Joe looked around nervously, Where is she? I'll never be able to live with myself if she doesn't show up because she's lost or hurt! Gomamon's stomach growled. And I'm hungry! I hope she shows up so I can order too! "Candymon," Joe leaned over the empty chair that Candymon had saved for Emily between her and Joe. "Are you sure?"
"I'm positive Joe! Don't worry! She'll show up. I can sense her nearby." Candymon patted Joe's hand, then smiled.
"Hey guys. Sorry I'm late." All heads turned anxiously to see Emily standing at the head of the table.
"Emily! Where were you?" Joe and Matt both jumped up at the same time.
"I was having a margarita over at the bar." Emily motioned over to where she had been sitting.
"A margarita? I thought you were Joe's age!" Sora raised an eyebrow.
"It was a non alcoholic one."
"Oh!" Everyone seemed a little disappointed that Emily wasn't drinking a real margarita. Joe figured it was because they probably wanted to see how it looked to get drunk. In the back of his mind, he thought he remembered Jim teasing him when he was little, telling him that the only reason he was born was because their parents got drunk. Joe shook it out of his head. He had never believed it before, and he wasn't about to think about it now.
"Emily!" Candymon got up and hugged Emily, "Come and sit down! I saved you a spot!"
"Gee, thanks Candy!" Emily followed Candymon and sat down next to Joe. She looked at him, gave a small smile, then quickly looked away, blushing slightly. Joe looked at her for a long time. Great. Now she can't even look me in the eye anymore, let alone look at me for more than 2 seconds. I'll bet, right now, she's wishing that she was sitting anywhere but here.
The waiter came over to take their order. "I'll have a pizza," Tai said.
"Me too!" TK and Kari almost yelled.
"TK!" Matt shushed his brother, then said. "I'll have a steak, medium."
"I'll have a cheeseburger," Joe said, even though it wasn't even his turn.
"I'll have salad," Mimi said.
"I'll have a tuna sandwich," Izzy folded his menu and passed it down to the end of the table, along with everyone else. "Hold the mayo."
"I'll have a club sandwich on wheat." Sora said. "And the digimon want...?"
"I'll have a rainbow sundae!" Everyone looked at Candymon in surprise. "Hey! I do eat sugar ya know!"
"I'll have what Izzy's having." Tentamon decided.
"I'll have some bread. A lot of it." Biyomon tried to sound as if this wasn't a totally weird thing to order.
"I'll have..." The digimon orders became more and more bizarre with Agumon ordering a bucket of fruit, Gabumon wanting a plate of fish-sticks, Patomon wanting a can of whipped cream, Gomamon wanting a Shrimp Louie, Gatomon wanting a bowl of strawberry milk with a twirly straw, and Palmon wanting a head of lettuce with cherry tomatoes in between every other leaf.
"Is that all?" the waiter, oddly enough, didn't think the digimon's orders were strange at all.
"Well, I want some spaghetti and garlic bread." Emily tossed her menu to the waiter and sat back in her chair. She took a deep breath and got ready to say It.
"Your order will be ready shortly." The waiter left.
"Uh, you guys?" Emily said slowly, "I have some stuff I have to tell you."
"As a matter o fact, I have something to tell you guys also." Izzy stood up. Sora noticed that Mimi was looking at him anxiously. "In the past weeks, I've been hiding something from you all. I know that I've always come across to everyone as centered only on my computer most of the time, but well, there's something else that's captivated me. I want you to know that this new thing in my life is one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen. I don't know I've been able to live with out her. She adds new meaning to my definition of the word 'happiness.' "He took Mimi's hand. They smiled at each other. "I want you all to know that I've fallen in love. I've fallen in love with-"
"Me! And I love him too!" Mimi jumped up and threw her arms around Izzy, then kissed him. Everyone stared in surprise at what was happening. There was beat silence as Mimi and Izzy stood kissing in front of everyone.
Finally, Sora broke the silence, "Well, congratulations you two!" she smiled at Mimi and Izzy.
"Ick! They're kissing!" TK made a face. Izzy and Mimi stopped kissing and laughed. Then they sat back down.
