Deliquesce

Chapter 28: Drink

Rated: M

Warnings: None

A/N: :)

I don't know the exact point I became conscious. It could have been hours, days even.

I was still dreaming when the dull echo of an ache returned to my body, spiking up with sharp little stings of pain every now and then. I wasn't sure when the bright colours of my dreams faded away to the blackness of my closed eyelids, but eventually I regained enough control over my body to twitch my fingers, curl my fists and open my eyes. Even then, my reality was blurred. The day I woke up, I thought the tubes hooked up to my arms were snakes burrowing into my skin, pumping their venom into my veins. After another two days, I could get up. Wonka moved me from the room I was isolated in and into the hospital wing so I could continue being monitored and treated. My reality was returning to normal. My body was too, in it's own way. I had a fever, which caused me to sweat profusely. It smelled sour and slightly acidic. I was coughing up mucus. I was throwing up every few hours. Wonka told me that it was just my body getting rid of the last remnants of infection.

He stayed with me the entire time, but he refused to tell me anything about what had happened until I was better. I was relatively normal within another four days, and I was allowed to get up and walk around the hospital wing. Nowhere else, for some reason. The rest of the group wasn't allowed to visit me and Wonka wouldn't really tell me much about them. Everything was disorientating, but I guess he wanted to keep me quarantined until he was sure the virus was gone.

After those four days, he took me to his quarters, sat me down and made me a cup of tea.

"How are ya today, Ember?" He asked with a sweet smile and worried eyes.

"I'm fine." I said. "How's everyone?" I assumed they were okay, since none of them were injured in the hospital wing when I got there.

"That's great! I know I've asked you before, but I'm going to ask again if you've remembered anything else from that day."

"No.. nothing else. The last thing I remember clearly was being bitten, and it's all very blurry from there. A few random memories, but I couldn't open my eyes. How long was I out? Are you going to tell me what happened now?"

"Maybe. You were in an induced coma for 10 days."

"Why maybe?"

"I don't know if you're in the best state to hear it."

Worry pricked up my spine. What had happened that was so bad he couldn't tell me right now, even when I had officially 'recovered'?

"I'm in a fine state. I'm not hallucinating anymore. I know where I am. I know who I am. How did you find the cure so quickly, anyway?"

"I went to Loompa Land, went back to my beloved Oompa Loompas and seeked out the one that was bitten. I then had him help me find that bug, and I fast tracked a cure from it."

My eyes widened. He had actually found a cure. I know I was living proof of this, but it was still an amazing thought. Revolutionary. He now had the world in the palm of his hands. He could save it.

He sipped at his tea.

"I 'spose I should tell you what happened now, huh? Forgive me if I'm always so gosh darn overprotective.. I just worry about you." His playful tone trailed out into something dark.

"I know it's bad. I can take it."

"Okay." He set down his cup. "You know that we turned the corner and I pushed you over. You hit your head on a rock, but managed to get up. I guess you were pretty dizzy to not notice the zombie coming up behind you. I guess I was a little preoccupied to notice until it was too late, either. Spencer noticed before we both did. By the time I had turned around, he was already running towards you. We were both too late, though. You went out pretty much instantly, probably a product of all your injuries and the fact that it had bitten your neck. Spencer picked you up and ran, and the rest of us ran for it too. He was going pretty well, until he tripped. He fell back only a tiny bit, but those tiny bits matter more than anything. He was grabbed by two of them. They bit right into his head. I ran back and put those two down, along with a few more who were getting too close for comfort, grabbed you and ran. Spencer died. I'm sorry, Ember. It was too late to save him as I planned on saving you. Your actual injury was minimal, his was… I couldn't fix him." The last part was a broken whisper and he dropped his gaze.

I closed my eyes. Closed them tight, so that no light could possibly get in. That was impossible though, because if you close your eyes during the daytime it seeps through your eyelids anyway so that you see red instead of black.

"Ember? Would you like a hug?"

I could feel my head begin to shake no, but I stopped myself. Numbing myself only helped when there were more pressing matters. Anything else and it was unhealthy. I wanted to slip into that numbness, but I think I owed it to Spencer to let myself grieve his death. I pulled off my shackles of stubbornness, kicked over the wall that was beginning to build and let my head nod yes. The tears came a second after Wonka's arms wrapped around me and I just cried. I cried for Spencer, my drinking buddy. I cried for the future he wouldn't have, the happiness and normality he wouldn't eventually get to feel. I cried for myself, and that was okay.

He held me like that for a while, even took off a glove to rub my hair without it pulling.

"Is there anything I can do?" He asked quietly.

I nodded into his shoulder. "Have a drink with me?"