Still don't own them.
Centered on Gar
Tara still wasn't talking to him. He felt horrible about her. But, oddly, that wasn't the only thing that was bugging him. He remembered his conversation with Rachel. She was only trying to be nice, and he yelled at her. It's not like he had believed Tara when she said that stuff, he was just so hurt that he wanted someone else to hurt too. He had been meaning to apologize to her ever since, but she hadn't been in school.
He brought it up Friday at lunch, "Anyone seen Rachel?"
"No, man." Vic said.
"I have not seen her since Monday when she showed up with her hair the color of purple." Kori said.
"That's the last time I saw her." Dick said, "Hasn't she been in school?"
The others looked at each other, they didn't know.
"Wonder where she is." Gar mused aloud.
"Maybe we can ask Wally if Jenny's told him anything in Home Ec." Vic offered. Just then the bell rang. They all quickly gathered their stuff and left the cafeteria.
"West!" Dick called out.
"Yo." he responded. He was once again at a sewing machine, this time sewing a bag. He didn't tell anyone, but it was for Jenny, for all her books. He was, as usual smiling.
"Has Jenny mentioned where Rachel's been lately?" Vic asked.
"We have not seen our friend in a long while." Kori chipped in.
Instead of a chipper Wally answering happily in the affirmative, like they were expecting, Wally's smile disappeared and he gave a disbelieving grunt. "Some friends." he muttered, almost inaudible to them,
"What?" Gar asked. Surely he hadn't heard Wally right.
"No." Wally said, anger definitely being his foremost emotion. He didn't know Rachel well, but what they did to her was not the actions of "friends". He was a closer friend at this point in time. "No she hasn't. Not that I'd tell you if she did."
A very angry Wally turned his backs on the four. What just happened?
That afternoon, after school, the four congregated at Dick's locker. They needed to find this out.
"I asked the people in the locker next to her's." Vic said, Rachel's locker was on his way as they were alphabetically assigned, "They can't remember seeing her since Monday. Not that that's untypical. Malchoir still bugs her from time to time so she usually tries to avoid being caught by him by getting there at odd times."
"I swear," Gar said, getting angry at the thought of Malchoir, "If that- that dragon hurt her in anyway-" but he was cut off by Kori (1).
"Malchoir was expelled from the school for harassment of a sexual nature (2)." she said, "That was three weeks ago. Rachel been absent for less than a week."
"Then to the source?" Dick asked.
"To the source." the others agreed.
Jenny, Jericho, Rachel and occasionally Wally, were often seeing heading off to the south entrance after school. Typically they all headed there on Fridays. They always congregated at the big tree in the south side of the school, just outside the exit. That was where Gar, Kori, Vic and Dick were headed.
Jenny and Jericho were listening to Wally saying something and whatever it was wasn't making them happy. Wally saw them coming first and stopped his tale, looking pointedly at them. A scowl on his face. None of them had ever seen the usually happy-go-lucky kid so mad. They wondered what they had done.
Jenny and Jericho turned around, a look of anger on the blonde and pure venom seeping out of the pink headed girl. Gar was petrified.
"What do you want?" Jenny spat.
"We want to know if you've seen Rachel." Dick said.
"What's it to you?" she answered his question with another question.
"We are her friends." Kori said weakly.
"Like I said earlier," Wally said, "Some friends." Vic stole a look at the quiet one, Jericho. He had a look that was a mixture of incredulous disgust and anger playing on his features.
"Look," he said, "obviously we missed something." The three he was addressing gave him "You think?" looks, "But we're noticing now."
"Too late." Jenny said. She turned her back on them and started to march off. Wally threw them one final sneer, then ran off to Jenny. Jericho looked each of the offending "friends" in the eye one by one. He then spat on the ground and promptly turned to catch up with the other two. That was the angriest they had ever seen their silent classmate. (3)
"Well that went well." Vic, the first to recover speech, commented.
"What the hell just happened?" Gar asked.
