Amnesia Branch AU Chapter 7
Summary: Branch contemplates what life will be like beyond the hospital now that he's broken up with Poppy and pushed away his brothers.
Ao3 Link
Chapter 7
The hospital room is so quiet. The only thing Branch has to distract himself are the many scrapbooks and get well cards that Poppy brought him. All of them feel like billboards reminding that he isn’t the troll that everyone wants him to be.
Poppy’s card sits on his bedside table, but he can’t even look at it. Looking at it feels like a stab to the heart. He still hears the echoes of Poppy pleading with him not break-up with her. When he closes his eyes, he sees the tears that were welled up in hers.
He didn’t want to break-up with her. There is nothing in the world that he wanted to do less than end the one good thing in his life. But after the reunion with his brothers, after they left him again, he realized that a horrible break-up was inevitable.
Continuing the relationship would have only hurt them both. Poppy would be at her wits end trying to help him, and he would spend every second in agony waiting for her to leave him.
Now, that it’s over, the two of them can move on. Poppy can be the wonderful happy troll that he’s come to love. And Branch… well, he’s going to be miserable. But he’ll be miserable in a way that won’t hurt her.
Branch buried the scrapbook that the better happier version of him made at the very bottom of the scrapbook tote bag. He should give that back to Poppy. She deserves at least one memento of the troll she used to love.
Now, there’s going to be no more hospital room visitors. He burned what little relationship he had with his brothers yesterday. There’s no way that Poppy is going to visit him. Not after he broke her heart like that.
Maybe it’s all for the best.
Branch is a poison that hurts everyone around him. BroZone broke up because of him. His grandmother died because of him. Poppy has been a total mess, and why? Because of him.
Everyone is better off without him. No one’s life has ever been improved by him. Every good thing that people say Branch has done is something that Poppy did that they are misattributing to him. She’s the source of all the good in this world.
This solitude is good. He’ll be able to contemplate what his new life will look like. It won’t be exactly like it used to be. The entire social structure of society has changed in a few years, not that’ll matter much given how little he socializes.
Even though he knows that the Bergens and Trolls are allies, he still feels like he should fear them. There’s a little voice in the back of his mind telling him that they are still a threat. Maybe he should start making preparations in case they attack again.
Who is he kidding? They will. Eventually.
All of this “peace between Trolls and Bergens” stuff is a ruse. They’re waiting for the second that the Trolls let their guard down to attack. This time though, they’ll have all the Trolls in the world, not just the Pop Trolls.
Branch won’t let that happen. He has to protect everyone from them, because Lord knows that they are not going to protect themselves. As long as they consider the Bergens friends, they won’t have any defenses.
Morning comes and goes. Just like Branch thought, no one came.
That’s probably how it’s going to be from now on. Not just for his time in the hospital, but for his entire life. He’s going to be alone.
But that’s okay. He accepted that he’ll always be alone a long time ago.
The door opens. He looks over at whoever entered. It’s only Dr. Moonbloom.
“Hey, how long until I get out of here?” Branch asks.
Dr. Moonbloom clicks her pen a couple of times. “Well, you’ve proven to be stable, and, aside from the amnesia, there doesn’t seem to be any long lasting health effects. So, you’ll probably be out of here tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow…” Branch repeats.
“Yes, tomorrow.” Dr. Moonbloom replies.
She proceeds to go over some test results with Branch. There’s a lot of medical jargon that he’s not familiar with. It’s hard to tell from her tone if what she’s saying is good or bad, but given that he’s getting released tomorrow, it’s probably all okay.
Once she’s done, she leaves the room. Leaving Branch alone again.
Tomorrow. That seems so far away. Time seems to move so much slower here. Even though it has only been a couple of days, it feels like he’s spent almost six months in the hospital. It’s getting unbearable.
At the same time, that’s too soon. The hospital has been a controlled environment where he’s only had to face how things have changed a little bit at a time. Once he’s out in the real world, who knows what life will be like for him.
He’ll probably be accosted by trolls that knew the previous happier version of him. They’ll probably all be disappointed once they meet the old damaged Branch. From how many friends the old him seems to have made, he’ll have a lot of trolls to disappoint.
Once everyone gets the news about how awful Branch now, they’ll leave him alone like they should. The Pop Trolls will probably be the first to understand the way Branch is now. They were the ones who had to deal with him for years.
The social order should return to exactly as it used to be. Except for the fact, that Branch will no longer receive anymore invitations or anything from Poppy. She probably hates him and never wants to see him again.
He doesn’t blame her.
There’s a gentle knock at the door. Branch has come to know that knock very well the last couple of days. There is no way it’s her. Not after what happened yesterday.
The door opens with a high-pitched creak.
“Hey Branch!” Poppy says.
She looks better, more well rested, and just as radiant as she always does. There aren’t any obvious signs that she had been crying. Her eyes aren’t red and puffy. In fact, they’re very bright.
