Chapter 6: A Kiss for Understanding

Tony returned to the waiting room near the ICU carrying a small cardboard box with three cups of coffee. Mr. Harris looked up as he sat down. "Tony! What are you doing back here so soon?"

Tony offered Mr. Harris a cup of coffee and chuckled, "It seems the school is somewhat, ah, agitated at me for leaving rather abruptly yesterday. They decided I needed a bit of a vacation to remind me of the rules. Somehow the logic of that escapes me."

"You got sent home from school? That doesn't make sense at all. All you did was bring Rebecca to the hospital. Do you have any sugar?"

Tony handed him two paper packets of sugar and said, "Believe me Mr. Harris I just had this whole conversation at school. It's no big deal. Actually it's not as bad as it could have been."

"Have you talked to your parents about this? I'm sure they aren't going to be happy."

"I called mom before I left school. She is a little hot about it. Anyway, that's not important, how is Rebecca?"

"No real change in the last hour. Everything still looks fine."

The two sipped coffee for a while, settling in for a wait.

"Marj tells me you and Rebecca have become pretty close in just a short while."

"Yeah, I guess we have. It wasn't really intended. We were just forced by circumstances to be around each other a lot and we got along pretty well. Her and Tina are already pretty good friends as well. It's kind of weird."

"What do you mean Tony?"

"Not those two becoming friends, that makes perfect sense to me. It's just that all the time we were growing up I always thought of Tina's friends as a bunch of little girls. Even over the summer, it was nothing to have two or three of Tina's fourteen year old girlfriends running around the pool in bikinis at our house. I never paid them any attention. So, on the outside I should think having an interest in Rebecca is a little bit strange. She's almost exactly the same age as Tina after all. But instead, my brain does this flip-flop on me and whenever I think of Rebecca my brains says 'Tony if it was any girl but Rebecca this would be really strange.' It's like some kind of automatic self-delusional protection system that only works for Rebecca."

Mr. Harris chuckled. "That really is my only concern really. You are a bit old for her."

"Oh yeah, I'm practically ancient! But really there is only 20 months difference in our ages. I'll grow up fast."

Mr. Harris did a double take before he caught the joke. "Do you love my daughter Tony?"

"You know the honest answer is that I don't know. I'm not sure I know what that means in this situation. I think of love as a love for my sisters or my parents. But what I feel for Rebecca isn't like that exactly. The only part that seems like that is that Tina is probably the most capable girl her age I know of. She is a heck of a lot smarter than I am and a little tigress to boot. She can really take care of herself. Still, I have this overwhelming drive to protect her and watch after her. It's like some built in purpose in my life. I feel that with Rebecca as well.

"I've had a few girlfriends. I've gone on plenty of dates and the like. I don't have a bad thing to say about any one of them. I like girls a lot. I couldn't have described it at the time but now that I know your daughter it makes more sense. With those girls I was looking for something. With Rebecca I feel like I've found something. That's a new feeling for me. I'm not sure what it means but it's just about the coolest thing I've ever felt."

"Oh that will do just fine Tony. It was a much more honest answer than I expected. For what it's worth, I don't have any serious reservations about you seeing Rebecca. I think you've already passed the 'take care of my daughter' test."

"It's actually worth a lot sir. I'm already not sure where this whole thing is going. Having your and Mrs. Harris' blessing certainly can't hurt."

Rebecca was in a dark place. It wasn't completely dark. It was like someone had pulled heavy curtains over the windows. She had been here before she realized. A tube sprouted from a needle in her left arm and crawled its way up to a clear bag hung on a chrome stand. Other uncomfortable things were connected to her as well: connecting wires to electronics or taking care of functions that she'd just as well do in private, thank you very much.

Back in the hospital she thought. She tried to lift her head to see more of her surroundings and her chin brushed up against something soft. She moved her right arm up and grasped a small stuffed toy. A bear she realized on closer inspection. Hmm his name is Tony the bear. Tony came to Mrs. Finch's class. 'Hey there sunshine, what seems to be the problem?' Tony carried me to his car. Then ... nothing. Hospital. OK. Not feeling good in Mrs. Finch's class, Tony took me to the doctor, to the hospital. Why Tony? Tony helps me at school. Tina says he likes me. That can't be true. OK girl get a grip, thinking about this whole Tony thing all the time can not be healthy.

