"Code: Insomnia"

By cdc100

Summary: Jeremie is having fits in his sleep. Aelita wants to know what's wrong with him and he insists that nothing is wrong. Find out what happens.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure non-profit fan fiction. Code Lyoko is the property of Antefilms, Moonscoop, France 3, Canal J, Cartoon Network, Tania Palumbo and Thomas Romain. Please support the official release.

Chapter Three

"Inside Out"

Once the camera was all set up and the feed was coming through, the group sat down and watched the screen.

"He really doesn't do much, does he?" asked Odd. "Seems like all he ever does is keyboard."

"He hasn't done anything else since we set the camera up," said Ulrich.

"Look," said Yumi, pointing to a part of the screen. "He hasn't even touched his breakfast."

"Come on!" said Odd. "If he wasn't going to eat it, why didn't he just give it to me?"

Odd looked mournfully at the tray of uneaten breakfast food.

"Now, it's gotten all stale and been left in the open too long," he said.

"For once, I have to agree with you," said Ulrich, shaking his head. "What a waste."

Yumi shrugged.

"Well, I suppose having it within reach would save him a trip to his closet," she said. "He's eating, we just don't know how much."

"True," said Ulrich.

Odd cocked his head.

"And look," he said. "He's got one of those bucket-sized coffee mugs."

"Looks to me like he's trying to emulate the Energizer bunny," said Ulrich.

"Energizer bunny?" asked Aelita.

"Oh, their slogan is 'Just keeps going,' or something like that," said Ulrich, using finger quotes.

"Well, that much coffee will definitely do it," said Odd.

As the quartet spoke, Jeremie would occasionally take a sip from the mug and then keep working. After an hour or so, Jeremie leaned forward and groaned. He clutched his stomach, then leaned toward the tray and took a few big bites. He shoved them all in his mouth and swallowed them all at once.

He immediately went back to working on whatever program was keeping him occupied.

"He needs a reminder to eat?" asked Odd. "And people say I have a stomach made of iron."

He shrugged.

"Well, at least he's finally eating that food," he said. "I'd have had to throttle him otherwise."

Ulrich shook his head.

"Can you see what it is he's working on?" he asked.

"No," said Aelita. "Not on-screen at least. But…let me look at his keystrokes."

Aelita looked down at Jeremie's hands and saw them racing across the board. His fingers moved almost too fast for her eyes.

Almost.

"It's pretty obvious that he's coding," said Aelita.

Her eyes widened as she saw his fingers tap a phrase.

"What is it?" asked Odd.

"I…think he's…working on some kind of fix to my virus," said Aelita, sinking to the floor. "He's working himself to death over me."

Yumi sat down next to Aelita.

"Hey," she said, drawing Aelita into a hug. "It's okay, Aelita."

"I'm the reason he's been avoiding us," said Aelita.

"Hey, calm down," said Odd.

Aelita stared at the floor.

"He's been stressing himself because of me," she said.

"Aelita," said Ulrich. "It may not be Jeremie's fault that he's stressed out, but it's definitely not yours either. We don't know what's going on in his head."

Yumi nodded.

"He might actually have more going on with his life than we know," she said. "I mean, when was the last time any of us asked about his family or his life back home?"

"As far as I know, his family loves him," said Ulrich. "I'd trade dads with him any day."

"That's not what I mean," said Yumi. "He's got a great family, but for all we know, there is something bothering him that they don't know about. I just get the feeling that there is more to it than just XANA and us."

"Not that XANA's exactly a picnic," said Odd.

"Yeah, I see what you mean," said Ulrich. "XANA might just be the final drop in an already overflowing bucket for Jeremie. And we don't know what else is in that bucket, not just because he's never told us, but because we've never asked."

Odd, Yumi and Aelita looked at Ulrich.

"I'm not saying that we are in any way responsible for his stress," said Ulrich. "But, if we were, if anything, I think we all have an equal share of the blame. We may not have asked, but Jeremie should be able to talk to us about anything."

"Perhaps there's a reason why he doesn't feel that way," said Yumi.

Aelita nodded.

"When we spoke this morning, he was talking about how we didn't have lives, and it was all because of him," said Aelita. "He must feel guilty that XANA has contaminated our lives for so long."

Odd scratched his hair.

"And we wouldn't be involved if not for Jeremie turning on the supercomputer," he said.