It only took a day of not dating Branch, and things seem to be far better for her. Just more evidence that he was bad for her.
“Why are you here? We’re not dating anymore. I broke up with you,” he says curtly. Normally, when a couple breaks up, the two of them try to avoid the other. Then again, Poppy isn’t normal.
The smile seems to fade on her face. “We’re not dating anymore and I respect that. But-” The smile forms on her face again. “Just because we’re not dating, doesn’t mean that we’re not friends!”
Of course, she’s like this about a break-up.
There’s another troll with her. She looks exactly like Poppy, but taller and with wild blonde hair. From the scrapbooks he read, this must be Viva, Poppy’s big sister and Clay’s girlfriend.
Unlike Poppy, she does not look happy at all. She is glaring at him, hard. He can feel her eyes piercing his soul. “Is this your sister?” Branch asks.
“Oh, yeah! I forgot that you haven’t met her yet!” Poppy perks up. “Branch, this is Viva! My sister! She wanted to see you!”
“Hey,” Viva says. She does not give off the vibe that she wanted to see him to check up on him. It feels more like she wants to keep him in check. Make sure he doesn’t say anything to hurt Poppy again.
“Nice to meet you.” Branch is trying extra-hard to be polite to her. He is a little scared of her. She looks like she wants attack him. He doesn’t know what Poppy told her about what happened yesterday, but it doesn’t seem like she said anything good.
Not that there is anything good that could be said about yesterday.
“Anyway, you’re getting out tomorrow! That’s great!” Poppy pulls out a chart from her hair. It looks the charts that Branch usually makes to keep track of what he needs to do. Only difference is that this one is brightly colored and covered in glitter.
“When you get out, I am giving you a tour of TrollsTopia! It’s changed so much over the last 4 years! You’re going to love it!” She starts listing off all the things that they’re going to do. Places that they’re going to visit.
Hearing about all of it feels overwhelming. Branch is tired just thinking about the plans that Poppy is talking about. Maybe past Branch would have enjoyed doing a lot of that stuff, but he’s not sure how much he’d enjoy it.
She looks so happy talking about the tour that Branch doesn’t think he has the heart to tell her that he’s not interested in doing anything. That and he’s scared of what Viva will do if he outright rejects her.
Maybe he’ll see if he can get released a few hours early, so that he doesn’t have to reject her to her face. Instead, he’ll just hide in his bunker and hope she gets the message.
Poppy has always had access to a better more brighter version of the world that Branch has never had access to. Well, he did for a little bit, but all memories of that world is gone. A sign that he was never meant to be part of it.
As Poppy talks, Branch glances at Viva, who hasn’t spoken since her introduction. She is still giving him a death glare. From what he read in the scrapbooks, the two of them were friends before all of this. That doesn’t seem to matter to her now.
From what he’s read, she really does value protecting her little sister above all else. Not even letting someone that she considers a friend hurt her.
Branch respects that.
He wishes that his brothers would have done the same for him. Not leaving the second things didn’t go their way. If they did that, then maybe his life wouldn’t have sucked so much. Maybe things would be better for him now.
Being around Poppy right now is more agonizing then pain he felt when he first woke up in the hospital.
She’s right here. So, very close to him. Acting like nothing happened yesterday. Like he didn’t rip her heart into two. As if things have always been like this between the two of them. He doesn’t know how she can stand it.
Maybe she never cared that much about them being together romantically. Maybe when he broke-up with her relieved her of a burden that she never wanted in the first place. Maybe the whole reason she was dating him was out of pity for how sad and pathetic he was.
That makes much more sense than someone as wonderful and perfect as her falling in love with someone as terrible as him.
After what feels like an hour of Poppy explaining her very thorough plan, she finally reaches the end. “Well, that’s the plan. What do you think?”
“That’s all for one day?” Branch asks. The explanation of the plan took up the whole day. There’s no way that all of that can be done in a single day. It would probably take a whole century to do half of the list.
“No, not all of it.” Poppy shakes her head. “Think of it as another bunker list.”
“Bunker list?” Branch asks. That sounds familiar, but he isn’t sure what it is. He doesn’t remember reading about that in any scrapbooks. Maybe that is somehow the one piece of his memory that didn’t get completely wiped when he hit his head.
“Yeah, it was a list that we made of a bunch of different things to help you be a troll again. This is sort of like that.”
“Huh.” Branch says. “We made it?”
“Yeah! Me and you worked on it together!” There’s a very bright smile on her face. “I actually based all of this off the bunker list. It’s a bit different given how much has changed, but the core of it is still there!”
Branch does like lists and checking things off of them. Still, he isn’t sure just how much Poppy spoke about is meant for tomorrow. It seems like that there’s way too much planned.
“What do you think?” Poppy asks.
