[ 19 ] 2014

-

"I told Hazel and Jack we're leaving Sydney tomorrow and going into hiding."

-

During the middle of the night, after Harley had finally been able to fall sleep, Ashton disappeared from the hotel room. He had vanished into thin air and materialized in Sydney with one thing in mind. He returned to find out if Michael would really try to convince Jack to help Calum. 

Harley woke up minutes later alone in her bed, since she was a bit of a light sleeper. Her eyes looked around in the darkness as her eyes tried to adjust and she saw nothing. Her hands reached for Ashton in the dark, but he was gone. She was sure that whatever it was that he went to do, that it was something important and perhaps something that could help her and Calum. Ashton wouldn't just leave her alone without saying anything, especially when he knew how worried she was about Calum.

She was laid on her side, facing Calum's bed and her hand reached for the lamp on the night stand between the two beds. The IV drip that was hooked to his arm was running low, and he would need another one to help him regain all the fluids he had lost from all those days at the pier. It had to have been several days, but less than a week because he had avoided the high tide until the day they found him. 

Her mind thought back to when she had been caring for Michael after her grandmother had given her those chrysanthemum laced cookies. He drank chamomile tea and it made him feel better within a few days. It had been the same when Calum poisoned them all in order to get them out of the way and kill Jack for a while before bringing him back. Harley had never experienced anything more painful in her life, a searing pain that extended throughout her entire body ceaselessly. She felt as though her insides were on fire, exactly as Michael had described it. She could barely bare it. It was a feeling she never wanted to experience again.

She observed the boy in the opposite bed and came to the realization that Calum wouldn't be able to drink the liquid on his own, since he was unconscious. But perhaps, Harley thought, she could probably fill his IV drip bag with the tea and it would make him feel much better than the liquid he was currently receiving in his system. She had seen it work on her brother Michael, and it was worth a try.

She sat up in bed for a minute, debating whether or not to leave him alone in the hotel room, and then finally got on her feet. It would only be a few minutes to the lobby and then back. Harley grabbed her jacket off one of the chairs in the room and put it back on, it was probably chilly outside and she would need something to shield her from the cold midnight sea breeze. After taking one last glance at Calum to make sure he was okay, Harley left the room with the room key in her pocket. 

She had money to go to a store and buy some tea thanks to the credit card Arthur left her, but she thought she might not have the time or the bravery to do it. And she dreaded having to leave him for an extended period of time all on his own.

Instead she decided she would check the lobby first. 

Her room was a couple of minutes walk away from the lobby, and she passed various other rooms on her way, a pool, and even a sauna. Harley wrapped her arms around herself as she felt a night breeze shake her. They were near the beach after all, and temperatures by the beach were always lower than in the city.

She pushed the glass door open of the lobby and walked inside. It was a nicely heated area with couches to lounge on, a coffee table with magazines and newspapers to read, in the back was the reception area, and off to one side was a bar. Since it was the middle of the night going into a Monday morning, the bar was already closed, but on the bar table was a container labeled hot water, and next to it were tea bags, cups, sugar, and another container labeled coffee. Harley smiled politely at the woman at reception who smiled back at her and made her way to the bar area.

The first thing she did was to grab a Styrofoam cup and fill it with hot water. With the cup in her hand, she grabbed the entire box of assorted tea bags and searched for any chamomile packets inside. There were about three. She ripped the packaging off one and threw the tea bag into her cup, letting it brew in the hot water. She stuffed the other two tea bags into her pocket and left the box back where it belonged. She had probably looked mental to the lobby worker, desperately searching for chamomile tea bags in the small box, but that didn't bother Harley Quinn. She had more important things to worry about at the moment.

With the tea already in hand, she rushed back to her room.

