Summary: Post 2X06 Freddie survives his run in with and is now coming back to the hour. His injuries however, has left him the shell of a man he once was. Maybe a bit of danger will liven him up again. BelxFreddie
Chapter 1
Poor boy, Minor key
Freddie woke to the ring of his alarm. It had been far to long since he'd heard the familiar sound. He reached over to the night stand turning the clock off and slowly swung his legs out of bed, making his way to the bathroom to get ready. This was supposed to be his first day back at the hour. When he'd come back from Paris he'd been ecstatic about returning. This time the thought of being back to the office made him nervous.
Picking up a tooth brush had become quite a task for freddie. He grabbed at it several times, repeatedly dropping the brush into the bottom of the sink. "Dammit all..."
"You've suffered from a traumatic brain injury . You've very lucky to still be with us right now." The doctors words were slow and deliberate, tone not alluding to the slightest hint of empathy. "It's going to take things a little time to get back to normal for you. Problems with: memory, motor skills, sleeping habits, and concentration are fairly common. Especially with an injury of this severity."
Freddie had spent a month in physical therapy to get him up and moving again. He'd been released from the hospital the week previous and told that he would be allowed to return to work on Monday if he was feeling up to it.
Bel had called the night before to tell him not to come in. "It's to soon," she insisted, "you're only going to frustrate yourself." She knew how easily he would get upset when he found himself unable to accomplish the simplest tasks, like brushing his teeth. His hands were by far the biggest obstacle at the moment, namely when he tried to pick things up. He wasn't able to get a grip on things, literally or figuratively. Lucky for him he had Bel. Who had been a huge help to him in this whole process. She would often go to his physical therapy sessions. She'd helped him learn to walk again. Freddie couldn't remember a single day where she hadn't come to see him at the hospital, even if it was only for a little while on her lunch break or after work.
That being said, although Bel had been by his side nothing seemed to have changed between them. Freddie figured that it was probably best if he pulled himself back together proper before mentioning anything about the relationship that had briefly started before this incident.
Bel was at the office early that morning. She hadn't slept well the night before. She's been far to busy thinking through the night of the morning would hold for them. Would Freddie showed up? She hoped not, even if deep down she knew that he would. There was no way to keep Freddie Lyon away from his work or out of her hair.
Over the past month Bel had watched over him. She'd watch him change. Bright, arrogant Freddie,the one that liked to push her buttons, but managed to make her feel like there was no one else in the room. He'd given way to a frustrated, angry boy. He reminded he of a child, trying to learn the simplest skills again. It upset her to see him so distressed. Sometimes he'd be mid sentence and then just stop completely unable to remember what he'd been talking about only moments before.
He still wasn't able to remember most of the incident. According to Freddie. " Last thing I remember was Meeting at the cinema and then I woke up in the hospital." He was able to put enough together to know he'd been attacked by. That was fairly rest of the details were blurred into obscurity. Bel on the other hand could remember everything.
She'd coming running out of the studio to see Freddie laying in the grass. His face, hair and clothes soaked in blood. His eyes seemed to be focussing and as he looked up at her as she knelt next to him.
"Money Penny..." He muttered.
"Goddammit Freddie you...y-you stupid stupid-"Bel's sentence dissolved into sobs. She grabbed his bloody hand holding it tightly.
Freddie at the time was positive that this was going to be the moment that he would die. "I love you...I love you..." He repeated, starting to fade in and out.
"Don't you die on me Freddie! I need you." Bel said. " I love you too Freddie Lyons." She said it a little to late for Freddie to hear her as he's passed out from loss of blood.
Bel hadn't wanted to be the one to bring it up. She'd been afraid reminding Freddie of this fact would only bring more unneeded stress into his life. She was aware that he still remembered their kiss, how could anyone forget. He hadn't seemed to Keene on bringing up the subject though. When the time was right they would talk about it. Right now was time when Freddie's focus needed to be focused on something else.
The basic morning routine had posed to be a problem for Freddie. The night before had been the first night he'd spent in his apartment without either Bel or Lix around to help him. Bel had said that if he wasn't able to manage by himself then he wasn't ready to be back in the office just yet. That was the stupidest idea Freddie had ever heard...until he dropped a kettle of boiling water on himself trying to make tea. He'd also had to go downstairs and ask Sissy for help buttoning his shirt which he'd become desperately irritated with his inability to do.
Still somehow he managed to get to the office on time. "Morning Money Penny." He said, poking his head into her office. A small smile crossed her face.
" I knew you'd show." She said, shaking her head at the boy standing on the opposite side of her desk.
"Of course, you didn't think you could keep me away. We've got a show to put on." Freddie said.