“It sounds… nice,” Hopefully, he doesn’t fully convey just how much he does not want to do any of that. Fearing both hurting Poppy and pissing off Viva.
“I knew you’d love it!” Poppy shoots out of her chair. A triumphant smile on her face. “I have to go, but I’ll be back tomorrow I promise!”
She heads towards the door. Her hand on the handle. “Bye! Love you!” She pauses for a second, her smile fades a bit, before exiting.
Viva did not leave with her sister. Branch doesn’t know what to say to her. She is just glaring at him.
“You made a terrible mistake breaking-up with her,” she says.
“I know.” Branch hangs his head low. “But I had to. It’s best for both of us.”
He isn’t sure how to explain his reasoning. Trying to put it all into words seems pointless. How is he supposed to explain how them holding onto each other was only going to hurt them? When he broke up with Poppy, he didn’t think he’d have to explain it to her sister.
“No, it isn’t. You really hurt her.”
Branch sighs. He knows that he hurt her. How could he not? It’s the only thing that’s been on his mind since it happened. “She’ll get over it and find someone who’s better for her.”
The glare Viva gives him tells him that was the wrong answer. “She won’t. You two are perfect for each other.”
“We were perfect for each other,” Branch corrects her. “But I’m not the one that she fell in love with.”
He’ll never compare to the troll that he used to be. No matter how much he wants to be like him, it’s just not possible. It was a series of unlikely events and coincidences that are the reason he became who he used to be.
The stars will never align like that ever again.
“That doesn’t matter to her.” Viva says coldly.
“It should.”
Viva sighs. “You don’t get just how much you mean to her. She loves you so much. You’re one of the most important people in her life. And you know that she isn’t going to stop trying to help you no matter what. So, please at least make it easy for her.”
Branch doesn’t have a response to that. Nothing about his life has ever been easy. Every day has been an uphill battle for survival. Even sitting in a hospital bed, he’s been struggling.
“Get it together, Branch. At least for Poppy’s sake.” She leaves the room.
The hospital room is now silent except for the quiet whirring of machinery.
Branch glances at the card Poppy made him that still sits on his bedside table, all the scrapbooks that surround him. It’s almost enough to make him feel like he really is special to her.
Viva is wrong. He isn’t special to Poppy. She would go through this level of effort for anyone. That’s just the kind of amazing person she is. The kind who would go a thousand miles out of her way just to help someone she barely knows.
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Being around Branch was agonizing for Poppy. Every time she looked at him, she wanted to burst into tears. She wanted to beg him to reconsider the break-up. Ask him if this is really what he wanted.
But that would have been counter-productive.
The purpose of today was to show him that it doesn’t matter how hard Branch pushes her away, she’s going to be there for him. He can break-up with her, be as cruel as he can be, and she’ll still be standing by his side knowing that this is all because he is afraid and in pain.
Still, knowing that he’s acting like this because he’s in pain doesn’t make it hurt any less. If anything it hurts more.
If he acted like this because he was cruel and heartless, there wouldn’t really be anything for Poppy to do. Helping him would be a moot point, because he wouldn’t care. Letting go of him would be so much easier.
But she knows that he isn’t evil. He’s in so much pain. More pain than Poppy has ever felt in her entire life. She wants to do everything that she can to comfort him and make him happy.
There isn’t anything that Poppy wouldn’t do to make him feel happy again. She’d rearrange the stars, alter the course of history, or even tear out her own heart. All of that just to make him feel a little bit better.
The door opens, and Viva exits the room.
Poppy wants to ask her why she stayed behind, what she talked about with Branch. But she’s too exhausted. “I told you that everything was going to go fine. You didn’t need to come.”
“Mhm,” Viva says clearly unconvinced.
This morning, she lost the argument to come see Branch alone. She was insistent that she could handle Branch on her own. In the end, she’s happy that Viva came. Even though she didn’t contribute much to the conversation, it was still nice to not have to deal with this on her own.
“How are you holding up, sis?” Viva asks. “Really. Don’t give me any of that I’m fine nonsense, because I know you’re not.”
Poppy leans against Viva. “I’m tired.” She sighs. “I just want everything to go back to normal.”
Viva pushes some of Poppy’s hair back. “I know.” She pauses for a second. “I have an idea! Let’s go get, ice cream! You need a break from all of this.”
Poppy lightly smiles. “Yeah, I really do.” The two of them head out of the hospital. Poppy feels a bit of anxiety leaving Branch behind, but he’ll be fine.
Tomorrow, Branch gets released from the hospital. There’s a lot that she has to do to make sure everything is ready. She has to make sure that pretty much everyone is briefed on how he is, though it seems like the gossip has spread pretty far already. She has to get all of his brothers to help
The list of what she has to do is so exhausting to think about, but it’s for Branch. All this effort is going to be worth it in the end. It has to.
