Medicinal Love

Chapter 5

Date: Fall 14 Year 2

Birds chirped outside Claire's window as they flocked around each other, and Claire scrunched her eyes at the invading light that poured in from the window. Half twisting her body around the sheets, Claire reluctantly opened her eyes and grabbed the alarm clock that was on the stand.

"Ugh," she moaned as she let go of herself. 'What happened last night?' She looked around the room. "How did I get in my bed?" Claire placed a hand to her forehead, and groaned. "Last thing I remember I was at the pier and...," her voice trailed off, the realization hitting her. Stunned, Claire leapt out of her bed and raced downstairs.

"There's no way he would do that," Claire muttered to herself, searching for either Doug or Ann. Surely they must have known who had taken her to her room. Her eyes searched through the main room and she sighed. "I guess everyone must be sleeping in right now, if anything Jack said was right."

Trudging up the steps, she went back to her room. Shutting the door, she flopped on her chair and turned on her laptop. "Time to get working," Claire announced as she cracked her hands and began on her thesis.

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Date: Fall 19 Year 2

Many days passed while Claire stayed holed up in her room, constantly working on typing out her thesis with what she had learned so far from the clinic. Right now, she was on her tenth page. Papers with diagrams and statistics lay in a clutter around her. There were bags underneath her eyes and hair mussed up from lack of care.

"And so due to the..." Claire muttered out what she typed, words formulating in her mind as she dazedly glanced at the screen before her.

Knock. Knock.

The sound broke her train of thought. Claire frustratingly silenced her scream. "Who is it?" she yelled at the door, releasing some of her pent-up anger.

A muffled voice was heard, "It's Rick."

Her anger vanished at the name. It has been a while since Claire last seen Rick, not since that day where she was sent to fetch the doctor. Claire frowned a little at that thought. He was her first friend, and she had plainly ignored him for the past days. She opened the door, and answered, "Come in Rick."

Rick smiled at her. "Thanks Claire," he replied as he looked around her room. "I see that you've been quite busy lately." His mouth frowned a little. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?" Rick asked, worried that he had disturbed some great finding.

Blonde locks flew back and forth as Claire shook her head. "Nah. You came at the right time. I needed a break anyway." She swayed a little bit and Rick moved over to where she stood, his arms extending out to make sure she didn't fall again.

"When was the last time you ate Claire?" Rick's eyes raked over her figure: a hunch pose, paling skin and a tired expression.

Claire unconsciously bit her lip as she tried to recall when exactly was the last time she ate. "I think...last night. However, I don't know what I ate. I've been too focused on this paper for the past few days. That and one too many cups of coffee."

Rick furrowed his eyebrows. "I think you need to get a check up." He pulled her forward. "The doctor should be available right now."

She yanked away from Rick instantly. Heart beating irregularly, Claire shook her head. "I'm fine Rick. I just need some sleep and I'll be dandy as a chicken."

"Claire," Rick sighed in distress, "I'm concerned about you. Please, go see the doctor. You've been working too hard."

The room was spinning for Claire as she swayed back and forth once more. As she was about to tumble into the darkness, her last thought was, 'Great. Here we go again.'

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Familiar lights and walls greeted her as Claire opened her eyes. "Why is there only one clinic in this forsaken town?" she mumbled as she tried to sit up. The lights were too bright for her and everything was quite. Only the sound of her breathing resonance the room.

"Took you long enough to wake up," a familiar voice greeted her. Shuffling footsteps sounded from behind her, and Claire inwardly groaned; he was the last person she wanted to see. The fact that she would have to see him every Wednesday was certainly bad enough.

"Where's Rick?" Claire asked as she glanced around the room. 'How long have I been here?' she wondered in horror.

Trent looked at the clipboard. "He left. It was getting too dark and that he had to check up on the chickens."

Disorientated, Claire laid back on the bed. "Wa...what do you mean 'it took me long enough to wake up'? And what's this about it being 'too dark'?" Apparently the after effects of sleep still lingered.

He merely glanced at his clipboard, his pen dancing across it as he scrawled away. "Apparently you've exhausted yourself to the point that you have no stamina and an extreme level of fatigue." The scribbling on the clipboard stopped as he turned to intensely look at her. "What exactly did you do to warrant this type of behavior?"

