Hey, I know, you aren't being kept in suspense long enough since the last chapter, I've been updating this all day cause I keep getting cool ideas, so here it is.
THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL!
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The band was all sitting around her bed. No one had said anything. No one had moved. His stomach was growling, but he didn't feel like ordering any food.
Pickles had refused to let go of the bloody sword. He looked shellshocked. No one had even drank any booze. They were all waiting. For a life or death verdict on their newest and probably bravest bodyguard.
She lay on the bed, wrapped in bandages, her bare breasts covered with a wide strip of bedlinnen. The doctor said that because of her injury, a bra or shirt would be a bad idea. Her monitor stood to the side, monitoring her heartbeat and her pulse. So far it was weak and very thready. Unstable, the doctor had said.
"Her body is fine, there was no lasting damages to that, but...her pulse and her heart rate are too weak when they shouldn't be. It's almost as if she's choosing to die," said the doctor, staring at a clipboard.
"No," said Nathan gruffly.
"Yeahs, no ways. We cares abouts her," agreed Toki. His broken cheek had been fixed up and was now bandaged and his eyes were strangely bloodshot. He had been crying.
"You really think she'll die?" asked Pickles softly, as if afraid she would. No one had any idea he was that attached. They had expected Toki to be, because that was just the kind of person he was, but Pickles?
It was the first thing he'd said since they got off the Hatredcopter going into the underground base.
"All we can do is wait and talk to her. She can hear still. Maybe you can convince her to stay," said the doctor, as if he didn't believe in such things. He left the room.
Nathan scooted his chair a little closer to the bed she lay on and studied her race for a minute. She looked peaceful. All the blood had been washed off and her hair was still slightly damp. Most of the black had washed out, leaving her hair stained black in some places. She was much too pale and yet in her sickness she was beautiful.
He touched her face. Her skin was cold as ice and smooth.
"C'mon Nate." It was the first time he had said her given name. Somehow, just then, it felt right. She wasn't Flame anymore. She was Nate. Pronounced the same way but not spelled that way, he remembered.
Toki scooted closer too. He lay his head down on her stomach and closed his eyes. Nathan caught a few tears sliding from underneath his eyelids. It was as close to a hug as he could manage with her bandages.
"Yeah, come ons Nate, don't go nowheres, please? Who will I talks to any mores? No one else knows Norways like you dos, comes back," he pleaded. Nathan broke out of his customary scowl and took a moment to look somewhat surprised.
It was the saddest moment of his life. He felt his own eyes grow hot and tears stung him. This was SO not metal and he couldn't help it.
He let his tears flow, although he didn't sob like Toki.
"Did anyone know we cared so much about her? We only known her about a week," said Pickles.
"I know, it's... wierd. But it's sad. I didn't know people dying could be like that," said Nathan.
"I think it's because we knows hers is why we's sad," said Skwisgaar. He was stroking her hair out of her face like a lover and Nathan fought the urge to tell him not to touch her.
Skwisgaar suddenly looked angry.
"Did is all dat dildos Joannas faults. She saids Die for Dethklok, and nows, she is dyingk, look at dats" he said angrily.
"Mmm," he grunted.
Toki stopped hiccuping and simply lay there looking sad and Pickles scooted closer as well, looking down at her as if at his best friend's sickbed.
"Yeah, uh... geez... mother douchebags... what they all said I guess. C'mon Nate, don't die, man. You got tons to live for you got us out of dat horrible place," he said.
The lines on her heart monitor spiked wildly. They began racing.
"Hey, I don't think it's supposed to do that," said Nathan speculatively.
"Come ins here! There's sumthink wrongs with hers!" yelled Skwisgaar.
The doctor came rushing back in and Toki sat back up straight, biting his nails and looking worried.
"Her heart is racing... someone hand me that IV bag, I need to lower the dose," said the doctor. Toki handed the doctor said IV bag and he fiddles with it. The lines on the monitor returned to normal.
She moved.
It was just a twitch of her fingers, but she moved.
"Shes gonna be okays?" asked Toki, wiping his face.
"Looks like it. I think it's best to let he rest. Why don't you guys go eat something and I'll page you if she wakes up," said the doctor.
