So this is chapter 19!! Almost to 20? Does that mean my story is almost 20 chapters old now? WHEE!!!
I hope I can get this whole emotional mess sorted out. Believably.
Also, I have realized that I'm not quite giving enough attention to time line . The time line is now, November, as Jason went to the hospital in September.
Chapter 19
Kyle sat in the Nurse's office. He felt very sheepish as his friends looked at him. He guessed they had every right to be.
"So how come you didn't tell us?" they'd asked. Now that he thought about it, the normal reasons didn't really sound good.
"I guess it was just the stupid reasons. They made sense at the time though," he tried to explain, running his hand through his now blonde hair.
The nurse had wisely left them alone. Kyle was pretty sure she wouldn't tell. Super heroes were really big on believing that people would keep their secret.
"I didn't want you to get hurt or caught up in the lies I guess," he continued. "I mean…well I don't know what I mean. What if you accidentally let it slip? I know you wouldn't do it on purpose..." he trailed off as the rest of them looked at Michelle.
"What?" she asked defensively, which caused them all to laugh.
"I guess I can understand that," Steven said. "I'm really not angry. just more… wierded out, I guess."
"Same here," Josh added. "But like…why? I mean, why go see that kid? And why come out on TV? And, like, why haven't you seen the government yet?"
"Whoa. Calm down Josh." Those were all very good questions, and he'd answer them eventually. "I'll answer them all, I promise. It's just…
"I hope Rick gets back here soon with Jason. You really need to talk to him," Alex commented. Oh shit. Jason. How was he going to deal with him? After all this time. Jason had shared everything with him… and here he was keeping this back.
Kyle would probably be angry with himself too. He'd be angry with Jason if Jason had never told him about cutting himself and then he'd found out one day.
"So...wow. I mean wow," Michelle said. "You're really him; or you... whatever." Kyle had to laugh. Then he felt dizzy again. Oh no, not again. Kyle felt himself trying to fight against falling over. The last thing he felt was a light touch against his back.
"Why did you bring me back!!??" Kyle yells into the darkness. Then it goes light. Kyle feels surprise as he sees a playground; a playground from the city park. He'd spent many hours playing there when he was younger. A boy is sitting on one of the swings.
"You are not ready." Kyle is almost surprised to see that this boy is a completely perfect form of Jason, even down to his voice.
"So then, teach me; help me," Kyle says, walking to the other swing. He had wanted answers, and he got them. Well, some of them. But now he wants help.
The two of them swing on the swings, while the Jason copy gathers his thoughts. Kyle waits while they swing, wishing it was the real Jason, and not some weird voice idea out of his head.
"You must learn to block out the overwhelming feelings. The pain you sense is not your own; it is...an echo," Jason explains. "it will cripple you, if you do not master it." Master it? What was this voice trying to say?
"How? I can't block it with out the aura," he replies.
"You must learn to close your mind to the...life stream." Life stream? What?
"What?" Kyle asks, following Jason through the park. They come to the duck pond, which is fed by the local stream that runs through the park. (COMMENT: parks have duck ponds â€" not streams; as far as I know there is no such thing as a duck stream), and Jason begins to skip rocks across the water. What was the life stream? It sounded like something from a movie or anime.
"The power that flows through you; my power...your power. It flows through everything; the stars...the suns," Jason replies. Huh? Sounded like "the force" from Star Wars or something.
"So, I have to learn to block the power that gives me my abilities?"
"Yes...and no. You need to..." Here, Jason pauses, staring at Kyle intensely. "Filter the..." again a pause, " information." Oh. So the life stream was what was causing this sense of pain?
Jason points at some reeds in a shallow part of the water. "When the water flows, the reeds do not get washed away; they bend." Kyle understands that this is important, but he is not sure why.
So how to filter it. Hmmm. Kyle wishes he had more to go on. How do you filter something you didn't' even know you were doing? Maybe it was like a way of thinking.
"So, why am I not feeling it now?" he asks, this new thought coming to him. The explanation doesn't quite make sense. Kyle reaches out to his energy, trying to sense the pain beyond the barrier of his aura. And there it is, waiting for him. He needs to somehow block it, or maybe it is like the reed; maybe he needs to let it wash around him?
"I opened your inner senses. I closed them when it was obvious you could not handle it," Jason explained, now following the cement path along the stream; that made a strange sort of sense.
"Ok. So I just have to kinda flow with it?" he asked, trying not to fight the pain… just to let it wash around him. Yeah. It wasn't so bad this way...he might be able to handle it.
"Perhaps. You seem to be dealing with it better. Yes; whatever you are doing, continue it."
"So, what is that thing I'm supposed to stop anyway?" Kyle asks, as he gets the pain under control.
"It feeds on life; the life stream. It corrupts everything it touches. Then it spawns more… to feed and bring back energy to it's ... core," Jason says. Kyle can't quite fit the look of seriousness on this Jason with his Jason's beautiful face.
But it's not Jason. And Kyle needs to remember that, or it might get in the way.
Jason was worried. "So he just collapsed again?" he asked, as he looked at the prone form of his boyfriend on the bed. Jason felt himself leaning into somebody for support. It felt good.
"Yeah," Alex replied. "He just kinda slumped there." She sounded as if she was fighting to keep from breaking down. Jason felt the same way.
"I think it would be better if we called the doctor," the nurse said. Jason didn't want anybody else to find out that Kyle was Kid Rush. But what if something bad happened? At least his blue aura had gone away.
"Maybe. Can I ride with him?" Jason asked hopefully.
"I don't think…" Rick began to say, but the nurse cut him off.