Claire's eyebrows rose at how the doctor eloquently used his words; nevertheless, she responded truthfully. Now it was his turn to raise his eyebrows. There was a standoff contest between the two as their eyes battled dominance: her actions versus his skepticism. Neither one of them wanted to be the first one to break eye contact. Eyes getting blurry, Claire blinked in anguish. Ignoring the victory smirk on his face, she felt that she had to ask this question. "Did...."

She couldn't say it. She could not ask Trent if he went back to Elli that night.

"Did I...?" Tim prodded.

Mind racing, Claire quickly replied, "Did you want me to stay the night here?" A part of her did not believe that a person with such a high position would ever ask something like that. Not unless she was a patient who barely passed the threshold of critical condition, that is, and was in danger of becoming unstably healthy. Over the past few weeks of working with him, it allowed her to see what kind of doctor he was; someone who cared deeply for his patients.

Right after she had spoken, an air of tension lingered. Trent did not know how to respond to that. He knew what other villagers thought of him—the silent, stoic, responsible type of person who had trouble expressing himself. He wished he could say that Claire shared the same perception as the rest of the townsfolk, but somehow, she was the only one to see a different side of him. The side that wanted her to stay the night, that is. However, he knew he must keep up the façade—and asking her to stay the night was not included. He had to be wary of showing his admiration for her. Deep inside, Trent knew that there would be pain should his relationship with Claire go any further than friendship. He didn't know if taking a step further would be worth it, compared to the pain that would surely follow. Of course he was not idiotic enough to deny that he had feelings for her; he just didn't want them to go past the point-of-no-return. Right now, it was just a crush; a mere infatuation that he had not felt for the longest time.

'It's been awhile since I asked that question. I hope I didn't stupefy him,' Claire thought worriedly as she sat awaiting his response. Suddenly, her mind flashed back to her first day helping out at the clinic.

Flashback

It was a bright and sunny day. It was a day that anyone with a sense of joy could imagine themselves prancing around the merry pole to celebrate. There was Zack heading toward the supermarket for his routinely shopping. The local priest, Carter, was praying for the departed before he opened the church. To everyone else, nothing big was happening. Too bad Claire was not everyone else.

It was less than twelve hours after she had made that deal with Trent. Moreover, a part of her already dreaded the time she would have to give when she worked with him. 'Come on, Claire, you can do this. Do well and you can show those other competitors who's boss.' It is a very ugly world in the field of science, especially the medical field (as competition can get ugly between friends). Though, Claire frowned, she really did not know why she was irrational when it came to the doctor. 'Maybe we just had a bad start?'

Stepping across the stone pavement, Claire hesitantly knocked on a white door. Dainty steps barely echoed from across the other side; the knob twisted. A mop of brown hair with kind eyes—also wearing what seemed to be an old-fashioned nurse uniform—greeted her. "Morning Claire." A bright smile lit up the young woman's face. "I didn't expect you to come this early."

Claire shuffled her feet about. "I was told to come here around this time..." she said, her voice trailing off. She was directly looking at the nurse before her. They stood there as seconds passed; to Claire, it felt like one hour had passed instead of five seconds. "And you are...?"

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry. How rude of me. I'm Elli," she explained as she led Claire inside. There were a couple of benches in what appeared to be the waiting room. Elli randomly pointed toward one of them. "Please be seated. The doctor will be with you in a moment."

Fazed by the similar procedure that she had gone through whenever she visited the doctor's office, Claire meekly flopped down on a sea-green bench, wincing as her back slammed against the hard cold wall. By then, Elli had already returned to the front desk; there was a ball of yarn nearby and a couple of picks. Claire did not have to wait long before the doctor himself arrived at the foot of the stairs.

He looked at her. An aura of indifference toward her surrounded him, and their eyes met. Eyebrow rose in curiosity as he commented, "Oh? You're here quite early. Rather enthusiastic aren't you?"

"Of course," Claire smiled brightly at Trent. "Why wouldn't I? If it means a chance to work with you."

Tim snapped the folder shut; a harsh tone echoed. "Well then, shall we?" He walked into the next room as Claire proceeded to follow him. After he explained the tasks that she was required to perform, he left her to work and went over to his office.

