Author's note: I like to thank The Scarlet Sky for beta-ing this chapter =) and I hope you guys enjoy this!! Oh, I changed the main girl's name to Claire instead of Jill to be more consistent with the character categories. (edited Jan'09 – I also changed Tim to Trent.)

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters for this story. Applies to all previous/current/future chapters.

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Medicinal Love

Chapter 7

Date: Fall 27 Year 2

It had been a couple of days since Claire had last seen Trent. She made it a point to avoid him whenever necessary and sometimes failed to go to work. Claire knew that she would have to face him eventually—especially if she wanted to get that recommendation letter from him—but it was just that she would rather do it later than now. It wasn't like she was being cowardly, of course not, no, she wasn't. She just had some unattended matters to attend to…such as spending time with her dear friend Rick. 'Speaking of Rick….'

"Over here, Rick!" Waving to the upcoming chicken farmer, Claire fiddled with a picnic basket that was lying right next to her. They were meeting at the beach; not a lot of people went there often, and Claire found that sort of nice. To her, it was just a coincidence that the doctor rarely went to the beach—at least from what she'd gathered during her short stay in Mineral Town.

"It's been awhile since we had hung out like this." Jogging up to where Claire was sitting underneath the few beach umbrellas scattered around Mineral Beach, Rick gave her a small smile.

Returning the smile to him, Claire agreed. "I'd forgotten how fun it was to hang out with you." Then she paused for a moment. "Even though we didn't really hang out that often, the few times we did, it was a memorable experience."

Rick nodded. "Oh." As if he had forgotten something, he brought a small box with him. "I brought some spa-boiled eggs and my mom made some mixed juice for us."

"Cool. These will go well with the curry rice and these brownies that I brought."

Hours passed as the two were chilling together, mostly catching up to the recent events that had happened in their lives. Claire sighed, looking off to the waves that kept on crashing. Rick turned to look at her. "Something's bothering you?" he asked, having noticed the faraway look in her eyes.

Claire looked at Rick weirdly. "What?" There was a tone of 'what are you talking about?' that Rick caught on to immediately.

"There is something that's bothering you!" Rick pointed out. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "My brother-senses are tingling and telling me that you're lying."

"Pfft. Brother-senses?" Claire chuckled.

Rick leaned forward. "So tell me."

At that command, Claire spilled the beans. She told him about how she had been trying to set Elli up with the Doctor---as well as how unsuccessful that turned out to be. Claire even told Rick about her doctor problems and the kind of person that he hid from the rest of the village. When Rick commented on how much of a two-faced man the doctor really was, Claire quickly defended him. Shocked by her sudden outburst, Rick had his epiphany.

Rick told her flat out: "I think you might be falling for him."

Bewildered, Claire retorted sharply, "What?" She looked at him straight in the eye. "How could I have fallen for him? I barely even know the guy."

"I'd say you know him better than any one of us," Rick scoffed; he crossed his arms. "I'm not even sure if the majority of us even know what his first name is. From what I've seen, you're a lot closer to him than to his own assistant." Before Claire could open her mouth, Rick continued, "Maybe your heart disagrees what your brain is telling you."

Claire snorted at that last statement. "Well, maybe the heart is not thinking right." Her pupils looked anywhere but at Rick, eager to deny the emotion he'd brought to light.

Rick gave her a hard look. "Then how come your eyes didn't light up when you told me about the progress Elli had made with the doctor earlier?" Claire stood silent, and encouraged, Rick continued, "In fact, I think you already know that you like him." Claire didn't say anything. Rick was right. She did know, but hearing it come from someone other than her….The realization pained her.

