Chapter 27: Hospitalized

Callie, Marie, Adstrum, and Arisara all stood over Jack as he lay in the hospital bed, a breathing mask over his face and a few machines connected to him. His tentacles were duller in color and a bit pale.

Cici's tentacles became a mess as she sat there in silence.

"Okay, can someone explain what just happened!?" Adstrum yelled as he looked around. "Ari? You got there first."

"I realized she was brainwashed like the other octolings… I haven't seen those glasses before though… They used to be like goggles. But then when she said eliminate agent 3 I knew exactly what happened."

"What did Cici do to you, Jack?" Adstrum asked.

"Actually, I don't think she's all to blame." A doctor came in with a folder, followed by Mariana and Tonga.

"MY SWEET BABY BOY!" Mariana ran up with tears in her eyes to the bed.

Cici got up and walked outside the room. She sat out in the hall staring blankly at a wall.

Tonga stood there, unsure of what to say.

"She's pretty much shut herself down…. Nobody could get through to her…" Arisara rubbed her arm, "Don't worry about her for now"

"Why didn't you take your medication, Jack? You needed it…" His mother was on her knees.

"Is Jack going to be okay?" Callie asked.

"Well, hopefully." The doctor opened the file. "We need to get him ready for a heart transplant, though."

Marie watched Cici in the hall as she mindlessly spoke to someone on the phone.

"Heart transplant?" Adstrum raised an eyebrow.

"WHAT?! WHY?!" Marie nearly jumped out of her seat.

"Because one of his hearts ruptured from the stress of the situation he was in." The doctor explained. "That shock sent him over the edge."

"He was born with not very good hearts." Tonga finally spoke up. "It was never bad enough that he couldn't do turf wars. Not a lot of things stressed him out. He must have really cared about your friend if he reacted that way." He placed his hand on his son.

"Now... both of them are broken…." Arisara looked at Cici.

"You guys are lucky we got him here quickly. His remaining two hearts were keeping him alive, but they were stressing out too much. His body reacted quickly to his main heart rupturing and his lesser hearts were forced to work much harder. The machines are keeping him alive and we will get a new heart into him as soon as we are ready." The doctor handed a nurse some papers as they walked off. "We'll find a compatible heart for him from the ones we have."

Cici walked off somewhere.

"Should someone keep an eye on her?" Adstrum muttered.

"No, she seems to come back after a while… I just wonder what she is doing"

"Probably trying to cope with what's going on. Should we try to talk to her?" Callie asked.

"I guess… But how would we even talk about this? She seemed to blames herself for both Alex and Jack"

"Well, we can tell her that this wasn't her fault." Adstrum spoke up. "Jack should have told us about his heart condition. Heck, he should have gotten treated for it."

"He fought against Octavio's army and didn't seem that fazed by it. He didn't show any signs of stress during that." Callie muttered to Marie, Ari, and Adstrum. "He must have cared about Cici more than we thought if this happened."

"Yeah…"

Cici walked back with an officer who patted her on the head and walked away. She plopped down on the bench, going back to staring at the wall again.

"Um...I would ask about the officer...but I doubt Cici will reply." Adstrum looked at said inkling. He flashed a smile at her before turning back to the rest.

"In her shut down condition, no" Arisara looked at Cici.

Everyone stood around in silence for a while. Adstrum sat down in a chair and sighed. Callie kept pacing around, glancing at Jack and occasionally giving Cici a hug. Marie stood next to Cici and kept trying to reassure her.

The nurse left food and drinks for Cici but she just stared at the floor, no reactions nor emotions.

"C'mon, Cici." Adstrum put an arm around her and held a fork full of food toward her. "Please eat something."

Tears just flowed from her eyes as she stared blankly ahead.

"Ari, a little help? Please?"

"Maybe I can try making her favorite foods"

"Please do." Callie walked over. "Jack may not be able to respond, but if he was awake he would be stressing over her right now. He wouldn't want to see her like this."

"I'll be right back…" Arisara walked away.

Cici looked like a ghost staring at the floor.

The doctor came back in and pulled Jack's parents to the side, getting into a discussion with them and showing them some papers.

She glanced at them, not being able to look at his parents in the eyes.

"Are you sure this heart will be good?" Tonga asked the doctor as he looked at the paper.

