xChapter 76 - A Night At A Hospital

"To be honest I didn't really see the appeal of those twist ties they put on bread but now I totally do!" X Locke exhales, "Anyways what's new with you?"

X is sitting in a waiting room of a hospital with none other than the recently awoken Ronnie Everst. The two are there to just relax for a bit.

"I don't know, just woke up," Ronnie remarks, "How'd you even get in so late?"

"Well you see, I wanted to visit you but when I showed up the nurse was like 'We don't allow any visitors at this time' so I agreed to just…," X begins to say before remarking, "run past her and visit regardless."

Ronnie looks over to the nurse who's standing by them, just waiting for X to eventually leave, and hoping that he doesn't do anything.

"I'm sorry about my friend," Ronnie tells the nurse.

"Don't tell me about it, I'm just glad he didn't accidentally run into our long-term patient," The nurse admits.

"Long-term patient?" Ronnie asks, confused.

"Yeah, we have a patient here who's been here for a long time, he likes to travel around at night sometimes. Despite his condition, he can take care of himself pretty well," The nurse explains before adding, "We actually have a few patients who've been here many years, but he's been here the longest." 

"I see, wonder if we'll get to meet him," Ronnie wonders.

"Oh please, if that happens that would be a really stupid plot contrivance," X remarks, "There's no way the author of this would-"

Though as X is talking he stops as he hears the sound of a wheelchair rolling down the hall. The three look to see a middle-aged man in a wheelchair. Besides wearing the white hospital gown, the patient has short yet disheveled black hair, white dried and wrinkly skin, tired gray eyes, and both of their legs have been amputated.

"Oh for fucks sake," X sighs under his breath.

"Oh, I didn't expect people to be up so late," the long-term patient remarks.

As the nurse & X walk over to chat with the long-term patient, Ronnie can't help but feel like he's seen this person before. But he doesn't know where.

"Out for one of your nightly strolls sir?" The nurse asks.

"Yeah, I'm more of a night owl," The long-term patient remarks.

"Guess we're all here burning the midnight oil, eh?" X suggests.

As the patient is about to leave, he spots Ronnie and his eyes light up. The patient wheels himself over to where Ronnie is sitting and hugs him.

"Reagan! Good to see you pal!" The patient says, "It's felt like forever since I saw you!"

Ronnie is taken aback by the gesture but he notices something once the patient stops hugging him. On the patient's hand is a purple ring, a ring with the letters 'M.S.A.' engraved into it. Furthermore, the nametag on his hospital gown reads 'J. Lewis'.

That's when Ronnie finally realizes who this is. The leader of the original MSA –the Moon Shadow Alliance– , the person who recorded all of those fighting tapes he's been using, that very same man is now the person standing in front of him.

James Lewis.

Seeing how uncomfortable Ronnie is, the nurse steps in and suggests, "I'm sorry Mister Lewis but he's very tired. Perhaps we should continue your walk?"

"Alright fine," James remarks as he continues his stroll, "It was nice seeing you, Reagan!"

As James and the nurse go further down the hallway, Ronnie's mind is filled with more questions; what happened to James Lewis? Did it have anything to do with his uncle? Why did he think he was Reagan? What's going o-

"Hey, Earth to Ronnie," X remarks as he snaps his fingers in front of Ronnie's face, "You good man?"

"Uh, yeah," Ronnie states.

Seeing that he isn't fully telling the truth, X walks over to the vending machine and offers, "I can get you anything you want right now; apple juice, water, soda, hell I'll try and smuggle in some wine if you want!"

"Do they have milk?" Ronnie questions as he stands up and walks to the vending machine.

"Milk?!" X questions befuddled, "I didn't know you still went to elementary school."

"What's wrong with drinking milk?" Ronnie remarks.

"Oh nothing nothing," X remarks as he puts coins into the vending machine before grabbing a milk, "I just didn't know if you would have liked apple slices with that or not."

Ronnie groans as he takes the milk and remarks, "See this is why I'm never listening to your soundcloud."

As Ronnie walks back to his hospital room, X stops and says, "Wait you remember I have one?"

"Well yeah, you made a big deal about it," Ronnie remarks.

X smirks as he catches up with Ronnie and remarks, "Well of course it is! You better get my autograph now before I become a mega-famous singer."

"In your dreams maybe," Ronnie jokes.

Ronnie reaches the door to his room and enters, X follows and sighs, "Hey Ronnie can you do me a favor?"

Ronnie turns to face X, expecting him to crack another joke or go off on an unexpected tangent, but instead, there's a somber look to X's composure. Despite his blonde hair covering the top half of his face, Ronnie can see the tears rolling down X Locke's face.

"I don't want to see you or anyone else from school here ever again," X utters, trying to keep his composure.

Seeing him like this, Ronnie responds with a simple, "Of course."

After hearing that, X would smile and leave the hospital. Ronnie would start to drift to sleep in his hospital bed, wondering what the next day could possibly bring.

_________________________

The sun shines through the windows of Ronnie's hospital room as birds chirp outside. Ronnie opens his eyes and looks around his room to see… X rummaging around the room.

"What are you doing?" Ronnie questions.

"I uh- I forgot my wallet here last night," X admits, "Can you help me look for it?"

"Did you check all your pockets?" Ronnie questions.

X is silent for a bit before patting his jean's right pocket only to feel his wallet in there. X looks at Ronnie. Ronnie looks at X. And the two start to laugh.

"You gotta be the biggest idiot I've met," Ronnie laughs.

"Yeah," X laughs as he walks to the door, "But I'm smart enough to know when I've overstayed my welco-"

Before X can open the door, the door to the hospital room slams open into X. Ronnie looks to see that his mother, Sally Everst, has entered the room, clearly in a rush to try and get to the hospital. Behind her are his fellow club members; Marcus Veridan, Elizabeth Moore, & Alex Smith.

Sally's eyes are wide as she sees her son sitting up in the hospital bed. Without even realizing it, tears are forming in her eyes.

"H-hey Mom," Ronnie begins to say, "I'm awa-"

Before he can finish talking, Sally rushes over and hugs him, with everyone else in the room soon to follow.

See You Next Chapter!~