Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.
"You gonna be alright?" Stella asked.
"Yeah, uh, you know, nothing that a slice and some Guitar Hero can't fix." he answered.
She nodded. "Ok… I'll uh, see you tomorrow."
"Good night," he replied.
He turned and began walking down the street, counting the seconds, hoping she would call for him. When he reached twenty and heard nothing, he looked back. She was gone. He sighed and continued down the street, but instead of turning left to go to his apartment, he continued straight toward a dimly lit bar.
He walked in and headed for "his" seat, at the end of the bar, away from all the other customers. "All" meaning about three. He sat down and ordered a beer. The burly bartender set it down in front of him with a nod. Without hesitating, he took a huge swig, draining half the bottle in two swallows.
"You know alcohol and depression never mix well," a familiar New York accent piped up. Adam turned to see Danny Messer sit down on the stool next to him and order a shot of whiskey. Adam shook his head and smiled as Danny turned his bespectacled head to the nervous lab rat, his expression questioning.
Adam lowered his head in defeat. He knew Danny would never let him leave without some explanation for why Jake talked to him and nobody else. "Might as well dive right in," he thought. Turning toward the blonde detective, he began.
"When I was a kid… my dad believed that physical strength was a sign of a "true man". Both my older brothers were… cooperative… with that thought and played all kinds of sports, so he usually left them alone. I was… different. He didn't understand… why I didn't like going hunting during the summer or playing football. So he thought I must be weak, and he never missed a chance to tell me that." He paused. No response came from Danny, so he continued.
"My dad also believed that alcohol was the greatest discovery in history, so he tended to… indulge. A few times a week he would go… out… and when he came back the playing field was pretty even. It was every man for himself, hide to survive. If he found you… there was no escaping." He paused and rolled up his sleeve to reveal what was once a deep gash on his shoulder, now faded to a jagged scar. Danny's eyes widened at the sight, but he didn't say anything.
"One night, when I was seven, he came back early. He was angry, and we didn't have time to get out of there. My brothers and I ran for it but he caught me… and used my shoulder to smash his half-empty beer bottle. I got a compound fracture in my shoulder… that would have gotten infected if my mom hadn't escaped with me to the hospital." He looked at Danny's horrified expression, understanding building between them.
"What, uh… w-what happened then?" Danny stammered. Adam smiled at the trip-up. It was rare for Danny to be at a loss for words; that was usually Adam's problem.
"Well, I had already struck out so my brothers got to spend the night fending him off. I came back later and found them bruised and bleeding in my oldest brother's bedroom. Thankfully my mom was a part-time nurse so she could treat them." He grimaced at the memory and rubbed his shoulder.
Danny was at a complete loss for words. How had he never known this about Adam before? The quirky lab tech hid a lot of dark stuff behind his otherwise childlike demeanor. Who knew what else he had been hiding. "So is that when the, uh, OCD thing started?" he asked.
Adam shook his head. "No… that started when I was nine... I came home one day from school… I thought the house was empty… parents at work, brothers still at school… it was raining so I thought I'd take a shower… my dad would kill me if I got mud on the furniture."
"I walked into the bathroom, and found my older brother Michael in there… he had, uh…" the words were getting harder to get out. It wasn't often Adam visited this particular memory. Danny placed a hand on his shoulder. He took a deep breath and tried again, "I found Michael… in the shower… dead."
Danny's mouth dropped open. Adam shook away the flashback and continued, "He had hung himself… with our dad's favorite tie."
Like a dam breaking, the tears began spilling out. It was the most painful feeling in the world, remembering. "I almost had a nervous breakdown when I found him… and I just wanted to kill my dad… it was because of him, his fault… I hated him more than ever then."
Danny was gaping at him, clearly shocked beyond belief. Adam tried to clear his throat, wipe the tears from his eyes, but to no avail. He finished off his beer and continued. "So that's when the whole OCD thing started… and it only made things worse… my dad thought I was crazy because I had to get everything exactly right or else I would panic… so he started trying to "fix" me, which essentially meant hitting me every time I started rearranging things to put them in the right order… trying to knock some sense into me I guess." He was starting to hyperventilate now, trying to control his sobs, so Danny ordered him a glass of water to calm him down. A few sips had him breathing normally again.
Danny kept his hand on his shoulder, trying to provide some form of comfort to the miserable lab rat. He had never seen Adam so upset before, so close to a breakdown. It was rather unnerving to think that the most enthusiastic member of their "family" had so much pain to deal with. Why had he never told anybody? Even Stella didn't seem to know how much the poor kid was holding back. It broke Danny's heart to see him cry like this. No wonder he was so jumpy all the time!
Adam wanted to disappear into thin air, or perhaps find a deep, dark hole to crawl into. He thought back to when he had been taken hostage by the Irish drug dealers, absentmindedly rubbing the burn scars on his hand. They were faded now, but he preferred them to the ones left by his father, not only the jagged one on his shoulder, but also the ones he hadn't told anyone about: the whip scars on his back, from his father's belt; burn marks on his leg from being a human ashtray; the knife wound on his leg from an "accident" when his father had been drunk. Holding back more tears, he slid off the bar stool and started to leave.
Just then, he felt Danny grab his arm. He turned to look at the blonde detective, who had a concerned, almost betrayed look. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.
Adam shrugged. "You never asked," he answered plainly. Then he turned and walked out the door, into the night, leaving his companion behind.
A/N: I'm not really sure if I want to continue this story or not, so I'm taking a vote:
A.) Danny goes after Adam, and confronts him about the issue
B.) Adam leaves and the story ends there
C.) Danny tells another member of the team about what happened and asks for advice (If so, who?)
Please include answer in review!