole right side of her right leg was black and blue. It looked as if it were dipped into paint. She gently ran her finger along it, disbelieving the fact that it was not broken.

"Anne?"

Anne's head swung to the door in fright, but she sighed in relief that she saw it was Charlie.

"Charlie, dear! Forgive me; I did not know it was you."

He was nervously shuffling his feet and holding a bag of ice in his hands. "How is your leg doing?" he asked politely.

She looked back down at the bruising. "I'm going to be honest," she said, looking back up at him. "It looks awful."

The two of them laughed for a minute, but Charlie had crossed over with the ice. "Willy told me to put this on your leg," he stated after sharing their laugh.

Anne thought of the cold sharp pains she had experienced on the mountain the day before. "Um, I'd rather not."

"But Willy insisted!" He held the bag up so she could get a clearer view.

Anne waved her hands. "I know what ice does, darling, but I don't think I have the heart to put that on right now."

Charlie beamed. "Willy told me you'd say that."

Anne cocked her head slightly to the right. "Did he?"

He nodded excitedly.

Anne rolled her eyes and shook her head again. "Well, Willy doesn't know the state of my leg, and you would be so kind as to remind him that I am doing fine."

Again, Charlie smiled. "He said you'd say that also."

Anne groaned. "Is there anything else he would like to say?"

Charlie laughed at that. "Please, Anne. Not only would Willy feel better, but my whole family would be comforted by the fact that you put some ice on your leg."

She stared up at him and could see the innocent twinkle in his eye. She sighed and looked back down at the blue and black of her leg. "Ice will make it better?"

Charlie nodded. "It turns it from black to green, though," he cringed.

Anne looked down at her bruise in repulsiveness. "Then maybe I don't want ice."

Charlie began to tap his feet.

"Ugh," Anne sighed. "Fine, put it on Charlie." He came towards her. "Gently!" she said sharply.

"I know, miss."

Being as gentle as he could, Charlie placed the bag of ice in the middle of her leg. The minute it touched, Anne took a sharp intake of breath, but realized that it felt rather relieving against her injury.

"Is that okay?" Charlie asked quietly.

Anne laid her head back against the hammock. "Yes, that's perfect."

She closed her eyes, hoping Charlie would get the message to leave. She didn't hear him walk away, but she didn't feel like opening her eyes and engaging in conversation again. She was quite tired.

"Miss Anne?"

Her heart dropped. "Yes, Charlie?" she said, her eyes still closed.

He hesitated for a moment. "How do you feel about Mr. Wonka?"

Anne's eyes snapped open, and she saw that Charlie was gazing at her with a nervous smile. "Excuse me?" she asked.

Charlie's face turned a slight shade of pink. "I was just curious to know what you feel about Willy."

She stared at him for a second with a complete loss of words. "Well…" she started.

"I don't mean to be rude," Charlie said quickly.

"No! No…you're…you're not being rude, Charlie…"

"Because if I am, you can just tell me."

Anne slightly laughed. "You're not being rude, Charlie. You're just curious."

He gave a small smile and waited for her response. Anne had no idea what to say. True, she was much more comfortable around Willy now, but that didn't mean that she had any romantic feelings towards him. Charlie was looking at her like he expected a specific answer, but Anne didn't want to lie to him.

"Charlie, dear," she said, sitting up.

He came a bit closer, his hands clasped together in front of him.

Anne smiled. "At this moment, Willy and I are friends."

Charlie was good at covering his reaction. He smiled brightly, but Anne could see the surprise in his eyes. "That's all I was wondering," he said.

"Good," Anne said brightly. "Now, run along, dear. I need to get some more rest."

Charlie nodded and ran across the room to the door. Right before he walked down the stairs, he stopped and turned back to Anne. "Willy will be here soon."

She looked at him and saw that he was smiling knowingly at her. And with that, he ran down the stairs to allow her to get some more sleep.