Art Swing (1x1 remade. Spartan x minus)

[spartan309]

The warm, fuzzy feeling was back inside Nicholas, the hand that held his so soft and welcoming. When she gave a light squeeze, he could feel the rush of his childhood with Fiona again. Every memory he had with her just splashed down in his mind, all of the emotions he gave her, how he acted after everything, she was always there. Fiona, his best friend ever, has always been by his side through everything. He knew how much she cared for him, and he cared for her back, even if it was hard to tell.

The light squeeze was returned back, Nicholas giving her hand a small squeeze just like she did. "Fi...Fiona..." He said, his eyes still closed, but his heart rate back to normal. He was going to be fine now that Fiona was there with him.  

[minus infinity]

"Miss ... Fiona? I have to check his blood pressure now."
For a split second, the voice didn't register in Fiona's head. Nicholas had said her name, apparently as he had done before. Said her name, cared about her. They had shared what was pretty much all fifteen years of their lives together. Nicholas, her friend, her only truly trusted best friend.
(Maybe something more)
And she had gone and been kissed by that ... guy. Looked through Nicholas' sketchbook. She felt torn from having betrayed him and feeling that undeniable ... thing from the other day ... she ...
"Miss?"
O-oh ... I'm sorry. Fiona had somehow forgotten that the nurse was right behind her with the device used to take someone's blood pressure. With one last gentle squeeze to Nicholas' hand
(He had squeezed back just a minute ago)
Fiona left the room and braced herself for the inevitable rant her parents would have for her.

They definitely looked like they would have liked to explode into some magnificent tirade there infront of her as she approached them, but all they said was "When we get home we need to have a long talk. Where did you go? How did you get home?"
How to put this lightly? I ran out of here like a bat out of hell, hitchhiked to Dead Park with a creep who kissed me
(my first kiss)
got the sketchbook and headed home ... and that's when you called me, Dad.
But she wouldn't say that. Couldn't. She'd be grounded until she was twenty. Instead, she offered her explaination as, I got a taxi, got the sketchbook, and headed home. Fiona never carried cash on her, and her parents knew that, so she knew that they knew that she was lying to them. Next on their agenda: A long talk about lying to one's parents. They changed the subject just then, though, mercifully enough. "We've called Nicholas' dad ... he'll be here in less than an hour, ... I think."
This was her mother who had spoken, more hesitant in her speaking than was her father. Once in a psychology class, Fiona had learned that women said more things like "I think", "I can't be sure" and general contradictions to speech than men might. She wasn't sure about anyone else, but it definitely showed with her own parents.
That was when she started thinking. She barely remembered Nicholas' mother, and had had little to no interaction with his father over the years - what was the relationship between the whole family ... then ... and now? She wondered, had the death of Nicholas' mother impacted his father more than she thought previously? She had no doubt that they had loved one another as much as her parents loved one another, even though sometimes it wasn't always shown in the most obvious way. And then the most horrible thought of all hit her like an anvil from an old cartoon.
What if, like her own parents were right now, Nicholas' parents had been trying for another baby before she was ...
killed?

But the nurse finally came out just then, and Fiona was given permission to go back in if she wanted to. She did, and sat back down on the bed gingerly, hoping that Nicholas' mother was looking down at him from Heaven and might just help him recover. She hoped. For all their sakes.

 

[spartan309]

Nicholas was now sound asleep, his hand out where it was before, hoping he could hold Fiona's hand again. He didn't know what happened with Fiona and that guy, he didn't know how much trouble she was in, be he did know she was there with him and that was all that mattered.

Quickly heading towards Nicholas' room was a tall, rather well built man. His hair was a dark brown, his eyes a dark shade of blue as well. His face with fuzzy, a beard hiding his chin. He had some black slacks and a black polo with the design of his job on it. It read: "Cable Music" a moderate music store that was increasing in size. This was Nicholas' Father, the co-manager of Cable Music.

He made it inside Nick's room, panting lightly from the long trip. "I-is.... Is my son okay? Please, is Nick going to survive?" His father was sencier, a rather big teddy bear than anything. He cared for Nicholas more than anything now and was doing his best to keep their bills payed so he could be in school and have a roof under him. "Nicholas...." Tears were slowly sliding his cheeks, this man scared and wanting his son to live more than anything.  

