(I planned to have this chapter posted a bit earlier than this before I returned to my ordinary schedule, buuuuuut… I kind of lost all of the notes I had for it so it's a bit rushed, a bit short and a bit improvised. Sorry about that! Maybe we can just say that it's a filler chapter and everyone will be happy anyway?)

Var har du varit? Som jag har längtad efter dig…

Where have you been? How I have longed after you… (or something like that)


Chapter 29

Gigi

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

She has no idea how long it's been since she sat down next to his bed, but the ticking of the clock is slowly driving her insane. Her eyes have grown familiar to the darkness in the room, her mind to the calmness it emits. She feels at peace, even though the annoying clock hasn't run out of batteries yet.

Closing her eyes with a sigh, she takes a deep breath, trying to clear her mind as she thinks back over the day, all of the small parts of it that lead up to this very moment. What exactly happened? What would've happened if she hadn't gone to school earlier than her sisters? What if they had gone with her, making it to the bus in time? What would've happened then, if all three of them had seen Double-D like that in the hallway? Would she have been watching from afar, laughing at him with her sisters? Would they have gotten themselves involved in some way and just made things worse? Or would she have run towards him to help him like she did? Would she have abandoned the Kanker way and left her sisters behind to do what she thought would be the right thing to do, even if she knew they'd be there watching, judging her? Would she have been brave enough to face them afterwards? Putting her hands over her face, she knows what she wants the answer to be, but she also knows that it wouldn't be the truth. Pathetic, I know. Truly a sad case, and to think she's supposed to be a Kanker. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous! Just who do you think you are? What are you doing Marie?

"Mm…M?" A soft voice she recognizes sound in the darkness. She removes her hands from her face and stares into the dark, searching for the face of the one she cares about. "Mm-Me…"

"Edd?" She answers, not really sure what his reaction is going to be, hearing her voice in a dark room like this.

His movement sound loudly in the room, his mind not entirely sure if his eyes are closed still or if it's just really dark around him. Looking around he soon spots a figure in the dark. His vision is blurry from what he can tell and his mind feels fuzzy for some reason, but he's pretty certain that the being before him with a sort of blue tinted hue to its head is none other than Marie Kanker. "M…Marie?" He asks.

"Y-yeah… it's me." Marie answers him. Her voice sound unsure of something. Is she worried about something?

"Wh…" He's starts speaking, about to ask her what's wrong, when he realizes something else that needs answering; where are they? From what he can remember he was being taken to the school nurse's office, but this doesn't look like the nurse's office. A frown adorns his face and he gets ready to get up. "Wh-where ar-?" Sitting up as he speaks, his head punishes him for moving too fast much too soon. Placing a hand on his forehead to sooth the pain, he feels how he slowly sinks back into the bed again and soon enough there's a hand on his shoulder, guiding him back to where he once laid no doubt. Looking up at the being, I mean; Marie, he finds that she has moved closer than she was earlier. One hand holding onto his shoulder and the other ready to assist if so would be necessary. Her eyes are not focused on him… in a way… they're focused on her grip on him, focused on helping him lie down again. With his hand still on his forehead, he can't help but watch her for a moment as she holds him steady. It's… it's kind of a weird but refreshing experience; not having to be afraid of a Kanker. "M-Marie?" He says, attempting to ask her again, now that his head is calming down with the pain treatment.

"Yeah?" She answers, still focused on the task at hand to keep him steady, but then she snaps out of it and look up at him, meeting his gaze. Her whole demeanor is different. "Wh-what is it?" She asks, sounding rather unsure, or even scared. Not very Kanker like if he has to say so.

He takes a moment to ask his question, still trying to determine where he is by himself. It sort of feel familiar, but he's not sure why. "Where are we?"

"Home." She says. "Well… your home."

He's silent for a moment. Processing the things he just heard. What did she just tell him? "I'm… home…?" He asks, almost sounding delirious as he speaks. "Why… why am I home?"