"Aaw! This is so sweet." Emily sighed and wiped away a tear.
"Who'da thought something like this could happen?" Matt looked at Izzy and Mimi curiously.
Joe looked at Emily. Why does she look so sad? I know she's happy for Izzy and Mimi, but she seems worried. "Emily?" He touched her arm. She turned to look at him, her hair swishing behind her. "Are you ok?"
"Actually Joe, I'm not."
"Is there anything that I can do to help?"
"No, this is something I've got to handle on my own. Now if you'll excuse me," Emily stood up. "Everyone! I hate to break up this big happy thing for Izzy and Mimi, but there's something I've got to tell you all too."
"Are you going to say who you love Emily?" Tai called out. Emily blushed.
"No. This is something else." She coughed and picked up her guitar case. "When I met Joe, he told me that Gennai had mentioned that I had super powers." A hum went through the others. "Well, it's true." She opened up her guitar case and pulled out the picture of her band. She handed it to Joe who looked at it, then passed it around. "This is a picture of my band GQ. That's me with the guitar, Katie with the keyboard, and Betsy on the drums. We were just a normal band until we found these." She held out her transformation card. "As soon as we read them, we got these super powers. Katie could control sound and talk to cats. Betsy could control her hair and I could turn stuff like this," She picked p her napkin, "Into gold cards." She passed around all the newspaper articles except the one about the UFO. "We decided to use our powers to save the world. You know, typical hero stuff. Then Katie started to notice that, every time we defeated a bag guy, this weird UFO suddenly appeared and sucked them up." She handed
Joe the article about the UFO. "Shortly after, we were visited by Laurence, queen of the planet Orgisian." She handed Candymon the picture of Queen Laurence. "She told us the origin of our powers had come from a group of heroines called the Guardians of the Universe. They had been suspended in time by a villain we had recently defeated, called the Brain. Somehow, their spirits had sent themselves to Earth and turned into credit cards. We found them and read them. When we did, their spirits came into us and summoned out the powers in their old bodies back in Queen Laurence's palace. As long as the Guardians are close by, we've always been able to transform. But something terrible has happened. GAG had managed to take the Guardian's bodies and put them in a force field. As long as they're in that thing, we can't summon their power and transform." Emily felt her face getting hot as she paused.
Everyone was quiet and Emily began to wonder, for a brief second, if she should have never decided to tell them. Izzy looked at her and then at her card. "Well, it does make some sense. Your card works kind of like a digivice, only you have to be in range of the Guardians to be able to transform."
"Uh, I guess so." Emily looked at her card, then at the digivice on her waist. Then there was total silence again. Emily stood at the table as everyone tried to comprehend all that she had told them.
Matt broke the silence with a cough. "I don't quite understand all of what you've said, and I can't help but wonder why you didn't tell us before. We're your friends Emily! You could have trusted us!"
"I- I didn't feel like I knew you all well enough to tell you guys. I was afraid that I would tell you and you'd all think that I was totally weird or something."
"But Candymon mentioned that you transformed when we first met her."
"Well then you knew. Why didn't you say something?"
"I didn't know if it was true or not. And besides, it was only Candymon that knew." Matt pushed his hair out of his face.
"Well," Emily and Joe glanced at each other, "Candy wasn't the only one who knew."
"Joe?" Everyone looked at Joe in amazement.
"You knew Joe?" Tai couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Well, yeah. She told me on the way over to meet you guys."
"You told Joe but not us?" Matt slammed his fist down on the table.
"I trusted him! I talked to him for an hour and a half after I met him. He told me all about you guys, and I felt like I should tell him. Besides, he didn't tell anyone, just like he promised." Emily said.
"Hence the crest o' reliability." Candymon cut in, then shut up.
"This just doesn't make sense! And what's this about GAG having the Guardians? We're supposed to be saving the world! Not saving three zombies who help you transform!"
"They're the Guardians of the Universe! I have the spirit of Godiva, the leader! I have to save them! Laurence is counting on me!" Emily's eyes flashed with anger. "I can't help you save the world when I can't help save the universe! I was made a digidestined for a reason other than the fact that I was there when Greymon fought that ugly bird-type thing. Just like everyone else!"
