"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 Four

"In Motion"

The night passed relatively peacefully at Kadic. In other words, nothing changed over the course of the night, despite – or perhaps because of – the tension felt among all concerned.

After sending Jeremie's friends off, Jim returned to the boys' section of the dormitory and did another small bed check. Jeremie's light was off, and he was in bed. Despite this, Jim felt no comfort. He'd almost rather have found the boy up late at his computer. Jim shook his head and walked back to his own room. He left the door open and his blanket off, doubting he would get much sleep, if any.

As they departed, Jeremie's friends quietly went their separate ways. Aelita went to her room, Yumi went back home, and Ulrich wordlessly led Odd back to their shared room. Time passed, but not quickly enough for the friends, all counting the seconds until something different happened. Aelita did little besides lay on her bed and cuddle Mr. Puck. Yumi sat in a shared silence with Hiroki over dinner while their parents had a small tiff. Ulrich wrote in his log book while Odd tried to take his mind off the whole thing with some heavy metal music.

Sleep finally did come to Jim, though not quickly or easily. He resolved to get up at some point to check on things. He eventually came to the conclusion that after the previous incident, it wouldn't take long for him to find out if something did happen. He set an alarm on his phone and allowed sleep to take him.

At 4 AM, the alarm woke him, and he immediately jolted up, looking with half-woken eyes to see if anything was off. Lights were still off in the main hallway. So far, so good. But before he let his guard down, he stepped out of his room and approached Jeremie's taking care not to wake anyone unduly. He carefully peeked in and saw that the head of blonde hair was where he saw it last. It was faint, but he could hear soft, even breaths coming from the young genius. Jim quietly closed the door again and heaved a small sigh. He then went back down to his room and lay back down to await morning.


The next day, Jim got up earlier than normal, then quickly checked everything to make sure that nothing else was amiss. Having assured himself that nothing had happened to Jeremie or any other student, Jim hurriedly left the dorm and went to see Yolande in the infirmary. Jim knocked loudly while checking to make sure only he and Yolande would be around. It wasn't long before Yolande opened the door.

"Jim," she said.

"Yolande. Sorry to barge in so early, but I wanted to get right on this thing. You can decide whether this is good news or not, but it doesn't seem like anything happened with Jeremie last night. I even got up once just to make sure."

"He didn't have another episode of some sort?"

"No, he was sleeping pretty soundly. More or less in the spot I last saw him."

"Noted. And he was the same this morning?"

"I just did kind of a quick look around the dorm. I didn't actually look in his room this time, but something tells me that if something had happened, I wouldn't have had to come looking for it. Sorry I didn't look, but like I said, I wanted to get right to this."

Yolande nodded.

"Alright. Well, let's get to Mr. Delmas' office. The sooner we inform him, the more time we can use to solve this."

The duo left the infirmary, but not before Yolande picked up a copy of the paperwork she had written.

"How do you think we should handle this?" asked Jim.

"Directly," said Yolande. "A student's health is at risk. It's not something we should downplay."

They soon reached the office of Kadic's principal, Jean-Pierre Delmas, and informed him of the circumstances. The principal's bearded face twisted in bemusement as he addressed the pair.

"And you've never seen behavior like this from him before?" he asked.

(A/N: Jean-Pierre Delmas – Alan Wenger)

Jim shrugged.

"Him trying to break the window, or him being despondent? The answer's the same."

"I see."

Delmas stood from his desk and rounded it to face his employees.

"Have you seen conditions like this before, Yolande?"

"A few, but it's enough to know that they are rooted in psychological symptoms. I can understand if you have doubts about this, sir. But if I were to give a medical opinion, it would be that Jeremie needs some serious attention. He is not well."

Delmas shook his head.

"That much is clear. The only question is how he is to get the attention he needs."

Jim approached Delmas.

"Sir, whatever we need to do, I say we do it."

"Jim?"

"Maybe I'm out of line, but you didn't see Jeremie. Hard as it is to believe, in all my years working here, I have never seen a student look like that, and I hope I never do again."

"You're serious," said Delmas.

"As a heart attack, sir."

Delmas leaned against his desk.

"Well if you're saying we can't ignore this, then you're right. The problem is, our facilities are limited."

Yolande nodded and spoke.

"You have me as your medical professional, but in a case like this, I wouldn't say I'm sufficient. At least not on my own."

"Do you have some sort of suggestion, Yolande?" asked Delmas.

"I think I may. However, I would need your authorization to go through with it."

"Let's hear it," said Jim.

Yolande turned to Jim.

"I know someone who has experience with cases like this. It might take some doing, but I think that I could get him to give Jeremie the care he needs. He may require payment, but I think I could talk him into doing it gratis."

Delmas crossed his arms and thought.

"Do you mind telling us who he is, Yolande?"

Yolande addressed the principal.

"His name is Dr. Moreau, sir. He's my fiancé."

The principal looked down at the floor in thought, then rounded his desk and sat back down.

