Cascore's Note: Alright, don't worry. After the shocking darkness that was Chapter 6, I've decided to ease up and bring the lighthearted mood back in this chapter. And really, I think Chapter 6 was the most daring I was planning to go throughout the story, so if you didn't like it, don't fret, another chapter like that probably won't be showing up again (maybe). Now that I'm done defending myself, I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Chapter 7: "Hospital Congregation"

Toad sat alone in the waiting room, staring blankly at the white tile flooring as his thoughts focused entirely on Tess. It was so hard to believe this was really happening. It was unbearable to imagine what kind of damage was done on the scene of that dark, unfriendly street.

Thinking about this felt odd. When Toad saw a crime reported on the news, sure, he would initially feel bad for the victim and their family and friends, but eventually he would forget about it, going on with his day. But when it was actually happening to someone he cared so much about, everything seemed completely different. Suddenly, that victim was Tess, and he was the grieving boyfriend that appeared on television to shed a few tears as he talked about the case. Being on the other side of the story for the first time, Toad finally understood what it was like to have something like this happen. And a simple news story did nothing to explain how emotionally tumultuous the event really was.

His eyes were reddened. Whatever tears managed to escape between finding Tess and climbing back into his car to drive to the hospital seemed to drain him both physically and emotionally. His body and mind were just tired. It was only seven in the evening, but this event taxed more energy from him than running for a thousand miles ever could.

Toad expected company to arrive sometime soon. The moment Tess was carted through the doors of the emergency room and Toad was forced to sit outside and wait, he called his family. His eleven year old sister Toadette was the one to answer the home's phone.

"Hello?" she answered from the other end of the line. Toad wished she wasn't the one to pick up the phone, for he didn't want his little sister to be the first to hear the news.

"Toadette, tell Mom and Dad that they need to come to the hospital. Please," Toad commanded with a rather quiet, tired voice that only served to make his sister feel nervous.

"What's wrong Toad? Did something happen?"

"Yeah," Toad muttered, thinking about what he should say before quickly deciding to stay vague about the finer details. "It's Tess. Something bad happened and I need you guys to come to the hospital and keep me company. I can't just sit out here and wait by myself..."

"What happened to Tess?" Toadette persisted, making Toad sigh in exasperation.

"Please Toadette, just tell Mom and Dad that I need them at the hospital," Toad pleaded. "I'll tell you all what happened when you get here."

"Okay..."

With that, the conversation ended and Toad sat back into his chair with a sigh. And even as several minutes passed by, he couldn't believe that he was really sitting in that hospital, in that waiting room completely devoid of any other patrons at all. It all felt utterly surreal, like he was having a nightmare. A nightmare that was all too real and far too long. It was unbelievable. But he continued to wait, unknowing of what would come first, his family or news about Tess's condition. It seemed that both were taking too much time to arrive.

As if on cue, Toad heard faint voices speaking from the other side of the nearby hospital double doors leading into the room. He glanced over, attempting to listen in on what was being said.

"Looks like this is the place," an unfamiliar male voice stated rather quietly. The doors were soon pushed open, leaving them to automatically retract to their original position as three humans stepped into the room. Able to recognize two of them, Toad stood from his seat, surprised.

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked as Luigi and Daisy quickly made their way to his side, followed by a slower moving Jeff.

"We heard about what happened," Luigi explained as the three of them took a seat at once, managing to silently choreograph the action.

"Yeah, it was on the news just a few minutes ago..." Daisy added. "I'm so sorry about what happened to Tess."

Toad's eyebrows raised in shock. He didn't expect anyone to see the story until the following day at the very soonest. Discovering that two of his friends witnessed it though made him wonder just how many people knew about the incident by now.

"Do you know if she's gonna be okay son?" Jeff asked, making his way over to the group, standing next to the spot where Daisy sat.

"Um... No, they haven't told me anything yet," Toad answered to the stranger as he stood up and extended a hand, attempting to keep up formalities even in times like this. "My name's Toad sir."

