The Accident Ch. 8

Finale Pt. 1


"Why don't you go and pay her a visit?" Fairy Gary asked.

"Nothing's changed in the last two weeks," Terence replied. "What's the point?"

"The point is you love her," Gary answered.

Vidia and the girls had been hard at work spreading the word that Terence was deeply in love with Tinker Bell. This news made him an object of sympathy and nonstop advice like what he was getting from Fairy Gary.

"I love her, but she's in a coma and probably will be for the rest of her life," he answered. "I've got to move on with mine."

Terence had been moping about for the past two weeks since his last visit. He still blamed himself for letting the accident happen and for not pulling her out of the water in time. Terence thought she was dead at the stream, but she somehow survived. He got his hopes up, probably too much, and now those hopes were fading quickly. There had been some talk amongst the doctors and the queen about what to do next. Keep Tinker Bell like that for who knows how long or let nature take its course and allow her die peacefully.

The young dust keeper couldn't abide by either decision. He didn't want Tinker Bell to live as a vegetable the rest of her life. However, he was still too emotionally attached to let her perish. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. When he dwelled on it, and he often did, he somehow always came back to the same "what if's" that kept playing through his head, blaming himself for Tink's situation. Fairy Gary recognized this and tried to talk him out of the cycle of self-loathing Terence had put himself into these last several days.

"You knew what kind of personality she was," Gary would say. "She always took the kind of risks no one else ever would."

"Something like this was bound to happen," Terence would answer, taking Fairy Gary's reasoning to its logical conclusion. "I should have been better prepared for it and I wasn't."

"Why do you always have to put such a negative spin on everything, boy?" Gary asked. "It's not your fault. She would have tested that boat no matter what you said or did. Tinker Bell is Tinker Bell because she is so stubborn."

"Well someone should have stopped her!" Terence shouted back. "That someone was supposed to have been me and I did nothing!"

"He's hopeless," Bolt said quietly to Fairy Gary.

"Yeah, completely hopeless," Stone murmured in agreement.

"Aye, but I'm not going to give up on him just yet," the guild master said. "What Terence needs is a good kick in the pants to shake him out of this."

"And are you going to do the kicking?" Bolt asked.

"I most certainly am," Fairy Gary said in return.

~O~

Ever since Terence stopped visiting Tinker Bell, Fairy Gary had sent Blaze the firefly to the hospital to check on her progress. It took a little time to understand Blaze's pantomime talk, but eventually Fairy Gary understood the daily reports. Each time the firefly came back the news was always the same.

Then one day something changed.

~O~

Terence had just returned from his early delivery run when Bolt and Stone decided to tease him again. Today, however, they went too far.

"Hi, Terence," Bolt began.

"Yeah, hello," Stone added.

"So, how does it feel to, you know, be dating a stiff?" Bolt said with a snicker.

Terence took it, but it was obvious that he didn't like it.

"Do you get 'bored'?" Stone asked, with a snide laugh.

"What's wrong, Terence," Bolt continued. "Don't have the wings to ask out a live one?"

"Don't you say that?" Terence exploded. "Tink is alive, she just needs more time! I don't know why anyone has to let her go! Why the queen thinks Tink needs to do die! She's going to be fine!"

"Oh, sure, sure," Stone said with a wink. "We just thought you might have more fun with a girl who can hold up her side of the conversation."

Terence leapt towards them, grabbing both by their collars and began shaking them violently. "She's going to be fine!" he yelled.

Fairy Gary stepped in.

"What's going on here?" the guild master asked.

"Nothing," Terence said. "These two are just being jerks."

"Well, it sounded like they were being more than jerks, Lad," Fairy Gary said. "It sounds like they need a lesson about treating others with respect. Why don't we show them how Tinker Bell is coming along so they'll keep their big yaps shut."

"No thanks," Terence said.

"They'll never stop unless you show them what they need to see," Fairy Gary insisted. "Now let's go, the three of you. This nonsense stops this instant. I need my dust keepers to focus on their work."

Fairy Gary guided Terence out the depot and towards the hospital. Bolt and Stone followed, heads held low. On the way out, Fairy Gary gave both of them a wink. They smiled back at him; both were in on it.

~O~

At the hospital, Terence and the others were brought to the special ward where the nurses and doctors were keeping Tinker Bell under constant watch. None of staff said a word. Here gathered around the patient were Rosetta, Vidia, Fawn, Iridessa and Silvermist. With them was Tink's sister, Periwinkle who was seated in her ice wheelchair. All of them had grim looks on their faces.

"Hello, Terence," Silvermist greeted. Her tone wasn't a cheerful one, more an acknowledgement of his presence. "You haven't come to visit in a while, so we've been coming over to keep Tink company when we can."

The young dust keeper looked at the motionless form of Tinker Bell and all the old feelings and memories he had been trying to bury came flooding back with a vengeance. His heart felt as though it were crushed. Lately, his memories of Tinker Bell had been of when she was well and happy. He had been pushing the last several weeks out of his mind. This undid it all.

