Aww fudge -- WP was acting up with me and I had so many problems getting this to publish. If you saw this update already on my FFN then good for you!!
Anyways, this week was pretty hectic with a ton of school stuff going on and I was constantly listening to the Greatest Showman soundtrack that is sidetracked me from everything else!
Man, I was even finishing it up yesterday around 5 PM but in between I had this chat with my mom about downloading apps and whatnot to our computer(s)... and I finally found a computer I was allowed to play Doki Doki Literature Club on! And that... completely sucked me away from everything else.
Also, I updated the cover image! Ahhh yeah :))
So anyways ,,, here's that chapter y'all get.
***
Flashback. Several years after the incident.
"If you were putting those back where they came from, you know I'd love to help."
Kai's fingers curled tighter around the strap and he looked over his shoulder for the source of the voice. He patted his hand over the satchel. "Oh, this? It's just a couple of books. Not much of a big deal, to be honest."
Casually leaning beside the door frame, Cole cocked his head to the side and raised a brow. "If it's not such a big deal then why not just put it back?"
"Ahah, well you see, my sister needs these books for an important research project, so I really need to get these home to her."
"Go to the library next time then." Popping a bubble of gum, Cole kicked himself off the wall and walked closer to Kai. "I said, put them back."
Kai pulled out a gun and aimed it for Cole. His eyebrows drew near. "Alright, bucko, what do I have to do to get you to leave?"
He drew nearer. Cole dodged the bullet before hastily wrapping his bionic hand around the barrel of the gun, ripping it out of Kai's hand. "Return the books, Kai. The Chief is already on his way, so it'll be too late by the time you get out of this museum anyways."
"Grr, I should've known the cops were on their way." The sound of doors slamming grabbed Kai's attention and he ran to the window, peering outside.
Cole put the gun away and frowned at Kai, folding his arms across his chest. "Nevermind. I guess they're here already."
Kai turned to Cole and scoffed, trying to formulate a plan in his head. He spotted Cole's bionic arm and the gears clicked almost instantly. He knew about how Cole lost his real arm and gained that piece of metal and he could use that to his advantage.
"Clock's ticking, Kai. Give me the bag, now."
He heard the doors downstairs bust open and Kai took it to make his move.
"I can't believe you're working with them."
Cole cocked a brow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean, obviously you tried to be like them, but look where that got you," Kai motioned to his arm, "you could be doing tons of other things… especially with a new upgrade."
The dark haired teenager curled his fingers around the gun handle tightly. "Practically everyone knows that you ran away from home. That you lost your parents while you weren't around them. And that you lost your arm on the day of your birthday. I bet a lot of people feel bad for you."
"Well, I'm perfectly happy with my life. Thank you very much."
The footsteps grew louder.
"No you're not. I can tell. You made a lot of choices you regretted, didn't you?" Kai smirked when he noticed the other shift uncomfortably.
Cole couldn't deny it. Kai was right after all. Cole knew the path he was following still left him wretched and lost. All it took was one wrong move after the other. A part of himself hated himself for running away. Another part of himself was content with all he did - he threw himself in the middle of danger without realizing the costs. He worried Garmadon. He worried Wu. He lost his parents. He lost his arm. Working for Chief Garmadon was just something he'd always dreamed of since a kid, and losing an arm didn't stop him from running into near-death situations. But Kai had a point. And Cole knew what he was trying to do.
"Guess we could fix that somehow… You know… If you let me out of here, free of harm, my sis and I could let you hang with us. We can do whatever you want, anything that would feel like it would, ehh, I dunno - sort of even out the playing field?"
Cole's arm blinked furiously and as the footsteps drew nearer, he waved his hand near the gun he had stolen from Kai.
All too suddenly, a wave of cops rolled in, guns in their hands as they flew past Cole and surrounded Kai. "Hands up where we can see them! And drop the bag!"
For a second, Kai looked to Cole, thinking that Cole had rejected Kai's words. He saw Cole's eyes dart around hesitantly, avoiding any eye contact with Kai.
Before the criminal could let go of the bag, a gun clicked from behind the officers. "Put your guns down, now." Kai felt a smile curl on his lips. An officer turned around and lowered his gun when he saw Cole raising the gun up at him. "And tell the rest of your friends to do the same."