"If you think your fiancé can help, then I think he may be worth a try, Yolande. Would you mind bringing him here so that we can talk before anything else?"

"Not at all, sir. I will just need someone to watch the infirmary while I'm gone."

"I'll ask Ms. Hertz to watch it and get one of our substitute teachers to take over her class for the day. In the meantime, we should get a move on this. Yolande, as soon as you can, bring Dr. Moreau in so we can meet. Jim, I need you to keep an eye on Jeremie and his friends."

"You got it, sir."

Jim left the room with purpose and Yolande followed after, taking out her cell phone and hitting a speed dial number.

"Hello, dear. I hope you're not too busy."

Chatter came from the other end.

"No, I'm fine. But I was wondering if I could get your help with something. It's about a student at my work."

As she spoke on the phone, Yolande made a turn down one hall to exit the campus.


Once the Lyoko Warriors were awake – and in Yumi's case, on campus – they met that morning in Aelita's room. Ulrich and Odd sat on the floor while Yumi sat on Aelita's bed and Aelita sat at her desk.

"I'm guessing none of us got a message or communication of any kind from Jeremie," said Ulrich.

No one responded, prompting him to lean back and fold his hands behind his head.

"You think going to Jim was the right thing?"

"He seems to think so," said Odd.

"He would. I just feel like we're grasping at straws here."

"We were out of options," said Yumi. "Jeremie seems so locked in his own brain he probably doesn't feel like he could reach us even if he did want to."

Odd shook his head.

"I wish I could crack a joke, but I'm drawing a blank. Maybe for once, that's a good thing."

"Jokes aren't what we need right now," said Aelita.

The others looked up at Aelita, who then looked back at them.

"Sorry, Odd. That probably sounded rude."

"No, don't apologize," said Odd. "I'm just drawing a blank on what kind of help I can give."

"I guess all we can really do is wait," said Yumi. "I'm not optimistic about our chances of getting Jeremie to talk to us."

Odd scratched the back of his head.

"You know something?" he asked. "I think I'd rather it was because he was mad at us. Not over…self-loathing."

"Saying what we're all thinking, Odd," said Ulrich.

Aelita got up from her desk and walked to the door.

"I'm going to get some air."

She stepped out and went down the stairs. As she approached the next floor, she saw Jim start to walk by. Hastily, Aelita bounded down what remained of the stairs and called out to the dorm supervisor.

"Jim!" she said.

Her voice stopped the man in his tracks and turned his head.

"Oh, Aelita. Um, good morning."

"To you too. Sorry to bug you, Jim, but do you…have any news on Jeremie?"

"Not exactly, Aelita. I did talk to Yolande and the principal about it."

Jim approached Aelita and placed a hand gently on her shoulder before leaning down.

"Listen, Aelita. Jeremie is not in trouble with the school or anything, but he is in trouble. I don't want to worry you, but I also don't want to lie to you. I don't know what we can do. But I promise you, we're going to do whatever we can to help him."

Aelita looked up at Jim and nodded.

"Thank you, Jim. Please let us know if there's anything we can do."

"Actually, there just might be. The four of you are Jeremie's closest friends. Whatever happens next, he will need you all. I don't think it's a stretch to say that you'll all play a big part in helping him. It might not seem like it right now, but I don't think he's going to be like this forever. Not even close."

Aelita nodded again, this time with purpose.

"I'm not sure I feel the same as you do right now, Jim, but you seem sure, so I'm going to trust you."

Jim nodded and stood up, but Aelita stopped him.

"Jim, before you go, I'd just like to say that we're sorry we dragged you into what's happening."

Jim scoffed.

"Aelita, bringing it to me was probably the smartest thing you could have done. And frankly, I would have been disappointed in you if you hadn't. Now, I'm sure you and your friends were visiting a bit ago. Why don't the lot of you go get something to eat and then head off to class? If something changes with Jeremie, I'll let you know as quick as I can."

Aelita smiled.

"Thanks again, Jim. I appreciate it."

Jim continued down toward Jeremie's room to check on him. He peeked in and found the boy typing on his computer, albeit not very quickly or as purposefully as usual. He opened the door fully and cleared his throat.

"Jeremie?" he asked.

The blonde teen turned away from his computer.

"Hi, Jim."

"I just came to make sure you were okay. I didn't want a repeat of two nights ago."

"I understand."

"Eh, sorry. That came out wrong. I'm not trying to guilt you, Jeremie. I'm worried about you. So are your friends."

"Right."

"It's the truth, Jeremie. You've got people worried sick about you. And they just want you to be well. Now, you've been excused from class for the week, so I want you to do what Yolande told you and try to get some rest. And some food while you're at it. I'll be checking on you periodically and your friends will be coming by with food every so often. Make sure to eat it."

Jeremie nodded.

"Yes, sir."

"Alright. I'll talk to you later today."

Jim left the room, then tried and failed to convince himself the conversation with Jeremie went the way he wanted. Shaking his head, he walked back toward the main part of campus to continue with his duties.

To Be Continued…