Chapter fifteen 'Operation Save Rachel'
"Guys…" Gar began weakly. "I found…someone's pretending to be me!"
"Oh, that is the lamest excuse I have ever heard!" Dick snapped at the boy.
Gar backed away from the dark haired boy. "No, really you have to believe…" Gar paused taking the whole scene in. "You all talked to Rachel didn't you…come on guys you know I wouldn't do something like that!"
"I do not know what to believe anymore," Kori managed to squeak before her eyes began to well up with salty tears.
"Kori…" Gar began a frown crossing his face. "No, it's not like that I…Malchior…he's manipulating me you have got to believe me!"
Vic let out a long sigh and looked down at his little friend purely confused. "Look, Gar we want to believe you but Rachel's really messed up right now and…"
Gar could feel the anger inside of him welling up and he knew very well he wasn't going to be able to control himself soon.
"We think that maybe if you take a break from seeing her for another week things will gradually get better," Vic finished shifting uncomfortably.
"A week?" Dick cut in quickly. "Phft, I say you shouldn't see her for at least two months but…"
"Would you shut up!" Gar yelled causing all three of his friends to jump back surprised. "If you all knew anything about Rachel it's that when she's upset she should not be left alone. But I don't see any of you taking care of her when she's upset! In fact I found her having a relapse in her room and had to call the nurses to take her to the medical bay because even I couldn't help her and trust me, I did try to help her." Gar paused momentarily in order to stare at all of his friend's faces that were expressing complete shock. "Don't you think if I really didn't want to help Rachel I would have just left her there? Or better yet I wouldn't have shown up at all today? But I guess you didn't think of that. You also probably didn't think that maybe it wasn't me who wrote this stupid note!" Gar exclaimed as he tossed the folded up forged note on Vic's coffee table. "Maybe it was some bastard who already tried and failed at getting Rachel to die." With that last statement Gar tossed down the note Malchior had left for Rachel more than a year ago and turned to the door before storming out of Vic's room.
"Whoa, what just happened?" Vic asked reaching down to pick up the two notes.
Dick shook his head frantically trying to piece the words Gar had just said back together. "You tell me."
"So, friend Gar is innocent, yes?" Kori asked hopefully as she looked up at Vic who was looking between the two letters frantically.
Vic's mouth fell open a bit and he quickly turned to a large machine in the corner of his room. "I don't know Kori, but I'll find out soon enough."
"Uh, Vic what are you doing?" Dick asked standing up from the couch and crossing the room so he was standing next to the half-machine half-man hybrid.
"I'm doing a fingerprint analysis on the papers. If Gar's telling the truth then Malchior's fingerprints should be compatible with both of these papers. If he is then Gar's innocent and we all owe him an apology," Vic answered feeing the letters to the machine while a series of beeps and clicks emerged from the scanner.
"And if not?" Dick asked folding his arms across his chest.
"Then he's an even bigger ass then we gave him credit for," Vic answered shrugging. "But I'm highly expecting the first option."
The scanner's beeping began to increase as it indicated that three matches had been found. Obviously one set of fingerprints were Gar's only because he had to touch the letters in order to bring them to his friends. The other must have been Rachel's because she had to have touched both sets to read them. But there was a third pair and that was the pair that concerned Vic.
"Looks like the veg-head wasn't lying, there really is another match here," He answered turning the scanner off and glancing between the two letters.
Kori's face lit up like a Christmas light and she quickly leaped off the couch and grabbed Dick pulling him into a bone crushing hug. "Oh! This is wonderful friend Gar is innocent and still continues to care for Rachel," she exclaimed twirling around in a circle.
"Yeah, it's great for him because now we have proof," Vic began biting his lip. "But if I were him I don't know if I'd still want to be our friend after the way we treated him…"
Kori stopped smiling and gazed up at the mechanical teen confused. "Oh, I had not thought of that. What should we do? We must find him and stop him from leaving the premises!"
"Kori, maybe we should just wait till tomorrow and find Gar when he comes back. He still has a few days of community service left so we're going to have to see him sometime," Dick spoke up hoping to ease the thin girl's mind.
Kori stood firmly with her feet planted on the ground and her eyes bearing a glare that made Dick shiver a bit. He was so used to Kori looking so weak and innocent but ever sense she began to eat again her color had come back and she had grown this newfound courage, it was all a bit intimidating and embarrassing for the dark haired boy to be frightened by a girl that was half his size.