As the officers lowered their guns, confused and scared of what was going on, Kai walked around them casually, the book bag still within his grasp. He met up with Cole, winked, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Looks like you did come around."
Cole ground his teeth together, annoyed by Kai's cocky attitude. Before he followed the criminal down the flights of steps, he raised his metallic arm up at the officers with a threatening look in his eyes. "The gun might be facing the other way, but you guys know how strong this arm is."
***
Present day. The day after Flintlock and the explosion.
It was getting incredibly warm and Cole couldn't help but continue to shift uncomfortably wherever he was. He couldn't even remember what exactly happened before. He tried to sit up but winced at the sore pains all over. So he opened his eyes instead and boy, did he regret it.
The light was so bright and it hurt.
When his vision finally came to focus, he observed what he could and instantly recognized it as Jay and Lloyd's shared house.
When and how did he get here?
He tilted his head to the coffee table, noticing a bowl of steaming soup and a glass of water next to it. And right there on the right was a stick of gum.
"Umm…" Fighting through the soreness, he sat up and faced the table, hunching closer to the table. He moved to pick up the gum but then saw the spoon beside the bowl and he picked it up, debating whether or not he should enjoy the soup that was laid out before him.
"Er, did you want me to pick him up?"
Cole's head whipped to the kitchen where the voice had come from.
"Oh, uh, right." A brief pause. "Yeah, I gotchu, Garm! Oh - no? Sorry… adios!"
There was another sound of an object hitting the surface of the table and then of feet shuffling around the kitchen. However, the moment Cole had decided to go for the soup, Jay walked out of the kitchen, looking doubtful and concerned.
Cole tensed when he saw the brunette, suddenly remembering the events of yesterday.
The explosion.
The man, Flintlock.
Lloyd, shot. And Jay nearly killed.
Then lastly, himself. After he was struck in the back of the head with Flintlock's gun, he forgot everything and allowed himself to fall out.
Cole stared at the soup, trying to process his thoughts. On the other hand, Jay hadn't even realized that Cole was wide awake, sitting with his whole body leaned towards the soup on the table.
When Jay was closer to the sofa, he looked up and fixed his eyes on Cole, raising his arms in front of his chest.
"Wah! Wh- what?" Jay relaxed and blinked, then rubbed his eyes, still staring at Cole with disbelief. But his shocked look slowly turned into a smile and he bounced on his toes gleefully. "You're… awake!"
"Yuh-You were asleep for so long, I thought you were dead. Or, like, you know… in a coma or something?" Jay scratched the back of his neck, laughing nervously.
"How long was I out?"
"Twelve ish… hours? Maybe a little longer? Technically you missed dinner yesterday, then breakfast today, but you're up now and you found the soup! Sooo…"
Cole stayed quiet and dipped his spoon into the soup.
A little worried, Jay slid onto the couch beside Cole and cracked a smile.
"Hey, um, yanno thanks for coming when you did yesterday. I probably wouldn't even be here right now if you hadn't showed up." Jay took a glance at Cole and frowned when it seemed like the other boy wasn't even paying attention.
Cole's brows came up as he stared at the soup and he swallowed, still not looking at Jay. "You're welcome, Bluebell." He said softly. "Also… how's Lloyd?" He asked, his voice a little higher than usual. Jay held back for a moment, wondering if Cole was alright. "Is he okay?"
Finally, he spoke, "He's… good. Chief Garmadon said he needs to rest in the hospital for a bit buuuuuuut yanno we can visit him tomorrow."
Cole silently nodded. He felt his stomach knot when he recalled yesterday's events. Whoever that Flintlock guy was, Cole knew for sure he had some relation to Kai and whatever was going on behind him. But thinking about it stressed him out, so in the meantime, he happily took the soup Jay prepared for him and just ate.
***
The next day, they did arrive at the hospital - pretty late in the afternoon, but Lloyd wasn't going anywhere, right?
The minute Cole stepped into the hospital though, Cole was stunned at how everything looked. Everything looked the same as he remembered.
Years later and the hospital hadn't even changed much. The same hospital that he was in about six years ago. In fact, it was just a little less than a week till it would've marked exactly six years since he had been back here. And the same exact day as his birthday.