"And if he hadn't turned on the supercomputer…" Aelita trailed off.

"You wouldn't be here either," said Yumi.

Aelita felt a tear leak from each of her eyes as she stared at the floor.

Yumi wrapped her arms around Aelita.

"Hey," she said. "Come on, Princess. Please, don't cry."

Ulrich shook his head.

"Alright," he said. "That's it. We can't wait for Jeremie to sleepwalk again. We need to go set him straight. Now."

"How?" asked Odd.

"Face to face," said Ulrich. "Jeremie needs to remember why we're friends."

"Well…that's going to be kind of difficult," said Odd.

"Yeah?" asked Ulrich. "How so?"

"Well…um…" Odd pointed at the computer screen. It was still on, but Jeremie wasn't in it.

"Oh, come on," said Yumi.

"Oh, no," said Aelita.

"Calm down, Aelita," said Ulrich. "On the weekend, his room is one of only two places he would be."

"Yeah," said Odd. "Factory, ho!"

With that, Odd ran down the hall to the entrance of the dorms. Aelita, Yumi and Ulrich followed, hoping they would find Jeremie halfway to the factory and bring him back to the dorm building.

Odd led the group to the manhole in the grounds, and allowed Yumi and Aelita to go down first before he and Ulrich followed.

The quartet picked up the skateboards and scooter that they always kept at the near side of the sewer, and rode it all the way to the factory. At the other end, they hung up their boards and scooter and went up the ladder which they knew would lead to the factory. They crossed the bridge and took their usual ropes down to the factory floor.

Upon reaching the elevator, they still had yet to see Jeremie. They took the elevator down to the computer room.


Jeremie sat at the supercomputer, taking a look at all of the group's Lyoko avatars and typing codes to make improvements.

He continued to type, but eventually came to a stop when he came to Aelita's avatar.

As he stared at the pink-haired girl's avatar, his thoughts wandered to the girl in question.

In Jeremie's mind, and indeed, the minds of many others, she was beautiful. He didn't even think that Yumi could hold a candle to her in terms of beauty.

Of course, to him, that was just a bonus. What really made Aelita his dream girl was something more. Aelita wasn't like many of the girls Jeremie would see in school who were beautiful and knew it, and were not afraid to remind people of that fact. Sissi, for example. He had never seen Aelita act like Sissi, and sincerely doubted that he ever would.

Aelita, Jeremie thought, was the kind of person who would have all the praise and adoration of her classmates, but would gladly give it up for any one of her friends.

Jeremie scoffed at that last thought.

Friends.

Jeremie wanted him and Aelita to be more than that. However, he felt that it was not to be. He had helped bring Aelita out of her digital prison and given her the life that was stolen from her by XANA. Jeremie was happy with that alone. And since Aelita was happy too, Jeremie decided that was enough; that Aelita didn't need him in order to be happy. Therefore, he shouldn't bother her with his feelings.

"Aelita needs to be happy," said Jeremie. "I'll just ruin that."

He shook his head and kept coding. However, as he continued to type, he felt his eyelids get heavier and heavier. His fingers maintained their speed, but as they did so, he began to slump in his chair. He felt the weight of so many sleepless nights start to push him down like an anvil on his head.

"Must…remain…awake…" said Jeremie, still maintaining speed.

Eventually, Jeremie's eyes closed and he felt himself slump to the floor from the chair. He curled up and held onto his knees as he yawned one final time and fell asleep.

Unbeknownst to Jeremie, as he slept, he got up from the floor and stared around the room. His eyes were out of focus as he got up from the floor and started to pace the room. He looked around. His eyes landed on the elevator door and he stuck his fingers in-between the gap and started prying.

After a few minutes, he gave up trying to pry on it and clenched his hand into a fist, which he then started slamming into the door.

As he reared his hand back to bang on the door again, it opened, and his friends stepped out.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Odd. "Might have gotten here just a touch too late."

Jeremie rushed past the group and into the elevator, where he started banging his fist again.

"Hey!" yelled Ulrich. "Jeremie, calm down. It's okay. You're fine."

"It's happening again," said Aelita.

"You guys were right," said Yumi. "It isn't pleasant to see."

Aelita reached out to Jeremie.

"Aelita, wait," said Yumi.

