Chapter 11: A Time of Solace
After what happened right before her eyes, Bonnie felt her body being weighed by chains. The emotions that gripped her very soul was immeasurable. How could a day that was so good, become a day so horrible?
It has been a week and yet, still no news on Ron's sickness. The days that he spent in the hospital, fighting for his life… she had never felt so hollow in her life. The latest gossip going around in the school couldn't bring the fire back in her eyes, rather it dimmed, it started to fade. The cold feeling in her blood haunted her everyday. The sight of him on the ground haunted her, what was more haunting was the news whether he would survive or not. The second part made such a knot in her stomach.
The first person, the one person who accepted her was brought to such torture. Every night, she questions herself, wanting to know if there was something she could've done about it. Each night she would lie down, eyes open, waiting for her eyes to shut and let her sleep in peace. Yet, she couldn't shake it off, not even the blankets that kept her warm protected her from the winter like chills that emanated from her body. The pillow that she would lie her head in failed to comfort her. A good nights sleep failed to comfort her.
The school days didn't go by quick enough. She would still plaster her 'queen bee' persona when wandering the school, but there was something about it that just made her feel more remorseful. Each insult or scoff was slowly making her lose composure. Just why does she have to satisfy the damn chain, considering that may as well be in mourning. Faith was what she clung to, it was only a matter of time before it failed her.
The minute she walks into class and takes her seat, the lesson would begin and yet, her mind was pulled into this abyss that just seemed endless. The world was just closing in on her. The teacher's voice would be toned out, she would unconsciously write down her notes that she would need, but the shaking of her hands indicated that she was undergoing some sort of trauma… something that a certain blonde cheerleader caught. The handwriting was readable but a bit shaky than before. The sound of the brunette breathing was quiet, but labored. She had to force herself to breath and get it together. It's what Ron would've wanted for her.
The bell rung and caught the attention of her ears, like a mindless drone she took it as her signal to head to the gymnasium. To her surprise, the team 'captain' Kim Possible failed to show up today.
"Hey Bonnie?" The brunette peered her head to the voice that spoke to her. She was met with concerned eyes and a hand on her shoulder. "Kim's still gone, since we don't have her to have us do the routines, we'll need you to help." Before what happened, she would consider the first minute of being the captain something she would be grateful for and take her opportunity, but now she couldn't care less about that anymore.
"Tara, could you be the captain and help them with their routines?" Her voice strained and hid the breaking tone that was coming along, she even made sure that tears didn't come out of her eyes. She gathered the fragments of her strength to keep herself in check.
"Uhh… sure" the perky blonde reluctantly agreed. "Are you sure you're ok? Do you wanna talk?" Her voice was trying to break the brunettes emotional wall, she be damned if she saw her in such a state of turmoil.
"I-I'm ok, I just feel a little sick. I need to sit down and…" she said. Her voice paused at this point and walked to the locker rooms. Tara turned her back to the other cheerleaders and began the practice. As she did, Bonnie retreated to the locker room and pulled out her phone. She would browse through her call log to see any missed calls. She was looking for the number that was returned about a week ago. It was the number of a doctor who wanted the details on what happened to Ron, she felt her windpipe uncontrollably shake as she explained it all to them. Day by day, she would wait for the call to happen, she would wait for the news to confirm that Ron was indeed alive.
The waiting, the pressure, it was getting to be a bit much, this gave her such anxiety. The school day was drawing into a close, she walks to her locker and is greeted by a face that she knows well, the face had a hard look on her face, the girls arms were folded.
"Spill." Monique implied. Monique wouldn't be able to spread it around if it was truth. There were ways that it could be translated to, but there was a logical one that people were led to obviously believe. Bonnie and Ron would be spending time with Kim in order to get back at her for messing up the mission. But there was something that didn't add up, why wouldn't Ron show up to class this week. Kim was away, so she couldn't have gotten to him, but she would soon enough. The boy was missing… and it was the same day both him and Bonnie grew intimate with each other.
"I've got nothing to say to you." She whipped her head and quickly walked away. But she was being followed by her. Was this gonna resort to a cat fight? No, she couldn't think about that now, the goal was to get away from her and head home.
"Really, then maybe I'll talk to someone else about your affair with Ron." Monique delivered an ultimatum right there. That made Bonnie stop in her tracks, did she see them at the mall? Ron warned her about that, but she didn't listen to him, but maybe it was somewhat a bittersweet thing to do.
She looks back at her in disgust, thinking that she would assume something like that. "Me? Having an affair with that loser? Ha! In a million years." Just saying that statement made her hate herself more. Why does she have to hide all of this for a food chain. It just kept making her sick.