"We have messed up in the way of a military officer." Kori said.
"She means we messed up major." Dick translated.
"The question is, what did we mess up?" Vic asked the group.
"No." Gar said, "It's what did we miss?"
The four stood there, watching the angry trio go, not south like they were known to do on Fridays, but east. "What's that way?" Dick asked.
"Not much." Vic answered, "The old school, a few plazas, the hospital, stuff like that."
"I wonder where they are going." Kori said.
"I don't think we should go to Rachel's house." Dick said, "Her father would just get mad at her."
"What say we discuss this over pizza?" Vic said as his stomach gave a growl, "I gotta eat up. I have a tournament tomorrow and I'm ten pounds under weight. Then we can go to my house and try the new Monkey Men video game I got."
"Can't." Gar said, "I got family coming over."
"We'll see you tomorrow at the wrestling match then?" Dick asked.
"Yeah." Gar said, "Nine o'clock, right?"
"I'm picking you up at 8:30, Gar." Dick reminded him.
"8:30, right." Gar said, making a mental note, "Got it, see you then." He then started the trek home.
When Gar got home, he saw his family already there.
"Gar!" his little cousin, Tommy, called when he walked in the gate. Tommy came running up to him, arms outstretched. Gar grabbed him and lifted him up in the air.
"Little Dude!" Gar called up to the small child in his hands. Tommy was six (going to be seven in three months, as Tommy constantly reminded everyone) and was the son of his mother's youngest sister. Gar's aunt had recently divorced her husband, Tommy's father, when she caught him cheating, and had just settled everything. They were going to be staying with Gar's grandparents for a while.
He put Tommy on his shoulders and headed into the house.
"Are you an actor now, Gar?" Tommy asked from his perch on Gar's shoulders.
"In a school play." Gar answered.
"Cool!" Tommy said.
"Gar, be careful." Gar's dad said.
"I will, dad."
"What?" asked Gar's Aunt Kathy, "Tommy! Get down from there! You're going to hurt Gar."
"He's fine, Aunt Kathy." Gar said.
"Yeah, mom. I'm fine!" Tommy said. 'Gotta love family idolatry.' Gar thought.
The evening passed smoothly, the only draw back being when Gar's mother made the mistake of bringing his aunt's ex-husband up. But when they left to go back to Gar's grandparents house, things were happy as ever.
Gar went to the rec room and attempted to do his homework, but found himself unable to concentrate. He was about to call Vic's house to see if it was too late to go over now that his family had left, when the phone rang. He heard his mother answer it and could tell from her end that it wasn't good.
He left the rec room and went into the kitchen where his parents were. He saw his mother hang up and break down in sobs.
"Marie, what's wrong?" Gar's father asked.
"It's Kathy and Tommy." Gar's mother said, "They were hit by a drunk driver." Gar felt his stomach drop.
"Are they ok?" Gar's father asked, "Where are they?"
"Kathy's fine, just a slight concussion and a broken arm, but Tommy has to go into surgery. Mark, I'm scared he might not make it."
"Are they in Jump City Hospital?" Gar asked. His mother nodded.
"Get your coat." Gar's father said, "Let's go."
All of Gar's family were in the hospital waiting room. Gar's mother and grandmother where in the ER with his aunt. It was after midnight when they came out to tell the rest of them that Tommy was out of surgery, and that he was expected to make a quick recovery. Gar took a deep breath.
That night Gar's house, being the closest to the hospital, was very full. Gar's grandparents slept in the guest room, Gar gave his room to his aunt, the hide-away in the rec room was given to his other aunt and her husband, their two kids sprawled out on the floor and Gar was on the couch in the front room.
He was once again in the auditorium for practice, but no one else was there. "Hello?" he called out, but, as expected, no one answered him. "I don't have time for this." he said aloud, "I should be at the hospital checking up on Tommy."
"Hello?" he heard an uncertain voice call out. A voice he knew.