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Droplets from the pipette plummeted into the beaker. So far, Claire had already completed her tasks of making the herbal medicines: Bodigizer, Turbojolt, Bodigizer XL and Turbojolt XL. Who knew the process could be so long and daunting? Then again, it was not surprising since really all she was doing was extracting the herbs' properties away from solid form and converting that into liquid form. Right now, she was currently working on creating a medicine that would help recover both fatigue and energy. Trent gave her some leaves that he thought might be suitable enough to work without causing the drinker some side-effects, like fainting or regurgitating to get rid of the medicine. Still, what could she say, really? Fingering the pink grass, she brought it up to her face and sniffed. "Is this an Elli Grass?" she whispered to herself, having seen a vague detail picture of what it might look like from the herbology book.

"Never seen anything like it before?" A book was settled in front of her. Caught off-guard by this intruder's voice, she nearly tore the pink herb in half.

"Do you always creep up on people?" Claire retorted.

Trent gave her a meaningless rueful grin. "Only when they least suspect it." The tone was business like, but Claire could sense the sarcasm that was hidden underneath layers and layers of professionalism.

A pretty grin spread across her lips. "Hearing you say that makes you seem like a creeper, you know."

"Could we get on with the matter? Unless you feel like you're not ready to experience this kind of work, Miss Claire," Trent said with a serious expression on his face.

Inwardly, Claire felt like a schoolgirl being scolded by her teacher for messing around—something that she did not like experiencing. 'Still thinking that I'm incapable to do this, I see. That I'm just someone who's only bluffing her skills in lab work.' Her eyes narrowed slightly. 'I'll prove to you that I am capable of helping you out and that I'm not to be underestimated.'

"Well then, shall we get started...Doctor?"

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After much debating about what to do with the Elli Grass extract on matters of what ingredients should be added to create this medicine, the two decided to take a quick break.

His eyes stared at her, unreadable. "What made you visit Mineral Town?"

Claire took a sip of water from her bottle. "For...research." In a way, writing a thesis was something like a research. One must gather the information to support the hypothesis.

"Interesting," Trent said, watching her carefully. "And what might your research might be about? If I remember correctly, something about a thesis...."

"How did you know about the thesis?" Claire was shocked; she didn't think she had told anyone about the reason why she was here...well, perhaps just one. Now she wasn't too sure anymore.

A quirk of the upper lip was all that showed on his face. "You'll be surprised at how quick information can travel in here."

Claire mumbled, "I'll bet. Gossipers." Reverting back to her normal tone, she explained to him the reason why she was here and what her thesis was going to be about.

When Trent heard about what she was planning to do during her stay, he gained a bit of newfound respect for Claire despite himself. The quiet ticking of the clock made him glance away and he sighed. "It's getting late. We should stop where we are and continue this some other time."

"What?" Claire exclaimed. "But we haven't made any progress on it."

"We would have if you didn't spend so much time staring at it," Tim retorted.

Claire scoffed, though not denying that she did spend more time than necessarily staring at the herb. Gathering her notes, Claire stuffed them in a bag. "What about Rick's mom...? Won't she need the medicine?" Claire felt especially concerned about that, since the project that they were currently working on was to help Lillia, but with the way things were going, Claire feared that it would be too late.

Trent shook his head. "Don't worry about it. As of now, the medicine that Lillia is on will stabilize her for awhile."

Claire looked unsure, but the next comment placated her.

"Claire...I don't risk the lives of others if I do not believe that the medicine will help them. Trust me on this. I will not fail my duty as a doctor," Trent strongly affirmed. Fire burned in his eyes so fiercely that Claire could not help but nod. "I'll expect you on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, then."

Claire held on to the handle of the knob. "Alright. I'll see you then." Opening the door, Claire went through and quietly closed it behind her.

End of Flashback

"-aire."

"Cl--."

"...Claire!" Trent's voice scared her out of her moment's lapse.

Fervently clearing out her mind, she looked at Trent. "Yeah?"

He cleared his throat. "I think it's best if you stay the night. We wouldn't want to risk of you being attack by wild dogs. Rick will injure me if anything were to happen to you."

Claire faintly smiled. "Yeah, I think he would too." She glanced around. "So...where am I sleeping?"

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Author's note: This chapter gave me a hard time. I have a pretty good idea as to how the ending is going to be, but the stuff after the harvest moon event...I have no clue. So updates might be a little bit longer than wished for. Please review! Beta'ed by The Scarlet Sky.