"Well, hello there. I see you're back with us," a woman's voice said from the doorway. "The monitors showed you were probably waking up. How are you feeling?" The nurse moved to the bed and started disconnecting some of the monitoring wires.

"I'm OK I guess," Rebecca said hoarsely. "Can I have some water?"

"Sure, let me get these leads off you and I'll prop your bed up then you can drink. Your dad and a good looking young man are outside and I'm sure they want to see you. Your mom is upstairs, I'll call her. Only for a few minutes though, the doctor wants to see you as soon as you are awake so I'll call him right in."

The nurse finished with the wires, freeing Rebecca up somewhat then adjusted the bed until Rebecca's back was elevated slightly. She then poured her a small paper cup of water and hovered by a second until it was clear that Rebecca didn't have any problem drinking it. "OK then, ready for some visitors?"

"Yes, thank you."

Rebecca's father came around the corner first followed by Tony. He is here, she thought, the nurse said a young man was here. "Hi Daddy," she said weakly to her father.

"Hey there pumpkin," Mr. Harris said walking around the bed to hug his daughter gingerly. "How are you feeling?"

"Um, well considering I'm back in the hospital I feel pretty good. I'm confused mostly. I remember not feeling well in class. I think I remember Tony putting me in his car. I don't remember what happened after that."

"You got very sick very quickly. An infection left over from the operation kind of hid out and tried to jump on you all at once. You should be OK now. You may have to stay here another day or two but that's all. Your friend Tony brought you straight here from school."

"Hey there," Tony said cheerfully from the doorway. "How's my favorite bionic girl?"

Rebecca smiled brightly at Tony "Hi Tony, what are you doing here?"

"I've got to make sure my girl is OK, right?"

"Thank you for the bear."

"Well, they wouldn't let me come in here and watch out for you while you were asleep so I had to send in one of my furry minions to keep you safe."

Bodies quickly pressed into the room behind Tony. Rebecca saw him smile at her and motion towards the hallway as he got out of the way. Her mother, the nurse, and a doctor came into the room to fuss over her.

An hour and a half later Tony was returning to the hospital. After checking out Rebecca, the doctor moved her to a regular room. Tony convinced her parents to go home and get something to eat and some rest. Rebecca was out of danger and assuming no complications arose she would only have to stay the night. Tony took the time they were disconnecting the rest of her medical paraphernalia and moving her to update the school by phone and run a few errands and grab some lunch himself. His question to Mr. Harris had influenced his choice of restaurants. It seemed Rebecca had a weakness for chocolate Frosties.

Rebecca again gave Tony a big smile when he walked into her room. "Tony, you're back!"

"Hey there, you are certainly looking a lot better without all those tubes and wires. Are you still feeling OK?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm just stuck in here for another day it seems. What are you doing back here?"

Tony set the satchel on the floor beside the bed. "You know, you're going to give me a complex. That's the second time you've asked what I'm doing here. I'm beginning to think you don't want me around."

"I don't mean it that way Tony. It's just after noon on Thursday. You should be at school," she said.

"Ah, well the school thing is a bit complicated."

"Tony, what aren't you telling me?"

"Did I ever mention you're perceptive as well as beautiful? What I'm not telling you is that I brought you something." Tony reached into the satchel and produced the Frosty and a spoon.

"Oh, my favorite! How did you know I liked these?"

"I asked your parents, your dad ratted you out about your Frosty addiction."

Rebecca giggled and nodded "It's true. I can't pass by a Wendy's without stopping to get one." She sampled a spoon full of the chocolate desert then continued. "You still haven't told me why you aren't at school."

"Oh boy," Tony said as he took a seat by the bed, "Do you want the long story or the Reader's Digest version?"

"Let's start with Reader's Digest."

"OK, that's easy, I got suspended."

"WHAT?" Rebecca exclaimed. "What did you do?"

"OK, but before I answer that I need you to make me a promise."

Rebecca furrowed her brow at Tony and finally said, "OK, what's the promise?"

"You have to promise me you will NOT say that you're sorry."

Tony spent the next five minutes relaying the previous day's events to Rebecca. Rebecca was eating her Frosty and mostly shaking her head at each new twist in Tony's day. She couldn't, however, suppress a giggle at the incident with the police.

"So," she said when he was done, "I'm still not sure you've answered my question. What are you doing here? I appreciate you coming by and checking on me but if you have two days off from school there has to be someplace else you want to be."