"Rick…" she said softly. Claire couldn't even bear to look him in the eye now. "I…I'm leaving by the beginning of next year." At this proclamation, Rick was stunned speechless. Claire continued, "I won't see him ever again." Her voice was barely audible, but the impact of it remained profound. Perhaps it was the softness of the tone that set it off. But whatever it was, Rick found himself overwhelmed with countless emotions. Disappointment that he wouldn't have time to spend with Claire. Sad that he'd be losing a great person, one that he'd had a fun time hanging out with. Loss because he didn't know if they would ever meet again. All of these feelings Rick found he could not voice; he didn't know how to put it in words. But he realized he didn't have to; his expression said it all. A small punch to the shoulder brought Rick out of his misery. "Ow, Claire!" He rubbed the sore spot gingerly. "What did you do that for?"

"What's with that expression on your face?" Claire teased; she smiled at him. "The way you're acting, you'd think that I'll never see you again and that I'll be completely erased out of your life."

"Aren't you?" Rick said sharply. He stared at Claire, who was a bit taken aback by the strong reaction. Then there a sad veil clouded her expression.

"…Do you want me to?"

Rick reeled back abruptly. "No! Of course I don't want you to." He cast his gaze away from her to the ocean, staring at all the blues in the water. "From the days that I've gotten to know you…I feel like there is a strong camaraderie between us—a bond….and I…I want to keep that bond." His voice trailed lower and lower until to the very last word, and Claire struggled to hear him.

"Rick…" Claire's voice cracked. She didn't realized how strongly Rick felt about their relationship. In fact, she could not recall the last time it had happened. On impulse—probably due to her being highly emotional—Claire wrapped her arms about Rick's shoulders. Surprised at the sudden action, Rick hugged her closely, tears pricking both their eyes. Seconds passed until Claire pulled herself away from Rick's hold. "We can still send each other letters, you know. And…and I'll make sure to come and visit you every now and then—whenever I get the opportunity to." Seeing the lack of response, Claire lightly nudged him. "Come on, don't wear that frown." She placed her hand on his shoulder and grinned. "I say that we'll be in contact with one another and we will. So what do you say to just having a good time and spending what time that we do have left in happiness?"

Blue eyes met wet ones. He gave a weak smile. "Sorry…about my reaction Claire. It's…well, when you said you are going to leave, it bought back some unwanted memories." Claire playfully punched him, and her eyes crinkled as they looked at him with laughter.

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Rick had suggested going to the Goddess Spring: something that Claire wholeheartedly agreed to since she hadn't really visited the place for awhile now. Claire inwardly frowned. Now that she had thought about it, she had never really gone to the hot springs that were right next to the spring. At all.

"It won't take that long, Claire, so could you wait out here?" Rick asked her as he opened the door leading to the poultry farm. He wanted to make sure that everything was going well in the storeroom and that his mother was okay.

While she was waiting, playing with some of the chickens, Claire failed to notice the presence of a certain farmer. When she did, she sent an indifferent look at him. The person who stood in her view was Jack, the farmer that had hit on her during the Harvest Moon festival. "Jack." She gave a curt nod, only doing it out of politeness.

"Claire, I…," Jack started to say. It was by coincidence that he saw Claire again after that fiasco. He had been so busy with the farming that he couldn't make the time to apologize for his actions. But needing some animal medicine, he was on his way to the Poultry Farm when he saw her, and so he decided to take the opportunity. "About that night…I'm really sorry how I acted." His eyes stared at Claire, pleading. "I shouldn't have come on to you like that."

Claire snorted; she crossed her arms and stared straight at Jack. "Not my fault that you were being a typical guy."

Jack chuckled weakly at that. "Yeah…."

A pause.

Birds chirped.

Silence.

Another pause.

Sudden fidgeting from Jack.

"Uh…I…um…" Jack mumbled some incoherent words as he tried to string together a decent sentence. Claire stared at him, unblinking and unmoving, and Jack felt his body heat up under her scrutiny.

Staring.

Looking.

Blank stares.

"I'm sorry!" Throwing his hands up in the air, Jack fell down to his knees. That stare unnerved him to no end. Seeing how pathetic Jack had become just by her giving him the stare, a small giggle erupted from Claire's throat. Claire slapped her hand over her mouth as to not de-dignify him anymore, but she couldn't hold it back in. "You should have seen yourself, Jack." She rubbed a tear out of her eye. Jack stood flabbergasted, unsure of what just happened as realization slowly hit him.