"No, you're here because I told you not to come and you want to prove to me that you can handle this." Bel shot back, looking back down at the papers on her desk. She wasn't to far from right.
" I can do it and I will." Freddie said, walking out of her office and heading to his own.
In the hallway he came across Hector, late as usual. "Well, if it's not the walking dead man. Welcome back." He said, clapping freddie on the back. Freddie swayed a bit at the force.
" Morning Hector." He said as he kept walking.
The morning went much the same way Bel had thought that it would. Freddie seemed to be getting more annoyed by the minute. The type writer, once the boy's best friend was now his arch nemesis. He couldn't type properly, or manage to change the pages when he messed them up. Isaac as his assistant had offered to do his typing for him so that he wouldn't toss the type writer out the window. To Freddie this had started to seem like a very valid possibility. It was then that Freddie realized even without having to type he couldn't properly express his thoughts to others. Isaac didn't have the heart to point it out to him. Freddie was aware that his thoughts were disjointed and internally he thanked Isaac for allowing him to try anyway.
There was also something else missing. Where he'd been covering what was possibly the biggest story any of them had ever covered in their careers only a month ago, now he was back to covering debutante scandals and things of no real consequence. He was purposefully being left out of anything that really mattered. Those stories were being given to Lix and Hector. Freddie felt as though him being their was just them humoring his ego after his injury. There was no excitement in the job for him, and although he hated to admit it Bel was right. So halfway through the day he disappear to remove himself from a situation so as not to burden them any further.
"Isaac where's Freddie?" Bel asked when she noticed that he'd been missing for a while.
"Not really sure." Isaac said. " He said he was going to give the typewriter another crack so I've been in the projection room looking at some footage."
"I'll...be back in an hour." Bel said, going back to her office to grab her coat.
She stood in front of Freddie's apartment door. The one that his Father had
Lived in. The one that he'd shared with his wife Camille before she left him. In her left hand she held the spare key Freddie had given her to take care of the place while he was in the hospital. She hadn't given it back to him yet incase there was some type of emergency. She slipped the key into the hole, turning it slowly so it wouldn't make a sound. She did the same with the door knob, attempting not to make a sound.
Bel found Freddie sitting on the floor in his bedroom next to him a half emptied bottle of whiskey. She wasn't sure if he'd been working on it for a while or if he'd done that much damage to the bottle since he'd left Lime Grove Studios earlier that afternoon. The Answer turned out to be neither, He'd been unable to get the bottle open. That had been the straw that finally broke the camels back and brought him to tears. Nothing about this was normal. This wasn't Freddie this was a ghost masquerading as Freddie Lyons.
"Have you come to rub it in my face that I should have listened to you or are you going to help me?" Freddie asked, he'd known Bel was standing there although he hadn't bothered to look up at her.
Wordlessly she crossed the room. She picked up the bottle with one and hand with the other pulled Freddie to his feet walking out into the living room. She grabbed 2 cups and put them on the small kitchen table, and poured 2 drinks. She handed one of them to Freddie and sat opposite him. " The doctors told you it wasn't going to happen over night. You're just not ready yet. You need to give yourself a little more time." She said.
"Bel, I'm bored out of my skull. I can't be locked up and stagnant anymore I need something to work on a real story. You're just throwing me a bone so that I'll feel like I'm part of the team again." Freddie snapped. He wasn't entirely wrong about this fact although Bel would never admit it.
"Freddie the pond is a little dry at the moment there's not a whole lot going on the home front right now." Bel said. " After the scandal with Cilente so many people were implicated that we don't have much left to work with."
"I need a challenge Bel, I'm getting dull I can feel it. That's why I concentrate on anything." Freddie insisted.
"No, I'm pretty sure that's got something to do with the multiple blows to the head you took." Bel said. Freddie responded with a role of his eyes.
"That was without a doubt the best story that any of us will ever cover in our careers." Freddie said. " I keep myself awake at night trying to figure out how we're going to top it. You know that we have to."
Bel pulled a cigarette out of her bag. She knew that Freddie was right. If they wanted to keep The Hour going they would have to have a continuous supply of shocking news like they'd provided so far. They would have to find ways to keep topping their biggest scoop with a bigger one. She lit her Cigarette and offered one to Freddie who took it, staring into his empty cup. "You don't need to worry about that right now. I need you to get better so when that next big story comes along you'll be able to write it without forgetting or destroying your type writer."
"It's just my hands Bel, they're the only problem left..." Freddie said.
" And your mind, you can't remember what you're talking about half the time." Bel retorted.
" I can remember what I'm talking about right now just fine." He snapped back.
" Right now, what about in 10 minutes."
"It's still a little fuzzy I know but... I'm starting to remember...the things that happened that night, they've been coming to me in Dreams." Freddie said.