Huff!!! Finally, here's chapter two. I know, you can kill me if you want because I delayed a whole eternity to write it, but I've been kind of busy reading a story MisGel told me to read, because it's going to help me to write another story I have on mind (and which I'm already writing) Well, hope you like it!!!
BECAUSE OF LOVE
Chapter 2
Jumba yawned as he pressed the last key on the keyboard:
-Well, that's being enough for a day. Evil Genius is getting tired of inventing new additions for house. Am going to watch TV.
The chair creaked as he stood up. The computer screen turned black as he pressed the off button. His feet started moving towards the exit door, but before he could press the button to go out, the metallic sluice opened, revealing his little, though most successful creation outside. Jumba's eyes widened:
-626!!! What happened to Little Girl??? Why are you carrying her on your arms???
Stitch entered quickly, not paying attention to Jumba's questions. He placed gently the girl on a near couch and turned to Jumba:
-Jumba! Lilo isa tiki-uga!!! Naga oki-takka!!! Gaba nodu oki Lilo?
-626, be calming down… perhaps Little Girl is just tired and fell asleep… however, am going to see what's the matter with her. Go to watch TV while Jumba is checking Little Girl; I'll be advising you when I finish checking her.
-But…
-626, please, be trusting me: she will be okay; am just needing to check if everything is being alright with her. Do what I'm telling to you: go and calm down.
Jumba pushed him gently outside. Stitch went out reluctantly: he really wanted to be there, beside of Lilo. He looked back at Lilo, lying on the couch before the door closed. When the door finally closed, the darkness inundated the place, being only illuminated by the feeble light of the moon and the stars, but only by a few seconds: a huge cloud blocked the moon, leaving everything on a deep darkness. A lightning illuminated the sky for some seconds, and a soft rain started to fall on the ground. Stitch wanted to stay there, waiting, but soon the water obligated him to rush to the house before getting his fur soaked.
"What a strangest weather! Some minutes ago, I would've sworn it was totally normal. What's going?" Stitch thought as he reached the door. A chill ran across his spine; he felt something was wrong with Lilo… and somehow, this cold rain made him to remember that fact. Would be it an advice?
"-626, be calming down… perhaps Little Girl is just tired and fell asleep…"
Those had been Jumba's words… he wanted him to calm down because everything was going to be okay with Lilo… or at least that was what he thought. He dropped on the couch… what if Jumba was wrong? After they pulled away, something changed. He had felt something changing on her all of sudden. Maybe he had heard it? That was pretty probable. His sense of hearing was even better than the bat's, he could have heard easily the beats of her heart… and in fact he did. He heard the way Lilo's beat fastened when they were kissing, and how it stopped all of sudden…
-Oh, hello Stitch! Wanna watch some TV?
Stitch jumped right where he was sitting on. He had been so thoughtful that he didn't realize that Pleackley was still watching TV while sitting on the couch, so he had sat there without noticing anything around him, not even Pleackley.
-Huh? Gaba?
-Awww, my favorite program has finished… well, it's time to change to another channel!!!
Stitch watched as Pleackley changed the channels one by one. Finally, after the hundredth time of changing channels, he stopped on one that got his attention:
-Okay, let's see what we have here!!!
It seemed to be another of those boring programs he loved to watch, but Stitch would gladly watch it if it calmed him down at least a bit.
"-Good night to all those who are watching us right now —a man talked as he entered on the room —welcome to "The saddest love tragedies". Today we'll have one of the saddest stories we have ever watched. Cry while you watch it."
Stitch tried to watch the program, but slowly, he started to feel his eyelids getting heavier. He shook his head twice, trying not to fall asleep, but soon he was so tired that he couldn't help to let his eyelids to close during some seconds. He repeated the same action some times, and eventually he gave up, falling asleep.
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Jumba yawned as he sat back on his chair:
-Alright, everything is placed now. The only thing left to do is waiting until computer gives me the results… 626 was being too worried about Little Girl, but am being sure she just passed out for some reason… hehe, am betting she got a date with the not-so-smart boy.
He stared at Lilo, lying down on some kind of table. He looked at the computer and pressed a red button on it. The computer came to life and started to beep:
-Scanning process on. Looking for anomalies in the solicited body. Please wait some minutes while the process is finished off.