"Well maybe your being a digidestined was just a big mistake!" Matt growled as he leaned across the table to glare at Emily.
" Oh and like your being one is just do special! Emily reached around her neck and pulled off her tag. Then she pulled off her digivice and threw them both down on the table in front of Matt. They landed with a thump in front of him. "Oh, and just because you found out that I'm different from you guys doesn't mean that I don't still have feelings!" Emily ran away from the table, knocking over the waiter who was bringing a tray of water.
"Emily!" Joe stood up and called after her. He started to go after her when Candymon called out, "Wait for me!" She jumped up out of her chair and ran to catch up with Joe. They disappeared outside still calling after her.
"Nice going Matt!" Gomamon looked at Matt scornfully.
"Well I was speaking for everyone else! Don't you think we should focus on saving the world instead of her and her Guardians?" Matt looked around.
No one spoke, they just stared at the table. "You didn't have to tell her that she shouldn't be a digidestined." Tai looked up.
"And you didn't have to tell her that the Guardians were stupid an unimportant." Sora looked at the picture of Queen Laurence. "In fact, I think that the Guardians helped keep Earth under order while we were here."
"You mean the GQ's." corrected Izzy. "The Guardians powers flow and let the GQ's transform, therefore, it's the GQ's that kept things under control."
"Yeah, but we saved Earth from Myotismon and every other crazed digimon set on concurring our world." Matt protested.
"But Matt," Sora walked over to Emily's guitar case and placed everything gently inside. Then she picked up one of the newspaper articles and showed it to him. "Did you ever think that, if it hadn't been for them, we would have had much more trouble saving the world?"
"I know Matt!" Kari glared, "I don't think our digimon could have handled fighting Myotismon, his evil followers, and whatever else was going on at the time."
"But- but..." Matt was trapped. Everyone was right and he knew it.
TK stood up. "Matt, you're my brother and I know that you care abut me a lot and I love you. But right now, I really wish I didn't know you! Emily didn't do anything wrong! She was telling us her secret because we're her friends and now she'll never wanna be our friends again because you've ruined everything!" Tears sprang into TK's eyes as he spoke.
"TK…" Matt walked towards his brother.
"Leave me alone!" Tk grabbed the key to their hotel room out of Matt's pocket and ran off crying.
"TK!" Matt tried to chase after TK but Tai and Izzy held him back. "Tk!" He reached out.
"Let him go Matt! He's upset. I think he needs to be alone for a while." Sora put her hand on Matt's shoulder.
"No! I have to go after him! TK!" Mat struggled to get free. Then he went limp.
Sora helped him to sit down. "It's ok Matt. TK's a big boy. He'll be ok. Besides, he's just going to your room."
"It's Emily I'm worried about." Gomamon whispered to Palmon.
"TK." Matt hid his face in his hands and sobbed. "What have I done? Emily! TK! I'm sorry! What have I done?"
"Emily!" Candymon stuck her head into her room. Then she came back out. "Sorry Joe, she's not in there."
"Let's try the pool again!" Joe and Candymon got into the elevator. This is horrible! Joe leaned against one of the walls of the elevator. I should have tried to make Matt stop! He attacked her and I just sat there. I've never seen her cry like that before. He heard Candymon sigh. Poor Candymon. She hurts as much as Emily does. When she saw Emily throw her digivice down with her tag… Joe shuddered. He didn't like to think about the pain he'd seen in Candymon's blue and green eyes. He could almost hear her heart breaking as Emily's digivice hit the table, and he thought he saw tears in her eyes when Emily ran off.
It was a rare thing to see a digimon cry, and when you saw them cry, it was heart breaking. He glanced down at Candymon. She was holding herself as she stared at the door.
"I don't understand it." Candymon whispered. "I can transform like she can, Gabumon can transform, Gomamon can transform. And our ability to transform comes from a source too. If the source isn't nearby, then we can't transform, and if we can't transform, then we can't help save our world. Why shouldn't her problem be similar to ours?"
