-Epilogue-
Will flipped the bouquet she was carrying right-side up and pressed one of the strange, leaf-shaped red blossoms to her nose, inhaling and smiling at the sweet scent.
"What did Lillian say these were called?" she asked Matt, who was walking right next to her, their fingers entwined between them. They stopped in front of the elevator, and when the doors opened to take them up, he held the door back and waved her in.
Matt hit the button for the third floor and smiled at the picture of his girlfriend and the flowers, thanking God that he'd gotten his memories back and wondering how he ever could've forgotten someone as amazing as Will before replying. "Canna Roi Humbert. Native to Italy and one of the few red flowers not associated with love."
Napoleon had been continuing to teach Shinobu and Lillian how to use their respective magics for the past week. Most of Lillian's training sessions now included Cornelia as well, helping her little sister grow flowers and plants from all corners of the Earth on their little patio using her magic.
It was proving useful, since it required Lillian to have a good grasp of control—lest she make them out-grow the pots she practiced on—and a feel for the Earth that was both under her feet and where the plant naturally grew.
Unable to come with the couple, Lillian had given them a bouquet of the reddest, non-romantic flowers she could think of to give to the patient they were visiting.
'Patient', however, was a misnomer. The moment the two teens stepped out of the elevator, the sound of a very familiar voice screaming from the other side of the floor reached their ears.
"…get out of here? Come on, I'm supposed to be checking out by now!"
Matt and Will both chuckled, continuing forward past the exasperated nurses behind the main desk and heading towards the source of the noise. One of the hospital door was left wide open, probably purposefully, to keep as much of the floor aware that Nigel Ashcroft was checking out of the hospital today.
"Knock knock," Will said, rapping twice on the wooden door and momentarily stopping the patient's mouth. "Hey Nigel."
"Hey man, how you holding up?" Matt asked as they stepped inside.
Nigel was sitting in a wheelchair in front of the hospital bed he'd occupied for the past week. A dull red cast with names and doodles all but covering the plaster extended from his still-slightly-visible toes up to his hip.
The story was that while the group had been visiting one of the heather fields outside of town, Nigel had gotten the brilliant idea to try and scale one of the pine trees that surrounded it. A branch had snapped and he'd fallen all the way to the ground, landing awkwardly on his leg.
The others had rushed him to the hospital, and an X-ray discovered that his femur had been broken nearly clean in half. Though one of the toughest—and most painful—bones to break in the body, it was also one of the slowest to heal, so the doctors had set the bone and kept Nigel for two days.
Two days had turned into a week when, for no apparent reason other than pure teenage-boy-boredom, Nigel and one of the kids he'd managed to befriend tried to race down the wheelchair ramp on the first floor. It had started out badly, with the two boys wheeling for their lives away from the shocked and chasing nurses, and ended even worse when, not looking where they were going, they crashed headlong through the glass doors at the end of the ramp.
The friend had gotten away with only minor scrapes and a dislocated shoulder—a miracle, really, as the glass had been double-plated and the two of them had smashed straight through it—but Nigel had broken two fingers as well as torn the ligaments in the knee below his broken femur when the wheelchair came crashing down on him.
All in all, they figured it was worth it.
Now Nigel sat in a different wheelchair, impatiently drumming his fingers on the armrest, his eyes still having trouble staying still on any one particular thing. However, when they landed on the clipboard in Matt's other hand, they stayed there.
"Are those my check-out papers? Please say those're my check-out papers. I'm so bored!"
Matt chuckled. "Glad to hear you're feeling better, and we're doing fine, thanks." Nigel rolled his eyes and looked at his friend, waiting for a reply. Matt smiled down at him for a moment.
"Matt!" Will said with a grin, gently swatting at his arm. "Don't torture him."
"Alright, fine, sorry. Yeah, they're your check-out papers…" he trailed off slightly as Nigel gave an enormous 'WHOOT' "… but you don't get to get out of here until four."
The redhead in the wheelchair looked anxiously at his clock. "But it's 3:55!" he whined pathetically. "Can't they cheat just… fifteen minutes? I haven't seen T'ree since yesterday afternoon—I spent four days without her, I'm not planning on spending another!"
"Aw, that's so sweet!" Will said, smiling sweetly.
