Thirty Two-Even Blowing Teddy Bears Up Gets Charles Jealous

“Nora, get up. I don’t care if your in a hospital or not.” I hear a voice snap flatly.

I groan and toss to my side. “Nell, the guy on the radio said something about hospitals.”

The voice chuckles in amusement. “And you would think that would stop.”

The memories hit me like freezing water, and I groan. I sit up slowly, wincing when my head hurts. I open my eyes to see Charles frowning at me, amusement gone.

“Does your head still hurt?”

I shake my head, trying not to wince. “Not at all. I feel great.”

His frown stays on. “Your lying. This is why the doctor wants you to stay another day.”

“No way! I hate hospitals! It reminds me of-” I shudder. “Nevermind.”

He cocks an eyebrow. “What do hospitals remind you of?”

“My mother. She was a nurse here.” I mumble, averting my gaze to the floor. I see him nod his head and wrap me in his arms. “That and I hate hospital gowns. I feel all exposed.”

That makes him laugh. “Nora, how do you make me laugh even when I’m suppose to feel guilty for you.”

“Why would you feel guilty for me?”

His laugh drops. “Because I wasn’t there to save you. Bones,” His muscles tense, “hit you with a friggin baseball bat. You could have died, Nora. And when I saw you fall at the explosion, I wanted to kill Bones for trying to kill me and you. He even tried killing his own members! He’s sick.”

I pat his back to make him calm down. “Charlie, I’m fine now. Have you ever heard of what goes around comes back around? Bones is gonna get his. Big time.” He sighs and relaxes again, tangling his hands in my hair. He loves doing that.

“BART IS IN THE BUILDING! WITH PRESENTS!” We both hear Bart’s lingering voice enter my room.

“Hey,” Henry scowls, “We brought her stuff too. Don’t take all the credit to yourself.”

Bart scoffs. “What did you get her? A chocolate bar. That you ate.”

Henry raises his hands. “Hey, she might not even like chocolate. Plus I was hungry.”

I turn to see them and my mouth falls to the floor. The four other boys with grins, plus my sister, looks like they bought the whole gift shop up to my room. There’s about 30 balloons in their hands, saying ‘feel better’ or ‘get well soon’. Then there’s huge teddy bears and stuffed animals next to them. The candy in each of their hands makes it look like they robbed a candy store.

I stare at the stuff in shock, disbelief, and amazement. “Guys, did you rob that poor little old lady downstairs in the gift shop?”

Bart smirks and sits in a chair. “It was easy.”

Edward smacks his brother upside the head, making Bart scowl. “No, we bought this stuff. But Bart did want to steal it all.” Of course he did. It’s a Bart thing to do.

Nell giggles and shoves a chocolate box into my hands. “Here. Try the raspberry, it’s delicious!” I roll my eyes and pop one into my mouth, giving her the thumbs up that it’s good. She turns on her heel and goes over to Clinton, cuddling into him. Aww, I think I’ll die of the cuteness.

Clinton sends a glare my way, and I return it. “I swear Clinton, if I could get off this bed you would be in Spain.” I growl, and a goofy grin spreads across his face.

“Can Nell come?”

I groan and sink back into my bed. Charles sits next to me, swinging an arm around my shoulders. Bart throws a huge brown teddy bear, that eerily looks like Bones onto my bed. “Here. That’s Baby Bones.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Why would you give me a teddy bear that looks like my kidnapper?”

He smirks. “Just watch it.” I do as I was told, and in seconds I shriek.

The bear blew up.

Bart falls into laughter while I stare wide-eyed at the cotton before me. What just happened? “Bart, did you just blow the bear up?” I ask slowly, watching the cotton fall.

He nods and wipes tears from his eyes. “Your face was priceless. I wish I could replay that.” I giggle a little when I realize my face was probably in pure shock. That’s kinda a good prank to play.

Charles scowls at his little brother. “Bart, go sit in the corner.”

The laughter stops, and Bart just stares at Charlie like he has three heads. “Come again?”

“Go sit in the corner.”

They stare at each other some more. “I’m not a baby.”

“You put a bomb in Nora’s teddy bear. Is that normal, Bart?”

