Everyone changes with time. A day, a week, a month, a year... they all count. So how much can a group of rag tag 4th graders from P.S. 118 change with junior high, high school, and a whole bunch of history between those seven years? A whole lot.

Years Later

...Goodbye?

Phoebe froze as she watched through now very blurry eyes as Helga G. Pataki, once childhood bully, sat on the ground crying as her body seemed to be breaking apart as her body wracked. She could feel the tears on the back of her eyes and could see them blurring her vision, but she could do nothing.

She was frozen.

Somewhere, in the far distance that was no where near the small world where Helga and Phoebe resided, the bell rang once, signaling the end of third period, before it rang four minutes later, telling faculty and students alike that fourth period had begun. At least had begun for everyone but Helga and Phoebe, who were still stuck six minutes in the past.

Finally, after sitting still for what could only be described as the cliched term eternity, Phoebe was able to snap herself out of the enclosed world. She wrapped her arms around her sobbing friend and gathered her into her arms before resting her head on top of hers.

She whispered softly, almost as if she were afraid to break the fragile bubble that separated them from the rest of the world, "It'll be okay, I promise... We'll find a way to get out of school and get to her... I promise, I promise... she's strong, just like her older sister... she'll be okay." And that's how the two best friends stayed for ten minutes, with Phoebe whispering comforting words to Helga rocking her back and forth as Helga cried, letting the salty and black tears sink into Phoebe's once pristine white shirt.

"It'll be alright... I promise... I promise... I promise..."

(Y/L)

After Helga was finally able to calm herself down to a level where only a few errant tears escaped her red puffy eyes and crawled down her black streaked face, Phoebe and Helga decided to leave the school and take a bus to hospital because ironically, today was the only day in the last few weeks when Phoebe's mother had decided to actually drive her Ferrari to work. Neither teenagers minded though, they both had enough money to get them on the bus to the hospital and take them home. The two would have probably would have left school without a problem, if it wasn't for the fact that the cosmos had decided it was the day for Helga's karmic retribution and had Principal McNielson find himself by the front doors of the school exactly when Helga and Phoebe were trying to leave.

Immediately the principal had both girls dragged back inside of the school and no matter how many times Helga or even Phoebe, who actually didn't have a bad reputation or bad record, tried to explain the grave situation, McNielson did not believe them.

Helga and Phoebe stood there at the front desk arguing with the man for fourteen minutes and thirty-two seconds straight, getting no where with the very stubborn and obnoxious man.

Meanwhile Arnold and Sid walked down the hallway both skipping Mr. Romano's health class for different reasons—Arnold because he simply didn't want to go and Sid because he was missing one Phoebe G. Heyerdahl and one Helga Geraldine Pataki. Both males were shocked to see Helga, whose face was covered with dark streaks running from her eyes all the way down her cheeks, being supported upwards by Phoebe as the small Asian virtually cursed out their principal.

From the distance they were standing from the group the only could make out a few words, but the few words that Sid could make out– Sister, Car, Accident, and Hospital– sent Sid Gifaldi running towards them, with Arnold running at his heels.

Instantly Sid went to Helga's and Phoebe's side, "What's wrong?"

Phoebe held on protectively to Helga, "Hilda got into a car accident and is in the hospital, and because of this bastard," She pointed to the very indignant and annoyed Principal McNielson. "We can't go to the hospital."

McNielson looked at two high school football stars as the both raised an eyebrow at him, "I can't be too sure that this is legitimate first of all and two they need a phone call or a note before the can leave the premises! Plus given Pataki's record and all..." The man trailed off, letting the sentence hang in the air.

Sid glared at the principal as he wrapped an arm around Helga's waist, "I believe her and think she should be excused."

"I believe she should be excused also, can you really stop someone from seeing their loved one when they just got into a car accident." Helga, Sid, and Phoebe looked at Arnold, shocked that he actually spoke up at all.

McNielson squirmed under the scrutiny of two of Hillwood's own personal gods before he actually spoke up, "Well, ahem, if you two are willing to vouch for," He paused for a moment taking a deep breath as if what he was about to say was painful for him. "Pataki and Heyerdahl, then I guess it will be okay for them to leave."

Somewhere in the back of Sid's mind, the teen could only feel disgusted, disgusted to know how much leeway and power the people of Hillwood would give The Golden Ones, but at this moment and time he couldn't really complain, it was one of the few times were he would use to his advantage for something good. Without another word, Sid ushered Helga and Phoebe out of the building with Arnold following behind them.

Phoebe threw a very tight and controlled smile at Sid, he knew that she was thankful, but at this moment in time her mind seemed to be preoccupied by something else. Both friends sadly turned to look at the broken Helga Pataki, "Thanks. We're gonna go to catch a bus and go to the hospital, alright."

Sid raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you just use your mother's toy car?"

