Time: 5:52PM Listening to "Life after You" by Daughtry. Wonderful song!
Well, here is the next chapter. Yadda yadda yadda. There's not much to say. But, I am really liking this story... I hope you guys are too. :) If you are, please continue to review. *hint hint*
Disclaimer: I don't, won't, and haven't owned Jimmy. Dammit!
He had left the room, the mysterious handsome guy, followed by Libby. Carl stood by the doorway, looking at me silently, his eyes sad. I looked at him confused. Why were they acting this way?
He held my gaze for a bit and then sighed heavily, looking at the ground.
"Get some sleep Cindy. You've been needing it after all you went through. And…" he paused, looking at me again, "Don't worry about your memory. Jimmy will find a way to fix this mess you are in."
I blinked at him.
"Thank you Carl, but…but I have no idea what you are talking about. I feel fine."
He licked his lips, and looked up at the ceiling.
"Of course Cindy, whatever you say."
I felt my anger rise. How dare he talk to me that way! Calm down Cindy. You are still thinking of younger Carl. That Carl was afraid of you. This Carl, on the other hand, looks like he could punch you and it would hurt. Well…considering the situation you are in….he would probably beat you up.
I eyeballed him carefully. Not only had he slimmed down, he probably worked out…although he wasn't as toned as the other man that had been in the room recently.
"Goodbye Carl," I sighed and turned my head away, my eyes already drifting to sleep.
I heard the metal door close and yet no footsteps leading off. Sure enough, I was curious. I rolled towards the door, straining my ears to wait and see if he would leave.
I heard Libby's high pitched voice.
"I can't believe this!" She shrieked. "This cannot be happening! Jimmy, you have to do something!"
"Calm down Libby," I heard Carl's reassuring voice break through, and I could envision him shaking her shoulders a bit, "He will figure something out. Right Jimmy?"
There was silence, and I envisioned the tall handsome guy standing there. He was the one they kept calling Jimmy right? Why did they keep telling me that I knew him? He vaguely looked familiar, but I wouldn't know whom exactly.
More silence passed.
"Jimmy! Say something," Libby shrieked again, and Carl shushed her.
She spoke more quietly now, and I had to strain to hear her.
"I know this is a bit of a shock for you, considering all that you have been through, all the emotional pain you have forced upon yourself. I can only imagine the pain you felt when she jumped in front of that beam that was meant for you….but if she hadn't, you would have been gone, and then we never would have found you, because the only person that can do the miraculous things you do…is well, you!"
"And where did that get her!" His dark, deep voice erupted from outside the door. My body twitched a little, as if wanting to jump up and see what was happening on the other side of the door.
His voice continued, angry and bitter laced in the words.
"She sacrificed herself for me! She jumped in front of the Empire's gun and took the shot for me. And while I got away, away to safety, she was taken." His voice got lower slightly, "Taken and beaten and tortured. Why? Why would she do something that awful for me?"
"And now, she's losing her memory!" He yelled once again, "The lady I killed said she would lose everything in the end. Starting with the things she cherished most of all! She's eventually going to wake up one day and not even know herself!"
Libby's voice interrupted him a little, "That's why you have to reverse the progression Jimmy. You are the only one that can save her."
There was silence once again.
What were they talking about? Were they talking about me? I wasn't losing my memory. I remembered things just fine. Wait…. Is that why they kept saying I knew this guy named Jimmy? Did I really save him? Come to think of it, I couldn't really remember why I was in that awful place in the beginning. All I remembered was the awful torture. The pain I had gone through. But I don't remember why I was in such an awful place.
"It's so hard Libby," I heard him say softly from behind the door, "It's so hard having her not remember me."
"That's why you have to find a way to reverse this," I heard Carl say.
There was no response from the one called Jimmy.
Fitfully, I finally fell asleep.
My head strapped to the headrest of a chair, and my arms and legs strapped by metal bands to the arms and legs, I wiggled a bit, biting my lip, trying not to yell.
"Cindy, please," he said harshly, "You need to sit still for crying out loud!"
