L'amour Fou Chapter Ten Love appears in odd places - mainly hospitals

A/n: If you can't handle . Eh fuck it. Its rated R after all, ain't it? So if you can't handle rating R themes, skip parts of this chapter.

A/n2: I haven't been posting lately for many reasons. My computer died a few weeks back and I just got it back late last week. Then, I had to reload everything and get all my stuff back. Currently, I am still stuck with AOL 6.0. And! I have many role-plays going on. The major one, some of you may already know. .org/users/hogwarts_school So, I should be posting more now, but forgive me if I don't. I have to work on things for this year's young author's contest.

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Jeff sauntered in that morning for the first time in nearly two weeks. Sam was the first one to notice he was home.

She watched as he walked over to the couch and dropped onto it. He looked like hell.

"Are you ok?" She asked. His hair was barely spiked anymore, and faded. He looked like he had slept in his clothes for while, and from what she could see, he hadn't shaved in a while either. That wasn't like Jeff at all. Usually he'd rather throw himself off a cliff than not shave.

"Eh?" He muttered into the arm of the couch. She couldn't see how he was comfortable. She sure as hell wouldn't have been able to be comfortable with her face pressed against the coach like that.

She repeated her question, slightly louder this time.

"No, need sleep." He mumbled.

"You aren't gonna get any sleep on the couch, sorry to tell you, Jeff."

"So." And that was all she could get out of him.

---

Vicky and Marty walked back in. Marty had his arm protectively around Vicky's waist and they were both grinning madly.

"Idiots." Sam scoffed to herself as she passed them on her way to the kitchen.

"Come on!" Vicky yelled to Em, Bob, Kody, and Karman. All of them were going up to Kings Dominion today, and Vicky was getting a little impatient, which was understandable. They'd been planning this for nearly two weeks now.

Everyone had been invited but some of them had had other things to do.

Fred was at the beach with some friends, he couldn't just back out of that either. He'd promised them he'd go a while ago and they were from another state. Sam would have gone, but she didn't think spending an afternoon watching her cousin and Vicky kissing every three minutes would be much fun. Meagan wanted to go, but she had to visit her family, and Jeff hadn't been around long enough to even ask.

"Jeff's here." Sam said as she went back upstairs and passed Meagan's room.

Meagan opened the door and stuck her head out. "You serious?"

Yeah, I was amazed when he strolled in." Jeff hadn't been at home much at all lately.

"He aight?" Meagan asked, she sounded somewhat concerned for her friend.

"I dunno. I think you need to talk to him."

---

Jeff woke a few hours later. He had an idea now.

He slowly sauntered upstairs and fixed a grim look on his face.

He walked to his room and shut the door behind him.

Silence surrounded him and it was almost deafening.

He grabbed his pen and a pad of paper from his desk.

---

Meagan knocked and got no response.

She knocked once more, this time louder. She hesitated for a moment. All she wanted was her pair of slippers she's left in here about three weeks ago. And what was the harm if he was changing or something? It wasn't like she hadn't seen it before.

When she got no response again, she opened the door, figuring he was sleeping or something like that.

Her blood ran cold and a shriek slipped past her lips.

"Oh my god! Jeff!" She said when she had finally gathered her thoughts.

"What?" The other roommates, minus Vicky - she and Marty had caught dinner late and went to his place after -- , ran upstairs quickly.

Elizabeth's face went deathly pale and she looked like she was going to pass out, when she saw what Meagan was looking at.

Kody looked at her and nudged Bob. "Take her downstairs."

Bob nodded, as if in a trance, and complied.

Kody then looked at Sam, Meagan, and Karman. "Get two towels." He told Karman.

Meagan hesitantly walked into the room and tried to hold back the tears. She pressed her fingers to his neck and felt a faint pulse. Relief washed over her as she nodded to Kody and Sam. "It's faint, but it's there."

Sam rushed to the phone, dialing 911 furiously. "Ourroommatetriedtokillhimself!" She yelled, frantically looking from Jeff to the others. She slowed down "Our roommate, Jeff Riddle, is - he tried to kill himself."

---

Meagan sat down in the cold plastic seat next to Karman. She looked around the waiting room. Nervous looking wives, wringing their hands and hugging their children tightly, husbands clutching their crying wives and children. She focused on a picture.

