"Thanks E, I'll let you know if there's anything else" Will said as he hung up the phone. He let out a heavy sigh as he leant back against the stiff chair in the hospital. The staff and patients were coming and going constantly, the cacophony of noise was close to deafening to Will's ears but it did provide a distraction at least. Despite knowing it would happen one day and all the preparations he made, it left him a little shaken. Luckily he was staying at home a bit longer than usual before going to school, and that was when he found his mother collapsed on the floor in the kitchen. The sight shocked him and he didn't think before running the whole way to hospital. The staff were shocked to see a young man with his mother on his back, panting and sweating asking to see a doctor for his mother. After a while everyone scrambles to get a room for the patient as to their disbelief he knew the hospital director.
Will decided to cash in a number of favours the director owed him still, a payment for making sure everything was quiet with the scandals he had been involved in. But Will double checked his background in case it was anything of a medical failure. He was desperate but not stupid to put his own mother's life at risk like that. A number of doctors came to visit and he was left waiting for the diagnosis, his foot shaking from nervousness.
Will felt the urge to hit something to cool his ruffled feathers, but as no one came close to him he wasn't given much of an excuse to let his frustrations. That's when he felt a hand on his shoulder, the devil whispering to his ear "What would you pay to make your mother better?" he heard the voice next to him speak. Looking up was the visage he loved and hated at the same time of Fiona giving him a smile so wide it looked ready to jump off her face. He knew what she meant, what cost could compare to saving a soul? Of course it must be something of equal worth for a deal. However this brought him back down to earth again, he breathed in deep to calm down and smiled.
"The offer is good, but not good enough" Will smiled as the two faced devil dropped her smiling facade "Tch" she clicked her tongue at him but on the inside the creature was glad he didn't take her offer just yet. There were more ways to play around that way.
"Mr. Charles?" A nurse asked popping her head into the waiting room to see Will sitting patiently. She was impressed that he was still so calm despite the chaos he had created earlier to have his mother admitted. Will looked up at the young nurse and chuckled.
"Mr. Charles is my father, you can call me Will". Will said as he stood up, getting close to the nurse she let out a natural blush she reflexively put her hand out to stop him.
"The doctor wants to see you" the nurse stammered as she led the way out of the ward, too embarrassed to see how the young man behaved at her poor reaction. She felt him smiling from behind and hoped he would ignore her so she could stop acting like a swooning teenager. They stopped in front of the doctor's office and the nurse quickly ran away after having escorted the young man. Will knocked and after a "Come in" from inside he opened the door.
"Ah Will, take a seat" the doctor gestured sitting behind his desk. Will took up his offer, his eyes were focused, not leaving the doctor's form for a moment in case he magically disappeared in front of him.
"So doctor, how is my mother?" Will asked, his face was calm but his tone was extremely threatening to the doctor's ears. It gave the doctor an eerie feeling from the hairs standing up on his neck. The doctor chuckled and was glad of the warning the hospital director gave him before dealing with the boy. It was like having a wild animal on a leash and if the news was bad he could easily be let loose on the hospital. And a hospital truly wouldn't be able to put you back together.
"Well I have good news and bad news Will. But the important thing is that your mother will be fine after treatment." the doctor said, he watched as Will relaxed his body at the words and was happy to listen to what the doctor had to say next.
"Unfortunately it took us a while to diagnose her due to the fact she has a rare strain of gut bacteria that seemed to have caused her fainting spells. To be honest with you, if she had come a day later it would be hard to bring her back to full health. The amount of time required to change the bacteria and also keep her in good health would be too difficult if they continued to grow. Thankfully we found it early and she will only be required to stay a month in the hospital undergoing treatment and checkups" The doctor gave his general description to allay the boy's fears.
"Thank you doctor, I'm glad I made the correct choice bringing her here." Will said with a smile as he shook hands with the doctor. But instead of leaving, Will towered over the doctor and his desk, Will gripped the side of the desk.
