The Price of This Love~*
By: Anime Angel ^0^
Gilliam opened his 'eyes' slowly. The small computer was sure his sensors had picked up something -- a noise -- but it had taken the small pink computer so long to reboot that now whatever it was that had been there was gone.
Slowly, Gilliam could feel his vision sensors kicking back in, and everything around him began to come into focus. As he looked around Jim's room, everything was still. But he had heard something. A computer's sensors didn't lie.
"Jim...?" Gilliam said quietly, turning the volume of his communicator down. The boy had been very tired lately, and he sure didn't want to be the one responsible for waking him up. However, he wanted to see if the blond was awake." Jim," he said again, but the boy down below him didn't stir. "Hello? Is anyone here?" Maybe Gilliam had been imagining the noise...but as the computer thought about it more, he realized that that was impossible. Artificial intelligence couldn't imagine, so whatever it was that he had heard had to be real.
Without making a sound, Gilliam began to scan Jim. Even if the boy was just sleeping, he had to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong.
"What....JIM?!" Gilliam turned the volume back up. There was something seriously wrong with the boy. Not only had the computer's scans picked up almost nothing on his life signs, but the heat scans showed that the boy was very cold also.
"JIM!" Gilliam screeched again. Nothing happened, so the computer cranked up the volume to full. He would have to get help. "GENE!" he screamed. "GENE HELP!"
~*~*~*~
"Ugh...what?" Gene blinked sleepily at the noises coming from downstairs, and rolled over on his back. A moment of complete silence passed before another scream sounded through the apartment. "Gilliam?" Had it been the little pink computer? Gilliam wasn't usually that loud, but it sure sounded like him.
Throwing on a shirt, Gene bounded downstairs, flicking the living room light on as he went.
"GENE! SOMETHING'S WRONG!" Sure enough, the little computer's loud voice came echoing through Jim's room. "HELP GENE!"
"Gill, what's the matter? Why are you yelling?" Gene ran into his younger partner's room, only to find that Jim still hadn't been woken up by the noise the computer next to him was making. "Gill?"
"It's Jim, thank goodness you came!" Gilliam extended his small arms and flailed them about in panic. "My sensors are barely picking up any life signs for Jim!" he said loudly, his volume still on full. "And he's very cold!"
"What?!" Gene was immediately down at his partner's side, and soon realized that the boy was face down in his pillow. With sudden panic, Gene turned him over. He gasped as he realized that Jim's lips, cheeks, and even nose were all tinted blue. "What the hell?!" The outlaw quickly pulled the cold sheets off of the boy, lifted him into his arms, and gently set him on the floor. "He's....he's not breathing GILL!" Gene subconsciously began stringing off profanities. "What the hell do I DO?!" he yelled, causing the computer to wave his arms even more.
"I believe it is called resuscitation!" Gilliam searched through his memory banks. "Yes...CPR!"
Everything was starting to come back to Gene. His father had tried to teach him CPR when he was still very young, but the outlaw had never really paid much attention. Now, as his partner lay dying before him, Gene wished he had listened more.
"What....what do I do?"
"You compress his chest!" Gilliam informed him loudly, trying his best to keep calm.
Gene did as he was told, pushing down as hard as he could on Jim's small ribs. He only hoped that what he was doing helped more than hurt the boy.
"NOW WHAT?!" Gene yelled, pushing down three or four times. "Tell me what to do!"
"Now, you need to breathe for him!" The computer waved his arms. "Give him air!"
Gene recalled everything his father used to say: breath once, push five. Or was it more?
"All right, buddy, hang in there," the outlaw whispered. He closed his mouth around his partner's icy cold lips, and forced as much air as he could into the boy. Then he proceeded to compress his chest again
"It's not working Gill, HE ISN'T WAKING UP!" Gene was panicking now. His partner, his best friend, was dying in his arms and what he was doing seemed to have no affect on the boy. "NO, JIM!" Gene shook the boy violently, but Jim remained still, his eyes shut tightly.
"Just keep doing CPR!" Gilliam shrieked.
"I...." Gene shook his head, and tried to calm down. He was shaking now, but despite this fact he once again bent over his partner and began forcing more air into his lungs. Just as he was about to start more chest compressions, Jim began to gasp for breath, the boy's whole body racking with every cough.
"JIM!" Gene pulled his partner up off of the floor and into his warm arms. He noticed that Jim, despite the fact that he was breathing again, was still unconscious. "Hey now, settle down," he whispered to no one in particular. The words were directed at the boy lying in his arms, but since he was not awake it seemed more like he was reassuring himself. "Everything's going to be okay..."
"Gene!" The outlaw whirled around at the sound of Naomi's voice. She was standing at the doorway, her beautiful gray eyes filled with tears. "What...what are you doing?!" It seemed to Gene that what the girl had said was more of a demand than a question, and he blinked in surprise.
