AN: I'm so sorry, guys, but I didn't forget about this story! I've rewritten this part literately twelve different times, and I'm still not entirely happy with it. (I'm my own worst critic, I swear!) But I'm embarrassed at how long it's been since my last post so here it is. There will be one more chapter and an epilogue after this. Hope you like it.
Hours later, Stephanie sagged against the metal door, tears of defeat coursing down her cheeks. She'd screamed herself hoarse, but no one had come. Her fists, that had started to throb after the first few blows to the door, now felt numb and swollen. She allowed herself a few moments to sob, hopelessness and despair filling her.
Angrily brushing away her tears, she turned on her cellphone once more, flooding the small space with dim light. Sportacus was still out cold, not even her screams had wakened him. She crawled over to inspect her friend once more. He was still breathing slowly and deeply, almost as if he were asleep... or in a coma! That had to be it!
Stephanie reached for her bag. She'd been carrying around sports candy ever since Sportacus's last meltdown, but if this was a sugar coma, then would he even be able to eat it? Hopefully, she held the apple up to his lips.
Nothing. Not even a flutter of his eyelashes.
Groaning in frustration, Stephanie put her head in her hands and tried to think back to the day that Sportacus has told them about sugar comas. Her only hope was to get him to a hospital, wasn't it? But hadn't Trixie suggested pouring fruit juice down his throat? Would that even work, and even if it did, how was she going to get fruit juice from just one apple? She'd never be strong enough to squeeze the juice out of it, no matter how much sports candy she ate.
After thinking about it a moment, Stephanie bit a large piece off the apple and gently coaxed the hero's mouth open with her fingers. Placing the piece of apple to his lips, she squeezed as hard as she could. A single drop fell into his mouth.
This wasn't working! There was more juice on her hand than ended up in his mouth.
As she licked the stickiness from her fingers, an idea crept into her mind, one that made her blush to the roots of her pink hair. She couldn't...could she? It wouldn't be right...but then, neither was letting him lie there in a coma.
She took a few moments to work up her nerve before taking a large bite of apple and sucking as much juice as she could into her own mouth. Then, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, licking the juice into his mouth with her tongue. She tried to focus on painting the inside of his mouth with as much juice as possible - not on how much it was making her heart pound and the blood rush to her cheeks.
She bit the apple again and repeated the process. Still no movement. So she tried again, and again.
She was about to give up, when she felt a gentle pressure of lips and tongue against hers. Then a weak and shaky hand slowly threaded itself through her hair. Pulling back, she looked down into surprised blue eyes.