"Rachel?" he asked. Sure enough, Rachel come into view, coming down from her former perch in the catwalk above him, no doubt making sure that some backdrop was in place or something.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. Her tone was not empty, like usual, but full of something. Hurt, sadness? Yes, these and something else.
"Waiting to practice." he said, "Where's everyone else?"
"They left." she said, the hurt and sadness still in her voice, accompanied by something else. What was it? "They always leave." she continued.
"What?" he asked, taken aback by her last statement. But he could place the emotion now, loneliness. Rachel was lonely.
"Nothing." she said with the air of someone trying to quickly cover a mistake they made. She momentarily pushed one of her sleeves up to get it out of her way and he saw a bruise, a large one, and a scar.
"Rachel?" he asked her, indicating the arm. She quickly covered it like her earlier slip of the tongue. "What happened?"
"Nothing." she said, but he could tell she was lying.
"Rachel, you know you can tell me, right?" he asked, sympathy in his voice.
"What ever." she said, her usual biting tone back, "I think you're girlfriend needs you."
"What?" he asked.
"Tara, your girlfriend, I think she needs you." she said, her tone even more biting if that was possible.
"But, we broke up." he stammered, "You know that."
"Sure." she said, turning her back on him. He heard her mummer something that sounded like. "Player."
"Excuse me?" he demanded, "I tried to help you if I remember correctly, but you pushed me away!"
"I had to." she said, tears in her eyes, but he was too angry to notice.
"Why, Rachel? Huh? Why did you have to?" he screamed, "Oh, that's right, you hate me!"
"I don'-" she started, but he cut her off.
"Yes, you do! You hate me! You hate Kori! You hate Vic! You hate Dick! You definitely hated Tara!" he screamed.
"I don't hate you!" she screamed, it was then that he saw her tears, "I love you." At this she broke down, fell to her knees and sobbed openly into her hands.
Gar was left stunned. She didn't hate him? What was more, she loved him. He looked at the broken Rachel in front of him and ran the length of the stage to her. "I-" he started, but he too began to cry, "I love you, too." he stammered out. He wrapped her in his arms and held her close to him. He planted butterfly kisses on her head and tried to soothe the girl crying into his chest.
"Please," he pleaded, "please let me help you. I want to help. Let me be your bastion in times of trouble. Please...let me love you." She looked up into his eye. Her gaze was searching and he never flinched. She gave an almost imperceptible nod, then leaned in and kissed him.
Gar shot up from the couch he was on. "What the hell was that?" he asked himself. He took a deep breath as he collected his bearing. He should not have had that banana right before bed. But that dream-. Odd though it was, it felt right.
He lay back down on the couch and looked at the ceiling, watching the lights of passing cars play off it. He had some thinking he had to do.
Little did he know that fifteen minutes away, in room 370 of Jump City Hospital, Rachel was having the same dream.
Back to Rachel
Rachel shot up in her bed. Man, that dream was weird. She shook it from her mind as best as she could, then got up to get a drink of water. She picked up the pitcher, which was a god-awful shade of pink, and made to pour a glass of water, but found it empty. Oh, well, she needed to stretch her legs anyway.
She carefully stood up, grabbed her "buddy" in one hand and the pitcher in the other (4). She walked around the curtain that had been pulled while she was asleep and looked in the other bed, curious as to why it was pulled. There she saw a little boy, fast asleep.
'Poor thing.' she thought, 'Wonder what happened.'
Pushing these thought aside, she continued her pursuit of water. She left the room and saw a nurse coming toward her.
"What are you doing up?" the nurse asked her. It was, after all, 4:30 in the morning.
"I wanted some water and I was out." Rachel said, holding up the empty pitcher, "I needed to stretch my legs anyway."
"Well, let me have the pitcher if you want ice." the nurse said kindly. Rachel handed her the pitcher.
"Can I still walk a bit?" Rachel asked.
"Sure thing." the nurse said.
