Who: Fred Weasley and Leanne Yaxley
What: Waking up in Vegas
When: Today!
Where: St. Mungo's
Rating: PG-13
Status: Complete



It had been a number of weeks already since Fred had first gotten sick. The problem was, he didn't remember most of it. For the majority of his stay at St. Mungo's, he'd been drifting in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he'd hear voices or see faces, familiar ones as well as complete strangers in those awful lime green Healer's robes, but he just wasn't coherent enough to put any of it together. For the most part, though, he hadn't even been slightly awake. His mind had been filled with strange and forgettable dreams and at times, complete silence.

And, considering his physical condition, that might have been for the best. His body had played a number of tricks on him over the last several weeks. Fevers spiking on and off, blood levels going crazy on him... Most of the Healers simply didn't know what to do except treat the symptoms as they came. They even called in one of those muggle doctor people for an evaluation. As far as they could tell, there was a poisoning of the blood. Unfortunately, not a single expert in the field could manage to figure out just what that poison was. The only thing they could do was hope it would run its course and fight off each symptom one at a time.

But the day would come when Fred's eyes would open and actually be clear. And his mind would rush to catch up with what his senses were seeing all around him. And there was surprise, but pleased surprise just the same, when his focus cleared enough to catch a familiar wave of ginger hair that didn't belong to Ginny or his mother. Not that he wouldn't slowly worry about where they were, either, and eventually have a sense of overall panic. But it would be a nice surprise at the time just the same.

After her short conversation with Mrs. Nott over the journal, Leanne couldn't help wondering what the Ministry would say if she started doing the things they were accusing her of. She was still convinced that they had something to do with how Fred was. She was always at St. Mungo's. Every day. Leanne was there at the start of visiting hours on her days off and as soon as she was off of work. Nothing was going to keep her from coming until Fred was better. She wanted to be selfish, she wanted him. If that meant waiting forever, Leanne was going to wait forever.

Mrs. Weasley was there when Leanne had gotten there. They talked briefly, nothing had changed, and Mrs. Weasley left. Leanne sat down in the chair beside Fred's bed. It had only been in the last few weeks that she started bringing something in to read, mostly to keep herself from going mental. Maybe she was mental. That was somewhat the impression she got from the reaction of everyone who had left a comment on her journal when she brought up her suspicions. Leanne didn't spend too much time dwelling on it and only wanted to think of Fred getting better instead of worse.

Every few minutes, Leanne looked up from the Daily Prophet. The Prophet was spouting a lot of nonsense still, but it was something to do. With each glance up at Fred, she wondered if he'd be awake this time. That was her hope. Not much time had passed when Leanne looked up. To her, it seemed like Fred's eyes were open. "Fred? Can you hear me Fred?"

When he first tried to speak, no sound came out, likely from lack of strength or weeks of not using his voice. Flicking his tongue across dry lips, Fred took a deep breath and tried again. "I can hear you," he whispered, a ghost of a smile on his face. Not even near-death was going to keep Fred Weasley from flirting at his best. "But I have to admit, I like seeing you even more."

Leanne couldn't grinning. "Oh Godric! I'm glad for all that." It was good to hear him speak. "How are you feeling?"

Blinking slowly several times, Fred let things settle before he made a decision. "Like I've been hit by a bludger a few hundred times over," he revealed with a short but weak nod. "What the hell happened?"

She shook her head. "I don't really know. The Healers don't really know either. They think you were poisoned. You've been here two months." It amazed Leanne that it had only been two months, but it felt as if it had been much longer. "They've been treating whatever symptoms you've had. Seeing you awake, I hope that means it's all gone and that you'll be back to your normal self."

"Two months?" Well, that woke him up a bit. Fred fought to sit up as straight as the bed would allow, but only made it about halfway. Still, it made him feel more like a human able to talk to her rather than some test subject there for her to watch. "What the hell... How? What's... But the store... George, Mum..." He was probably bothering with things she didn't know or wouldn't understand. "And come to think of it, what are you doing here?"