"Yes. Despite being hit by a car, Alex Cossus's hearts remained intact. It was just his brai- Oh… Umm..."

Cici hugged her knees and pulled at her flaking tentacles.

"You sure they are still good?" Mariana asked.

"They were as strong as an ox. When he was alive…."

A nurse came in with a machine full of pink ink and in it was a heart, which was hooked up to tubes and other mechanical bits that were keeping it beating. "The heart and ink type are a perfect match for Jack. We just need to change the color and we'll be all set for the transplant."

Cici turned around to face her corner. She rested her forehead against it.

Adstrum gently pulled her into a hug, gently patting her back.

She just was limp in his arm like a doll. She stared at the floor.

"Think about it, Cici. Jack will have a piece of Alex in him now." Adstrum gave a nervous smile.

"...Yeah..." She muttered.

"...Sorry...I'm not too good at reassuring." He sighed and hugged her closer.

Arisara came back with ramen and jello. When Adstrum put her down, she crawled weakly back to her corner and sat there on the floor. Arisara put the food and water in front of her, but Cici didn't move from her spot.

"Jack and Alex would want you to eat right now." Callie muttered at Cici. "We all would."

"..." Cici seemed to be losing focus as she leaned against the wall to keep herself up right.

"If we have to play 'Here comes the airplane' with her…" Adstrum muttered.

"She just needs time." Callie replied. "I hope…"

Chives walked in with a nurse. They attached an IV drip to her. She gave no response to the needle being inserted into her arm.

"Oh, so good to see you right now, Chives." Callie hugged the butler. "What do we do?"

"Oh, this is certainly much worse than last time. She responded last time to doctors and nurses…" Chives gently fixed her tentacles, "I don't really know…"

Silence filled the room as Mariana and Tonga signed a few papers. The doctor and nurse left with the machine with Alex's heart.

Cici leaned against the wall. She seemed to be tired or weakening.

"The doctor said they need to get Jack ready for surgery. We can stay for as long as it takes them to change the heart's color to orange, but we need to leave this room when they finish that." Tonga spoke up.

"Yes, about that. The tour is on a schedule, no?" Chives asked, "My lady told me she is resigning from Squid Sisters. She feels she is no longer fit to be your manager."

"We can't leave without Jack. And Cici…" Callie looked at the small inkling. "...If you need to…but we'll miss you." She hugged the small inkling again, tears rolling down her face. "You were the best tailor, manager, and friend anyone could ask for."

"Cici… there must be another way…" Marie started crying.

"..." Cici bit her lip until it bled.

"Please don't do that, Cici." Callie said between sobs.

"My lady gave you a new manager, under the name Shelly. She is a close friend of my lady."

"Hope she will be okay." Adstrum sighed, a few tears rolling down his face. "Hope this Shelly is at least half as good as Cici was."

"I'll see to it that everything is taken care of here. I will personally inform you of everything here. This I promise."

"We're going to go wait in the waiting room. The doctor's need to get Jacky ready…" Mariana followed her husband out the door, but not before walking over to Cici and placing her hands on her shoulders. "We don't blame you for what happened, sweetie. Jack has always been a stubborn boy. We should have gotten him treated long ago." She hugged the small inkling before walking out.

Cici staggered to the waiting room with her IV drip dragging behind her. She seemed like she would collapse with every step.

Everyone followed after Cici, making sure to keep an eye on her and keep her from falling over. Some of them looked back and saw a few doctors and nurses enter Jack's room with a gurney.


As the time went by it was soon becoming dark out. Everyone sat in the waiting room waiting to hear some news of Jack's condition.

Cici wrote a letter and put it into an envelope. She sealed it and held onto it. Chives watched her and cradled her to sleep in his arms.

Callie paced around, as did Mariana. Adstrum and Tonga were sitting down watching them, trying to get them to calm down and sit.

"This was… an octoling did this…?" Marie looked at Arisara.

"... Yes. I know what you are thinking." Arisara sighed.

"Do you have any enemies?"

"Oh… OH! Not that I can think of, unless you count Octavio and all his troops"

"What's with that response? Did you think I would blame you?"

"...Yes…."

"Oh, you" Marie hugged Arisara.

After a few minutes had passed a doctor came into the waiting room with a smile. "Good news, everyone!"

Cici opened her eyes and stared at the doctor.

