A/N: I am SO SO SO SO SO SORRY that it took me so long to update my story. I was on vacation and was trying to get Christmas presents for my family that I kind of lost track of it. If all you authors want to gang up on me, I completely understand. However, I need to tell you that I'm not one of those authors who start a story and never finishes. I plan to fully to complete this baby. Anyways, hope you read and review. And now, chapter 10.
Ordeals of Life
Chapter Ten: Troubled Thoughts
Kelly came out of Storm Chargers, carrying trash bags over her shoulder. It was a very hot day and she wished that she could just stay home and take a break. However, being head of a store came with responsibility, especially since the Bradleys and Dustin were some of the workers there. 'God, I love them all, but sometimes I feel like they have souls of five year olds.' While throwing the bags into the garbage dump, she noticed Cam walking down the sidewalk. 'Whoa, it's been a while since I've seen him. Has he even been outside at all?'
Smiling to herself, Kelly called out, "Hey Cam, haven't seen you in a while. Decided to rejoin the living?" She waited for his response, but he seemed to be having trouble speaking to her. Calling out again, she went "The others are inside waiting. Come o…Hey, are you alright, Cam?" The samurai started to falter in steps and seemed to be getting weaker. Immediately, she started to panic for her friend's wellbeing. "CAM, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" That was the last thing she said before she saw him faint on the sidewalk.
"CAM!!" Kelly ran over to his side and began to speak to him. "Cam, what's wrong? Do you feel okay?" She then insulted herself for asking such dumb questions. People on the sidewalk stopped to look at the scenario before them. One of the walkers who wore glasses and seemed to be someone in his early thirties stooped over the fallen man and began to gently shake him. "Miss, do you know what's happened?"
"I don't know. I was just walking out and began calling out when he collapsed." Kelly responded, her voice filled with worry. She could only sit back and watch as the young gentlemen stopped over the Asian's face, pressing his ear towards the nose and mouth. "Well, he's still breathing. At least that's a good sign. I think he probably fainted."
"Are you sure?" she asked, not feeling any easiness run over her. "Are you sure it's not something serious?" "I'm pretty sure. I am a doctor. However, I need to check. Is there a phone nearby?" "Yes, it's inside Storm Chargers. That's where I work. Do you need to call an ambulance?" "Not yet. Miss, I want you to keep his legs above his heart level. If he's fainted, we want to restore blood flow to his brain." Kelly began to shake as she placed Cam's legs onto her lap. "His friends are inside the store waiting for him. They were supposed to go to lunch this afternoon. Can you go get them?" "Of course, they might help. I'll need to keep one inside, just in case it's more serious and we need to call. What are their names? Oh, I'll just ask who is friends with…who may I ask?" "Cam, Cam Watanabe." "Thanks."
As the doctor ran inside Storm Chargers, Kelly held the man's legs to her and stared at her friend. 'Oh, please be alright.' It didn't take long before the gentlemen came back along with Shane, Dustin, and the two Thunder Brothers. "What happened?" they all called out at once. "We think he fainted. I'm keeping his legs up to restore blood flow to the brain," Kelly shakily said. "Very good, Miss. Do you think one of you could take her place?" "I will," called out Dustin. As he quickly grabbed his fellow ranger's legs the doctor ordered the rest to help him loosen the guy's clothing. "If he doesn't regain consciousness within a minute or two, your friend inside will call an ambulance."
Quickly, everyone started to unbutton his sweater and loosen the belt on his pants. While the doctor and Hunter rolled up his pant legs and while Shane and Blake gently rolled him more on his back in the shade of the buildings, Kelly began to work more on the sweater. 'Why is Cam wearing a sweater? It's nearly 100 degrees out here,' she wondered to herself. She slowly reached out to curl up her friend's sleeves, noticing some bruise marks on his hands. As she slowly rolled the sleeves up, Cam awoke with a start.
Everyone surrounding him hurriedly went over to the now talking face. "Oh god, what happened?" Cam asked, wondering what he was doing on the floor. "Sir, you fainted. Kelly said she called out to you when you did, don't you remember?" "Oh, now I remember. Who are you?" Dustin piped in, "This is Dr…what's your name, mister?" "It's Doctor Palmer, and I helped Kelly and your friends revive you." Cam seemed lost in a daze, as if absorbing all this information in. "Thank you. Sorry for giving you guys a scare." "We don't care about that. We're just glad you're okay." Hunter said while Blake nodded to this.
Cam quickly started to rise before feeling dizzy again. "Don't move too fast, Cam. Your still regaining back your senses. Lie here a little bit before getting up." Cam could only nod as Shane put his head on his lap. Though he usually didn't like being cared for like a weakling, he could only sigh in contentment as the red ranger began to rub his head. He watched as the others went inside the store talking to Doctor Palmer. Everyone but Kelly that is. She just sat on her legs and stared at the ground where Cam's arm used to be. "Kelly, are you alright?" At first she didn't respond. "Kelly?" he said with a little more force that finally got her out of a trance. "Huh?" "Are you alright?" Kelly thought for a minute before saying, "Oh, I'm alright. It's just that you fainting kind of shocked me."
Cam closed his eyes in sadness stating that he was sorry. Kelly began saying that she was glad that he was okay. After about 5 minutes, everyone including Tori walked out. "Mr. Watanabe?" the doctor said. "Yes?" "Your friends have been telling me interesting stuff. They say that you have been working and exercising a lot. They also say that you haven't been resting and eating enough." Cam shot a quick angry glance at his rangers that no one noticed before responding, "I guess that's kind of true." "There's no excuse to not taking care of yourself. I asked your friends to look after you." The team slowly nodded their heads, although Tori looked scared out of her mind. "Do you want to go to the hospital for a check-up?" Cam, knowing that if they went to the hospital that his friends would find out what he's been doing for the past few weeks responded, "Oh no. I think I'll be okay. My friends and I were actually going to eat lunch soon. Maybe a little nourishment would help."