Rachel walked around the floor, circling the pediatric floor, then went back into her room. She looked at the sleeping boy and again wondered what happened to him. She found her pitcher refilled and placed on her bed side table. She poured herself a glass of water and laid down as she sipped it. Her thoughts drifted to her dream. Part of it didn't surprise her really, she had long ago accepted that she liked Gar in a "more than friends" way, but what did get her was that she never thought he could return those feelings. 'It was probably an effect of the drugs they have me on.' she thought as she finished her water and set the cup down. 'Yeah, that's it. Just an effect of the drugs. Or wishful thinking.'
She rolled over and closed her eyes. Soon her soft snores were heard and she drifted off into another sleep. This one, however, was in no remote way a good dream.
She was coming out of the church after a service. She was humming a song that Melvin, a girl she watched in the day care center, had taught her about finding a peanut (5). She wasn't two steps away from the door when four very familiar faces caught up to her.
"Rachel!" came Gar's voice, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Coming out of church." she said, as though that was the most obvious thing in the world. She had just come out of a church, after all.
"Yeah, sure." Dick said, "Like you go to church." Rachel just motioned soundlessly at the door she had just closed on her way out.
"This is probably some sort of mind control cult thing or something." Gar said.
"Only you would bring mind control into this." Rachel scoffed.
"I too believe they are doing the controlling of your mind, Rachel." Kori said. Rachel stared incredulously at her. Was she serious?
"Come on, girl." Vic said, "We're holding an intervention."
"What?" Rachel asked, wrenching her arm from his grasp.
"An intervention." Dick said, "It's obvious you need one."
"And why is this?" she asked them.
"You are turning to the occult." Kori said.
"No I'm not." Rachel protested. What was with them? But they continued to try to take her somewhere and used force as she obviously didn't want to go willingly. She broke free of their grasp and ran for all she was worth. They were following her, she could hear their footsteps behind her. She kept running, but looked around and saw that it was like she was running on a treadmill, no matter how fast or how far she ran, she was staying in the same spot. They eventually caught up to her, though she was unsure how they got behind her when she hadn't moved, and tried to grab her again.
"I am telling you," she said as she struggled against their grasp. "I'm not going to the occult!"
"Yes, you are, Rachel." came the voice of Slade Wilson.
"What the hell?" Rachel asked aloud.
"Here, we worship Trigon the Terrible." Azar said as she came out of the church, which was still right behind Rachel, "And it is time for the sacrifice of the virgin." Azar and the Satterthwaites started to grab for Rachel.
"Stop." Slade commanded, "She is not a virgin."
"Slut!" Gar shouted at her, "And to think, I almost liked you!" Kori looked shocked at Rachel, and Vic and Dick just shook their heads at her in disappointment.
"What shall we do?" Azar asked Slade.
"The only thing we can do." he said, a wicked grin on his face, "We replace her with her friends. All of them." He then gave an evil laugh, "Mwahahahaha!"
Several monks came out of the church and grabbed Gar, Kori, Vic and Dick, and three more showed up holding Jenny, Jericho and Wally. Rachel watched as her seven friends struggled against their captors, but all was in vain.
"We will make her watch." Slade said with an evil smirk. Two more monks appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her. They were all lead through the church and into the courtyard that Rachel had once been so taken with. But it was no longer the same courtyard. This courtyard was much larger and held a giant red monster version of her father, sitting on the fountain that now looked like a hand propping him up, and surrounded by lava.
Tara walked out from behind him and looked Rachel straight in the eye, "They would've been better off with out you." she said with a smirk to match that of Slade's. She walked over to Slade and gave him a hug, then turned to Rachel again, "But now they must die."
Slade looked down on Tara like a father to a child, he then looked to Rachel with cold hatred in his eyes, then to Azar and made a motion. Azar signaled to the first two monks, who were holding Gar. They walked up to Trigon who, being massive, had no trouble with picking Gar up and-
Rachel immediately shot up out of bed and started to lash at her bandages. They weren't going to die because of her. No! She would die first.