"Yeah," said Odd. "We don't know what will happen. Hold back for a minute and let's just keep talking to him."

"Jeremie," said Aelita. "It's me. Please, calm down. Please stop running away from us. You're safe. Your friends are here for you."

It was slow, but Jeremie stopped banging his fist and collapsed to the floor, where he curled up and laid on his side. He took deep breaths and was sweating all over.

"Well, we got him calmed down," said Odd. "Now what?'

"We could take him back to the infirmary," said Yumi. "But we don't know what will happen if we do."

"She's right," said Ulrich. "It might be smarter to just wait until he wakes up. Whatever we do, I don't think it would be a good idea to touch him until we know what's going on. Agreed?"

Ulrich looked at Yumi, who nodded, then at Odd. Odd nodded as well before Ulrich turned to look at Aelita, who let a breath out before nodding as well.

The four friends took a seat inside the elevator.

"Never thought I'd be trapped in an elevator with you guys," said Odd.

"We're not trapped, Odd," said Ulrich.

"Well, give it a minute," said Odd.

Ulrich shook his head and looked over at Jeremie.

"I just don't get it," he said. "There's just so much that this makes me wonder about."

"Yeah," said Yumi. "And not just 'what's going on with him?' but like, 'why won't he tell us?' or 'what's causing this?'"

"The real thing that sucks is that Jeremie's the only one who could tell us for sure," said Odd. "And he's not talking."

"And he won't be able to tell us when he wakes up," said Ulrich. "But we know the first thing he'll do when he wakes up. He'll get up off the floor, go back to the computer and start coding again, working himself ragged until he falls back to the floor. He's not going to tell us."

"Way to bring the mood down, Ulrich," said Odd.

"I'm just saying when he wakes up, we'd better be prepared to take drastic measures," said Ulrich.

"Well, how drastic is 'drastic?'" asked Odd.

"Well, I'd rather not have to bring Jeremie back to the school by his legs, but if that's what it takes…" said Ulrich.

"I agree, Ulrich," said Yumi. "There's a better-than-decent chance he won't go back willingly."

Odd scratched his head. After a moment, his eyes widened and he snapped his fingers.

"I've got it," he said. "There is actually a 25 percent chance he'll go back willingly."

"How do you figure?" asked Ulrich.

"Well, there are four of us," said Odd. "And 100 divided by four is 25…ergo, 25 percent chance."

Ulrich shook his head.

"I can do basic arithmetic, Odd," he said. "That's not what I'm asking. Where do you see the 25 percent?"

"Oh," said Odd. "Well, he might not go back for you, me or Yumi, but he might go back for Aelita."

Ulrich looked over at Aelita.

"Oh," he said. "Yeah, that might work."

Just then, Jeremie started to stir in his spot on the floor. The group looked at him as he slowly rose from the floor.

"Guys?" he asked. "What the…we in the elevator? What are you doing here? Wait, what am I doing here?"

He winced and clenched his hand.

"And why does my hand hurt so much?" he asked.

"Well," said Odd, "in order: 1) Yes, we're in the elevator. 2) We came here looking for you. 3) You're coming back to the school with us. And 4) You were banging on the wall."

"But…" said Jeremie. "I can't go back to the school. I have work to do. Lots of work to do."

He got up from the floor and went to look at the supercomputer's screen.

"Damn it!" he yelled. "I was hoping I was further than that!"

"Come on, Einstein," Odd said, laying a hand on Jeremie's shoulder. "You'll get further later."

"No!" Jeremie exclaimed, shrugging off Odd's hand. "I'll get further now!"

Jeremie sat back down in the chair and started typing on the window he had open.

"Jeremie," said Yumi. "Would you stop, please? You can work later."

"No!" yelled Jeremie. "I have to work now! I have to!"

"Calm down," said Ulrich.

"Stop telling me to calm down!" said Jeremie.

"Jeremie, please!" exclaimed Aelita. "Don't you get it? You're overworking yourself!"

Jeremie stopped typing and sunk in his chair before looking over at Aelita, who had tears in her eyes.

Jeremie took a deep breath and got out of the chair. He then ran to the elevator and hit the up button, causing the elevator doors to close. As the elevator rose, he rested his head against the side of the car.

"And now I've made Aelita cry," he said. "Great."

When the elevator stopped, Jeremie exited the factory and took the long way back to campus, through the forest.

