Save Me
Summary: How is it that the one person keeping Teddy Daniels sane in Shutter Island is a madman? (Teddy Daniels/George Noyce slash if you squint) One-shot.
A/n: I'm goin' to hell...
"George? Georgie?" called Teddy Daniels through the uncannily quiet halls of Ashcliffe Asylum. Teddy wasn't quite sure how he managed to befriend the schizophrenic nightmare, George Noyce. Perhaps it was because he seemed like the only man in the hellhole that seemed to make sense. Fuck the doctors, fuck the orderlies. "Twitches" as Teddy had nicknamed Noyce (on account of his tendency to twitch when speaking) made more sense than the men in the white coats. Placing one's trust in a man who had been fed LSD by the United States government until his mind had burnt out like a cigarette was probably a death sentence waiting to be signed, but if that is what it took to get off Shutter Island so be it.
"George!" Teddy yelled. He was an idiot to allow himself to get separated. If the guards had found that George had escaped his cell, he'd be eaten alive by the other prisoners, or beaten by the guards so badly they'd throw what was left of him into the sea.
"TEDDY!" came a scream, echoing throughout the corridors. Frantic, terrified, pained. But where was it coming from? "TEDDY! HELP ME!"
Daniels realized with a pang of dread that the voice was coming from the D block, a place the orderlies called "Cannibal Row". The most feral of the inmates lived there and were never permitted to see the light of day. They seemed more like monsters than people. George had walked right into the lions' den...
I ain't leavin' here without him! I couldn't save Chuck, but I can save George! I'll feed myself to those sumbitches if that what it takes!
Teddy raced down the labyrinthine hallways, following the sounds of chains and cannibalistic growls, praying George would keep screaming, just to let Teddy know he was still alive. Daniels ran to the door to Cannibal Row, ramming his shoulder into it to try to thrust it open. George's screams were getting more frantic, more pained.
"JESUS CHRIST, TEDDY, GET ME OUTTA HERE!"
Teddy gave one last shove and the door burst open, allowing him to see just what sort of nightmare the bowels of Ashcliffe Asylum had to offer. Throngs of crazed, flesh-hungry inmates were all trying to get their hands on George. Noyce was putting up the best fight he could, almost turning into an animal himself. Scratching, biting...whatever it took to stay alive when tooth and nail was all you had. Daniels himself began to claw through the crowd, allowing these demons to tear at his clothes, his own flesh, if that's what it took get get to George.
"TWITCH!" Teddy called over the din of hungry snarls. Noyce turned, a thank Christ you're here! look on his bruised and bloodied face. Teddy's own look of relief turned to terror as one of the residents of Cannibal Row grabbed George by the shoulder, clawing at him, digging her nails deeply into his shoulder. Noyce made to fight her off when another monster, a man, sank his teeth into Noyce's side.
Teddy ran to his friend's aid, attacking the male inmate with a shard of broken mirror. The cannibal fled, tearing a chunk of flesh from George's side as he did so. Noyce's scream of pain caused his other attacker to flee.
"George...Jesus..." Teddy whispered as the cannibals backed away, frightened of the shard of reflective glass he was holding.
Noyce had both hands pressed against his injured side, his breathing shaky. Blood was pouring from the wound.
"I've got ya, Twitch, dun worry," Teddy said, putting his arm around George's waist, pressing his own hand against the heavily bleeding wound. He was so thin...Teddy could feel his ribs against both of George's hands as well as his own. Teddy led George out of Cannibal Row and as far from D Block as possible.
In Daniels' search for George, he'd found an empty cell. He knew he had to get Noyce there so he could better examine his accomplice's injuries .
"Raining..." Noyce whispered, his hands starting to go slack under Teddy's own. "It's raining again..."
No... thought Teddy. Don't do this to me...don't leave me all alone...
Daniels found the vacant cell and kicked open the door. He half-dragged, half-carried Noyce over to the grimy mattress lying on the floor. George was weak, barely conscious, but breathing.
"Please, Twitch...don't leave me here. You're the only thing keepin' me together," Teddy said, holding George in his arms. Noyce gave him a weak, pained smile, as though he'd understood.
If I didn't have you, I'd be just like you.