Bart’s mouth snaps shut, and he mumbles something before sitting cross legged in the corner of the hospital room. I stifle a laugh and turn to Charles. “Why do you get so mad when Bart makes me laugh?”

Taken aback he blinks at me. “What? Where did you get that idea?”

“Well every time Bart does something funny you get mad.” I cock my head to the side. “Why?” It’s true. Every time Bart makes me laugh he gets angry.

He sighs and murmurs in my ear. “Because he can make you laugh and I cant.”

A huge smile spreads across my face. That’s it? He’s jealous? “Your jealous of your brother for making me laugh.”

A tint of red washes on his cheeks and he looks away. “No.”

I giggle and kiss his red cheeks, which only seem to make them redder. “You so are. It’s so cute!”

He swats me away, glaring. “No I’m not.”

“Whatever toots your horn.” I roll my eyes. “When can I go home? Hospitals suck.”

Nell nods. “They do.”

Bart shrugs. “I like hospitals. It’s fun to make the lunch ladies in the cafeteria mad.”

“Bart, your not normal.” I snort a laugh. He grins proudly.

“I’m hungry. Who wants to come with me for food?” Nell hops up from her seat. They all stand up too, stretching.

I frown. “Get me something too. The food I ate last night was horrible. I swear I saw something crawling in it.” Nell cracks a smile and nods, leaving only me and Charles. “Charlie, you could have left to get something to eat.”

“But I’m not hungry.” His stomach rumbles after the words leave his mouth, and I smirk.

“Yeah, you are.”

“Are not.”

“Are too.”

“Are not.”

“Are too.”

“Nora,” He laughs, “I’m fine.”

I stare at him cautiously for another minute before sighing in defeat. “I still think you need food.”

He waves me off. “They’ll bring me back something.” Then he looks at me, hesitating his words. “Nora, what exactly happened when Bones…” He trails off.

“If I tell you, you have to promise your not gonna get madder.”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Madder?”

“Your already mad as it is at Bones, and if I tell you the story then you’ll be more madder.” I nod. “I made the word up.”

He sighs and nods. “Fine.”

I take a deep breath, then slowly let it out. “I was tied up to a chair. My mouth, arms, and legs. The knots weren’t tied too good, so I could easily un-tie them. Then Bones and his gang came in, and were about to give me this needle. But before he could, the knots came un-done, and I slapped it out of his hands. Then I carefully stood up and smashed the chair to the gang, quickly untied my legs, and picked up the needle. Then we heard you guys and the next thing I knew I was in a trunk, and that’s when Nell saved me.”

He blinks, then stares at me. His muscles are stiff, and an expression I cant tell. “Nora, do you know what was in this needle?” He asks slowly.

I shrug. “Dunno, but whatever it was Bones was even scared of it.”

He nods and gulps. “Nora, that needle was to put you to sleep. Permanently.” I furrow my eyebrows in confusion before I get what he’s saying.

“But I was already asleep! Why didn’t they do it then?”

He shakes his head. “If you were asleep and they killed you, then the blood would be spoiled. You have to do it when your awake.”

I take a deep breath. That’s scary. I didn’t even know what was in that needle. “Charles, does my blood, like, smell good to vampires?” I ask awkwardly.

“Yeah. Especially since you have addicting blood.”

“What about you? Does it smell good to you?”

A smirk pops up onto his face. “Your sent alone is addicting.”

“Then why did you call me smelly when I first got here?” I hide the grin that’s daring to spread onto my face.

He scowls from the memory, but his eyes dance in amusement. “You misread what I meant.”

I sigh dramatically. “You even cursed at me.” I nod vigorously. “It was very frightening.”

“Nora, I didn’t mean that-”

“And,” I cut him off, “you were awfully rude to me. You-OOF!” This time he cuts me off, pushing me flat onto the bed while he hovers above me.

“I told you: that’s not what I meant. I couldn’t go near you at the time because if you just looked at me I would want to attack you in kisses. I needed to stay away from you so I could adjust. Hell, I’m still adjusting now.”

I giggle. “You do know I understand what you meant, right?”

His face falters, but then he snorts. “Of course I did.”

“Right.” I roll my eyes and he leans down to kiss me.

“You don’t even want to know what kissing you feels like.” He murmurs against my lips.

“I have an idea.” I murmur back.