Here we are again! Got 2 more chapters to go! Yippee!

What's funny, is I had this whole story mapped out and it DEFINITELY didn't go like this. But this is 1000% better than I had originally planned :)

Anyways, read, REVIEW, enjoy, and i hope you like it!

i don't own any characters from Hey Arnold! or Hey Arnold! itself.

xoxo

Polkahotness

I knew she felt horrible. But it really wasn't her fault.

Like she'd listen to me after the night we've had. And while I had finally told her how I really felt... well, the timing was kind of off.

Even still, we sat on opposite sides of the waiting room, her eyes remaining on her fingers as she picked away at them... an anxious habit she had really picked up on in the past few months.

"Helga,"

"I know. I know. Stop picking at my fingers." She muttered, flopping her hands in her lap and staring off into space.

"He's gonna be okay, man," Gerald said to me, though I wasn't entirely sure if he meant it or if he was just trying to have that 'man-talk.' I kept telling myself it was an earnest statement.

My mind was spinning, but all I could think about was Helga as she sat across from me with a blank stare.

Was that being selfish?

Just then, a figure blurred past and around into the waiting room, soaking wet.

"I came as soon as I heard, is he okay? What is his condition?" Phoebe's concerned voice asked.

I looked to Helga who pointed to Gerald. He offered a small smile and shrugged.

"I thought you might want some more support..." He mumbled, offering his fist and thumb for mine. "Just cause I'm your best friend since pre-k, doesn't mean I'm your only best friend."

I smiled and finished our handshake, nodding my head.

"It's okay, Gerald. I understand."

I just hope Helga will understand my reasoning...

Gerald wasn't kidding when he said 'support.' It only took a matter of minutes (an hour for Rhonda) for the everyone else to show up. The waiting room was crowded with our talking, nervous laughter and 'moral support.' But even through all of the support, I couldn't get Helga to look at me for an extended period of time. She wasn't mad though, I could tell that much. I just couldn't tell exactly WHAT she was.

"Excuse me... um, I'm looking for Ray's family?" A nurse asked amidst the crowded room. I hadn't even seen her come in.

Standing up, I made my way over to her.

"He's from Florida, my roommate. He's been staying with us for spring break..."

"You're his roommate?"
"Yes. Arnold."
She nodded her head and gestured for me to follow her into the hallway away from the noise.

"It looks like aside from some serious bruising and scratches, he has only suffered a minor concussion and a broken arm. He was very lucky."

"Yeah, very lucky..." I said, rubbing my neck in relief that he wasn't seriously hurt.

He won't be playing guitar anytime soon though...

"Is he awake yet?"

"Oh definitely. You can go see him whenever you'd like." She glanced into the window of the waiting room and scrunched her eyebrows. "However, I would stray from too many people visiting at once. Two people at the most until he is feeling less drowsy."

"Right. Thanks again." I said, returning to the room to tell everyone about the good news.

"Can I go home, now?" Harold whined.

"Shut it, Harold." Rhonda scolded.

"But I'm tired!"

"You can all go if you want. And I know Ray would want me to thank you all for showing up. Even though you guys don't really know him."

"He's a good guy, Arnold. He's your friend." Gerald, surprisingly, spoke up. "And any friend of yours is a friend of ours."

"Yeah!" Eugene stood up excitedly, probably hoping for others to join in with the same amount of spunk without such luck.

Murmuring quickly transitioned to standing up and heading out, of course, not without an announcement from Rhonda about the bonfire in 2 days before we all leave for school again. But I wasn't worried about any of that, I was still worried about the emotionless Helga sitting in her chair silently next to Phoebe who had been trying to get her to answer her for a good 10 minutes.

"You should probably go see how Ray is doing." Gerald said to me, breaking my trance.

"Oh, yeah. That's right. Thanks, Gerald."
"Any time, my man."

I never liked hospitals all that much. All the beeping and tubes seemed to make situations seem much worse than they really were. Lucky for Ray, he wasn't hooked up to anything too serious or loud so he could enjoy watching the TV.

"How are you feeling?"
"Oh fine. No need to worry. It's just a broken arm."

"And your guitar?"

He shrugged and grinned.

"I need to focus on school anyways. They might take away my scholarship."

"I doubt that," I chuckled and sat down in the chair next to his bed. "Pretty wild night."

"I'll say. But at least you finally told Helga you loved her."

I looked to my feet and sighed.

"Not quite how I had planned it."

"So you planned it now?" He had on a Gerald-sized smug smile planted on his face.

"Ray..."

"What? You know it was gonna happen sooner or later."

"Of course I did, but I wanted it to be perfect."

"Not everything can be perfect, man." I heard Gerald say from the doorway, knocking afterwards and walking in to sit on the ledge by the window. "Thought this pep talk might take more than one."

"What pep talk?" I asked

"The one where Gerald and I tell you that you love Helga and she clearly loves you-"

"So you need to man up and talk to her before you lose her completely." Gerald finished.

I could feel the blood race to my cheeks.

"It's just not going to be easy."

"And WHEN have things ever been easy with Helga G. Pataki? Hmm?" Gerald accused, leaning forward as if hanging on my potential answer.

"Didn't you say once that that's what keeps it interesting with her? The fact that you never know what's going to happen next?" Ray questioned.

"I didn't mean it like THAT, though."

"Then how?" They both asked and I in part asked myself that with them.