It was of a basket of flowers, seemed oddly perfect there. She didn't look at her friend, but spoke anyway. "He's not up yet." Her voice was shaky and uneven. That didn't matter though. All that mattered was Jeff.

"Any news?" Karman seemed to hesitate before asking that, so Meagan turned her eyes to Karman.

"They say he'll live."

Karman nodded. "That's good." She reached a shaking hand into her purse and pulled out two things. She handed one to Meagan. It was a sheet of folded paper.

She quickly unfolded it and read over it. "His note." After she finished reading it she looked at Karman again, and was handed a rather heavy envelope with her name scrawled neatly on the front.

".What's this?" She flipped it over and slit it open with her finger.

"I'm not sure. I didn't open it."

Something jingled inside the envelope as Meagan shifted it to reach inside. She removed a key ring with about 15 keys on it, each meticulously labeled. A faint smile touched her lips. Even as his world was crashing around him, he still had time to label his keys for her.

She reached in again after setting the keys on her lap. Her fingers brushed against something smooth and cold. She grasped it and removed it.

It was a thin silver chain with a ring on it. She grabbed the ring and looked at it closely. It was obviously expensive, probably about as much as Jeff's Lamburghini had cost. The first thing that caught her eye was the large diamond. It was at least a karat , maybe two. Then she looked at the band - "platinum, never silver, babe" - and noticed words on the inside. She peered at them and saw they read, "I love you always. -Jeff."

Her mouth dropped open and she dropped the envelope. It had finally clicked what that was.

A few sheets of folded paper fluttering to the floor stole her attention from the ring and she grabbed them as they touched the waiting room's spotless floor.

It took nearly fifteen minutes, but she read the long note. A faint blush lingered in her pale cheeks when she was done reading it. She looked back at Karman just as a young nurse appeared at her side.

"Mr. Riddle is awake."

Meagan whipped her head around to look at the blonde girl. "Can I see him?"

"Who are you? He's requested only certain people see him."

"His fiancee, Meagan."

"Ok. Room 393. Right over there." The nurse pronounced 393 'three- ninety-three' and pointed down the hall to her right. Meagan saw a group of people, all armed with a balloon, waiting just outside a door near Jeff's.

---

"Jeff?" Meagan opened the door and knocked gently on the door frame.

"Meagan." He grinned faintly and she noticed he had a dreamy sort of look on his face. She wondered what they had given him to ease the pain in his wrists.

"How are you feeling?" She walked in a shut the door behind herself. She chose to sit in the chair a few feet from him.

"I'm fine." He pushed himself into a sitting position and winced for a second. "Just fine." He almost sounded as if he were trying to convince himself rather that her.

She took in his disheveled appearance and frowned for a minute. 'God help the person who gives him a mirror.' She thought and studied his face and hair. His blue spikes were no more. His hair was white-blonde and seemed in dire need of gel. Some of it was semi-curly and all of it was lying flat on his head. There was pain in his clear, blue eyes. "That's good."

He looked at her face and her heart nearly broke. He looked hurt. "I don't bite."

"Uh huh, sure." She grinned, trying to lighten the mood, as she pulled her chair as close to his bed as she could.

He studied the ceiling and didn't speak for a while. "How long have I been here?" His voice was soft now, barely above a whisper and his northern accent was barely audible anymore.

"Not that long." She looked at him and brushed his hair off his forehead. "Why'd you do it Jeff?"

"Long story." He avoided her eyes, and instead stared at the dark corner of the room that probably led to the bathroom. If she listened carefully enough she could hear sounds of celebration from the adjoining room.

"I've been here for hours, I'm sure I can stay long enough to hear this."

Jeff closed his eyes and sighed before opening them again. His voice took on a pleading note. "I wanna go home."

"I don't think you should yet."

"I hate hospitals." He said. "When I was three I -

"Mr. Riddle?" A short, plump, serious looking lady poked her head in. "You really should be resting. You're awfully pale."

"I will. But right now I have a visitor."

She gave him a look but didn't comment. Instead, she left the room, and shut the door again behind her.

Meagan toyed with the ring and chain and then looked at him. "Jeff?"

"Hmm?"