-

In a matter of minutes Ashton went from the hotel in Brisbane to Paúl and Dempsey's house back in Sydney. It had probably been a few hours since the rest of the teens had arrived back home. All the lights were out in the house, and it was more than obvious that they were asleep. Ashton entered the house without permission which was something he hardly did, strode past the living room and up the stairs. On the second floor, he stopped for a moment where the path split into two hallways, wondering which was Michael's room. 

Somehow he doubted that Harley's half brother would actually take Jack to Brisbane to help Calum. It was unlikely that he would agree so easily, when he now had other loyalties to Hazel and Jack, and clearly hated Calum. Perhaps these loyalties were greater than the loyalty to his own sister.

Ashton took a left, which led to three doors, for the sake of starting his search somewhere. The right hallway led to three doors as well. His footsteps were slow, guarded, as he didn't want to scare anyone in the house by making any noises that could alert anybody of a presence. There were two doors on the left side, and one on the right. Ashton approached them and decided to try the first one nearest to him. 

He opened the door slowly at first and peeked inside. His hazel eyes fell upon the bed and saw that it was messy, like someone had been sleeping in it, but there was no one there. He now opened the door fully and walked into the room, his eyes still focused on the unmade bed. As he passed the threshold of the door, he turned and jumped back startled when he saw two hunters standing there with their Diamond Rose at hand. Both seemed relieved to find it was only Ashton. 

"Dude, you scared us." Dempsey breathed out a sigh of relief as she spoke in her American accent.

"I'm not even going to ask what you two were doing in the same room because its none of my business." Ashton said to the two of them. He looked to one, then the other. Dempsey was wearing a red and white striped soccer jersey which he assumed belonged to Paúl because it was rather big on her and black pajama bottoms. Paúl on the other hand was shirtless, and wearing the soccer uniform shorts that went with the same jersey she was wearing. He walked past them again to leave the room, explaining once he was back in the hallway, "I was just looking for Michael."

"Other hallway." Paúl replied in his own foreign accent.

Ashton nodded gratefully and was on his way. 

-

Harley returned to the room and found that Ashton was still not back. She let the tea cool down for a few minutes and then unhooked the IV needle from Calum's skin very carefully while she filled the bag with the tea. Her new problem now would be finding a vein in the dark to stick the needle back in, and then to have the courage to do it. 

When she grabbed his arm in an attempt to place the IV needle back, she worried as she noticed his skin was nearly ice cold. Harley was feeling a slight chill as well, but it was nothing compared to how cold Calum was feeling. She grabbed his hand in hers once again and held it in between hers while she attempted to generate some heat. His breathing was still slow and shallow. She guessed this was all a result of being left out in the cold water of the ocean for days. 

She pulled away from him for a moment and walked over to the air system by the front door. She turned it on and made the temperature in the room hotter in order to help Calum's body temperature stabilize. She returned to her own bed and pulled the covers off, throwing them onto Calum's bed in a hurry. Harley wrapped the covers around his unconscious form and crawled under the covers with him, wrapping her slender arms around him and holding him close in hopes that her own body heat would help stabilize his. With the limited light provided by the lamp, she grabbed his hand and felt the backs of his hands for a vein. They were easier to find and she swallowed her fears, pressing the needle into his hand to get the liquid into his body.

"You have to get better." She said to him in a voice barely above a whisper as she cuddled up to him, her hand held onto the one with the IV needle attached to it. Her blue eyes looked up at his unconscious face. 

Harley closed her eyes and tried not to think about the fact that half of her body that was pressed against Calum was cold, while the other half of her was hot and sticky with sweat from the heater that was turned on at full blast in the room. She wanted to pull the covers off herself, but she didn't want to risk letting the warmth out. 

She held onto him ceaselessly, even until her arms grew sore. Harley eventually became comfortable enough, despite the cold and heat, to fall asleep.

-

At Paúl and Dempsey's house, Ashton was now able to find Michael's room. The one next to it would then be where Hazel and Jack were staying. The ghost opened the door with an unfaltering determination.  Inside the dark bedroom, Michael was fast asleep in his bed and Ashton cut the distance toward him, standing over the other teen's sleeping figure. 