Meanwhile, back in the computer room, Jeremie's friends looked from one to the other.

"This is not looking good," said Odd. "I don't think I've ever seen Jeremie act like this before. He's lashed out before, but not like this."

"He's not just lashing out," said Yumi. "I don't think I saw him like this even when he was working on Aelita's materialization."

Ulrich shook his head while Odd scratched his.

"You guys ever see that movie Inside Out?" asked Odd.

The others turned to look at Odd.

"Now, now," said Odd, "any other time, I would just let you guys ignore me just like any other time I come up with something like that, but this time, I have a real thought."

Ulrich and Yumi crossed their arms and signaled to Odd.

"Well, you remember how two of that kid's emotions went missing and she started acting like a wounded bear?" asked Odd. "She did a lot of stuff she wouldn't normally do. She quit hockey, stopped talking to her friends, stole from her parents and ran away from home."

"What's your point, Odd?" asked Yumi.

"I'm not saying the exact same thing is happening with Jeremie," said Odd. "I mean that girl never started running for her life in her sleep – I don't think…anyway, I don't think Jeremie's going through exactly what she did, but Jeremie's acting weird. He's gotten unpredictable, so who knows what's going on in his head? We have no way of knowing. But I think whatever's going on, we'll find the answer inside his head."

"And you're proposing we get to it, how?" asked Ulrich.

Odd shrugged.

"I don't know," he said. "I was hoping you guys might have an idea."

Ulrich suddenly shot up straight.

"Wait a minute," he said, walking over to the supercomputer.

"What is it, Ulrich?" asked Yumi.

"I think I might just have the idea Odd was hoping for," said Ulrich. "You guys remember when Jeremie was doing that thing with the Return to the Past program?"

"When he was using it to make himself smarter?" asked Odd.

"Yep," said Ulrich, searching through the computer.

"I sincerely doubt he's doing that again," said Yumi. "Jeremie may have done a lot of crazy stuff, but even he's not crazy enough to make the same mistake twice."

"You're right, he's not," said Ulrich. "But you remember how we found out about that whole mess?"

"Yeah," said Yumi. "He was keeping a-"

Yumi's eyes widened.

"Wait," said Yumi. "You don't suppose…"

"I do suppose," said Ulrich. "Ah. Found it."

Ulrich opened up a window and showed it to the room's other occupants.

"Jeremie's video diary," said Yumi.

"Okay," said Ulrich. "Now, we just need to scroll down to…how far back do you think we ought to go?"

"Two weeks?" asked Yumi.

Ulrich opened the entry from two weeks previously. From there, the quartet searched through the diary until they found a clue.

"How about this one?" asked Yumi, pointing at an item on the screen.

Ulrich clicked on the item and a window opened that showed Jeremie sitting down and recording himself with his video camera.

"Log update," said Jeremie. "I have to be honest. This whole thing between us and XANA has to end. The others think that I enjoy being at odds with him day in and day out, but that just isn't the case. The only good thing about this whole ordeal has been the fact that I met Aelita. I've tried to help her as much as I could, but…with every good thing that I've done since starting the computer, I've done several terrible things. I unleashed a tyrannical and power-hungry computer virus on the world. I've endangered the lives of people who, if I hadn't involved them, wouldn't even be in my life. The most wonderful person in the world is now in danger if I turn off the computer. Countless people's lives have been in danger time and time again and they don't even know it. I've stolen, I've lied, I've cheated. My sins are innumerable, and the list will just continue to grow until I defeat XANA. I have to do it. I can't keep putting my friends' lives in danger. I can't keep endangering those I love."

Jeremie began to choke up. He lifted his hands to his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. Then, he wiped tears from his eyes and continued.

"I've ruined their lives just by being in them," he said. "I owe it to them to stop XANA as quick as I can. They need to be happy. They need to live. They can't do either as long as XANA exists. XANA has put them through enough pain and hardship. And so have I. I'll defeat XANA and that'll be the end of it. No more late nights, no more secret meetings, no more Jeremie Belpois to make their lives hard. I will atone for my sins by ending XANA quickly and staying away from the others forever. It's the best thing for all of them. I care too much about them to let them suffer anymore. Especially Aelita. I love her. And if that means I have to stay away…so be it."

By the end of the video log, everyone was in tears; even Odd and Ulrich.