"It's kind of hard Neutron," I hissed, shifting my weight once more in the chair, "When your chair is so dang uncomfortable! And not to mention the little fact that you are sending electric particles into my head, making my nerves twitch! You'd think that I would be given a little forgiveness. But nooo….."
"That's the whole reason we are doing this!" He fumed, his eyebrows knit together tightly, "We are trying to get your nerves to the point where they can withstand pain to a certain point. If we do this, then when your particles disperse and come back together when you teleport, you won't double over in pain. It's a precautionary step we probably need to take. You should be thanking me Vortex!"
"Oh yes," I mused to myself, rolling my eyes, "I'm so thankful that I have so much power, but whenever I use it, it slowly tears my body apart. I will be an old lady at the age of thirty five. Thank you."
"You are so…." He put his hands in his short, beautiful hair rubbing furiously, trying to find words without cursing at me, "So…"
"So what?" I egged him on. Why not? I was at the peak of my fight.
"So stubborn," he finally finished and put his hands back down at his sides, looking at me sternly.
"Yeah yeah," I rolled my eyes once more, adding the final spoiled brat touch, "Nothing I haven't heard before."
"Do forget that it was you who volunteered for this. You didn't have to. When you took this position, you knew there would be consequences and things that were out of our league. You knew that." His eyes pierced me, making me feel vulnerable, yet I didn't allow him to see through my outer skin.
"Yes, yes I did," I said a matter of factly. I lifted my eyes and locked them with his. "And you know why I did it? Because if I didn't, some bimbo like Betty Quinlan would come along, and then you would have gotten nothing, you hear me, nothing done! You would probably feel bad for her, and not experimenting on her, and do it on yourself. And if you did that, and something did happen to go wrong, like we have experienced, well….then there would be no more Jimmy Neutron. No more world genius. That. That is why I did this!"
I could feel my blood boiling, and when I finished, I decided to calm myself down.
He was standing back, his arms now crossed, and leaning against a lab table.
He narrowed his eyes, "Oh really?" He asked smoothly.
"You did this just because you were worried that some person, some bimbo, like Betty would prance down here and try to work on an experiment, is this correct? Did I hear you right?"
I glared at him, what was he getting at?
"Yeah, what of it? Your whole work would have been screwed up if you had let her down here."
An eyebrow rose, "Her? I thought we were talking about a ton of people, not just one particular Betty Quinlan."
I knew it! I knew what sort of trap he was leading me in.
"That's it!" I mumbled, "I'm through with this crap; I won't take it." He was not going to make me feel inferior! I was invincible!
He saw what I was going to do next and reached his hand out, "No Cindy! Don't, it'll hurt more since you have been hooked up longer!"
What did I care? I was doing it anyways.
Feeling the air around me grow lighter, I watched as the colors mixed together, and I felt my body breathe in air, heavy mixed air. I could taste every element that the air was made up of. And it tasted like power.
I opened my eyes to see particles coming back together, right outside of Jimmy's clubhouse. My feet touching the ground, I became fully human again. Solid.
But becoming solid brought the flood of pain into my body.
Falling to my knees, I gritted my teeth, my arms wrapping around my waist. I doubled over, my moans growing louder and louder. Sharp bolts of knife searing pain would shoot though my chest, and down through my stomach. Lying on the ground, withering like a bug, I saw him in my tear-blurred vision.
His face pained, I felt his arms reach under my body and lift me up off the green lawn. He was murmuring something of how stupid and dangerous I acted.
And I heard him mention how scared he, and how overwhelmed with happiness he was that I wasn't dead.
I woke to the quiet sound of the heavy metal door to my room opening. My body going on alert, I tensed up and my eyes flashed open.
The stranger at the door paused, as if being caught red handed with some dirty deed.
His blue eyes were wide and pained as he looked at me.
I felt myself blush, confused of why my body was feeling this way suddenly under the intense gaze of those piercing blue eyes.
"Oh, uh…sorry," He said, his voice low, "I didn't mean to wake you. I was just uh…coming in to see if you were still um… doing alright."
