Shawn pressed the back of his hand to my forehead, "You're burning up!"

I breathed in through my mouth and said in a croaky voice, "No wonder..."

Emily was far on the other side of the room - she hated sickness - but she explained to Shawn, "It's probably all the stress."

Shawn narrowed his eyes, "I'm pretty sure you can't get sick from stress, Wednesday."

Em winced with hurt but tried to cover up by saying, "You can. We studied it in Biology, Shawn."

Shawn rolled his eyes, out of Emily's vision and moved his hand to my neck, "Oh god, you're boiling. You need to see a doctor."

I closed my eyes and croaked, "No way in hell am I going to see a doctor, Shawn."

Emily interrupted, "You could see an off-campus doctor? Do you have a GP in town?"

"No," Shawn answered for me, "We see the school nurse - that's what our mum set up. Our GP is back home in Newcastle."

Em sighed, "She's really sick, Shawn. She has to see a doctor."

"I know that," he snapped, "But she definitely doesn't want to see Dr Demonico, does she?"

"Duh," I replied.

There was a knock on the door and I opened my eyes, pulling my bedcovers back up to my chin. Shawn ripped the covers back off me, "You need to break the fever, idiot."

"But I'm freezing, Shawn!" I argued. 

Emily's voice said, "Uh, guys? There's a slight... situation."

I pushed myself up from my elbows and sat up on my bed. I raised an eyebrow at Christian. He was leaning against the doorframe of my dorm with his comforter wrapped around him. He sniffed and said in a croaky voice, "I don't want to say this... but Nat... we need to see the doctors."

Now, how did I know he was going to say that?

***

Emily and Shawn stood a respectable distance away from us sick people as we walked to the elevator. I'd tried convincing Shawn to let me take the comforter with me but Shawn had said no and took away Christian's comforter as well. So we shivered as we moved through the cold building to the sick bay on the bottom floor. 

Emily pushed open the door to the sickbay to reveal Dr Weston sitting at a computer. She coughed a little to grab his attention. He turned quickly, closing his browser, "Hel- oh. It's you."

I narrowed my eyes. Christian croaked, "Nice to see you too."

Dr Weston, "Are you both sick?"

"No shit Sherlock," Shawn scoffed at the doctor.

Dr Weston frowned, "Both of you, sit on the beds. Miss Wednesday and Mr Roberts, I'm going to have to ask you both to leave."

Emily shot an apologetic look at us before scurrying from the room. Shawn scowled as he left, after Emily. 

I let out a loud, hacking cough at almost the same time Christian did. His lasted longer but mine sounded dryer...

I slowly moved to the closest bed and continued shivering on it. I was just wearing a tank top and long pyjama pants. My bare arms were freezing. Dr Weston took Christian's temperature and then proceeded to take mine. 

He hummed beneath his breath and then said, "You're both resting at exactly 40.2 degrees... usually this situation would call for a hospital, but you know we can't do that. Here you go - it will help cool your body down."

He placed an ice-pack on each of our heads but I shivered again, "Too... cold..."

"We need to break the fever," he said simply. Dr Weston then asked me, "Describe your cough for me."

I croaked out, "It feels like I can't breathe. I'm trying to cough up mucus, but there's nothing there..."

"And you, Christian?" Dr Weston asked.

"There's a lot of mucus stuck in the back of my throat," Christian said in a slightly wheezy tone, "It's completely invading my airways."

Dr Weston frowned slightly and then slid to the computer. He opened a document - as important-looking as the last file - and scrolled down a fair way until he found a page titled Sickness. He read through it quickly and then nodded to himself. He began explaining, "It looks like Christian's the one with the actual flu. Because you've been genetically adapted to fit each other, Natalie's seemed to have reacted to your sickness and developed it as well."

Christian coughed violently and I heaved, almost immediately after him, gasping for air. I let out a dry cough and took a few deep breaths to calm my pounding chest. I croaked to Dr Weston, "So because of this experiment, whenever he gets sick - I get sick?"