She holds her breath before she says anything. The tone he suddenly got while speaking tells her that she might be about to see and understand why Mel wanted someone to stick around and keep an eye on him; that the whole thing she told her about him trying to run away from home and back to school wasn't a joke… but rather something that's happened before?

"You got sick, remember?" She tells him, starting slowly and strong, using the one trump card that no one could ever question. "We took you to the nurse and she told us that we cou-Should take you home, so… so we did." She gulps for but a second before she continues. "We're in Mel's bedroom now."

The silence that follows is almost impossible to bear. It keeps pushing her to the edge of the seat, as if it's trying to get her ready to spring into action, that she's only got one shot stop whatever's about to happen. He's questioning her trump card, isn't he?

Without a word he flies out of bed; throwing the blanket away from him, his legs over the edge of the bed and as soon as his feet touch the floor he's running for the door – or so he thinks.

Though she was sitting on the edge of her seat, assuming herself ready for what was to happen, she clearly was caught off guard and thus lost a good amount of seconds that would've been crucial in stopping him… that is, had the wall not done it for her. It would seem that the layout of their bedrooms are different, meaning the location of the door from where the bed is, is different in Mel's room than it is from what Edd is used to in his room – and thus, with a loud bang that can be heard across the hall to Edd's own bedroom where Mel currently is, scratching her head as she wonders if the sound was from something she did by accident or something else, Edd falls to the floor after having face planted the wall. And after Marie manages to locate the light switch to turn the lights on in the room once more, all she can do is look at the boy that holds her heart in the palm of his hand, lying on the floor while she herself shakes her head at him.

"Edd…" She sighs and walks up to his form on the floor. Grabbing his arm to pull him up, she's surprised to find that it's not as easy as she first thought it would be; He's resisting!

"Marie." He says from the floor, his voice coated in a tone that speaks nothing but seriousness. "I am going back to school. Though I appreciate you going out of your way to help me, I simply cannot allow myself to stay home from school. I have to make sure nothing happens to my perfect attendance record."

Looking down at him whilst holding onto his arm, seeing the serious expression on his face, the serious stare he gives her from lying on his back on the floor with his beanie just about ready to fall off and a mighty fine bruised nose that's probably going to start bleeding at any second now, there's only one thing, one word that she can tell him. "No."

He blinks at her, his expression remaining the same. "Marie."

"No." She says, shaking her head.

"Marie!" He frowns now. "I cannot stress this enough; let me go to school this instance."

"Nope." She smacks with her lips and starts pulling his arm, dragging him across the floor towards the bed. "You're going to bed."

"Marie! Let me go!" Tugging as hard as he can on his own arm, he tries his best to wreck his brain to come up with an idea – anything – that will aid him in this situation, if it's so just to distract her for a moment. And then the light bulb appears. "Maria!" He calls out, his voice nearly reaching falsetto. Success! Marie stops in her tracks, and just as they reached the bed! He can already feel her grip weakening.

"What'd you call me?!" She asks, her face a few shades redder than it was before. He doesn't answer her; he simply takes the chance at hand and pulls his arm out her grip. Hurrying up from the floor, he's just about to run for the door when Marie throws herself at him, tackling him back down to the floor with another loud bang that confuses Mel for a second. She pauses the cleaning once again and simply stands in the middle of Edd's room, listening. Another few sounds can be heard before a rather clear but muffled "Edd!" can be heard through the walls. Ah – he's awake.

Unable to fight the chuckle that escapes her, Mel returns to cleaning the organized yet messy wardrobe, piling all of the clothes on the floor. As long as Marie does her part and makes sure Edd doesn't get out of the room both of them should be okay – she hopes.


Song: Gigi – Kent

Yeah… it's kind of short. Again; sorry about that. The next chapter will (hopefully) be on time according to my usual uploading schedule. I just really wanted to post one extra to make up for my little "break" that I didn't really want to take in the first place.