"No, we cannot leave him behind. If we do not tell him how sorry we are for accusing him right now he may never want to be our friend again. Is it not true that friends do not give up on each other? If we sit here and just wait for our friend to come back that is what we are doing! We must go after him!" Kori exclaimed making her way to the door and flinging it open only to see Gar standing there with a bemused smile on his face.
"I thought you guys might come around…so I stuck by," Gar answered shrugging.
Kori let out a loud squeal and enveloped the lanky teen into a hug that made even the other two boys in the room wince just watching.
"Kori!" Gar wheezed. "Can't…breathe…please…let go."
The auburn haired girl quickly gasped and dropped him to the ground. "Oh I am so sorry friend Gar! I was just so elated to see you that I…"
Gar held up a palm indicating for her to stop speaking while he caught his breath. "It's okay Kori. Really. I just…need to breathe." Gar shook his head still smiling as he began to boost himself up off the ground.
"Need some help?" Dick offered as he extended his hand for Gar to grab onto.
Gar looked up at him with a slightly cold glance but took his hand anyway.
"Look, Gar I'm sorry about not believing you about Rachel. I guess we just kind of assumed that if you were going to backstab her you would do it to all of us too…"
"Yeah, I'm sorry too man," Vic chipped in slapping his huge hand on Gar's shoulder. "We should have believed you. Heck, Rachel shouldn't have even believed that letter came from you in the first place!"
"I am sorry, also," Kori confessed clasping her hands together. "I should have known better that you were not like that horrible Malchior that was in Rachel's past."
"That's the thing," Gar began. "He's not in her past anymore. We saw him at the bookstore and he totally went nuts and now he's all out to get Rachel just because he wants her dead or something!"
Dick's sunglasses seemed to shift on his face and Gar assumed he was scowling or something. "Then why don't we all go show him where to stuff these letters." He clenched his fist and slammed it into the palm of his free hand.
"Whoa man," Vic began backing away from the masked boy. "Why don't we try a different approach than violence? If I'm correct I don't think that approach really worked for Gar last time and I don't think it'll work for us either. We need to do something equally sneaky…"
"Dude, Vic I love the way you think!" Gar exclaimed raising his hand for a high five.
"Do you have any ideas?" Vic asked looking down at Gar as he slapped his hand.
"Well….no I figured you guys had something but it seems like a good idea! Fight fire with fire and all that right?" Gar answered continuing to smile.
"I suppose so," Said Vic rolling his human eye. "Does…anyone have any ideas?" Vic asked looking at his three friends hoping for something.
"Uh…" Gar opened his mouth just as a loud knock reverberated from the door.
Vic looked at him confused as if to say 'did you invite someone?' and when Gar simply shrugged at him he crossed his room and pulled the door open to see exactly who was hoping for.
"Nurse Bee…you really should stop coming to my room like this. I don't think it's allowed," Vic said smirking at her as she tapped her foot looking more than annoyed with him.
"Move out of the way Victor," she snapped shoving him aside which was actually an impressive feat due to all the weight the metal put on him. "I came here looking for Garfield again. Could I borrow you?" She asked him releasing the venom from her voice and sounding sweet again.
"Uh…yeah, sure Nurse Bee is everything okay?" He asked beginning to follow her out of the room.
"I'm not sure honestly," she answered.
Gar's face fell as did his stomach. He could feel something shatter inside of him and it was like his whole world stopped spinning for a minute. "W-what? What is it? Is it Rachel? Is she okay I-I…can I see her?" He asked quickly.
Kori quickly jumped to his side. "Please, has something happened to Rachel?" Kori asked as her eyes welled up with tears.
Nurse Bee looked at the four teens and shook her head. "I'm sorry I can't disclose any information about Rachel to the rest of you but Garfield she asked to see you and she's refusing to go back to sleep until you stop by."
Gar's ears perked up and a large grin spread across his face quickly. "Really? She wants to see me?"
"Look all we want to know is if she's okay?" Dick asked quickly before Nurse Bee had the chance to shut the door on their faces.
"She's…doing better than this morning," she answered.
Dick let a few muffled curse words escape his lips. "Well, is she at least alive and up and moving and all?" He asked.
