Not Mine, Honest. Shame though.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Jim had remained holding Aisha, gently rocking her until the authorities arrived. None of the other patrons had come any closer than 10 feet, but it was soon evident that one of them had made a call to the emergency services. As the police ran through the door the crowd parted to allow them access to the pair on the floor. The police ran up to Aisha and Jim and pointed their guns at them.
"Put your hands up now, Scumbag!" Jim turned and shot the cop a look of such intense pain and anger, that the man took a step back.
"Um officer, it was these guys who saved us," the manager of the restaurant said, "they were the ones who had tried to rob us." He pointed in the direction of the corpses. It was then that the ambulance crew arrived. They eventually managed to get Jim to let go of her, and get the C'tarl C'tarl into the van but not without allowing Jim to ride along next to her.
******************************************************
Upon reaching the hospital, Aisha was immediately rushed to the emergency room, Jim was grabbed by one of the orderlies and given a bunch of forms to fill out. At first Jim had refused but once it was pointed out that they would be unable to carry out treatment until he agreed to fill them in. Most of them were relatively basic information. Species, Blood Type, Age, Gender, Allegies etc, but it was when Jim reached that he first saw a problem. He needed to be able to pay the hospital bills but the amount of cash he had access to at that point in time was no where near enough to pay the fee. That left only one place left to try. Walking over to the Vid-phone Jim dialed a familiar number.
The face on the screen showed an expression of curiousity before it broke out into a broad grin of recognition.
"AH JIM! How are today? You look so handsome in that suit, I knew that you would."
"Hello Fred" Jim said with a tone of resignation in his voice, which Fred completely missed.
"What can i do for you today?"
"I need to borrow some money Fred, someone's been hurt and i need some cash to pay the medical bills" A look of horror flashed over the billionaire's face.
"It's not Gene is it?"
Jim, sighed. "No Fred it's not Gene, its Aisha. Please we really do need this money" Fred looked thoughtful for a few seconds, as if there was a new development he had just been made aware of.
"Ok Jim, I'll lend you it this time. I'm sending you details of an account you can use." Jim's face broke out into a smile "give Aisha my best Jim...." with that Fred hung up, a small smile on his face..
Picking the forms up, Jim began to fill in the final pages with the information Fred had given him. Gathering the papers the hacker walked up to the reception area and handed them over to the girl working there. He stood at the counter waiting for her to finish putting the data into the hospital's records.
"Excuse me? Are you the one who came in with the Female C'tarl C'tarl?" Jim turned to the man.
"Is she ok? What has happened to her?"
"I think that you should follow me." Jim fealt a pit forming in the middle of his stomach. Steeling himself he followed the docter into the room but he wasn't prepared for the sight that met him.
The room was your basic hospital private room, a bed, chair next to it, monitoring equipment. He'd seen rooms like it plenty of times, when Gene would get injured, but what he saw before him was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Aisha was lying on the bed, a resperator fastened to her face. Someone had removed the tattered remains of the dress she had been wearing earlier and a hospial gown had been put in place. An IV tube had been stuck in her arm and a moniter to the left of her was monitering her heart beat. Across her forehead had been wrapped a piece of white gauze as a bandage. Jim felt his heart catch in his throat at the sight of her. The doctor began explaining what had happened to her.
"She is suffereing from S.I.S, Secondary Impact Syndrome. It occurs when one is affected by another concussion while still under the effects of a previous head injury."
"She hit the wall..."
"Sorry?"
"After the missile hit her, she was thrown into the wall at the other side of the restaurant." Jim's voice sounded like it was going to break into sobs at any moment.
The docter nodded "That would likely be the cause of it. It often causes the victim to fall into a coma."
"How long will she be like this?"
"It's not a fixed time, it could be a couple of days, weeks, sometimes even years." The docter watched for Jim's reaction. Seeing that none was coming he said: "I'll leave you alone" and walked out of the door, shutting it behind him.
Jim staggered over to the bed and burried his face into the sheets.
"Oh Aisha...." he said, as the tears began to flow freely.