[minus infinity]

Fiona flinched when she saw Nicholas' father, saw the way he was panting and sweating from his trip here - she realized with a start that she hadn't even remembered what he had looked like.
"Mr. Bastion?"
The nurse again, coming back after taking Nicholas' blood pressure. She had other patients, of course, but Nicholas was in a critical condition and the arrival of family members was something that had to be dealt with. The nurse herself had brown hair and blue eyes like the man infront of her did, but without the height and build and beard. She had freckles, a healthy amount of pudge on her, and a nametag that read Megan Martin. The businessman's wife.
"Your son is still in a critical condition, Mr. Bastion. He's caught preumonia and might be here for some time ... he's been responding, though, so it can't be too bad. He's said the name 'Fiona' twice now." Martin gestured towards Fiona, sitting over by her stern looking parents, to give her comments testimony. "These are the people that brought him in."
And so as if he had been called upon the stage, Fiona's father stood up and went over to shake the other man's hand. They had known one another for more than ten years, it was a matter of courtesy more than anything. Providing maybe at least the tiniest bit of comfort in this horrible time and place.
"Fiona found him at the park."
This was her father, whose name was Jonah, speaking now. The nurse had walked away to care for other patients. Two big teddy bears of men standing by one another, looking worse for wear and none too happy about it. Jonah Delacroix shook his head. "I'm sorry. But, really, it's better ... not only did he say Fiona's name twice, he also squeezed her hand twice."
Sitting over by her mother, Fiona blushed. The two women had acknowledged Nicholas' father previously with waves and nods and small smiles. Even Jonah seemed to find a faint tint in his cheeks the way their respective children acted about one another. "It's going to be okay, man. I know it will."

 

[spartan309]

Nick's fathers name was Adrian. Adrian Bastion. He listened to the nurse as he constantly took looks back at his son, Nicholas sleeping rather soundly.

When Jonah walked over to him, they shook hands, and he told Adrian what was going on. He then looked over at Nicholas once more, and then back at Jonah, still in tears.

"I can't lose my son Jonah, even if it does seem like he's getting better. I've been scared for his life ever since... Rachel... ever since the incident. Nicholas is all I have and I can't let him go now, I just can't." He looked down, feeling ashamed to have let things escalate so much. "I've tried to be a great father, but I'm never around my son and I can't be there immediately when situations like this happens. My son hasn't shown any sign of emotional improvement to me at all and I'm always afraid it won't ever get better..." He then sat down looking over to his son. "I love my son more than anything in the world. I promised Rachel I would help him, but I feel like I let her down..."

Adrian then looked over to Fiona. "She's the only one that's been able to get him to show any signs of emotion. They've known each other forever too. They make a good couple." He then said, giving a small smile towards Fiona. "Please, take good care of him while I'm off at work." He said to her, his smile warm and sincere.  

[minus infinity]

Megan Martin was thinking about her husband, thinking about how he had said he was going to take over an abandoned, completely disgusting and rotting old park ... and thinking about how he had told her about some boy that was determined to keep this safe haven of his away from the constricting economy. Then he had talked about how even when he left after making a few phone calls at the site, which easily took an hour, the boy was still there, underdressed and sitting on the swing in the unforgiving snowy weather. Was her patient this same boy, this boy who her husband was so agitated with, who only wanted to save the last physical remnants of his childhood?
Megan shuddered and reached for a phone to call the doctor.

Neither one of the two families liked to talk much about the incident, and all three of the Delacroixes stiffened when the name Rachel was mentioned. Fiona's parents remembered her very well, and obviously Adrian and Nicholas did, but Fiona sometimes had to struggle to remember even what she looked like. As a child, parents and the rules that inevitably came with them were second to playtime. Jonah patted his friend's shoulder gently, not speaking to him but telling him through the gesture that it was okay and that everything would balance out ... eventually. As Fiona heard them conversing, she thought again of the image of Nicholas' mother, watching over him from Heaven, healing both him and her husband with her everlasting love.

They make a good couple.
Fiona suddenly gave a deep blush, she wasn't far enough away not to hear, and Jonah very briefly chuckled. "She will," Jonah murmured gently as Fiona looked almost too stunned to respond. Nicholas was sound asleep, would he have heard it too? Permission, for lack of a better term? Her mother was sitting by her still, watching the exchange with interest. Fiona wondered, would they tell Nicholas' father about the fate of Dead Park - or would that only make him even more stressed out than he was? Right now it didn't look like that would have been entirely possible. Jonah looked in momentarily at Nicholas, and then at his father, and smiled the same way Adrian had smiled at his daughter. They really will make a good couple, won't they?

 

[spartan309]

Adrian gave another smile and then turned his head towards Nicholas one more time. "Sleep well, your it'll be all right soon. Mom is watching down and keeping you company." He said, his tone so warm and touching. It can be seen that Adrian loved his wife so much and was just as crushed as Nick when she suddenly passed away.