"George is taking care of the store in Diagon Alley. Michael and Verity are in charge of the Hogsmeade one. Your mum was here and she left when I got here. Everyone's been worried about you." Leanne told him. She had especially been worried. "I'm here because I've always been here. Well, I'm here every day to visit and hope that you wake up. It has been two months and I care about you. I forced you to come here and I'm glad that I did..." Leanne didn't want to think about what could have happened had she not forced him to come here. "If you want me to go get your mum or one of your brothers, I'll go."

Slowly, fully aware that his head still hurt like a total bitch and everything was rather fuzzy, Fred shook his head. "No, wait..." He reached out a hand, touching hers lightly. "You even stuck around when I've got to look like hell?" he attempted to tease, but he meant it. A part of him wondered, on the surface, if Alicia would have even bothered. Sad where his priorities were after apparently being half dead. Work, his family, and girls. "Two months. Seriously?"

"Yes, I stuck around. You don't look to much like hell." Leanne said with a small smile. "It really has been two months. It's November now. You missed Halloween. Nothing too exciting happened. Haven't missed too much, Fred." That was, as far as whole wizarding world events. The journals were another story and Leanne wasn't going to say a thing about it. There wasn't a need to at the moment. He had just woken up and didn't need to know about all the problems going on. "I don't know if this is classified as something exciting, but Corner got a girlfriend. They were here visiting one time. So were Ernie, Theodore and Draco."

Mike having a girlfriend was exciting, but not earth-shattering. He was young and fit, and Fred's own sister had been caught up with him once before. That wasn't a huge surprise. But Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy? That deserved a drink. Though Fred was relatively certain that wouldn't be allowed. "Seriously? Malfoy was here? For me?" Apparently his head really had been too fuzzy. Maybe she meant he'd been in the area for someone else and had run into her. "At least I didn't miss Christmas," he said with a quiet sigh. Now that would've been too much to take at once.

Leanne thought back to that awkward day. "He was here. I think he might have been here more because of who he was with. Still he was here. And I'm glad you didn't miss Christmas because you might have missed the New Year as well."

"You're more worried about me missing the New Year than Christmas?" he asked, his voice weak but teasing. "Clearly you don't think you're getting a very good gift."

Leanne shook her head. "I wasn't thinking about gifts or anything. It was more the thought of you just lying here for so long." The longer this went on, Leanne was sure it would have become torture. "Can I get you anything?" Not that she didn't mind just talking to him, but she wanted to do something.

Laying still, Fred did a self-evaluation. He had the feeling he was supposed to be seeing the Healer now that he was awake, but he didn't want to. Not yet. Healers always made him uneasy, ever since that Pye bloke had used those stitch things on his dad. No, for the moment, he simply wanted to be left alone. And with Leanne. Who he was still amazed was even there. He knew she'd been interested before all of this had happened, but he hadn't quite expected this level of devotion and loyalty. "Some water, maybe?" he asked, deciding that was the safest course of action.

"I'll be right back then." Leanne told him. She left the room to get him water. A few minutes later, she returned. "Here you go." Leanne held the glass for him to take. "So is there anything you want to know?"

Fred sipped the water slowly, trying to wrap his head around the fact that he'd actually lost two months of his life. And still, only one question hit him. "Why?" he asked quietly. "Why in Merlin's name did you keep waiting around here?"

Why was he asking her that? "You're my friend, Fred. I care about you. Probably more than I should." Leanne whispered. "And you already know that I fancy you. I had to be sure you were going to be alright. And I'm selfish. I'm still going to wait, Fred."

A small smile crossed his face. "So, say it turns out I'm going to be just fine. Still going to hang around here? I mean, you shouldn't, you know. I did give you a scare, what sort of bloke would go and do that?"

"Yes, I will. I'll go when you tell me to go. Until then I am here." Leanne smiled. "You couldn't help it, Fred."

"I still think you shouldn't. You deserve something great, you know. Something far better than daft old Fred Weasley who goes and gets himself poisoned and never even sat his exams and has quite the overbearing mum if you haven't noticed. Oh, and he lives with a sod of a twin, by the by, who happens to be a thousand times better than he is."