"Exactly," Dr Weston said, scanning through the document again, "Now that we have that settled - I'd like to know how you found out about Operation Soulmate."

***

After we'd explained how we'd snuck in and read the file - and tried yelling at him through our flu - he was quiet for a long time. He finally said, "I'm somewhat impressed with the both of you. Indeed, you just hurt your throats even more, but I'm still impressed."

"That's all you have to say?" Christian choked, "You stole away three years of our lives!"

"But it worked, didn't it?" Dr Weston softly smiled, "You two have fallen for each other? Whatever happens to one of you happens to the other? You're more than just high-school sweethearts; you're soulmates."

I sniffed indignantly, "Christian and I aren't even going out, Dr Weston."

Dr Weston frowned, "Sure, sure. But aren't I right? The operation has succeeded. Just take this flu as proof. Natalie, you wouldn't have been sick if Christian hadn't been sick."

I pouted and crossed my arms. I was acting like a child but I couldn't stand it. I had a very deep urge to throw myself onto the ground and start kicking my arms and legs. Dr Weston and Dr Demonico didn't even see the effect this operation had had on me in the last few days...

Christian said across the room to Dr Weston, "Why didn't you even tell us about this entire operation? I would have been willing to help if you'd actually told me."

I nodded softly, "Me too."

Dr Weston sighed, "Because it's a lot more complicated than you know of now."

"What do you mean?" Christian asked.

Dr Weston continued, "You have both been seeing each other 24/7 for the last three weeks. What do you think is gonna happen when you both leave to go back to school in a week's time? You aren't going to be able to see each other until at least the holidays in another two weeks. And after that, you definitely won't see each other until the holidays after that, or the Senior School End-Of-Year Formal."

I stared blankly at the bed in front of me. Dr Weston was right. I'd grown so... accustomed to having Christian here that I'd forgotten we were even going to different schools. 

"The next stage is what we call the withdrawal period," Dr Weston murmured, "You two are going to see just how difficult it is to be apart. If you guys both struggle of simultaneous rates... then we'll know for certain that our experiment has succeeded."

"And if that's proven?" I squeaked.

Dr Weston grinned evilly and chuckled lightly, "We'll be producing the information to the government. And you two will help us - become famous if you will."

This hasn't been approved by the government then? But it... it all looked so professional. I swapped a glance with Christian and could tell he was thinking what I was thinking. 

Christian turned to Dr Weston, "Are you even allowed to be doing this to us? Currently?"

Dr Weston nodded, "Of course, we have permission for the experiment. Just, we need to produce results before we can show the political party our experiment."

Political party? As in... the gathering of world leaders? I interjected, "The entire world is going to know about this?"

"Yes," he nodded once, "That's why you two will soon be famous."

I swapped a glance with Christian. Through his brilliant reddish-brown eyes I knew we were thinking the same thing again. He made it seem like we didn't have a choice in the matter - we didn't really. We'd already been overtaken and this... withdrawal period was inevitable. Even if we wanted to back out - which was quite likely - we couldn't. They'd manufactured our bodies so that we couldn't say no. We had no choice - the experiment had already taken us over.

Christian murmured in a croak, "Dr Weston, can I speak with Nat alone?"

"Only of course," Dr Weston said, logging out of his computer, taking the paperwork and walking out of the room. 

It was silent for a moment before Christian whispered, "We have to do this, don't we?"

"We've got no choice, Christian," I replied, sniffing, "We have to go through with this."

"Do you want to... produce ourselves as guinea pigs?" Christian asked quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"Dove..." he whispered, and for the first time he was calling me that outside of our dreamscapes, "We're going to be presented to the entire world as... as clueless idiots that have fallen in love."

Fallen in love? My heart thudded for a moment at that prospect before I clicked into the rest of the statement. 

"Clueless idiots?" I repeated, "I reckon we'll be presented pretty damn well. We are the reason that their project succeeded after all."

Dr Weston walked swiftly back into the room and muttered, "Hell's Angel is here."

I swapped another look with Christian before the door opened again, followed by Dr Demonico walking in. 

