[ 18 ] 2014

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"We have to get him to a hospital and call in some experts."

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Harley sat on the other bed, opposite Calum, while they waited for help to arrive. Ashton sat beside her and she placed her head on his shoulder, a small shiver ran down her spine at the slight cold radiating off him. It was very much like opening up a freezer door and feeling the frost escape. It was now a chill that her body was used to, and when she felt an arm of his find its way around her shoulders, she felt much better. She felt safe in his arms, like nothing bad could ever happen because he was there for her.

The two were watching Calum unconscious on the opposite hotel bed, there was nothing any of them could do to help him. They could only hope that a doctor could stabilize him enough until Jack could make the trip to Brisbane to save Calum's life.

Minutes ticked by agonizingly for Harley Quinn and she soon left the comfort of Ashton's arms to pace the hotel suite back and forth. Her arms were crossed over her chest after she ran a hand through her dyed dark hair in frustration.

"What's taking the doctor so fucking long?" She asked no one in particular. "He should have been here by now." She added after a short pause.

Her blue eyes darted to the front door and then to Calum who was passed out on the bed nearest to the door.

"Perhaps if we turn the TV on it will get your mind off things, doll." Ashton suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

Though Ashton wasn't a bad person and wished Calum no harm, Harley knew well that he was not nearly half as worried as she was. Probably not even a tenth of the worry and fear she was feeling. And if he was worried, it was for her. Not Calum. She also knew that he was more interested in watching the television than he led on. Back at her house, he never had the opportunity except for the time when they tried to watch some movies together. Harley didn't have a television in her bedroom and he couldn't just stroll into the living room to watch the TV there. He was still as curious as he was when he watched Spongebob on the television in Adelaide after they had escaped Harley's grandmother months ago.

She forced a small smile onto her face as she replied to him, "Love, if you want to watch the television its fine. You don't have to be all depressed and worried just because I am."

"But I hate seeing you so upset." He frowned.

She strode across the room in a few steps and stood in front of him, between his legs and her hands fell onto his shoulders for support. He looked up at her with beautiful hazel eyes. She arched her back forward to come at eye level with him and pressed her lips to his sweetly. "I'm scared shitless that he won't ever wake up. I hate that feeling." She admitted, biting her lip after she pulled back from their brief kiss. Her blue eyes glanced over at Calum before they returned to Ashton. What she hated most of all was that she had no power to help him. All she could do was wait for someone else to do it. "And I'm so glad you're here to offer your unconditional support, love. Just go ahead and watch some television. It really wouldn't affect anyone." She assured him.

Ashton didn't hesitate to turn on the television of the hotel and started flipping through the various channels, trying to figure out which to stay on. Harley went to sit on the side of Calum's bed and watched the flickering television from there. Though it seemed that the hotel was of good quality and high price, their television had terrible image. Ashton continued flipping past channels and she looked away, her eyes taking in every aspect of the room. The walls were a strangely bright lime green color. The sheets were the same green with a combination of white pillows to match the set. In between the beds was a small table with a pamphlet advertising a nearby restaurant and it was then that she realized she hadn't eaten all day. She was yet to feel the rumbling of her hungry stomach, but she knew she would need food eventually.

With a sigh leaving her lips, she stuffed both hands into her jacket pockets as she felt an absence of heat in her hands. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion when she felt something that wasn't there before. In one pocket was her cellphone, and in the other was a credit card. She got it out of her pocket and squinted in the dim light of the room to read the name Arthur R. Vega on it.

She didn't know how it had gotten there, but she guessed it had been when she hugged him upon their goodbye earlier. The card probably had enough money for food, the doctor that was coming to help Calum, and the ride back to Sydney.

-

More time passed and Harley had found herself now laying next to Calum, almost cuddled up to him. He was laid on his back, while she was on her side, facing him. Ashton had finally settled on a show on PBS called Rock Experience: The 60s, which was essentially a show that was playing popular music of the nineteen sixties. Ashton had quickly gotten immersed in the television, since he was very keen on music and had not gotten to really experience the tunes that had been created around that time. The music of the sixties was all new to him, especially anything after 1963.

Harley jumped slightly when she heard a knock on their door. Ashton turned his head toward the door and stood up to go get it. But Harley stopped him, rushing to her feet and patting him on the shoulder as she passed him. "I'll get it, Ash."

She twisted the knob and opened the door to reveal the doctor that Arthur promised would arrive. He was quite young, probably in his mid thirties, with dark brown hair combed to the side, fair skin, and the typical clothes one would expect on a doctor. He carried with him a black medical bag, but she imagined he has more equipment back in his car. The doctor was led into the room and she closed the door behind him.

He walked between the two beds and had dropped his bag exactly where Ashton was sitting. Since he was a human, he was not able to see the non-physical entity in the room who was happily watching a show about music of the sixties. The bag had gone right through him and he looked down at it uncomfortably. At the same time that he shifted to the side, Harley grabbed the bad and moved it somewhere else. She despised the fact that many people could not see Ashton when he was clearly there to her. He was as clear to her as any human. But not all people had the ability to see ghosts.

The doctor was checking Calum's vital signs while she stood by, observing. He pressed his stethoscope to Calum's chest and gasped at what he heard. "This boy is barely breathing. What happened to him?" He pulled the medical tool out of his ears as he turned to look at Harley with shock in his eyes as well as indignation that one person could do something to another.

"He was kidnapped, and I don't know what they did to him." She began to explain to the doctor with a shake of her head. At the moment, it seemed, he thought she had been the one to hurt Calum that way. "We found him under the pier at the beach."