"You know that I don't believe that." Leanne said. "You are brilliant, Fred Weasley. No matter what you think. And I think your mum is fantastic." Mrs. Weasley had been so kind to Leanne when they had been there at the same time. But there was the issue of him being poisoned. Leanne frowned. That had been her fault, she was sure of it. That made her think that she shouldn't have come. "I should go."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a second," he protested, reaching out for her hand to make sure she couldn't rush out the door. Frankly, Fred was still too weak to follow her and probably would be for a while. "First you tell me you're not leaving unless I kick you out and then you up and make to disappear on me?" Though he was only just getting to know her well, he knew her well enough to know something wasn't quite right. "What's wrong? I know I'm probably not looking my best right now, but you go two weeks without a proper shower and see how great your hair looks!"

Leanne shook her head. She didn't really want to tell him, but it looked like she didn't have much of a choice. "It's my fault. My fault that you were poisoned," Leanne said slowly, trying hard not to cry. Godric, why did she have to fancy him? Why did she have to feel torn about staying and leaving? "You're right, I shouldn't be here. I might make everything worse and you made me remember that."

"Don't be stupid." Leave it to Fred to put it rather bluntly. Taking the hand he held in his, he brought it to his lips and kissed it lightly. "This isn't your fault. If they have a problem with me being friends with you? With me...caring for you? That's their fault, not yours."

She looked at Fred when he said he cared for her. It was unexpected. "But if you and I weren't friends, you would never have ended up here in the first place. It is my fault."

He gave her a warning look, piercing her with tired but still playful blue eyes. "They don't run my life, Leanne. They almost ended it, and that's not cool with me. But they don't control me." He could have died, and possibly because he was falling for the stubborn, opinionated, outspoken daughter of a Death Eater. Brilliant. "Besides, you don't even know that's what it was. I work in a lab experimenting with crap every day. It could've been anything."

"I think it is. And what about Katie?" Leanne asked. "She was my best friend and then there's you. I think it was because of them." Leanne wiped away a few tears. "I hate this, Fred. All of it. The Ministry is going to fire me. I know they will soon. All because I'm the daughter of a Death Eater. I've done nothing wrong."

Pulling himself up as much as he could, Fred opened up his arms. "Hey, come here you."

Leanne left her chair and sat down on the bed next to Fred.

Gently, Fred wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "Don't think like that, okay? We're going to get to the bottom of this. And when we do, you're going to come out on top because you stayed strong." Pulling back, he took her face in his hands and looked her in the eye. "You stayed strong. Got it?"

She tried to smile as she nodded her head. "I got it." Leanne wanted to stay there, in his arms. Somehow, she felt a little better and it wasn't because of what he was saying. "I hope so."

He had to admit, he kind of liked the feeling of her in his arms. It was hard to say exactly whether he just missed holding someone, or if it was Leanne herself. He had the sincerest feeling, though, that if it had been someone else, it wouldn't have been quite the same. "You know, we should make plans for when I get out of here. Do something fantastic. Rub it in their faces that they lost this one, you know?" Of course, that didn't mean they wouldn't try again. Whoever 'they' were. But he refused to live in fear.

"Sounds like a good plan. We could probably get you one of those muggle recording things and hit the pubs or clubs in the muggle world." Leanne said. That had been a fantastic time, minus the recording thing. The thought was, it might make it better, especially if she drank as much or more than she did the last time. "I miss having fun. So I hope you get out of here soon."

"With you pulling for me, how could I not?" he reminded her. "Besides...if it gives me the chance to dance with you, I'm all in." Had he said that out loud? Oh, yeah. He definitely had.

"Maybe we could see about getting you out sooner than soon." Leanne felt herself blush. "I'd love it if you danced with me."

A mischievous smile crossed Fred's face. His old trusty up to no good smile. He was definitely starting to feel better. "Now, is that because you like to dance, or is that because you fancy me?"

"Both. But possibly more that I fancy you." She admitted, grinning a little.

"Then I guess we really should hurry up with me getting well, then, shouldn't we?" Because honestly, Fred could see him giving it a try, the him and her thing. Maybe he shouldn't, maybe it couldn't have been worse timing, but it made him smile. And as badly as he'd felt lately, he deserved something to smile about. And dammit, so did she.