Jumba stared at the screen as a tridimensional image of Lilo's body appeared there:
-Ah, it will be quick. If some anomaly is found, then the computer will show me what's being wrong or strange with Little Girl, but am sure she just needs to rest.
A little red light lit on the screen and the computer beeped:
-First anomaly found: stress level is too high.
Jumba stared at the computer for some seconds. It was true, the level of stress on Lilo was too high for someone of her age, but then he thought again that she just needed to rest to get okay, but as he thought that the computer beeped again:
-Second anomaly found: blood pressure is too high.
Before Jumba could even concentrate on what the computer had just said, it beeped again:
-Third anomaly found: heart rate is too elevated over the normal level.
That got Jumba's full attention. Yeah, maybe a too high stress level shouldn't be such an issue to worry about, but a high blood pressure coming along with a too elevated heart rate was more than worrying. The red ciphers appeared on the screen of the computer, and all what Jumba could do was stare at them with worried eyes:
-This is not being very good…
The anomalies list grew larger as more symptoms were added to the list. Jumba's eyes grew wide with worry as he looked at that list. Definitely, this wasn't good…
-Scanning process has ended. Preparing diagnosis…
Jumba approached to the screen eagerly. Maybe, after all, Stitch had been right about being that worried about Lilo…
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"-What's going with Mary Anne, doctor? Please, I need to know!!!
The doctor just shook his head.
-Sir, I can't lie to you. Mary Anne has a strange heart disease that has no cure… besides she's on terminal phase. I'm sorry…"
-Ahhh, poor Mary Anne!!! She won't be able to marry Michael!!!!
Pleackley's loud cry made Stitch to open his eyes and jump with that huge amount of decibels on his voice, making him to fall onto the hard floor. He groaned, not because it hurt him, but because he didn't like the way Pleackley made him awoken, but Pleackley seemed to pay more attention to the TV than to Stitch's annoyance, so he just climbed back to the couch and tried to go back to sleep, but this time the TV drew his attention too:
"-Doctor, may I see Mary Anne? I want to talk to her…
The doctor seemed to think about it thoroughly, and finally nodded:
-Okay, but quick. No more than five minutes. Please, try not to impress her too much… remember her heart is too weak…"
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Jumba waited patiently, but his insides were spinning swiftly with a considerable amount of thoughts about Lilo… he was starting to believe that Stitch's first impulse had been right. The computer finally finished with the diagnosis process and beeped:
-WARNING… WARNING…
Jumba hurried to press a button, and the computer halted. Instead of the warning advice, another letters appeared on the screen:
-The living being you have requested to be checked has a cardiovascular disease, and now is on terminal phase. Remaining time of life: estimated on 15 Earth-days. The amount of days can vary, depending on the resistance of the body.
-Oh no…
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Stitch was now totally entangled on the TV program. What had got his attention wasn't the "romance", as Pleackley would call it (in fact, he didn't know exactly what romance meant, but that didn't annoyed him)… what had got his attention was the illness symptoms, making him to imagine unwillingly what would happen if Lilo had that illness. He could almost imagine Lilo laying on that bed instead of the actress, helpless, her life being held by a machine that could just delay the inevitable death… he shook his head, trying to toss away that thought from his mind. After all, TV wasn't the same thing than real life was… right?
"-Isn't there anyone who wants to donate a heart? My love's dying!!! Please… is really that difficult to get a heart? —"
Pleackley was now crying at the top of his throat uncontrollably as uttering some meaningless words. Stitch growled as he heard Pleackley crying. The one-eyed noodle was getting to his nerves. Everything was getting to his nerves!!! Definitely Pleackley wasn't helping him to feel better with his cries, nor the TV program. His head started spinning with a bewildering fury, and everything became a blur to his eyes. He couldn't tell what happened to him, the next he knew was he had a small pillow ripped to tears on his hands. The couch were he had been sitting on was no more than two huge pieces of wood. Pleackley hid behind of the biggest one, trying to protect himself from Stitch's anger:
-AHHH!!!!!!! Stitch, please control yourself!!!! You're gonna tear the whole house to tears!!! What's the matter with you???????
