//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: Waltz of Two Hearts // by Misty Meadow //------------------------------// Aria felt her world coming back with a jostling movement. “Miss, excuse me miss.” She could now feel the hand on her shoulder that was giving her a slight shake. “Your friend’s out of surgery, and the doctor wants to see you.” Wiping away the last vestiges of the sandman from the corners of her eyes, Aria got up groggily, before following the nurse who had woken her. She was led through a series of twisting turning corridors, all of which passed her by in a haze as her memory of the previous night returned to her. Her heart once more feeling like lead, she entered Adagio’s hospital room. It was a generic sterile white room, a bed in the center and a few chairs around. Eyes drawn to Adagio, she found the girl lying peacefully in her bed, eyes closed. A moment of fear gripped her heart until the steady beep of the heart monitor pushes her thought aside - she was still alive. “Miss Blaze, is it?” The white coated doctor looked at her over the top of his clipboard. Giving a nod, the doctor ticked something on his papers and waved the nurse out, motioning towards a seat behind Aria. Doing as instructed, she sat down, her nerves almost palpable. “The first thing I want to say it that Adagio here IS alive, so please don’t worry about that, but… there was a small complication during surgery.” Aria slid forward to the edge of her seat. “What do you mean?” “The x-ray revealed a fair amount of shrapnel had caught miss Dazzle in the upper side of her head. The scan confirmed that nothing looked damaged, with most of it being stopped by the skull.” “You said ‘most’.” The purple Siren retorted. “I did. There was two pieces that made it through, and one of which has lodged itself in a sensitive area - the motor cortex. Now you have some options here. Leaving it in shouldn’t harm her, but could lead to complications later. The other option is to take it out. Our resident brain specialist will be back in two days.” “So why is she like that?” She pointed at her fellow Siren. “We thought it best to keep her in an induced coma until you make a decision. If you decide to have it removed, she’ll stay this way until after the surgery. Now, do you need a few moments think about the decision?” Without even having to think about it consciously, she gave her answer. “Remove it.” The doctor blinked at her quick response. “If you are sure, then I need you to sign here.” He passed her his clipboard, pointing to the consent forms. With a quick signature, he thanked her, and turned back just before he left the room. “I can have a nurse prepare a cot if you wish to stay here for the next two days?” “No thank you. She’s in good hands, and there is a few things I need to look into.” Nodding at Aria’s answer, he left the room. Glancing at the clock on the end table, she noted it read oh-seven-thirty. Having slept through the night, she decided to make the most of her early start, heading out straight away. Peering through the glass, Aria struggled to see anything through the black tinted panels on the front of Pandora’s Box, and lack of light inside didn’t help. Unable to see anyone, and out of idea, she gave the glass three solid thumps. “What do you want?” The voice made her jump, flinching back from the glass reactively. She spun her head left and right, trying to find the source of the voice. “Up here.” Stepping backwards, Aria looked up to see a middle aged woman sticking her head and shoulders out of a second story window above her. A nervous smile on her face, she quickly replaced it with on of confidence and waved upwards. “Hi. I was looking to speak with the owner.” “You are.” Groused the woman. “I’m here to ask you a few questions about Adagio.” The woman stumbled, slipping backwards inside “I’ll meet you at the side door.” She shouted out before slamming the window shut. Somewhat confused, Aria did as asked, and walked around the side of the building finding a doorway halfway down an alleyway. The sound off heavy bolts retracting soon echoed down the passageway, before the door swung outward. Aria had to jump back to avoid being hit. The woman, now mostly dressed, beckoned her inside, shutting the door behind her. “Do you know where she is? Is she ok?” The sudden barrage of questions caught Aria off guard. “When she didn’t come back last night I was worried…” Torn between telling her the truth and making her worry, or lie, and give her some temporary peace of mind, she finally settled on one of them. “I reckon