"Jeff," Daisy's uncle replied, bending down a bit so he could shake Toad's hand. Toad seated himself once more as Jeff took a chair opposite of the kids across the small aisle.

"Do you have any idea who would do something like that to her?" Luigi asked, forcing the answer to pop into Toad's head immediately. He knew from the moment he first heard Tess speak before the incident.

"Her parents," Toad answered sullenly, taking all three of his visitors aback.

"Are you sure?" Daisy asked incredulously. "It couldn't have been anyone else?"

"It can't have been," Toad ensured as he sunk back into his chair. "There are a lot of shifty people that live in her neighborhood, but when she called me before she was attacked, she said that her parents were drunk and that they tried to do something to her. And, knowing them...they would do something like that..."

"But... Oh my God...that's terrible," Daisy muttered, feeling at a loss for words about the situation. Luigi and Jeff seemed to feel the same way, unable to say anything at the news of Toad's suspicion.

"It's true though," he continued. "Tess's parents...they just hate her. And this isn't the first time something like this has happened to her. They've...they have touched her in the past," Toad admitted with a sigh, feeling that he was invading Tess's privacy by revealing her grim history. He felt he had to tell them though. Because this would probably be the last chance he had to explain Tess's past before she was gone forever.

"Ever since she was little...about three or four years old, her parents sexually abused her and even tried to turn her into a prostitute so they could have money for themselves... And every time she cried or tried to resist, they just beat her..." He paused as he let out a deeply sorrowful sigh. "This was...something like this was bound to happen sometime... And I couldn't be there to keep her safe..."

Nobody knew what to say as Toad dropped his gaze to the floor. He refused to let tears stain his eyes anymore, but his heart was screaming to let his emotions out. He had to stay strong though. He had to keep himself together, for Tess's sake more than anything.

Before long, more voices were heard approaching from the other side of the door. Everyone looked over to see a virtual bombardment of friends and family as Mario and the rest of his family and Toad's own family entered the room. Spotting the small group that was already present, everyone made their way over and took their seats, all centering around Toad as they gave him their attention.

"We came over as soon as we heard Toad," Mama Mario said as she laid a sympathetic, rather meaty hand on Toad's slightly slumped shoulder. Once she moved out of the way, Toadette approached her brother and pulled him into a hug immediately.

"Mario told us everything Big Brother," she explained, saving Toad the trouble of telling his family what happened.

"Yeah, we all met out front after Luigi called me and told me about what he saw on TV," Mario added, taking a seat across from his younger brother, next to Jeff. "We just want you to know we're here for you man, and we hope Tess is going to be okay."

Soon after Mario finished his speech, Toadette could hear Toad sniffling over her shoulder. She tried to separate herself from him to look at his face, but Toad quickly held her tightly, making her continue the embrace slightly reluctantly, though she knew she should hold it for her brother.

The moment felt like a bit too much for Toad to take in all at once. Only minutes ago, he was left in that room to suffer the silence and anxiety of the waiting room, keeping himself aware for any noise at all. The burden wearing down on his shoulders only served to intensify with every passing second, and a minute that went by in silence felt like utter torture. But now, finally, there were people. Nine people that drove down to the hospital and found his waiting room, that sat there with him, pledging to keep him company while they hoped just as much as he did that Tess would be alright. Finally, he wasn't alone anymore. They were there. For him, and for Tess. Knowing that all nine of these people thought about them enough to drive out and visit made Toad realized that they truly cared. And at a time like this, he appreciated their company more than ever.

"Thank you everyone..." Toad mumbled after a few short seconds of silence as he allowed Toadette to escape his embrace. "I really appreciate you all coming out here."

It was obvious that several of the visitors wanted to say something, but as Toad spoke, the door into the waiting room from the emergency operation area swung open and closed once again as a Toad doctor with a pure white cap and the typical white doctors' attire entered the room, carrying a clipboard at his side. He approached the group with all eyes on him, refraining from sighing as he prepared to speak.

