A/N: I am SO sorry about taking so long with this chapter. The other two stories I was writing have been put on hold (if you've read the 5th HP book, you'll see what I mean) so I think I'll have more time to finish this story.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Neil cleaning up my room.

"What are you doing?" I managed to croak.

He looked up over the mound of dirty laundry he was carrying. "Hey, Jake," he said calmly. "Your mom let me in. You know, there are things called a washer and a dryer. You might want to use them sometime."

I didn't smile. "You have classes."

"Yeah," he admitted. "Skipping."

"Neil--"

"Dude," he interrupted, holding up a hand. "I remember what you did for me. And I'm not gonna bail out on you either."

I sighed. "Thanks."

Neil smiled at me, then quickly grew serious again. "So they don't know what's going on."

I sighed again. "No. Not one of those doctors have a damn clue what's wrong with her. My God, where did they get their degrees, Medical School for Dummies?"

Neil didn't smile at that. "Probably."

I rubbed my eyes blearily. "What time is it?"

"About one in the afternoon."

"What?" I grabbed the alarm clock near my bed. It said 1:14. "Oh, shit..." I leaped out of bed. "I have to go to the hospital-"

"You might want to take a shower first," Neil suggested. "No offense, man, but you stink."

I glared at him. "Thanks a lot."

~*~

Neil and I walked into Suze's room and just stared.

"What the--"

The room was filled. It was practically overflowing with flowers and people and balloons.

I stood there in the doorway, staring. "What--who--who are all these people?"

Kelly Prescott came up to me. "Hey, Jake," she said. "When Cee Cee and Adam told us, we decided to come over--"

"Who's we?" I managed to ask.

"The sophomore class."

"The entire sophomore class?" I asked, stunned. "Damn..."

"Well, Suze is VP after all and--people were really worried," Kelly explained. "There are more people around...I think Adam's gone to go and yell at the doctors--"

"Really?" I asked, feeling a smile grow on my face. "I think I'll go and join him."

~*~

The doctor, who was a dark shade of red by now, glared at me. "As I was just telling your friend, Mr. Ackerman, we can't treat an ailment that we know nothing about."

"So basically you're just twiddling your thumbs while my sister's in a coma!" I yelled.

The doctor turned even redder. "Mr. Ackerman--"

Adam, sitting next to me, snorted. "What is wrong with you people? Have you all only got one brain cell to share between all of you?"

The doctor--Dr. Nelson from his nametag--was now turning purple.

"Oh, here you are." I turned to see Paul Slater coming in through the door. "I was wondering what you were up to." He shot a look at Dr. Nelson and grinned. "Apparently pissing off the doctor. I approve completely."

Dr. Nelson stood up. "That's it," he said. "I understand your frustration, but there is absolutely no need to take it out on us--after all, none of you have medical degrees and do not realize how complicated a thing the human body is--I also understand your grief, but--

It was official. This guy was really getting on my nerves, what with his attitude--how dare he assume he knew how we felt--

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do. I believe you know the way out."

It was about then that the computer went flying across the room and hit the wall right over Dr. Nelson's head. Debris was flying everywhere.

My jaw hung open. "Wow," I managed after a moment.

"That was interesting," Adam said.

Paul wasn't at all thrown, however, and seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly. The doctor glared at us. "Which one of you delinquents did it?"

"Dr...uh, Nelson, the computer is all the way across the room. Do you really think one of us could have picked that up and thrown it across the room at your head without you noticing?"

Dr. Nelson stared at him. "But-but who's going to pay for all this? he asked, gesturing to the wreckage. "That was a brand-new computer--it had all my files and research--"

"Well, I hope you have insurance--and backup files," Paul said. "We'll be leaving now--"

The thing was, as we left, I could have sworn I heard Paul say out of the corner of his mouth, "Not bad, De Silva...next time, just go straight for the head. Or trash the entire hospital...I'm not picky."

~*~

We ran into Cee Cee at a candy machine, apparently trying to beat the crap out of it.

"Webb?" Paul asked incredulously. "What are you doing?"

She didn't look at him and continued banging against the glass. "Trying to get my candy bar, obviously. I put in my stupid quarters and the stupid candy bar is stuck and it--won't--come--out." She hit the glass between each word.

Paul made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

I walked over to her. "Here." I banged the glass once with my fist. The candy bar dropped down. I reached down, pulled it out, and handed it to her.

She took it. "Thanks."

"Hey, it's a school day, right, so how come so many people are here?" I asked.

A corner of Cee Cee's mouth tilted up. "When everyone found out about--" she paused, then continued, "--when everyone found out, a bunch of us decided to come over here."

"And Father Dominic's okay with you guys skipping school?"

Paul shrugged. "He didn't stop us."

"But all of these people--"

"A lot of people admire her, I guess," Adam said. "She's one of the few people who has the guts to stand up to Kelly," here he grinned, "--not to mention that about half the guys at the school have a thing for her...including me."

"For Suze?" I stared at him incredulously.

Paul grinned at me. "Ackerman, don't tell me you haven't noticed."

"Noticed what?" I demanded.

Paul sighed. "That Suze is a major babe," he said slowly, as if talking to a toddler.

"Maybe you haven't noticed, Slater, but she's my sister," I retorted. "You think I want to ponder the state of my sister's love life?"

Cee Cee started to giggle. "Suze never liked to--" she stopped abruptly and closed her eyes, taking a long breath.

"What is it?" I asked.

Her eyes opened and stared at me through her glasses. "Suze never liked," she hissed.

"So?" Adam said.

"You don't get it. I was talking about her in the past tense, like she's already--"

There was a long pause.

"Like she's already gone," I finished. There was a strange roaring in my ears. My throat was dry.

"Jake--" Adam started, then stopped. What could he say?

"I--need to get back," I muttered and started walking quickly towards Suze's room. I was halfway there when I lost it and slammed my hand against the wall.

"Boys...Mommy's sick."

"911, what's the emergency..."

"I'm afraid your mother isn't going to wake up..."

"...there appears to be no reason why she won't regain consciousness..."

"Jake...your mother would want this."

"No...I want her to wake up...I want her to wake up..."

"I was talking about her in the past tense, like she was already--"

By the time I came back to reality, my knuckles were split and bleeding. There was blood smears on the wall.

I turned and kept walking.