"I'm staying with my son. I'll just tell the boss what's going on. She'll understand." He said, sitting down next to Nick. "You're all welcome to stay with me and watch after Nicholas. I'm sure he'll enjoy the company even if he doesn't seem like it." Adrian said with a grin.  

[minus infinity]

(Koujo told me she'll be able to start back up Twinangle around the 10th, poor chick has like, 8 exams coming up.)


Jonah and his wife, Fiona's mother, whose name was Gianna, nodded in response (almost in unison, strangely enough) to Adrian's invitation to stay with Nicholas - and him, too, seeing how stressed and sad he was. They all wanted to be there - they always had been, so why walk away now? Fiona herself sat where she was with her head tilted slightly to the side, thinking about Nicholas' sketchbook and what she had seen when she had finally opened it. How she had cried, and how she had finally been able to see and feel all these emotions [for him and from him] that she hadn't experienced before. Now, in the aftermath, she was still nervous and scared half to death for his health (she watched him sleep in the next room silently, as close to a sense of peace as he was probably ever going to get) but a sort of peace was overcoming her too kind of like a warm blanket to snuggle up in. Very briefly, she hugged herself; the doctor came in then and Fiona put her hands back to her side. She felt her mother gently squeeze her arm as the doctor found Adrian and briefly introduced himself, she turned to her and smiled just for a second ... she saw her mother was crying. The two girls hugged and the doctor discussed with Adrian about Nicholas' condition, just as the nurse had.
"We're going to have to take this one day at a time ..."
They had only two and a half days to save Dead Park. One day at a time? What did that mean? Time was running out. The clock was ticking above their heads, relentless of how fast or slow it passed. It had it's own schedule to keep and couldn't care less about them, Fiona thought.
"This is a very fragile condition ... "
Fiona thought about Dead Park again, about how on Monday it was going to be completely and brutally torn apart, and how she had seen Nicholas' drawings of just that setting. Sadness. Despair. Weariness. But in one drawing ... there had been ... happiness?
"He's already showing remarkable improvements ... "
His mother is watching over him. Smiling down at him and her husband from up in the clouds. Healing. Smiling. Arms open, as though to push her little boy on the swing one last time ...
"He should be out in another week or two if all goes well. No way of knowing yet, though. Keep your eyes peeled."
And then, with a wink, the doctor walked away to go check on his other patients. And maybe, just maybe, Rachel smiled again and winked back. The image was so vivid that Fiona actually heard some sort of sound registering ... ?
Gianna began to cry harder and Jonah left the individual chair he was sitting in to go comfort her as best she could. Help us get through this, save us all.

 

[spartan309]

(Cool. The reviving part not the exams part. I feel here pain. I have three exams in two weeks and I'm pretty scared to take them.)


Adrian head the doctors words and gave a nod back, still in slight disbelief that this was actually happening. He never wanted things to get this critical, he just wanted to be the best father he could for his son despite everything that has happened in their lives. When the doctor said he was showing improvements however, he felt that his wife was helping them, guiding them though all of the pain and suffering that was thrown down. "A week. I don't know if I can be here everyday. As much as I want to be here with my son, I still need to pay out bills and the shop is growing in popularity meaning more customers..." Adrian said, looking at Nicholas sleep.

Dreaming. Nicholas was in his dreams, not like how he's been acting before, but quiet the opposite. He was little in his dreams, still a child playing with his best friend Fiona at Dead Park while his mother was there, watching and smiling the entire time. "Momma," He called for her, his voice rather squeaky and innocent. "What is it my little Nicholas?" She asked back, her voice melodic and warm, fitting with her loving smile. "Will you always be there for me?" He asked her, his mother looking at him and then up in the sky. She gave another smile and nodded. "Of course sweetie. No matter where you are, I will always be with you. You want to know where I'll always be?" She knelt down and gave a little poke at his chest, Nicholas giggling from the slightly ticklish touch. "Right there. I'll always be in you heart Sweetie, never to leave for any reason."

Nicholas slept soundly as he remembered every happy moment he had with his mother and Fiona, hoping to feel the warmth of Fiona's hands once more.  

[minus infinity]

(Oh, man. I can only wish you the best of luck on that.)