He placed a hand on Michael's shoulder and shook him awake. Michael was sleeping heavily and would not budge. Ashton shook him once more and called him by his name, hoping that it would help wake him quicker. "Michael." He said in a half-whisper.

Still there was no evident response from Michael. Ashton continued to try a few more times until he finally decided to give it one last try. Only his last attempt would be the successful one. Ashton grabbed the covers and yanked them off, pulling the sleeping teenager onto the ground with his sheets. Michael fell to the ground with a loud thud and with lightning speed, a hand reached to grab something under his pillow. It was his Diamond Rose which he immediately pointed at Ashton.

When it finally sunk in that it was only Ashton, he groaned, letting his gun fall to the floor. "Don't ever do that to me again, ghost boy." He warned groggily, wiping his eyes off with the back of his hands.

Ashton gave a shrug of his shoulders. "You're a heavy sleeper, mate. I needed to wake you somehow."

"What do you want?" Michael wondered, grabbing onto the side of the bed to help himself back on his feet. He shot Ashton a glare the whole time. It was for waking him, and also for the way in which he did it.

"I just came to make sure you told Jack we're heading back to Brisbane tomorrow with him. We have to help Calum." He informed.

"Fuck Calum." Michael said with a shake of his head. "I told Hazel and Jack we're leaving Sydney tomorrow and going into hiding."

"What about Harley?" Ashton asked, growing annoyed with the white haired teen. "Don't you care about her?"

Michael laughed bitterly, thinking Ashton ungrateful. "Mate, I'm doing you a favor. When Calum dies, you'll have her all to yourself." If anyone was going to get Harley, Michael preferred it to be Ashton and not Calum.

"By letting someone die? That's not how I want to get her love." Ashton objected to Michael's words. He wasn't the type of person who would let another die because he needed them out of his way. As much as he loved Harley, he could never do that to Calum, or any human being for that matter. Sighing, the hazel eyed boy continued, "Look, you can leave Sydney with them if you want. But would it cost you to make a fucking little stop in Brisbane to help Calum? Harley would appreciate it very much, and she's your sister. You can't leave her without your support."

"Half-sister." Michael muttered a bitter correction.

"Ah." Ashton threw his hands up as he finally came to the realization. "You want to hurt her, don't you? You want her to hate you so you can leave Sydney, and never come back. You only want to help yourself because you love her and you don't want to. Love is sacrifice, Michael. I love her too, which is why I do the things I do."

"But you have a chance, and I don't!" Michael shouted.

"Stop being so damn selfish!" Ashton yelled back at the boy standing in front of him.

When he got no response from Michael, who could only look down to the floor in guilt, he let out a frustrated sigh. "There's really no point in arguing with you." He said in annoyance. "I'm going to wake Jack and ask him if he would go with me to help Calum." 

He had more hope in Jack Quimby than in Michael Clifford.

-

this chapter is probably one of the longest that i have written for this story. but i have been very excited writing this story over the last couple of weeks. just think , gals. from here, there are roughly about thirty more chapters and then this story will be TOTALLY WRAPPED UP. how crazy is that? almost three years of MITM series!

but anyway. im slightly bummed out because i had a group presentation for english and my teacher is a little bitch. so the presentation was supposed to be 25-30 minutes, and then she spens about the next thirty minutes ROASTING YOU ON EVERYTHING YOU DID WRONG DURING THE FuCKING presentation IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE CLASS. my group and i thought we did well, and our classmates thought we did well. but basically to sum up her 30 minute roasting of us, she said our presentation was shit and that we clearly didn't understand the story. (and that's considering im her fave student, no lie). bitch please. i worked harder than i have ever worked before on this shit. but whatever.

qotd: do you have any bitchy teachers like that? what subjects do you hate in school?

have a great weekend! next update will be on a random day during the week. but fridays are a sure update day ^.^

-clary xx