"Ok fine, there's something that I should say first… Kim and you had a grudge right? So you use Ron to get back at her? I mean you changed his wardrobe and invited him back to your place. So you would hang out with him but still consider him a loser, after what you two kept doing to each other?" Monique's made that statement but not before saying another thing that would finally put the nail in the coffin. "Don't stop, I'm so sorry Ronnie, I just- aaah."
Her eyes widened at the statement. She felt naked and violated. She covered her chest. "Where did you get that from?" She asked with a snarl. She was about two seconds from attacking her, how dare she peep at her and Ron's little fun time.
"Kim had her hacker friend to find out where Ron was… if you saw the look on her face and the things she said… face it, you're in trouble." She didn't want to smile at this. Bonnie may have been nasty, but when it came to being dealt with by Kim in such a rage, maybe it could be considered too far.
"What Ron and I do together is none of your business." She reiterated. Bonnie kept trying to defend herself, Ron promised to keep this a secret and he has done exactly that. So it's up to Bonnie to do the same, but she felt like she couldn't keep it anymore. The situation that it called for a made it nearly impossible.
"Then where is he? If he spent the time with you, how come he didn't show up to school for almost a week?" That hit her in the gut, she was brought back to the memories that she truly feared, that she was forced to experience day after day. Monique was pressing this matter further, Bonnie had too many thoughts swirling in her mind, she just felt the need to confess… to share this with someone… anyone. For a week she had this emotional wall built around her and yet the bricks were slowly disappearing… losing strength… crumbling at her feet. So she did the unbelievable act.
"Ron and I have been best friends before pre-K! He met me before he met Kim!" Bonnie revealed the secret that she forced herself and Ron to keep. She always thought Ron would be the one to say something about it, it felt so surreal that she was the one who caved in first.
Instead of a cold glare, will need looked at her in shock, and surprise. She shook her head as if she was thrown into this bizarre world. "What?" She asked instinctively.
"I don't actually hate Ron. Him and I are friends… And we have been for a long time. The reason that I insult him and put him down was just a ruse. My sisters created this food chain in the school and they had me pick up where they left off. I told him honestly about what would happen if he would act the way he would act. But I just… he just went in the school being himself, he didn't care. I wanted to break the chain so him and I could spend time with each other in public. I tried to protect him, I did as much as I could. But now he's in the hospital and… I don't think he'll…"
Monique's eyes softened, her arms rested at her sides. So Ron and her were friends? That would explain how Ron would stick up for her when he said that she could be turning a new leaf and how he agreed that the brunette should be on Kim's case. If they weren't friends, then he wouldn't have done those things… maybe he would've snapped at Bonnie too, but he didn't. So she asked the brunette one more question.
"What happened to him?"
"He… fell down the stairs, he had a seizure. I called the police, they got him into the hospital… he-he's not waking up, they said that they would call me about how he's doing. Monique it hurts so much, I need him to get better, he's gotta get better." That was when the river of tears started to flow down her face. She finally did it, she was finally crying, she couldn't accept crying in front of her and showing weakness. She walked to the exit and went into her car. She didn't turn the keys, she unlocked the door and tried to get it together before she drove home. The goal was to turn the ignition, until a ringtone could be heard on her phone. It was an unknown caller, but she recognized the number.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Ms. Rockwaller, this is Dr. Anne Possible from the Middleton Medical Center, I was suppose to contact you about Ron Stoppable's condition." She said. The moment of truth came upon her. Was he alive, she sounded stern and calm. Maybe Ron was alive, he survived. But what if she was sugar coating it, what if she played the role in order to soften the blow? Ron's dead, he had to be dead.
"Uhh… yes, how is he feeling?" She asked. The brunette swallowed a lump in her throat, unprepared for the news that she waited to hear for so long.
"I am happy to say that he's in stable condition and he's awake. Visiting hours are still in effect, maybe you would like to come see him?" Bonnie's eyes cried tears of joy, the happiness swelled in her. Those gloomy days were starting to become a fading memory, today just made her feel alive. The news was finally brought to her, Ron Stoppable was alive, she fumbled with her car keys and turned the ignition.
"Yes, I'll be on my way, thank you so much!" She said as she set the phone down and drove away from the school. She knew where she was heading next.
AT MIDDLETON MEDICAL CENTER:
The hospital had its share of history. It's injuries and deaths, it's famous and infamous doctors, it housed it all. Yet there was one moment that came to be in particular and a certain doctor came to the beckoning call.