"But you should know what happens if something does go wrong right?" Will broke the side off the solid wood table with his hand as he held it in front of the doctor. Crushing his hands and clenching, Will opened his fist as wood dust came out leaving the doctor in awe.
"Loud and clear" the doctor said and nodded leaving Will happy at the obedient behaviour, opening the door with a smile and left the office. The doctor fell back onto his chair staring at the chunk taken out of the table. "Way too much of a handle" the doctor sighed and went back checking his work to ignore whatever panic his body was screaming at him to run away at all costs.
Will was enjoying his short walk back to the ward his mother was staying in, letting out a little of his frustrations changed his mood immediately and with hearing good news he was almost a completely different person again. As he came to the door to his mother's room, a girl was standing outside of it nervously. She was whispering to herself as she paced back and forth.
"I don't want to go in, I wonder if he's changed?'' she said to no one in particular and was too caught up in her thoughts to notice Will standing behind her, watching with amusement and great interest.
"Hello pretty lady" Will said behind her back, she jumped back in fright at being taken off guard. She was staring at him with venom after recognising who it was.
"Playboy" she said with a mixture of surprise and disgust. Will was surprised he couldn't hear the grinding of her teeth from here.
"Well I didn't expect you here either. Visiting someone?" he said in a teasing tone but he already knew the anwesee. Fiona was already backed up against the door but she was still standing steadfast.
"Hmph, like you would care. I'm seeing an important person so you can run along now. Shoo, shoo" Fiona waved her hand to dismiss him. Smiling Will stretched his hand to the door getting close to Fiona's face.
"What a surprise I need to go in as well" Will said as they were almost touching noses. Fiona wanted to punch the man in reaction but she felt her hands unable to move, watching as the man drew in closer to her face, their breaths were almost the same as they looked into each other's eyes..
"Hey Mum, looks like Fiona dropped by." Will shouted through the door, leaving Fiona confused and scrambling to move but was still pinned between the door and Will, leaving the young man smiling at the distraught teenager.
"Oh Fiona, I heard she might visit today" Rachel said through the door. Fiona pushed at Will to let her go but he opened the door to let in Fiona.
"Oh Fiona, it's so good to see you. Veronica has been telling me so much about you" Rachel said smiling at how close the two were. 'Oh, they seem closer than I expected. Might be expecting something soon' Rachel giggled at her thought while Fiona dragged Will back outside.
"You're Will? Tiny, scrawny Will?" Fiona asked as she was trying to go through the shock of it. The playboy was her old friend all along? She shook him with a tight grip on shirt hoping that rattling him around the young man would change back to the little boy she used to know.
"You seem surprised?" Will asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Who expects little you would become a hunk?" Fiona said in a furious whisper. She really didn't want Auntie Rachel to hear their talk.
"Oh? So you're interested in me?" Will smiled at her letting her guard down. Fiona gave him a good punch in the gut as an anwser, but she winced feeling his abdominal muscles were tougher than steel. Or at least stronger than her hand
"This isn't the end of it!" Fiona said jabbing her finger towards Wills face and entered back into the room, hiding her hurt hand.
"Sorry Auntie Rachel, Will and I were just catching up" Fiona said lying through her teeth. Her eyes were shooting sparks as Will came back in, standing at her side as she chatted a little with his mother, it didn't take long when Fiona went to say her goodbyes. Brushing past Will she whispered into his ear.
"Is she going to be alright?" Fiona asked with concern. Will smiled at seeing her being nice to his family despite her frustrations. It seemed that she'll be even more on guard when they both go back to school.
"I had a talk with the doctors she'll be fine soon" Will said, after hearing what she wanted Fiona left, almost breaking into a run to get away from Will. Will felt a little bad playing the wolf, but seeing Fiona leaving in a huff left him wanting to tease her a little more.
"Will, is everything alright?" his mother asked seeing her son sighing to himself and looking out the door where Fiona had left. She was worried the doctor might have said something was horribly wrong.
