Aftermath
by Ann3
Writer's Note: I'm baaaa-aaaack ! Yes, after a rather busy spell in RL, I've finally found some lovely free time to get back to my writing.
I'm still working on my By Its Cover series, but... well, to be honest, after seeing Misbegotton recently, that edge-of-seat storyline just got itself stuck in my head, and it doesn't want to come out ! So with nothing too graphic, here's my idea on what you didn't get to see during Beckett's interrogation at Michael's hands.
Spoilers for Misbegotten, of course, with whumpage warnings to come in later chapters. All comments, as always, gladly welcomed !
Chapter One
Incubatus
"N – No… I – I c – can't… m – mus'n't… t'll… mus'n't…"
She woke sharply, for the third time that night, to once again share the silent terrors of his mind. And just as she'd done in those two previous occasions, Laura Cadman cursed in bitter dismay.
Oh, God, no. Not again.
As before, his eyes were still closed, clenched lashes strikingly dark against the pale, stricken face – the faint sheen of sweat across it growing slicker as his head thrashed from one end of the pillow to its other.
"N – No… mus'n't… mus'n't…"
Fighting down her rising alarm, Laura instinctively drew Carson's quaking body closer to hers - bracing herself for the heartbreaking cries and struggles which she knew were coming.
"Sh… it's alright, Carson, you're safe now… you're safe now, baby, it's alright… you're safe now…"
Too deeply snared in his nightmare to acknowledge her, Carson continued to feebly fight her instead. Yet even as those struggles continued against her, Laura held doggedly onto him – a voice that couldn't even begin to hide its worry gently pleading with him to recognise her.
"Sh, baby, it's alright… it's alright, Carson, you're safe now… you're safe now, it's all over... he can't hurt you any more…"
Like hell he can't... she thought bitterly, fighting what she already knew was a lost battle to break Michael's brutal hold over Carson's mind. Like hell he can't.
This closeness of comforting, reassuring contact had been enough to settle him down twice so far that night, before the terrors within his mind had forced him to wake. Or maybe she'd just been perversely lucky that his own physical exhaustion had blessedly intervened.
Except there was something more alarming, more unsettling to it this time, than Carson's tormented restlessness. He wasn't just muttering now, those frantic pleas which had chilled Laura Cadman to the depths of her soul. He was no longer frantically begging his tormentor to 'Jus' bloody kill me an'... and ha'e done with it…'
Instead the nightmare which, so far, had yet to fully claim him, now did so with terrifying force – the barely coherent ramblings now suddenly rising into a full fledged scream of pure and total terror.
"N – No…! Please… oh God, please… don't... no... please, noooo…!"
That scream alone horrified her. Another, more piercing still, seared further agony into Laura's heart.
"Noooooooooo…!"
From pure gut instinct, Laura started to sit up, physically bracing herself to catch him and somehow hold on. He'd never do anything to hurt her, of course, but when fuelled by such complete, consuming terror as this…? Well, holding onto one hundred and ninety pounds of solid Scottish muscle was not going to be easy.
She was already struggling just to restrain his hands, to stop their wild flailing from hurting him further. The chances of stopping him from bolting clear through the wall were… well, slim, to say the least.
As it turned out, though, this further test of her own strength and rational calm failed to materialise. Instead the wildly thrashing body in her arms jerked and stiffened, before falling completely slack. Eyes that had locked in pure terror onto the ceiling lost their focus just as abruptly, losing all trace of lucid awareness as they rolled back beneath their lids.
Stunned motionless herself, it was thirty clear seconds before Laura could shakily whisper his name – her free hand fumbling for her headset long before the second, close to frantic attempt to rouse him.
"Carson…? Carson, it's me, it's – it's Laura… can you hear me…? Carson…?"
Nothing. If anything, totally limp in her arms, he now lay even more terrifyingly away from her. And she didn't need a medical degree to realise that Carson, her cherished Carson, was now in serious trouble.
The face that she'd fallen so instantly in love with, one normally so full of life, so full of vitality, was now totally inert. Still cradled in her arms, his body, too, had fallen into the same, deeply disturbing stillness. Where he'd struggled, just moments before, so desperately against her, now he lay unnervingly limp.
It was his eyes, though, nothing more than slits of blue glass, which now chilled Laura's blood to ice. Barely visible between unblinking lashes, they were completely blank – stripped of all recognition. It was as though someone had reached inside Carson's mind and extinguished all signs of life within.
Stunned and shaken by this brutal awakening, Laura fumbled her headset into still trembling hands. Whatever world Carson Beckett now lay so deathly still and silently within, Laura knew it was light years from this one – prompting another frantic call into the night, one that barely consoled her with its certainty of instant response.
"Medical team to Dr Beckett's quarters… stat…!"