Chapter 40

Krystal was trying to open her eyes in the hospital room, she still sat with her legs in the chair with her, still bent and her arms wrapped around her legs still. She looked around and stretched her arms and legs while the sun was beaming into the hospital room, she looked at the clock and saw it was only 7 that morning. "Did I really sleep like this for that long?" She said to herself. She looked over at the hospital bed and it was vacant. She turned her head, then quickly turned back to the bed in worry, not knowing where Fox was. She began to panic, wondering if maybe he had to have surgery of some sort and she knew nothing about it, what were his parents gonna say?

"What are you looking for?" A familiar voice said. "You scared me, don't do that." Fox just laughed and she tried not to laugh. "Why did you come to my house half passed out last night?" Fox just had a dumbfounded look on his face, "Because I was about to pass out, and your house was the closest to me, duh." He just had a small fruit cup in his hand that he was snacking on while he swirled the contents with a spoon and chewed the fruits already in his mouth. "You sleep late, you know that?" He said with his mouth half full of fruits.

"Pft, coming from the person who I woke up at eleven the other day." She smirked at him with intent to make fun of him. He just rolled his eyes at the remark, "Right, about that. How about we just forget about that for now?" He tried to chuckle but they both knew that was a lame joke. "So what did you and Panther do yesterday?" Her ears flapped at the mention of his name.

"Well he just came over is all, Mom and Dad went out of town for a small business trip for the weekend. They said they only wanted the girls to come over unless it was a group, they feel like they've been a little too lenient with me being with some of the guys on my own. They say they think I've been hanging out with a bunch of guys a lot lately and think that I should spend more time with the girls." Fox scooped up the last few bits of fruit out of his cup and started chewing them. "Just came over huh? I took a run last night and saw he was there, didn't know if your parents were there though." He told her as he poured out the juice and threw away the cup.

'Can't let her know' was all that came to his mind.

"Yeah, well a little more happened than that. He really wanted to see me and all, but I could see his thoughts. He wanted to do a bit more than just see me. Not the big one, but he wanted to get touchy way more than enjoy my company. So I told him what my parents said, and he didn't seem very happy. So he stormed out really mad. I've never really seen him mad." Fox pulled up a chair to sit beside her and leaned back in it. "So did you tell him that you can read thoughts sometimes? Or does he know at all?" She just looked up to the ceiling, thinking on that question. "I actually don't think he knows. I can't remember if I told him or not."

Fox really didn't expect that, from what he could remember she really was into Panther when they first got together, they'd been together for a while now, at least a month. They'd spent plenty of time together too, way more than with Fox and his friends. "So tell me, what happened last night? Why were you hurt?" Fox was ready for this, why else would he wake up early? He couldn't risk Krystal poking around in his mind and finding out the truth.

"I'm telling you this because I care about you, you're a good friend to me. It was Panther." Silence clouded the room. Both of them were afraid to say anything. "I'm not joking, I'm not saying this to stir any trouble, I'm only telling you the truth. I'm willing to put this past him now that I know the reason for his actions, but he needs to straighten himself out with his behavior before I do it for him." Fox was stone faced, Krystal was stone faced, neither of them said another word.

"You… you are joking aren't you? I…. I know he was mad but he would never do something like this." He just turned his head towards her with an expression she just didn't want to see. "I…I need to go. I need to think about this." She got up abruptly and made a break for the door. "Krystal." She turned to the one who said her name. "Be careful if you talk to him about this, I don't want you to be the next." There was a lump in her throat as the thought of Fox's admonishment, she walked out the door quickly.

'How's she getting home? Eh, she'll make it alright. I hope.' Fox just went and laid back down in his bed. 'Somehow I got off scotch free here, just bruising and not a real injury. Not sure how but I'm not arguing.' He looked out his window in deep thought, deeper than any other time he's had to think about, he's never had this much on his mind.

"Hey old dude, mind coming back home since you guys didn't go too far out of town?" James just groaned at his son's request.

"Son, you know your mother and I have planned this for two months, you told me that you wouldn't do this under any circumstance." Now Fox just sighed into the phone. "Dad, I know you guys have, but this is really important. I didn't wanna tell you but I'm in the hospital and I need you guys to come back down here. We have a problem." Now James was a bit more attentive but he still sighed. "Alright son, we'll be there in a few hours. Try not to hurt yourself even more before we get there." Fox just laughed a bit at his dad's comment. "Thanks Dad." He hung up the phone and closed his eyes as he was laying in his hospital bed.

'How am I gonna tell Dad? I can't even tell Krystal. It'll probably be easier telling him, I'll start with him and Mom. Then I'll tell the guys, I know they won't tell the girls. Probably shouldn't tell them just in case.' He looked back to the window and saw the greenery out in the hospital grounds, and saw all the cars going back and forth on the roads and wondered to himself. 'Things will be normal I'm sure. They were before now, they'll still be later. Best not to worry about it, nothing good comes from that.' He drifted off into sleep once more, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his parents.

He woke up just a few minutes before he saw and heard the door open. "It's about time, what took you so long?" He said as a joke when he saw the black lens of his Dad's sunglasses. "Do you actually want me to answer that?" He shot back with a smirk as Fox started looking for a trash can.

"So how bad is it? What'd you do this time?" He asked as he held the door open for his wife. "Nothing really, just some bruising." He and his wife sat down in the two chairs that two other Foxes were sitting in earlier. "Okay, so the hospital stuff isn't the problem, what is the problem?"

Fox sat on the edge of his bed wishing he'd thought more on this rather than sleep. "Well honey? Is the problem what put you in this state?" He looked up still not entirely sure of what to say. "Well, you could say that's a problem, but that's not THE problem here really."

James wasn't a man of short temper, but with the unexpected cancelling of this special occasion, and this obscure conversation about a supposed problem, that isn't really looking like a problem at all, was starting to irritate him. "Okay son, so you've called us out from this special occasion, and now you're playing a game of riddles with us. I love you son but now isn't the time for a little game."

Fox could tell the frustration his Dad had but he just didn't quite know how to put this problem. "Well it's just… what I mean is, you see the problem is just…" James stood up quickly now tired of this game. "What is it?! What's this problem that you've got?!" James was nearly to the yelling point. Fox just held his arms up gesticulating with his hands not knowing really how to put it, and his gesture wasn't helping get his point across.

He just walked over to the window and leaned out it and looked around with a blank stare. "The problem is…" He just looked around before sighing and turning around to face his parents.

"I remember."


We all knew it was gonna happen at some point, so hopefully I built it up real good in this one chapter. Hope everyone's enjoying it so far, I'm starting to get my groove back with the high school writing, maybe I can pull some cool stuff. Please enjoy and comment, I'd actually prefer you guys to please not comment predictions just because it could take away from the people who try and keep it all a surprise, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. This was kinda a cliche way for him to remember this stuff but like I said I'm trying to scale the work down so I had to reset things sooner or later and I think sooner is better so long as Krystal doesn't know, shhhh don't tell her :D