Where's My Dolly?
Well, hopefully you can work out the gist of this chapter by the title of it :D
Chapter 10: The Return of the Mighty Oak
Leaf screamed and when she finally stopped, she looked at the figure before her intently. "How did you get in here, Drew?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Walked in the front door like what most people would tend to do." She leaned against the door frame
"Why are you here?" Leaf asked and Drew shrugged in response.
"I got a text saying to come here."
"But I locked the door."
"No you didn't. The door was unlocked when I opened it." Drew said, confusing Leaf. They both remained silent for a while until someone else spoke, a surprising third party.
"That's cause I unlocked it." Said a third party brunet, whose appearance shocked both Leaf and Drew, as he entered the room with a small stack of books in his arms and a bunch of paper that was threatening to escape to the floor. He set the books down onto the desk and turned to face his dumbstruck friends.
"Oak!" Leaf and Drew both said but in different tones. Drew's tone was more cool and collected whereas Leaf's tone was one of surprise and excitement. She jumped off the bed and onto Gary, latching onto him in a freakishly tight hug, if something so tight could still be considered a hug. Gary caught the girl and hugged her back.
When Leaf finally decided to let go, she gave her friend a slap across the face but justified it afterwards. "That's for disappearing like that without a word."
Gary rubbed his burning, red cheek. "Cause explaining why you just slapped me makes the slap itself okay…" He muttered to himself.
Drew coughed to catch his two friends' attention. "Not to interrupt but why am I here?"
Gary sat on the desk and lifted up one of the books. "We could use an extra brain." He said, which explains why he did not invite Ash over. Leaf read the title of the book. Physiology of the Brain.
"Why?" Drew asked. His position from the door was still the same as before. He did not even bother to enter the room.
"Because it has a lot to do with the missing project." Gary clarified, "But I guess I should tell you guys what I've found out while I was away." He picked up the sheets of paper and found one that had all his initial findings on it and started from there. "So I guess that Saturday after Leaf and I returned from the police station would be a good place to start."
*FLASHBACK* (Gary's POV seeing as he's meant to be telling the story)
When we heard that hiker scream and found that body, I realised something. We know that person. I know him better than Leaf seeing as he was always here, especially since the project started along with Professor Burnell, Professor Fergusson and your parents, Leaf. After we left the police station that night, I went to see my gramps and I asked him what he knows.
He said some things about the project being controversial and unstable but he didn't say what the project is but he said he knows that it is the projects instability that's causing everything from the break in at your house to the attack on all five of the of the victims. But I could tell that my gramps wasn't going to tell me anything else so I took off to see someone else who was initially involved with the project but dropped out because it went against her moral: Professor Ivy.
She said that the project involved using a human brain transplant, which made sense since I noticed the gramps trying to cover a book titled Physiology of the Brain. She knows where the brain came from but she didn't know who it came from so that's when I decided to do some investigating.
Mr Alexander Courtez, aged 39 died in a car accident just a few weeks ago. He was a registered organ donor. He was the man who donated his brain to the project. At first nothing seemed wrong with this guy but when I researched into this guy further, I found out that he was a from a family of doctors and he often went abroad to do charity to work which didn't add up. I am so sure that when a brain is transplanted from one organism to another, all of its memory and personality traits remain.
After finding that out, I decided it was time to return to research brains when but then Ivy told me one more thing. Bill was the one who operates the computer systems at the organ donor centre in Cerulean which means he controls which organs get sent to where in Kanto via the computer system so I was going to go see him but he seems awfully busy but luckily Daisy was more than happy to ask him a few for me, discretely of course.
*END FLASHBACK*
"But wait," Drew interrupted as soon as Gary finished. "How did you know about Dawn's death before she was found. Your call to me was the day before she was found."
"A hunch." Gary said, a sceptical at his own answer but neither of the others urged him for an answer.
"And you left me clues?" Leaf said as she held up the note that she found in the book in the library.
Gary nodded, "I wasn't going to come back so soon but my last link died, literally." He said.
"Dawn was your last link?" Leaf asked
Gary shook his head. "No. The guy who removed and delivered the brain is or rather was."
"How'd that guy die?" Drew asked.
"Hill walking accident. He fell off a cliff and broke his neck." Gary answered, "And died instantly."
Drew whistled and Leaf gasped. "That must've hurt." Leaf said.
"Yeah but I was thinking we could team up and do some investigating." Gary suggested as he hand Leaf one of the books and Drew a sheet with a few words scrawled on it. Leaf flicked through the book quickly and shut it over again and looked up at Gary. Drew glanced at the sheet of paper. "I think what we need to do is split up and research things. Drew's parents have access to the citizen records of Kanto so I was thinking you should research the people on that list; find all you can about them."
Drew read out the names and looked at Gary and Leaf. "I'll see what I can do."
