A/N Still love my reviewers and my beta. Own Nothing that does not belong to me.

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Chapter 36: Hawaii and Loneliness

Christy was thoroughly enjoying Hawaii. The first day she spent mostly sleeping, but after that she went to the beach every day. There was a handsome man working at the hotel. He was roughly thirty years old, bleached blonde, tan, swimmers build. He carried her down to the beach every morning, brought her fun fruity drinks, and carried her back when she was ready. He also helped her arrange to go out and do a little sightseeing, she had never been more relaxed.

An even bigger bonus was when she went to get cash out. Her receipt showed a lot more money in her account than she remembered having. A quick email to Doris confirmed that Willy had put extra money in her bank account. Doris told her to consider it a Christmas bonus; that knowledge sent Christy out on a shopping excursion. She bought things to bring back for herself and the Buckets and of course for Willy.

She had a little fling with the man from the hotel, whose name was Eric. He took her to a few restaurants and showed her around, it was nice to have some company on her vacation. It also helped to have someone help push her chair around when she was in awkward places. On his days off he even hung out with her on the beach. She watched him surf wishing that she could do that. Her casts on her one leg were due to come off at the end of January if all was well. Her knee cast would most certainly need much more time. She decided that once she was all healed, she would come back and learn how to surf.

Willy was running around the factory like a complete lunatic. He lost his temper several times at Doris because he couldn't find things. It turns out most of the things he was looking for were the charts and spreadsheets that Christy usually made for him. Doris eventually convinced him to calm down and not worry so much. She also suggested that Willy send Christy an email if there was something else he couldn't find. She knew that Christy had packed her laptop and would get it and most likely wouldn't mind answering it.

A little over a week had passed and Willy couldn't stand the loneliness anymore. He was becoming short tempered with everyone, even Charlie. Willy checked the clock; it would be after midnight in Hawaii. He turned on his computer and waited impatiently for it to start up. He sat a long time trying to figure out what he wanted to say in his email before a little message popped up.

The message was from Gothic Dreams and read, "Willy! I miss you."

Willy looked at the little message confused; he assumed it was a program either an oompa-loompa or maybe even Christy had set up. He looked at his little online name and saw it was Great Candy Man. 'That's not very creative whoever made that up.' He sent a message back, "Starshine?"

"Yeah, how is the factory holding up without me?"

"I can't find anything, other than that its fine." Willy smiled happily; she actually sent him a message. Now he wouldn't have to feel guilty about bothering her during her holiday.

"Heh, I knew the place would fall apart. I tried the candies that you put in my bag. I wrote down what I thought; remember to get that from me."

"Ok, are you having fun?"

"Yeah, I went on a date with the guy that works here. We've been going out the past two nights. It makes getting around this place much easier. I have to go now though, he is still here. I'll talk to you again later, see ya Willy."

"Bye." Willy stared down at the computer. 'A date? She just broke up with that Martin guy. She is going on dates, what if she decides to stay there with him? She might not come back.' Now in a full panic, Willy went to go burn off some steam by running around the factory.

Willy was a bit harsher with Charlie on that week's lesson. His tests were harder and he was a bit impatient with Charlie. Charlie was too nice of a kid though; he took almost everything in stride and figured that all would be back to normal when Christy finally came back. However, even Charlie has his limits. When Willy began complaining about something Charlie had tried to make and failed at, he dumped a large container of nerds into the gum machine. He meant for it to ruin the gum machine for awhile; since he was getting pretty annoyed at Willy, in the end it turned out to be the birth of a new candy idea.

Another week went by and Christy still had not returned. To make things worse a bad epidemic was going around Charlie's school. The school was almost closed down because of the amount of teachers and children missing. Charlie brought the mini plague home to his parents and grandparents. They decided that for the sake of the Chocolate Room they had better move to the apartment that Willy had originally created for them, next to his main office. They all stayed in there hoping that they would be better soon.

Willy kept his distance from them, carrying his disinfectant spray wherever he went. He took scalding hot showers twice a day and began taking more vitamins than necessary. He thought he was in the clear when the Buckets started recovering, but he was wrong. Charlie started going back to school when Willy began to feel ill. He tried to shake it off as nothing at first, but he was so cold all the time. He tried telling himself that it was because he wasn't holding Christy anymore at night, he almost convinced himself.