"I don't know... she's just... she's so hard. She's so stubborn and feisty She doesn't listen very well and she's extremely impatient." I found myself furrowing my eyebrows as I tried to be honest with myself about all of my feelings. "Her emotions are so unpredictable, which... is nice when it's the real Helga. The one I know is in there. She's so passionate and deep with thoughts I've never thought to think before. She's observant and raw. She's sporadic and impulsive, just going for it every time even if she doesn't know what 'it' is. And even more than that... it all stems from this insecurity she has that nobody can ever love her for all of that because it IS so hard to handle at times but..."

Neither Gerald or Ray had to question or answer what it was I was trying to say to myself, because I already knew.

"I gotta go talk to her..." I muttered, standing up and leaving Gerald and Ray all to themselves and their own problems.

"I can honestly say I don't know, Arnold." Phoebe said, sounding a bit frustrated herself.

"She didn't say anything?"
"No. Not a word. Though, I did try to get her to talk to me."

"I know you did, Phoebe."

"Do you know where she might have gone? Perhaps her hotel?"

Oh no...

"She's leaving..." I whispered

"I'm sorry, what was that Arnold?"

"She's leaving... I gotta go, Phoebe!"

"But where are y-" Was all I heard, because I had taken off in a full blown sprint.

I could feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. Pulling it out into the rain, I tried to shield it with my left hand, typing madly to respond to Gerald.

I DON'T KNOW, GERALD. I'M GUESSING HER ROOM.

Running up the steps to her room number, I pulled out the extra key from my wallet that she had given me when she first arrived.

"Number 304, 304, here! 304." I fumbled with the key before sliding it through, only to get a red light blinking at me.

Maybe it's upside down...

Double checking the magnetic strip's whereabouts, I slid it through again, this time going a bit slower.

Red light.

FLASHFLASHFLASH

I resorted to knocking wildly. Pounding would be a better word.

"Helga... Helga please open the door. I want to talk to you."

Nothing. No response. No shuffling. No sound at all.

"Helga, I know you're mad but please..."

Still nothing.

The door next to hers opened and a head peaked through to glare at me.

"Do you know what time it is, young man?" The man asked me.

"I'm so sorry, I'm just trying to-"

"Yeah yeah. Forgot your key. I get it."

"No, it's really not like that at all, you see-"

"Well she isn't in there so you might wanna check at the desk."

"She's... she's not in there?"

"Saw her grab all her things and leave in a rush on my way out to grab ice."

"Do you know where she went?" I was frantic now.

"Hell if I know. Look, like I said. Check the desk. They'll know a hell of a lot more than me."

So off to the desk I went. Tossing the worthless key on the wood, I looked at the lady chewing a big wad of gum looking down at me.

"Do you know where a girl about my age, blond hair, had on a-"

"She checked out early."

"Don't you have times to check out by?"

She pointed to a sign hidden behind a flyer on a cork board reading:

"Want to check out early?

For a small fee, leave as early as you like, no questions asked!"

"Do you know where she might have gone?"

snapping her gum, she pointed again, a bit more violently, to the last line.

" no questions asked!"

"Uh... thanks..." I sighed and turned around, running back out into the rain with only the hope of wandering the streets until I had a clue. If I could find one.

And in the rain, clues are awfully hard to find.

Five blocks later, I had absolutely nothing. I had been keeping in contact with Gerald in hopes that she might show back up at the hospital, but it didn't look like that was part of her plan, whatever that was.

With my feet aching, and my body shivering violently, I opted to walk another block to the bus station to sit down for a little bit before making the trek home and trying to call Helga until I fell asleep.

"Maybe she'll answer a call..." I said to myself, pulling out my phone and dialing the number.

Hey, it was worth a shot... I told myself with false hope.

Faintly, I heard the familiar song that sounded a lot like Helga's ringtone.

Not catching on, I kept walking ahead, praying for a pick up.

It wasn't until the bus stop came into view that I saw her pink luggage sitting beside her long legs as she sat poised on the bench.

"Helga?" I called out, my phone falling to my side and finding it's way into my pocket again.

"Save it, Arnold." She called out.

I stood dumbfounded and looked at her as she sat before running to her, only to stop and stand beside the bench.

She stared blankly ahead.

With care, I sat down on the edge of the bench and looked at her, then looking out to find what she was so fixated on.

After about a minute of silence, the rain stopped falling on my head and I looked around to see that the puddles on the ground were still rippling the effects of rain. Looking overhead, I saw the shade of a black umbrella, covering me.

"I couldn't just leave."

I smiled and looked over to her.

"You could have."

"No, Arnoldo, I couldn't have. Buses don't start their rounds until seven a.m."

My smile faded as I nodded my head, looking down at the ground again.

"But I couldn't have left anyway." She finished after a moment.

"No plane ticket?" I guessed.

I felt her eyes on me and I turned my head to meet them.

"I'm not one to just give up, Arnold."

reaching out, I grabbed her hand, our fingers lacing instinctively.

"You look like a drowning poodle." She said after a moment, a laugh laced in her voice. "You gotta get home."

"Only if you come with."

she shrugged and stood up, making sure the umbrella was still over my head.

"Well, if you insist, Hair Boy, just to make you happy, I suppose I can."

"You're the best Helga." I said, as we started making our way through the back alleys taking a short cut to the boarding house.

"Yeah, yeah. I know." She chuckled.

"I love you, Helga." I said loudly; boldly.

She stopped for a moment, dropping the umbrella and facing me with a wide grin painted across her face.

"I love you too, Arnold."

Appropriately enough, the moment we kissed, the rain ceased.

Or at least I think it did, its not like I cared enough to notice.