Chapter Four

Jedda smiled as she snuggled next to Rick. This was just a romantic and beautiful way to celebrate Christmas while they were waiting for the party to start. It was romantic anytime that they were snuggling.

"Are you enjoying the view?" Jedda asked.

"Yeah." Rick answered. "I just love this season. Christmas has always been my favorite time of year."

"Really, now?"

"Yeah. I always enjoyed spending Christmas with my grandparents when I was a boy. Even April would take time off the academy to spend time with us." Rick explained. "It was even great when Mom and Dad took time off to spend the holidays with us."

She noticed that Rick was warmer than usual, which caused her some great concern. She touched her face and felt normal. She was startled upon hearing Rick cough.

"Rick, you feel warm." Jedda couldn't help but to state. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Rick answered which was clearly a lie.

"I'm not too sure about that." Jedda replied. "You've been like this over the past week since we were rescued on Mongo and you sound a lot worse than usual."

She leaped out of the couch upon hearing Rick cough even louder. Looking at her ailing boyfriend, she saw that he was pale and had just now coughed up a bit of blood.

"Oh my God!" Jedda cried. "Rick! That's blood!"

Rick looked at his palm and his eyes widened at the sight of blood on his hand.

"Mandrake! Lothar!" Jedda called out. "In here! It's Rick!"

She looked on as Mandrake and Lothar arrived in the room.

"What's the matter, Jedda?" Mandrake asked.

"Look." she pointed at Rick. Mandrake and Lothar glanced over at Rick and were shocked to see Rick had coughed up blood.

"That isn't just seasonal allergies." Lothar stated.

"Hold on, Rick." Mandrake told his teammate. "We will get the others and take you to the hospital."

"Oh no." Rick replied as he was appearing to feel dizzy. "Mandrake."

He let out a few groans before he collapsed on the floor.

"Rick!" Mandrake exclaimed in shock.

"We need to call an ambulance right away!" Lothar exclaimed.

Jedda watched as Mandrake went to call an ambulance.

"Rick." Jedda knelt to her unconscious boyfriend. "Hang in there. Help is on the way."

Almost half an hour later, an ambulance arrived with a stretcher in tow and proceeded to examine Rick before carrying him off in the stretcher.

-Defenders-Christmas-Carol-

"So did you enjoy the party after we took part of the summit?" Sheila asked.

"Of course I did." Flash answered. "I'm glad that everything turned out quite well."

"I can agree with you there. Except for the fact that my half brother is acting like a jerk." Sheila retorted. "The fact that my sisters were in a scuffle over the situation."

"Krotan is of Ming's blood."

"So are Aura, Castra and I."

"But Krotan acts more like his father than you girls."

"Do you think that the rebels are going to do something about Krotan?"

"I'm pretty certain as Mongo is seeking the age of Justice."

There was a pause of silence as Flash couldn't help but to think on how it would be good riddance if the rebel groups managed to take care of that no good slime, especially after him wanting to kill his son after capturing him along with a handful of the others awhile back.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a beep on the communicator screen. A second later, he pressed the button to turn on the communicator screen which revealed Mandrake on the screen with a worried look on his face.

"Mandrake?" Flash noticed his teammate in surprise.

"When are you going to be back here?" Mandrake asked.

"Pretty soon." Flash answered. "Why? What's the matter?"

"We are at the Central City Hospital." Mandrake told the couple. "Something terrible has happened."

"That's not good." Sheila stated.

"What happened?" Flash asked.

"It's Rick." Mandrake answered. "He's been rushed to the hospital."

Flash paled in stark horror of what happened. "What?! How?!"

"We suspected that Rick hadn't been feeling well for some time but today it got worse." Mandrake explained. "He coughed up blood before he fainted and that's when we had to call the ambulance. He has a fever of 102. It's worst than we all thought."

"I will be there as soon as possible!" Flash replied in a panic before shutting off the communicator screen. Then he quickly he spoke, "Dynak, set the coordinates to the Central City Hospital!"

-Defenders-Christmas-Carol-

Flash took a deep breath after making it to the hospital. He thought he was never going to make it at all. He only hoped that he wasn't too late to see his son alive if his condition was as he feared.

He made it to the receptionist table with Sheila in tow.

"Excuse me. I'm here to see Rick Gordon." Flash told the receptionist. "I'm his father."

"Oh yes. Rick Gordon." the receptionist typed a few buttons before speaking up again. "He's at the Intensive Care Unit wing. He had just been moved there a few minutes ago."

Flash paled at the announcement. He felt a gentle touch from Sheila. "Let's go."

Flash knew where the wing was and he led the woman to the elevator to the wing where the ICU wing where the rest of the Defenders and the Sailor Guardians were waiting outside the room.

"Well?" Flash asked with anxiety in his tone.

"We haven't heard yet." Lothar answered.

"The doctor should be coming to tell us about Rick anytime now." Setsuna added.

Mere moments later, a doctor arrived with a clipboard in his hand. "Is this the party that brought in Richard Gordon?"

"Yes." Mandrake answered. "We did."

"How's my son?" Flash asked anxiously.

"I'm Dr. Harrison." the doctor introduced himself before getting to what he had to say. "There is no easy way to say what has become of Rick Gordon. He has caught a serious case of pneumonia which progressed aggressively."

"Is he going to wake up?" LJ asked in worry.

Dr. Harrison sighed sadly before answering, "He's in a coma and the way it is looking right now, he may not wake up again."

-Defenders-Christmas-Carol-

April gasped quietly upon the thought of losing her younger brother. After everything that he had to endure in his life, especially by Ming, Rick was going to die by pneumonia.

She glanced around the entire area as everyone appeared to have different reactions, yet all appeared to be sad. She saw her father as he had collapsed to a chair, with his head in his hands. Mandrake perched on the arm of the same chair and placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. She then looked to see Kshin crying softly, rocking back and forth, with LJ comforting him.

"It'll be okay, Kshin." LJ assured his young friend with tears down his face. "We'll be fine. Somehow."

Then she saw Hotaru being comforted by Setsuna as the young girl sniffed and tried choking back her tears, "Rick has to be okay! He promised that he would be okay. He promised, so he has to wake up. He said he was just fine. He PROMISED!"

Setsuna comforted the girl, not knowing what she could say.

April then looked at the rest of the Sailor Guardians. Chibiusa appeared to have tears as well while the others appeared to have various looks of sadness on their faces.

"Can I go and see my son?" Flash asked as he raised his head back up. "This could be the last time I get to see him."

"Yes. The best we can do is to make his last moments comfortable as possible." Dr. Harrison answered.

April couldn't help but to notice that her father was tear stained and pained from this news. The possibility that Rick Gordon might die. Why did it have to be him? Especially on Christmas time?