*********************************************************
When he awoke the next morning he found that it wasn't him and Aisha alone in the room anymore. In another chair on the other side of the bed was Suzuka, meditating.
"Suzuka? What are you doing here?"
"The hospital contacted the ship this morning, I thought it would be best if I came down here as soon as possible" Jim nodded in acceptance, he then turned to look back at the comatose girl next to him.
"I am sure that she will soon awake Jim."
"Yeah...."
"We have seen her take worse hits before."
"Yeah...." Suzuka sighed. It seemed that any further attempts to cheer up the boy would be futile. Attempting to start a new line of conversation the ex-assasin said:
"I've sent a message to the hotels in the area Gene went to, they promised to pass the message on when they next see him"
"Thanks..." Jim's eyes had still not left Aisha's face. Suzuka stood up and made her exit from the door.
******************************************************************
Suzuka was extremely troubled by the boy's reaction. She had seen Jim go through enough to make grown men crumble and still stay strong but this, this looked like it may break him.
"Miss....." The docter checked his chart "Suzuka. I assume you are here to pick Mr Hawking up?"
"No. I think that Jim would rather stay here, if it is all the same thank you."
"I asure you that would be completely impossible. Company policy strictly prohibits that"
A small smile crossed her lips. "I think it would be in your own personal interests if you allowed him too stay, if you catch my drift"
"Are you threatening me madam?" The docter said pulling himself up to his full height.
"Not at all. However i do think that my student would be most annoyed if you tried to remove him from that room. Incidentally did you happen to see those three mecha pirates who attacked the restaurant?"
"No."
"Pitty, I was hoping to see the results of how he handled himself." With that the Raven haired woman walked towards the entrance of the building leaving the docter gawping in her wake.
***************************************************************
Jim sat there, Aisha's right hand held in his left, raising his other he brushed a few stray strands away from her face. Since the docter had come in and given him his permission to stay there with her earlier in the day, most of the hospital staff had been really friendly and sympathetic to the blonde hacker.
"C'mon Aisha. You can get through this, I know you can." In a much smaller voice he said "I need you to. If it wasn't for you i would have probably gone crazy years ago. Do you remember back on the grave of the dragon just before the Mcdougals attacked? I was gettin a feeling a bit angry that Gene was acting like an ass and had stormed off on my own. You came after me to try an' cheer me up. That was the first time you told me i needed to lay off the constant worrying. You're always lookin out for me, I just can't work out why you care so much, about someone like me." As these words left his mouth Jim fell asleep, his head soon hitting the pillow next to her.
******************************************************************
"Hey kid." Turning to the doorway Jim saw Gene standing there wearing what looked like a suit
"Gene" Jim simply said before restarting his vigil. The redhead strode over and took a seat next to Jim.
"How're you doin' Jim?"
"I'm ok Gene, its Aisha I'm more worried about?" Gene adopted a more relaxed posture and leaned back into the chair.
"Y'know, I'm not"
"What?" A touch of anger had krept into Jim's voice and his eyes narrowed.
"Now don't get the wrong idea," Gene said making a 'calm down' gesture with his hands. " I care about Aisha as much as the next guy, all I'm saying is that Aisha is the strongest woman in the galaxy, and that's official. You think she's going to let something as little as a concussion keep her away from us? Nah Aisha's stronger than that, she'll be back, you know she will." It seemed like Gene's speech had cheered Jim up no-end and it actually seemed like he was smiling for the first time in a few days.
"Listen Jim, I've got a bit of buisness to take care of and I'll be gone for a couple of days." He handed Jim a bag that he'd brought in with him "Suzuka packed these for you, it's just a few changes of clothes and stuff." The outlaw stood and walked to the door. "I'll see you in a few days ok?"
"Yeah Gene. Thanks" Jim said with a smile.
"No problem kid" With that Gene shut the door and began walking down the corridor. "I might care about Aisha as much as the next guy but you, you care about her a hell of a lot more" he mused.
