Ninety-five - Pretty, blushing wife

Stacey slept soundly and woke up in the hospital two days later, feeling refreshed and much, much better. In fact, she felt like she was back to normal.

"Good morning, beautiful," Thieren smiled at her from an armchair by her bedside when she sat up, stretching and yawning. "Feeling better?"

"Much," Stacey yawned again. "Where's the toilet?"

"Over there," Thieren pointed, smiling when she got out of bed and didn't seem to realise the hospital gown she was wearing was open at the back. He watched her walk into the bathroom, appreciating what he could see and then he got a spare gown off the trolley of spares in the corridor. Once she came out of the toilet, he said, "Here, put this on," helping her to wear the gown in order to cover herself up, "so you don't accidentally flash anyone else."

Stacey stopped and stared at him with wide eyes, face colouring up. Her face asked a question she couldn't seem to verbalise at that moment.

"Yes, I saw," Thieren patted the bed with a grin, indicating for her to come and sit back down. "Very pert. Like it needs a spanking. Round like a peach. Very cute. Lovely figure." He made a shape in the air with his hands. "Milky smooth skin that makes me want to touch and kiss it."

Stacey covered her face with her hands, feeling her ears burning as well.

"May I touch?"

"No!"

"How about a kiss then?"

"No!"

"Not even a little one?"

"Get lost!"

"Ok. I think you're definitely awake now. And it looks like you're feeling much better. I'm your husband," Thieren patted her back as if to try and reassure her, but she shrugged him off irritably. "It's ok. It's only me. At least it's not some other stranger."

"You are a stranger to me," Stacey said through her teeth in a strangled voice.

"Not once we consummate our marriage and get to know each other better," Thieren passed her a cup of juice that he'd poured from a jug. Stacey wanted to slap his arm but put her hand back down the moment she saw the cup in his hand. "Drink up. You've lost too much weight again. It's not good for you. The doctors say you completely exhausted yourself. There's nothing wrong. Your brain injury is fine. At least, it didn't get worse, but it also won't improve if you don't get enough rest. The doctor said you're fine to leave as soon as you wake up if you're feeling fine. I'll take you back and you can rest some more after a good meal."

"What was my ranking?" Stacey asked, scowling at him for a moment and then sipping from the cup. She decided to not say everything she wanted to retort with and avoid all the curses she felt like spouting. It was better to just get straight to the point.

"In the ranking challenge, out of 87, you ranked 43rd overall. If we had you major in a stream, most likely you'd have been a group and individual artist. A lot of your classes would have crossed over, and so you wouldn't have too much to study. Unfortunately, because you have to take part in all the stream classes, you have to make up for any and all of the classes you've missed. You're going to be flat out once you get back. Given the way things are, you're going to mostly be trained as an all rounder individual artist who specializes in singing with an instrument," Thieren said. "If the government hadn't gotten involved and started using you as a poster child, I'd have let you withdraw from the competition long ago so that you can recover from all your injuries."

"At least I didn't fall into the bottom half," Stacey wiped her forehead with relief. She finished her juice. "How'd I go in the elimination round? Was it bad? I thought it might have been cringeworthy but I'm not sure. I don't remember much of it."

"You've gone viral," Thieren smiled and patted her shoulder and lifted a proud head, "and sparked a health promotion trend across the nation. You won the elimination round with ten votes more than the runner-up. You moved the entire auditorium to tears when you finished. It took almost half an hour for everyone to settle down again enough to finish the show, despite it being a live broadcast. You caused a huge stir. All your fans and even people who aren't your fans are asking if you're ok and been discharged from the hospital yet. When you're feeling better and have the energy, we're going to get you to record that song, as part of your first album."

"Ah," Stacey made a face. "No pressure then."

"Fans have already requested your album include 'Sailboat in a storm', 'Incy Wincy Spider', 'Eyerolling showoff', as well as 'Drowning in the dark'. I suppose by the end of this program, we'll have enough new songs to create a full album," Thieren patted Stacey's back, taking the cup from her and opening the wardrobe. "You should think up lyrics for 'Sailboat in a storm'. Don't leave it wordless."

"Why did I hear people say 'Incy Wincy Spider' is a new song?" Stacey asked in a low voice, accepting the casual clothes he passed to her. "It's a nursery rhyme, right? Why do I feel like nobody here knows it? Did I come from another country?"

"Yes. You are a foreigner to Benitas as far as we know," Thieren hesitated and then continued, hiding the truth from Stacey. "Yes, 'Incy Wincy Spider' is a nursery rhyme but not one that's known here. It's completely new to them, so we can do a children's music video of it. I'm sure it'll be a hit amongst the children. As a nursery rhyme in the place you came from, its copyright is in the Public Domain, so you don't need to worry," Thieren whispered, his breath tickling her ear

Stacey ducked away from him, rubbing her ear.

"Try not to overwork yourself anymore," he told her, "or it'll be hard to get you into acting roles in the future if you want to do some acting on the side to supplement your career. Production crews don't like sickly people. Your acting isn't bad and I believe it's going to improve with more experience and practice. Just making music doesn't really earn artists much," he said, standing up.

Stacey wrinkled her nose and yawned.

"If you fail assessments or any of the weekly competitions, don't worry about it. The amount of work expected of you by the government is inhuman. Even though I'm known as a harsh taskmaster, I wasn't going to make you do as much as they're expecting of you. Just take the punishments as a bit of slap and tickle foreplay in preparation for our happy marital life when the program is over."

Stacey flushed red and threw a pillow at Thieren. He failed to dodge.

"Get out!"

"I'm going. I'm going so you can get changed, my pretty, blushing wife."