"But it also ain't gonna happen," Matt added with a cruel grin, moving to sit on the bed. Will seated herself carefully on the armchair beside the headboard. "The nurse we got this from said that if she sees you out of this room before four, she'll admit you to the psych ward for a full evaluation—which includes staying the night in a padded room, wearing a straitjacket." Nigel pouted and sank against his chair, but didn't say anything. "Don't make faces, dude, you're ugly enough as it is."
Nigel stuck his tongue out at him before turning to Will. "Are those for me?" he wondered, looking at the flowers.
She nodded and laid the bouquet on his lap. "From Lillian," she explained. "They're Italian."
He nodded with a grateful smile. "Fancy. I'm gonna have to thank her for these."
Matt shrugged. "She said, 'princesses send flowers to their wounded knights'." The redhead snorted.
"So she's been working on her powers with Napoleon and Shinobu?"
Will nodded. "Yeah. Apparently, they're both getting really good, especially since 'Obu opened that fold to the Fast World and brought Mariko back. She and Liam are really great together… at least now that Lillian brought him back to normal height. The entire family's focusing on fixing what got screwed up because of what Takeda did with the Protectors and the Naiade, you know, making their research more Earth-friendly and sponsoring local gardens, that kind of thing."
Nigel nodded appreciatively. His mom would love to have a community garden to pick tomatoes from. "Speaking of Protectors, what about Al?" he asked, looking at Matt.
"She went back to the heather field," he explained. "Someone's gotta protect it, you know. Tro went with her, so she won't be so lonely." He grinned. "You should've seen her face when he told her. It was like she forgot it was her birthday and someone had just dropped a big present on her lap. She almost kissed him."
"Yeah, it was almost like Hay Lin after Eric got his memories back," Will nodded with a grin. "Remember, she tackled him in a kiss so hard they slid across the floor?"
Matt chuckled at the memory. "That's nothing compared to what Mom did when she came home last night and found Dad and Grandpa talking in the living room," he added, looking at Nigel. "Lillian made him normal again a little while ago, and he was telling Gramps the story we decided on—you know, the whole 'lost my passport, couldn't prove I was American to the embassy and only just barely got enough money for a flight back home two weeks ago' schtick—when she made a surprise visit home. The neighbors called the cops, she was screaming and crying so loud."
Without warning, Nigel's watch beeped loudly, signaling the turn of the hour. He cheered, raising his arms in triumph and getting his friends to laugh before looking pleadingly at them.
"Can you help me out here?"
Will raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Nige, I'm pretty sure you can wheel yourself out—those wraps on your fingers are hard proof of that."
He shook his head. "It's not that—one of the nurses put in an emergency brake so I wouldn't be able to leave. I can't reach it and these wheels aren't gonna turn with it on, so…"
Matt laughed. "Well what do you know? Someone finally figured out how to stop Streak from moving."
Nigel scowled at the nickname but quickly grinned as his friend kicked out the brakes and began wheeling him home.
When Will handed the clipboard to the nurse at the front desk, the lady skimmed over the papers once before pointing at the redhead chatting happily with his friend behind him. "He'd better not show up around here anymore," she warned the three of them. "Most of the nurses agree—you're a nice kid, but more trouble than you're worth. I hope you two have more sense than to get into whatever battles this kid tries to pull you into."
Will and Matt shared a knowing glance, smirking as Nigel snorted.
"Fight? Us?" Nigel asked, putting a hand to his chest. "C'mon Nurse Sarah! We're just kids!"
Nurse Sarah snorted. "That's exactly why I'm afraid. Spring break's coming up—of course, it used to be earlier in the month, around the 22nd, when I was a kid. The stories I could tell you about we used to do on Earth Day…"
The three teenagers looked at each other and laughed. Will shook her head and stepped back from the desk.
"Trust me, ma'am, whatever story you have, it's nothing compared to ours."
...I think I'm gonna start crying now...
After over two years, two months, and one day, Earth Day is officially finished!
A million and five thanks to all the readers and reviewers who stuck with the story even through the hiatus. You guys are the reason we're here today. As I press the button to mark this epic as 'complete', to end this era of my life, in fact, you all are in my heart and mind. Thank you.
A weight is lifted, on this evening; I give the final blow... When darkness turns to light, it ends tonight! It ends tonight!
My final PEACE,
~Tibki
