This is my substitute for candy. Happy Halloween you guys!
And to everyone who has asked....everyone will eventually be mentioned or make an appearance. Dylan especially. Everyone will be here. But....Marco hasn't even left the institution yet, so all we have so far are the key players. Don't worry, I'm not leaving anyone out.
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"They're dead, Marco."
Through the rushing in his ears Marco vaguely realized that his mouth had fallen open. The words didn't seem to be able to transfer through his numb mind. He could visual a little computer screen in his head with flashing letters. "Does Not Compute! Does Not Compute!"
When the imaginary computer exploded in his mind he definitely didn't feel any better. How could they be....
"Dead?"
Ellie nodded morosely and when she reached forward to wipe away the tears that were falling down his face (when had that happened?) he flinched away. "Marco, I....it shouldn't have been me who told you. I just...oh God, I don't know what to say to you."
Marco finally collected himself enough to focus on her instead of the white wall behind her shoulder, and kissed her forehead. "No. Thank you. I just....had no idea." They were gone too. Forever. Just like everything else. "How...how long?"
With a sniffle Ellie draped herself across Marco and buried her head under his chin, arms sliding under his limp body to hug him close. "They're actually the reason you're here at all." Sniff. Marco sniffed after her and buried a hand in her hair to warm his chilled fingers...or for the comfort offered in this action. It didn't seem to matter at this point.
"You were living in Italy....it was your parents anniversary." Sniff. "You were staying with Nana that night. Oh Marco. They were home."
Marco hiccupped into her hair and clutched her closer, wishing to simply sink into the bed coverings and die right there. "The police came to Nana's house later, told her about the accident....Nana told me you had fainted that night. The only night you ever had."
Marco stared up at the ceiling wondering how this could happen. This world seemed so nice....and now it was crashing down around him. He was having to dodge falling debri that left him shaking and sobbing in other people's arms, sift through the ruin to find some semblance of order to hold on to, if only for a moment's worth of time. And here...now...was the nuclear bomb he hadn't even seen coming.
"A month later you moved here. To leave behind bad memories Nana had said. You've been here ever since."
An hour of crying later Marco was certain Ellie had fallen asleep with her head buried in his tear soaked neck and she was breathing deeply, stirring his long hair. This was what he had to focus on. Ellie. Ellie and everything she was to him. She had stayed with him after the story was finished and held him for what felt like years while he cried. He had cried and cried, until he was sure his very soul had leaked out with his tears.
Now he was quiet however, utterly drained. The clock on the opposite wall told him it had been four hours since Ellie had retold that particular past event. He was dead tired but couldn't seem to be able to keep his eyes closed for a second's time before a made up image of his parents' dead faces flashed across the darkness.
He had come to grips with it, if it counted for anything. It was still entirely too fresh to forget completely, but he knew it would one day be easy to push to the back of his mind. Right now, all he could do was pretend it hadn't happened. Denial wasn't just a river in Egypt after all. In fact, if it weren't for denial, he would have gone crazy by now.
Except, his mind chipped in, he was crazy. He'd been lying in a mental institute for four monthes of his life.
Before he knew it, pale sunlight was beginning to filter in through the window on the left wall and the birds were making quite a racket outside. Marco smiled sadly and sighed. Finally, he wasn't forced to be lying in the dark any longer. The sun continued rising and crawled up the bed towards his head, throwing Ellie's hair into a bright flaming red with golden tinsel threaded in. She was still asleep.
Marco hoped she wouldn't be that way for too much longer. He didn't like being alone. Which was silly, he thought, because she was right there, lying directly on top of him...just as real as he was. It's just...he didn't like the silence. It left him to actually think about what's been going on. Namely...his parents. Something he absolutely did not want to dwell on.
Marco sniffed and scrubbed at his face. God, he had to stop crying...he was sure he'd run out of body fluids if he wasn't careful. At his movement, he felt Ellie shift against him and rub her nose into his neck, cuddling closer. To him, it seemed they layed like this before...a million times over. Where the feeling came from, he wasn't sure....but he liked it. He liked everything to do with the Ellie in this world. She seemed to love him without reservation and with everything she had...and in turn, she seemed to need it too. It was an indescribably good thing to think of this connection between them.
"El fall asleep on you again?"
Marco just stopped himself from jumping up from the bed and waking the red head in his surprise. With wide eyes he looked over at the doorway and saw the girl named Bryce, looking rather chipper and awake, wearing a pair of overalls and an orange shirt.
"Does she do this often?" he asked, after calming down, trying to make conversation. If he was correct, he would be spending quite a lot of time with this girl. Best to get to know her now.
Bryce smiled sunnily at him and took a seat on the rolling stool next to his bed. "Yeah. Poor thing. If she stays up late she'll simply crash on the nearest available person."
She placed a small bundle of cloth on the sink's countertop before turning around to speak to him. "I brought you some clothes. I rather thought you wouldn't like to walk out of here in that hospital gown. Though I daresay some of the patients wouldn't mind oggling your ass on the way out."
Marco ducked his head and blushed madly, all while the girl grinned down at him. "Glad to see you're just as easy to embarrass as you've always been. How'd it go last night?"
At this, he ran a hand through Ellie's hair and tried to keep a rein on his emotions. "It was okay," he whispered. "The questioning with Mr. Vaughn was easy enough....but after he left..."
Sensing his discomfort, the blue eyed girl reached over and took his free hand, squeezing it gently. "El told me....she told me in this world...my parents were dead." Damn, he thought, I'm crying again. To his surprise, Bryce leaned forward and kissed his nose, smoothing back his hair. Did everyone touch and comfort this much here?