All her noise woke the little boy in the next bed up and he, afraid of monsters, quickly paged the nurses. They quickly, and heavily, sedated Rachel, then calmed the boy down, simply saying that his neighbor had a bad dream.
Back to Gar
Gar had a phone right next to his head and it startled him out of sleep when it went off the next morning at eight. Gar, thinking it was the hospital, picked it up right away.
"Hello? What's wrong? How's Tommy?" he demanded of the person on the other end.
"Gar, relax. It's Dick. I was calling to let you know that I was on my way to your place." Dick said, "Who's Tommy?"
"Jesus Christ, Dick. I thought you were someone form the hospital." Gar said.
"The hospital?"
"My aunt and cousin were in an accident when a drunk driver ran a red light. My aunt's fine, but Tommy had to have surgery and then had to be admitted."
"Jesus, Gar, I'm sorry." Dick said.
"It's ok. I'm just not going to be able to go today. Tell Vic good luck for me?"
"Sure thing." Dick said, "What happened to the drunk driver?"
"No clue." Gar said.
"Well, I hope that he goes to jail or something."
"Same here. And may I say that one's of the nicer ill-wishes he's getting." Gar joked.
"Well, I hope all goes well."
"Thanks, man." Gar said.
"See you Monday." Dick said.
"See ya." Gar said before hanging up. He put the phone back in the cradle and looked up to see his father standing there. "It was just Dick." he said.
"Kind of figured." his father said, "Help me make breakfast?"
"Sure." Gar said, standing up and stretching, "Let's make pancakes with soy milk and see if Uncle Richie notices."
"Even in the face of a family crisis, you make jokes?" his father asked, but there was with humor in his voice.
"What can I say," Gar said, "it's what I do." His father laughed and ruffled his hair.
It was 9:30 when Gar, his father and his grandfather got to the hospital. His aunt, mother and grandmother had left almost immediately after waking up, and his other aunt, her husband and their two kids were coming later. In his hand, Gar had a toy counting monkey from his youth that Tommy often played with.
They went up to the front desk and asked where Tommy's room was. The nurse told them that he was in room 370. They boarded the elevator and went up to the third floor. They found the room and entered. Tommy had the bed closer to the door and the curtain was pulled around the other bed, but he heard soft feminine snores coming from behind them.
Gar's thoughts on the patient behind the curtain were ended by Tommy's weak voice calling, "Gar!"
"Little dude!" Gar said, "Here, I brought this for you." he said, handing him the monkey.
"Awesome!" Tommy said, taking the monkey. He immediately wound it and let it go.
"Tommy," Gar's aunt said, "you have a neighbor who's sleeping. We don't want to wake her."
"Aw, but mom!" Tommy complained, "It's a girl! I could get cooties!"
"I got just the thing." Gar said, "Close your eyes." Tommy did so. Gar dunked his fingers in the water pitcher and splashed the water on them in Tommy's face, "There." he said, pretending to put something in his pocket, "Anti-cootie spray, my own recipe. Never go anywhere with out it. That will cover you for a whole week." (6)
"Really?" Tommy asked, "Can I see it?"
"Oh, no." Gar said in a very serious voice, "Then it won't work."
"Then how come you get to see it?" Tommy pouted.
"'Cause I made it." Gar said matter-of-factly, "I have to see it. Besides, I have my dad put it on me." Gar added, pointing over his should to his father.
"It's true you know." Gar's father said, "And he puts it on me."
"Ok." Tommy said, very seriously. Gar felt a smile fight to break out.
"How you feeling, buddy?" Gar's grandfather asked.
Tommy got a scrunched up look, "Achy." he said, "I want to stretch, but they won't let me. Something' 'bout my stishes."
"Your stitches?" Gar's aunt asked.
"Yeah, those." he said, then turned to Gar, "You know they saw my insides?" he asked excitedly.