She smirked at the two of us, "Damon, I suppose you've already briefed them?"

"Yes, Al- Dr Demonico," he stumbled across his words.

Dr Demonico nodded with a slight, smug smile, "You've told them why they're both sick?"

He nodded.

"What the withdrawal period is?"

"Yes."

"The presentation?"

"Only a bit about it."

"A bit?" she repeated with a sudden frown.

"Well, it hasn't been decided for certain yet, of course," he mumbled.

Dr Demonico hummed quietly and then nodded, "Sure. And you both are okay with this?"

I swapped another look with Christian. He gave me a small smile and I nodded for the both of us, "Apparently, we have no choice. Why not?"

Dr Demonico grinned to herself, threw a knowing look to Dr Weston and then exited the room.

Dr Weston took a deep breath, "That woman scares me. She's hot, but still..."

***

We were sent back to our dorms later that day on bed rest and - for Christian - ibuprofen. The effects the medicine had on me would be the same on him, according to Dr Weston. 

Our drama teacher stopped by the dorm later that day to hope I'd be better by Saturday - when we're performing. Dr Weston had said that we should be better by Friday morning but the coughing would last for another two weeks. 

"Hello everyone, it's Emily Wednesday again, with some sick news," my best friend said into her phone. She'd always had a knack for vlogging on YouTube as far as I can tell. I remember back in Year Eight how she'd secretly vlog our Religion teacher and then rant about it afterwards. 

I rubbed my temples at her irony in the first sentence. 

Emily spun herself around so I was in the shot, "You all remember Nattie, right? Well, she's come down with a... sort of flu. Of course, the one time I get to room with her she's sick. You're just out to get me, aren't you, Nat?"

I groaned at her, "I look hideous. Get the camera off of me."

She scoffed, "Hey, you could be on your deathbed and you'd still look like a Swedish supermodel."

"I'm not Swedish, Em," I croaked and rolled over onto my other side. 

I closed my eyes tightly, closing out the light. When was the last time I had that ...rush through me? It had to have been at least before lunch... which was at least twelve.

I glanced to the clock beside me - it was six p.m. now. 

I groaned and sat up. Emily had moved off to the dorm next door by now, presumably for gossip. I stood up and opened the door, knocking on the dorm door across from me. My brother opened it and I slid to lean across the doorframe.

He frowned, "Stay away. It's bad enough having one sick person."

"Technically, I'm not sick," I sighed, "Where's Park?"

"He's been sleeping since three this afternoon. Why?"

"I need medicine," I rubbed my eyes.

"And he has your medicine, why?"

"It's complicated," I exhaled, "I'll tell you about it when I'm not a passive sufferer of the flu. Now, help me wake up Christian."

Shawn shouted suddenly, "Chris, wake up!"

I jumped and groaned, "Too loud!"

Shawn rolled his eyes and moved away from the door, leading the way to where Christian was trying to wake up. Shawn said, at a normal pitch this time, "My sister's here to see you."

Christian's eyes fell on me and he mumbled, "Whaddayawan'?"

I grabbed the ibuprofen capsule bottle from beside his bed, "When did you last have this?"

"Just before lunch," he muttered and then rolled over, away from me.

"Park!" I croaked out, "You need more medicine."

"No, I'm fine sleeping."

"Park," I sighed loudly, "I'm not. Take more medicine because I'm struggling here!"

Christian held out his hand for the bottle and I dumped two capsules in his hand. He swallowed them dry and Shawn said, "That is not good."

I placed the bottle back on his beside table and grinned, "Thank you..."

Shawn crossed his arms, "You gonna explain?"

"Not today, bro," I muttered and walked back out of the room.

***

YAY! Finally uploaded. I'm sorry for keeping y'all hanging ;\.

I'm going to see Moana tomorrow with one of my friends from school. Have any of you guys seen it? Is it good? (No spoilers plz)

Shoutout to everyone who is reading, voting and commenting and I haven't followed. If that's you, please comment and I'll give you a follow! 

xx Sharky. ^(>.<)^