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Sickness and Heartbreak

I drift in and out of consciousness. Different people's faces float in front of my vision. Julia's comes first as she looks at me in a panic. Elliot's follows quickly as he moves close to me. After that, I feel like I'm moving but I quickly black out again.

The next face I see is Mirabelle's. She places something cold on my head, and for a minute it feels good. Then my head starts burning again and her face fades out of view.

After, Denny's face shows up with a pretty blond beside him. In the back if my mind I know that this girl was Lanna. I can both of their lips moving, but I can't hear any of their conversation. Denny puts something to my lips and makes me drink a liquid. It's only water, but it burns my throat. His face fades quickly after he removes the glass.

In what seems like no time at all, I see another face. It's Natalie. She smiles at me and talks to me, but I can't hear anything she says. I do manage a small smile at her before I blank out again.

Time seems to have no more meaning to me. Will's face is the next to slide into my vision. He appears smug, and I hate that he's here. I can't hear myself, but I now that I'm cussing him out and calling him every dirty word I know. He just laughs as I fade back to unconsciousness.

I get a bunch more visitors. The little girl Eliza comes with the boy Charlie and they sit on my bed while arguing with themselves. Gannon comes briefly and puts something on my head that relieves the heat a bit. Felicity comes with Chen and they feed me some sort of food that I manage to choke down, while feeling like I'm going to hurl it back at them. Taro comes and would have talked my ear off, had I been able to hear. But the one person I really want to see never comes.

The visitor is always a different person every time I manage to struggle to consciousness. After I sink back to oblivion, it's harder and harder to get back. And every time it gets harder to stay.

My head pounds like a hammer was being wacked against it every other second. The back of my throat burned like liquid fire was being poured down it. All of my limbs felt like jelly, and I don't think I could have moved if I had wanted too. And all my limbs ached too. Every time I slipped into unconsciousness was a moment of bliss.

My eyes flutter open again, and I see someone I hadn't seen in a while. My boss is sitting on my bed with a glass of water in his hand. He seems to be talking to me, but I still can't hear him.

He takes two white pills, shows them to me and then drops them in the water. They looked vaguely familiar, but I still couldn't think straight. Then he puts the glass to my lips and makes me drink the whole thing.

My head clears a bit even a few seconds after I've taken the pills. I give my boss a smile and then I sink into sleep for the first time, instead of oblivion.

When I wake next, Julia is sitting by my bed. I still can't hear anything she's saying, but my head doesn't hurt nearly as bad and my limbs don't feel like jelly anymore. She holds up a glass of water and drops two little white pills inside. She holds the water to my lips and I drink eagerly. After drinking it, I fall back into my peaceful, dream-free sleep.

My eyes flutter open again, in what seems like mere seconds. To my astonishment, my throat no longer burned and I could actually hear sounds again.

Mirabelle is by my bed this time. "Vaughn? Vaughn, can you hear me?"

"I hear you." I croak out, my voice rusty from lack of use.

She sighs in relief and I see a tear leak out of her eye. "That's great dear. Here, your boss said you need to take two more of these and you'll be able to talk to us tomorrow."

Shakily, I reach out a hand for the glass of water with the pills. Instead Mirabelle helps me drink it, and I appreciate it. Right afterwards, I fall asleep once again.

I open my eyes again to find the entire town in my little bedroom. My head no longer hurt, and my body no longer burned or felt like jelly. Was still a bit sore, but not any worse than after a normal day of work.

"Vaughn!" Julia is the first one to cry out my name. She's right beside me and she wraps her arms around me as I sit up in bed.

To her surprise, I wrap an arm around her and give her a slight squeeze back. For a minute no one says anything. I'm scanning the crowd, but the person I want to see isn't there.

Then everyone begins to speak at once. Even though I could hear again, I couldn't make out anything that was being said. I blink a few times in confusion as I sit there.

Abruptly, a piercing whistle slices through the air and stops the chatter. The crowd parts to reveal my boss with his finger near his mouth in case he needed to whistle again. Next to him was a black haired man wearing a lab coat.

"All right everyone!" My boss calls out. "I want everyone who is not family or close friend to please leave the building! You can visit later, but Dr. Trent needs to examine him."

With many grumbles, everyone files out of the room. When they're gone the only people left in the room are me, Julia, Mirabelle, Denny, my boss and the man in a lab coat.

That man walks up to me. "My name is Dr. Trent. I've from Mineral Town, but your aunt called me to check and see if you were alright."

I nod at him. He gives me a light smile. "Let's begin."