*********************************************************************
It had been two weeks since the accident and there had still been no change in Aisha's condition. After Jim had stayed there for a week, barely leaving the room, the docters relented and brought a cot into the room for him to use, even so it was rare for Jim not to fall asleep in the chair next to Aisha.
The others had been round several times over the past weeks stopping by and sitting with the pair for a few hours at a time. On a table on the far wall were a series of gifts. An outrageous bouquet of flowers had been a gift from Fred and next was a large cake which had been baked by Melfina. Inbetween the two was a card. On the inside it said:
"Dear Aisha
Get well soon
Gene, Melfina and Suzu."
Jim's head swung around as heard the door open. Standing in the doorway was Suzuka holding a black carry-all.
"Has there been any change today Jim?"
"No not yet Suzuka" Moving silently Suzuka walked over to the other chair in the room.
"I have something for you." Reaching into the bad she pulled out Jim's visor and simu-gloves and placed them in Jim's lap.
"Suzuka-"
"Before you interupt Jim, I want you to listen to me. You need to take some time off, you're worrying yourself to death and that isn't helping you or Aisha" Jim looked down at the floor.
"But-"
"I completely am serious Jim, I'm not leaving here until i see you put this on. I know you care about Aisha but she wouldn't want you to pull yourself apart over this would she?"
"No....."
"Besides don't you think that.....What was her name again? Your friend?"
"Odana"
"Don't you think that Odana will be worried about where you have been for the past few weeks?"
"Yeah you're right. Thanks Suzuka." Suzuka smiled at her student. "I shall leave you then." As Suzuka walked through the door, Jim began suiting up. Taking one last at the girl beside him, Jim snapped the visor down and prepared to enter Illusia once again.
***************************************************************
Hayth pushed open the door of the cottage and scanned around the interior
"Odana! You in here?" The Knight yelled. Receiving no answer he began to search for her. There was no sign of her inside the structure or outside in the fields next to it. Wearing a puzzled expression Hayth began walking up to the portal which would take him to the main area of the game.
***********************************************************
"Albion!" Hayth walked up to the blue and silver clad man who was standing in the town square.
"Hayth, long time no see, how've you been?"
"Not that good. I've had a real world 'mergency so haven't been on in a while. I'm trying to find Odana, have you seen her around?"
"Odana? I thought she was with you?"
"What?"
"Yeah, the last time i saw her was when you both came to me asking about the hall of the ogre king."
"So she's not been to seen you at all?"
"No, sorry man"
"Alright, thanks anyway Albion"
***********************************************************
Hayth thrust his blade into the demon's corpse and raised a hand to wipe his brow, ignoring the stares of the other players who were looking at him as if they'd seen a ghost. He'd checked with all of the people that both he and Odana knew and none of them had seen any sign of her in the past two weeks and there were no messages which had been left for him. Hayth wasn't sure what to make of this whether she was busy or had decided to stop playing the game completely.
Not sure of what to do he had decided to work out his frustrations on some of the biggest things he could find. In the past two hours he had cleared out about five dungeons, ignoring any and all other players who had tried to talk to him. Anyone who say him fight was shocked at the vicousness and savagry with which the previous friend ly and helpful knight attacked his enemies.
By the end of the night, one of the most talked about topics being chatted about was the change in Hayth's attitude and what had caused such a massive conversion.
*************************************************************
With a sigh, Jim pulled the visor off ant threw it into the bag Suzuka had brought with her earlier.
"I don't get it Aisha, why is everything going wrong. First this happens to you and now it feels like Odana has quit without even saying goodbye" He tossed the gloves into the bag on top of the visor. He turned to look at her, his eye's narrowing in saddness. "I miss you Aisha. I need you to wake up....Please" with that Jim's eyes slowly closed as he fell asleep, his head resting next to Aisha.
************************************************************
Jim awoke to the feeling of someone stroking his hair. Looking up he saw a pair of Aqua coloured yes gazing down into his.
"Hey....." Aisha said.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
I'm so gonna get a kicking for this. Hope everyone enjoyed this, and thanks to all the people who reviewed, glad you're all enjoying this.