His eyes were trailing along my bed, seeing if I had a fitful sleep, and then to the ivy drip that was connected to my arm, since I had been locked up for so long, I was suffering from malnutrition apparently.
I blinked, trying to figure out why my heart felt like it was spasm-ing, and offered a weak grin.
"Oh, no problem at all. I'm used to waking up every two to three hours or so."
I saw his face wince slightly and he looked at the floor, his hand clutching the object in his right hand more tightly.
"I'm sorry," He mumbled, softly, "That you ever had to go through that."
I blinked, my face still smiling softly.
"Your name is Jimmy right? At least that's what I assumed since Libby and Carl were in here with you."
He nodded, looking flustered under my scrutinizing stare, and looked at the ground, the bed, anywhere but my face.
I continued.
"Well Jimmy, it's not your fault I was locked up in that place. Actually," I tilted my head a bit, "I don't quite remember why I was locked up." I laughed lightly to myself, musing. "But you know what psychiatrists and scientists say… that sometimes the subconscious mind stores hurtful information from your body in a way to protect itself."
Jimmy was looking at me now, his gorgeous blue eyes wide, all the color drained from his face.
"Y-Yes," He stuttered, "I suppose that could be an explanation for it. And maybe right now that would be better."
He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, and a pain of sadness washed over his face. I raised an eyebrow, wondering why in the world he was acting this way. I mean, he was acting nervous. I my heart was nervously beating. What exactly was going on?
"So," I let the word drawl out, "Whatcha got there?" I looked down tilting my head towards his hand.
He seemed to snap back into reality, and his eyes went wide at the start of my voice.
"Oh!" He said confused, "This?" He held up a small container that made some noise as he rose it to my eye level.
"These are pain relievers," he said quickly, hushly, "I figured with all that happened to you and all your wounds you had, you could use a specialty made dose just for you." When he said this, his eyes twinkled down at me, making the back of my neck feel flare up.
What in the world is wrong with me?
I smiled up at him, completely friendly to his presence, now that he was at my bedside. "Specialty made? Where would you get something like that on a ship? We are on a ship I presume."
"Yes," he said, knocking a couple of small white pills from the container into his hand, "We are on a ship, back to earth thankfully. And to answer your question, I made these pills."
Just as he was about to give them to me, I pulled my hand away.
"You made these! What are you? A scientist?"
He sighed heavily, "Cindy, trust me. And yes, I am a scientist. You of all people should know that." As soon as the words left his lips, he stopped, and looked at the pills in his hands.
His face was flared up now, and he kept silent.
"What?" I asked, completely confused about what he said, "Why should I know that? I don't understand."
His eyes shifted to my feet on the bed. "It's nothing," He murmured, "Forget I said anything."
I felt a pain of sadness fill my chest, but I pushed it away. If there was one thing Cindy Vortex was, it was strong. I would not let sadness fill me up.
"Okay, fine," I said, diverting the subject, "Was Libby worried about me? Did she send you here?"
He breathed in, glad for the diversion in conversation.
"N-No, Libby didn't send me." He said quickly, and reached for my hand, taking it in his and turning it over. My heartbeat jumped at his touch, and I felt my breathing quicken. Okay, this HAS to stop!
I wasn't quite sure why he was taking my hand. All that I noticed was how warm and stable his hand felt. It felt good to be enveloped in his. I looked down for a split second to find how small mine was compared to his.
He turned my hand over and placed the two pills in my hand. He then closed my fingers over them and held his palm over my fist.
"There," he said hushly, his voice incredibly deep and alluring. I wonder if he knew just how enchanting he was. Cut it out Cindy, he is probably married with a beautiful wife for all you know!
"You don't need water with these," he said, "They will dissolve on your tongue."
I looked up at him.
"So what, are you my doctor as well as a scientist?" I mused.
He pulled his hand away from mine, and I instantly missed the warmth.
For the first time since I met him, I saw Jimmy smile.
"Yes Cindy," he said, with almost a hint of sadness to his voice, "I am your doctor. I will help you recover what you are missing."
And with that, he smiled softly, his eyes barely shining blue anymore, and walked out the door, leaving me more confused than ever.
