It was a rather joyous Saturday night. The core 4 were invited to Castle Beast for a small buffet. Adam was sat at the top head of the table and Belle sat at the bottom head of the table. Ben sat in the middle of the dining table, on the side that was closer to the kitchen doors. Mal was sat opposite him so she was further from the kitchen doors. Jay and Carlos had taken Ben's side of the table with Evie and Jane were sitting on Mal's side.
Everything was going well, there were drinks being poured left, right and centre. In the middle of the table, there was quite a huge turkey with potatoes and vegetables. There were cakes and chocolates and fruit covering the table as well. The chocolate had come from the best chocolate makers on the west side of Auradon, the fruit had come from Charmington while the cakes had come from the House of Beauty. The core 4 couldn't get enough, it was more food than they had ever seen in their entire lives and Belle said that this was only an extremely small buffet. The core 4 piled their plates high, everyone took a bit of everything while Belle, Adam, and Ben watched in amusement and pity. While Jay and Carlos decided to eat everything, they had at once, Mal and Evie took it slow and saved their cakes for last.
"So Mal, Ben tells me that you're an amazing artist" Adam stated, Mal shot Ben a death glare that meant we will talk about this later and all Ben could do was chuckle. Mal shot her head around to Adam "Yes sir, I love painting, I suffer from Anxiety so Painting helps me keep my Anxiety down but I get most of my inspiration from books" Mal quickened her eating pace to catch up to the boys "Books?" Belle spoke with a glint of hope in her voice "yes I read in all my spare time" Mal replied. Belle, Ben, and Adam all shared a knowing look. "Carlos, Jay how's Tourney?" Ben asked They just nodded their heads as they were too deep into their food. Everyone burst out laughing as Carlos and Jay emerged from behind their huge plates with Chocolate covering their mouths and a few spots on their foreheads, God knows how they got there.
That's how the rest of the night went on, laughing and small talk. Although it was something as simple as a buffet, it got the VK's to be more open about themselves. The night was slowly ending and the boys had eaten most of the food. Most of the night was spent with Mal and Ben staring at each other in a lover's gaze but that is nothing new. All that was left was a few cakes and the one Mal and Evie were saving. Lumiere and Cogsworth cleared the table and only the cakes that the House of Beauty brought were left.
Everyone was a little tipsy and full to the brim with food but they always had room for cake. Mrs Potts came out and brought everyone a small plate to rest their cakes on. Ben had two cakes, Mal had one, Jay and Carlos had four, Evie had one and Belle and Adam had one. Mal waited for everyone to have a bite of their cakes before she would, just in case everyone got ill and she didn't want to be ill. Every shared a groan of pleasure. They were small chocolate cakes with buttercream icing and silver sprinkles. "Mrs Potts, what type of cakes are these?" Belle asked as she took another bite. Mal took a small bite while she explained "Well they are Milk chocolate cakes with Vanilla buttercream icing and for added flavour like all the world's biggest chefs do, smoked edible iron filings" as soon as Mrs Potts finished her explanation Mal swallowed regrettably. At that point, Jay, Carlos, and Evie shouted "WHAT? IRON?" everyone in the room was shaking out of fear. "Y... Yesss why?" "MAL" Evie shouted. Mal knew she had to get the Iron out of her system before it poisoned her. Mal jumped from her chair and leapt over the table, knocking over everything that was there and burst through the kitchen doors and zoomed to the sink. At this point, everyone in the kitchen had turned to stare at Mal while everyone from the dining room was watching in confusion.
Mal forced herself to throw up into the large Kitchen sink, Evie ran to Mal and held her hair back while Jay called for a doctor and Carlos began to usher the chefs out. Mal could feel her knees getting weak but she knew she needed to get all the iron out of her system. Her eyes glowed as her insides started to burn from all the vomit and iron. Jay walked back into the room "Doctor is going to be here in 5, Keep going Mal" Carlos returned after locking the other kitchen door and began to support Mal while Jay was rummaging through the cupboards to find something vile to help Mal throw up.
"DOES SOMEONE MIND TELLING ME WHAT IS HAPPENING?" Adam boomed. Evie passed Mal over to Carlos while she went to talk to the royal family plus Jane.
"Those cakes have iron filings on and because Mal is part Faery, she is allergic to iron. It burns her skin but if she ingests it then it can be fatal. Right now, she is trying to throw it all up but we don't know how much she ingested" Evie explained in one breath. The Royals plus Jane were looking shocked, Ben started to move to Mal but Evie grabbed his collar on his suit and pushed him back. "No Ben, while she is in this state her Isle senses start to act up, she has to be close to anyone that was on the Isle. I'm sorry, but we can handle this." Evie explained while she kept looking back. She saw Mal's knees starting to buckle so she ran from the Royals and Jane to Mal and supported her against the sink while Carlos took hold of her again. "Wait so it's happened before?" Belle's voice was layered with shock and confusion and fear. "Yeah, back on the isle you had to take out everyone in power to get power so every once in a while, someone would poison Mal so we were always there, ya' know?" Jay shouted back as he started to pile up things that he thought would make Mal throw up.
Jay handed Mal a small glass of a combustion of things, she took it willingly and after one sip, she began to throw up again. That's when the doctors burst through the door and Mal Collapsed, her breathing shallow. "Mal can you hear me? We are going to take you to the hospital now" one of the Male nurses asked. "Can anyone tell me what happened?" the other Male nurse asked. Carlos spoke up "Mal ingested iron and because she's part Faery it can be fatal, she's been trying to throw it up but we don't know how much she ingested" "Thank you, Sir," they said in unison as they placed Mal on a stretcher and left through the open doors.
