Author's Note:
Lillian and the green-haired woman do not belong to me, and the game world does not either. Those are owned by Marvelous and/or Natsume. However, the plot is mine, as is Jenny. This story is also published on the Ushi no Tane forums under the name "Clove" and is dedicated to my fellow Ushians, and also to my little sister, who got me addicted to HM in the first place.

I also am not a doctor and nothing in this story should be construed as medical advice. I can only offer my personal advice, which is "Go see a doctor if you are worried about something."

Chapter Two
(In which Jenny wins an argument)

The dream began as it always did, with Lillian standing on top of a mountain in a beautiful little glade. She looked into a pool of water crystal clear and unfathomably deep. She threw a strawberry into the water, which floated (against all odds) on the surface before being abruptly pulled under with a little glooop. And a shining woman with long, green, intricately styled hair bound materialized in a swirl of water, to hover over the glassy surface of the pond. In keeping with the general inexplicability, she appeared to be completely dry

Her face was made for laughing, but she looked grim. She opened her mouth and this time - this first time - Lillian heard what she was saying.

In a voice like wind and bells and summer, the goddess said, "Lillian. Your life is over."

And the flowers and plants around the pool suddenly grew hodgepodge and beyond control. In the place of the goddess hovered a skull Lillian knew to be her own, which suddenly splashed into the pond and floated, staring into the sky.

Lillian bolted from her bed and into the kitchen, where Jenny was pouring her first cup of coffee. Jenny raised her eyebrows and said, "Good morning! What's wrong? You know our Business Entities lecture was cancelled, right? You aren't running late."

"Oh, I…" Lillian said, rubbing her eyes and trying to get hold of her pounding heart. "No, it was just a dream."

"Nightmares?"

"Well… it wasn't really very scary anyway," said Lillian, peering into a cupboard. "Just some lady hovering over a lake telling me that I'm about to die. Haha! I can't believe it made me panic like that." She reached for a mug, missed, and rubbed her eyes again. "Everything's blurry. Must still be some sleep in my eyes."

Jenny looked at her, frowned, and peered at her face more closely.

"What?" Lillian said, leaning away.

"Get dressed. We're leaving."

"What? Where are we going?"

"We are going," said Jenny as she put down her mug and crossed her arms, "to the hospital."

"We are NOT going to the hospital."

"We are going to the hospital. We are going there now. You are getting worse, and you are going to see a doctor today."

"We are not going to the hospital over some dream!" exclaimed Lillian. "Seriously, you worry too much, I'm fine!"

Jenny took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Go get dressed, or I will stuff you in the car wearing nothing but your night clothes. We are not going because you had a nightmare. We are going because you've been dizzy and vomiting and I'm pretty sure you're still having headaches every day, aren't you?"

Lillian managed to look defiant, ashamed, and scared all at the same time.

"And now on top of all that," Jenny said, "One of your pupils is much larger than the other. I'm pretty sure that's a really bad sign, however you look at it. So we'll let a doctor tell us who is worrying the right amount. Get dressed."

Lillian opened her mouth to say, petulantly, "You're not my mom, I can take care of myself," but she looked at Jenny's stony, stubborn face, and swallowed her words. Instead, she went into the bathroom and checked her eyes in the mirror.

Then she got dressed, tossed her car key to Jenny, and climbed into the passenger seat without saying another word.