Stitch calmed down quickly. His respiration went slow as he watched with wide eyes what he had just done… did he really went out of control to do that? His eyes studied the whole room: the TV was steaming smoke out of its broken glass; lying on the floor was the old shelf with all the books sprawled over the whole room, some of them with their pages ripped to little tears. He didn't remember clearly how he had come to do all that havoc, he just knew that from a second to another he turned from an uneasy Stitch to a total destructor monster. Pleackley, seeing that Stitch had apparently calmed down, went out from his hiding place and started to pick up some pieces of all those trash:
-Great, now I'll have to clean the whole room!!! If only Lilo was here to keep you down… of course, she's the only one who can keep you down, not even Jumba can when you insist on destroy everything you touch!!!
-Stitch… Stitch is sorry… Stitch didn't mean to destroy home…
Stitch stared back at the room, watching what he had done once more, not believing it at all. It was true. If Lilo was there, then he wouldn't have done all that disaster, but he had because was afraid… afraid of being told something he didn't want to hear.
-Pleackley, where is being 626???? Am needing to talk to him urgently!!!
Stitch's eyes went from the room to the opened door. Jumba was standing there, panting for air and wet because of the rain, pouring softly outside. As he recovered his composure, he looked into the room:
-What was happening here???
Pleackley frowned as he bent down to pick up another piece of trash:
-Well, your dear monster went out of control and did all this!!! —he said as his finger pointed at everything broken on tore to tears inside the room —now I'll have to clean up all this disaster!!!
Jumba looked for Stitch with his gaze and stared at him. Stitch couldn't know if it was a disappointed glance or a worried one, but Jumba didn't seem to be calm. Anyway, he started talking again, now to Stitch:
-Not being important now. 626, am needing you to come to spaceship with me. Something isn't right with Little Girl…
Stitch raised his eyebrows as he heard those words. Again he felt that fear to be told what he didn't want to hear… what if Lilo was really going to die?
-But… Jumba told Stitch… Lilo will be oki-takka… right?
-Am not thinking like that now, 626. Computer has found that Little Girl is really wrong. Let's go to spaceship!!!! Am explaining later!!!!
-What do you mean with "Little Girl is wrong", huh? Jumba, what's the matter with Lilo??? Please, tell me!!! —Pleackley cried as he grabbed Jumba's shirt.
-Be coming with us if you are wanting to know… there's no time!!! Jumba said as he rushed outside, with Stitch following him closely. Pleackley was left behind during some seconds, without knowing what to do, but then he started to run as well:
-Hey, wait for me!!!
As all of them ran downstairs, the lights of a jeep was seen through the darkness of the forest. Nani was arriving home now.
-Hey guys, what's up? What are you so worried about? —Nani asked as she noticed Stitch passing as a lightning next to her.
-Something's wrong with Lilo!!! Come on, Jumba will explain us in the spaceship!!! —Pleackley shouted as he passed her.
-Oh, no… wait for me, then!!! —she shouted as she followed Pleackley.
Stitch was a lot of meters ahead of the group. His fear made him to run faster than what he thought was possible even for him. He ran passing some ferns and other vegetation of the forest, falling from time to time on some muddy puddle, as the cold rain poured on his head and body. He didn't mind though. He just wanted to get to the spaceship. Finally, after some seconds more of running, he got to the spaceship. He entered there and looked for Lilo frantically, and there, next to the computer's keyboard was some kind of cot. There was she.
He rushed to her side. As soon as he reached her, he took her hand on both of his and squeezed it:
-Lilo? —he whispered, squeezing it a bit more —please, wake up… meega naga likes Lilo sad, or sick. Meega likes Lilo happy. Please…
His eyes began to water, and a knot came to his throat. He took off a tear from his right eye, but as soon as he did, he noticed by first time the computer screen. He let go of Lilo's hand and approached to the screen, trying to read these words:
The living being you have requested to be checked has a cardiovascular disease, and now is on terminal phase…
Stitch tilted his head slightly, showing his confusion. How could he even know what a cardiovascular disease was, or what terminal phase meant? He was intelligent, but there were some words that confused him. He couldn't understand all what it read, but he decided to continue reading those huge red letters:
Remaining time of life: estimated on 15 Earth-days. The amount of days can vary, depending on the resistance of the body.
"Remaining time… of life???"
Stitch gasped. He knew what that meant, but didn't want to believe it… Lilo had less than a week left to live… she was going to die.