"Because Matt tends to jump too far ahead. He didn't stop to think about it, I guess." Joe sighed. He wanted to hate Matt right now, but he couldn't let himself. Hate was a thing that was dangerous to let over take you, and it wasn't a good idea to let that happen when you were away from home.
They stepped out of the elevator and walked over to the pool. Joe stepped through the door and looked around. Nobody. "She's not in here," he sighed.
"Let's check the garden," Candymon glanced over at the restaurant. She could see the table where the others were sitting. Gomamon saw her and arched an eyebrow that asked 'have you found her?' Candymon shook her head.
Then she heard Biyomon cry, "Hey! Emily's guitar case is gone!" Joe jumped when he heard this and stared to walk over to the restaurant, but Candymon stopped him.
"That's weird," Sora's voice could be heard, "I just put all her pictures back in it and shut it a second ago!" There was a buzz as everyone pondered where it could have gone.
"There ya go! She's still in here!" Candymon grabbed Joe's hand and pulled him to the entrance to the garden. "I just know she's gotta be in here!"
Joe sighed. I hoped that Emily was in the garden, but he didn't know what he would tell her when he found her. Come back? I'm sure Matt didn't mean it? What can I possibly say that can help her come back? Tai's the one who should be over here! He's the hero type person, he could talk her into it, not me! I can't do anything! "I shouldn't go." Joe turned and started to walk away.
"What? Of course you should! Emily likes being around you! If there's one person she'd like to talk to about now, it's you. Now come on!" She pushed him into the garden.
Joe and Candymon looked in awe at what stood before them. A large fountain stood in the center of the garden. The waters that flowed out of it were a deep blue. A walkway that lead to several benches, tables and a gazebo, was lined with birdbaths and gazing balls on pedestals. Each birdbath had a large white waterlily in it, and each gazing ball swirled with the colors of the sky. The gazebo that stood on one end of the garden was under the shade of a willow tree. On the other end of the garden, there was a small waterfall that trickled into a miniature lake were small fish nipped at the cherry-blossoms that had fallen on the surface.
Joe and Candymon looked around. Silence. Except for some yokomon chatting at a table, two vegimon sipping tea while arguing about the kinds of fish in the lake, and a fridgymon eating an ice cream cone on a bench, there was no Emily in sight.
Joe sighed and sat down on a bench seven feet away from the gazebo. "I can't believe this. We've looked everywhere!"
"Well we can't just give up! She's still here somewhere, I can feel it. It's kind of like a 6th sense."
"I hope you're right." Joe sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. It was something he'd carried with him since he was eleven.
"What's that Joe?" Candymon leaned over to look at the paper.
"Oh, just something I read when ever I start to feel a little let down."
" Keep Me, by- Joe! This is a song by Emily! When did you get this?"
"Along time ago, when we all lived at Heighten View Terrace."
"These are great lyrics!" Candymon read them out loud.
"When the days are long and the nights are dark I keep you in my heart.
There's so much that I keep, but you're always in my heart.
I keep you with the memories of good times and of bad times.
They've all happened, but you'll always be right now, You're in my heart.
"Keep me too, when your days are painful.
Keep me when your nights are dark.
You know I'll always have a place for you, so keep me in your heart.
"When they push you down and laugh, when they tell you that you can't,
Remember that you've got me in your heart.
When they tell you that you're no one, when they tell you you're a freak,
Remember that you're someone to me.
"Keep me too, when your days are painful.
Keep me when your nights are dark.
You know I'll always have a place for you, so keep me in your heart.
"When they tell me I'm worthless, when they ignore my cries,
I'll hold you in my heart.
When I finally find you, I'll be able to know,
I'm finally someone's for keeps."
Joe closed his eyes as Candymon read. He could almost hear the music playing in the background. He could almost hear it, just like he did so long ago...
Joe flashed back to when he was eleven. He was sitting in his room, doing his homework when Jim burst into his room. "I'm going to go out for a soda. You want one?"
"Hmm? No thanks Jim. I've got a lot of work to do." Joe went back to work as Jim shrugged and walked out of the room. He heard the front door close. He was alone.