Love and Peace
Nick.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Jim had remained holding Aisha, gently rocking her until the authorities arrived. None of the other patrons had come any closer than 10 feet, but it was soon evident that one of them had made a call to the emergency services. As the police ran through the door the crowd parted to allow them access to the pair on the floor. The police ran up to Aisha and Jim and pointed their guns at them.
"Put your hands up now, Scumbag!" Jim turned and shot the cop a look of such intense pain and anger, that the man took a step back.
"Um officer, it was these guys who saved us," the manager of the restaurant said, "they were the ones who had tried to rob us." He pointed in the direction of the corpses. It was then that the ambulance crew arrived. They eventually managed to get Jim to let go of her, and get the C'tarl C'tarl into the van but not without allowing Jim to ride along next to her.
******************************************************
Upon reaching the hospital, Aisha was immediately rushed to the emergency room, Jim was grabbed by one of the orderlies and given a bunch of forms to fill out. At first Jim had refused but once it was pointed out that they would be unable to carry out treatment until he agreed to fill them in. Most of them were relatively basic information. Species, Blood Type, Age, Gender, Allegies etc, but it was when Jim reached that he first saw a problem. He needed to be able to pay the hospital bills but the amount of cash he had access to at that point in time was no where near enough to pay the fee. That left only one place left to try. Walking over to the Vid-phone Jim dialed a familiar number.
The face on the screen showed an expression of curiousity before it broke out into a broad grin of recognition.
"AH JIM! How are today? You look so handsome in that suit, I knew that you would."
"Hello Fred" Jim said with a tone of resignation in his voice, which Fred completely missed.
"What can i do for you today?"
"I need to borrow some money Fred, someone's been hurt and i need some cash to pay the medical bills" A look of horror flashed over the billionaire's face.
"It's not Gene is it?"
Jim, sighed. "No Fred it's not Gene, its Aisha. Please we really do need this money" Fred looked thoughtful for a few seconds, as if there was a new development he had just been made aware of.
"Ok Jim, I'll lend you it this time. I'm sending you details of an account you can use." Jim's face broke out into a smile "give Aisha my best Jim...." with that Fred hung up, a small smile on his face..
Picking the forms up, Jim began to fill in the final pages with the information Fred had given him. Gathering the papers the hacker walked up to the reception area and handed them over to the girl working there. He stood at the counter waiting for her to finish putting the data into the hospital's records.
"Excuse me? Are you the one who came in with the Female C'tarl C'tarl?" Jim turned to the man.
"Is she ok? What has happened to her?"
"I think that you should follow me." Jim fealt a pit forming in the middle of his stomach. Steeling himself he followed the docter into the room but he wasn't prepared for the sight that met him.
The room was your basic hospital private room, a bed, chair next to it, monitoring equipment. He'd seen rooms like it plenty of times, when Gene would get injured, but what he saw before him was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Aisha was lying on the bed, a resperator fastened to her face. Someone had removed the tattered remains of the dress she had been wearing earlier and a hospial gown had been put in place. An IV tube had been stuck in her arm and a moniter to the left of her was monitering her heart beat. Across her forehead had been wrapped a piece of white gauze as a bandage. Jim felt his heart catch in his throat at the sight of her. The doctor began explaining what had happened to her.
"She is suffereing from S.I.S, Secondary Impact Syndrome. It occurs when one is affected by another concussion while still under the effects of a previous head injury."
"She hit the wall..."
"Sorry?"
"After the missile hit her, she was thrown into the wall at the other side of the restaurant." Jim's voice sounded like it was going to break into sobs at any moment.
The docter nodded "That would likely be the cause of it. It often causes the victim to fall into a coma."
"How long will she be like this?"
"It's not a fixed time, it could be a couple of days, weeks, sometimes even years." The docter watched for Jim's reaction. Seeing that none was coming he said: "I'll leave you alone" and walked out of the door, shutting it behind him.
Jim staggered over to the bed and burried his face into the sheets.
"Oh Aisha...." he said, as the tears began to flow freely.