He goes through all the normal doctor stuff. Checks my temperature. Looks in my ears. Looks in my throat. Listens to my heartbeat. All that jazz.

When he's done he backs away and smiles. "You're lucky Vaughn. If your boss hadn't taken the liberty to check up on you when you didn't show for work, you might not have been so lucky."

I'm confused. Didn't show up for work? What was the doctor talking about? Before I can ask, he turns to Mirabelle. "Well, I must be off. Flu season is coming late back home and I'm needed there."

"Thank you for coming Dr. Trent." She thanks him gratefully.

"My pleasure." He smiles at her and then nods at me. Just before he leaves the room, he turns around and speaks to me. "Don't forget those pills again."

I nod to him and then he's gone. My stomach growls right after. I growl right back at it. "Are you never satisfied?"

"You should be hungry." Julia tells me, her voice laced with worry.

"Yeah man." Denny says. "You haven't eaten in a long time."

"How long?" I ask as Julia leaves the room to get me something to eat.

"Vaughn, it's almost the end of fall." Mirabelle tells me softly.

"WHAT?" I practically scream this at the top of my lungs. "It's the middle of summer! I haven't been out for more than a few days…"

My boss shakes his head. "Son, believe it. If it was still summer, you would still be in that coma thing."

"I was in a coma?" I ask.

Mirabelle nods. "Pretty much. Your eyes opened every so often, but other than that you were basically in a coma."

"Yeah man it was scary." Denny shivers. "Doc even had to jump start your heart once. You were barely hanging on to life."

Julia walks in with a bowl of porridge. "And don't you ever do that again! Do you have any idea how scared I was when Elliot and I stumbled across you? Lying on the ground and looking like you had just kneeled over and died?"

She hands me the porridge and I begin to eat it. "I'm sorry." She apologizes for her quick outburst.

I look at my boss. "I'll come to work tomorrow."

He shakes his head. "No you aren't. You're going to stay here for at least a week and recover. I'd give you longer, but I really do need you back sometime. You can't keep lengthening your vacation." He laughs. "Rest and get better Vaughn. I will see you next week."

He smiles at me. "And there's a bottle of pills on your bedside table. Don't forget them again." With that, he leaves.

I sink back into my pillow as I eat my porridge. For a minute there's no sound other than everyone's breathing and the sound of my spoon hitting the bowl.

The Julia bursts out. "Why the hell didn't you tell us?"

"Tell you what?" I ask back as I slurp up the rest of my porridge.

"Don't play dumb Vaughn. Why didn't you tell us about your disease?" Julia's tone softens a bit, but it still has a bit of anger in it.

I shrug. "You never asked and I didn't' think it was important for you to know."

Julia yells into the air and kicks my bed. She doesn't leave the room, but she stands there in a mad mess. Denny speaks up for her. "Vaughn, man. Until your boss came, we spent a little over six weeks watching you die. Before our very eyes. Mirabelle and Julia were a freaking mess. No one had any idea what to do."

I sigh as I put my bowl down on the floor. "I'm sorry guys. I thought I had it under control. I'm sorry I worried you all so much. I promise it will never happen again."

This makes them pause. They'd never heard me apologize before and now I'd done it twice in one sentence.

Mirabelle speaks up for the first time. "So, what is this disease?"

I sigh. "I don't know the name. It's really long and complicated, but it's extremely rare. Maybe one in a billion people have it. There's no cure, but there is a treatment for it. As long as I take the pill regularly everything goes fine."

I sigh again and lean farther back into my pillow. "And when I forget to…well, you saw yourself what happens."

"What does it do exactly?" Julia whispers as she sits down on my bed beside me.

"In scientific terms, or normal ones?"

She thinks for a second. "Normal ones."

"It stops you from hearing. It clouds your thoughts and you can't think straight at all. You get short term memory loss and your head pounds like someone's driving a nail into your skull. Your throat burns and all food or drinks you try to put down either get stuck in your throat or you throw up a moment later. Your stomach churns like a shaken soda and you feel like you need to throw up every second. Your limbs feel like jelly and most of the time you can't move." I describe the feeling I had gone through as best as I can.

There's fear on their faces and I close my eyes to get away from it. Denny speaks up softly beside me as he joins my family by sitting on my bed. "What happens if you don't take the pill?"

"I die." I tell him plainly. "No one can tell me how long I can go without it before dying, but I honestly don't want to find out."

Beside me I hear a sniffle. I look over and see Julia crying. "Oh Julia, don't cry." I tell her as I wrap my arms around her. "I'm not dead."

She sniffles again. "I think that coma did something to your head."