"It's ok mum. Had a talk with the doctor and he expects you to be out of here in a month, unfortunately you got sick with something but it's likely to never come back after this" Will rattled off a short version of the doctor's talk with him but the main point still hit home. His mother was going to be fine. Rachel's eyes watered as they threatened to spill over.
"Ahhh, I'm glad" his mother started crying at the good news, Will went to comfort her as he walked over, giving her a hug while sitting on the bed. But soon the door was flung open as Will's father came rushing in.
"Rachel! Are you okay?" Max shouted as he ran to his wife's side. Seeing her tears he misunderstood and thought they received bad news from the doctor. Shoving his own son out of the way and forcing him to lie in the ground, he held his wife and patted her on the back.
"It's alright Rachel, no matter what happens I'll be there for you." Max said in a soothing voice. Furious Rachel smacked him on the head as he backed off in confusion at her change in behaviour.
"You dolt, it's good news. I'm going to be fine" Rachel said trying to suppress her smile from her husband trying to piece things together.
"But...what...then why are you crying? Did our son bully you?" His question earned another smack to his shoulder as Rachel wanted to hit this man who couldn't think straight even more.
"You know I'd smack my own son back into a good boy if he ever did that. The doctor said it's going to be a month but I'll be fine after" Rachel said repeating Will's earlier words. Will's father looked at his son who nodded to confirm and finally relaxed.
"Ahhh, my boss is gonna kill me for skipping work." Max let out a sigh and leaned on the bed next to his wife. They all laughed at his misfortune as the family chatted for a while. But while his parents were laughing a hand tugged on his ear lobe.
"What do you want now?" Will quietly muttered to himself, keeping an eye on his parents that they weren't watching him talk to himself.
"There's something wrong with that girl. She's giving me weird vibes" the creature said in a worried tone. Will frowned as this was the first time the creature has any kind of concerns with him let alone worried about him as well.
"Isn't it good, she can scare you away when I need peace and quiet" Will whispered and smiled while the creature slapped his head in rage. Will held himself still and endured the hit so his parents wouldn't notice anything strange.
"I'm warning you, if you continue to get close to that girl something will happen that even I can't predict. If I looked closer I might know but it's dangerous" the creature said while Will simply shrugged it off. The creature let out a hmph before disappearing into the air. Will zoned back into the conversation with his parents and chatted and laughed along with them as if nothing was wrong before. The hours passed quickly and soon visiting hours were over for the day and Will and his father said their farewells and left Rachel at the hospital.
"Will…" Max broke the silence as the two left the hospital while walking into the empty lot. Will waited for his father since he seemed distraught for some strange reason.
"Yes father?" Will answered watching his father's reaction carefully.
"Although we joked about it, I seriously think I'll get fired from this. I just wanted you to know since it would be too hard for your mother to hear it from me with all the problems she's having now and paying the hospital bills" Max said glumly. He felt guilt putting a burden on his own family like this but he couldn't stop himself when he heard his wife collapsed. And now that everything was fine it was beyond embarrassing to explain he threw away the household earnings just to see his wife.
But Will didn't care that his dad ran off from work for his wife, if anything he would be ashamed of his father if he didn't come along to see his wife in poor health over work. But after pondering Will finally found the answer to a question he could never answer in his previous life. 'So that's probably what happened when my mother became sick' Will thought as he stated intently at his father. The fact that everything in Will's life slowly cascaded down hill was all because of one person. Which meant he needed to pay a visit, to give his thanks. Personally.
"It's ok dad, no matter what, mum and I will stand behind you. If you need to find a job before you get fired." Will patted his father on the back. Max didn't want to show any weakness to his son and held back the tears in his eyes, and could only be proud of his son from a distance. Giving a rough smack on the young man's back, Max was back to his old self again.
"No worries Will. Whatever happens I'll be there for the family, hahahaha" Max laughed off his melancholy as he took Will home in the ute, driving off into the night.