A/N: Hey everyone! I am so sorry it took me so long to update this! Let's just say life happened, lost motivation, briefly got it back, then had no time, and now I'm determined to at least finish this thing. It turned out mostly like I had originally planned so that's good. I'm probably a little rusty. I haven't written anything on here in about 3 years, so I tried to pay extra attention to things like my verb tensing. But please let me know if there's any major issues! I am not the best proofreader. Also, this chapter is in third person perspective, mostly present tense. I do have a confession to make though. This is not the entire chapter, of course the title was the first clue haha. I decided to split it up into 2 parts for a couple reasons. First, it was getting a little long. Second, I have been struggling to finish due to limited time and motivation issues. Third, I promised to give an update and I'm already a little behind when I said to expect one. And it may be a couple weeks until the second part is finished. Also, there will be an epilogue after part 2 so that makes this a 7-chapter story instead of my original plan for it to have 5 chapters. I guess that's good news because it does not end with this chapter. Ok, well here we go…right after these messages.

Seriously? Are there really any doubts about "Hey Arnold!" not being mine? Yeah, didn't think so.

Chapter 5: Something Shared (Part 1)

"Tsk. Look at this mess. It's like a tornado went through here but of course it was the result of that recent emergency," Jessie quietly says to herself, shaking her head in amusement as she is organizing papers at the nurse's station.

"Excuse me?" a soft voice breaks Jessie's concentration on her task. Looking up, she sees a petite Asian girl in front of her with two boys standing close behind.

"Oh, hello. Do you need some help with anything?" Jessie asks with a warm smile.

"Yes, we're looking for Helga Pataki's room," Phoebe answers.

"Oh, you must be Phoebe. I'm Jessie, Helga's nurse. We spoke on the phone. I'm sorry I had to cut the conversation short, by the way. There was a terrible accident that required all hands on deck," Jessie's look goes through a series of changes: from realization, excitement, and then guilt.

"That's quite alright. I understand. So is she…?" Phoebe leaves that question hanging, not entirely sure how to finish it. Jessie figures out what Phoebe was hinting at though.

"Oh, no. Helga is doing alright. Her doctor is predicting a nice recovery," Jessie reassures Phoebe with a smile.

"Thank goodness," Phoebe breathes a sigh of relief, "Where is her room?" Phoebe asks with a mix of excitement and anxiety.

"She's in room 126 in our trauma wing. Go to the end of the hall, turn left, and then it's on the right side of that hallway," Jessie gives directions while gesturing the appropriate amount of turns to take.

"Thank you," Phoebe replies in gratitude, thanking Jessie and then the three of them start to turn around, heading in the direction of Helga's room.

"Wait a second please," Jessie pipes up, stopping the three in their tracks. Phoebe, Gerald, and Arnold turn back around to face Jessie once again. Her expression is apologetic.

"Sorry, I almost forgot one important detail. Helga's doctor gave strict instructions to only allow one visitor at a time. She suffered a mild head injury and he wants her take it a little easy for a while," Jessie explains. Phoebe nods in response. It was something she almost expected based on what she already knew about car accidents in general. A lot of them result in head injuries. Phoebe suddenly feels a hand on her shoulder. She turns and sees the hand belongs to Gerald.

"We better let Arnold go first, Phoebs," Gerald responds, giving his final decision out loud while gesturing to Arnold.

"Oh, so you're Arnold," Jessie pipes up suddenly with a small grin on her face in realization.

"Wait, what does that mean?" Gerald asks in both confusion and curiosity. If Gerald didn't ask that then Arnold probably would. He was just as curious as Gerald as to what that meant.

"Well apparently, while Helga was being transported to the hospital, she was going in and out of consciousness, but when she was conscious, she was mumbling the same phrases over and over. I believe it was something like 'Oh Arnold, I'm sorry. So sorry…I may never get to tell you now,'" Jessie answers, the grin on her face widening a little more.

Feeling Phoebe's glare nearly burning the back of his neck, Arnold turns around and gives her a half-guilty and half-exasperated look.

"I know. I know. I already feel like scum, ok?" Arnold replies to Phoebe's unspoken remark. Though she didn't say anything, her glare spoke volumes.

"Good. Now what are you waiting for? Go make it right," Phoebe quips back, who then gave Arnold a less than gentle nudge towards the direction of Helga's hospital room. Her actions seemed cold, but her voice had a tinge of excitement that leveled it all out.

Arnold could only nod, his focus primarily being on that direction. He had no idea when he would get another chance to talk to Helga alone, so he knew that he needed to get this confession out now.

