Chapter 61

For a long time Kara sat staring at the screen of her laptop. She had been surfing, looking for any information that might be helpful when she noticed Richie was online. She wanted to tell him what was going on, but how could she? Hadn’t he been saying right along how he wanted to help her achieve her greatest dream? Would he be disappointed and change his mind, or would he understand what she was going through, how afraid she was? With a heavy sigh she signed on to Yahoo Messenger and gave him a nudge.

karad: hey you…

Richie had been going through his e-mail and frowned at the ping, then smiled when he saw it was Kara.

bluesguyatheart: hey yourself Princess
bluesguyatheart: how are you?

And there it was; the question she was terrified to answer.

karad: actually Rich, I’ve been better.

Richie sat up straighter on his bed, pulling the laptop onto his lap and adjusting his glasses.

bluesguyatheart: what’s wrong Princess?
bluesguyatheart: did you have a bad day at school/work?

Kara sighed, if only it was that simple.

karad: no, I didn’t work today.

Richie’s eyebrows raised in surprise. What is going on with her?

bluesguyatheart: are you sick?

Kara hesitated; she should just be straightforward and tell him. No more beating around the bush. Jen had been right, he needed to know.

karad: no, I’m not sick. Not really.
karad: it’s my throat. Doc says I’m not to talk for at least a week
karad: he gave me meds too.
karad: we’re hoping they do the trick.

Richie took all this in. He knew there had been something more serious going on with her throat when she was with him in Philadelphia. He only wished now he had been able to convince her to get to the doctor sooner. He picked up his phone, wanting to call her but looking back at his computer her words about not talking had him turning back to his keyboard.

bluesguyatheart: I’m sorry Princess. Do what the Doc says
bluesguyatheart: he knows best.

He watched the blinking cursor, waiting for her to answer back. He hated this, not being able to be there for her when she needed him. He wanted to take her in his arms, hold her and tell her everything would be all right.

When she didn’t answer he got antsy.

bluesguyatheart: Princess, talk to me.
bluesguyatheart: tell me what’s going on in that pretty head of yours

Kara wiped at her eyes.

karad: what if the Doc doesn’t know Rich.
karad: what if its something more serious?

Richie wanted to reassure her, but doing it across the wires of the internet felt so cold and impersonal.

bluesguyatheart: you can’t dwell on the ‘what ifs’ Princess.
bluesguyatheart: you just need to stay positive

After he hit send he picked up his phone. Even if she couldn’t talk, at least she could listen to him.

bluesguyatheart: Princess, I’m going to call you.

karad: but I’m not supposed to talk

bluesguyatheart: I know. I’ll do the talking, you just listen.

karad: okay, thanks.

He could practically see the sadness and fear in her words. He knew how scary this must be for her. He had watched Jon go through this, watched it nearly destroy what they had worked so hard for. He didn’t want that for Kara. He wanted her to have her dream and he was prepared to be there for her, no matter what happened.