*********************************************************
When he awoke the next morning he found that it wasn't him and Aisha alone in the room anymore. In another chair on the other side of the bed was Suzuka, meditating.
"Suzuka? What are you doing here?"
"The hospital contacted the ship this morning, I thought it would be best if I came down here as soon as possible" Jim nodded in acceptance, he then turned to look back at the comatose girl next to him.
"I am sure that she will soon awake Jim."
"Yeah...."
"We have seen her take worse hits before."
"Yeah...." Suzuka sighed. It seemed that any further attempts to cheer up the boy would be futile. Attempting to start a new line of conversation the ex-assasin said:
"I've sent a message to the hotels in the area Gene went to, they promised to pass the message on when they next see him"
"Thanks..." Jim's eyes had still not left Aisha's face. Suzuka stood up and made her exit from the door.
******************************************************************
Suzuka was extremely troubled by the boy's reaction. She had seen Jim go through enough to make grown men crumble and still stay strong but this, this looked like it may break him.
"Miss....." The docter checked his chart "Suzuka. I assume you are here to pick Mr Hawking up?"
"No. I think that Jim would rather stay here, if it is all the same thank you."
"I asure you that would be completely impossible. Company policy strictly prohibits that"
A small smile crossed her lips. "I think it would be in your own personal interests if you allowed him too stay, if you catch my drift"
"Are you threatening me madam?" The docter said pulling himself up to his full height.
"Not at all. However i do think that my student would be most annoyed if you tried to remove him from that room. Incidentally did you happen to see those three mecha pirates who attacked the restaurant?"
"No."
"Pitty, I was hoping to see the results of how he handled himself." With that the Raven haired woman walked towards the entrance of the building leaving the docter gawping in her wake.
***************************************************************
Jim sat there, Aisha's right hand held in his left, raising his other he brushed a few stray strands away from her face. Since the docter had come in and given him his permission to stay there with her earlier in the day, most of the hospital staff had been really friendly and sympathetic to the blonde hacker.
"C'mon Aisha. You can get through this, I know you can." In a much smaller voice he said "I need you to. If it wasn't for you i would have probably gone crazy years ago. Do you remember back on the grave of the dragon just before the Mcdougals attacked? I was gettin a feeling a bit angry that Gene was acting like an ass and had stormed off on my own. You came after me to try an' cheer me up. That was the first time you told me i needed to lay off the constant worrying. You're always lookin out for me, I just can't work out why you care so much, about someone like me." As these words left his mouth Jim fell asleep, his head soon hitting the pillow next to her.
******************************************************************
"Hey kid." Turning to the doorway Jim saw Gene standing there wearing what looked like a suit
"Gene" Jim simply said before restarting his vigil. The redhead strode over and took a seat next to Jim.
"How're you doin' Jim?"
"I'm ok Gene, its Aisha I'm more worried about?" Gene adopted a more relaxed posture and leaned back into the chair.
"Y'know, I'm not"
"What?" A touch of anger had krept into Jim's voice and his eyes narrowed.
"Now don't get the wrong idea," Gene said making a 'calm down' gesture with his hands. " I care about Aisha as much as the next guy, all I'm saying is that Aisha is the strongest woman in the galaxy, and that's official. You think she's going to let something as little as a concussion keep her away from us? Nah Aisha's stronger than that, she'll be back, you know she will." It seemed like Gene's speech had cheered Jim up no-end and it actually seemed like he was smiling for the first time in a few days.
"Listen Jim, I've got a bit of buisness to take care of and I'll be gone for a couple of days." He handed Jim a bag that he'd brought in with him "Suzuka packed these for you, it's just a few changes of clothes and stuff." The outlaw stood and walked to the door. "I'll see you in a few days ok?"
"Yeah Gene. Thanks" Jim said with a smile.
"No problem kid" With that Gene shut the door and began walking down the corridor. "I might care about Aisha as much as the next guy but you, you care about her a hell of a lot more" he mused.
