Whoa! I've been so bad with updating during all of 2022. Oh well, happy new year everyone. I hope everyone have had happy holidays and will have a happy 2023.

I start every year with updating all of my stories to have them updated at least once every year. So well, here I am.

I haven't started the chapter yet while I'm writing this. So well…. Happy new year!

This chapter is told from Denny's point of view.

"Denny?"

From somewhere far away I could hear a voice calling my name.

"Denny?"

What was a bit closer was the pain. Every little muscle of my body hurt and the worst pain I had ever felt was shooting through my brain over and over again. I needed some water as well! Or anything that could take away the taste of vomit in my mouth.

"Denny? Can you open your eyes for me?"

Could I?

Everything hurt so bad!

"Denny?"

At last, just trying slowly I squeezed my eyelids apart. Only for worse pains than ever shooting through my brain, making it feel like my head was going to crack open, worse than any pain I had ever felt before.

"Can you hear me?"

"Uh…"

At last I could just squeeze a single noise from my burning throat. Meanwhile I tried to open my eyes again. But everything was so bright around me and my head pounded worse than ever, and I couldn't help but squeezing them shut again.

"You had another seizure. But you'll be okay…" He mumbled something I couldn't quite catch, then I felt something poking the back of my hand. "They're giving you something called Stesolid that will prevent you having another seizure."

I could still feel my body so hot all of me felt like I was on its way to be lit on fire.

Whatever "okay" would be it was something quite far away from this…

"But they're giving you some regular Ibuprofen to bring your temperature down. And in just a minute we'll give you some ice packs to lie on and if you feel like you can eat or drink some ice chips. One of the main focuses right now is to try and bring your temperature down… before it causes some lasting damage… but there's nothing you can do right now. So you just lean back and then I will make sure you're given the care of a prince. Then of course, it's very important that you answer truthfully if you're asked any questions…"

My grandad kept rambling- just like a doctor usually did I guessed. But my mind was just spinning, and despite the icepacks being put by my head and neck I still felt like I was burning up.

Was there still some chance my granddad thought I had taken some drugs?

If I hadn't been so exhausted and in pain my eyes would fly open while I fizzled something, an answer about why he didn't want to trust me?

"Mr. Butler" I could hear another doctor joining us. "Seizures you say? Have you had any seizures or a temperature like this before?"

I didn't know if high temperature and seizures could come with Huntington's disease. But it must have something to do with that because I had practically always been health itself before I started showing symptoms.

"I…" I hesitated. But I could still feel my granddad next to the bed and he didn't know yet. "…I don't think so."

Now, at last I forced my eyes open despite how much it hurt. The doctor, standing next to me was male and probably not much more than my own age. He was holding onto a writing board with some patient charts and the movement only in front of us made my head pound worse- and that was still nothing compared to when the doctor hung the papers on the bed and started feeling over the sides of my head.

"Can you feel anything when I do this?"

Every touch only made it feel like my head would explode. The doctor's facial expression changed some while I couldn't answer, but he must have found some kind of answer in the way I looked.

"Can you tell me where it hurts?"

Obviously the doctor had caught something from the glare only I sent him. And there was at last only one truthful answer I could give him.

"Everywhere."

"Yeah. That's sort of the way it is after a seizure…" I didn't even know if the doctor spoke to me or to himself and pain struck through my mind again. But at least he let go off me and stood up straight. "I'll be back soon for some more tests. But right now, you just lean back. I'll see if I can go and study about your life's history…. But… Meanwhile there is no reason for you to even stay awake. I can see on you that sleeping sees like the best idea."

I closed my eyes again when the doctor took his papers, walked away and got lost in the crowd.

Falling back asleep did seem like a nice idea.

But the doctor, and my granddad might think that I just had an infection running through my body.

I just hadn't cared to find out much about Huntington's. It was like some little piece of me believed that if I didn't find out about it I wouldn't actually have it or wait for what would be coming. And also, finding out a lot about it was hard since it was so rare.

So rare it really wasn't fair that I would be the one to have it.

I didn't know if seizures came with Huntington's. But as soon as I felt a little bit better, and maybe when I came home. I knew I had to actually look up this disease and actually find out more. Everything I had really found out earlier that it was genetic and terminal.

I forced my eyes open again, looked towards my grandfather who stood a bit away, talking to some doctor and gesturing towards me.

I knew, I really knew now for the first time that I'd have to tell him about how sick I really was if he hadn't figured yet that there must be something. Or if Lizzie hadn't already told him by the time the ambulance came to get me.

"Denny?" My granddad came back to me, and ran a hand over my forehead once again, in that one move that parents felt for a temperature while I couldn't keep my eyes open and the eyelids fell closed again. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah.." I mumbled but had to put my all into saying anything at all. "I'm awake."

And more than ever before I knew I had to tell him about what was really going on. And how things might be changing.

I forced a whimper down my throat and leaned my head back again. There was just no way I could hold my head up while the same thought over and over ran through my aching head still doing so while I was drifting off into sleep.

Some time after I woke up again, my grandfather would have know!

Random fact

The headache after a seizure is something out of this world.

This is the third chapter put up during 2023.