Chapter Two:

Joe and Dennis had heard enough of the episode to know that they shouldn't interfere, and waited nervously for them to return.

Dennis was twirling a bit of his hair nervously. "He doesn't sound so good," he said shakily, thinking of the loud cries from the backroom.

Joe had turned very pale. "I knew he wouldn't be too keen with the idea, he never is... but what's happened to him so that he's even worse?"

About thirty minutes later (even though it seemed like an eternity), Jenni came back into the room, looking equally pale.

"I just want to let you know that he's coming back to my place for the rest of the day. Could you two please call in a few people to help?"

Dennis and Joe nodded quickly. "How... is he?" asked Joe slowly.

"Not good... not good at all," said Jenni, sighing. "He's just so... so..." She didn't need to finish the sentence. The two could already tell what the word was going to be.

"Go ahead and go Jenni," said Dennis, forcing a smile that he hoped would seem encouraging.

"Do you need any help?" offered Joe.

Jenni shook her head. "No... I'd better do it alone... I don't want to frighten him more... Well... I'd better go get him."

"Did he at least stop crying?" asked Dennis. "I haven't heard him for a few minutes..."

"Yes," said Jenni, but before a look of slight relief could appear on either of their faces, she added, "because he passed out." Dennis looked alarmed, and Joe's eyes widened. "Well... please be careful with him," said Joe finally.

Jenni nodded, and she waved goodbye to them as she left the room. All of the happenings had left her in a daze. Why had he acted like that? Why did he want to keep working so much? She decided it would be better to focus on the task at hand: getting Willy to her house. He was still unconcious, so he couldn't walk. She'd have to carry him, but she knew she would probably look suspcious carrying out the unconcious body of a famed chocolatier. Thinking quickly, she rummaged around in the boxes of the backroom until she found an old blanket, then covered his body with it. Feeling more awkward than ever, she quickly went outside to her car and laid him down gently in her backseat. On the drive home, she kept peering back frequently to see if he had woken up, but he didn't.

When she got home, she took him out of the car and upstairs to her bedroom, then set his body on her bed, carefully taking the blanket off of him and covering him up with her sheets instead. Not knowing what else she could do for him for now, she sighed exhaustedly, and sat in a chair near the bed. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep as well.

Jenni woke up after only a few minutes of sleep (or that's what it felt like to her). She was still tired, but she didn't want to have Willy wake up alone. A small smile crept onto her face. For some reason, he seemed much cuter than usual, especially while he was sleeping. In her opinion, he looked like a little angel. She felt torn about whether to wake him up now or let him sleep more, but she didn't have to decide; he was already stirring. When he opened his eyes, she was kneeling by his bedside.

"Hey, Sleepyhead," she said, grinning.

Willy looked a little alarmed for a moment, then rolled over, looking at his surroundings. He turned back to her. "Jenni?"

"That's right."

He stared at her for a moment. "Why... why am I here?"

"You don't remember? You... you passed out..." she said slowly, not smiling anymore.

The fearful expression from earlier came back to his face. "Oh... right..."

"I... I carried you here. Don't worry about the shop, Dennis and Joe said they'll take care of things."

Willy frowned slightly. "But... I wanted to work..."

Jenni almost laughed (and thankfully she didn't). "You? Work? That's not happening any time soon! Look at you! You look horrible!" She saw the smallest trace of tears in his eyes again, and suddenly remembered who she was talking to. "Well... you do... and I want to know what's wrong."

He sniffed, and Jenni felt great pity for him even more. "I... I don't want to talk about it," he said quietly, sniffing again.

Jenni felt like he was acting more like a kid right now than an adult, but whatever it was seemed to be very horrifying to him. "Please tell me," she said softly.

Willy sighed. "Okay... you promise you won't laugh?" Jenni nodded. "Well... It's a long story... You see, my... my dad... he's a dentist... and when I was younger, he didn't want me to have candy. None at all. And he made me wear these horrible braces..."

Jenni raised an eyebrow. From his tone, they didn't sound like ordinary braces. But having a dentist as a father explained his perfect teeth.

"I had never had candy before, but one night, I decided that I didn't want to take it anymore. He had thrown all my Halloween candy in the fire, but one candy remained. It was wrapped in gold foil... and it was chocolate. The moment I tasted that, I knew I had to be a chocolatier. From then on, I started buying as much candy as I could find... jawbreakers, taffy, you name it... I told him what I wanted to become, but he shunned me. He told me it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard..." His voice started to break. "But I told him that's what I was going to be, so I ran away. He told me that he wouldn't be there if I came back. And I did not long after I left. And..." Tears started to well up in his eyes again. "He was gone."

Jenni put an arm around him and looked at him meaningfully. "Your father left you? I can't believe he would do that..."

"I d-didn't think he would either... I didn't think he m-meant it..." said Willy, sniffing. Jenni handed him a box of tissues. He took one gratefully and blew his nose. "Thank you..." he said softly.

"You're welcome," replied Jenni, patting his shoulder. "So... the reason you made a candy store... was to fulfill your dream... and get back at your dad?"

Tears ran faster down his cheeks, but he nodded. Jenni finally understood. The pieces of the puzzle came together. Willy hated when he wasn't working because it let his mind wander from his love, candy... and drift onto his father, and how he had been abandoned and treated. And he was so frail because he had never been treated kindly before and didn't know how to accept love and caring. All those years that she had worked with him, and she had never known about any of this. All those times that he had acted so cheerfully when actually he was in so much emotional stress... It broke her heart that he didn't feel that he could be open about things like that, especially since they had become very good friends over the years. But it still didn't explain one thing... why was he over-working himself more these days? But she took a look at Willy's face and decided to wait until another time to ask that particular question. He looked bad enough without anymore explainations.

"Willy... I never... I never knew..." she said quietly.

"I n-never told anyone before now..." he said, his voice shaky again. He was crying even more than before, and Jenni wondered just how much he could cry, but realized that if she knew, it would probably break her heart even more. And to think that there may have been countless nights where he sat awake, crying to himself, feeling so lonely and so desolate... but mostly unloved. Her mind had wandered off so far that she didn't realize that Willy had been staring at her with his watery, violet eyes.

She wanted to make him happy. She wanted to make him feel loved. Jenni grabbed a tissue from the box and wiped his eyes. He jumped a little in surprise, but sniffed gratefully. "You should probably get some more rest," she said, pulling the covers over him more. "I bet you're still tired, aren't you?"

He nodded, and he laid his head down once more, and closed his eyes. "Thank you..." he said, before he drifted off to sleep again.

Jenni smiled, looking at his sweet, sleeping figure. The only sound in the room was his soft, quiet breathing and her own. As sad as the story he had told her was, she was glad that she had been the first to be confided in by sweet little Willy Wonka.