"Damn," said Odd. "That…was more than I was hoping to learn from this."

Ulrich turned around in the chair and got up.

"Well, I think we all know what we need to do," he said.

"Yeah," said Yumi, wiping her eyes. "Come on. Let's go."

The four took off from the computer and into the elevator, which they rode up to the ground floor. They exited and began walking toward the academy.

"I can't believe that Jeremie blames himself for everything that's happened," said Ulrich.

"Yeah," said Odd. "If he didn't turn on the supercomputer, somebody else would have."

"That's true," said Yumi. "And we don't know that they would have been as good-intentioned as us. They might have made a deal with XANA."

"Which XANA wouldn't have honored," said Aelita.

"I have to admit, Odd," said Ulrich. "I agree with you. That may have been too much for us to handle. Jeremie seemed almost suicidal."

"I'm not saying I'm not glad we found out," said Odd. "I had just hoped we'd never find that kind of thing out with Jeremie. Honestly, I was hoping for something…you know…mildly embarrassing, not heartbreaking."

"And what do you consider mildly embarrassing?" asked Yumi.

"Bunch of different things, Yumi," said Odd. "I don't know where to even start."

"Don't bother," said Yumi. "I'm pretty sure I'd take anything over this."

"The first thing we need to do is get to Jeremie," said Aelita. "After that, we can talk to Yolande and see if she can figure this out. Maybe she'll know if this is somehow connected to Jeremie's episodes."

"I could swear I've heard of something like this before," said Ulrich.

"How?" asked Odd.

"I don't know," said Ulrich. "I've never been in or performed any kind of psychological evaluation, so I'm hardly an expert."

The group walked on, but after a while, Odd chuckled.

"What's so funny?" asked Yumi.

"Oh, nothing," said Odd. "I just realized one upside to all this."

"What's that?" asked Aelita.

"Yes," said Ulrich, "do tell. I would love to hear what you would consider an upside."

"Well, now Aelita knows exactly how Jeremie feels about her," said Odd. "Don't you, Princess?"

Aelita blushed, but the red in her face faded after a few moments.

"You know," she said, "shockingly, that doesn't make me feel any better. It's because of me that he's suffering so much."

Everyone stopped walking and Odd turned to face Aelita, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey," he said. "I thought we went through this already. It's not your fault, it's not my fault. It's not Ulrich's or Yumi's fault. It's not even Jeremie's fault."

"He's right," said Yumi. "We shouldn't blame ourselves and we shouldn't blame Jeremie. Um…Hey, Odd. Weren't you telling us about something one of your video game characters said about this? Some kind of ninja guy or something?"

"Yeah," said Odd. "Yoshimitsu from Soulcalibur. He said if one cannot know what lies ahead, then losing one's way is just human nature. I think what he was saying is, just because someone makes a mistake doesn't mean they've done something wrong. I mean, don't get me wrong, a mistake is still a mistake, but…I don't know. I don't think that somebody can be blamed for making a choice when they don't think they have one. I don't think Jeremie thinks he has any choice in what's going on here."

"I think you're onto something, Odd," said Ulrich. "Jeremie thinks our lives are hell because of him and that he needs to be punished for it. He's wrong, but that doesn't mean we have to make him feel even worse."

"Exactly," said Yumi. "We're his friends. We need to be supportive. We need to let him know that we care for him and that we don't blame him for the crap we've had to go through."

"Yeah," said Odd. "There's something else I think he ought to know, but I think we already know what that is."

Yumi, Ulrich and Odd looked over at Aelita and nodded.

Aelita nodded back to them.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'll talk to him. I promise. If my silence is what's causing Jeremie so much pain, I'll gladly break it."

Odd patted Aelita's shoulder.

"Let's go," said Ulrich.

The quartet kept walking until they got back to the factory.

"Any other time, I would suggest splitting up," said Ulrich. "But I'm not so sure this time."

"Tell you what," said Yumi. "Why don't we divide into two sets of two, and each check a spot? Me and Aelita will check his room and you guys can check the infirmary."

"Alright," said Ulrich. "Come on, Odd."

Ulrich and Odd left Aelita and Yumi to go check the dorms. When they came to the infirmary door, Ulrich pounded on it. Yolande came to the door and answered.

"Hello, boys," said Yolande. "Can I help you?"

