Hello Again ^.^

Helga promised herself to always remember that day-the day of their anniversary; the day she hurt Arnold (though on accident, she believes on purpose); the day Arnold saved her life and was put into a coma. How could she forgive herself? She's heard a lot of rumors about what had happened that night-apparently the driver was slightly intoxicated and so, put on his truck's lights late- but Helga knew the truth (or at least believed it to be truth).

'If I hadn't been in that road, if I had listened, Arnold would be here right now, not in this bed with a coma.'

Helga sat beside Arnold's bedside, the life support system beeping to reveal Arnold to be still alive, but barely alive. She knew what a coma was, she wasn't stupid! People had tried to comfort her by saying things like,

"It's a miracle he's alive!" or "At least Arnold's still alive."

The problem was, Arnold basically wasn't alive. The head trauma caused by the vehicle collision made his brain nearly obsolete. Without the life support systems, Arnold wouldn't be here right now, he'd be dead. Once taken off the life support system, all hope, if any, of Arnold waking up would be gone.

It had been two weeks since the incident, the incident that changed Helga's life, and here she was now face to face with an unconscious Arnold once again.

'Phoebe was right. I should be here. Damn her.'

With tears in her eyes, Helga took a hold of Arnold's left hand.

'It...It's so cold, so lifeless.'

Looking down at her beloved, the man who saved her life, she could see that some of the physical outer damage had healed over the past two weeks. There were some scars here and there but nothing too bad. There was, though, a lot of stitching obviously to stop the blood flow from when the car had hit him. His right arm was in a cast and sling, broken.

Helga began to softly speak to Arnold, still holding his left hand with a slight squeeze for longing.

"Arnold, I'm not sure if you can hear me. People say that coma patients can hear when somebody is talking to them, and if you can than...than that's great."

She paused for a moment, thinking about what she should say next when somebody walked into the room. There was a long silence in the room, the sound of the life support beeping away. Helga stood up to face the person who walked in- Gerald. Gerald was one of the people Helga definitely avoided, for obvious reasons. She killed his best friend!

Gerald just stood in the doorway with a straight face, no emotions betraying anything at all. He stared at her, waiting for Helga to say something. Helga, likewise, stood wide eyed and was afraid to say anything to Gerald. She knew Gerald was crushed for more reasons than one. He was drunk that day and didn't remember anything, let alone what had happened. Phoebe broke the news to him the next day, but that didn't change anything.

'I should've been in the ambulance with my best friend, but I wasn't. I never should've drank as much as I did, but I did. I should've been there for him from the very beginning.'

Helga's breath hitched as Gerald stepped closer. There wasn't many places for her to go, the bed was right behind her!

'I'm stuck...'

Helga figured the only thing to do was the right thing to do. Looking down at the floor, then back up to Gerald, Helga opened her mouth to speak,

"Gerald, I'm so sorry. I-"

Gerald pulled her in for a tight hug, knowing that it was something that they both needed. Helga was dumbfounded. She didn't expect a hug, not even just a hello and goodbye! She expected to be yelled at, berated!

"G-Gerald?"

"Shut up, Pataki."

Pulling away, Gerald faced Helga, still straight faced.

"Phoebe told me everything Helga, and-"

"WHAT!?"

The expression on Gerald's face had not changed, just tensed up a little bit more. Helga, meanwhile, was afraid, very afraid.

"Helga-"

"Gerald, look I am so sorry! I figured I didn't belong here because of everything that happened, because it was all of my fault..."

"Helga."

"I mean I am an awful person and-"

"Pataki!"

Helga closed her mouth quickly. She wanted to explain to Gerald, but figured best to let him speak first.

"Helga, Phoebe told me everything and-"

"Gerald-"

Gerald brought his hand up to cover Helga's mouth, shushing her, wanting her to just be quiet for a moment.

"Pataki. Shut up and let me talk."

Helga bobbed her head in a nod. Slowly bringing his hand down from her mouth, Gerald began talking again.

"Helga, she told me everything- what had happened that night and even why you blame yourself. She also told me that she told you to come here, which I didn't think you would do considering it has been two weeks. I was hoping, though, that you would be here; Arnold would want you to be here."

Gerald paused for a moment and looked at Arnold lying still in the hospital bed. She could see that his composure was slowly breaking. Facing Helga again, his face softened and tears in his eyes, he began again,

"Helga, it wasn't your fault."

Helga wanted to say something, to retaliate, but Gerald just shushed her.

"Helga let me finish."

Helga closed her mouth once again, thinking to herself,

'How could it not be my fault? I was in the street, I didn't listen, I started the stupid argument!'

