Author's Note:
My first fanfic! Not my first concept, but my first complete story. I would like to thank CBIzumi for introducing me to the songfic concept, with which she has written great "Code Lyoko" fanfic and shown me the way to finally get through a fanfic of my own. I don't think my next one will be a songfic, though.
The obligatory disclaimers follow:
1. "Code Lyoko" is the property of Antefilms Ltd.
2. The song "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" is the property of Bernie Taupin and Reginald K. Dwight (a.k.a. Elton John) .
3. The brand "Adidas" is the property of the adidas-Salomon Group.
4. The brand "Nike" is the property of Nike Inc.
5. The brand "Nike" does not appear in the story. I have included the above disclaimer because Nike shoes are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn.
6. I have never worn Adidas shoes; therefore the above statement should not be construed as an endorsement of Nike shoes over Adidas shoes.
7. Respex unto my Hermit bred'ren Gigolo, the man who used to call himself "Mr. Adidas".
8. I will say no more about Gigolo's attire in order to avoid having to add a disclaimer recognising Bausch & Lomb.
This is the end of the Author's Note; on with the tale:
The Hardest Word
"What do I gotta do to make you love me?
What do I gotta do to make you care?"
Sissy looked up at Ulrich as he stood on the scaffolding hanging ribbons and lights on the corner of the wall and the ceiling. She sighed. "How can one boy be so handsome?" she thought. "He's a Greek god, a… a… what's the word I'm looking for? A… an Adidas? No, that's a shoe! Well, whatever the word is, he's that!" She then looked across the room at the stage, where Yumi was helping Jeremy and Odd set up the sound system. "And he's all Yumi's," she continued in her mind. "What could he possibly see in that colourless giraffe?" She sighed again and turned back to Herb and Nicholas, who were putting ribbons and lights on the corner of the adjoining wall and the floor.
"What do I do when lightning strikes me
And I wake to find that you're not there?"
She heard the scream come from the direction of … the ceiling? She whipped around just in time to see Ulrich toppling from the scaffold, his arms swinging wildly, trying to gain a balance that would not come, trying to grasp a support that was not there.
"ULRICH!" she shrieked, not realizing that the same name was being shrieked from the other end of the room. She bolted toward the scaffolding, seeing but not really noticing that she was ahead of Jeremy and Odd, seeing but not noticing that Yumi would get there first, and realizing without wanting to that none of them could possibly get there in time.
"What do I do to make you want me?
What have I got to do to be heard?"
He hit the ground on hands and knees that were crushed in the impact between the rest of his body and the concrete floor. The sickening sounds of the collision spread throughout the room and dissipated into a more sickening silence. Wails of agony would have been welcome. Whimpered moans would have been welcome. Silence after this meant unconsciousness at the very least, or maybe even…
"Herb! Go to the 'phone and call for an ambulance!"
"… huh?"
Sissy whirled around, grabbed Herb by his collar, lifted him off the ground, and shouted, "CALL AN AMBULANCE! NOWWWWW!!!!"
"Yes, Sissy! Right away!" Herb picked himself off the floor where Sissy had thrown him and ran to the nearest 'phone. Nicholas followed him.
"What do I say when it's all over
And sorry seems to be the hardest word?"
"He's breathing."
Despite her obvious anguish, Yumi seemed to Sissy to be following the correct procedure. She had not moved him. She had listened for his breathing and found it.
"Did anyone call for an ambulance?" Yumi asked almost frantically. Almost.
"Herb's doing that now." Sissy said. "How is he?
"Not good. He's broken his arms, his legs, his ribs… and his back. In two places, I think."
Sissy was stunned. In her daze she heard Yumi say to Jeremy and Odd, "You know what you have to do. Go on without me. I'll catch up when I can."
"What could they possibly be doing," thought Sissy, "that's more important to them than staying with their 'best friend' after he's gone through this?"
