Chapter 6

Place: the Klatchensburge, New York

Two hours after Criss and Daphne left the IDB in New York, Danny Acklin was sitting on a chair, outside his sister's room. It had been so long, and the doctor still hadn't come out. His parents went in half-an-hour ago, and they too, still hadn't come out. Danny felt like somebody had bound his stomach with wrought iron. Why were they taking so much time? Was Nic going to be okay? Was she dead? Was she alive? Danny was about to kick the chair next to him when he saw Criss and Daphne coming his way.

'We left the IDB two hours ago and now we reach here,' Criss was telling Daphne, who was just nodding to everything he said.

'Hey,' said Danny, when they had reached him.

'What up, Danny? What did the doctors say?' asked Daphne hoping the reply wasn't going to be too bad.

'They haven't come out yet.' replied Danny.

'Where are your parents?' asked Criss.

'They went in half-an-hour ago and haven't come out yet'

Almost as if they had heard what Danny said, his parents stepped out of the room, followed by the doctor. Mr. Acklin said something to the doctor in a low voice and put his arm around his wife. Mrs. Acklin's eyes were red, as if she had been crying for ages.

'What's wrong mom? What did the doctor say?' asked Danny, trying to read her face. She mumbled something like 'not now, honey' and walked away. Danny looked at his father in alarm and went behind his mother.

'Come, you two must be hungry., I'll take you to the cafeteria.' said Mr. Acklin and lead the young wizards towards the elevator.

Place: The Grand Parker, New York, New York

Later that evening Criss and Daphne were aimlessly walking around the lobby of the hotel where Mr. Acklin had gotten all of them rooms. Criss' parents were informed and were okay with Criss and Daphne staying in New York as long as they were under the supervision of some adults. Criss' parents, the Standlers, lived in a little villa near Milan, in Italy. His father was the owner of a famous deli and his mother was the head of a science lab nearby. So, naturally, Criss was an extremely bright boy who had amazing culinary talents. He did fairly well in sports and was very good in academics too. His only problem with himself was his height. His dirty blonde medium built frame was only five feet and two inches long. Being fourteen and having all his friends taller than him was a blow to this grey-eyed Italian's ego.

'Hey, you even on this planet dude?' asked Daphne. Criss was just blankly staring an ugly potted plant near the reception area. Her best friend was in the hospital. Danny had stayed back at the hospital, refusing to leave his little sister. Mr. and Mrs. Acklin had come with Criss and Daphne and checked into their room and hadn't come out since. Daphne thought she heard some bickering voices coming from their room, but decided that it was probably something private and didn't interrupt. Then she had gone down with Criss for dinner and accidentally ended up ordering sushi with extra spicy wasabi. The last thing she needed right now was Criss' being so non-responsive.

'Why, any gusts of hot steam waiting to blow out of your ears after eating that extremely spicy weird Japanese concoction?' asked Criss grinning. Daphne just stared at him. She was tired and felt extremely irritable. Not getting the anticipated reaction from Daphne, Criss let a long sigh plopped down on a couch next to him. Daphne was still staring at him.

'Oh. My. God. Daphne? Daphne Adams?' came voice from behind her.

'Zac Gordon? Wow, what are you doing here?' asked Daphne, surprised to see one of her kindergarten classmates. She and Nic use to sit behind him in class (when Nic did sit down) back when Daphne was still living in Moscow. Nic and her family were there for a few years before Mr. Acklin asked for a transfer back to his hometown, Berne. He hasn't changed much, thought Daphne eyeing Zac, except growing a few feet, gaining a few muscles and about a zillion degrees on the Daphne Adams Hotness Scale.

'Dude, I live here. After kindergarten, I'd lived in Munich until last year. My dad got a transfer and we moved here,' he said, shrugging his shoulders and motioning around himself with his arms. 'My mom teaches me all that I need to know about magic and I go to private human school here. What about you?'

'Do you remember Nicole Acklin?'

'Yeah, that jumpy thing you were always with.'

'Well, that thing's parents convinced mine to send me to the Zat'ae along with her. Now we both go there,' said Daphne.

'Ahem.'

'Oh, yeah and this is Criss Standler. He's a good friend of mine and Nic's.' said Daphne, remembering that Criss was right there. She had completely forgotten about Criss and being in the hotel and Fleetrox and Nic and almost everything else when she started talking to Zac, looking into his hazel eyes. Wake up Daphne, she told herself, we need work out what Fleetrox is up to.

'Soooooooo, you, uh, staying here?' asked Zac.

'Yes, yes we are, as a matter of fact,' said Criss in a business-like tone. He didn't like the look of this new guy. He was sort of well built and had almost perfect chestnut brown hair spiked with every spike making perfect angles with the one next to it. Almost too perfect, thought Criss.

'Oh that is such a coincidence! My dad's like, renovating our place, so I'm going to be here for a week too,' said Zac, his face lighting up even more. 'You, uh, wanna, um, like have lunch together tomorrow?' he asked.

'Nah, actually I have plans for tomorrow after going and checking on Nic first thing tomorrow morning. I'm really worried about her. Like, worried sick,' said Criss trying to intimidate Zac by blinking at him.

'I was talking to her dude! Oh and what happened to Nicole? Where is she?' asked Zac pointedly looking at Daphne.

