Shadu: I'm back, and here's a special present, just for you guys.

Ch. 3: Going Home

The phone rang, breaking the silence of the home. Its only current inhabitant rushed to answer the ring.

"Hello, Veronica Wheeler speaking," she said into the mouthpiece.

"Yes, this is Mrs. Dobbs, the school nurse at Domino High School," the person on the other end stated.

Joey wearily opened his eyes. He saw white. He was staring at the ceiling. He rolled his head over to see Mrs. Dobbs just coming out of her office. She glanced over at Joey and, seeing he was awake, scurried over to him.

"You're awake," she smiled, stating this mostly to relieve herself though worry was very obvious in her voice.

"What happened?" Joey wondered as he started to sit up.

"No, stay down," Mrs. Dobbs insisted, pressing on Joey's shoulders to lay him back down.

"What happened?" Joey pressed.

"You collapsed in the hallway," Mrs. Dobbs explained. "A few students passing by brought you in. Your mom's on her way."

Joey groaned. He didn't want his mom to know about his problem. She'd probably drag him to some doctor and he would probably be poked and prodded and interrogated like there was no end, and people wondered why he didn't like doctors. That was the last thing he wanted. He didn't want to worry his mom either, nor did he even want to begin to think about his mom's reaction. But he wouldn't have to brood long.

His mom came into the nurse's office, catching Mrs. Dobbs and Joey's attention. She came over to Joey and knelt down eye-level with Joey and touched his cheek gently.

"What happened?" Ms. Wheeler asked in a soft voice.

"I don't know," Joey confessed.

Joey lifted himself up, without any interference from Mrs. Dobbs this time, and looked at his mom who had risen up to meet him.

"Can you walk?" Ms. Wheeler asked.

"I don't think so," Joey shook his head. "I can try," he added.

Joey shakily rose to his feet only to stand for a few seconds and fall. Mrs. Dobbs and Ms. Wheeler caught Joey before he hit the ground, each grabbing an arm and then they both heaved Joey back onto the bed.

"Sorry mom," Joey apologized, looking up at his mom in a lesser form of shame.

"Don't worry about it Joseph, it's not your fault," Ms. Wheeler patted her son's shoulder.

"Oh dear, how should we get him to your car?" Mrs. Dobbs asked Ms. Wheeler, her face scrunched up in thought with a hint of fret.

"Don't worry, I can get him there," Ms. Wheeler assured the other female with a smile.

Ms. Wheeler grabbed Joey's arm and swung it around her neck. She kept a hold of it with one hand and supported Joey with the other, tightly wrapping it around Joey's chest to keep him on his feet. However, this didn't seem to help much. As she dragged her son through the hallways, she had to keep pulling him up because his legs weren't strong enough to support his own weight.

The ride in the car for home was silent, a feeling of tension hanging in the air preventing talk. While Ms. Wheeler wanted to talk and find out what was going on, for she knew Joey wasn't telling her everything, Joey did not want to talk. Still, the silence was getting to him too. He didn't like the eerie silence between him and his mother. He hated long spans of silence. Maybe it was because he wasn't used to it. His father was always yelling or had the TV blaring.

"Sorry about this Ma," Joey said after the silence had become absolutely unbearable.

"What's there to be sorry about?" Ms. Wheeler responded, keeping her eyes fixed on the road.

"Sorry about this trouble, with you comin' to get me and all," Joey explained.

"It's okay, you can't choose when you get sick, and I was off today anyways," Ms. Wheeler assured him.

"This just isn't the way I wanted to start off livin' with you and Serenity," Joey sighed.

Ms. Wheeler smiled. Even after all those bitter years with his father, Joey's sweet nature was still there. She was glad her ex-husband hadn't beaten it out of him completely.

Joey wanted to kick himself. The one thing he didn't want his mom to know, the one thing he wanted to keep to himself, the one secret he wanted to keep from his family, his mom now knew.