Chapter 8: Home…

Squall blinked to find himself holding Marianne, on a bed. She was stirring. Her eyes slowly opened as Squall looked and saw that they were in a hospital room. Marianne's hospital room! Her eyes slowly opened. "Ow, ow, OW…" she moaned as Squall got off the bed. He was crushing her already hurt chest a little. It even hurt her to sit up. "Wha…? Am I back?" When she looked in front of her, she noticed a group of familiar faces. They were confused as to what was going on. Squall hadn't noticed them, but stared down at her, in words beyond description of how shocked he looked. A tear had fallen from his eye, stricken scared on how pale and awful Marianne had looked. She looked toward him, as he held onto her hand. "Squall, behind you…" she said as Squall looked, slowly turning his head. The group he knew as his friends stood facing him. And two more people arrived. Seifer and Edea. They were shocked, and showed no signs of evil.

"Squall!" all of his friends exclaimed at once. A nurse peeked into the room from behind all of Squall's friends, and then walked off to tell the doctor. This took Squall back by surprise as he saw his old comrades. "What the hell happened man?! It was like one minute we were going to defeat the sorceress and Seifer, and then you were gone!" A young man with a black tattoo on his face had called out. He looked really spooked. Marianne recognized Zell Dincht and the others right away. "This is all happening so fast. Squall, what is going on?" Quistis Trepe demanded, holding her head, which was swimming in confusion. Squall looked back to Marianne as she told him softly, "Tell them…" Squall wiped the lingering tear from his cheek and took a deep breath…

After about a while, Squall had finished telling about Marianne and the truth about the world where he and his friends came from. About the planet. Cleo. Blade Slater. Everything that happened to him. There were tons of questions, but everything was answered, by Squall. Marianne just observed everyone's actions. It then grew quiet. Squall looked back toward his newest friend, Marianne. "You look…awful." he told her, still frightened by the sight of her. She was fine when he first met her, and now… "Am I dreaming this or is this really happening?" Rinoa had to ask herself as she stood on the other side of Marianne's hospital bed, looking down at her pale face, and swollen eyes and bottom lip. "It's real," she whispered to her. "It's all real." It was Zell's turn to step up to her. "Hey Zell, what's up dude?" Marianne said, trying to smile over the agonized pain, but that was unsuccessful. Seifer came up and stood behind him. Marianne didn't say anything to him. Squall didn't either. No one spoke to him. "What? Can't I care too?!" Seifer snapped, annoyed of all the tension. "He's back to normal…" Rinoa said as Seifer was confused. "What?!" he nearly shrieked. Marianne reached for Zell's hand, tears in her eyes. Zell took it, and held onto it. "I'd like to punch that driver's lights out…" he said. "I'd do the same." Squall agreed.

Marianne then was starting to get concerned about seeing her parents. Edea, not possessed by evil anymore, had volunteered to go to the lobby for her. "Poor thing!" Selphie cried to Marianne and frowned. "That driver doesn't even know how to treat a lady right," Irvine agreed, standing beside her. Squall never took his eyes off of her, and held her right hand in his, holding and caressing it gently. Rinoa Heartily was crying at the sight of her. She knelt down on the other side, across from Squall. Zell was on the left on Rinoa, in a chair. Quistis stood on the other side of her, silently letting the tears of sorrow for Marianne fall down her cheeks. Selphie and Irvine were standing side by side, to Squall's right. Seifer stood by the foot of the bed. "I see you took care of him okay." he said, talking about Squall. Marianne just nodded slowly and said in response, "Squall took care of me too." She looked toward who she was closest with out of the bunch. "I… I feel so sad for you, Marianne!!" Selphie said through her crying as Irvine wrapped his arms around her, comforting her.

The doctor came in to check up on her, and let her know about the surgery to fix up her crushed ribs. It went successful. Marianne nodded. "Are my mom and dad coming soon?" "They'll be here soon, yes." She smiled and shed happy tears, as Rinoa and Squall were reacting in the same way. Only Squall was much more quiet than Rinoa.