Phoebe snorted as she thought of the irony of it all. "Sadly the one time we need it, is the one time she goes and uses it."

"But you can't take the bus, it'll take too long to get to Hilly."

"Then what–"

Helga walked over to the pair. "Can you both stop, I just want to get to my sister's side right now."

Both Phoebe and Sid were sending each other signals with their eyes not really sure what to say or do, and they all stayed that way for a moment, until Sid finally spoke up. "We know, but we just need to find a fast transportation there, it's not like we can get a car–"

"But I can."

Once again Arnold Linshaw surprised the group of best friends.

The blonde football captain did not squirm underneath the gaze of the trio, in fact he did not seem disconcerted by it at all, "I'll be right back, let me just get the person." And with that Arnold Linshaw, the all American Football Quarterback, took off running, back into the school, to find Helga G. Pataki, Phoebe G. Heyerdahl, and Sid Gifaldi, a ride to the get to the side of Hilda G. Pataki, Helga G. Pataki's younger sister.

(YL)

To all of their surprise, the ride that Arnold went to retrieve was one from the owner of the dark blue Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder that sat in a golden parking space of Crinshaw High School's parking lot.

The name of the owner of said car, the one and only Gerald Johanssen.

Sid, Helga, and Phoebe were not sure how Arnold was able to get Gerald to come and drive them to the hospital but within moments of entering the school, he reemerged with Gerald beside him. They all piled into the tricked out car, with Gerald and Arnold in the front, and Phoebe, Helga and Sid in the back, with Helga sitting between the pair as they comforted her by rocking her back and forth in their arms. Each taking their turn, knowing that they falling apart inside just as much as Helga, but knew that they had to be there for her first before they could allow themselves to break down.

Needless to say, the ride was quiet and solemn for the most part, until Helga said, "What if she doesn't make it?"

To which Phoebe responded, "She will, she's as much as a stubborn fighter as her idolized elder sister. Have faith in her Blondie, and I'm sure she won't let you down."

"But she has sic–"

"She'll make it."

A group of rebellious tears escaped Helga's eyes. "I hate hospitals."

Phoebe rested her head on top Helga's and took a deep breath before she exhaled. "I know baby, I know."

The trio rushed inside the hospital with Arnold and Gerald silently following behind them. Once they had succeeded in pushing every person out their way, they found out where Hilda was and were guided to her room by a very silent nurse.

And there they found her, lying in a bed behind a glass window in a standard hospital gown, with wires poking at every inch of her small body, covered with purple bruises and viscously angry red cut marks, and blonde hair that was at one point in two neat pigtails in disarray cluttered with dirt and clumps of red. Her eyes were closed and the machine beside her bed was steadily beating, making sure that they all knew that she was still alive.

Helga pressed her make-up smudged face on the glass window, sighing in relief before she whispered, "She's still here with me."

Phoebe hugged Helga close to her as Sid kept an arm around both of them. She opened her mouth to say something encouraging and comforting, when a tall doctor in a white jacket walked into the antechamber of the room and asked, "Who is Miss," The doctor looked down the clipboard in his hand. "Pataki's family?"

"Me."

The doctor threw a small smile at Helga and she could see right through the flimsy smile, she had been in hospitals one two many times and now could read doctors fairly well. She said nothing, hoping that, that fake smile meant only something good, rather than something bad. "Could you please follow me, Miss..." The man trailed off.

"Helga Pataki." Helga said as she followed the man out of the room.

Sid and Phoebe watched apprehensively as Helga left the room.

And the room was quiet and still with no one breathing a word or moving an inch.

After a while of watching Hilda, Sid guided Phoebe down to one of the seats by the wall opposite of the window into Hilda's room, but Phoebe could not stand sitting for long. She stood up almost immediately and when Sid, Arnold, and Gerald, gave her questioning looks, Phoebe threw them all a small smile, "I'm just g-going to, uhhh, get us some tea and coffee and maybe hot chocolate f-from the kitchen," She looked down at Sid, "You wait... wait here for Helga to get back, okay?"

Phoebe did not even wait for an answer; she just left the room, knowing the way around the hospital that her parents worked in.

Sid sat in the room, the usually perverted jester sat silently. "Gerald?"

Gerald raised an eyebrow at Sid.

"Follow her for me, please... I–I have to wait for Helga to get back... with..." He trailed off silently as his dark eyes refocused themselves on the little girl behind the glass window.

Gerald looked at his friend for a moment before he did as he asked, he followed Phoebe. I took him a while to find the small Asian, considering he did not know his way around the hospital like she did, so he had to ask a few nurses until he found the kitchen on the floor of the hospital that they were on. But when he did find it, he did not see Phoebe Heyerdahl making coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. No instead what he found was one Phoebe Heyerdahl sitting in the corner of the empty kitchen with her knees tucked in and her head on her knees as she finally allowed herself to cry.