*********************************************************************
It had been two weeks since the accident and there had still been no change in Aisha's condition. After Jim had stayed there for a week, barely leaving the room, the docters relented and brought a cot into the room for him to use, even so it was rare for Jim not to fall asleep in the chair next to Aisha.
The others had been round several times over the past weeks stopping by and sitting with the pair for a few hours at a time. On a table on the far wall were a series of gifts. An outrageous bouquet of flowers had been a gift from Fred and next was a large cake which had been baked by Melfina. Inbetween the two was a card. On the inside it said:
"Dear Aisha
Get well soon
Gene, Melfina and Suzu."
Jim's head swung around as heard the door open. Standing in the doorway was Suzuka holding a black carry-all.
"Has there been any change today Jim?"
"No not yet Suzuka" Moving silently Suzuka walked over to the other chair in the room.
"I have something for you." Reaching into the bad she pulled out Jim's visor and simu-gloves and placed them in Jim's lap.
"Suzuka-"
"Before you interupt Jim, I want you to listen to me. You need to take some time off, you're worrying yourself to death and that isn't helping you or Aisha" Jim looked down at the floor.
"But-"
"I completely am serious Jim, I'm not leaving here until i see you put this on. I know you care about Aisha but she wouldn't want you to pull yourself apart over this would she?"
"No....."
"Besides don't you think that.....What was her name again? Your friend?"
"Odana"
"Don't you think that Odana will be worried about where you have been for the past few weeks?"
"Yeah you're right. Thanks Suzuka." Suzuka smiled at her student. "I shall leave you then." As Suzuka walked through the door, Jim began suiting up. Taking one last at the girl beside him, Jim snapped the visor down and prepared to enter Illusia once again.
***************************************************************
Hayth pushed open the door of the cottage and scanned around the interior
"Odana! You in here?" The Knight yelled. Receiving no answer he began to search for her. There was no sign of her inside the structure or outside in the fields next to it. Wearing a puzzled expression Hayth began walking up to the portal which would take him to the main area of the game.
***********************************************************
"Albion!" Hayth walked up to the blue and silver clad man who was standing in the town square.
"Hayth, long time no see, how've you been?"
"Not that good. I've had a real world 'mergency so haven't been on in a while. I'm trying to find Odana, have you seen her around?"
"Odana? I thought she was with you?"
"What?"
"Yeah, the last time i saw her was when you both came to me asking about the hall of the ogre king."
"So she's not been to seen you at all?"
"No, sorry man"
"Alright, thanks anyway Albion"
***********************************************************
Hayth thrust his blade into the demon's corpse and raised a hand to wipe his brow, ignoring the stares of the other players who were looking at him as if they'd seen a ghost. He'd checked with all of the people that both he and Odana knew and none of them had seen any sign of her in the past two weeks and there were no messages which had been left for him. Hayth wasn't sure what to make of this whether she was busy or had decided to stop playing the game completely.
Not sure of what to do he had decided to work out his frustrations on some of the biggest things he could find. In the past two hours he had cleared out about five dungeons, ignoring any and all other players who had tried to talk to him. Anyone who say him fight was shocked at the vicousness and savagry with which the previous friend ly and helpful knight attacked his enemies.
By the end of the night, one of the most talked about topics being chatted about was the change in Hayth's attitude and what had caused such a massive conversion.
*************************************************************
With a sigh, Jim pulled the visor off ant threw it into the bag Suzuka had brought with her earlier.
"I don't get it Aisha, why is everything going wrong. First this happens to you and now it feels like Odana has quit without even saying goodbye" He tossed the gloves into the bag on top of the visor. He turned to look at her, his eye's narrowing in saddness. "I miss you Aisha. I need you to wake up....Please" with that Jim's eyes slowly closed as he fell asleep, his head resting next to Aisha.
************************************************************
Jim awoke to the feeling of someone stroking his hair. Looking up he saw a pair of Aqua coloured yes gazing down into his.
"Hey....." Aisha said.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
I'm so gonna get a kicking for this. Hope everyone enjoyed this, and thanks to all the people who reviewed, glad you're all enjoying this.
Love and Peace
Nick.
