Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Chapter 6

Big dedication to @nutty4peanuts for giving me my 300th vote on HHAFC! Thanks a lot for reading!

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Chapter 6

I could hear them before I saw them. Jasmine was whispering excitedly, and Zed sounded embarrassed. I opened my eyes a fraction, wondering if he had asked her on a date. My eyesight was annoyingly blurry, but I managed to make out Jasmine on a chair with her back to me, and Zed opposite her

"Really? REALLY?" she whispered. He nodded, smiling. Now I was sure he had asked. Suddenly, she stood up and hugged him tightly, making him blush a deep red.

"What's the occasion?" I asked groggily. They spun around and saw me looking at them. I winked. "What's it gonna be? Cinema? Restaurant? Theme park?"

They looked at me with a confused expression.

"Cinema? Theme park?" asked Jasmine. Then she realised what I was suggesting and blushed. "No, no! We're not dating!"

"Dating?" Zed asked. He looked at me and burst out laughing. So did Jasmine.

"You're such an idiot!" she laughed, wiping away a tear. Then she hugged metightly, and I thought for a moment that she was still laughing as her shoulders shook. When she pulled away, though, I saw that she was actually crying. She tried to keep the tears back but couldn't.

I looked from Jasmine to Zed, who had just sat on the other side of the bed, trying to make sense of this. "Jasmine? I know I something bad happened, but why are you crying?"

She tried to stop crying, wiping away the tears and blowing her nose. "Suzanne, it's been a week! You've been in a coma for a week!"

I sat up suddenly, not believing what she had told me. "A week? In a coma ? Are you sure?"

She nodded, rubbing her nose. "Seven days. I thought you'd never wake up! Oh, I now it didn't look like it," she added, as if reading my mind, "but at first I was hysterical. Ask Zed."

He nodded vigorously, then added in a whisper, "Nearly put me off visiting you, what with all the crying and ..."

Before he could finish, I hugged them both tightly.

"Does my mum know?" I asked. They looked at me as if I had suggested that Armstrong had landed on Neptune instead of the moon.

"Of course she knows! What kind of a question is that? She's been here every day as much as she could!"

I looked at them in surprised. "She has ?"

"Of course she has! You're her daughter, after all." Jasmine glanced at Zed.

"Where is she, then?"

"She said that she's gone to pick up your little brother and that she'll be back ..." Jasmine looked at her watch, "... in about ten minutes."

"Who's been looking after Will and Bumba?" I asked.

Zed smiled. "So many questions! Your sister's been taking care of Will since you fainted," he said, giving me a cup of water to drink. I nearly choked. "Bumba? Poor Will."

Jasmine laughed. "Don't worry. She's not that bad. Will told me that he gets to do everything he wants because she spends hours on end in her room."

I closed my eyes and lay back on my cushion, smiling. It didn't feel at all like I had fainted a whole week ago. In fact, it didn't feel like I had fainted at all! Any headaches that had plagued me a week ago (a whole week!) had deserted me, but a strange feeling replaced it. I could feel it in every bone and muscle, in every breath and beat of my heart. I couldn't have described it if I had tried; it was almost as if the pain had left me something to remember it by. When I moved, it moved, like rustling paper inside me.