Flashback ]Onz[

[Onzyy]

Fate was playing the cruelest of tricks on him. And knowing Fate, it was enjoying itself. Out of the corner his eye he saw movement from Melissa it was slight, but it was there. That was trick number 2, and then came 3. Cardiac arrest they called it. Something that would've killed her, hadn't Dr. Parker already been in the room.

Chuck nearly had a heart attack himself. An odd rendition of Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars started playing. He was dizzy, and his mind didn't function right. When he saw that Melissa had awoken, he nearly shouted from happiness but didn't. Welcome back to the land of the living Melissa.

He returned the look that Dr. Parker gave. He wasn't going to tell the child that he was her father. Not now, not after her ordeal.

[lorilie]

Melissa blinked. "Mr. Bass, is your horse okay? I hope I didn't scare him. He's a very nice horse, just a little frisky. Maybe if you worked him more, he'd calm down a little. Is Sham okay too? She's probably on the fritz at the moment. This is the second time someone's been rushed off to the hospital in her presence. Poor girl. Oh, and please don't tell Spencer and Jay I'm in here, Mr. Bass, they'd be so upset..."

Melissa didn't even realize how much she was rambling. She was just talking, though her words slurred slightly with the groggy scratch of someone innocently waking up.

The blond girl took a shaky breath, and at that moment, Luminescence, her imaginary silver fox, emerged and sat on the bed next to her.

You're taking too much energy. Shush. You'll kill yourself, blabbermouth.

"I'm not, Luminescence. You shush." Melissa didn't even realize she was talking out loud, but she turned her attention back to her "teacher" and the doctor.

"I really am sorry about your saddle pads, Mr. Bass. I'll wash them myself... Oh! Mr. Bass, I've appeared to have stained your shirt as well! I'm so sorry."

And there it was. On Chuck's right sleeve, where Melissa's split head had been lying was a large puddle of blood. The fourteen year old stared at it curiously. She seemed to love attracting trouble, staining the earth with the scarlet in her veins.

The doctor came over and took Melissa's uninjured wrist, felt her pulse, and then took out a flashlight and looked in Melissa's eyes. "Ms. B-Whitcombe, do you feel alright?"

"Well, my head hurts an awful lot..."

The doctor straighted and looked at her. "You rest. I'll have some medicine and food sent up. Eat as much as you can without getting sick." He patted Melissa's shoulder and motioned to Chuck.

Once they were outside, he turned to the man. "I think she may be dilusional. She didn't even realize she was talking that much, nor that she was talking to someone who wasn't in the room. She seems to be mentally exhasted, and I don't blame her. We're keeping her overnight, but you're free to go home, Mr. Bass."

[Onzyy]

Chuck was worried that she was talking so much. He hadn't even noticed the blood on his sleeve. Melissa it's okay. The saddle pads are going in for dry cleaning, the horses are okay, they're safely in their stalls. Neither Jay or Spencer know, however knowing the school they might just know already.

Chuck followed the doctor out. It felt as if he had aged 30 years. Thanks doc, but I'll stay. What else could he do know that he knew who Melissa really was. She had kinda freaked out him out when she was talking to something.

He entered the room again. The last rays of sunshine was entering the room. They keeping you overnight. All you need to do now is rest.

[lorilie]

"Are they going to call my dad? He'll be really worried." she whispered, her eyes closed as she was starting to doze. Her stepfather had always worried for her, but even though he loved her unconditionally, he;d never bonded with her they were more of an Uncle and Niece pair than father and daughter.

Her thin body barely expanded to accept air into it. She was still rather pale, with a bandage around her head. She was taking delicate breaths, as though her chest still ached from the revival of her life and heartbeat. She sighed as she slipped into sleep, finally out, exhasted.

She was deathly still as when she'd been in the coma. Melissa's tiny body, small-framed for fourteen, was never one to shift a bunch. The only movement she offered was a slight shiver and a rustle as she burrowed deeper under the covers.

--

Notes: I'm just loading onto Chuck. xD

[Onzyy]

Well your father's already here was the answer he almost gave. The hospital informed your father. They had to let him know.

Chuck settled into the chair, and thought back to the time that he had met Melissa's mom. She had been a strange creature, and while his parents backed her horse. She had been one of the first that he had had. Karma was biting him in the butt. Once again.

Melissa looked so still that he wondered if she had slipped back into a coma, but the machines said otherwise. It was a hope that he hoped that he cherished that she would understand when he told her that he was her father. Oh Lord I hope it goes down well was his only thought before he fell into a fitful slumber.