Joe looked out the window at the cars on the street. Then he went back to work. Then he began to hear a soft sound coming from above him. He heard humming and then the ringing of a guitar. He stopped working and looked up. It had to be coming from the room above his on the next story. He sat still and listened.
"When the days are long and the nights are dark," A silvery voice floated down. "I keep you in my-"
"Emily!" A woman's voice yelled, causing Joe to jump. "I thought I told you to stop making all that noise! You're giving me a headache!"
"But mom! I wrote these lyrics in poetry today, and I wanted to sing them for Katie!"
"I don't care who you're singing them to! I don't think that noise you make is suitable enough to be heard me a deaf person! Now cut it out!"
Silence again, then Joe heard the soft sound of crying. Then there was a thump of a lid closing and the click of latches being thrown. He heard the thud of foot steps running, then the front door on the other story slam shut. He stood up and followed the sound of the foot steps, hearing her sobs all the while.
Then he heard her get into the elevator. Quickly, he ran out of the apartment and into the hall way. He watched the light of the elevator go down, then got into he next one. He got off on the first floor and looked around. Then he heard the sound of the guitar again. He walked out side and saw a girl who had to be about his age.
She was sitting under a tree strumming a chestnut brown guitar. Her long dark brown hair glistened in the sunlight, and he saw tears spilling out of her deep brown eyes. Her voice was shook as she sang softly with her music. Then she stopped playing and pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. She erased something on it and then wrote something else in. Then she went back to singing.
Joe stood there listening to her. For a brief second, the girl looked up and their eyes met. Joe was swept into a fantasy where he was there next to her, drying her tears, holding her as she sang to him. Then she looked away and went back to concentrating on her song. Then, suddenly, she stopped playing and threw her guitar into it's case. "Argh! I can't do this! This isn't fair! This just isn't working!" The crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it on the ground. Then she lay her head on her guitar case and cried.
Joe couldn't stand to see this. He walked over to a cherry tree and plucked off a blossom. Then he walked over to her. She took no notice of him and kept crying. Joe coughed and she looked up. "Don't cry. I thought your song was beautiful." He handed her the cherry blossom.
"No. It's horrible. I can't even feel what I'm saying anymore." She shook her head as she took it. "I can't even practice in my own room, and my own parents don't support me in what I love. Everything just seems so.." She stopped and looked away. Then she pulled a small notebook out of her guitar case and placed the cherry-blossom in it, pressing it flat when she closed it.
Then Jim came back and called to Joe. Joe stood up and bowed. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. I think your playing was wonderful. Don't stop it if it's something that you love." She smiled at him and mouthed the words 'thank you.' Then he walked over and picked up the paper that she'd crumpled up. He looked at her. "Do you want me to throw this away for you?"
"No. Keep it. It's my gift to you." She smiled, then leaned her back against the tree and closed her eyes. Joe opened up the paper and found the words to the song that she had been singing. He smiled. My gift to you.
That was the last time he ever saw her, until Candymon showed up, that is. At night, he would lay awake and listen to her singing softly to herself, unaware that he was listening. Sometimes he'd hear one of her parents yell at her to be quiet, then hear her crying softly. Then he'd look out the window, waiting to see if she'd go back out and play under the tree. She never did. Joe's last years at Heighten View Terrace were spent listening to her sing in the room above him. And when he moved, he looked at the paper she'd given him. She would always be someone to him, and he hoped that he was someone to her.
"Joe? Joe? Joe!" Joe was brought back by Candymon's voice.
"Huh? Sorry Candymon. I guess I got caught up in something else. I was just remembering somethi-"
"Shh! Do you hear that?" Candymon's ears perked up. Joe listened with Candymon. "It sounds like," Candymon and Joe got up and slowly waked to the gazebo, "A guitar!" Joe and Candymon stepped into the gazebo to find Emily crying as she played her guitar.
"Emily!" Candymon ran over to her and hugged her.
"Candy!" Emily sounded shocked and happy at the same time. "What are you doing here? How'd you find me?"
"Well, you weren't anywhere else, so I decided that you must be in here. You always did like flowers." Candymon sat down next to Emily. "And, of course, looking for you was Joe's idea."
Emily looked up at Joe. "Hi," She murmured.