He quickly rushed to his bag and pulled out a small oxygen tank, attaching everything to Calum to help him breathe better. The next thing he did was to pull out a device that looked like a camera. "I will have to take a couple of x-rays to be absolutely sure, but its fairly obvious that something is wrong with his lungs. Also, it appears that he is severely dehydrated, but that can be fixed by hooking him up to an IV drip. I have those in my car and can get them in a moment."

The doctor brought the camera styled device closer to Calum's chest and is was nearly like a photograph, but instead of revealing pictures, there were x-rays. Small x-ray plaques were pulled out of the device with each 'picture' he took. He snapped a couple of them and then returned the x-ray device into his medical bag. 

Harley merely stood by as he now grabbed the four dark plaques that were no bigger than the palm of his hand. He held them up to the light to get a better look and gasped at what he saw. Harley Quinn continued to watch in confusion as the doctor looked to Calum, and then once again at the x-rays. His mouth fell open in awe as he explained to the young woman what he saw, "I don't know how this boy is still alive..." He started in awe, "The x-rays demonstrate serious burn marks and scars on his lungs, as though he might have been in a terrible fire. That is what is triggering his inability to breathe. What I cannot explain is how he is perfectly fine on the outside and completely charred on the inside." 

Her thoughts drifted to the memory of the hotel in Adelaide, which she shared with Ashton and Michael. They had explained to her that when a shifter consumed a plant called chrysanthemum, it would burn them from the inside. She also remembered them telling her the shifter would die within two or three days. She didn't know how long Calum had been exposed to it, but figured it had been a long time since he was teetering on the brink of life and death.

His only real hope of living was Jack.

"We have to get him to a hospital right now and call in some experts." The doctor finally suggested, after taking in everything he had seen was wrong with the teenage boy.

Harley looked up at him with widened blue eyes. 

"No, you can't take him to a hospital." She dismissed the idea. 

The doctors wouldn't be able to help him. They would only marvel at the extent of his internal injuries and let him die alone in a hospital bed. The injuries Calum sustained went above and beyond what any human could do.

He disregarded her words and got his cellphone out to call an ambulance. She quickly extended her hand and used her concentration to bring the phone to her. Without even thinking it further, she hung up the call, and looked to the doctor. "You will bring that IV drip, hook him up to it, then you will drive off like this never happened. You will not remember what you saw."

"I will not remember what I saw." The doctor repeated robotically.

He left the room in a daze and returned moments later with an IV drip which he hooked Calum to in a matter of minutes. Harley kept the x-ray plaques and he was on his way, soon to forget that he had even been at that hotel, tending to a very sick teenage boy.

-

The music of the 60s show had long ended and Ashton was laid down on the other available bed, keeping Harley company while she rested. She was laid down next to him, her head on his chest and her eyes open. She couldn't even fathom the thought of sleeping, not when Calum's life was hanging by a thread.

Ashton wrapped an arm around her shoulders and soon broke the silence in the hotel room that had been hanging in the air for several hours. It was some time in the middle of the night and he didn't sleep. As he had once put it, the dead don't sleep. Once a person was dead, they would lose several abilities or needs. Ashton no longer needed to sleep or eat, he hadn't done it in fifty years.

"Is there anybody gonna listen to my story?
All about the girl who came to stay.
She's the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry.
Still you don't regret a single day."

Harley pulled away from him slightly when she heard his voice breaking the silence in the room, propping herself up on her elbows to look at him. She had never heard him sing before, and she thought it was a beautiful sound. 

Had his father allowed it back in the nineteen sixties, she knew he would have been a great musician.

He was doing it rather distractedly, looking up at the ceiling as he did it. She noticed that he was more like muttering it subconsciously, but she liked the way it sounded nonetheless. And he stopped when he noticed that she looked over at him. His hazel eyes found her blue ones and he said to her sheepishly, "Sorry doll. I've just had that song in my head since I saw it on the television earlier..." He had only listened to the song a few hours back and he had already learned the lyrics.

Harley gave a shake of her head. "No, I liked the song. I just never heard you sing before. I like your voice." She admitted to him, biting down on her lower lip.

"Thanks, doll." He shot her a smile.

She snuggled close to him again and reached for the lamp on the nightstand, flipping off the switch to leave them in the dark. Ashton continued humming the song, a bit lower than he did when he was singing it, and Harley found herself falling into a comfortable sleep. 

Michael would surely arrive with Jack in the morning and everything would get better.

-

an extra extra long chapter. i had this one and two more chapters already pre-written since like last week, so i was aching to post it already. i was so tempted to post it last night, but i forced myself to go to bed so that time would pass quicker. so i hope you all like the update. it means a lot that you all read, vote, and comment ^.^

qotd: name a band (or bands) you like besides 5SOS (unless of course 5SOS is all you listen to. all day, everyday). hm...for me it would definitely be the beatles. they were awesome and their songs were great. i listen to their music every day. i also like other bands, but my forever top band is the beatles. i like 1D too though. CNCO is great too. tame impala bc kevin parker's voice reminds me of john lennon. arctic monkeys. the strokes. the killers. i like los recoditos okay... #noshame.  and others.

also, thank you all SO MUCH for reading, voting, and commenting on the blurb for the next series (wild ones). it really means a lot that there is general excitement because i am excited too ^.^

short author's note because its eight in the morning and im tired. but have a great rest of the week!

-clary xx