Later that night, everyone went home except Ford and Mabel. The surgery was tomorrow, and the couple deserved some private time before the impending chaos; Ford promised to stay in the waiting room until she was ready to go home.
For a few minutes, the two kids just sat curled together in silence-a rare and frightening occurrence in any room which contained Mabel. At last, though, she sat up and cleared her throat.
"I'm sorry if I panicked you earlier…I didn't mean to," Mabel began.
Mikey silenced her by taking her hand. "It wasn't your fault. I-I never actually wanted you to see me like that," he looked down at the blankets ashamedly, "…but I'm still glad you were there. To, y'know, get me help more quickly."
"That's my job," Mabel said, with a severe intensity that was almost scary coming from someone like her. "You look after me, and I look after you."
Mikey gave her a smile with far too much sadness. "I know."
They returned to silence again; this time Mikey reclined the bed so they could sit up better, and started to reach for the remote so they could see if there were any late-night low-budget alien horror films on. Before he could turn the TV on, though, Mabel laid her hand on his.
"Mikey?"
He gave her a surprised look. "What?"
"…Was I being too pushy earlier about the marrying thing?" She chewed her lip. "I wasn't trying to be. I just-you're the love of my life."
"Mabel…" Mikey squeezed her hand tenderly. "You have no idea how much I want to say yes to you, but-" He gulped. "I don't want to make you my bride and then potentially my widow soon afterward."
It felt like a sucker punch to Mabel's chest. "Don't say that! I found you a donor, all you have to do is make it through the surgeries! You're going to be fine, you're gonna get all fixed up and get the tumor out and then the donor's gonna give you bone marrow and-"
Mikey stopped her frantic babbling by pulling her into a long kiss.
When he finally pulled back, it was to cup her face in his hands. "I do want to marry you, Mabel. Trust me, I do. And I want to believe that everything will be fine tomorrow and we can put this behind us and live happily ever after."
"Then stop acting like it's not going to work!" Mabel pleaded. "Say that you'll marry me, even though my daddies think we're too young and dumb to be thinking about that yet!"
The mention of Stan and Ford, however, made him wince, probably at the mental image of what they might do to him if he tried to marry Mabel right now. At last he said, "…I'll fight with everything I got to get through the surgery tomorrow. And then we'll see what happens."
Mabel pouted, and punched him lightly in the arm. "You're impossible."
Mikey smiled and lightly smooched her forehead. "I know."
He grabbed the remote again, and started flipping through the channels.
Before they had decided on a program, though, the door opened, and Clara came gliding in, like a scrubs-wearing ghost.
For a second she just stood there, staring at them. Then she moved to the side of the bed, and pulled a couple of bags out of her pockets. She tucked one of them under Mikey's pillow. The other one she placed right into Mabel's hand.
Mabel squinted down at it. "Uh…what's this?"
"Lavender. You both need a good night's sleep," Clara murmured. Her pale eyes stared at Mabel without blinking, until the girl gave up and looked away first. Then she stepped out of the room, barely making a sound as the door slid shut.
"…Grunkle Ford's pretty sure she's a witch," Mabel said at last.
"Oh." Mikey looked sheepish. "And here I was thinking she's gotta be from the moon or something."
They both burst into giggles.
Ford, meanwhile, had fallen into a light, troubled doze in the waiting room. He started to wake up when his senses registered that there seemed to be a figure standing over him, but when he opened his eyes, he was alone aside from the receptionist.
But there was a small cloth bag resting on his knee, which turned out to be filled with lavender. And next to it a larger, plastic bag filled with jellybeans.