"The operation was a success. Jack's body is adjusting to his new heart and will make a full recovery in about two weeks or so. He'll need to stay here until then."

"Isn't that fantastic, my lady?!" Chives held her close.

Cici gave no response. Just a blank stare at the floor.

"Of course he is still unconscious from the initial rupture, so we aren't sure when he will wake up. We've estimated it will happen in about a week or so. We need someone to stay here to greet him when he awakes." The doctor added.

"Also as a safety precaution the young lady has been admitted to the hospital and must stay here too." The nurse spoke up, "Her behavior and health is very concerning"

Callie let out a long sigh of relief at hearing the news of both Jack's recovery and Cici's admittance. "Hopefully they can help her." She muttered and sat down next to Adstrum, who quickly pulled her into a hug.

"We put you in the same room as Jack so you can keep each other company." The nurse patted her head and brushed some of the flake off.

"So we're going to stay until they both recover?" Adstrum asked.

Callie quickly nodded her head. "Yes."

"But...the tour. I'm confused."

"Umm…. are you sure that's okay?" A voice meekly came from behind them. "That would maybe have to reschedule a lot of stuff…"

They all looked at the source of the voice to find a clam. Her eyes were seen from two holes in her shell.

"Who are you?" Marie asked, interrupting her ramblings.

"Oh! Right… I'm Shelly. Um, I am here to manage the tour. Um, but I can… um, postpone for this… Is that what you want?"

Callie nodded again before Mariana spoke up.

"Sweetie, you should stay on schedule with the tour. My husband and I, along with Chives, will keep you informed of Jack and Cici, okay?" She gave a small smile.

"When they are ready I'll make sure they get back to you as soon as possible" Chives bowed.

"But...but…" Callie looked over at Marie.

"We really wanna see Jack and Cici all better." Marie replied, "They were there for me all that time… It's only fair I do so for them too"

"You sure you can postpone the tour for a week?" Tonga asked.

"Yes, sir. I am a profreshional hacker sir." Shelly replied, "I can take care of everything. I will make it so, but you may or may not like how I do it..."

"How are you going to do it?" Adstrum asked.

"Just a fake news article." She opened her shell a bit and showed them her tablet, showing Marie getting food poison and staying at a hospital.

"I don't know how I feel about that." Callie bit her lip.

"..." Marie nodded in agreement.

"Well, if you guys can't stick around maybe...we can set up some face time stuff so you can say hi to Jacky over a device when he wakes up?" Mariana suggested.

"Oh yes. I am still pretty good with tech. I'll set something up for you" Chives smiled as nurses carried Cici away.

"Oh...um...that sounds okay to me. How about you, Marie?" Callie looked at her cousin.

"Yeah, I think that's much better than lying…" Marie sighed.

"I'm sorry… I was just trying to help…" Shelly muttered.

"And you are helping. Thank you, Shelly." Adstrum smiled at the clam.

"Yay." Shelly opened her shell. The two halves of it looked like small wings on her back. She had a nerdy vibe with her large glasses and her tablet in her hands.

"So we are here for one or two more days before we have to get going?" Adstrum asked.

"Yeah. Let me know if that changes" Shelly smiled.

"Gotcha. Nice to meet you, Shelly." He smiled at her before standing up.

Marie looked at the room and walked over to see the two through the glass.

The nurses put Cici on a chair beside Jack's bed side. They gave her a pat on her head and walked out.

Jack laid in the bed with a breathing mask on, his hand resting at his side.

Cici fidgeted with her envelope in her hands.

"Poor Cici…" Marie put her hand on the glass.

Cici fell forward and tried to get back up. She lacked the energy and fell asleep with her head resting on his bed. Her hands were above her head touching Jack's on accident.

His hands seemed to tighten their grip on her's, but very slightly.

Author's Note: Hey guys. Sorry this is so late, but I got distracted by Christmas and family. Wanted to get this out earlier. But here it is now. Hope you all like this chapter!

Thank you The Bowser Monster, Gajesteel, Agent Cherry, and Devil Dude 42 for leaving reviews. I greatly appreciate them guys.

Thanks, Agent Cherry. Glad you like my writing. And Jack will be fine. I promise.

I'm scared for Cici more than Jack, Devil Dude. Jack's a tough boy.