Gerald just sat down beside and said nothing as he allowed her to finish what she had started. Phoebe finally calmed down enough so that she could actually speak, her eyes were rimmed in pink, her cheeks seemed tinged in a pink, and her nose could have rivaled Rudolph's but she had calmed down.

For a while she and Gerald spoke about the differences between coffee, latte, and espresso, and then talked about random topics that could keep Phoebe's mind off of the little girl she had come to think of as a younger sister, laying in a bed with wires and tubes covering her. And for a while things were okay, at least they were until Gerald said, "You know the last time we actually talked liked this..." Gerald trailed off, not really wanting finish his sentence, but Phoebe was more than willing to finish it for him.

"Since the end of eighth grade, right before I found out that my supposed boyfriend was seeing one Kamelia Alba behind my back... was that what you were going to say?"

And then, there was silence.

When Gerald finally did open his mouth to say something, Phoebe had already gotten up from the floor and moved to get some styrofoam cups, "You know what, I think I'm ready to get the coffee, tea, and hot chocolate ready, I'm sure they're waiting for us," She turned around and looked down at Gerald as she wiped a few of her tears from her puffy eyes. "So what does Arnold like... tea, hot chocolate, or coffee?"

(YL)

When Phoebe and Gerald reentered the antechamber of Hilda's room with the mixture of tea, coffee, and hot chocolate, they found Helga sitting down in chair next to Sid. Phoebe immediately put down the cups she was holding and ran to Helga's side. "What's going on?"

Helga didn't answer, so Sid did it for her, "The accident was really bad, Hilda right leg was twisted, but they were able to pop it back straight and she lost a good amount of blood, but they were able to give her some from the all the donated blood they had,"

Phoebe smiled shakily, "That's good."

"But there were some complications. She had a crisis and she was really in pain, they gave her some medicine to relieve the pain and some other medication so she could go to sleep but they are afraid the crisis might last a bit linger than a day or so because of the accident," He paused for a moment to look down at the mute blonde sitting next to them. "They're afraid she'll get a lung infection or acute chest syndrome."

"But she's okay, right?"

Sid said nothing, as if he had become tongueless. Helga nodded her head slowly before she finally spoke up, "Yea, for now."

(YL)

Sorry, but I still don't own Hey Arnold! Because if I did I would have a whole lot more money that two dollars to my name... Gee, a month has passed already... hehe (.) I hadn't noticed... But I would like to say thank you to Jaded Angel, Yzibella, Drucilla Black, Garlic Blanket, Inferna, Starry-Eyez888, Shadow Goddess Akhet, Princess Amanda, Kitten Siren, Aaweth, Mannick, and azngurlenluv for the wonderful review that encouraged me to get back on my lazy bum to type this chapter on my computer.

For the readers of FF, I will try and get another chapter out by next week Friday... I just have some standardized testing that I have to deal with for three days straight before I can right again... the horror!

Oh and I changed something back in chapter 4, just to let you know, all I did was say that Arnold's parents are alive and living with him and his grandparents, nothing big... at least for you, for me it was essential to the plot... but if you're lazy like me and don't want to go back and read it, now you know what I changed.

Oh and just to let everyone know who doesn't know, periods of pain for a person with sickle cell anemia is usually called a crisis, which may vary in severity, how often they happen, and how long they last. Whereas one person may have only one sickle cell crisis a year, another may experience crises more often. Crises can be brief, or may last hours, days, or even weeks. Symptoms can develop in any body organ or tissue and include aching arms, legs, hips, and shoulders. When people with sickle cell disease get acute chest syndrome, which is caused by infection or trapped red blood cells in the lungs, they may have severe chest and abdominal pain, fever, cough, and trouble breathing. People with sickle cell anemia are more likely to get infections in the lungs, bones, blood, and urinary tract. And if anyone has any more information about let me know.

PS:

U, if you would like to point out where I made the mistakes instead of being an ass and just leaving that comment that would be helpful. And if you find so many mistakes in my story, if you would like to leave and e-mail address or anything like it to become my beta reader, that would also be helpful. Thank you.

To everyone else, I hope I didn't keep y'all waiting to long...

Next Chapter: Schwanengesang– The Swan Song

Do remember to click the shiny review button, because an abandoned review button is a disgruntled and very sad review buttons. So click it and save a review button.

S.L. Cipher– The Queen of Eville (No this not a spelling mistake but a higher echelon of evil, look it up in The New Cipher Dictionary of Cipherous Lexiconography) who will gladly accept all criticisms, advice, reviews, praises, and flames with a large Cheshire Cat Smile. Why the Cheshire Cat Smile? Why, because Cheshire Cat Smiles will always piss people off and Cipher loves pissing people off because it is exceptional fun... Especially when they try and attack you. Which is exactly why when one wields the Cheshire Cat Smile, it is important that they must also wield a mace and a sword.

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