you deserve the truth; you obviously care for Adagio as well.” She let out a big sigh, breathing deep before continuing. “There was a car accident, and she was passing by at the time.” The woman jumped up, but Aria held a hand up. “Don’t worry, she’s in the recovery ward and the doctors have assured me that she’ll be fine. She got hit by some of the debris, is all.” With a big sigh of relief, the woman sat back down. Aria felt bad for giving half truths, but she still didn’t know who this woman was, or her motives.”I’m sorry to be rude, but I never got your name?” “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Spinet Heartstrings.” She stuck out her hand, Aria shaking it. “Adagio tells me you went to school with my daughter, Lyra.” Aria’s brain blanked, trying to recall the girl in question. After a few moments, images of a mint green girl appeared. And then images of the cream girl she was going out with came back, making the whole situation make sense. “Yeah, I did.” She smiled, before changing the subject, “Back to Adagio. How did she come to be living here?” A frown settled across Spinet’s face. “It was about two weeks ago. I got home late from visiting a friend’s house; it was overcast and windy, and I really wanted to go to bed. I have a parking lot around the back, and on the walk from there to the rear door I heard the clinking of glass down the side passage.” She glanced at Aria to see a look of disbelief, and mistook her meaning. “Of course I was worried, at that hour around here, who knows what it could have been?” She laughed ruefully to herself, “and the last thing I expected was to find a young woman, with naught but a guitar, trying to make herself comfortable between two dumpsters.” “What did she say?” Aria asked. “Not much, actually. I invited her in for a warm place to sleep, and she was out like a light. It wasn’t until the next morning I managed to coax some details out of her. She said she had lost the most important thing in her life, and then everything had fallen apart. Funny thing is, she offered to pay her way by becoming a regular performer. I was never going to throw out someone that down on their luck, but I humored her, gave her a shot.” She gave Aria a death glare, “And this next bit never leaves this room, but the first song she played, the raw emotion brought me to tears.” Aria slumped in her chair, the disbelief having stunned her completely. “She never even told me she felt that strongly.” Spinet quirked an eyebrow. “So it is true. The fabled ‘lover’ did in fact visit last night, my staff weren't lying.” Her smile slowly dropped, and she began to fidget with her hands. “I’m sorry, I know this isn’t my place, but may I ask what happened?” While the pink Siren was not usually one to open up her personal life to friends, let alone strangers, she was still slightly stunned. Her mouth flowed freely spending the next fifteen minutes recalling the past few months and the downfall of their relationship. Now it was Spinet’s turn to sit flabbergasted, having heard Aria leak details of magic, and other worlds. After a few moments, her brain re-engaged. “So Lyra wasn’t making it up. Huh” Realizing what she had done, Aria’s eyes went wide. “You’re not gonna report us or anything, are you?” Blinking, the older woman figured out what she had meant. “What, no, of course not.” A rather sheepish smile appeared on her face. “Truth be told, I’ve enjoyed having her around. Lyra moved in with her partner over a year ago, so it’s been nice having someone to look after.” Looking wistful, she glanced back to Aria. “I’m sorry if that sounds creepy to you.” Calming down, the Siren considered what she had just been told. But rather than feel the situation was creepy, the feeling that surfaced was one of jealousy. It had been scores of moons since they had last seen anyone the Sirens could consider family, and being thrown into the bodies of teenagers, it brought with it emotional changes; she found she wanted the chance to call her ‘mom’. Shaking her head to clear her thought, she smiled back at Spinet. “No,no, I think I can understand that.” She let out a deep breath. “Sorry, I’m just having trouble reconciling the Adagio I’ve had described to me against the one I’ve lived with.” She looked at the wall clock, and noted the time. “Oh jeez, it’s that late already? I’m sorry, I’ve got to run.” As Aria got up and headed towards the door, Spinet grabbed her wrist. “Hey, bring Adagio back here once she’s able, please?” Smiling with a nod, Aria slipped free and out the back door into the late morning light.