"She's…weak. Very weak. She can't stand up right now and we won't allow her too anyway. Too much blood loss is a very serious thing and she needs to be taken care of, but if you three wish to come visit her tomorrow I'm sure she won't mind," Nurse Bee finished. "Now, Gar can you please come with me now?"
"Wait just one minute," Dick began again. "You just said blood loss. How did Rachel lose any blood? I don't understand…unless…leaping lizards you can't be serious!"
Gar couldn't help himself. "Leaping lizards? Really dude, are you serious?" He asked giggling a bit.
Vic and Kori seemed to smile at this too until Nurse Bee shot them all dirty looks. "Richard…I know you're smart but you cannot under any circumstances mention this to…"
"But you mean to tell me that Rachel's cutting herself?" Dick asked completely shocked. This comment seemed to wipe the smiles off of Vic and Kori's faces.
"Say what?" Vic asked, his eye widening until Gar thought it would pop. "Veg-head did you know about this?"
"Um…well yea but I couldn't really…she told me not to tell," Gar answered rubbing the back of his head nervously.
Nurse Bee groaned. "It's been such a long day I can't believe I just blurted that out…"
"You know…I could agree to never tell anyone under certain stipulations," Vic coaxed giving her a vibrant smile.
She glared up at the mechanical teen. "Victor, I work here…I can't…"
"Yeah, I know and I'll agree to never say a word and keep these guys quiet as long as you agree to go on a date with me as soon as I get out of this place," Vic replied slipping out a wink at the pretty nurse.
"Really?" Nurse Bee asked sounding very annoyed. "Fine, Victor when you get out of here I'll go on one date with you. Now please all of you keep quiet about this or I could lose my job." Nurse Bee quickly spun around and headed down the hallway Gar trailing behind like a little lost puppy waiting to find his master.
"You saw that opening and had to take it didn't you?" Dick asked folding his arms across his chest and looking up at Vic with an amused grin.
"Yep!" Vic announced proudly.
"Please, friends what can we do for Rachel? We must help her! And I do not understand…what is she cutting?"
Both of the guys turned to the green eyed girl with shocked expressions. "Kori…maybe we should go back inside and sit to think about this…" Dick suggested.
"So you knew all along about why Rachel was here?" Nurse Bee asked Gar as they neared the medical wing.
Gar nodded solemnly trying to wrap his head around why Rachel wanted to see him now when she wanted to rip him to tiny shreds and feed him to the vultures this morning. "Yeah, she uh, showed me one day last week when I pissed her off," Gar mumbled. "That why when I came into her room this morning I knew something was wrong but she wouldn't tell me. So, I just assumed and I…I was right. I kind of wished I wasn't though."
"That girl owes you her life then," Nurse Bee said being completely serious.
"What'do you mean?" Gar asked as his eyes widened with shock.
Nurse Bee sighed as she stopped outside of one of the doors. Gar assumed it was where Rachel was. "Her relapse was pretty bad. If someone hadn't gotten to her in the next half an hour…I doubt she would still be here."
Gar's mouth opened so wide he swore it was going to touch the ground. "What?" He shook his head trying not to think about what could have happened if he hadn't shown up.
"I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything, but I think that's why she wants to talk to you. You saved her life you know," Nurse Bee sent him a small smile and then turned to leave. "This is her room, I'll see you when you leave alright Gar?"
"Yeah alright," Gar answered standing there transfixed on the smooth wooden surface bearing the numbers one zero, zero as Nurse Bee's heels clicked down the hallway. Gar took a deep breath and wrapped his hand around the doorknob unaware of what would happen inside of the room. Would Rachel be angry? Would she be happy? Scared? He wasn't sure about anything other than the fact that he wanted to see her so badly it hurt. And with that he turned the knob and pushed the door open immersing himself into the darkened room.
I am so, so, so, so sorry that it has taken me over a freaking month to update but I got total writers block on what I wanted to happen with this and my other story but I was like alright I want to put the next chapter to 'you were always on my mind' up first. Obviously that didn't happen yet. And I hate to inform you all of this but I star college in two weeks sooo I really don't know how often I'm going to be able to update. Don't kill me though! Because I promise I'm not going to give up on this story. It will be finished eventually so don't give up reading! And thank you all of you who have stuck with this story for so long, it makes me so happy that I actually have a good following for this story. You all are awesome!
Xoxo-Megz.