She reviewed the chart once again to assess a young boy's condition. Apparently he was subjected to a seizure, he's been here for a week and his legal guardians weren't reachable. She sighed deeply to herself, apparently she was the only one he had right now.
Where were his parents? Where were they when his birthday came up? Where were they when the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas came to be? Did they even bother to call him often, or show up at any of the parent teacher conferences? It made her sick to her stomach, that his parents were never there. When she saw Ron as a little boy, she remembered that their parents went on their first trip. Believing that they would be back within a week, she took it upon herself to carry him in her arms and do what she could to make sure he turned out to be a good man.
So many years of looking after him, watching him grow into his teenage years, she grew to accept him, so did the rest of the family. She could remember Ron and the boys laughing together, how they got along so well. How the blonde boy and her daughter would hang out together. It was when she looked at him as if he was her third son.
She didn't want to ignore him. She didn't want Ron to grow up hating himself, thinking that his biological family wanted nothing to do with him. Could they even give the boy a minute of their time, to at least acknowledge his existence? If the Possible's didn't enter into his life, then what would've become of him? Would he be another criminal? Would he just close himself off of the world, only to find solitude in the demonic drink and the pain of a razor dragging through his skin. The redheaded doctor would reject such a manner happening to him.
She heard a groan under her patients lips, she walked to the side of his bed, set her clipboard down on the desk and watched over him. While he stirred a bit, she could recall the minute of the news that she dreaded.
FLASHBACK:
The Possible family, minus Kim had returned to their home. They were ready to leave out, but the first step were to get their already packed bags from their rooms.
"Well, we can make it without so much traffic if we leave out now. There isn't much traffic on the highways now." James said. He put the car in park on the pathway leading to the garage. She peered to the entrance of the house in order to see someone sitting there, her arms resting on her knees. She seemed relaxed… no that's not it.
She could see Kim's eyes turning red and puffy. It looked to be that she was crying? Did her little boyfriend break up with her? She got out of the car and walked up to see her daughter. "Kim? Are you alright sweetie?" She asks.
Kim didn't say a word, she only stood up and went into the car, her eyes were about to have tears fall out of them. Kim went into the passengers side and just stared off into space. James and Ann went into the house.
"I swear, this ride in the middle of the night, will no doubt be tiresome." James said. He hoisted his bag to his shoulder.
"Aww, you're gonna be ok, if you feel like you wanna fall asleep, I'll take the wheel." She suggested.
"I won't argue with that." They both kissed each other on the cheek. They were about to leave the room until a phone started to ring.
"Hello?" The matriarch addressed. "I'm ok how are you?" She was talking on the phone with one of her colleagues at the hospital. "Someone's having a seizure?" Her voice turns into a tone of concern. James could only look in curiosity as the conversation was takings place. Then he was able to see his wife's face turn pale, her hands were shaking and eyes became watery.
"Could you… could you please repeat the patients name?" She asked. Her voice was starting to break, this was scary to see her like this. "I'm coming." She hung up the phone and tossed her bag on the bed.
"Is everything all right?"
"No… no it's not. It's Ron…" she looked into her husbands eyes. "He's in the hospital, he's having a seizure, they found something in the back of his neck, they need me to remove it… I'm not losing him, he needs me."
James had then attempted to settle his wife's nerves. "Go on ahead, I'll take Kim and the boys, do what you can for Ron."
She had then took another car and drove off as quick as she could to the hospital. Nothing else mattered at this point, Ron needed someone to help him at this point, she wasn't going to turn the other way… he needs her, and she was going to be there.
FLASHBACK ENDS
She gently held his hand and see his eyes stirring awake. It then closed back, exposed to the fluorescent lighting. He blinked several times and then his eyes became open.
"Ron?" Ann quietly whispered. She felt relieved that he woke up, she was scared for him after all this time. At least now, she can breathe and rest easily.
"Mrs. Dr. P." He answers. "Wha- Where am I?" His voice was weak, it didn't sound forced, rather he was tired. He didn't even bother to move a single finger.
"You're in the hospital." She began. "You had a seizure."
Ron had then tried to move his fingertips and toes, he even tried to move his head from side to side. He was successful in doing so, but there remained a problem.
"I feel stiff…" He groaned. "My body feels so stiff."
There you have it, if any of you are wondering, I didn't make Ron go blind, that wasn't going to be a part of the story. Also some news: the story will soon have interludes on a certain arc, which will focus on Ron and Bonnie independently and have their own storyline and plots, the interlude will end at a certain point in time, so as always be on the lookout for another chapter and I'll see you soon.