'She um, met with this, uh, accident. She's in the, ah, hospital. We went there but they weren't allowing anyone other than family, so we really don't know how she is right now. Oh, and uh, yeah, let's have lunch together tomorrow,' said Daphne blushing when she said 'together'.

'Fine, I'll see you tomorrow at one in the Blue Nile, right 'round that corner,' said Zac nodding his head towards the left of the reception, where there was an arrow which said "restaurant". 'Yeah, okay then, and hope Nicole gets better. See you around,' he said winking at Criss on his way out.

'I do not like that guy,' said Criss frowning in Zac's direction after he left.

'Aw, come on, he's a nice guy. He was in our kindergarten class with me and Nic,' said Daphne, feeling that at least something had gone well that day. She couldn't wait to go tell all this to Nic the next day when she'd be awake; and then both of them would giggle at how dumb Zac looked when they were in kindergarten. Lord Fitzpatrick and all the others would fix whatever was wrong with Nic and she'd be okay. Nic's been hurt before, she thought, but she always pulls through. What Daphne didn't know, was that Fleetrox and his companions had made sure was that Nic wouldn't be okay that easily. What Daphne didn't know was that her best friend was dying with every passing minute.

Place: the Klatchensburge, New York

Danny caught up with his mother who was walking towards the doctor's office. She sat down a chair outside the office. Danny sat down next to her.

'Why didn't you go with your father, Danny?' asked Jessie Acklin in a tired voice.

'I wanted to stay with you and find out how's Nic,' replied Danny. He was worried by his mother's behaviour. She wasn't like this usually, all quiet and unenthusiastic. Something was really wrong. 'What is it mom? What about Nic?'

'Your sister, she's-'

'Tell me the whole truth as it is, mom. Don't try to sugarcoat it.'

Jessie Acklin sucked in a deep breath. 'Nic's in a horrible condition right now. She's in that private ICU. Both her lungs have collapsed and she's broken almost all the ribs on her right side. Her right leg is um, broken beyond repair. She's broken beyond repair. Her left arm's also broken. The gashes on her left shoulder are very deep extending all the way to her chest. She was losing way too much blood so they had to remove her spleen; and she hit her head pretty hard on her way down from the terrace, so they can't know if there's any brain damage until when she wakes up. If she wakes up. So the doc said we could get something called an 'internal prosthetic' or something for her leg. No long-lasting side effects like a limp or anything. She's going to have a sort of low immunity because of that whole spleen business, and, yeah, that about covers it all. The doctors aren't really sure if she'll make it, but your father and I think we should wait and see if she gets any better.'

Danny just stared at his mother. You asked for it without the sugarcoating. His sister was dying, and Danny felt that it was all his fault. If only he had stopped her from going to that wretched Hlasek girl's house, both of them would be in school right now, telling everyone about that car crash movie and all its awesome stunts. He could have stopped this from happening, but he didn't. I raced her to the stairs on her way there, he thought with disgust.

'I want to see her,' he muttered, through clenched teeth and glassy eyes that threatened to spill over any second.

'Ah, so you must be Nic's brother. I'm Dr. Stevenson, her doctor,' said the doctor, who according to Danny, seemed to have portalized right in front of them in her blue hospital scrubs, with her blackish brown hair tied into a ponytail. 'You can go see your sister, come, I'll take you to her room. You can be with for as long as you like, okay?' she said, giving a comforting smile to the uneasy teen. Dr. Stevenson began walking further down the long white corridor.

'Aren't you coming mom?' asked Danny turning back to look at his mother as he followed the doctor.

'Oh, after dropping you off at your sister's room I'm going to take your mother, who happens to be someone whose heroic deeds once saved my family, to the cafeteria and get her something to eat- she hasn't eaten anything the whole day. And then we're going to talk about all the options we have regarding Nicole's treatment,' said the doctor. After walking till the end of the corridor, the last door led to Nic's room.

Taking a deep breath, Danny stepped in. The first thing that he saw was a chair near the window. It was a room with large windows that would bring in sunlight during the day. Right now, it showed all the shining lights of New York City. The walls of the room were a cheery, light shade of blue. There was a wide-screen plasma TV in the room. In one corner was a tiny table with an ugly potted plant on it (Aaaaaah, they're everywhere!); in another corner was some weird hospital-use contraption; in the centre of the room was a typical modern hospital bed. On the bed lay Nic.

On seeing his sister like this, Danny's stomach twisted into a knot. There she lay, so still, in a myriad of tubes and wires in the middle of a lot of beeping machines. Next to her was the ventilator, pushing air into her lungs. Nic was in one those hospital gowns, but it was pushed down her left shoulder, exposing a patch of gauze and stitches. Her left arm was in a big cast. Her right leg was sticking out of the blanket, wrapped in bandages and kept in a very complicated looking 'thingy', Danny put it. Almost her entire body was decorated with cuts and bruises. As much as Danny couldn't stand looking at her like this, he couldn't bear to leave her there either. He was her big brother; he had to take care of Nic. He pulled the chair near Nic's bed and sat down on it; and for the first time in his life, Danny Acklin bowed his head and cried. He cried with guilt- because of him, because he couldn't stop her from going to the Hlaseks', his little sister might end up losing her life.

AN: I'm not very medically correct. But in my defense, they're wizards. Their bodies don't work like human ones and I'm the author so I get to decide what to do with them. So tell me what you think and I might start typing this again. I lost interest in wizards after I outgrew them….