Cole let out a deep breath and opened his eyes to see Jay was already way ahead of him, waiting by the wall for Cole to catch up. To his surprise, they weren't even that far away from Lloyd's room. The moment they found the correct door, Jay swooped in, an enormous grin on his face.
"Hey, bro! How're you holding up?"
Lloyd plucked the open comic from his face and dropped it over his lap, fixing his eyes on his friend.
"Better. At least."
"Heh, that's good to hear." The brunette seated himself on one of the cushions to the side. He looked for an open spot on the hospital bed and put his elbow up on it, leaning his head against his palm.
"You know, Nya and Zane came to visit me earlier. Looks like you weren't the first." Lloyd snickered.
"Well so-rry. There's one extra person living with us - who's apparently my job now."
"Sorry,"Lloyd admitted.
"It's alright. Sucks you have to stay here a little longer though."
"Yeah, the doctor says they're still checking a few things. But I should be out eventually."
With a hearty laugh, Jay picked up the comic and flipped through it curiously. He wrinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue, disgusted as he threw the comic back on the bed. "Agh! This one again? This issue was the worst!"
"I know. I was actually using it to bore myself to sleep."
Jay nodded, impressed. "Smaaaart."
"Did Cole come with you?"
Jay tilted his head and pointed a finger to his right. Turning around slowly, he said, "Uh, yeah. He's right… here? He was with me - where did he go?"
Outside of Lloyd's room, Cole was standing by another but with a tween girl inside - one of the victims of yesterday's explosion. He stepped closer to the window sill and rested a hand on the frame, taking notice of the girl's parents.
It was funny. Years later and all the memories were still fresh in his mind. Cause with a childhood like that, it was hard to forget and hard to let go, and as long as his arm was there, he would never forget.
His parents had passed away months before the tragedy. Not only were they not there when he was in so much pain, but Cole himself was not even there with his parents on their last day. He had only gone to attend their funeral, but after that it was just him. Him and Wu. Him and Garmadon.
Garmadon was a nice man. Cole had formed an odd but amazing friendship with the police chief. Little ol' Cole and the Chief. But of course the Chief had his own family to take care of, and while Lloyd was still somewhat younger than Cole, they still never got the chance to meet. It was only until Cole had joined the Smith siblings that he finally met the Chief's son. So while Garmadon rested with his family, Wu, his brother, allowed Cole to make himself feel at home at his place.
He never told anyone why he ran away from home. He didn't want to. But the truth was, he wanted his own life. While his mom was like the best person in the world to him, he still found the need to run away and leave behind his past to pursue a new one. One that was like the Chief, because he always admired them and all they did to serve this city. Though, as the years passed, Cole grew a little more reckless and troublesome - Garmadon remembered that very well.
"Whatcha doing out here?"
Cole knew very well it was Jay just by the sound of his voice. Without turning around, he answered quickly.
"Nothing. What are you doing here?"
"I was, uh, looking for you. You haven't said 'hi' to Lloyd yet, you know?"
"Right. I'm - I just haven't been back here for such a long time, since the incident… it's kinda hard to take in."
"Weeelll, that's okay. Here, eh, how about we stop by Lloyd's room first theeeen grab something to eat?"
"But we just had lunch an hour ago."
"What can I say?" Jay shrugged with a careless grin on his face. "I like food. Don't we all?"
This seemed to cheer Cole up a little as his reaction to Jay's comment was a brief and enthusiastic snort. "That's correct, Bluebell." Cole's eyes lit up when he thought of something. "Hey, I just realized… I've been calling you by the name Bluebell since, practically day one… I'm surprised you haven't brought anything up about it lately."
At first, Jay was staring dull at the floor but the fact hit him like a bullet and he whipped his head up, face turning red. He actually hadn't noticed that the nickname Bluebell was used constantly. He had gotten so used to answering to it that he had just dropped the grudge and started to not care.
Cole still stared at him with question, wondering if Jay would respond.
"OH… yeah, well I guess I hadn't noticed - I've gotten used to it?" Jay shook his head dumbly. "Forget it. I still answer to it anyways so -" he shrugged once more and showed Cole a half hearted smile before moving back to Lloyd's room.
Cole stood for a minute, trying to digest Jay's words. So he didn't mind that Cole was calling him Bluebell this whole time? Or... he scratched the back of his neck and shook his head, deciding to try something new.
"Huh. Alright then. Jay."