AN: I absolutely adore Heather. A lot of people have contempt for her but I think this character is simply wonderful. So if you have a strong dislike for her, I suggest you exit from this page fast! I also feel the same way about Alejandro – those two were meant for each other! It's a shame we won't be seeing more of them from the Total Drama series.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to visit this! I have another Alejandro/Heather fic I'd like to write, but I'm juggling two stories at the moment. I just wanted to write this bit after I finished watching the series online and I was rather unhappy with the ending. So this is an alternate take that isn't any better, but probably something easier to swallow than the canon ending. Not too sure how long this story will be as well – normally I plan out the chapters but we'll see how this rolls out.

If you haven't seen the entire season, I warn you there are spoilers for the ending! Continue on if you'd like to know who ends up in the final two and who wins (from this story's perspective) or try and finish watching the series before you read this!

Disclaimer: Total Drama World Tour belongs to its respective owners!

It was a week after it all happened. And it all just seemed too surreal. The fact I was in the final three for a short amount of time, the crazy and lethal challenges Chris came up with, and that accident. God. Talk about totally messed up and unexpected.

I wouldn't consider myself a real great friend of Heather's but she wasn't all that mean. Sure, she teased me a little too harshly on more than one occasion and tried to beat me with a sledgehammer in Sweden but we were allies. We were stuck on the same team since the beginning of third season and we had worked together to vote out Courtney more than once. And she had taken my pep talk seriously when she was stuck in that cage in Hawaii with Alejandro running off to get the prize money. Since when does Heather do that?

So when it all happened… I just couldn't not visit her. Who else would? Sierra was with me, too. I looked up from the bouquet I had picked up for the visit to look at Sierra.

We were sitting in the waiting room, waiting for some professional looking doctor to usher us into the room. Sierra was idly humming herself the tune to one of the songs we sung during the show and was busying herself putting some final touches on her home made card. She smiled when she noticed my stare and squeezed my leg affectionately. She was still pretty creepy but things had toned down after she risked everything for me during the show and we became closer that I would have ever expected. She massaged the side of her head for a quick moment – probably checking to see if more hair had grown out in the past couple of days – and went back to humming a catchy tune with her hand fanning the wet glue on her card.

A doctor finally popped out after our thirty minute wait, looking somewhat disappointed as he scanned his clipboard with his patient's information.

"You're here for Ms. Yamamoto, right?" Sierra nodded at the doctor's question and he seemed slightly relieved. "Maybe seeing some friends will do her some good, she's been catatonic ever since she's been admitted into the hospital. Please, follow me this way!"

We were directed to an area that wasn't as noisy as the lobby of the waiting room, instead sounded with quiet murmurs of nurses and visiting doctors and surgeons. There were also the small chirps of patients' heart rates from the machines hooked to their bodies and the smell of the area had this acrid sweet air lofting from room to room. I cringed; I never really liked hospitals. I glanced at Sierra and she seemed just as uncomfortable as me, clutching her letter close to her chest with one hand and following closely behind with a crutch in the other. It wasn't long until the doctor took a sudden turn into a room and I assumed it was hers.

"Heather, you have visitors today!"

The room was decked out with large bouquets and flower arrangements with helium filled balloons with "Get Well Soon!" stretching across their fronts in some fancy font. There were also several stuffed animals that occupied the tables besides the patient bed along with a few cards – one that seemed to be homemade with messy scribbles for words plastered on the front with glitter, another homemade one that was white and decorated with thin pink calligraphy, and one that seemed store bought with a simple picture of a white Hawaiian flower. A plumeria. Sierra said that it was Heather's favorite flower. How sad was that?

It wasn't as sad as Heather though. When we entered the room and her doctor had spoken so enthusiastically, she just stayed still in her bed. Her hair was out of its usual ponytail, looking scraggly and long as it fell over drooped shoulders with her bangs uncharacteristically falling into her down cast eyes. The only bit of movement I caught from her was a slight twitch from her lips, but even then, it was drawn into thin line on her face. A moment of awkward silence passed through the room before the doctor graciously excused himself from the room. It was obvious he wanted to get the hell out of their by the way his white coat flapped crazily behind his quick strides.

Sierra and I looked at each other nervously for a moment until I let out a shaky breath. I was the first to take a step towards her bed side and I awkwardly fumbled with the flowers in my hands – they were plumerias, too. When Sierra quickly followed my movements I hesitantly laid the arrangement onto her covered legs and Sierra placed her card on top.

"H-hey, Heather… What's up?" Even now I looked like a dumb idiot with the way I stumbled over my words when I was nervous and how I gnawed on my bottom lip anxiously with my teeth. Heather's eyes didn't move upwards to me but tilted her head slightly in our direction, seeming to stare at the area around our feet and abdomens with an unreadable look. Another moment of silence passed before her voice rasped out, sounding crackly and exhausted.