"As for Leaf and I, we need to raid your parents and my gramps' folders and files and everything about this project and see what we can find and research what we can about the brain." Gary said, earning confirming nods from his friends. "But for now, I think we should sit down to a cup of tea."
And that is exactly what they did next. The three of them made their way down the wooden stair and into the kitchen, settling down to tea and nothing else. The kitchen was fresh out of cakes and biscuits and all other snacks.
"I hope professor Oak's okay." Leaf sighed, "I haven't seen him in a while." Leaf said. She had her hands wrapped round her hands, allowing the heat to seep through the cup and into her skin. She rested her elbows on the kitchen counter.
"Oh yeah, he's fine." Gary said, waving away Leaf's concern casually. "He's away to talk to Ivy." He was sitting on one of the bar stools by the open window of the kitchen.
Drew was sitting next to Gary. He drank his tea relatively quickly. "Seeing as you managed to suss out Dawn's death, who do you think will be next?" Drew wondered.
Gary shrugged, "I have no clue." He admitted, setting his mug down onto the table. Watching Gary do that reminded Leaf about the note she found in her favourite mug which she was using now.
The room became silent after that, giving Leaf time to remember something that she noticed before but did not give much thought about at the time. "The day we found Dawn," she looked up from her mug and looked at Drew, "when we were in that classroom, I don't know if it was just me but I noticed the doll display was mucked up." This caught both Drew and Gary's attention. "Three of the dolls were sitting up perfectly with their china in place but then there was my doll. It was lying down with its teacup sitting upside-down but perfectly across from one of the dolls and the saucer was gone."
"Where's your doll now, Leaf?" Gary asked. He put his mug and Drew's into the basin.
"I think it's still in art. We weren't allowed to take anything from art until the police and forensic scientists were done." Leaf said. "But I left early today so I don't know if they were finished or not."
"I left early too so I don't know either." Drew said when Leaf looked at him.
"Pick it up tomorrow. I'll come with." Gary offered.
"Wait, you're going to school tomorrow?" Leaf asked, surprised, "You're going to face up to Lt. Surge's wrath?"
Gary thought for a moment. "I'll see you after homeroom tomorrow."
Xx-x-xX
It was almost midnight. Drew left around two hours ago after chatting a little longer with Gary about girls and his latest "attainments" while Gary was away. Leaf had left the guys to talk while she headed up to shower then to bed. But two hours later she was still wide awake. The thrill of Gary being back had temporarily mucked up her sleeping pattern, not that she ever had a proper one. But still she, she remained lying down under the duvets listening to Gary in his room, not that she had a choice; the rest of the house excluding Gary's room was pin-drop silent.
Gary came out of his room with nothing but a pair of boxers on a towel round his neck, catching the little droplets of water that dripped from his hair. He wanted to do nothing more than to sleep after travelling from place to place over the past few days and trying to piece together what he knew. He laid back on his bed and to his surprise; his bed was not as soft as he remembered it to be. He shuffled his hand about and then it hit him. His duvet was still in Leaf's room from the night he came back to slip the note in the library. He compensated whether he should go and take his duvet back which he decided he should and to go check up on Leaf.
The said girl was lying in bed all tucked in, listening intently as she heard Gary's room door open. She was prepared to pounce out of bed and tackle Gary to the floor if she hears him leave again. But to her surprise, she heard her room door open, allowing an increasing brightness into the room. She shut her eyes, trying to listen what Gary her best friend was up to.
Gary looked at Leaf on the bed. She looked so content. Gary did not want to wake her from her sleep, as much as he loved to. Instead, he tried something else.
Leaf felt the blanket that was closest to her move and before she knew it, she felt another figure lying closely beside her under the blanket.
Gary shuffled closer, trying not to wake his friend.
"I'm not actually asleep, you know." Leaf stated, her voice sounding awake and not at all groggy. She turned to face him.
"Good." Gary said. He had his arms folded behind his head and his eyes were looking up at the ceiling.
"Why didn't you take me with you when left?" Leaf asked. The question had been bugging her since he came back but she wanted to wait until it was just her and Gary when she asked.
"I have a theory." Gary announced, he turned his head towards Leaf and looked at, his face serious. "But you're not going to like it."
This perked Leaf's interest. She sat up and looked down at Gary. "Elaborate." She said, her voice levelling Gary's serious tone.
"You're life would've been in greater danger away that if you were here." When he said it he did not look at Leaf. He tried to lighten mood after announcing his theory by snaking a hand round Leaf's waist and dragging her back down onto the bed and tickling her. It reminded her of when they were little, a fun time; the best times.
Judging by how much fun they were having now, they could already tell that tomorrow is going to be an absolute nightmare.
Xx-x-xX
So, as reviewers were hoping, Gary is NOT dead! AND I ended this chapter in a slightly high note… Well, higher than usual anyway :D so I hope you liked it and I'm hoping there will be a review heading my way? Feedback/ criticism/ praise are always appreciated! Thanks for you support so far and it coming!
silver-hedgehog