"Yeah...we were all really afraid when you would ask. We were afraid who would have to tell you. Are you....are you alright?" Marco shook his head no, but did offer a strained smile, trying to show her he was dealing as best he could.
Bryce nodded and sat back, still holding on to his hand. "So are you ready to go home today?"
"Yeah, I suppose so." Marco said, inwardly thanking her for the change in topic, and smiled down at Ellie as she made a little snuffling noise that was adorable, if he did say so himself. He looked over at the other girl to see her watching the red head with an expression of fond warmth in her eyes.
"You know me through El?"
"Yes," she said, tearing her eyes away from the sleeping teenager. "I met El...oh it must have been two years ago. She was dating Sean at the time, and I was so jealous! Sean was a great guy. Anyway, we've been tight ever since then, and she introduced me to you after that." Bryce stopped and smiled at Marco as he bobbed his head as she told her story.
"I don't go to Degrassi though. I live about thirty minutes from here and I come down every day. I usually stay with you guys on the weekends. Nana has practically adopted me."
Marco liked her. He didn't know what it was about her...but she seemed like a very good friend. Maybe it was how wide and curious her eyes were, or how they lit up when she was speaking to himself, or Ellie, or Sean. She seemed to care about them all...much the same way Ellie did.
"I'm glad I've gotten to meet you....though I'm upset I can't remember you at all. I'm so sorry."
To his surprise, she didn't look too upset about it. She squeezed his hand and rolled her eyes playfully. "Mr. Vaughn said that it's not your choice what you remember or don't remember. It's all a great big game of chance. The fact that you don't seem to remember much about Sean either, makes me think that it's not that big of a deal that I was forgotten. Don't beat yourself up over it, Atlas."
"Atlas?"
Her grin got wider at his inquiry. "Atlas...you know, the god who supposedly held up the world on his shoulders? It's been a nickname of yours for ages. You have that habit of thinking everything is your fault. Sean gave it to you, actually, now that I think about it."
Marco sighed tiredly. "We must have been really great friends. I would have liked to be a part of it." He slammed his head back into the pillows and growled low in his throat. "But, no...I can't remember even a bit of it."
"Hey, hey," she soothed quietly. "Don't worry about it. You're still a part of it. It's not like we've changed at all. We're waiting for dumb Mr. Vaughn to release his clutch on you so we can take you home and fill you in. We can't wait to help you remember."
Bryce scooted her chair up a bit before she continued. "You were practically the glue that held us all together. We were quite a wreck after your accident. I remember El had sat by your bed for a solid week without eating or sleeping before I forced her to go home with me. Sean was yelling at anything that moved. Nana was the same...just a bit quieter. Not much phases her. But you could tell she was very upset. "
She paused and ruffled his hair with a smitten smile. "You were always her favorite. Me- me I played horribly out on the ice. We were just so upset that you were gone. Life seemed so dull without you around for so long.....But you're here now. You saw how much El was bawling over there when you first woke up. We're all just so happy you're back."
Marco could feel his eyes burning. Who knew he would be missed so much? "I had no idea."
As a comfortable silence descended between them another snuffling noise broke it. Very slowly Ellie stirred and shuffled around, finally lifting her head groggily to smile down into Marco's face. "Um, sorry."
"No, no, it's okay. I'm very warm for once." Ellie laughed very lightly in his ear, and Marco felt a surge of happiness soar through him. How often had he gotten to hear Ellie laugh like that? It was so nice to hear. So comforting. He hoped beyond hope, that the Ellie here laughed often. Laughed all of the time even....and then some...because it was so great to see her happy.
"So, Bryce, where is Sean?" Ellie enquired, after blinking several times to wake up.
"Oh, you know him. He doesn't get up before noon. Did you actually expect him to come this early?Marco notwithstanding."
Ellie made a face and burrowed down into Marco's covers again, mumbling up sarcastically from his chest. "Marco notwithstanding. Pfft. I hope he wakes up by falling on the floor."
Marco's eyebrows scrunched up and he cast a bewildered look over at Bryce. "Oh, she's always like this. She drives Sean up the walls. Don't know how I can stand her."
He smiled and tickled Ellie's neck. "So how are you and Sean?"
She looked up through a veil of red hair and smiled brightly. "Um, I guess we're great. We fight like crazy. Why do you ask?"
"I dunno. I was just wondering since you guys have actually been together for about two years instead of just the one in my head."
"I don't follow."
"You and Sean. You guys started dating midway through tenth year right?"
Ellie's look of confusion quickly changed. "Oh! Oh, yes, sorry. I was wondering what you were talking about. Yeah, we did date in tenth grade."
"Did?" Wait...they weren't anymore? From Ellie's expression he could tell she was just as lost as he was. This was confusing.
"Yeah, did. We broke up before eleventh year. You don't remember that?"
Wow. This was a change of pace. Here he was thinking that Ellie and Sean were still together and completely happy as they used to be. But they had seemed so close yesterday. He would have bet money they were together.
"So you two aren't an item anymore?" A snort from Bryce caused him to look over at her, and watch as she giggled uncontrollably, obviously finding this situation extremely funny.
"Marco, I haven't been with Sean since then. I was stolen away, you could say." She paused and laughed at something he didn't know. Man, he felt so out of the loop.
"So you went with someone else? Who? Was Sean sore about it?"
A bigger blast of laughing came from Bryce's corner and Ellie seemed to be having trouble keeping her humor under wraps too.
"Um, Marco, hun....I've been dating Bryce for almost two years now."
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Surprise. lol. And another cliffhanger. Sorry! It was getting too long again! I had to stop! Blame it on...um, somebody else!!! Anyway, please review. They are needed and cherished.