"Dirty sneakers… Tacky green ballerina slippers… Really, you'd think you would at least try to look decent when you bothered visiting me…" Her tone was sharp but there was a small smile on her face – and it wasn't her signature smirk. It was a small but sincere smile.

"Heh, well, I didn't exactly win the one-mil, so I can't afford anything great!" At the reference to the show, Heather's smile faltered slightly. Smooth, Cody, smooth…

"At least we're here, right!" Sierra quickly quipped in to save my disastrous move and pushed her card closer to Heather's body. It was decked out in array of glitter that would make the prettiest rainbow look shabby and had glittering stars framing a picture of Heather's smug smirk at the center. She must have drawn that herself because it had a cute, cartoony look to it.

Heather's eyes shifted slowly to the card and her smile stretched across her face a few more centimeters to our relief. Her bed sheet had been covering her lithe figure up until her arms and the hospital outfit she was forced to wear came up to her elbows, so I couldn't really see much of the appendages. That was until she let her right arm slowly recede from the sheet.

I don't think we both meant to do it intentionally, but Sierra and I sucked in sharp breaths at the sight. The previously flawless skin now had a yellow splotch the size of a small paperback book in the middle of her forearm while another started near her elbow before it escaped into the sanctity of her hospital shirt. They were blistering; the splotches were moist with puss and probably what was probably some medical aid. Heather ignored our sounds of shock to open the card weakly, her blank grey eyes slowly reading over the letter. Her eyes flicked from top to bottom once, twice, and then thrice before she finally closed the card. Her hand weakly reached for the expensive flower bouquet I got for her to pet the petals appreciatively. Her long fingers pulled out one of the plumerias to bring close to her face and she inhaled the strong scent deeply.

"…Thank you for coming," She said before placing the flower back into the bunch neatly and pushed back her unkempt bangs behind her ears. I smiled a little to see the Heather I knew slowly show itself albeit in a small dose. "I really didn't think anyone would come…"

"Well, you were a conniving, plotting, back stabber… but I have to admit, you have the best tactics out of the original cast of Total Drama. Most def a threat and someone everyone loves to hate!" I nudged Sierra in the ribs at that horrible attempt of a compliment. That was a compliment, right? But Heather just smirked a little and casually pushed her hair behind her shoulders.

"At least I wasn't an insane and bald stalker bent out on collecting all of Cody's tidy-whiteys."

"Hey! I'll have you know some of my underwear is green!" Sierra giggled at my embarrassed blush and Heather just smiled, her dull eyes still indirectly staring at our midsections. I dunno if I was just imagining it, but I had a feeling she was too scared to look us dead in the eye. I shook off the feeling along with Sierra's wiggling fingers and looked back at Heather.

"…So, how are you?" The girl's face darkened slightly and her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She shifted awkwardly under her sheets before pulling left corner of her blanket away from us. Her entire left side was exposed to us and I shrank away in embarrassment and disgust. Sierra flinched but leaned in towards the bed, examining the heavy duty bandaging that started at Heather's toes up until her thigh. I couldn't really tell since her gown was in the way and I couldn't exactly peak up under there either. By the way she shifted, I suspected even her torso and abdomen were bandaged just as heavily and her left arm was wrapped in layers and layers of gauze. The bandages may have managed to hide the burns, but the entirety was almost discolored brown, red, and yellow to show the severity of the wounds.

"They need to change my bandages. They don't know they need to because I always hide under the blanket and say I'm feeling fine," Heather's right hand gingerly rubbed her left arm but quickly pulled it away. She indifferently looked to see moist blood on her finger tips and idly wiped her fingers on a tiny clean portion of her bandages.

"God, this is totally going in my blog – title: Heather's Too Cool to Care about Clean Bandages!" Sierra piped up dramatically but I could tell she was just putting up a show. Her nose was wrinkled at the coppery smell that accumulated under the bed covers and the possibility an infection was festering under the wrappings. Heather must have noticed how uncomfortable we were with her nonchalant attitude because she covered her body a second later.

"Whatever, I'll call a nurse after you guys leave to get it fixed. The smell is starting to bother me anyways."

"Well, that's good I guess… How're you though?"

Heather's eyes closed and she leaned back into the pillow that was placed at the small of her back in the bent bed. Sierra hastily limped to the other side of the bed to gently touch Heather's undamaged hand. Sympathy washed over me and I felt like a total jack ass for even opening my mouth.

"Never mind, I don't need an answer,"

"Yea, it's totally fine, Heather! I'll totally start a mean rumor about that creep Alejandro and you can totally spit in his face at the reunion tonight!" Heather's brow knitted together slightly and she opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling darkly.

"I have surgery tonight, so I won't be going." Sierra's face fell a little but she continued on.

