Bridging the Void
Note: It LIVES! That's right folks, I'm finally back with the concluding chapters to Bridging the Void, if anyone is still out there reading it. After this, I plan to introduce an interesting new take on my first fic, which I'm hoping everyone likes. Okay, so onward to chapter twelve at long last!
Chapter Twelve: Time to Heal (hee hee… a little inside joke with myself… for any of you who've seen the Digimon movie as well, I guess.)
I yawned and woke early the next morning, feeling well rested but still hurting everywhere on my body. The wires and machines were still attached to me, which I didn't find very conforting. Plus, I was alone in the sterile environment with no one but white coated doctors to keep me company.
"Where is Seto?" I asked the nearest one.
"He's busy setting some things in order. He said for me to tell you not to wait up."
I grumbled. "That's just like him… as if I've got anything better to do. Hey… where's Steph?"
He shrugged. "I'm not her babysitter, how should I know?"
Gosh, doctors are so testy sometimes… and their liars too, what with their 'this won't hurt a bit' line… it's never true. I've just realized I really don't like these dudes.
But, fortunately, I wasn't stuck alone with them for very long. As I was just about to start a fight with the not babysitter about getting me a book to read, Steph entered the room, bringing with her the self-confident air that I had always associated with her, before Chris came along.
"Feeling better, are we?" she said, smiling.
"I could say the same to you, Steph."
She sighed and sat down in the chair next to the bed. "I guess we need to talk, don't we?"
I nodded and then
glared at the doctors. "Can ya give us some privacy, here?"
They shrugged, all as one, and left. I shuddered. "Those guys are so creepy, ya know?"
She nodded. "Well… You know it takes a lot for me to admit this, but I've been a total fool… a complete and total fool. I shouldn't have let Chris do that stuff to me… especially not when I knew it was really you he was after. It was always you, from the start, I think. Not that I'm sad about it… he was a real jerk, after all."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. There was a time when I would have been all too ready to be his little toy, too. In fact, I'd probably still be that way, if it weren't for Seto. He changed me a lot, Steph… and I guess, in a way, he changed you too."
She nodded. "I'm
not the sentimental type, you know, but I guess I should apologize
for freaking out on you about Seto. He really isn't my kind of guy…
we're just too alike, you know?"
"I'll say, although you're probably a bit more bossy and self center- Ouch!"
"Oh, right, the burns… no punching until after they heal. Well, I'm gonna get you for that when they do."
"I wouldn't
expect any less. So… you're with Marik now?"
"Well, yeah… he's… different than I would have thought. And we've always agreed-"
"He's totally hot, I know. I haven't forgotten all of our little Yu-gi-oh things… I guess I really missed it, back in the dark days and all…"
"You named our fight?"
"I name everything, Steph, you know that."
"I'd forgotten
how crazy you are."
"I'm glad you're
ready to remember. I missed you."
"Well, best friends forever, right?"
"And friends before guys."
She nodded. "And you owe my five bucks for each baby."
"I've told you a
million times, I don't want kids!"
"I'm gonna be about ten bucks richer soon!"
"Soon? Girl, I'm only sixteen!"
"Nearly seventeen,
remember."
"Alright, nearly seventeen."
We sat silently for a few minutes, and then I said. "Do you remember… the rapping pixies?" I asked her with a big grin.
"On the phone, summer of when we were thirteen, your brother was watching Fairly Odd Parents, which the author does not own."
"Righto! That was a good laugh… a really good laugh."
And, as I looked into the glass beside us, I no longer saw two broken spirits who'd had their dreams torn away from them. I saw an author in love, who'd fought for that love and would now probably carry the scars for the rest of her life, and the promising business girl and perhaps future president, who was finally over the dangerous love that had torn us apart. Indeed we'd finally managed to bridge the rift, the void that had reduced us to nothing, and were well on our way to becoming something new, something special.
"Hey Steph, I
think the doc wants in for some tests."
"Catcha later then."
End note: One more chapter to go, which will be a little wrap up of what happens to Steph, Lily, Seto and Marik.