"It's sad, so sad,
It's a sad, sad situation
And it's getting more and more absurd…"
The police and paramedics arrived. While the paramedics were preparing Ulrich to be placed on the stretcher, Sissy told the police that she had heard Ulrich scream and seen him topple off the scaffold. She also said, quite truthfully, that she thought she had seen a large, dark shadow around Ulrich just before he fell. She stated, equally truthfully, that she saw Ulrich alone on the scaffolding just before the fall and that no one could have climbed up and pushed him off in that short time.
Yumi gave a similar statement, omitting the shadow ("But she must have seen it!" Sissy thought…) and then they both jumped on the ambulance carrying Ulrich as it was about to close its doors.
They followed the paramedics as far as the hospital, where they were stopped. "No-one is allowed into the emergency room!" the orderlies shouted. One of the orderlies escorted them to the lobby.
"Do you think he can make it?" asked Sissy as Yumi's cell 'phone rang.
"I don't know, Sissy," she replied while extracting her cell 'phone from her jeans pocket, "but I sure hope so. Hello, Jeremy? He's at the hospital. I don't know; they turned us out at the emergency room and they're not saying anything. O.K., I know. I know. I'm on my way. Sissy, I have to go. If you get to talk to Ulrich, please tell him we're doing all we can, and he's got to hold on! Please! Do it for him! Do it for all of us!"
And then she was gone. Disappeared. "So much for her darling Ulrich" Sissy thought. But then she remembered the tears in Yumi's eyes and the anguish on her face as she left and she realized that she was being unfair. There was obviously something very important that caused Yumi to run to Jeremy, although for the life of her Sissy could not imagine what it could be.
"Tell him we're doing all we can, and he's got to hold on!" she remembered Yumi saying.
Doing all they can? What can they do? Could her disappearance, their disappearance, have something to do with Ulrich? Something to pull him through? But how? What can they possibly do?
"It's sad, so sad,
Why can't we talk it over?"
The emergency room staff had done all they could for Ulrich and had transferred him to intensive care. Sissy still couldn't go in to see him, but she could get into a corridor with a window to his room. She was there, her face against the window and her hands on the sash. She could hardly bear to look at him, at the bracing, the bandages, the tubes into his nose and mouth, the monitor beside his head showing its agonizingly slow movement.
"Ulrich?" she said. "Ulrich, I don't think you can hear me through this glass, but if you can…" She froze. She couldn't think of anything else to say. The ridiculous thought came to her that Odd would probably live for a moment like this. "Well," she thought, "if I can't think of anything to say, I'll give him Yumi's message. Anything to keep him listening. Anything to keep him struggling. Anything to keep him alive."
"Yumi told me to tell you…" What did Yumi tell her to tell him again? Oh yes. "She told me to tell you to hold on, and that they're doing all they can."
"Oh it seems to me
That sorry seems to be the hardest word."
"Do it for them!" she shouted. "Do it for all of us! Do it for me!" She beat on the glass with her fists and screamed "DO IT FOR ME!" She burst into tears and collapsed, her face and fists streaking down the glass.
"No," she whimpered. "Don't do it for me. Do it for yourself. And if not for yourself, do it for Yumi. Do it because you care about Yumi. You don't care about me. You never cared about me, and I tried to make you care, and it made you care even less. I'm sorry, Ulrich. I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I'm sorry."
"What do I do to make you love me?
What have I got to do to be heard"?
Then it was as if she saw Death coming for him as a sheet of white light, coming toward him, enveloping him, coming toward her… She screamed.
"What do I say when it's all over?
What do I gotta do?
What do I gotta do
When sorry seems to be the hardest word?"
Sissy looked up at Ulrich as he stood on the scaffolding hanging ribbons and lights on the corner of the wall and the ceiling. She sighed. "How can one boy be so handsome?" she thought. "He's a Greek god, a… a… what's the word I'm looking for? A… an Adidas? No, that's a shoe! Not an adenoid, either…Well, whatever the word is, he's… an Adonis! That what he is, an Adonis!" She then looked across the room at the stage, where Yumi was helping Jeremy and Odd set up the sound system. "And he's all Yumi's," she continued in her mind. "What could he possibly see in that colourless creature?" She sighed again and turned back to Herb and Nicholas, who were putting ribbons and lights on the corner of the adjoining wall and the floor.
FINIS