A/N This was a fun little chapter to write. There's a hidden joke in it that I'm curious to see if anyone picks up on. Of course I have absolutely no connection to anything related to it (Oh God no!) however, for everyone that gets it 10 points are awarded to Gryffindor. As always, enjoy…

Your Love Saved Me

Chapter 9

Part 1

Phoebe enters Helga's car eager to hear all about her and Arnold's romantic date of the previous night.

"…and don't leave out any details!" Phoebe says excitedly

Choosing her words carefully Helga starts to fill her in.

"First things first Pheebs, you have to promise that anything I say is just between us. You can't even blab to that tall haired boyfriend of yours!"

"He has a name Helga, and I really think you should use it. We're not kids anymore."

"Ok, ok, don't even tell Geraldo what I'm going to say."

"I promise, now spill!"

"Well, since our quiet picnic lunch didn't work out Arnold thought it would be nice to have a romantic dinner alone at the river. I agreed so without telling anyone that's where we headed."

"Ohhh," Phoebe said dreamily, "I can just picture the two of you sitting in the moonlight by the water's edge."

"Actually, we didn't sit on the beach, we hauled everything up to the top of the big jumping rock where it's nice and flat and had dinner there."

"Oh my God, I can't stand it, that's even more romantic then the beach!"

"Right! That's what I thought."

"So, you ate. Then what happened?"

Helga starts to fidget some in her seat as she stares at the road ahead. "Well – Um – we kinda sorta started talking and he told me he loved me."

Phoebe's eyes grow wide, "And you told him you loved him back, right? Oh please tell me you didn't blow it again and deny your feelings."

Starting to blush now Helga says, "Ohhh, I definitely didn't deny my feelings."

"Why, what did you do?"

"Well, we kinda sorta…."

"NO!" Phoebe now yells, "You did it, didn't you!"

"Maaaybe, but I swear Phoebe, if you dare tell anybody!"

"I swear, my lips are sealed." Phoebe says as she sits back smiling, happy for her best friend, and thinks to herself, "It's about time!"

Part 2

When they get to Rhonda's house whatever girls that could make it were there. Rhonda led the girls to the family room where Nadine and Sheena were sitting on a couch with their faces covered in some sort of green goo. Lila was on the floor painting her toenails. Patty was dipping a brush into another bottle of nail polish trying her best to cover the nails on her right hand without getting the polish all over her fingers.

The girls all said their hellos and Phoebe wandered over to check out the green goo as Rhonda tried talking Helga into painting her toes.

Placing her purse and cell phone on the coffee table, Helga kicks off her sandals and, trying to be nice, sits on the floor next to Lila. She shoves some cotton between each toe and begins to swipe on some bright pink nail polish.

All the girls engage in friendly chit chat until Rhonda turns her attention to Helga. "Sooo, we all missed you and Arnold last night at the bowling alley. Were you two together?"

Helga shoots a quick glance to Phoebe then looks back to Rhonda. "I don't know, maybe we were. What's it to you?"

"Oh, nothing, I'm just curious is all. So what did you two do?"

"Nothing, we just got together for some dinner is all."

"Dinner huh. What restaurant did you go to?"

Helga's anger is starting to rise and she starts talking through gritted teeth, "We didn't go to a restaurant, we had a picnic at the river. Now, no more questions, it was just dinner."

Rhonda starts to say something back when Helga's phone lets out a loud chime. Rhonda looks at the phone and grabs it. "Oh look, it's a message from Arnold!"

Helga starts to get up trying not to get polish on the Lloyd's expensive Persian rug as Rhonda backs away while opening the message and starts reading their conversation.

"Oh – My – Word!" Rhonda exclaims, "you guys are not going to believe this!"

Trying to defend her friend Phoebe speaks up, "Rhonda, that's a private conversation, you have no right to be reading it."

Helga catches up to Rhonda and grabs her phone but not before Rhonda has had a chance to read most of their back and forth conversation. Putting two and two together she yells out, "YOU AND ARNOLD DID IT!"

The girl's let out a collective gasp then all start laughing and talking at once. Phoebe lectures Rhonda on how she should be ashamed of herself for reading Helga's private message. Lila sits with her head bowed, hands in her lap. She raises her eyes to look at Helga then gets up and slowly walks out of the room.

Frustrated and not feeling like getting in to it with Rhonda right now she gives Rhonda a hard shove and leaves the gaggle of girls to their laughing, she grabs her phone and follows Lila to find her sitting alone in a more formal living room.

Helga sits next to her and nervously plays with her hair. "Um, Lila, are you okay?"

Lila sits staring at her fingers as she nods her head. "Yes, Helga, I'm sure I'm oh so fine."

"I'm sorry you had to find out about me and Arnold like this. I know you have feelings for him now."

Lila leans against the back of the sofa and looks at Helga. "You know, Helga, for a while I thought I was starting to have feelings for Arnold but when he called your name out at the hospital that day I went home and kept running my feelings over and over in my head. It's not so much that I like, liked Arnold, it was more that I was ever so mad at you for the way you treated him. I blamed you for him being in the hospital."