"Hi." Joe blushed nervously.
"Emily, why'd you run away?" Candymon asked.
"I couldn't take it anymore Candy! The way Matt was glaring at me, the way everyone was so quiet, I couldn't take it!" Emily sighed.
"You aren't going to stop being a digidestined are you?" Joe crossed his fingers, hoping for a no.
Emily smiled and reached into her guitar case, pulling out her digivice and tag. "If I quit, would I still have these?"
"I knew you wouldn't leave!" Candymon hugged Emily happily. Joe just smiled, but inside, he was jumping up and down.
"I'm glad you're staying Emily." He looked at her shyly.
"Thanks Joe. I'm glad that you're glad that I'm not leaving. Anyways, I just came out here for some time to think and be by myself. I was thinking of going back around the time you guys found me." Emily stood up and brushed herself off.
"You were? Geeze! We could have just waited, like, five more minutes and you would have showed back up!" Candymon laughed and threw up her paws.
"Well I'm glad that you cared enough to try come find me." Emily picked Candymon up in one arm and then her guitar case in another. "Come on Joe! I'm going back to the room."
"I think I'll stick around here for a couple more minutes and tell everyone you're ok." Joe hated to miss out on a chance to be alone with Emily, but he knew the others were probably worried.
"Ok. I'll be in there when you decide to come up. Oh, and Joe?"
"Yeah?"
"Be sure to knock this time before you open the door."
"Gotcha." Joe blushed a little bit and Emily smiled. Well, at least she's forgiven me for earlier today.
"Gomamon?" Joe knocked lightly on the door to the digisuite. He had just finished telling Tai and Matt, who were in the weight room, that he had found Emily. Matt had almost dropped the barbell he was holding, and Tai almost dropped his 20 lb. weight on his foot. This gave Joe enough reason to think something had happened after he and Candymon had run off after Emily. "Gomamon!" Joe knocked harder.
"Sheesh Joe! Hold on! It's not easy to get out of this pool. The water's nice and warm." Gomamon opened the door.
"Sorry." Joe sounded very unsympathetic.
"Yeah whatever." Gomamon closed the door after Joe.
"Listen, Gomamon, I need to ask you something."
"Uh, ok. Shoot!"
"Did anything happen with the others after Candymon and I ran after Emily?"
"Define 'anything'," Gomamon flopped back into the pool. "A lot happened."
"Like what?" Joe pushed the button on the wall and then sat down on a pile of towels.
"Well, everyone kind of yelled at Matt for being so harsh on Emily. Sora and Kari tried to explain to Matt how the Guardians have helped us while we were in the Digital world and TK started crying and ran off to his room. Matt started crying after TK left, and about five minutes later, you and Candymon walked by. How is she anyway?"
"Matt started crying? Really?" a small smile crept over Joe's face as he pictured Matt's perfect features smeared by rivers of tears and reddened.
"Joe, you're scaring me. You've got that look on your face?"
"What look?"
"That one you get when you're thinking about something weird."
"Well excuuuuse me for thinking." Joe stuck his tongue out at Gomamon.
"Oh yeah?" Gomamon playfully splashed some water at Joe.
"Hey! Watch it!" Joe laughed as he jumped back
"Then don't do that again!"
"Do what? Thith?" Joe stuck his tongue out at Gomamon again as he spoke.
"I warned you! Hiya!" Gomamon jumped up out of the water, then landed with a loud splat as he dove back in. A wave of water sprayed out from around him, getting everything around him wet, including Joe.
"Ah! My pants!" Joe grabbed a towel and began to dry himself off.
"I told, but would you listen? Noooo."
"Gee Gomamon. I'm thoree." Joe stuck his tongue out again.
"A wise guy huh?" Gomamon dove underwater and filled his mouth up with water. "Furpryth!" Gomamon spit the water out of his mouth like a squirt gun at Joe.
"Joe! Gomamon! What are you two doing?" Joe and Gomamon looked over to see Candymon standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips.
"Oh, Candymon..."
"We were just..."
"I was telling him..."
"And we..."
"I...was...just going to go now." Joe gave a cheesy grin and backed out of the digisuite.