-Alright, now as Jumba promised, am telling you about Little Girl —a Russian accented voice filled the room. As he heard the voice, Stitch ran into Jumba and grabbed him by his shirt, before he could even give an explanation:
-Jumba, Lilo naga oki-takka!!! Lilo isa kuwani wamba dooka… Lilo… Lilo gonna die!!!!!!!
Stitch loosened of sudden his grip on Jumba's shirt and fell to the ground helplessly as he cried. Everybody stared at Stitch shocked. Nani bent down and helped Stitch to his feet gently, not knowing how to calm him down. After some seconds all the glances went to Jumba:
-Jumba, is Lilo… going to die? —Nani asked cautiously, trying not to lose her self-control. Pleackley stared at Jumba with the same glance on Nani's face, waiting eagerly for an answer. Jumba dropped his head sadly:
-Am fearing she is. She has a heart disease that is making her heart to stop its beaten. Computer calculates she has no more than fifteen days before her heart stops completely.
Everybody dropped their faces. Nani's cheeks were filled soon with her tears. She tried to keep her composure, but it was more than she could take and soon she was on her knees, crying while embracing her sides. Some tears were on Pleackley's eye too, but he could make it better to hide it.
-But how's possible??? She's barely sixteen!!! How could she get such a horrible disease???
-Am not knowing for sure. Computer showed the stress level was too high, as well as the blood pressure. Perhaps Little Girl was having some kind of problem at school, which could surely have made her to get the high stress level, but something really bad must have happened to her tonight… something that really got to her nerves…
-How do you know that??? —Pleackley asked while trying to comfort Nani.
-The illness Little Girl suffers of is really dangerous because its havocs are not shown up until the damage is too advanced inside of heart, making either too difficult or impossible to find a solution for problem. She could have been living with it by years without even knowing about it!!! The strong emotions and impressions are accumulated inside of her. It's like a time-bomb: the most she accumulates those strong emotions, the most the risk of being affected by them increase. That's what happened to Little Girl: she was having a too strong emotion that got to her nerves and made the time-bomb explode…
-And is there any cure or solution to this?
-Am not being sure. Am trying to look for one, but it's not too likely I can be finding one…
Nani started to weep again, this time silently, waiting…
The worst of them had been Stitch, who had hit the floor until leaving the mark of his fists on it. Now he was apparently calmed, but his insides were really troubled. He was so troubled that he feared he could, from one moment to other, destroy the whole spaceship, just like the living room. Everybody waited… just waited… Jumba seemed to pass a whole eternity playing the keys on the keyboard, looking for some kind of solution.
-Am not being sure about how long it will be taking. Perhaps family should be going to house to rest a little while am working on this.
Pleackley and Nani glanced at each other and nodded. They walked out the spaceship and made their way to home. But Stitch stayed there. He had remained in the same place he had been on since Jumba started to explain Lilo's problem. Jumba started playing on the keys again, but he knew Stitch hadn't left the room. Without turning his face away from the screen, he started to talk:
-626, you are needing to rest as well. This might be taking a long time to find a solution. Why don't you go to be resting as everybody?
Stitch sighed:
-Meega naga nota… Stitch wants to stay beside of Lilo —he said softly as he stared at the floor —can Stitch stay here?
-Am not knowing if it's being a good idea, 626 —Jumba answered —but if you are wanting to stay here, it's alright. Besides, am supposing that Bigger Girl will not be very happy about the living room —he chuckled as he thought about the havoc done in there.
Stitch said nothing else. He walked toward Lilo slowly, like thinking about something. He grabbed a near chair and placed it near to the table Lilo was lying on. As he sat down, he took a grip on one of her hands and stroked it softly. His eyes started to water, but this time he could control better his emotions and just wept silently as all his fears came to his mind. Why she? From all the persons he could know why she had to be the one lying there, almost dying? A chill ran across his spine when a somber thought crossed his mind. What would happen if she died?