"I understand, we've all been pretty rocked by the economy. We'll call you if anything happens. You can call Megan here or me if you have any questions."
Yes, Fiona thought, You see, for your patient's health ... how do I put this? We need to save this park here to help him live.
The doctor went away again after discussing briefly with the nurse, and then the nurse followed suit. Like a child following their parent, or like a little puppy following their owner.
As her parents hugged, her mother still crying and her father trying to comfort her (it didn't look like it was working) Fiona akwardly stood up and went very quietly into Nicholas' room. She did feel akward, the sense of peace wavering on and off like a light switch. The blanket, as one might during sleep, was trailing downward due to all the motion a sleeper [or the very much awake Fiona] was making - not physically but mentally more than anything. She went over to the bed and looked almost cautiously back at his father for a second, not exactly asking for permission ... but that's just what it was, wasn't it? Sometimes, when they were children they would visit one another's houses and sometimes Fiona had to ask Nicholas' father permission if his mother hadn't been there for whatever reason. That was just what it felt like now. Mr. Bastion, can I hold Nick's hand?
She couldn't have known what Nicholas was dreaming about, but their thoughts were so close to the same. It had probably always been that way, looking back. Fiona remembered just the other day (the other day) that she was marvelling at how Nicholas could read her like a book. How he could tell what she was feeling now matter how hard she might try to hide it. Sitting there at lunch the other day with an apple in her hand and thinking about poison and love ...
(the other day)
With one more cautious glance towards Nicholas' father, Fiona very slowly and very gently set her hand on top on Nicholas'. Thinking about how he had fallen down in her lap the other day. How he had protected her from that senior boy. Thinking about the slide and Dead Park and the swing and suddenly seeing, very vividly, Nicholas' mother in her mind's eye. She closed her eyes ...
She'll always be there for us. No matter what.

 

[spartan309]

Adrian just simply looked at Fiona as she sat next to Nick. He smiled, seeing her hand on top of his. "You must really like Nicholas. You two have been practically joined at the hip." He said, thinking of all the times he could of those two together though the years. "It's hard to tell, but I know he cares for you too." He said to her, looking back at the sleeping boy.

"You've been with him for so long, since the two of you were just babies. I can only say thank you so much for being right there for him. I don't know how he would be without you." He then said, looking down to the floor.  

[minus infinity]

Fiona turned her torso just slightly to look at Nicholas' father, still a bit cautious but letting his words register as though for the first time. Yeah ... Even though she wasn't crying anymore her voice betrayed that, cracking slightly at the end with even more bursts of memory. Memories that had been hidden for years because after the incident she had wanted nothing more than to just forget them.
They were playing with those little toy cars, Fiona borrowing Nicholas' for the most part even though her parents had strived to raise her on unisex toys. She still couldn't remember what had happened, that was only a memory that might resurface during a midlife crisis, but Fiona had dropped one of her own (and only) cars, her favorite red one, down the drain. She had been totally and completely heartbroken, and Nicholas had seen it. Even back then he could read her emotions and every move she made like a book. He had given her one of his, and for children sometimes sharing could be a serious problem. She still had the little black and orange car, somewhere collecting dust in her room. She had looked at Nicholas, close to tears, and said ...
I ... thank you.
Jonah came back in then, letting his wife go on into the bathroom to splash her face and reapply the mascara that had fallen down her face as pitch black tears. Black, the color of death.
Halfway unconsciously (only halfway) Fiona squeezed Nicholas' hand as she saw her father come in, Jonah hearing Adrian say that he didn't know how he would be without his daughter. "Practically joined at the hip," Jonah echoed softly as Fiona returned her gaze to Nicholas. Even now, they were practically touching - Fiona's arm radiating heat onto Nicholas' and forehead practically touching his. If they hadn't just been fifteen, Jonah might have said ...
Then, with another echo of what Adrian had said, Jonah whispered (so Fiona wouldn't hear it again and be embarrassed) that "They really do make a good couple."

Gianna checked her reflection in the mirror one last time, mentally checking herself over. Hazel eyes made to look bigger with the rectangular shape of glasses she wore, pouty lips red from biting and aided by lip gloss, dirty blonde-ish-strawberry hair straightened and pulled back with the exception of a few loose tendrils around her face. A button nose, a small and very lightly colored smattering of freckles about her cheeks red from crying, wearing still her pajamas. She wondered if she could go home and change real quick into something a tiny bit more ... formal.
And then, very lightly, she touched a hand to her belly.
Might she be pregnant after two months of trying again?
And would it be fair for her to roll in bliss with the coming of a second child if Adrian was in fear of losing his only child? Would it be right? Would it be just?
Whether or not it might be from morning sickness, Gianna pulled her hair back as she ran to a toilet and vomited into it.

 

[spartan309]

Adrian smiled, getting up from his seat and heading for the door. "I'm going to talk to your father. You can keep an eye Nicholas. He's probably enjoying your company even though he's sleeping." He said and then went out to talk with Jonah.