"Ok, I will see you guys later," Arnold tells his friends as he starts walking to where the love of his life was. She just didn't know that yet.

…

Upon opening the door, Arnold's eyes immediately focus on Helga, who was sound asleep in her hospital bed. He watches her for a minute and notices it was not a very restful sleep, since Helga's eyebrows were furrowed, which he nearly forgot about the time he first noticed her with two eyebrows. He almost didn't recognize her. Come to think of it, he could barely recognize her now: eyebrows furrowed with her long blond hair spread out haphazardly across the hospital bed and some of it covering her face, which was twisted into a look of worry and something else…fear? Pain? But that didn't add up. Helga was always so tough, so headstrong. What did she have to be afraid of? Whatever horrible thing she was dreaming about, Arnold just wanted to chase it away. He so badly wanted to just scoop her up in her arms, but he knew that would not be wise. Helga just suffered a head injury and she probably thinks he hates her. He wanted to tell her the truth, he just knew it was better to ease into it. He knew it would be best to wait until Helga woke up.

Fortunately for Arnold, he did not have to wait long. Unbeknownst to him, Helga was only able to sleep for an hour or two at a time and she had been asleep for about an hour when Arnold came in. About five to ten minutes later, Arnold heard a tired groan and then saw Helga's hand brush the hair away from her face as her eyes slowly open. A few seconds later her gaze rests on Arnold's and their eyes meet. Suddenly Helga's expression drastically changes from tired and groggy to something close to shame and dread.

"Oh my goodness…oh no, oh no, this can't be…I thought I was going to be fine, well for the most part, but I at least thought I was going to live…or am I just hallucinating because of these damn pain killers they got me on? But they didn't affect me like this earlier…so that must mean…oh no…" Helga rambles in a confused daze but also in panic mode like as she trails off.

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Arnold asks, his confusion nearly at the same level as hers, maybe higher. This seems to break Helga's daze. She sits up and crosses her arm, a more resolute but still puzzled expression on her face.

"Well, the oblivious act and confused expression is very much like the real you, but I'm still not going to be fooled by this," Helga reasons out loud.

"Wait, you don't think I'm real?" Arnold asks, not believing what he's hearing.

"How could you be? It's obvious I must be dead, dreaming, or hallucinating. How else would you explain you being here with me right now? You said you never wanted to speak to me again. So, I don't just think you're not real, I know you're not real," Helga declares more resolutely, her steady and stoic gaze never leaving his, which is quite wide-eyed and shocked at this point.

'She really believes she's imagining me or worse…that she's dead. And my harsh words did that to her. I broke her spirit and ruined any shred of hope she had left…about her chances of being loved…by me. Why did she think so highly of me anyway? After all, this is my fault…' Arnold trails off in his thoughts as he tries to end the shame spiral he becomes immersed in.

"Helga…" Arnold begins his response but then realizes he does not know how to finish it as he took a moment to think, as he is still a little bit stuck in that shame spiral, the thoughts swirling, rearranging, and spinning out of control in his head. He has no idea what to think about this. He realizes it is worse than he thought.

'Wow, she really does think I hate her…so I guess that means in her mind the only way I would be here in front of her would be if she were dead or passed out and it's all in her head. I don't know whether to laugh or cry,' Arnold thinks as the rapid shame spiral he was having in his head begins to subside and he now realizes how absurd this all is, but painful too. The one thing he is sure of was that yesterday really had an impact on her, which just makes him feel more guilty, yet kind of honored in a weird way that he has that effect on her, still.

Arnold shakes his head in disbelief as he took everything in. He knows that Helga was stubborn, quite stubborn, which his stubbornness was able to match hers on several occasions, but this time he knows that him being stubborn back would not work for this particular situation. If he wants Helga to believe him, to really believe him, he would have to approach this from a different angle.

'Hmm…I have to prove to her that she's not dead or just hallucinating. It has to feel real to her…but how do I do that?' Arnold tries to brainstorm, becoming stumped for only a split second when it hits him.

'Of course! That's it!' Arnold realizes and is quite proud at coming to this quick conclusion, all while Helga just kept eying him suspiciously. He just gives a shy smile in return that only makes Helga blink a few times and gives him an even more perplexed look.

'Just what is he up to? Oh well, if I'm really dead or imagining this or whatever the hell is going on here, who cares?' Helga thinks to herself, seeming to have made up her mind. Meanwhile, Arnold had done the same.

"There's really nothing I can say that will make you believe me is there?" Arnold asks, although the question is more of a spoken thought than anything else. "I guess I'll just have to show you then," he adds.