"Jay grab a night bag for Mal, Carlos try to find her Anxiety pills, she might need those." Evie turned to the Royals "Mal should be fine but we need you to give us a ride to the hospital. Ben, I know you're worried, everyone is but you need to stay strong. Worse than this has happened but I need you to do us a favour and chill. Once you get to the hospital you need to give them this, it will explain every other poisoning that has happened not just to Mal but to all of us" Evie instructed as she handed Ben a slip of paper. The royal family and Jane stood there dumbfounded at how calm they were. "Let's go!" Jay yelled as everyone went off on their own jobs as instructed by Evie.
[TimeSkip]
Once everyone had arrived at the hospital a rather old looking doctor emerged from Mal's room. "well if it wasn't for you three plus Mal's quick thinking then she would have passed on a while ago. You all managed to get 98% of the iron out. Right now, Mal is sleeping off the events of today but you should know that she might seem a bit loopy if she does wake up. We had to put her on quite a bit of medication" "Thank you Dr...." Adam said while looking for a name. "Dr Pistachio" "Well thank you anyway" the Dr curtseyed to the Royals and left them with Mal. They each went into Mal's room one by one until they all surrounded her bed where she began to rest. Ben took the chair next to Mal's bed while Adam and Belle took the convertible couch to sleep on. The other VK's and Jane sat with their backs against the wall. That's how everyone fell asleep while waiting for Mal.
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Beep, Beep, Beep, that's all Mal could hear. The more the sound repeated, the more it pierced Mal's ears. All Mal could see was darkness but it wasn't an uncomfortable darkness it was quite relaxing. She wanted to move her head, legs, and arms but her body was stiff as if it was pinned down. A Bitter taste was stuck in Mal's mouth making her gag in her head but she couldn't feel her head, she felt as if her mind was loose and rearing to fly whilst pinned down. She was about to drift back into a sweet sleep when she felt something.
Adam placed his hand on hers "Mal I know that we weren't always the best friends and I hope you can forgive me. I need you to wake up Mal, we all do" the former King begged the unconscious Mal hoping it would do something. Tears welled up in his eyes as he began to retreat to the pull-out sofa bed that he and his wife had been sharing. Ben was curled up on the chair that was next to Mal's bed, still sleeping, he would murmur Mal's name in his sleep, which the former King found quite adorable.
The clock changed from 5:55 am to 5:56 am and that's when Mal's senses started to flow back to her, she could move her fingers and toes, her body wasn't as stiff anymore. The darkness behind her eyes started to grow lighter and the piercing noise was slowly becoming fainter as her other senses came back to her. Mal lightly ran her fingers over the white hospital bed sheets. The vibrations over the bed sheets from Mal's fingertips was enough of a signal for Ben to wake up. He jolted up to see the small movements of Mal's fingertips, a huge smile blew up on his face. He gripped Mal's hand very gently and leaned down to her ear "Good morning princess, I need you to wake up today, please. We need you" Ben kissed her forehead and let out a small sigh and sat back down on his chair to wait for his friends or parents to wake up. His eyes locked with Mal, he couldn't get out of his head what happened, accident or not it was still a horrible situation.
Evie's eyes fluttered open as she stretched her arms and neck after sleeping on the wall. She looked over to Jay, Jane, and Carlos who were still sleeping. Then over to the former King and Queen who were still sleeping, then over to Ben. He had his hand covering Mal's but he was lost deep in thought. Evie slowly arose from the wall and Made her way behind Ben. She placed one hand on his shoulder, "she'll be okay Ben she's a fighter. She will pull through." Ben nodded at Evie's comment but he clearly wasn't listening "Ben, none of us knew about the iron if we did then Mal wouldn't have even been in the same room as the cakes. I know how much she means to you Ben, please don't let her go Ben" Evie let a couple tears slip but she wiped them away when she heard Jay and Carlos start to shuffle up from the Wall. The shuffle from the boys caused Jane to wake up too, she told the others that she had to get back home but she wished them the best of luck.
Shortly after Jane's departure, the former rulers of Auradon started to wake and fold the sofa back into place. Everyone stood around Mal's bed for a few minutes until the clock reached 6:00 am. When 6:00 am hit, Belle and Adam went to the hospital café to grab some Coffees and Teas and some small breakfasts. Dr Pistachio entered Mal's room to read over her notes but towards the end of the notes, his face became plain and unimpressed like most doctors. "Miss Mal seems to be recovering well, however, she might be in a coma for a while if she does wake up while in your care please do inform one of our nurses" The VK's nodded their heads in response but Ben just bowed his head to hide his tears. As soon as Mal's doctor left Evie grabbed the sides of Ben's head and raised his head with a lot of force. "Listen to me Ben, she's going to be fine. This is the best place for her to be in right now so I need you to stop crying. Mal wouldn't want this and you know that" Evie raised her voice at Ben, hoping to get a message through to him.
Ben shook his head free from Evie's hands and grabbed her wrists, Jay tried to make a move for Ben in case he hurt Evie but Carlos held him back "Evie, I can't lose today, I just can't. I know that this was an accident but what if next time we can't help her. What if..." Evie and the other VK's just stood there watching tears drench Ben's red cheeks. Belle dropped everything as she ran to Ben and enclosed him in a hug. Evie freed her hands and walked over to Mal with Carlos and Jay. Carlos leaned down to Mal "Please come back, Ben needs you, Me and Jay and Evie need you. Please, Mal come back to us" A single tear fell from Carlos' chin and onto Mal's hand as he backed away.
The single jolt from the tear caused a slightly faster pace on the heart monitor next to Mal's bed. Jay slid back down to wall with his head in his hands. Evie and Carlos slid down the wall next to Jay to comfort him while Adam stood in the doorway holding several Beverages and Breakfasts. Belle and Ben were still comforting each other when suddenly a small voice shocked the room's attendants.