"Glad you're enjoying yourself at my expense." A cross look appeared over Jack's face, then slowly melted into a smile. "…Though that was pretty fun wasn't it?"

"Hell yeah!" Claire agreed as she looked at Jack. She had missed those times like these…Jack's comments and their shared background as city dwellers.

Silence followed and both of them took that time to take pleasure in it; Claire was still waiting for Rick to come out, but part of her liked being with Jack, too, for awhile. Jack turned to face Claire. "Are we…still friends?"

Claire sighed a little. "Well, I'll be more of a witch if I say 'no'. So, yeah, of course we're still friends, you idiot." The upper right corner of her mouth tilted upward in a grin. "You sure do know how to apologize, though." Claire chuckled, ignoring Jack's exclaimed protests. She laid her chin on her palm in thought. "Besides, do something like that again, and I'll probably kick your rear." At the horrified expression on Jack's face, Claire quickly added, "I'm kidding….maybe."

"Sorry for the wait, Claire," Rick called out as he closed the door behind him.

Seeing that Rick was ready to go, Claire nodded at Jack. "Later!"

"Take care."

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Claire sighed a little as she relaxed into the warm waters that pillowed themselves around her body. All the stress and tension from her muscles was lifted by the caress of the spring's waters; she hadn't felt this relaxed since…Grad Night when she had graduated from high school. Her blue eyes looked to the figure that was standing outside the hot spring area and she raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you don't want to join me? It's very relaxing."

"No, thanks. I don't want Karen to go after me screaming bloody murder," Rick said, having to pick up the phrase 'bloody murder' from listening to Claire a couple of times whenever she was complaining about something.

"Huh. Have to agree with you there. Though she'll probably go after me first and then you," Claire spoke as she thought it out. "Why is it that you like her again?"

"Wh-what!" Rick stuttered. "We're childhood friends! Forget about me, what about you?"

Claire was confused. "Well, what about me?"

A sigh of frustration left his lips; Claire's attempts to move the subject at hand were getting more obvious by the day. "What made you fall for him in the first place?" There was no answer from her; Rick could only hear the splashing sounds as Claire fiddled around the question. "Claire?"

"At first, I didn't like him," Claire replied at length. She saw the confused look on Rick's face and added, "Remember? On my first day here, he struck me as a bastard. Professional on the outside, but with that mean streak in him." Claire laughed softly. "I guess I was the only one to witness and have it directed to me, since it seems like no one else had seen that part of him before. Though, the shallow part of me doesn't mind that he's very pleasing on the eyes." There, she winked at Rick, who only scowled at the last part.

"Women and their eye candy," Rick mumbled as he was reminded of one of the ridiculous reasons why Popuri liked that that summer city dog, Kai.

Claire wanted to swat Rick over the head for that comment, but decided he was too far away for her to do so and that it was so not worth feeling the chilly air that would greet her once she stood. "But besides his appearance, I think that it was his dedication to his work that changed my perception about him. Also…" She drifted off, remembering the note that he had left for her on his birthday. It was an apology…for accusing her and not believing her as well as thanking her for the gift. Yet when she read that note, she couldn't help but feel hurt at his lack of explanation for his brief coldness.

"Is that it?" Rick's voice interrupted her train of thought.

"Wha? Oh yeah," Claire said, once again paying attention to Rick. "I just thought you didn't want me to ramble on about the incredible traits he has."

Rick sighed softly. "There must be something else. You stopped at 'the other side of him.' There has to be more."

"Fine," Claire puffed; she kept an eye near the entrances to the area and the mountain path. "He's very dedicated to you guys and he really cares about what would happen to each and every one of you. I also sense that he wants to do his very best when treating all his patients. I admire him for his determination and dedication."

Claire stopped at that. She let her eyes focus on the water before her, lips refusing to make words. 'Yes, his dedication….'

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AN: Ooo, and we're getting closer to the end. Don't forget to hit that review button!