"Well, the good thing is, she's going to be okay," the doctor started off, though his low, unsettling voice entailed bad information to follow. "She's suffered a concussion due to blunt force trauma, which she'll recover from, but only after several days of resting. We don't expect her to wake up until this weekend at the earliest." A few of the visitors let out a small sigh at this news, though they were relieved that Tess would at least be waking up.

"She has a shattered canine tooth and she's suffering some internal bleeding," the doctor continued to the dismay of everyone around. "We can mend these over time, but we discovered considerable damage in her..." The doctor noticed Toadette, and, seeing that she was rather young, made himself choose his words carefully. "...Groin area," he finished rather uncomfortably. "She'll still be able to perform regular functions such as...well, using the bathroom, but...her possibility for bearing children later in life isn't looking very promising."

This news was met with frowns and incoherent yet obviously disapproving mumbles, though only Toad knew how much this piece of news would affect her when she woke up. Nobody would have guessed at an outset, but Tess really wanted children at some point in her life. When she felt comfortable enough around Toad, she told him all about her plans to someday have a happy and healthy family, only to prove the world wrong if nothing else. Despite all that she had been through, Tess knew that happiness was possible, though she frequently had to be reminded of the fact by Toad. And Tess was up to the challenge.

She'd always been told that, with her background and her rigid personality, she never had a chance of starting and sustaining a stable, well functioning family. She was told that she would never meet that guy that could make her smile, and, even if by some slim chance she did, she definitely couldn't raise children that would turn out to be any better than she was as a kid. With Toad by her side though, part of that impossible challenge was already complete. With Toad, she was granted hope, albeit a faint one, that someday, she could lead a happy and fulfilling existence. And now...now it was possible that she could never truly complete that dream life. It was possible she could never have children of her own.

"The important thing to keep in mind right now is that Tess will be alright," the doctor concluded in front of his silent audience. "We'll have to operate on her for the rest of the night before we can transport her to her own room though, so whether or not you want to stay is entirely up to you."

Everyone automatically knew Toad's decision and the group silently agreed that they would be staying at least a little longer that night. After several seconds of silence and a few people turning their gazes away from the doctor, it was obvious that they were all remaining there.

"Well, I need to get back into the operating room," the doctor informed. "We expect to be in there for the rest of the night at least, and, of course, we'll treat her with the utmost care."

"Thank you," Toad spoke up as the doctor made his exit, pushing open the double doors to recommence work on the poor girl.

Nobody seemed to know what to say for a long while, until Jeff's stomach gave a loud, rather ferocious grumble. He quickly placed a hand over his belly, embarrassed that it would make such a noise at a moment as inappropriate as this. However, as several awkward seconds passed, it did inspire a small chuckle from Daisy as well as a couple others, sparking the beginning of a lighthearted conversation to break the silence.

"Someone's a little hungry," Daisy commented, extending across the aisle to pat Jeff's tummy playfully, making her uncle weakly swipe her hand away.

"Well we did kind of skip out on dinner..." Jeff mentioned quietly. The mention of the food waiting for him back at his home only served to make him even hungrier and he could feel himself begin to salivate. Soon, he gazed over at Daisy with something of a pleading look in his eye. "Uh-"

"You wanna go home and eat dinner?" Daisy asked immediately, saving him the effort of talking. Instead, he nodded as everyone watched on, finding it rather humorous that this middle aged man appeared to be asking his teenage niece if it was alright if they left as if he were a child. Daisy smiled just before turning to Toad. "Would it be okay if we went home to eat Toad?" Daisy queried, causing Toad to nod right away.

"Of course," he responded with a bit more energy than he'd had when everyone first arrived. "Nobody has to stay if they don't want to. It means a lot to me that you'd come out here in the first place." Jeff nodded at this before turning his attention to Luigi.

"Well Luigi, wanna come back and have dinner with us?" he invited, taking Luigi slightly off guard, causing him to lightly blush as he looked between Toad and his own family. "I mean, you did cook it for us, I'd think you should be able to eat with us too."

Oh great, Luigi thought as Mario immediately burst out laughing alongside most everyone else there, who settled to simply chuckle as a result of Mario's sudden reaction.