"I'm staying ins heres," said Toki, folding his arms and glaring at the doctor.
Nathan got up and stretched. Food would do them all good.
Toki watched them all go, but he stayed behind even though he was awful hungry.
He watched his new friend's pale face and remembered their conversations in Norwegian. They hadn't just talked about Dethklok. They had talked about her, too. How bad her life was, how sad she had always been. How lonely and how much she had hated everyone. He was so sad because he understood her and why she might want to die.
He would be sad if she did.
He took her hand and felt more tears slide down his face, soaking his bandages.
"Wake ups, Nate. Yous my only friends here since Rockzo went to jails. I'd miss yous if you died."
She squeezed his hand and Toki looked up. Her eyes were open! She was awake!
She was awake!!!
"You were my friend too Toki," she said.
"Thank Odin and all da Norse gods, yos alive! Doctor, gets da others! Shes okays!" Toki said jubiliantly.
His friend was going to be okay!
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"Why would you wanna die on us?" demanded Nathan. Everyone had sandwhiches and everyone was crowded around her bed.
She looked sadly at each band member in turn and smiled.
"I didn't... at least not really. I guess I was just blaming myself, afraid you were dead and it was my fault. I would gert fired or arrested. I don't know... I guess I was tired of living with myself. My life hasn't been exactly happy," she said.
"Well, it can't be any worse than mine was!" objected Murderface.
"You don't knows what her life was likes! Her mother burned her fambly and left her all alones and she was adopteds all over and over agains! It was horrible!" said Toki defiantly.
"Wait, how do you know?" asked Nathan.
"We speaks Norways, she told mes!"
"Oh."
"Well, I uh.. I got you this, cause I kind of felt bad. So here," said Nathan. He handed her a badly wrapped guitar in black wrapping paper. She weakly tore the paper and saw the guitar. Pure black, extra thin with pickups and everything. It was a flying V like Skwisgaar's but it had a dark blue pickguard instead.
She smiled and played a few chords. It sounded alright to him.
She set it aside and beckoned to him.
"Not exactly sure what she wanted, he did so and she reached up and wrapped her arms around his massive shoulders. Her hair smelled like oranges again and he gave her an awkward half hug back.
"Thank you. Feel special. I don't normally hug people," she said.
Nathan pulled away from her, blushing a bit.
"Yeah, and uh, I got you these, I dunno if you play at all, but... yeah," said Pickles, and he handed her a pair of streamlined black drumsticks with his name on the side in blazing red letters.
"I do play occasionally, when I can find a set. Mine is in Vermont. Thanks a lot, Pickles. You guys... I dunno what it is, but... I like you guys," she said.
"Aw, shucks, we like you too, dogface," said Murderface,, and she smiled weakly.
"Look who's talking dogface," she retaliated, but Nathan could tell they were only playing.
The next day
Nate, aka Flame was out of the infirmary the next day, although stiff and still covered in bandages. She had declined the offer of a shirt and instead walked around in a homemade tube top. She played her new guitar a bit and Pickles offered to let her try his drums out but her ribcage was still healing so her playing was slower than his. Not bad, though.
A week passed, in which she declined the body bandages and asked Toki to assist her in applying a large square bandage to the wound in her side. She had to strip her torso bare for it, though, which was why she had asked Toki, Nathan supposed. Toki was the only one least lkely to stare at her tits the entire time, not because he was gay; he liked tits as much as the next male, but because he cared for her.
She returned to wearing regular t shirts the very next day.
For a while, it seemed, Dethklok was back to the normal routine. Wake up, eat, talk statistics, practice, get drunk, get high, party, pick on Toki, go to bed, repeat.
And best of all, the week after she started wearing normal shhirts again, Nathan did the unspeakable. He asked her if she wanted to take a walk alone with him.
He hadn't had a girlfriend since that bitch Rebecca, but he thought he was ready again.
They walked through the courtyard and after awhile, for no reason in particular, he dared to put his hand in hers.
Overhead, the sky broiled with stormclouds and bloodred lightning began to flash. The sound of people screeaming and death imminent was like music to his ears.
The second metalocalypse had begun.
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the end
PLEASE REVIEW! Sequel coming up!