"I....Jim wasn't breathing...Gilliam called me down here and I found him like this." For a second the outlaw thought he saw anger flash through Naomi's eyes as she glanced over at Gilliam, but he dismissed the idea. The poor girl was probably just tired from being woken up so early.
"What....why wasn't he breathing?" Gene looked up at her. His girlfriend seemed so awake and alert...had she really just woken up?
"He....I found his face buried in his pillow. I think it was sort of like a crib death..." The outlaw thought about what he was saying. A crib death? At Jim's age? First of all, Jim was eleven years old. How could something like this happen? His partner was too smart, too mature, to fall asleep face down...so how could this be the reason for him almost suffocating?
"And....and is he all right?" Gene snapped out of his string of thought, and concentrated again on the girl standing before him.
"I think he will be." The outlaw rose to his feet, holding Jim close to his chest, and headed for the stairs.
"Where are you going? Gene?!"
"I'm taking Jim upstairs to my room to keep an eye on him for the rest of the night. He should probably see a doctor, but right now..." Gene paused. "Not right now," he finished. "He'll be okay." With that, the outlaw went upstairs and straight to his room.
~*~*~*~
Naomi watched silently from the door as her Gene lay the little boy gently down into his bed. She had failed, but worse than that was the fact that she had failed in her most important mission, and the brat remained alive. But wasn't her Gene the one who brought him back? Jim Hawking would have died if it weren't for the outlaw. However, Naomi decided that she wouldn't blame the man, after all she would have done the same thing if it had been her best friend that was dying. But then again, she didn't have any best friends, now did she?
Naomi couldn't believe what Gene was doing now....he was actually comforting the boy. She watched in utter disgust as he tucked her former victim in, making sure that the boy was warm and just perfectly laying beneath the sheets. She shook her head, millions of thoughts going through her mind. Her Gene had NEVER tucked her in like that. He had never done anything like what he was doing for this boy to Naomi. Sure, he had loved her and kissed her, but he had never been so gentle, so...so what? What was it that the outlaw was giving to this unconscious boy, that he had never given to her? Was it the undying bond that the two shared? Was it the fact that they had been together so long, and, even though the two shared more of a brotherly relationship, they were closer than her and Gene?
No. No...my Gene told me himself that he loved me, that he would never leave. I...I told him everything, he has to love me more than anything else in his life...HE TOLD ME SO! Tears now began to fall down Naomi's cheeks, creating large wet splotches on her night shirt. As Gene approached her, she quickly wiped them away.
"What's the matter, Nai?"
Naomi couldn't help but smile. Nai...it had been Gene's pet name for her ever since the other night, and it reassured her troubled mind that he was still calling her by it.
"Nothing, Gene...I was...just worried that Jim was seriously hurt, that's all." She kissed him gently on the cheek before turning and heading quickly for her room.
~*~*~*~
Gene stayed in bed that morning for a long time, pondering what had happened that night. Something was wrong with what had happened to Jim, but the outlaw couldn't quite tell what it was.
Looking over at the still boy next to him, he ran the night's events through his mind, carefully analyzing everything as he went. First he had heard Gilliam's loud, shrill voice calling him. Gene had gone downstairs into Jim's room, and had discovered that the boy wasn't breathing. Then he had performed CPR, and revived his partner. Everything seemed so normal as he replayed them over and over in his head. Well, not normal, but nothing seemed strange about it. However, the uneasy feeling in his stomach remained, even after the outlaw had decided to forget about it all.
"Dammit what am I missing?!" Gene yelled out loud, causing Jim to murmur quietly next to him. Even the sounds of Naomi washing the dishes paused for a moment....and that's when it hit the outlaw. Naomi... His girlfriend had been with him, at the end after Jim had started breathing again. He had almost forgotten about her. The girl had been so unusually calm...
Naomi...she seemed so awake... Gene recalled how alert she had been, how awake....as if she had already been up. Of course, she had probably woken up after Gilliam started shrieking, but why hadn't she come down earlier?
Then another image pushed its way into his mind. The anger in her eyes...Gene was sure he had seen it. The emotion had been quick, but it had been there. He was sure of it.
What am I doing? Gene thought. Am I blaming Nai for what happened to Jim? It couldn't have been her...could it? No, Jim was the one who disliked her, it wasn't the other way around. Naomi was always nice to him, I have never seen her show any dislike for him. But, if I'm so sure it wasn't her, then why was she the first person to come to mind?
To be continued...
*Okay, I know that chapter was short...but at least y'all now know that my Jimmy-kun is still alive! It looks as if Gene is getting a bit smarter, now donit? He was being pretty blind there for a while...but I won't say anymore. Thanks to those who reviewed! I am really happy that so many people are enjoying this fic! THANKS!