Chapter 8: When everything goes wrong

In the previous chapter:

Rikki slowly opened her eyes. Cleo was the first to notice.

"Rikki!" Cleo screamed and a smile appeared on everyone's faces.

For the first time in a very long time they felt happy. Because they all knew: the hell was already over.

"Hey." Rikki quietly greeted everyone with a smile.

She looked at all of them. Tears of relief were falling down from their eyes. Then she realized there's two people in the room, that she hadn't seen in a long time. She smiled.

"Em, Ash, you're back."

They nodded with a smile at her. Rikki caught Emma's hand.

"We missed you so much, Em!" She said.

Emma burst into tears and answered with a smile, "I missed you too!"

She leaned to give Rikki a little hug. Rikki tried to move her arms and return the hug, and she realized her whole body was aching like hell. When they released from the hug she quietly moaned.

"Rikki, are you ok?" They all asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm ok. It's just…it hurts." She said a-matter-of-factly.

"Where?" Cleo asked, but before Rikki had the chance to answer a doctor came in.

"Who are you?" Rikki asked with a rude voice, becoming her usual self.

Everyone couldn't help but smile. Their Rikki was back.

"I'm your doctor." He said.

"I don't need a doctor. I want to go home." She quickly said and everyone stared at her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you just woke up!" Will said.

"I don't care, I just I don't want to stay here any minute longer."

And she tried to seat in her bed, in order to get up, but neither her legs nor the whole bottom part of her body obeyed her. She tried to move her legs, but nothing happened.

"What's happening? What have you done to me?" She shouted to the doctor.

"Miss Chadwick, please calm down."

"No, tell me what's wrong with me?" And she brunt the doctor with her look.

"You've got to understand that…" He began, but she interrupted him again.

"Spill out!"

"Miss Chadwick, you…you're paralyzed." And all the eyes in the room were staring at him, except hers.

Rikki looked through the window.

"You've hurt your back very badly in the crash and you'll never be able to walk again."

Everyone looked at Rikki. She was looking through the window and almost everywhere else but at them. She turned to the doctor with a strange flame in her eyes.

"You're wrong." She said and everyone in the room trembled when they heard how cold her voice had become. "I WILL walk!" She grabbed the bottle of water off the little table next to her bed. She looked at the doctor. "Get out!" She said in cold voice.

When Will saw her grab the bottle he realized in a second what she wanted to do. He turned to the doctor.

"Please, leave us alone with her for a few minutes."

The doctor looked at him and walked out of the room without saying anything.

Before someone could stop her, Rikki opened the bottle and poured some water on her hand. Then she felt the change. She felt her body transforming. She tried to move her tail, but she couldn't. Then a thought occurred to her. She put her hand over her tale, curling her fingers into a fist, but her intention was not to dry herself. She was focusing on one place of her fin. She was making it hotter and hotter, but she didn't feel anything.

She had just burned herself and she didn't feel a thing!

"Would you just leave me alone for a while?" She said to the group.

"Rikki.." Zane started, but she stopped him.

It's like it was just now when she realized he was there too.

"What are you doing here?" She said. "I broke up with you like 3 months ago. You shouldn't be here. Go away, you've got a café to manage." She said all that in a cold voice, pulling her hand out of his.

He was shocked. He'd never heard her voice so deadly cold and he'd never seen her so distant like that. Tears started forming deep in his eyes.

"If that's what you really want…" He said in a hurt voice. "…I'll go." He stood up and left the room quickly passing through Ash and Lewis.

Rikki truned her face to the others in the room.

"Please leave." She said, but her voice was no longer cold. It was shaking. "All of you."

Tears started running down Cleo, Bella and Emma's cheeks.

"Rikki, please..." Cleo started, but Rikki cut her off.

"Leave." She repeated again.

They were all hurt of what she'd asked them to do, but they had no choice. They left the room and sat on the chairs in the waiting room outside. Lewis hugged Cleo trying to comfort her. Ash and Emma sat next to Cleo and Lewis also tied in a hug. Will sat next to Bella, hugging her, but he looked kind of pissed off and soon he was standing on his feet walking back and forth. Then he suddenly spoke up.

"That's it. I know that news were really devastating for her, but I'm tired of watching her pretending to be the tough guy. Someone needs to say something!"

And before anyone could stop him, he rushed in to Rikki's room.

"Listen, what you just did was not an act of a tough guy, but an act of a cowder. We all love you and care about you. How could you just…" But he froze.

He realized little, warm tears were falling down Rikki's cheeks.

He ran to her bed, he gently sat next to her, and put her head on his chest, comforting her and gently fondled her cheek. That's when she finally realized she couldn't resist anymore and she burst into tears in his arms.

He realized that there was a change in her. She wasn't the tough guy anymore. Maybe, it was because of the news, maybe it was because of the incident, but deep down she was beginning to break.