The images of the destroyed living room came to his mind. He was nervous when he did that, he was afraid… now that he knew what was going to happen to Lilo, it scared him even more. If he had done it only because of uneasiness, how much more damage would he do if Lilo died? The fact that his life could become empty because the absence of Lilo in it scared him more than anything… what if he became again a monster? What if he went out of control? These and more thoughts made his whole being shrank with fear. He had been afraid of other things before, and he had tried to deny it several times because of his own pride, but this… this was beyond of his pride, beyond of his strength. He felt so impotent… he was the ultimate experiment, the Experiment 626, the Almighty of all of the experiments… and there was him, with all his strength, with all his powers and abilities, unable to save his best friend, his boojibu…
-Lilo… —he whispered softly, near of the girl's face. He tried to speak completely in English, pausing between words, trying to guess which word would fit better —Why you? All persons… why you? You are my friend, my boojibu… Stitch wished Stitch was on your place… Stitch would die without you. Please, don't leave Stitch alone… if you do, Stitch will die. Your love keeps Stitch alive… gives Stitch a reason to live… if only Stitch could do something… Stitch would give live only to keep yours here… Stitch would gladly die for you… because Stitch loves you… ih, more than just friend. Stitch truly loves you. I… just wanted you… to know that.
He looked at her face for some seconds more, hoping her eyes would open all of sudden, hoping she would smile at him again with that same warmth that made his heart melt inside of him. But her eyes remained closed, and her lips never moved to smile at him. Instead, they were pale, not showing any sign of consciousness or even life…
He diverted his eyes from her angelical face to look up at Jumba. He was still playing on the keyboard, and seemed like if he was going to stay like that for a long time. Then he looked back at her face, and then down at her lips. He hesitated about doing what he had in his mind, but after some seconds he cupped her face on his hands and leaned on slightly to meet his lips with hers. "Why am I doing this if she cannot even feel that I'm here?" he thought as he kissed her, but then another thought crossed his mind: "Don't think too much about what you're doing. This might be the very last time you can kiss her while she's still alive, so don't think about it anymore… just do it" Some part inside of him seemed to be talked to him, and he did what he was told to do. As some tears flowed from his closed eyes, he leaned closer and pulled her face closer to his, kissing her more intensely like trying to glue to her.
Jumba was still looking at the screen, but for some unknown reason he needed to turn his face away from the screen just for some seconds. What he saw made him almost to drop his jaw. There, on that feebly-lighted corner of the ship, was his ultimate creation, beside of the girl, but that wasn't what bewildered him. What made him stunned was the fact that he was pressing his lips again the lips of the girl like if his whole life depended on that. He observed shocked how some tears started to flow from his eyes, and watched his useless attempts to keep them inside by closing them more. He was crying… the Experiment 626 was crying out his heart, just like a baby would have cried without his mom, but silently. This was the first time he watched him crying on that way and that shocked him completely. Finally, after several seconds of watching, he retrieved his composure and waited until Stitch pulled Lilo away completely:
-626…
Stitch jumped with fright. He had totally forgotten that Jumba was there as well, and the thought that Jumba might have seen him kissing Lilo made him drop his face and blush in shame. Jumba realized that Stitch wasn't going to reply him, so he continued:
-Am letting computer work by itself. Jumba is going to sleep on the bed inside the spaceship. Am thinking you should go back home, but am not forcing you to leave if you are not wanting to. Are you staying here?
Stitch couldn't get back his own composure, so he just nodded without looking up at his creator:
-Um, yeah… Stitch gonna stay here… good night, Jumba.
Stitch grabbed quickly another chair from the corner and put it next to the one he had been sitting on, making a bed with both of them together. He lied there and just waited until his eyelids closed completely, allowing him to fall asleep. Jumba went to the room inside the spaceship, but returned with two blankets on his arms. First of them, he covered Lilo with the largest one, hoping Lilo could even move slightly, but nothing happened. Then he approached Stitch, and placed the unfolded second blanket on him, covering his body too. He couldn't help, but felt some kind of pain about his experiment. He wasn't a fool: he could realize easily that the love Stitch felt toward Lilo was beyond of a friendship love, but he could realize too about the pain Stitch was going through because of that love. He felt, in some way, that Stitch was like his son, his little creation, and he could feel the same pain Stitch was feeling.
"Am hoping computer will be finding a solution" he thought as he slipped inside the bed " am not knowing what 626 can be doing if something happens to Little Girl… he would be more than distraught…"
The very thought of a distraught Stitch made him to find a new strength "I've got to find a solution now by myself"
With this thought on his mind, he went out of the bed and walked into the room. He was going to find some solution to the problem. He wasn't going to disappoint his family on anyway.
Well, what do ya think about this? Please, review it so I can know what you think about it! I'm sorry for all those who didn't want Lilo to die... nope, I'm not gonna kill her, but the ending will shock you, I promise