"You want me to go see XJ?" Audrey asked skeptically. "I thought she was in a coma."
"She is," Harry confirmed, "But I want to see if she reacts to you."
Audrey blinked. "What?"
Harry racked his brain. He hadn't really thought about what he was going to say to convince her in detail, and in hindsight, he probably should have.
"I want to see if she wakes up." Harry said slowly, improvising. "I've tried everything - magic and science alike. I read something the other night about coma patients reacting and even waking up at the presence of other people. Nobody knows how they do it but scientists have been doing research and they say that they're making progress."
"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard." Audrey said snidely, crossing her arms.
Harry shrugged, "I'm desperate, Audrey. Please."
"Okay," Audrey held up a hand to stop Harry. "Assuming that this thing works; you think that she's going to wake up to me?"
Harry took a deep breath, not even having to pretend to be uncomfortable. "I'm going to start with the people who have actually talked to her. I've already tried Ben, Mal and the rest of the usual group. Nothing has worked. I'm starting with you."
Audrey sighed and eyed him carefully. "What's it to you, anyway? I thought you two had already split."
"That doesn't mean - "
"Oh, I get it," Audrey cut him off, rolling her eyes and smirking. "You still like her, even though she doesn't like you."
Harry pinched his forehead in exasperation before saying, "'Like' is an understatement."
"You're right. Everybody knows that you're head over heels for her. She doesn't return your feelings though, does she?" Audrey said smugly, sitting down on her chair and crossing her legs.
"Look," Harry said forcefully, annoyance beginning to show. "You are not my therapist. I just want Xiao back. I am willing to do anything to wake her up, no matter how dumb it seems."
Audrey pointed a finger at Harry, "That, I can see, but didn't Fairy Godmother say that she would wake up after two weeks?"
"Do you see her walking around?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's been three weeks, Audrey. She's not awake and I'm getting worried."
Audrey huffed. "You do have a good point." She stood up and pulled on her pink cardigan. "Fine, I'll come." She looked at Harry and shook her head. "I still don't know how you love her so much."
Harry narrowed his eyes at her, "What do you mean?"
"What's there to love?" Audrey asked casually as they walked to the hospital wing. "XJ's barely even a girl."
"What - what are you saying?" Harry asked, bewildered.
"I'm saying that XJ's not a proper lady." Audrey said a matter-of-factly. "She's never worn a dress, she's never acted properly, she has no manners and worst of all, she's obsessed with power. I don't know why you want her that much."
Harry clenched his fists. "What do you think a proper lady's supposed to be then?" He said through gritted teeth.
"Take me, for example," Audrey said proudly, her nose in the air. "I know how to dress up, I know how to eat without looking like a wolf, I say 'please' and 'thank you', and I'm not obsessed with power."
"No," Harry glared at her before he pushed open the hospital wing door open. "You're obsessed with attention."
"Hey, wait just a seco - "
I heard her blabbing even beyond the door. XJ's voice sounded, as it did each time Harry stepped into the hospital wing. Harry let loose a breath of relief; something that was a habit whenever he heard her voice nowadays.
"You don't say." Harry muttered under his breath.
"What?" Audrey asked, frowning at Harry as the door shut behind her.
"Nothing."
Audrey cast a quick glance at XJ's motionless body. "She's not waking up."
"Give it a couple of minutes, would you?" Harry scowled, sitting down at his usual wooden chair.
"I am wasting my precious time staring at what might as well be a potato." Audrey scoffed as she sat down in another chair, placing her handbag beside her. "I can't believe I'm doing this."
"It's lunch and you aren't a part of any clubs or teams. You don't have anything to do anyway." Harry stated blankly.
"So?" He whispered out of the corner of his mouth to XJ.
There's not even a trace of magic.
"You don't sound disappointed."
"Why would I sound disappointed?" Audrey asked, looking at Harry funny.
Harry smiled grimly. "I'm talking to myself. It helps deal with...seeing her like that."
Audrey narrowed her eyes at him and mumbled something underneath her breath.
Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm not crazy."
"I never said you were."
Harry scoffed and turned back to look at XJ.
No, she doesn't even have magic in her signature. XJ decided. We can rule her out.
"Got it," Harry muttered under his breath. He stood up and sighed. "Nothing's happening. It didn't work."
Audrey huffed as she stood up briskly. "You don't say. I'm leaving now, thank you very much."
She strutted out of the hospital wing immediately, her handbag swaying. The second the door shut, Harry turned back to XJ and sat down. "Are you sure she doesn't have magic? It seems like she would."
No. I can't detect anything. She's perfectly normal. Maleficent's curse didn't do anything other than make her mother sleep for a little longer than usual.
"So then who's next?"
Lonnie. Bring her in. XJ demanded. How's my hawk doing?