The sound of crying and sniffling brought her out of her thoughts. Gerald once again started to speak, his voice breaking.

"Helga. My... My man Arnold loved-" Gerald stopped himself to correct what he was saying "loves you, and you love him. You didn't plan to have him placed in the hospital like this Helga. It was an accident! You were both just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"But Gerald..."

"There is no 'but' Pataki. You didn't intend for this to happen. The guy... The guy was drunk and his lights weren't on until it was too late. You couldn't have seen him. Arnold only saw him because he has some sort of magical eye power or something, who knows, but you? It was too dark for you to see him. Why blame yourself for his fucking mistake?"

Helga couldn't believe it. Gerald wasn't mad at her even after hearing about the entire story. No, quite the opposite. He was defending her! She was afraid for so long what he would do, what he would say to her and here he was defending her!

Helga brought Gerald in for another hug, a much needed hug for the both of them. For the remainder of the time that Gerald was there, they both talked and comforted one another by Arnold's bedside. As Gerald walked out to leave,

"You know, Lila and Brainy have been hoping to talk to you too. They've been really worried."

Helga couldn't help but look down shamefully.

'Worried? About me?'

She looked back up at a slightly smiling Gerald and responded,

"I'll be sure to talk to them as soon as possible."

Gerald nodded in affirmation and walked out of the room, leaving both Helga and an unconscious Arnold alone.

Helga walked over and sat back down next to Arnold's bedside, taking his left hand in hers.

'It... It's warmer than I remember.'

Leaning over, she kissed Arnold gently on his forehead.

"I'm sorry Arnold, for everything. I'm sorry for starting the argument, I'm sorry for... for breaking up with you, I'm sorry for not listening. Despite what Gerald said, I feel like it IS my fault, but now I am so unsure."

Letting go of Arnold's hand, Helga leaned in once again and placed a small peck on Arnold's lips and said,

"I love you."

Weeks had passed like this. Helga and Gerald would both visit Arnold together, Helga always staying the longest. Eventually, Helga went back to the Boarding House to talk to Arnold's family. It took a lot of strength for her, but she did. Moments were shared between them all and her: She cried with Stella, worked around the Boarding House with Miles and Phil, and even tried to cook sometimes with Gertie. She ended up there everyday.

There was one day when she was there that scared Helga completely. She had gone to the Boarding House after visiting Arnold. Miles and Stella were talking to each other in the kitchen about Arnold, but it wasn't a happy conversation.

"Stella..."

"No Miles! I will not kill our son!"

This took Helga aback.

'Kill... Kill Arnold?'

"Stella the hospital is saying that eventually they wouldn't be able to keep him on life support forever..."

"I don't care! I'll get two maybe three more jobs if I have to! We will not kill our son!"

"Stella... the hospital doesn't think he's going to make it. He's slowly losing more brain function the longer he's in the coma..."

With a gasp, Helga brought her hands to her face and listened to the sound of Stella crying.

"Miles... I can't lose him..."

Helga could hear Miles' voice crack. It was evident that he didn't want to talk about these things with Stella, or just in general. He wanted to hope there was a chance...

"I know... I know... We'll see how things happen, and if need be, we'll decide when the time comes.

Helga couldn't take anymore of the conversation. Turning around, Helga began to cry as she ran out the Boarding House door.

'They don't... They don't think he's going to make it?'

With the more time that passed, the more scared Helga became. With every passing day Arnold was still in a coma, it was just another day towards his absolute end. If Arnold didn't wake up, he would never wake up. Helga continued going to the Boarding House everyday after visiting Arnold.

At some point, Gerald was too sick to go to the hospital with Helga; he caught something the day before from one of the patients they had passed in the hallway. Sitting down once again in her seat, Helga looked at Arnold longingly. In this time, she felt something brush against her hand. Looking down, she noticed something, something that opened her eyes wide and put her in shock. Rushing out of the room, Helga went in search for a nurse.

"Nurse! I... I need a nurse! Quickly!"

Before leaving for the nurse, when she looked down at her hand, there was a remarkable sight. There, brushing against her hand softly, Arnold left hand's fingers moved slightly.

"Nurse!"

So, that was this chapter. What's going to happen? Will Arnold be okay? Will Arnold be pulled off of life support? Wasn't Gerald just so awesome? OMG THE SUSPENSE IS KILLING ME. In other news, I think there's only one chapter left? I don't know, there may be more... I am, however, starting a new fanfic soon... A Letter to My Love... So, yeah. Anyway, review?