"Really?" Gar asked, acting like he was in awe and slightly jealous.
"Yeah." Tommy said, "But it hurts today." he added.
"I bet." Gar said.
"You wanna sign my cast?" Tommy asked, indicating his right foot.
"I thought you'd never ask." Gar said, grabbing the marker the hospital gave Tommy.
Gar went with his parents, grandparents and aunt to get lunch when his other aunt and family got there.
When he went back up he saw three unlikely people in the elevator, Jenny, Wally and Jericho.
"Hey, guys." he said nervously, remembering yesterday.
"Finally figured it out, huh?" Jenny asked, her tone still biting.
"Figured what out?" he asked. The trio which were still very mad just shook their heads.
"Then what are you doing here?" Jenny asked.
"My cousin was in an accident." Gar said, "I'm visiting. What are you guys doing here?"
"Visiting." Jenny said, "What floor your cousin on?"
"Third." he said, "What's wrong?" he asked when she gave an exasperated sigh.
"Nothing." Wally said, "What room the kid in?"
"370." at this, Jericho hit his head on the wall.
"What's wrong?"
"Obviously nothing that concerns you." Jenny said, now mad.
"Ok, we know we missed something, but what was it?" he asked when the elevator doors opened. Jenny just got off and stormed away.
He turned to Wally and Jericho, "What just happened?" he asked.
Jericho just shook his head and followed Jenny. Gar looked to Wally.
"You'll see in a minute." was all the red, almost orange, headed kid said.
"What?" Gar said.
"Come on." Wally said, leading Gar to 370.
"How'd you know where the room is? It took my dad, grandpa and I ten minutes to find it."
"This is the third time I've been here." was all Wally said as he walked in, leaving Gar as confused as ever.
'Must be visiting that girl in the other bed.' Gar decided as he walked in. The curtain was still drawn, hiding the sleeping girl in the next bed. His curiosity peaked, he looked around and saw Jenny and Jericho sitting next to a girl around their age. Something about her seemed familiar, though all he saw was a really bruised arm above a bandage covering the wrist and lower forearm lying on her side, as the girl was on her side, slightly curled. The girl's face was covered by her hair, which was black, but in certain lights it looked- purple.
"Rea?" he asked as it hit him like a ton of bricks.
Notes:
1) Too much? I thought it was ok, but that's me. Lemme know, please.
2) Same thing, too much? I just kinda figured that it worked, but , as always, lemme know.
3) I like mad Jericho. I dunno why, but I do. Plus, he would be scary when he's mad. Think about it, which is scarier when you're parents are mad: when their yelling their heads off turning interesting shades of pink, red and purple; or when you know you're in trouble, but they aren't saying a word? I definitely find the second way scarier.
4) For those of you who don't know what I mean by "buddy", it's the metal pole that the IV bags are on.
5) For those of you who know the song, it is "Found a Peanut". A song that was quite popular in elementary school, at least at my elementary school, along with "The Ghost of John".
6) Hehe, anti-cootie spray. That's a little trick I picked up babysitting. That and hic-up cure potions. Just so everyone's aware, I based Tommy on two boys in my family, one of which was my brother in his younger, more innocent days.
I was asked where I got the Harry Potter reference from (grabs armor) it was from the movie (dodges things being thrown by readers). Yes, I am a bad person for quoting from a movie (the first one where Dumbledore explains that the idea that you could only get the stone if you wanted to find it but not use it was one of his better ideas) and not the book, but that's something that always stuck out in my mind for some reason, and it just seemed to fit. I dunno. More for humor than anything really.
The dreams are the property of two of my readers. The first one, the one that both Gar and Rachel had on the stage, is the property of Agent of the Divine One, and the second one, with Trigon the Terrible and evil Slade, is the property of Teenyugiohpotterphantom. Much thanks to both of you!
Umm, I think that's it for now. Thanks for reading! And, once again, lemme know! ;)