When Marianne's parents arrived, most of the group around her separated. "Let's go everyone." Squall said, as he stood. "She deserves some time alone with her parents." "Squall. Stay…please?" Marianne asked, never letting go of his hand. He nodded and stayed as the rest of the group had left. "Yo! Get well soon Marianne! Alright?" She snickered. Zell's a laugh riot… "Bye…" she called out as the others said their goodbyes.

Squall had stayed behind with Marianne to let her parents know about what happened with them during the past two and a half days. Marianne helped, letting them hear everything. In the end, Marianne embraced with her mom and dad, so happy to see them that she cried, and thanked them so much for the music, which comforted her and gave her hope in coming back. Marianne's father shook hands with Squall. "You're a good guy, Squall." he said. "She's a sweet person. She really is." Squall said, out of pure honesty. Directly from his heart. A little smile was shown on his face to the three of them.

Squall, and Marianne's parents stayed with her for a while, comforting her through the God awful pain she was experiencing, and kept on telling her that she'll be okay. Day by day, Squall, his pals, and other people Marianne recognized, besides her parents, came to see her. She had lots of gifts. Loads of get well cards, some balloons, a cute bear from Selphie, some snacks from Zell like he promised, including homemade cookies from Edea! Rinoa gave her another cute stuffed animal (and she has lots of those already, back home in her room). Irvine found a tiny shark's tooth from Calvert Beach and gave it to her. Selphie found a box to put it in, so the tooth was from her too. Seifer? Well, he got her a get well card, and found some of the books Marianne was looking for (he told her that he got the info from her mom while he went with "Chicken Wuss" and her parents to a book sale). One of those Dinoverse books which Marianne always kept forgetting the author's last name. And books two and three of the Sixth Sense series. "Found them myself," Seifer said. "Thanks. You're pretty cool when not hangin' with the wrong crowd." Marianne commented as the two let out a chuckle.

So the books from Seifer got her occupied, and read them whenever she had time to herself. Slowly, her surgery healed, the bandage was removed from her head, and the bruises were fading slowly too. In a week or two of resting and relaxation, she was able to sit up afterwards.

"Hey, done reading those already?" Squall said, as he walked alone into her hospital room after the second week of Marianne's time in the hospital. He came to visit her everyday. Her mom and dad did the same. But for now, it was just him. "Yeah, are my folks being good to you?" Marianne teased. Her parents offered Squall and a few of his friends to stay over at her house, while the rest were assisted to the Prince Frederick Holiday Inn, not far from the hospital at all. Just a few blocks down the road.

"Yeah, they're nice people, Marianne. Oh, and your cats miss you." he said. "I know they do," she cooed as Squall sat in the chair by her bed. Yes, they were starting to really develop feelings for one another now. After a crazy long ass couple of days in a strange planet with evil robots, Squall and Marianne had become much closer. What about Rinoa? She didn't stay single for long. Seifer and her got back together.

Squall had one hand behind his back as Marianne giggled. "What are you hiding?" "Nothing." Squall smiled as he set down a magazine, and two envelopes onto her lap. Marianne pressed a button to make the bed rise as she looked at the envelopes first. "One from my favorite aunt and uncle…" she said as she saw the names Laura and Chris Cook on one of them. She ripped the top open to see a Get Well card. It was one of those cards where it's blank inside and you have to write a note or something or else it's just a picture. The front cover made Marianne go, "AWWWW!" Squall looked with her. It was a kitten dressed up in the blue medic clothing with a stethoscope around its neck. "Hehehe, that's so cute." she giggled. Squall smiled at her, saying, "Well? Aren't you going to look inside?" She laughed, gave him a playful shove on the shoulder, and read the message out loud.