When he woke he was assaulted with the smell of coffee, and blood. One of the nurses had been kind enough to get it for him, and it was still hot. Blood, because the bandages around Melissa's head were being changed. He sighed in despondency, and kept quiet for the rest of the time.

[lorilie]

"Good morning Mr. Bass." Melissa greeted him, wincing slightly from the bandages peeling the dried blood away from her skin and skull. "They said I'm well enough to go back to the Academy today." She informed him with a grin.

The doctor walked over to Chuck and looked at him. "When we had her friend, Mr. Spencer Dalca, in here a few weeks ago, she walked to and from the hospital a lot, and will most likely do so today when we let her go. I'll advise a cab for her if you're not driving her. Also, when she was visting Mr. Dalca, I noticed that Melissa has odd eating habits... She's goes off of eating any food for days, maybe even weeks, for no apparent reason. I must ask you to please keep an eye on this, as she'll need as much strength as possible to recover."

The doctor nodded to him, then went to Melissa. "Now, young lady, try to be more careful next time, alright? I don't want to see you in here again anytime soon."

"Alright Dr. Parker." Melissa smiled, and took her clothes from a nurse, for sometime during her stay at the hospital, she'd been changed into a hospital gown. She got out of bed, wobbling on her legs a little before going over to the bathroom, a bit embarressed for her state of condition in front of a school teacher, and a male nonetheless.

She slipped into the bathroom and quickly donned her usual attire. She looked at herself in the mirror, the few brown spots of old blood on her shirt and jeans, then sighed and left the bathroom. She quickly folded the robe, then looked at Chuck. "I guess this is goodbye until next time, Mr. Bass. I just hope the circumstances are... brighter."

[Onzyy]

Morning Melissa. Chuck couldn't really stand the sight of human blood, so he turned away when the real gritty stuff happened. He listened to the doctor. Sounded like Melissa was real independent, and the eating habits worried him, not that it was his to worry about. That would've been his standpoint, if he didn't receive the news that he had yesterday.

He deftly stepped out of the room when Melissa went to change, so to offer her some privacy. Something that he himself only knew. Well, most of the female population in Blue Ridge as well, seeing that they had seen his rooms before.

When she spoke again, Chuck nearly had a heart attack. He had been deep in thought. Like hell you walking back in your condition. I'm taking you and that's final. Chuck could play the strict staff member when he wanted to.

[lorilie]

She was surprised he was so firm about wanting to take her home. She guessed he felt guilty that it'd been his horse who'd thrown her, but it'd really been her fault entirely.

Nonetheless, she had no choice really. "Okay Mr. Bass, if you insist." She smiled at him.

Once they were outside, Melissa gazed at the world silently, taking in the sunlight, trees, people, all with a genuine air of offhand curiousity in her stance and gaze. It was like she was seeing the place for the first time, and she loved what she saw. Most wouldn't have taken in any beauty about the smoggy cars, and blare of traffic, but the fourteen year old didn't seem to care about that.

She looked at Chuck, then looked away again, as though wanting to see his reaction to the earth, then remembering that no one saw it like she did.

[Onzyy]

For someone who saw the exit of the hospital almost daily, what lay outside didn't strike Chuck as anything unusual. He mostly didn't even notice it. Yet from the corner of his eye he saw how Melissa looked at it. She was more like her mother than she realised. One question that hung in his mind was did she even know her mother? He hadn't seen her since he left the stables all those many years ago. Chuck didn't even know where she was, or what happened.

The car is over there, he showed her the way to the BMW. The offending saddle blankets were at the dry cleaners, and the car had been cleaned of the few little blood stains that there were. How are you feeling? Chuck asked his daughter. It was an innocent enough question.

[lorilie]

"I feel yellow." She replied. "Like the sun, or a dandelion. Bright, yet happy. Lions are yellow too, but I don't feel much like a lion." She looked up at him, then made her way to the car, not skipping like she may have usually done. She felt... unusally meek around Chuck. Then again, around all adults she was meek.

She climbed into the car, feeling awkward. People already thought she was cutter, and she knew Mr. Bass had a way with women. What would the other students think? She shivered internally, while not allowing a sign of it to show.

Suddenly, her dog came into mind, and she bit her lip a little. No one had fed him! Poor Sparks was probably starving right now, and Sham would be worried to bits. Now she really wanted to get home, to comfort the few friends she had. And she had to call her father, tell him she was okay.