"What do you mean?" I ask her.

Julia sniffles again and then lets out a small laugh. "You're actually being nice."

I laugh softly. "You don't like it? I can be nice you know."

She turns out of my arms and looks at me. "How come you're deciding to be nice now?"

I give her a slight smile. "While I was in the coma, I caught flashes of things happening in front of me. Almost every single person on the island came to see me at least once. It made me realize that people really did care for me; at least a little bit. So maybe, I could be a bit nicer."

She laughs and the others join in. I smile slightly and then lean back into the pillow, closing my eyes.

"That's a great idea Vaughn." Mirabelle tells me. "Now why don't you rest a bit? We'll keep everyone else at bay, until you're reading to talk."

I nod at her, and she leaves with Julia. Denny stays behind and looks like he has something to say. He swallows and then looks me in the eye.

"I have something to tell you man." He starts. But just before he can continue, someone runs into the room.

The long black hair and purple eyes are as familiar as my own looks. Sabrina looks like she's slightly short of breath, and her glasses are askew. Her outfit is just as I remember it, but she seems different. She looks a little more tired, and more run down. And she's defiantly not as beautiful as I remember.

"Vaughn." She sighs in relief. "I just got the news you were sick and came rushing over."

My eyes narrow at her in hatred. "Why are you here?"

"We moved in next to the mine two days ago. I just learned that you were sick from Will a few minutes ago." Sabrina explains. "You look good though."

"No thanks to you." I mutter.

She takes a step forward. "Vaughn."

"Don't come any closer." I warn her, my tone dangerous. Not that I could do anything. I wonder if Denny would sic on her if I asked.

She does stop though. I gather in a breath and then I start to yell at her. "You have no right to be here! You shouldn't care how I am at all! Not after you broke my heart and ruined my life!"

I take in another deep breath. "All for some other guy! Are you happy now with him?" Then I glance at her finger and notice she's not wearing a ring.

She holds her head up high. "He's dead. He died two years after we got married in a car accident. I have no children."

I snort. "Serves you right."

"Vaughn, please. I'm so sorry-" She starts but I cut her off.

"Sorry? YOU are sorry? Don't give me that crap Sabrina. I'm not taking you back." I know my tone is harsh, but I don't care. This girl wasn't going to break me again.

"Just listen." She begs.

"Get out." I say softly.

Sabrina doesn't move. I give her ten seconds counted in my head. Then I explode at her. "GET THE FUCKING HELL OUT OF THIS HOUSE SABRINA!"

Her eyes widen and she quickly scurries from the room. I lean back into the pillow in exhaustion. Who knew yelling took up so much energy?

Denny clears his throat. "That was awkward for me."

"Sorry Denny." I apologize. "Old history."

"Okay." He says. The he takes another deep breath. "As I said before, I have something to tell you."

"Well?"

"Remember back in summer, when I said I had dirt on you?" He looks really nervous.

I nod my head. "That part of the day I remember. Actually I don't remember anything after I started walking with Chelsea to go see her new cow."

Denny frowns. "Yeah, that's not good. I think. I'm not sure if you want that memory."

"Why? What happened?" I ask him urgently.

He licks his lips nervously. "Well, earlier you said that when you were in the coma you saw almost all the villagers come and visit, right?"

I nod and he sighs. "There was one person you didn't see, right? It was Chelsea wasn't it?"

I nod again in fear. In my head, a flash of Will's face comes through. He'd acted really smug, but I couldn't hear what he's said.

Denny takes another deep breath. "That day Julia found you passed out on the road from her farm. But no one saw a connection. I did, because I saw you almost kiss her on the beach. That was my dirt on you by the way."

"Go on." I say, my voice guarded.

"Well, I decided to follow Chelsea around because she didn't talk to anyone. She didn't even come when Julia practically screamed bloody murder." Denny sighs. "Chelsea tended her crops and animals for the rest of the day. Then at seven o'clock, Will showed up and began to walk with her back to his ship. I followed stealthily."

I roll my eyes at the last sentence. Denny continues. "Chelsea was clearly upset, and Will asked her about it. She spilled the whole story. Chelsea told him that you said they could never be together because of the crap that goes on in your life. She said you basically yelled at her to get the hell away."

Denny grimaces. "She didn't say anything else so she's the only one who knows the details of it. You don't remember it, so you'll have to ask her what happened. Though I don't know if you'll be able to ask her."

"What happened?" I ask him, my tone deadly and quiet.

"Will kissed her. Practically made out with her. And," Denny sighs and gives me a sad look. "And they've been going out ever since."