"We…wondered if Jeremie was here," said Ulrich.

"No," said Yolande. "I'm afraid not. Has something happened?"

"No," said Odd. "We just wanted to check and see if he was okay. That's all. We thought maybe he'd be here."

"No, sorry," said Yolande. "I sent him back to his dorm earlier today. You might try there."

"Okay," said Ulrich. "Thanks."

The duo turned to leave.

"Oh, and boys?" asked Yolande.

The boys stopped in their tracks and turned back to Yolande.

"What's up?" asked Odd.

"If you see Jeremie, would you mind giving him a message for me?" asked Yolande.

"Sure," said Ulrich. "What is it?"

"Tell him I'd like to see him back here as soon as possible," said Yolande. "I've found something out that he might want to hear."

"Okay," said Odd. "We'll let him know."

"Thank you," said Yolande, closing the door.

Ulrich and Odd looked at each other.

"So, what now?" asked Odd.

"We wait to hear from the girls," said Ulrich.

Meanwhile, the girls went to the boys' downstairs section in the dorm building. When they arrived, Yumi knocked on Jeremie's door.

"Jeremie?" she asked. "Are you there?"

The girls both pressed their ears against the door, but heard no response. Yumi knocked on the door again.

"Jeremie, if you're there, please, answer us," she said.

The girls still got no response.

"No answer," said Yumi. "Either he's just not answering or he's not in there."

Yumi took out her phone and texted Ulrich. Shortly after, she received a response.

"I just texted Ulrich," she said. "Jeremie's not in the infirmary."

Aelita closed her eyes and knocked on Jeremie's door.

"Jeremie, please," she said. "If you're there, please open up."

They still received no response. The girls stepped away from the door.

"We should find out for sure whether he's actually in there," said Yumi.

"I could send him a text, but his phone is probably turned off," said Aelita.

"We could try the camera," said Yumi. "But if we did that, we'd run the risk of him finding out we've been spying on him."

"Yeah, that won't win us any brownie points," said Aelita. "I do have one other idea."

"What is it?" asked Yumi.

"You're probably not going to like it," said Aelita.

"Tell me," said Yumi.

Aelita looked over at Jeremie's door.

"There's only one other person who'd be able to access Jeremie's room," said Aelita. "And he lives right on this floor."

Yumi looked in the direction of the room where the person in question slept. She let out a sigh.

"No choice," said Yumi. "We'll have to risk it."

Yumi and Aelita walked down to the dorm supervisor's room and pounded on the door.

Moments later, the door opened and the girls saw Jim open the door.

"Stones," he said. "Ishiyama. What do you need?"

"We need your help, Jim," said Yumi.

Jim leaned against the doorjamb.

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Is everything okay?"

"It's a long story, Jim," said Yumi. "But the short version is we can't find Jeremie anywhere. We tried knocking on his door, but if he's in there, he's not answering."

Jim grunted.

"I see," he said. "You girls wait here. I'll see if I can't get this sorted out."

Jim went down to Jeremie's door and knocked.

"Belpois!" he said. "Belpois if you're in there, open up!"

Jim didn't receive an answer.

"Belpois," said Jim, "you'd better be sick or dying in there, I kid you not!"

Still no answer.

"Last warning, Belpois," said Jim. "I'm coming in."

Jim put the key in Jeremie's door and entered. When he did, he stopped in his tracks.

"Belpois?" asked Jim, his face relaxing.

Whatever Jim had been expecting was entirely different from what he saw: the boy genius on his bed, still fully clothed, his glasses off, his arms wrapped around his legs, laying sideways and staring at the wall opposite his bed.

Jim slowly approached Jeremie.

"Jeremie," he said, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Jeremie kept his eyes focused on the wall, but opened his mouth.

"I'm fine, Jim," he said.

Jim went over to Jeremie's door and closed it.

"You say you're fine, Jeremie, but what you're doing right now says otherwise," said Jim.

He came over and sat on the floor so he was just inside Jeremie's line of sight. Jeremie's gaze immediately shifted to the wall behind Jim.

"Jeremie," he said. "I'm an expert at not wanting to talk about something, but…if you want to, I'll listen."

Jeremie's gaze shifted down to the mattress beneath him.

"You wouldn't understand, Jim," he said.

Jim inclined his head so that it was within Jeremie's view again.