"Man Luigi, couldn't you have been a little more subtle than that?" Mario blurted out past his laughter, causing Luigi to blush a deeper red. "Seriously, I know you like-"

"Of course I'd like to join you for dinner!" Luigi shouted, cutting off Mario immediately, disallowing him to finish the sentence. Everyone was slightly surprised by the outburst, though only Mario really knew why his brother shouted like that as he reflected on the fact that Luigi wanted to keep his infatuation with Daisy a secret. "Um, if Mama and Papa don't mind," he asked meekly, bringing his voice down several decibels. His parents, who were basically an older version of himself and Mario, save the fact that the shorter and more portly of the two was a female, both agreed that it would be okay for Luigi to go back with Daisy to have dinner, as long as he was home before it was too late into the night.

Soon after, Luigi, Daisy, and Jeff all departed, only to be followed a few minutes later by Mario and his mother and father, giving their well wishes before leaving Toad alone with his family. And secretly, he was glad he had this opportunity to be with them privately, for he had a question that likely wouldn't be easy to answer that he didn't want to subject his parents to in front of others. Letting out a deep sigh, Toad mustered up his courage and turned to his mother and father, a pair of average looking Toads who sported pink spots and red spots on their caps respectively, his mother bearing rather long pink hair, similar to Toadette's, only not braided or spotted with white.

"Mom, Dad...I just have to ask," he began rather slowly, tipping off his parents that this wouldn't be quick to answer. "And I understand if you say no but...well...I think, um..." As he stumbled, he let out another sigh to calm himself down. He didn't think it would be so hard to simply spit out the words. He had to do it though. Not only would asking possibly make him feel better about the situation, but, if they went along with it, it meant a much better future for Tess. With a new resolve, he asked quickly, disallowing himself to lose will before he finished asking. "Do you think we could let Tess live with us?" he finally managed to get out, surprising both of his parents as well as Toadette. Toad instantly felt that his parents were going to start throwing out reasons left and right as to why they couldn't let Tess move in with them. There would be no room for a fifth person, they didn't have enough money to feed another mouth, having their son's girlfriend living with them was just-

"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea..."

...Wait, what?

"...Really?" Toad asked, his eyes riddled with shock. Toadette looked at her parents in surprise as well. Their mother and father were looking at each other, appearing to have a silent conversation amongst themselves about the proposal.

"Well...we do have the basement..." their father muttered. "There's a room and a bathroom down there we use for guests anyway..."

"And goodness knows we couldn't let her go back to her parents..." their mother responded. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were the ones that did this to her, after meeting them several times..."

"They're actually considering it," Toadette whispered into Toad's ear, making him nod slightly, equally as unable to believe the talk they were having. At the same time though, his heavy heart lifted tremendously. Tess's parent were the ones that hospitalized her, and they were already being held in custody after Toad gave his report to the police that appeared on the site. Naturally, they were to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but Toad knew they wouldn't be let off. They simply didn't have the mental capacity to stand firm in court if they tried to plead innocence anyway.

"Well Toad," his mother began after a short while of conversing with her husband, "We'll certainly think about letting her stay with us. If we can sort everything out, and if she's willing..."

She didn't have to say any more. Toad quickly stood from his seat, bounded over to his mother, and gave her a tight hug, feeling overjoyed about the simple consideration of letting Tess live with them.

She was rather surprised to see her son hug her so willingly. Sure, he hugged her time and again, often enough to be considered slightly above the average hugging amount from a teenage son, but the evident love and thankfulness in this particular one was unlike any other she'd felt before. Toad absolutely beamed and his smile seemed to somehow brighten and warm up the entire room. What was previously a dim, unwelcoming environment seemed to lighten up at least a small bit, as the entire family shared in Toad's ecstatic feelings.

Finally, after everything that took place this bleak and painful night, a silver lining could be found, and it was only a matter of time and persuasion to turn that hope into a reality.

Random Note: I just noticed that I end about every chapter with a paragraph that is a single sentence. Hm. I blame catharsis.