Summary: Vaggie meets Charlie in a hospital.

For several days, Vaggie had a cold that refused to go away, at first she tried to ignore it and wait for it to go alone, but to no avail. She tried various medications, but they were of no use to her.

Eventually and without any other option, she had to go to a hospital.

While she waited inside, Vaggie gave herself a little massage on her forehead hoping to dissipate the fever in her, it was almost unbearable and made her feel like she was in hell.

A male nurse called her and took her into a room.

"In a moment a doctor will come," he told her, and Vaggie just nodded. As soon as the male nurse closed the door, Vaggie rested her head against the wall with her eyes closed.

This was stupid. And an absolute waste of time. She never liked hospital. Damn it, who liked hospitals anyways? They never gave her good news ever, not only that, they were extremely expensive, and then people ask themselves why other people decide to–

Her thoughts were blown away when she heard the door opened and heard a female voice.

"Hi! Sorry for keeping you waiting, I was busy with another patient. I'm Dr. Charlotte Magne, but you can just call me Charlie."

That was when she saw who to care for her and for the first time in days she was able to ignore her illness.

The doctor had a shiny white skin, a little more and she could be actual white. Long golden hair that reached her hips, with a white robe a little too small that hugged and wrapped her body, highlighting her curves.

But none of it was as bright as her smile, which lit up not just her face, but the entire room.

"Tell me, what is your problem?"

Only then did Vaggie come back to herself just before a trickle of drool trickled from her mouth.

Vaggie told her about her symptoms, to give her a better diagnosis, and "just to be safe." According to her Charlie, she gave her a standard checkup, for which she had to get quite close.

That's when Vaggie could smell her scent. She was mesmerized "Damn it smells like heaven." Vaggie struggled not to give away her reaction while Charlie checked her out.

"Ok, eyes good, knee too, heart's turn..." She pulled out a stethoscope and placed it on Vaggie's chest.

"Concentrate." Vaggie thought. "Calm, straight, don't look at her, don't overthink it. Oh my god, I'm blushing right? Please someone tell me is not that obvious she's so–!"

"...Heartbeat…uhm, faster than average" Charlie said and smiled at Vaggie.

"Damn she knows!" She screamed in her mind.

In the end, after some other tests, she gave her some medicine and went back home.

The first thing she did right away was throw everything she had to do with apples.

In the following days Vaggie began to feel better, but she could feel some symptoms lingering, a voice in the back of Vaggie's mind telling her that she alone should continue taking her medication.

But on the other hand, a medical check-up wouldn't hurt anyone, right?

Vaggie was not once, not twice, not three times. If not a total of 6 times.

She sometimes found Charlie, sometimes not. The other times she would touch another doctor, one tall, conceited, arrogant and with a stupid smile that never fell off his face.

Oh, what Vaggie would give for a good punch in those teeths.

Those aggressive thoughts vanished the moment she heard the voice of the person she was looking for. She gave her a "Hello." with her optimistic tone, almost singing, so angelic.

"I'm starting to think that you do this on purpose," Charlie said.

Immediately all the alarms in Vaggie's mind exploded, she was convinced that she herself would explode.

"I don't see you as bad as the first time I saw you." She placed her hand on Vaggie's forehead. "Don't take it as something bad, I'm just saying out of curiosity, I don't know, is there some other reason why you're coming to see me?"

"Oh my God," Vaggie thought. Her mind raced through thousand ways it could go wrong. It would take a miracle to get out of this. No! No miracle nor luck! Vaggie would ask her out on her own with no help even if it's the last thing she does!

"I-not-you-can-want-you–"

Vaggie's babbling and her extraordinary failed attempt was interrupted by Charlie's laugh, an innocent and playful laugh, from one moment to the next it grew into a loud mocking laugh, the focus above Charlie's head seemed like the doors that would lead directly to her. to heaven.

But those ideas faded from her head when she saw Charlie's cheerful expression fade into a grim expression, as if someone had told her she didn't like animals.

"My God, are you okay?"

"Hey?" It was the only thing I managed to answer. What if it was okay? Why wouldn't she be?

"You are pale. Breathe a little, you."

To breathe? Nonsense, why would she be worrying about that…well, now that she mentioned it, Vaggie was having a little trouble breathing and she started to feel a little dizzy. Why was she suddenly seeing three Charlies in front of her? At that moment she felt something warm falling from her nose and down to her upper lip. She touched it lightly with her fingertips, uncertain what to expect, her surprise was certain to see that her finger was stained with blood.