"Marianne,

You are all over the news now! You and your friend Squall. That's why we are writing to you. I'm so relieved that you're okay and we're planning to visit you sometime this month. I don't know when, because of our jobs… Maybe the end of this month, when Christopher comes over. We love you and hope to see you soon! Get well!

Love,

Aunt Laura and Uncle Chris"

"Hey, my cousin might come to see me too!" she said excitedly. "It's been a while since I've seen him. I'll have to ask him how he's been." She looked up from the card to Squall, with a frown. "I hope he didn't get into trouble. The last time I heard about him was that he dropped out of high school." "That doesn't sound good…" Squall said, feeling a bit of sympathy for her cousin. "Now to check out Father Daly's letter." Marianne announced and opened the envelope in the same way.

Before she read it, she looked up at him, the smile vanishing a little bit. "Squall… do you have nightmares about what happened?" "Yeah. Sometimes…" he said, looking down for a moment. "So do I. It can be hard to sleep at times…" she said, and decided to read this next letter silently. Of course Squall asked on what the letter said. "Father Daly basically writes about wishing he could be here, and that God be with me to heal. He thanks God for you too." Squall showed a little grin, as Marianne smiled back, laying back on the bed. "I'll look at the mag later." she told him, and as she just let it lay in her lap.

The two held hands again. "I remember Cleo's wishes for both of us," Marianne added. "Yeah…" was all he could reply. "I'll take care of you." A tear fell down her face as she smiled happily. "Really?" The two embraced.

That's when Zell came dancing into the room, wearing headphones and holding Marianne's walkman in one hand. He looked like he was having a real good time. She couldn't help but laugh as she watched him dance and sing along to the CD he listened to. "Did you know me…? Or were you too preoccupied by playing king in your small kingdom?" he sang, which she sang along with him for the rest of the verse of a Hoobastank song. "And now the real world… Has stripped you of your royalty. And from your kingdom, you're evicted!"

Zell smirked in that mischievous way and let the headphones hang around his neck. He was staying with Squall and Quistis at Marianne's house. "Dude, I love your music collection!" Zell said, and turned down the volume a little bit. "Me too. I never bought a CD I didn't like." she giggled. Squall just smiled at the two of them, letting them chat.

"Yo, how you feelin' Marianne?"

"I'm good. I can sit up now. Watch!" With that she effortlessly sat all the way up on the bed as Zell beamed.

"That's great! You'll be out soon then."

"Yup. So, how's it goin' back at home? Stayin' outta trouble?"

"Yeah, I help out a little. I miss my T-Board sometimes though."

"I know a skateboard isn't the same as one, but, maybe you can make one yourself in the future."

"That's what I plan to do, and customize it."

"Cool."

The two hugged, happy to see each other. "It's always cool to see you dude," Marianne said, as they did a cool handshake. Marianne was right. Zell's becoming best friends with her so quickly, thought Squall as he watched the two interact. "Yo Squall! Sup?" Zell said. They did the same hand thing. Zell then turned up the volume. "Aw man, I love this song!" She heard the words and sang along with him. "Is it me? Is it you? Nothing that I can do. To make you, change your mind…"

"Yeah, I like that song a lot too. Hey Zell, did you listen to The Reason yet? It's Hoobastank's newest album. It's in my room, on the TV."

"No, not yet. I will though sometime today. I'm just getting into these guys."

"Cool." Marianne smiled, showing her teeth a little.

Zell noticed the books piled on top of the other on the table beside her bed. Marianne looked too. "Yeah, I finished all three of them. I remember not being able to put the first Sixth Sense book down!"

And Marianne also asked about her cats. "They're doing good. Peppy's been choking some lately. Your dad's getting concerned. Don't know what's wrong." Zell said. "They're always in your room." "They must miss me lots." Marianne suspected, smiling. Zell returned the expression with a smile of his own. His tattoo showed to her. "About that tattoo, did it hurt?" Marianne wondered. "Like a bitch it did!" Zell laughed as she did so along with him.