"It's doing fine," Harry scowled at the thought of the bird. "I've tried to feed it bread, but it keeps refusing to eat. It keeps coming back with blood on its beak. Makes a mess."
Of course he refuses to eat bread. XJ snorted. He's a hawk, Hook. He's been eating rats, snakes and other tiny things.
"Why do you insist that I keep it around?" Harry sighed. "And why won't it stay with you instead of me?"
Why do you assume that I know how the inside of his head works?
"You speak bird - why wouldn't you?"
I speak hawk only and I give him orders. Unless he vocally communicates back, I don't know what he wants or what it's doing. I'm not psychic.
"You might as well be. Has it visited you yet?"
No, he hasn't.
"It's a bird."
And a bird still has a gender.
Harry sighed exasperatedly. "Whatever."
How has the investigation been going? XJ asked, changing the subject. Have you found anything interesting yet?
"No, not really. Lonnie's become quieter as of late, though. That's the only thing that's different."
Good, then the choice to bring her in second is a good idea. How's Pan's daughter?
"She's proven hard to tail. She squeaks like a mouse each time I'm within her field of vision and darts away like she's sprinkled a pound of pixie dust on herself."
What did you expect? Pan himself was surprisingly wonderful at getting out of tight situations. His daughter has proven to be her father's child after all.
"Then why is she so chickenshi - "
I've never met the girl. How would I know? Everyone has their own personality, I suppose. Either way, bring in Lonnie Fa as soon as possible.
"Even at nighttime?"
I'm already asleep. I can't get tired, Hook.
Harry stood up and nodded. "Alright, she'll be here soon."
He looked at XJ's face. He recalled the first time he had properly examined her features. The image was burned in his brain, and it probably would be forever.
They had been sparring - well, he thought that they had been sparring at the very least; XJ might have been trying to kill him and he would never know - but the first thing he noticed when he had taken a good look at her was her eyes.
Dark, dark brown eyes. He had thought that they were emotionless at the time, but looking back, now knowing more about her, he recognized that she had showed emotion.
Anger was too little of a word; even fury was an understatement. He saw a girl who had been scorned by the world. A girl who had been abandoned. A girl who had been looked down upon.
The result was someone who played by her own rules. Someone who wanted justice for herself. Someone who wanted to prove to everyone that she was better than the world.
Someone who would stop at nothing to do exactly that.
A long time ago, Harry would have done what XJ was planning on doing, he would have felt the same, but in light of recent events, he had decided that vengeance wasn't the right way. Surprisingly, it felt nice to not constantly feel angry. It was like a weight had been lifted off his chest.
Maybe it was better if he stayed out of it: not take sides when XJ's plan worked. If he was out of the equation, then Auradon and the rest of the world would be XJ's, and in XJ's head, Harry was already out of the mix. She didn't care about what would happen to him, and Harry had no doubt that if he was about to die, she wouldn't risk her life for his again. He could only count on XJ's emotions so many times.
Harry decided that he would keep to himself. He would do what XJ wanted him to. He would never talk to her again the second she woke up, and she would never talk to him.
---
"Harry, why are you so intent on waking her up?" Lonnie asked, looking at him with what seemed to be sympathy.
Harry blinked, noting that there was something wrong about her tone of voice. "Because I care about her." He replied cautiously.
Lonnie scoffed lightly, "You care about someone who doesn't care about you. That's not fair."
"She dove in front of me," Harry pointed out, "That shows that she cares."
Lonnie shut her eyes and shook her head. "XJ doesn't care about anybody. She's the type of person who will do anything for herself. She only dove in front of you because she's saving you to be another chess piece in her endgame."
"You don't know that," Harry eyed Lonnie carefully, "What brought this up?"
"She played me, Harry. She never cared about our family feud. It was all an act to make me do what she wanted." Lonnie sniffed, looking like she was about to cry.
Harry sighed, "Lonnie, I can't help the way she is, but I owe her this. I made her fall into a coma. If it wasn't for me, then she wouldn't be the way she is now."
Lonnie laughed half-heartedly. "You don't owe her anything. It was her choice to jump in front of you."
"If that's not it, then me playing her on Uma's orders is the thing that makes me owe her." Harry stated.
"She plays everyone, Harry." Lonnie said, sending him an incredulous look before turning back to her book. "I'm not going. I don't care whether she wakes up or not. It's better if she doesn't, in all honesty."
"Then why did you vote for her to stay here back at the coronation hall if you think it would be better for her to die?"
Lonnie's head snapped up and she glared at Harry. "Because I wasn't thinking properly! I should have voted against her staying here. I only did it because I pitied her, seeing her lying, looking dead, and I momentarily forgot what she did to me!"
"She didn't do anything to you! What are you talking about?" Harry asked, his eyes widening.