"She's grown up so much. It's amazing these are the same kids that were just so little which only seemed like yesterday." He said to him with a warm smile. "Soon they'll be old enough to be out of the house and who knows, maybe they'll stay together even after high school." He then said with a giggle, actually hoping that would happen.

Slowly, Nicholas' eyes started to open, his vision blurred as he tried to focus on where he was. He then took notice to the warm feeling placed over his hand. It was soft, warm, comforting. He then wrapped his fingers around it, holding it gently. His sight was getting better and better, and he finally noticed who was next to him and what he was holding. "Hello Fiona." Nicholas simply said, still as emotionless as ever. "May I ask you where I currently am?"  

[minus infinity]

Fiona had nodded, biting her lip, just a tiny bit nervous what leaving the room to talk to her father meant. But then as soon as the two men left her gaze returned to Nicholas. That didn't last though, either, as she closed her eyes and held back another wave of tears. Her eyes were sore from all her tears as they closed. She wanted to hear him speak. To tell her that he was okay after all this horror. And was he? Would everything be okay after all this horror?

Jonah looked back over his shoulder just after leaving the room to see Fiona close her eyes at that second in time, so physically close to Nicholas that for a second he thought his daughter might kiss him. She didn't, and Jonah looked back at Adrian. "We've known it since the day they met each other," Jonah said. They were very little when they had met, and spent literally the entire day playing while the adults introduced themselves. Later, they had practically had to be pulled away from one another - very reluctantly even though they were already tired. Even on that first day, both families knew (and hoped) for what might come in the future. "I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think that," this referring to their possible attachment even after their completion of high school two years from now. They would be legal adults by then, maybe - hard to believe. It really had just felt like yesterday. Where did the time go? Jonah nodded towards their two children jokingly, letting himself silently voice his thought that they were already ... in ...
And then Nicholas spoke, and Jonah looked like he had seen a ghost - the loving spirit of his mother, that is.

Hi, Nick ... You're in the hospital. You ... have ... you're sick, Nicholas.
Fiona hadn't opened her eyes even as she spoke to Nicholas, but squinted them tighter as she paused in trying unsuccessfully to tell him that he had preumonia.
I was able to get your sketchbook. This she whispered to him, because by now their fathers had heard Nicholas speaking and, being parents, were definitely not immune or exempt from eavesdropping on their children. Jonah all but fell all over himself coming back into the room, and was beaming. Not speaking, not yet, but beaming. There was hope after all. Fiona squeezed Nicholas' hand again as she had done before, finally opening her eyes to look at him, and smiled. Jonah gazed (stared) at them as quietly and carefully (not as to embarrass them) as he could, but it didn't work very well and in stepping behind Fiona he all but looked like he was trying to swoop down on her and fly her away somewhere. Maybe that was just his protective fatherly instinct rising as the realization began to dawn that his daughter might not be with him forever ...
but if she were to continue her life with Nicholas as they got older, than that would be okay too.

"Jonah? Honey?"
Gianna stood in the doorway, makeup reapplied and unaware that Nicholas had finally spoken but picking up on the realization that Fiona was sharing a very intimate moment with her best friend. She could see it as well as feel it.
Jonah briefly walked out of the room to talk to his wife, where she said to him, "I'm going to go home and change my clothes ..."
"I'll come with you. I need to change too."
"Oh thank goodness. I barely know how to drive that car of yours." Gianna had never earned her license and didn't care to. And then, she stood up on her toes and whispered to him, "And I'm going to buy a pregnancy test. Jonah, I think it's finally happened."
He bear hugged his wife like the teddy bear he was, told Adrian and Nicholas and Fiona that they were going home to change, and with matching smiles the two of them left the hospital.

 

[spartan309]

Adrian wasn't as clumsy as Jonas as he fell over himself wanting to listen to what the two kids were talking about, but he was just as curious and beaming as much as well.

Nicholas squeezed her hand tighter, showing he was happy she did that for him. "I didn't mean to be a bother. I apologize for my health as being in a hospital does show symptoms of poor health." He then said in his usual sophisticated way. "I am rather uplifted to know you are here with me though Fiona. You've always been there for me and I don't know a person as nice and friendly as you..." He whispered, sensing the heightened hearing of their fathers. "I am taking a educational guess based on you curiosity levels that you did look thought the sketchbook." He started to say, "Please don't feel ashamed or simply bad for it. You were going to find out in a later future, but now is better than never. I hope you understood my feelings..." He whispered.

When Gianna came in, Adrian was rather confused. He hadn't heard any word from the two that they were trying to have another child so he didn't know what they meant at all from their conversation. He just watched them leave and then went back to watching Nick and Fiona pretty much flirt in their special way.