Doctor Palmer looked at Cam carefully. He didn't look serious, besides the bangs under his eyes which he knew was from ignoring his health.Hestarted toagree with him. "Do you think you can get up now? Nodding slowly, Cam slowly started to get up with the support of Shane and Hunter. "Bro, I told you that you needed to relax." "I know, Hunter. You were right, and I'm sorry." "Don't worry about it. Just promise that you'll take better care of yourself from now on," Blake said. "You got it. Now when exactly is lunch. I'm starving."
After a few minutes talking with the doctor, the six companions walked off. Kelly was still sitting on the sidewalk. "Are you alright, lady?" Palmer asked. Again coming out of a trance, she silently nodded. Accepting this, the young gentlemen walked off in the opposite direction.
Walking back towards Storm Chargers, Kelly couldn't stop from wondering. 'It's probably from a cat or something. Maybe he scraped himself. No, they're too precise. They look like the ones I had…no, that couldn't be. It's Cam. Stuff like that doesn't happen to him.' But she couldn't help but keep thinking about him.
"Bro, I will kill you if you scare us like that again," Dustin said. "I agree with that. I knew something like this would happen." "Of course, Hunter. I've said that I was sorry and I promise to act different, so can we just leave it at that?"
The group was sitting around a table at a local restaurant. They didn't care what the restaurant was called. As long as it served good food, they didn't care. The men of the group practically strived on nothing but food. Though the place looked fancy with it's flower wallpaper and clean dishes with forest patterns on it and the napkins that were folded into swans, Blake just ordered six hamburgers with fries knowing that no one would refuse. Though it looked appetizing, two people weren't devouring it.
One was obviously Cam. All he did was look around at the various people at the other tables talking to each other on how one person was doing, or what shortcuts to take to work, or the proper way to raise children. All in all, it was very boring stuff. However, Cam listened in to take his mind off of what was on his plate. His stomach was groaning in pains of hunger, but he chose to ignore them. 'I got this far, and I am not about to fail now.' For some reason, he felt like he needed to prove to himself that he could handle his current situation. Maybe it was to gain a sense of control over his life, or maybe he just wanted to see how strong he was. In either case, he just stared away at his food.
Blake looked over at Cam and noticed his behavior. "Bro, is something wrong? You haven't touched your food." Shane looked up at this while the others continued eating. "Are you feeling okay? Maybe we should have let you see a doctor. If you want, I can drive you back home if you feel like it. You probably feel kind of…". Cam didn't let him finish. "You're right. I still kind of feel a little woozy, but I can assure you that I'm okay." As if to verify it, he brought the hamburger to his mouth and took a big bite of it.
"Okay. Sorry for acting worried, I just want to make sure you're okay." "Don't worry, Shane. Everything's fine." After that, Blake and Shane continued to dive right in to their fries, occasionally fighting over the ketchup, and started to talk with the brothers and Cam on the new bikes being shipped in to Storm Chargers. Of course, Cam wasn't listening. After making sure that no one was looking, he brought a napkin to his mouth as if to wipe something off and he spat the big bites he was taking into it and folded it up.
The other person not paying attention to her food or to the conversations around her was Tori. Ever since Cam fainted on the sidewalk, she started to drift out of this reality. In all honesty, she was really scared for him. Who in their right mind wouldn't be, even if just a little? The bags under his eyes, his slow walks he took, the lack of appetite he had was all to common to her.
'In a lot of ways, he reminds me of Melissa…No Tori, don't think of her. What's happened has happened and you can't change that.' "Tori, what's wrong?"
She looked up at Hunter who was watching her along with Blake. Taking a brief glance at Cam who was putting fries in his mouth muttered a quick "I'm fine," and started to slowly eat her hamburger. She had her attention so fixated on her plate that she didn't notice how Cam always brought a napkin to his mouth after every bite.
"Excuse me, but do you know where the bike helmets are?" Kelly was shaken out of a trance for the 12th time that day. "What did you ask?" The 19 year old in a red t-shirt and black pants started to get annoyed. "For the 5th time, do you know where the bike helmets are?" "Oh, sorry. Their in the very back, towards your left." As the flustered customer walked over to the display, Kelly's attention reverted back to Cam.
'I still don't believe that Cam would do that. Those cuts I saw could be from any number of causes.' But she couldn't believe what she was telling herself. Those cuts were too straight, too numerous, and too precise for anything else.
Kelly tried to get attention back on the locals in her store, but the man that fainted earlier that day was on her mind. She had no way of proving her theory. How could she?
'Calm yourself. You of all people would know if Cam was in trouble. You've been in trouble before.' Suddenly, she found a way to check. How could she have forgotten? They were only part of her life now, a part she wished she could forget.
Hiding her left arm behind the counter, she looked down at it. She looked at the scars she had on it. Though the scars were from a long time ago and very faint so that most people wouldn't notice at first glance, they were easy to see for her. Quickly she looked up with a disturbing discovery in her mind.
'That settles it. The cuts he had are too similar to my scars. I just can't believe that he would do something like that. I thought only people like me would do that.' However, she knew that she would have to get over her shock if she wanted to help. Kelly had to face the fact brought up to her face. Cam Watanabe, a very dear friend of hers, was cutting himself.
A/N: BUM, BUM, BUUUM! Someone has now found out about his secret. I hope this gets you hyped up. Please read and review, and I promise not to slow down like before. BELIEVE ME, FORGIVE ME, AND REVIEW ME.