"She played me for a fool!" Lonnie shouted. She sucked in a deep breath, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "I don't know how you can love someone like that." She mumbled, folding her arms across her chest after placing her book back in her bag.
Harry scoffed like it was obvious. "You love someone, regardless of their flaws. You don't love someone who's perfect, because that person doesn't exist."
"XJ has more than a few flaws - she's a psychopath, Harry!" Lonnie exclaimed, shouldering her bag. "I can't believe you're that blind." She huffed.
"I don't care whether I'm blind or not. Help me save her life, and maybe I can talk some sense into her." Harry pushed.
"Into doing what?" Lonnie asked skeptically.
"I don't know," Harry shrugged. "What do you want?"
Lonnie thought for a moment. "An apology." She finally decided.
Harry exhaled heavily out of his nose. "Fine, I can't guarantee it, but I'll try."
"That's good enough, assuming she doesn't skin you alive for even mentioning it."
Harry sighed, "So are you coming to see her?"
Lonnie rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever. Make this quick. I have homework to do."
"You were reading a book just now."
"It was for a reading report!" Lonnie argued.
Harry raised an eyebrow as he turned back to the front and began to walk in the direction of the hospital wing. "Sure, whatever." He mocked.
Lonnie opened her mouth to argue, but decided that she didn't want to talk to the pirate more than she already had to.
They were both silent the entire way to the wing, which was unusual for Harry and something that had become the norm ever since Lonnie had been told the truth about her part in XJ's plan on the Isle. Everyone was worried for the daughter of Mulan, but Lonnie was still dealing with trying to get over the betrayal. Life had come easy for the girl, so being stabbed in the back and separating the truth from lies was something that she had never done or had to do until she had met XJ.
Lonnie's mother had been comforting her over the phone while trying to hold back on the amount of 'I told you so's. Lonnie could only take so much righteous bragging, even if it was unaware and on accident. The truth about the war was already a lot for her to take in, and she thought that she would never suffer a larger shock. She turned out to be wrong.
The clicking of a door opening pulled Lonnie out of her thoughts. Harry and Lonnie stepped into the wing quietly. Lonnie's breath hitched at the sight of XJ's body. If she hadn't known any better, then she would have thought that the girl was dead.
This is unexpectedly quick. The sun hasn't even set yet. XJ said, a trace of surprise evident in her voice.
Harry bit back a smile and turned to Lonnie. He gestured to the chair next to XJ's bed. "Sit down and we'll wait for around a minute before we determine whether it works or not."
Lonnie complied and crossed her legs, staring at XJ's form.
Harry arched an eyebrow as he sat on another chair, opposite from Lonnie. "What is it?"
"Nothing," Lonnie said quickly, her eyes briefly darting up from XJ's body to Harry's face before returning to staring at the other girl. "It's just...weird seeing her look so..."
"Peaceful?" Harry filled in.
Lonnie shook her head. "No, it's like she's a robot." Lonnie poked the side of XJ's arm.
Don't touch me, you spineless fool. XJ snarled. Harry fought back a snicker.
"It's like she's a mannequin." Lonnie said again, poking XJ once more and then shivering.
Do that again and I'll rip out your insides. XJ growled.
Thankfully, Lonnie retracted her finger and straightened up. She looked at Harry. "Do you come here every day?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah. I have to keep reminding myself that she's still alive."
XJ snorted. You couldn't forget even if you tried.
Harry kept himself from rolling his eyes. He looked over at Lonnie, whose eyes were fixated on XJ's body. "Anything?" He muttered quietly.
I want to believe that it's her, Hook. I really do, because that would make both of our jobs easier. However, she possesses no magic. It's not her.
Harry sighed. He stood up and Lonnie looked up at him questioningly. "It's not working," He gestured to XJ, who was still asleep. "I'll try somebody else."
Lonnie nodded as she sprang up from her seat. "Alright." She was about to walk out the door when she suddenly turned around.
Harry frowned. "What?"
Lonnie hesitated for a little bit before answering. "Good luck."
Lonnie left, leaving Harry and XJ alone.
"Huh," Harry said, turning to XJ and sitting down again. "Who would have thought she would still have sympathy for you?"
I'm not surprised. Auradonians are raised to be soft and forgiving. They are literally incapable of holding grudges.
"Alright, whatever you say." Harry bit his bottom lip. "Who's next?"
Bring in Jane. XJ decided.
Harry nodded. "Then we just have Piper if Jane isn't the one."
Yeah, bring Jane in as soon as possible, just like you did with Lonnie.
There was something strange about her tone, but Harry couldn't quite place his finger on it, so he decided to ignore the feeling.
"No problem. You'll see her sometime during dinner."
XJ huffed. Bold words. Don't break them.
Harry stood up. "I won't. I'll see you tonight."
Be quick, Hook.