Chapter 26: The Past Part 2
"So… did you find out what's wrong with her?" Jewel asked the doctor as he left Tangle's room.
"Sorry… but physically, she seems to be perfectly fine." The doctor said. "We are prepping for a brain scan as we speak though."
"Ok… please keep us updated." Jewel said.
"Of course." The doctor said as he walked away.
"So… can you please tell us what happened?" Amy asked.
After Tangle had collapsed, the ambulance quickly arrived and took her to the hospital, with Jewel riding along with her.
Chris in the meantime called Chuck to let him know what was going on, and everyone quickly made their way to the hospital to check on their friend, though Tails went and picked up her bike at the museum first.
"Well… we were on our way out of the museum, and she noticed that we missed an exhibit." Jewel said. "We went and took a look at it, and while talking about it, she suddenly started clutching her head like she was in a lot of pain… then, she just collapsed…"
"Hmm… does she have a history of migraines at all?" Chuck asked.
"No… not really." Jewel said. "This… this is the first time anything like this has happened to her…"
Seeing how down Jewel was about the whole thing, Sonic decided to take action.
"Hey, don't worry. This is Tangle we're talking about here! She'll make it through this, I promise!"
"Y-yeah… thanks Sonic." Jewel said
A couple of hours later, the brain scan concluded, and the doctor was explaining what they had found.
"So, you think that she got like that cause of stress?" Sonic asked.
"I am not saying that it was the cause, but our scans showed signs of stress, so we think it might be related to what happened." The doctor explained.
"Geez, what does she have to be stressed about?" Chuck asked. "Things have been really calm lately with Eggman in prison…"
"Hmm… hey Jewel, you finished reading her log recently right?" Amy asked.
"Yes, I did."
"Was there anything in there that might help?" Amy asked.
"No, sorry… only that whole thing with Shadow, but we already addressed that." Jewel said.
"Great… think she started writing in it again after you finished reading?" Sonic asked. "Maybe she wrote something in there that you haven't read."
"I… don't know… but I don't think we should look." Jewel said. "It's an invasion of privacy!"
"Jewel… we can't help her if we don't know what she's been stressed about…" Amy said.
Jewel considered this for a moment.
"Let me at least try and talk to her about this first…" Jewel said. "I… I feel like I would be betraying her trust if I didn't."
"Alright… do what you want." Sonic said. "Any idea when she should be waking up?"
"No, but it should be soon. There wasn't any real damage, so she should be fine to go home when she wakes up." The doctor said.
"Right, thanks doc." Sonic said before the doctor walked away.
Everyone then slowly entered the room and waited for Tangle to wake up.
Eventually…
"Ugh… what in the world?" Tangle said as she opened her eyes.
"Tangle!" Jewel said.
"Huh? Oh, hey Jewel…" Tangle said. "Where… where are we?"
"The hospital… you really scared me you know that?!"
"Did I? I'm sorry…" Tangle said.
"It's fine, I'm just glad that you're ok!" Jewel said, hugging her friend.
"Geez, you really are a mess sometimes aren't you? This is the second time you've landed yourself in the hospital in just as many months!" Sonic said with a laugh.
"I'll have you know my life has been perfectly boring before you showed up." Tangle quipped.
"Please, like I'm the one who did this to you." Sonic said with a laugh.
"R-right… so what happened to me?" Tangle asked.
"That's what we would like to know." Sonic said.
Thinking back to it, Tangle remembered it. The pain she experienced…
The voices…
"Oh… Uh… I had a really… really bad headache." Tangle said. "Like, I couldn't even think it hurt so bad… I guess my body couldn't handle it and I passed out…"
No-one really saw anything wrong with the answer…
At least, no-one but Jewel.
Since the beetle knew Tangle for so long, she picked up on a couple of nervous habits that she had.
A slight ear twitch being one of them.
That being said, she didn't say anything. This was something she had to talk to her about alone.
So, everyone talked for a bit, just enjoying the company, before Tangle got out of the bed and they all went home.
When they got home though…
"Hey, Tangle? Can we talk for a bit?" Jewel asked.
"Oh, yeah!" Tangle said.
"…Alone?"
"Oh, yeah sure, come on." Tangle said before leading her away from the group.
Jewel then looked to her friends for some emotional support.
"We'll be counting on you." Sonic said.
Jewel nodded at this, and went to follow Tangle.
When they arrived at their shared room, they closed the door and took a seat.
"So, what's up?"
"Well… I just wanted to make sure that you're ok…" Jewel said. "What happened… it really scared me you know."
"Yeah… I know… really sorry about that."
"And… you know that I would do anything to help you… right?" Jewel asked.
"Uh… yeah? What's up with you?" Tangle asked.
"Tangle… I think you know why you collapsed like that." Jewel said. "What gave you that headache I mean…"
"O-oh… you figured that out huh?" Tangle said. "Should of known that I couldn't hide anything from you…"
"Tangle…"
"Listen… what I'm about to tell you… I want this to be between the two of us for now… ok?" Tangle asked.
"Of course! I wouldn't tell anyone anything you didn't want me to!" Jewel said. "So… what's going on?"
"I've… been having these weird dreams lately… nightmares really…" Tangle said.
"Nightmares?"
Tangle then went into detail about the dreams she had been having. The tight space, the yelling, the screaming… everything.
"Oh… oh dear…"
"Yeah… I honestly haven't gotten a good nights sleep since this started…" Tangle said.
"Ok… but what about today? What does this have to do with what happened today?"
"Well… when you guys were talking about the witch hunts… the voices popped up in my head… they got louder… and louder… and eventually, I just couldn't handle it anymore…" Tangle said.
"I see… from the sound of it, in your dreams it seems that you're being chased… hunted even." Jewel said. "I… honestly don't really know why this is happening to you…"
"Yeah… me neither…" Tangle said. "Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out at some point. Let's just try and relax for now!"
"Right… ok…" Jewel said.
The two then proceeded to head down to join the others… but they were surprised by what they saw.
"Mr. President?!"
End of Chapter 26
Don't have anything to say, see you next week!