She held the ring out for him to see. "Oh um." His face went crimson. "That's - yeah. So will you.?"

"Hmm. Lovely proposal Jeffy, really." She laughed and gave him a thoughtful smile.

"Well, there's only so great a proposal can be in a hospital. I'll give you a better one later though. But for now will you?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him softly on the lips. "Of course I will."

He grinned and wrapped his arms around her, careful not to touch his heavily bandaged wrists to anything.

---

"How is he?" Em asked, looking worried.

"He's wonderful." She looked down at the ring on her finger.

Elizabeth followed her gaze. "Oh my god. Did he.?"

"Yeah."

She looked at Meagan for a moment. "Congratulations."

---

Meagan returned to Jeff's room sometime later. "I got your damn sour skittles." She grinned.

She took a seat on the edge of his bed and opened the little lime green package. She took out a purple one and popped it in her mouth, smirking playfully at him. He pulled her down so she was laying, facing him.

"Share." He said.

"Nope, sorry!" She ate a red one now.

He pouted and gave her puppy-dog eyes. "Please."

"You're a sneaky one." She put an orange one in his mouth and kissed him.

They continued like that for a long time, and eventually the empty green, plastic package lay discarded on the floor and they laid, sleeping. Jeff had one arm carefully thrown over Meagan's shoulders.

The nurse came in to yell at the two but stopped when she saw them. She smiled and took a final look at them before leaving and closing the door behind herself.

---

Three days later..

Bob and Sam were on the couch together, watching a movie, and waiting for news on Jeff's return. Somehow they had been the only ones without anything to do.

Kody and Karman had flown out to Colorado two days before to see their cousin's new baby girl and wouldn't be back until the following morning. Meagan had barely been away from the hospital since Jeff had been rushed there in the ambulance. Vicky was staying with Marty in Maryland for a few days to celebrate Marty's parents' anniversary. She too was set to return the next morning, and Elizabeth had been out all the previous night and was sleeping off a hangover.

Without warning the lights flickered and went out. The two watched as the picture on the TV faded.

Sam jumped and heard a chuckle from Bob's direction. She felt her face burn and she slapped his arm, telling him to shut up.

"I paid fifty bucks to see that damn movie." Bob muttered. He shifted and heard the remote control fall to the floor with a dull thud.

"Get over it. Isn't like you've never seen it."

"Yeah but still. I paid fifty bucks to see it." He laid back on the couch, arms crossed behind his head. "Think the power'll be back on soon?" He could almost see her in the dim light. The streetlights seemed to have burnt out again. Wouldn't surprise him at all. For all the house's perfection, it was in a terrible area.

"I dunno. Why don't you just go turn it on?"

Had there have been more light, she would have noticed his brows raise and knit together as if that was the craziest thing he'd ever heard. "Hell no! Not in this neighborhood!"

Now, normally, he'd have done it, but the fuse box was outside, just around the house. It was a little too close to a grouping of low hanging trees for his liking. Sure, he had seen Jeff go out there and turn the power on at later hours in the morning, but everyone knew Jeff was completely out of his mind. Plus, Jeff was a bigger dude than him. In all his years of friendship with Jeff he'd never seen anyone fuck with him.

"Why not? The keys are up in Jeff's room, and there's a flashlight down the hall."

A noise sounded from down the hall and neither of them spoke. Bob felt Sam slide closer to him. The moon must have disappeared behind a cloud or something because neither of them could see anything, just the darkness stretching on forever.

"Bob." Sam tried but her voice came out as a soft whisper.

"Uh uh. I'm not going out there. There's probably some ax murderer out there who cut the power to get me out there."

"Yeah right." Sam breathed, but in the darkness, perhaps that was true.

"We could just wait until tomorrow." Bob suggested. His voice was barely audible.

Another noise sounded and the two moved closer to one another. They were now nearly on each other's laps.

"I guess we could."

"Plus." Bob said, trying to think up an excuse. "I dunno where the keys are."

A meow came from near the couch and Bob clung to Sam. "It's the cat!"

She laughed. "Bob, you're such a baby."

There was silence and they looked at each other in the faint light. The moon had appeared again. And in their silence they wrapped their arms around one another and kissed.

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A/n: Sorry it's late. The computer was broken and I've been having a real bad two weeks. Please review.