"…Oh… is it major?"

"Well, duh. But a lot of it is reconstruction of my muscles and other crap. Nothing intense will be done to my major organs, I'm sure."

"That's great! Since you can't come, I'll start that rumor anyways and cheer you on live during the show! You'll watch, right?" Her eyes were as big as ever and hopeful. I'd seen that look before and it was pretty hard to say no to. Normally, I'm sure Heather would sneer in blatant annoyance but she just indirectly looked at Sierra and smiled very faintly.

"I guess I'll give you losers the benefit of my attention. Shouldn't you guys get going if you want to make it in time for the reunion, anyways?"

I glanced at the clock and smacked my head in shock. Crap, I hadn't realized that we stayed longer than we thought. I didn't think the wait to see her would be so long and I honestly thought we'd just pop in and out. But Heather just looked so defeated in that bed with all those gifts and flowers surrounding her while she looked lifelessly ahead of her. I looked at Heather to see her head tilted in my direction slightly, as if prodding me to leave with my stalker to recover herself.

"We'll visit again, okay? Get well soon, Heather," Sierra nodded happily and skipped to my side. She latched onto my arm affectionately and turned to look at Heather with sincere eyes.

"We'll definitely be back soon! I hope your surgery goes well! Coderra's got your back, Heather!"

"Sierra, please!"

Heather smiled a little at Sierra's light joke before looking back down at her lap to examine our gifts. We both turned to leave but I a shot a glance back. The way she buried her face into the flowers made my stomach sink with guilt.

"…ody? Coooody? YO, CODY! Are you in there, bro?"

I jerked up from my thoughts to see Chris staring at me with frustration. Everyone else was looking at me too, so I guessed I hadn't been paying attention much. All I was doing while the cast mates were being questioned was worrying about Heather, surprisingly. I dropped any further thoughts and shook my head blearily.

"S-sorry, Chris. What did you say?" Chris made a growl of frustration and through his hands in the air. Chef rolled his eyes in exasperation and took down the clip of Sierra coddling me in my sleep from the display screen separating himself and Chef from the cast mates. Wait, what the heck was Sierra doing to my - !

"Listen, dude. If you're gonna be here for the reunion, pay attention. I don't have the time for your day dreamin', okay? Time is money! Moving on to the segment since Cody is wasting our time," I rolled my eyes at Chris while Sierra patted my back. She probably knew what I was thinking too because she was chewing on her thumbnail unconsciously and twisting the hem of her shirt in her other hand. We both looked back to Chris after he finally landed on a note card he guessed would bring most drama out of tonight's show. He looked up with a small smirk to lean back in his seat smugly, twirling the card in his fingers.

"So, Cooooody… What were your thoughts on the final three?" I wasn't the only one that felt uncomfortable from the question because a lot of people that made it to at least the top ten squirmed around or looked away abruptly from the cameras and Chris. McLean's smirk stretched even wider and he made his signature chortle of delight. "C'mon, dude! Do you think it was fair that Alejandro knocked out your chances of being in the final two and totally manipulated Heather till the very end? You know what – don't answer! Roll the clip!"

My mouth sagged in horror as the screen buzzed with white noise before cutting to the scene of Alejandro running to the top of the volcano victoriously with his pineapple sacrifice.

"Looking for this?" Chris cried dramatically in the clip, to which Alejandro responded with an eager look.

"Thanks for everything!" He hissed excitedly to the sacrifice replica of Heather and tongued the head happily. He inched towards the volcano's mouth to throw over the replica-Heather when the real thing herself pulled herself up, wheezing and baring her teeth angrily.

"NO! I can't catch my breath!" Her legs wobbled, threatening to give way as Alejandro turned smugly away from the volcano, taunting her with how close he was to winning it all.

"You are gorgeous when you've lost!" Heather's lips quivered as she realized everything was coming to an end. Her eyes watered and her head felt fuzzy from the shock of utter defeat and the smoldering heat escaping the fiery pit of the volcano.

"I've worked so hard, and now you're just gonna take the mil and vanish from my life forever… Just throw your stupid doll in the stupid volcano already!" Her tears fell in fat drops to the burning rock only to evaporate. Alejandro looked pleased and stepped closer to the wreckage that was Heather. He pressed on his taunting with a small hint of sincere curiosity while he stepped closer to the girl.

"So, what are you more upset about losing? The million… or me?"

"Are you cracked?" Heather's face flushed visibly from the remark and she threw her arms up in embarrassment. Alejandro's smirk grew even wider. "I would never fall for a jerk like you!"

"Then why are you blushing?"

"Hello! We're, like, beside the hottest thing in the planet!" Alejandro's brilliant eyes narrowed viciously but he resumed his smug gait by flipping his hair to the side nonchalantly.