"I'm sure they won't mind." Then she grabbed the phone and began to dial. Jason grabbed Rick's hand and held it, trying to let him know it would be ok; even though he wasn't sure about anything. He still wanted; no he NEEDED to talk to Kyle. And now the pit of worry in his stomach was growing.
"Alex rode with you," Jason whispered to Rick while he glared at the nurse.
"You did?" he asked.
"Yeah. I rode with you. I think they thought I was your boyfriend." Jason giggled, but it was forced.
"Oh," Rick replied.
"So what now?" Alex asked, asking the question they all wanted to an answer to.
"We wait. We really can't get any answers until Mr. Raven wakes up," the nurse said.
Jason paced back and forth in the waiting area. They'd taken Kyle and were running tests on him. At least he hadn't broken out into a flaming aura on the way to the hospital.
Jason wished the others were here though. It was nerve wracking to be waiting by himself. He'd tried to do his homework, as a distraction, but it hadn't worked. There were just too many thoughts in his head.
He'd tried to get updates, but nobody would talk to him. At least the others would be here soon. But it didn't help him now. Rick had taken the only blade Jason had, and now he desperately needed something to release his stress.
So many questions. Why was Kyle passing out from this super power thing? Why was he dodging the government? Maybe it was because of his earlier answers about the topic. It was funny how all of there conversations took on new meaning when you added the fact that Kyle was Kid Rush.
Wait. Jason had said something about that being an interesting idea as a name? Did Kyle pick that because of him? Jason felt a wave of warmth pour over him, as he realized it was one of the names he'd suggested. He'd liked it a lot in fact.
Filled with more energy from this revelation, he got up to see if he could find out what was wrong with Kyle.
"Excuse me," he said, trying to get the nurse's attention. She was young, and looked as if she was some sort of intern.
"Yes?" she replied in a friendly tone. She was nicer than the other nurses he'd tried to talk to.
"Can you tell me where Kyle Raven is?" he asked, brushing hair away from his face. The nurse typed into her computer.
"Yes. It looks like they have him moved to intensive care for surveillance," she replied.
What? "But he was fine today; he just collapsed," Jason argued, trying to convince himself that Kyle should be okay. "What room is he in?"Jason was frantic. He needed to see Kyle.
"Are you a relative?" the nurse asked him.
Jason was going to answer yes, but the pause he took answered her question.
"Only family members are allowed into that area," she explained gently.
"But…but…he's my…" Jason trailed off, tears in his eyes. He slumped to the ground, feeling defeated.
"Honey; it will be ok." She tried to console him, which only made it worse. She didn't know; she didn't have a clue.
"No it won't," he cried back. "My boyfriend is sick and I don't know why," he said with out thinking. He just wanted Kyle to be with him.
"He must mean a lot to you," she said. "Go on up. If anybody asks, you're his stepbrother. He's in room 312."
"Thanks," he sniffed, wiping his nose with a tissue she gave him.
"I know how I'd feel if my boyfriend were in the hospital," she said sweetly.
Jason looked at Kyle's body, now dressed in hospital cloths. A tube was running from his arm and, for some reason, they'd hooked him up to oxygen.
"What happened to him?" he asked the nurse as she checked on him. She was a middle-aged woman, with brown hair, and very nice.
"It looks as if he's malnourished." she replied, looking at the clipboard the doctor had left. Malnourished? But Kyle ate everyday. Then again, he did seem tired a lot. Jason had assumed it was his lack of sleep.
"So he's just tired, basically?" Jason asked. That sounded better, but still; to be SO tired you collapse?
"Yes. He needs nutrients. That's what the IV is there for." she pointed out. "So you must be his brother?" huh?
"Step brother. I rode with him in the ambulance. His mom is coming as soon as she can." He'd called her like 30 minutes ago; must be the traffic. But, just as he finished saying that, she bustled in the door.
"I am so sorry Jason. I would have been here sooner, but I just barely got your message on my phone." Jason had called her cell phone when she hadn't answered at home.
"It's ok. The nurse was just telling me that Kyle is malnourished."
"What? But he eats all the time, and not just crap like most boys do," his mother protested, holding Kyle's hand.
"Well, I'm sure we will find out what's going on soon enough. The blood tests will come back tomorrow," the nurse said nicely.
"Thank you..." Kyle's mom paused to look at the nurse's badge, "Karen."
"Why, your welcome. Please call me anytime," she said, as she walked out.
Mrs. Raven looked at her son. "Has he been eating at school?" she asked. Jason was impressed by how controlled she was. he was still a bundle of nerves and barely holding it together.
"Yes," he answered.
"I thought so," she said, and it was obvious she was worried. Fuck; Jason was worried too. He wished he could comfort her, but didn't know how.
Then she did something that surprised him; she held him. "You love him don't you?" she asked. Jason wanted to be surprised, but he wasn't. They hadn't told her about him, as far as Jason knew, but she was Kyle's mom.
"Yes." he said, leaning into the older woman for support.
"He loves you too. I'm glad," she replied quietly and gently stroking his hair. Jason didn't know what to say; he'd never thought he'd find acceptance from his boyfriend's mother like this.
"Thanks," he finally said, as they stood watching over their sleeping Kyle.
To be continued!!
Not much to say here!! Just hope I know what I'm doing!!
Editor's Comment: So now, a couple of secrets are out. Jason's mom knows and doesn't care (actually, she approves. How great is that?). How long is it going to be until the CIA finds out (will they ever)? This chapter was twice as long as the previous one, and it actually covered a fair amount of ground. It's going to be verrrry interesting when Jason finally comes around. As usual, I really enjoy the creative talents of this writer.