Helga's breath hitches the moment Arnold begins to move closer.

"Hey…what are you talking about- mmm!" Suddenly Helga is silenced. By Arnold's lips.

'What…the…hell?!' That is all Helga could think as Arnold's lips continued to envelop hers in the most breathtaking, passionate, and romantic kiss she has ever experienced.

'Oh, so what if this is a dream or whatever this is, because this is amazing!' Helga decides as she finally stops herself from feeling too shocked by the kiss to respond to actually be able to kiss him back.

"Now I definitely know this isn't real, but it feels real. I guess because I so badly want it to be real, but of course it can't," Helga replies some time after they both end the kiss to catch their breath.

"Wait, why not?" Arnold asks, still in a slight stupor from the very kiss that he started.

'Wow, my denseness really had me missing out! Helga is an amazing kisser! So passionate, so tender, so vulnerable. It makes me love her even more,' Arnold thinks to himself in a lovesick daze, not wanting to admit to himself yet that she still isn't convinced.

"Don't give me that. You know why not. If this was real, if you were really here, you wouldn't be kissing me. You'd be telling me more about how much I don't belong in your life, though you wouldn't need to be here for that, because your absence would make that clear enough…this is so confusing. Nothing is adding up. I guess I hit my head pretty hard," Helga finishes feeling rather defeated and tired at the end there as she rubs her temples. She stops immediately though when she feels Arnold caressing her cheeks. It just confuses her even more but the action at least made her stop and look at him.

He could see the pain and the confusion in her eyes, and it hurts him.

'She has been made to think all her life that she is unworthy of being loved by someone, yet it is me who is undeserving of her love and all her kind acts that I've been too oblivious and wrapped up in my own nonsense to notice. If it wasn't for Gerald and Phoebe knocking some sense into me, I never would've known and then where would we be? Oh, Helga, please realize that this is real because you deserve to be treated like this, you more than anyone,' Arnold reflects before continuing to convince Helga.

"You're right, it all doesn't make sense when you put it like that. And I'm not trying to confuse you, Helga, I promise. You've been through so much in the last 24 hours already. I'm just trying to find a way to make you understand. Maybe I should've given you more time to rest, but I guess I just couldn't wait any longer, now that I finally know what everyone else could see but me," Arnold explains, feeling a mix of guilt and determination. He knows Helga has gone through a lot and he probably was not helping, but at this points he feels he already wasted so much time. He just wants to be with her, right now.

"Hmm, well being dense is very 'Arnold-like' but I'm still not convinced, because after all you kissed me and that is definitely not something you would ever do," Helga retorts, crossing her arms and smirking at him, believing she has him pegged this time.

"Then you don't know me as well as you think you do," Arnold responds a little bluntly.

"What?" Helga asks, now slightly more confused than before.

"I would do that, in fact I just did…" Arnold trails off with a smug but slightly exasperated look on his face. He was getting a little tired of Helga's stubbornness. 'Why can't she just believe me?' he asks but not to himself, to no one in particular. However, he knows that he has to keep trying. After all, he's working against years of heartache and lots of practice with hiding her true feelings and he knows that.

"Did you really?" Helga asks blankly, still not budging on the 'this-isn't-real-because-Arnold's-supposed-to-be-hating-me-and-not-kissing-me' thing. Arnold then sighs at that response. He does not like where this conversation is heading. He tries again.

"Look, Helga, I'm sorry. I didn't come for an argument or to try to confuse you, or to make you feel worse. I came here to apologize for treating you like that yesterday. Sure, you hurt my feelings, but not seriously, I mean I can typically handle your childish antics. I know now I was upset with you for treating me like that in public but when it's just us you're actually fun to be around. I realize now that you were upset with me for ignoring you the way I did, for only interacting with you when we're alone like I'm ashamed to be seen with you. I know now that that's how you saw it, and for that I am so sorry, Helga. I am sorry for never noticing the truth until now and leaving you alone believing you had to hide your secret all those years," Arnold apologizes as he takes her hands in his.

"And- and- what secret would that be?" Helga falters for a moment, unable to regain her composure as her confidence begins to fade. She avoids his intense gaze and just stares at her hands in his.

'This is starting to sound real and like he is dangerously close to…' Helga thinks with slight panic but then realizes something else.

'Wait, if I'm dead or hallucinating him and this is not real, then who cares that he may or may not know that I love him? There's nothing to be worried about, Helga 'ol girl. Just please don't wake up' she pleads with herself before feeling emotionally strong enough again to meet Arnold's gaze, which was kind yet still quite intense.

