silence
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.
Chapter Eleven
"Princess?" Kat's soft voice calls for her, and she doesn't respond. She doesn't have the energy to say anything, or to do anything really as of late. Kat sighs, "it's almost time for breakfast."
She sighs, reluctantly sitting up in bed. "Go on ahead. I'll meet you down there."
Kat bites her lip, as if there was something else she wanted to say. "What?"
"It's just… the queen has been in a pretty bad mood, even worse than usual. And we might not want to anger her." Kat says slowly, as if she was afraid of something. Whether it was fear of upsetting Kimberly more than she already was, or of the queen somehow hearing. (They still had no idea how the queen found out about her and Jason.) She understood Kat's hesitation, but…
"What else could she possibly do to me?" She gets up from the bed, walking into the bathroom. She looks at herself in the mirror, seeing that her hair was a mess. Normally, she'd do her hair, just so her mother wouldn't be upset. But now she found herself not caring what her mother thought. When she finishes and walks back out, she can't say she's surprised to see Kat waiting for her on the couch.
"What is wrong with your hair?" The queen says, the second Kimberly takes a seat at the table, voice laced with shock and disgust. And her tone doesn't sting as much as it usually would. Her mother runs her fingers through her hair, grimacing at it's texture. She bites her tongue, to stop herself from saying what she really wanted to say. But the queen eventually shakes her head, and doesn't say anything more. Probably already making plans to force her into going to an appointment with a hairdresser later in the day.
The servants bring out the trays of food, and her stomach churns upon picking up the smell. She grabs her stomach under the table, as the servants lay the trays down on the table, before retreating back in the direction of the kitchen. Her facial expression must reflect how she was currently feeling as Kat looks down at her with concern written across her face. "What's wrong princess?"
"My-" is all she gets out before emptying her stomach contents out onto the floor. By the time she's finished, her mother's on her feet and Kat's holding her hair. She can see her mother's lips moving but doesn't pick up what she's saying. Before she knows it, Kat is whisking her off to the infirmary, the sound of her mother yelling for someone to come clean up the mess on the floor fading into the background.
He pretends not to know that they're whispering about him. He can't hear what they're saying, but it sounds like they're arguing over something. Presumably, it was over how they were going to get him out of bed today. He knows it's only a matter of time before one of them comes over to him, and he's proven right when he hears footsteps as Tanya approaches. She kneels down in front of him, resting her forearms on his mattress. She looks at him quizzically for a couple of minutes, before he lets out, "I'm not dead."
She jumps, as if she hadn't expected him to say anything. Adam says from behind her, "well, at least he's talking."
"You should eat something."
"I'm not hungry." The queen and the princess would be having breakfast right about now. And despite him saying he wasn't dead, he felt dead on the inside.
"You should at least get out of bed." He doesn't say anything or move. Tanya sighs. "Look, we're all worried about you. You haven't gotten out of bed in almost a month. And you're starting to smell."
She whispers the part about him smelling which gets him to agree shower, with the intention of going back to bed afterwards. However, he finds that they've blocked off the pathway back to his section. As they've all decided to eat their breakfast in the middle of the floor. Some were sat on their own mattresses while others were sat on top flipped over buckets. He supposed it was slightly better than sitting on the floor. "I see what you're doing."
"Well, this was the only way to keep you from just going back to bed." Tanya says before reaching for the plastic pitcher of water sitting nearby, pouring herself a cup. "Even if you're not going to eat anything, you might as well sit. Because we're not moving until you do."
He finds another bucket to sit on, unsettled by how everyone was staring at him. "Stop staring at me."
They all startle, looking everywhere but at him. "I know you're all worried about me but there's nothing you can do."
"Maybe there isn't, but what you're doing isn't healthy. And we just want to help you because you're our friend, and we don't want to see you like this." Tanya says.
"Thank you." He smiles, feeling slightly better.
She wants to cry, which is something she found herself wanting to do a lot as of late. But no tears fell from her eyes, even as Dr. Campbell keeps talking. She tries to comfort her while still being professional. "I'll give you a moment."
Dr. Campbell walks into her office, leaving Kimberly alone with her own thoughts. Tears finally fall from her eyes, freely falling down her cheeks. (What was she going to do now? She couldn't see Jason, and it would be much harder to get into the guards' quarters than before. And her mother, what was she going to do when she found out?) Kat comes over to her, rubbing her back. "Is everything okay? What did Dr. Campbell say?"
"I'm pregnant." She sobs. There's shock written across Kat's face, her mouth hanging open. "What am I going to do? How am I going to tell Jason? And my mother-"
Kat doesn't answer her, probably because she didn't have an answer for her. "You have to calm down. You shouldn't be stressing out."
She was right, but how could she not stress out right now? She tries to get control of her breathing as her tears seem to be slowing down. Kat reaches for a tissue, wiping the tears from her face. "You can't tell anyone about this. If this gets back to my mother-"
"You can trust me." Kat cuts her off. "What do you want to do about Jason?"
"I don't even know how I'm going to tell him. My mother has forbidden us from seeing each other, and there's no way I'll be able to get into the guards' quarters now. She's not far from throwing Jason in the dungeon, or worse."
Kat makes a face, but doesn't get to say anything as Dr. Campbell comes out of her office. There's something in her hand that she can't see even as she comes closer. She reveals them to be vitamins before handing them to Kimberly. "Take these. And come back in four weeks for another visit."