"Admit it! You're in love with me!"

"What! I don't love you! I love y –" The stumble of words made a collective gasp ring around the eliminated cast mates at the finally admitted attraction Heather held for the clear winner of the game. She quickly tried to redeem herself but Alejandro quickly cut her off with a revelation of his own.

"I know what you meant… And I must confess: at first, yes, my intentions were purely strategic. That is no longer the case. Because you – you have stolen my heart! Our connection goes deeper than any game! Together, we could take over the world!"

Heather blushed at the intensity in her competitors eyes – finally after all the denial and mixed signals, Alejandro was admitting his mutual attraction to her. Things were looking up for Heather but she quickly mulled the thoughts in her head: Alejandro? Or one million dollars? She genuinely liked the boy, maybe even more since she had never experienced such a feeling in her life but the one million seemed so much more appealing. Heather smirked inwardly at her new plan – she would trick the stupid fool to get the money herself. Besides, Alejandro would appreciate such tactics and she would offer him a share before apologizing for her selfish actions. It was perfect.

"Wow… I suppose I might actually feel a little something…"

"Mi amor!" The next thing Heather knew what was happening; Alejandro's tantalizing tongue was pushing itself into her mouth passionately, catching everyone else off guard as well. There was a group hiss of disgust but Heather enjoyed the kiss for a moment before she brought her knee up to Alejandro's crotch.

Or that's what she had intended.

"Aha, senorita, did you really think I was that foolish?" Alejandro sneered with a squeeze of emphasis around Heather's leg. The girl was startled – her leg had moved up so fast that no one should have expected it, but Alejandro caught the knee so quick as if he anticipated it. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Now come, mi amor, as I shatter all your hopes and dreams in front of you."

Alejandro pushed Heather forward towards the volcano's mouth fiercely and she stumbled to her knees to the rocky ground. "I don't take well to betrayal, Heather. Fear not, though! I am a forgiving lover… I might just give you one-percent of my winnings!" Heather's mouth flapped in the air in shock at Alejandro's harsh laugh. Was this really happening? She brought herself shakily to her feet to vainly beat her fists against Alejandro's chest in an attempt to stop him from pushing the wooden sacrifice into the volcano.

"You… you can't do this to me!"

"Oh, but I can! Míreme!" Alejandro sadistically kicked the Heather sacrifice into the volcano before the girl's eyes. For a moment, nothing happened – not even a back lash of lava from the throw. Chris took this moment to announce Alejandro as the sole winner of this season with less than happy applause from everyone that had fallen victim to his manipulative ways. Courtney cheered enthusiastically from her spot in the crowd and he smiled cheekily at her. His gaze traveled back to Heather, who was still staring at the center of the volcano's mouth, too shocked beyond words to find defeat when she was so close to victory. He smiled sympathetically and pulled her close to his own body.

"It's okay, mi amor. We will share the money amongst ourse –" His words were cut off when the ground beneath them quivered angry with a guttural sound erupting from the center of the volcano. Suddenly, a geyser of searing lava was spat out towards the two. Alejandro jumped back instinctively but Heather was still aghast, reacting a second too late as the lava fell on her. Everyone screamed in fear and made a mad run down the side of the volcano to find safety. Heather was shrieking in absolute pain with her left side drenched in the molten lava. Her right hand tried to swat her clothes to make the pain go away but only caused lava to spill on her unharmed arm. Alejandro cried out in concern and ran towards her, trying his best to alleviate her pain. But now he was screaming and more lava was beginning to fly out of the volcano's opening with fiery boulders flying towards the camera man and –

"Sheesh, that was intense. Should have totally warned them about the pineapple-in-the-volcano thing… Anyways, let's bring out Alejandro!" Chris began to clap his hands as a signal for the audience to follow along. There were cheers and shrieks of awe from the audience when Alejandro stepped out in all his glory but no one in the cast clapped for him except Courtney. When was that girl gonna get a clue? Alejandro shot those disgustingly sweet smiles towards the cameras and waved his left hand amiably – wait, why was his left hand all bandaged up?

"Welcome back, Mr. Total Drama World Tour Winner!" Chris greeted when Alejandro took a seat next to Courtney. She leaned in and snuggled against his arm but completely ignored her. I fisted the hem of my vest angrily at his detached presence to the glares and sneers from his fellows. Again, his bound and apparently damaged arm came up to his face to brush away his bangs in a glamorous manner.

"It's good to be back, Chris…"

AN: So I'll let the chapter end like this and have you all wondering what direction this story will head in. Hopefully I can update my other story soon before I pick this up again. I hope the ending of this chapter is compelling enough for you guys to continue reading when it has more chapters! Please review if you have any comments or ask some questions – I'll try to answer them without giving too much away. Thanks again for reading! Until next time!