"That you love me," Arnold answers simply.

'Well there goes that theory,' Helga thinks to herself immediately following Arnold's response. She quickly goes into defense mode.

"What are you talking about?" Helga quips, not missing a beat. Her voice contains a hint of unease to it that Arnold almost misses.

"Helga, please stop pretending. I know the truth- that you've been in love with me since we were three. You even tried to tell me when we were nine but I wouldn't listen, then kind of hinted at it in San Lorenzo but I avoided it after we kissed, like I didn't want it to be true. You're right, I am a stupid football head. I am just sorry you had to wait this long for me to figure out my own feelings," Arnold ends with an apology, holding Helga's hands a little tighter.

"What? What feelings? Oh my head hurts," Helga asks as she becomes a little more stressed. The confusion becomes so strong that she feels a sharp pain at her forehead. She winces in pain as she removes one of her hands from Arnold's grasp to gently place it on that spot on her head. Arnold's expression changes to one of worry with still that hint of guilt that he's doing this to her after what she has went through.

"Oh, Helga I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to overwhelm you like this. If you need to just lie down for a minute, I understand," Arnold apologizes as he abruptly gets up and starts to help Helga lie down, but she puts a hand up to stop him.

"Quit hovering over me like I'm some delicate flower. I'm Helga G. Pataki, dammit. I'm a tough-as-nails, nasty bitch. I can handle anything life throws at me without anyone's help," Helga demands while shaking a fist in the air, though it is barely convincing. Arnold holds back a smirk during this display, knowing that that would just make things worse. Besides, he knows it is just a wall Helga feels she has to put up to protect herself from others, from knowing her true self, even him, no especially him.

"Well it's not like you had a choice. Those who should care about you the most didn't even notice you," Arnold reasons, becoming verbally upset with this fact, which is not lost on Helga.

"Yeah, but you do, or well did, and you never had to care about me at all, but you did. All those years of me tormenting you and you still care about me…well until when you said you never wanted to see me again," Helga said in a rather quiet voice, as if void of any self-confidence she had mustered up before. Arnold appears slightly upset when she changed him caring about her to past tense, because it wasn't true.

"You know I didn't really mean it," Arnold responds simply and a little bluntly, but mostly his statement is full of hope, hope that she is starting to believe him.

"Ok, ok. Let's say you didn't and let's say you're real and I'm not dead or hallucinating or whatever, are you just here to ease your guilty conscience because you think I got into that wreck on purpose because you made me cry? Well don't worry, bucko, because it was an accident. Some idiot slammed into me. I was upset but not enough to want to take my own life. I can live without you. I've done it before," Helga reasons with defiance. Arnold knew she was referencing him staying in San Lorenzo until 2 years ago.

"Helga-" Arnold begins, but Helga stops him by putting a hand up. Helga's exhaustion is slowly coming back, again. This does not help with her impatient nature. She needs this to end so she can get maybe another 2 hours of sleep.

"Look, you're sorry. I forgive you, ok? I promise. Now, I'm really tired. How about you leave so I can take another nap and I promise I'll be back Monday morning to harass you same as usual, sound good?" Helga interrupts, waving a tired hand in his face as she cuts him off before he speaks. Secretly, Helga did not want that. After that kiss, she was hopeful something more could happen, but then again she did not want to get her hopes up for nothing. After all, Helga was quite aware by now how often the things she wants often do not happen, especially anything concerning Arnold. To Helga, whether this is a dream or not did not matter. If she is dreaming, Helga knows that eventually she will have to wake up and continue living her life without Arnold. If this is not a dream and Arnold is really in front of her right now, then there is no guarantee that he will not at some point come to his senses and realize he is only acting this way because of sympathy or pity. Whatever the reason for kissing her, to Helga the feelings behind it are only temporary and they will fade. They will never turn into something more because there will never be anything more than this. Sure the moment was sweet while it lasted but the more it goes on the more it makes her heart ache. She felt like Arnold was taunting her by being here, for kissing her, and for hinting at something but never saying it. She knows that he was not trying to do that, but it is how his actions are coming across.

'This needs to end, all my hopes of us ever becoming…well, an us, needs to end. Now. All he has to do is say ok and leave like he probably will as soon as he comes to his senses that he feels nothing more than sympathy for me. He'll probably mutter some awkward apology, ask me to forget that kiss ever happened, and then leave,' Helga predicts in her head as she waits for what she believes will happen to happen. This is not what happens.

N/A: Yeah, probably a little awkward to end it here. Adds a little mystery to it though. I will have part 2 done as soon as I can, hopefully in a couple weeks!