Everything around her began to drift away from her.

Before she could say or do anything, Vaggie could not bear the weight of her own body and collapsed on the floor. The last thing she heard before everything went black was Charlie's screams of concern as she shook her body in the floor in alarm and called for help.

After a while, Vaggie woke up with some difficulty, she had to concentrate only on opening the iron curtains that she called eyelids. And as if that was not enough, a lightbulb blinded her eyes, forcing her to close her eyes again. She tried to cover the blinding light, but her arms were so heavy that she could do no more than drag them between the sheets like sacks of potatoes.

When her eyes finally adjusted to the light and the dizziness dissipated. Her senses could finally start working on finding out where the hell she was. The first, triggering clue she could pick up was the repetitive beep of the EKG by her bedside.

Had she really been admitted?

This suspicion was confirmed when she was able to move her head with a little more ease and she saw that she was dressed in the blue garment that was given to all patients in a hospital.

Just when she decided this was a pointless waste of time and she started to get out of bed, her bedroom door opened and she heard Charlie's voice.

"You woke up! You had me scared to death," Charlie said as she breathed relaxed with one hand on her chest and with the other hand, she carried a small table with some papers.

She walked over to Vaggie and sat next to her bed. "How lucky that I was with you at the time right?" She tried to ease the situation, but Vaggie didn't want to beat around the bush.

"What happened to me?" At the direct question, Charlie's smile fell a little, to hide it she quickly checked the table she carried with her and pretended to read it as if it were the first time, although she had actually already memorized it for a few hours.

"Well, you had a case of vasovagal syncope and…" Vaggie looked at her confused, obviously not understanding what she was referring to. "You passed out, basically. Looking at your vital signs it was easy to guess why. Unusual high blood pressure, for… well, basically anyone, especially a girl your age. And your good looks." That last part of her whispered to herself, covering her lips with the board for a moment. "I have to assume that not only are you going through a great deal of stress, but that amount of stress is common in your life. Work, perhaps? "

Vaggie pressed her lips together at her revelation, and she pressed them even tighter at the question. She knew she was going to happen sooner or later again. She nodded sadly and unsure.

"My boss...he's an asshole."

"Yeah, I've heard that before." After that, Charlie continued to ask her routine questions, by the time they were done she prescribed some anxiolytics, Lorazepam, and made an appointment for her to see her again in a few days, which Vaggie found quite strange.

"Shouldn't these things be enough?" She said holding up her prescription in her hand.

"Generally, yes, but since you are prone to high levels of stress, you will need strategies, defense mechanisms, basically. And– "Charlie stopped short for a second, at what she was about to say, as a small idea flew through her head.

She masked her small shock by clearing her throat. "And, also, a support system."

"People." Vaggie blurted out.

"Friends. A pretty girl like you must have lots. "Vaggie reacted first with a blush on her face, before she fell into dismay.

"I..." Vaggie shrugged, unable to respond with anything else.

Charlie understood almost immediately and her face mimicked her patient's expression.

"It does not matter, for now just rest, tomorrow in the morning, if everything is in order we will release you and you can go home."

Vaggie nodded accordingly. Charlie went to attend to other matters, but in all that time she could not stop thinking about Vaggie, surely someone should call for her, someone should wait for her at home. Truth?

An hour passed. Two hours, four hours. She would check the phone every five minutes for something, whatever. A voice in her head told her to accept the reality of the facts. But her Charlie just clung, there must be someone who cared about that girl.

The next morning, everything was fine with Vaggie, so the hospital discharged her, but before she could leave, Charlie stopped her at her exit.

"Hey, I know nobody…you know…I just wanted to tell you that if you need help, you can call me whenever you want. I can give you my number. " She took out a pen, but she had forgotten to bring a piece of paper or something like that.

"Won't you have something...?" Charlie asked.

"Aaaaah..."

After being in awkward silence for a while, Charlie ended up jotting her phone number on Vaggie's arm as she giggled.

"You know," Charlie began. "If you want a date, a real date, I'm free on Friday."

The only response she got from Vaggie was a blush all over her face, instinctively she placed the back of her hand on her forehead.

"Are you blushing or is it your fever?"

"Yes."