"You're not doing homework and you're not at your computer," said Jim. "I'm guessing you did worse than just get less than an A on a paper."

Jeremie emitted a wry chuckle.

"My grades are fine, Jim," he said.

"Then what's up?" asked Jim. "You've got people worried sick about you."

"I'm surprised they're not just sick of me," mumbled Jeremie.

"What?" asked Jim.

"Nothing," said Jeremie. "Look, Jim. I'm fine. Everything's fine. If you really, really need to, just tell whoever wants to know that I'm fine and I'm just…I'm just fine, okay?"

Jim nodded his head and stood up.

"Alright, Jeremie," he said. "I won't pretend I'm not worried about you, but if you say you're fine, I won't try to force you to talk about what's bugging you. Just know that…well…if you need someone to talk to you, you've got lots of people who'd be happy to."

Jeremie sighed.

"Thanks, Jim," he said.

With that, Jim left the room and locked the door behind him. He found Aelita and Yumi.

"He's in there," said Jim. "He says he's fine, but he's refusing to see anyone."

"Did he say why?" asked Aelita.

"No," said Jim. "Look, girls. I understand that you're worried about Jeremie, but you guys did the right thing by coming to me. Now I want you to do something for me. I have no doubt you have Stern and Della Robbia out looking for him too. I want you all to go and get some rest. Do whatever you have to beforehand, but go and get some rest, and let me and Yolande handle this."

"What are you going to do?" asked Aelita.

"I'm going to go talk to Yolande," said Jim. "When I do, we'll decide what to do about this. After we've talked, I'll come find you guys and tell you what I can. When I know something, you'll know something. For now, just do this for me, okay? There's nothing more you guys can do tonight."

Aelita and Yumi nodded and left the boys' floor. Yumi texted the boys again and told them what Jim had said.

As the girls left, Jim took a deep breath and left the boys' floor as well. He then went to the infirmary and knocked on the door.

Yolande answered.

"Jim," she said. "Is everything okay?"

Jim looked up at Yolande.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"Sure," said Yolande, moving aside.

Jim stepped in and went to one of the cots, where he sat down. Yolande followed his lead and sat across from him.

"Jim?" asked Yolande.

"I'm worried about Jeremie," said Jim. "I just got back from seeing him and I thought…well, I don't know what I thought, but I didn't think I would see what I saw."

"What did you see?" asked Yolande.

"Something I hoped I'd never see on a kid's face," said Jim. "Jeremie wasn't doing anything. Not playing, not working, nothing. I just found him in his room, staring at the wall."

"Staring at the wall?" asked Yolande.

"Yeah," said Jim. "He looked like somebody had shot his favorite pet, and he had watched it get shot over and over again."

Yolande shook her head.

"I think we may need to look into some kind of serious treatment for Jeremie," she said.

"He asked me to tell whoever wanted to know that he was fine," said Jim. "But…"

Jim shook his head and took a deep breath. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette lighter. He started to flick the thing open and closed, every once in a while flicking it, causing a small flame to appear.

"Jim?" asked Yolande.

"What?" asked Jim.

"What's the lighter for?" asked Yolande.

"Oh," said Jim. "I bring it out sometimes when I have to think. I used to smoke. I quit years ago, but the lighter just never really left my pocket."

"You used to smoke, Jim?" asked Yolande.

Jim scratched his chin.

"I'd rather not talk about it," he said.

As he continued to flick the lighter, Yolande stepped in his direction and crossed her arms.

"I think Jeremie's facing some deep-seated issues," she said. "Tomorrow, we should see if we can talk to him and try to come up with some kind of solution."

"His friends will want to know," said Jim. "They're worried to death about him. When I told him that, he said something odd."

"What did he say?" asked Yolande.

"I pretended I didn't quite hear him, but I told him his friends were worried sick about him," said Jim. "He said he was surprised they weren't just sick of him."

Yolande sighed and started to pace.

"We'll need to talk to Mr. Delmas," she said. "But first things first. We need to have a face to face with Jeremie. You keep watch on him tonight and let me know if something happens between now and tomorrow morning."

Jim got up from his seat on the cot.

"I can do that," he said.

"And while you do that, I'll worry about his friends," said Yolande. "We have to be careful with our approach, Jim. Jeremie's safety comes first, but his privacy is a close second."

To Be Continued…