"Believe me, Lila, I've blamed myself for that too."

"Oh Helga, I'm oh so certain now that you wouldn't have left him if you really knew how sick he was."

Helga places a hand on Lila's shoulder. "No, Lila, I never would have."

The two girls smile at each other.

"Listen, Lila, I'd really like to put all this behind us and, well, I was thinking that maybe we can be friends."

Smiling, Lila brings her clasped hands up to her heart. "Yes, I'm oh so certain that I would just love that!"

Unbeknownst to Helga, as she and Lila sat in the living room mending their friendship Rhonda was on the phone texting Sid about the newest gossip. Sid in turn texted Stinky who texted Harold, whose phone was off as usual, and Curly who then texted Gerald.

Arnold and Gerald were at the park playing a game of H.O.R.S.E. when Gerald's phone went off. As Arnold was taking his shot Gerald checked his message then looked at Arnold.

"Dude," he says, "can you tell me why I'm finding out that you and Helga had sex at the river from Curly?"

"What!" Arnold yelled.

Gerald showed him Curly's message and he immediately called Helga.

While sitting and chatting happily with Lila, Helga's phone goes off. Noticing that it's Arnold she smiles and immediately answers.

"Hey Football Head, what's up?"

She listens to what he has to say, her eyes growing steely and cold. She hangs up the phone then yells, "RHONDA! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

It takes three of the girls to hold Helga back from charging at Rhonda, the whole time Rhonda is making up excuses as to why it's a good thing that now everyone knows their little secret.

"Think about it Helga, now you two don't have to be all sneaky and mysterious. Always worried that someone's going to find out."

Thinking about it for a bit Helga decides that she guesses she can sort of see things Rhonda's way. She doesn't totally forgive her, but decides she won't kill her.

Apologies are made and accepted, phone calls are made and the small group of friends decide to all meet at the movies for a fun night out.

Part 3

The band of friends meet in front of the theatre and after looking at everything that is playing they decide on a cheesy thriller titled "My Deadly Immortal". It was one of those movies that was so bad it was good. By the time they've gotten their tickets and popcorn and such the theatre is pretty full and it's hard to find more than three or four seats together. So they break up into smaller groups with Arnold, Helga, Gerald and Phoebe towards the front, Sid and Rhonda a few rows back, Nadine, Sheena, Stinky and Patty behind them. Curly stopped off to find Harold so by the time they got there the only seats they could find were in the very back row.

While they sit waiting for the movie to start Curly asks Harold what he thinks about the news.

"What news?" Harold asks clearly confused.

"You know, about Helga and Arnold. Didn't you get a text?"

"Aww, you know I hardly ever check my texts."

"Well, you might want to turn on your phone and check this one."

Arnold and Helga sit happily munching popcorn and talking to Gerald and Phoebe when all of a sudden they hear Harold from the back of the theatre.

"AHHHH-HA-HA-HA! Ar-Nald and Hel-Ga did it at the river!"

Helga immediately covers her face with both hands as she slinks down in her seat. Arnold looks around wildly trying to see who might be at the theatre that would see them. He looks to his left only to see Mr. Potts, who gives him a knowing wink and a thumbs up. Embarrassed beyond belief Arnold turns his wide eyes to the screen and doesn't look away.

The movie starts and the giggles can still be heard through the crowd. After a while it seems like things have calmed down so Helga and Arnold start to relax. Unfortunately for the two, though, every time Arnold tries to put his arm around Helga someone starts to giggle, embarrassing them all over again.

Helga leans in to Arnold and whispers in his ear, "Remind me to resume my vow to kill Rhonda once we get out of here."

After the movie Phoebe, Gerald and Arnold loaded into Helga's car. After dropping Gerald and Phoebe off at Gerald's house Helga drove Arnold to the boarding house. They sat on the front steps for a while just passing time and talking.

"I guess it's been quite the past 24 hours, hasn't it." Arnold shyly says.

"Yeah, I guess it has. I'm sorry about Rhonda getting ahold of my phone earlier, she really caused a lot of trouble for us."

"That's ok, she was just being who she is. You're not embarrassed about us, are you Helga?"

Shocked that he would ask her such a thing she glares at him, "No! Of course not. I will never be embarrassed by my love for you."

"Well, when you think about it then, maybe she did us a favor by just getting things out in the open."

Helga chuckles at what Arnold said. "You know, that's exactly what she said when I found out she had texted everybody about us."

They sit in silence for a bit.

"You know, Lila and I had a little talk." Helga finally spoke up.

"Really? How did that go?"

"Pretty good, really. We're actually friends now."

"That's great! You know, I hope my grandfather didn't embarrass you too much this morning. I can't believe he was sitting there, waiting for us."

"Well, I was a bit mortified but he did make some pretty good points."

"Yeah," Arnold agreed, "I guess we should be a bit more responsible."

Helga nods her head as she leans into Arnold. "Yeah, we will."

Arnold turns her face towards his. "You know, I meant everything I said to you."

"I know, me too."

They continue to sit on Arnold's stoop, heads close, talking and softly laughing into the wee hours of the night.