Warning: Rated for language, violence and references to adult behavior.
The main characters of this story are based on characters from the cartoon 'Code Lyoko.' I do not own, nor do I claim, any copyright to these characters.
In Jeremie's dreams, The Demon came for him again.
He was in a room somewhere, hiding behind a desk and Aelita was right behind him.
Then The Demon came.
It burst into the room and spouted fire all around. It then saw Jeremie and Aelita and flung the desk off to one side. With another sweep of its hand, it knocked Jeremie off to the other side and grabbed Aelita by the hair, lifting her off the ground.
It turned to Jeremie, Aelita dangling from its grip, and said, this is the price you pay for your deeds!
It then took a knife and slashed Aelita's throat, killing her.
"Aelita!"
Jeremie awoke and sat bolt upright in bed.
Mr. Delmas woke early the next morning. Odd was still snoring, and Sissi was still asleep on his lap. Jean-Pierre marveled at the way she could sleep through that racket. He walked over and gave both of them a shake. Odd startled awake, and Sissi just opened her eyes and lifted her head up and smiled at him. He glared at both of them, directing the Evil Eye of Death particularly at Odd, then told them both to get cleaned up.
He then went over to Jeremie's bed, and gently awakened Aelita. She opened her eyes, which then grew wide when she realized who had awakened her, and where she was. She blushed, and got out of bed. Mr. Delmas just smiled slightly and cocked his head towards the door. She left to join Sissi and Odd.
As Mr. Delmas was walking to the door to go clean up himself, he heard Jeremie shout Aelita! and sit bolt upright in bed.
"Jeremie! It's alright. Aelita just left to get freshened up," he told the boy, "we all will be back in just a moment."
Jeremie had got his bearings by this time, and nodded his head to the principal. Mr. Delmas then left.
Breakfast came, along with visitors. As the nurse's aide brought Jeremie's breakfast tray in, his parents entered the room.
"Mom! Dad!"
His parents quickly came to his bedside and hugged him. Mr. Delmas stood up, walked over and greeted the couple, then took Mr. Belpois aside.
Jeremie hugged his mother tightly. The last time he saw her, a few weeks ago, she had been ill. Even now, she was still pale, but seeing her up and about was definitely cheering.
"Mom, you remember Aelita," Jeremie said at last, "and sitting over there are two of my friends, Odd Della Robbia and Sissi Delmas. Sissi is the principal's daughter."
"Hello, Aelita, good to see you again," his mother said, "and nice to meet you Odd, Sissi. Jeremie has said good things about you two."
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Belpois," Sissi replied, "but Jeremie must have been fibbing about me. I really haven't been all that nice to him in the past and..."
"Nonsense, he has written about all of his friends at school, ever since he came there. And he has never once written anything but kind things about you. Mr. Della Robbia, however..."
Sissi gave Jeremie a strange look. She would definitely have to have a talk with Jeremie sometime.
Odd just said, "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way," quoting Jessica Rabbit.
Mrs. Belpois just smiled and turned to talk with Aelita.
"I'm sorry, mind if we interrupt," came a voice, speaking English, from the hall.
Standing there was Mr. Thompson, the man who came for Jeanie Wilkerson last night. With him were two men, the ones who had saved their lives. Last night, when Jeremie first saw them, the two men had been wearing regular clothes. Today, they wore their uniforms, along with Mr. Thompson.
"Taylor? Taylor Thompson, is that you?"
That came from Jeremie's father.
"Michael Belpois, is that you?" Mr. Thompson replied.
Jeremie's father walked over, shook hands with Mr. Thompson, then gave him a big hug.
"TNT, it's been years!" Mr. Belpois exclaimed.
"Somewhere around twenty," was the reply, "I take it this is your son."
"Yes, it is," Mr. Belpois replied. He escorted Mr. Thompson over to the bed and introduced him to Jeremie, "this is Taylor Nathan Thompson. He is an old friend of mine. Taylor, this is my son, Jeremie."
"We sorta met last night, dad," Jeremie said.
"Yes we did," Mr. Thompson said also. He extended his hand, "Master Gunnery Sargent Taylor Nathan Thompson, USMC. I'm pleased to meet you."
He went on, "I just dropped by this morning to see how you two were doing. Miss Wilkerson harangued us all the way back to the Embassy about finding out if you were okay. She made me swear on my honor to find out and let her know."
"Additionally, these two," Mr. Thompson said, indicating the two men with him, "wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Corporal Bill Pyle, most folks call me 'Gomer,'" said the one man, 'Gomer' from last night.
"Corporal Mike Coffy, folks call me 'Sanka,'" said the other man.
"Thank you for what you did last night," Aelita piped in, "I hope you didn't get into any trouble over us."
"Not to worry, ma'am," Cpl. Coffy replied, "the French Government decided that it didn't appreciate a foreign diplomat getting messed up on French soil."
"Although, they did receive a 'counseling session' from myself and General Maxwell last night," Mr. Thompson added. The two men winced at that remark.
"Well, I appreciate what they did," Jeremie said.
"Thanks," was all the two men could say in reply, then turned to go.
"You take care of yourself and that young lady now, son," Mr. Thompson said, and they left.
Before he left though, Mr. Thompson stopped, shook Jeremie's father's hand again, and gave him a card, telling him to call sometime so they could catch up.
Jeremie's father came back over to the bed.
"Mr. Delmas told me that the doctor's have released you. You can go at any time. Your mother and I stopped at the school and got fresh clothes for you, so get dressed and we'll go."
Mr. Delmas was shooing Odd, Sissi and Aelita out of the room while his father told him that. His mother left with them, shutting the door.
"Jeremie, do you want to tell me what happened last night?"
"We went to see a movie last night, dad. There we met Jeanie Wilkerson, the Ambassador's daughter, though we didn't know it at the time. We saw the movie together, then had a snack at a café and walked home. We got jumped by a gang, dragged into an alley, and I got beat up. They were getting ready to rape the girls when those two Marines showed up, saw Jeanie, and mopped up the alley with them."
"I would have to say that God's Angels were looking after you and Aelita last night then," his father said.
"I just wish I could have done something. I just lay there like a sack of trash watching my girlfriend and another girl almost get raped, and I couldn't lift a finger to help." Jeremie lowered his head.
His father put his hand on Jeremie's shoulder, "there was nothing you could have done, son. There were ten of them and only one of you. There is nothing to be ashamed or upset about."
"There were only two Marines, and look at what they did," Jeremie replied.
"Yes, there were two of them, United States Marines. Soldiers, trained to fight, trained to kill if necessary. They were also armed, were they not?"
"Yes, they were."
"Then, they had eighteen or nineteen friends each with them. That changed the odds greatly in their favor. There was nothing that you could have done, Jeremie. Just be thankful that they came."
"I could have at least tried," Jeremie said.
Could Jeremie have tried? To Be Continued...
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