"Well, go on, Lad," Fairy Gary said gently nudging Terence forward. "Say your piece."

The boy begrudgingly walked over to the hospital bed. He looked at the little tinker fairy and looked away for a moment. He felt sick. How could I have left her alone? he asked himself. He looked back at Fairy Gary hoping for a reprieve, but got none. Instead, Gary nodded as though prodding him on.

Terence took in a deep breath and then turned back to the lovely girl in the hospital bed.

"Tink…, Tink I, uh, I," he kept stammering, not really knowing what to say. "Well, uh…, Fairy Gary brought me here to say something, but I don't know what to say. It's all a bit…"

"Tell her how you feel," Fairy Gary said.

Terence took in a deep breath and then sighed. He just wanted to get this over with so he could get back to work, was that so much to ask?

"I'm…, I'm sorry, Tink," he finally started. "I'm the reason you're like this. I thought you were playing a game with me. Like that time you hid in the grasses and then jumped out and scared the life out of…. Poor choice of words, sorry."

Terence held his tongue after that.

"Go on," Silvermist whispered. "You're doing fine."

"I've told her this before," he said to Fairy Gary and the girls. "She didn't hear it then and she won't hear it now. I don't even know why I'm even here; Tink is never going to wake up."

Terence started to walk out the door, but Fairy Gary wouldn't let him. "Finish what you were going to say and then I'll let you leave."

"And you won't mention this ever again?" Terence asked as if negotiating terms.

"I promise," Fairy Gary said. "Neither I, nor Bolt or Stone will ever talk about you visiting Tinker Bell in the hospital ever again."

"Deal!"

When Terence turned to look at the girls, he caught a glimpse of them being very animated and then suddenly stopping. Now they looked sad and hurt. What are they up to? Terence asked himself. He turned around to look at Tinker Bell, but she still lay there, motionless in her comatose state. He went back to her and picked up where he left off. He had to take in a few deep breaths to calm himself. Fairy Gary had made his blood boil and he didn't want to take it out on the poor girl.

"Tink," he said with a bit of a tremble in his voice. He was about to bare his soul to the girl he loved and he was surrounded by all these voyeurs. It made him very tense. "Tink…, I. When you left with Peter Pan, it hurt. I never realized it until then, but I fell in love with you a long time ago. Do you still remember when you came to Pixie Hollow? Your hammer glowed so brightly at the ceremony. It was obvious you were special, but no one knew what kind of person you were going to be. I thought you would be more like Vidia, both of you are extremely talented."

He looked over at the fast flyer, she didn't appear very happy with him at that moment. "No offense," he said. "Fairies with immense talents see the world differently than everyone else. It can be hard for others to understand them, sometimes."

"When all the spring preparations were ruined, you reacted differently than I thought you would," Terence went on to explain to the unmoving Tinker Bell. "I expected you might try and blame someone else or just not care, but you didn't. You took responsibility for it and felt as if you had let everyone down."

He had to stop and wipe a few tears from his eyes.

"When I talked to you at the Pixie Dust Tree, you were so vulnerable. You needed someone to pick you up and give you encouragement," Terence said. "To help you find your place in the world. That's when I fell in love with you. It took a long time for me to figure that out. Those feelings are why I took a little extra pixie dust and followed you all the way out to that island. It's why I've always been so excited about all of your inventions, no matter how they turn out. When you are happy, I'm happy. When you're sad, I feel that sadness with you."

Terence stopped to draw in a few more breaths before continuing. "I never said a word about this to you because we had a great friendship. I was afraid of ruining what we had by admitting how much I loved and cared about you. I didn't want to hurt the person I loved most in the world, Tink. Now…, now I wish I had said all of this to you sooner."

Terence had to wipe more tears from his face. In fact, everyone in the room was tearing up. Even Vidia, though she tried to hide it.

Terence leaned over and gave Tinker Bell a gentle kiss on the cheek. Suddenly he bolted straight up.

"What's wrong, Laddie?" Fairy Gary asked with a smile.

"I…, I think she kissed me back," he answered, rubbing his face.

"Are you sure?" Bolt asked.

"Yeah, it's got to be your imagination," Stone added.

"You're right. I must have imagined it," Terence said. He took Tinker Bell's hand in his, as if saying goodbye for the last time.

She squeezed it back. "Terence?" Tinker Bell mumbled. "Terence, is that you?"

The young dust keeper pulled back. Tink's eyelids opened up a bit, revealing those beautiful blue eyes. She turned to him and gave him a warm smile. "Hi," she said with a soft voice.

Terence, looking terror stricken, responded by running out of the room.

"What was that all about?" Fawn asked. It was a question that was on every one's lips.


Okay, I know I said one more chapter last time, but there was too much story so there will be two parts to the finale and then an epilogue.