Disclaimer- I don't own Flight 29 Down or any of its characters.
Taylor awoke in a bed not unlike the one she had been in in the hospital. The crisp white sheets were wrapped around her like a cocoon; the sterile smell of disinfectant intoxicated her with a lemony undertone. This bed though, it was different. It was bigger. The phantom sound of machines was non-existent in the foreign room, unlike the perpetual mechanical hum at the hospital. The stale silence the room possessed was suddenly interrupted by the echoing sound of footsteps somewhere far off. As the sounds advanced, a woman in a loose-fitted white uniform emerged in the doorway. Taylor rolled over and feigned a deep slumber as the woman approached her and began jotting notes down.
"Not the talkative type, are you?" the woman noted lightly as she continued to transcribe her observations.
Taylor opened her eyes and peered at the woman. "How did you know I was awake?"
The women laughed lightly, "Oh sweetie, I've been working this job for longer than I'd care to admit. You tend to learn to pick up these things. Besides, the sedative would have definitely worn off by now."
"Sedative?"
"Oh yes, you were quite difficult to get out of the car. You were swinging your arms and kicking your legs, yelling about this and that- they were eventually forced to sedate you. Honey, I've seen some difficult patients but I've never seen such fury. Sedating a patient addicted to opiates is really not something we often do."
"Glad I could spice things up around here," Taylor muttered, the ends of her mouth twitching upwards into a spiteful grin.
The woman looked away from Taylor and scanned the sheet attached to her clipboard. "Taylor, is it? Do you have a nickname… another name you would prefer to be called perhaps?"
"No, just Taylor."
"I see," she mumbled as she continued to scan the paper, "I'll be your nurse well you stay in the detoxification unit. My name is Kieran by the way. You can reach me by pressing that red button- right there on the table beside the bed. You won't be here long; your files say you did most of your detox at the hospital. You should be assigned a room by tomorrow or the day after. For now, just get some rest and reflect on why you're here. Your recovery begins now. Good luck."
Kieran turned on her heel and retreated back to the hallway, shutting the door behind her. Taylor heard the sound of clinking metal, presumably keys jumbling on a chain. A key was inserted into the door's lock and the conclusive sound of grinding gears told Taylor she was trapped in her room for an undisclosed amount of time. She wondered then, how long that would be. Kieran had told her that she would be transferred out of the detox unit in a day or two although Taylor had no way of knowing when the time would pass. There were no clocks, no windows- just Taylor, a bed, a table and a goddam red button.
"You, you're my new roommate?" the frail Asian girl questioned Taylor as she unpacked her things in her new residence.
After a day, or perhaps two, of solitary confinement in her shitty room in the detoxification unit (which had a striking resemblance to that of a high-class jail cell), Taylor was assigned a room and a roommate for her stay at Pine River. She was guided to her new room and had the pleasure of meeting her seemingly neurotic roommate.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Taylor murmured resentfully under her breath, already annoyed with her apprehensive co-inhabitant.
The Asian girl scanned Taylor carefully, taking in her appearance while her face crudely divulged her calculating thoughts. She flipped through expressions like an unhinged slot machine; ranging from acute suspicion to sadness to kind admiration- all the while giving Taylor the creeps.
"I'm Melissa," the girl finally said. "Welcome to club PRI."
"PRI?" Taylor questioned expectantly.
"Pine River Institute; as in the rehab center we've both been committed to. What did you say your name was?"
"I didn't," Taylor said. Melissa stared at her, prodding her to continue. "It's Taylor," she sighed. "Taylor fucking Hagan. Nice to meet you, Melissa."
Melissa grinned, flashing a mouthful of impressively white, shiny teeth. "I have a good feeling about this. We're gonna be friends; I just know it."
'Fuck,' Taylor cursed inwardly to herself 'she's one of those people; the fucking friendly ones. And here I was, praying for a crabby meth addict.'
"What are you here for?" Melissa inquired casually. Moments after, her eyes grew large and she looked panicked. "Oh! I'm sorry!" she hurriedly apologized. "I wasn't trying to be rude! You don't have to tell me if you don't want to! I just thought we should, you know, get to know each other since we're roommates and all. Really, I wasn't trying to be nosey at all. I was just wondering- that's it. You don't even have to answer that question; just forget I even said it!"
Melissa's fumbling awkwardness was too painful for Taylor to bear. What a sweet girl like her was doing in a place like this, Taylor didn't know.
"Heroin," Taylor offered. "That's why I'm here- mostly heroin. Although there were many other things of course, but that's the main thing I guess. It's what I OD'ed on a few days ago- it's why I'm here, now."
"Oh," Melissa said softly, taken by Taylor's forwardness. "It's Ketamine for me. Cutting too though, but I've mostly gotten over that."
"Cool," Taylor breathed in relief, satisfied she'd made Melissa descend from her state of verbal hysteria.
A bell- like the crusty old metal ones schools have used since the forties with their piercing, loud cry- echoed throughout the facility's network of hallways. Melissa's ears perked at the sound and she grinned broadly. It was dinner time, she told Taylor excitedly. Taylor couldn't understand why institutional food held such an allure for Melissa, although she guessed she was an adamant foodie despite her withered frame. Melissa led her through a series of hallways and they arrived at the noisy social center of PRI- the cafeteria.
"I don't understand," Taylor exclaimed suddenly, halting her activity of pushing her disgusting food around her plate. She turned her glance to Melissa, "You've barely touched your food yet you were so excited about dinner. What's the deal?"
Melissa surprised Taylor by wearing a guilty expression. "It's not really the food I was excited about," she admitted, "it's more of a person that I get excited about, actually."
"Who?" Taylor asked curiously. She scanned the room in front of her and only saw a assembly of sickly looking men and women- perhaps a few past the bar of decent looking.
"Him," Melissa said nodding her head in the direction over Taylor's shoulder.
Taylor turned around and was immediately drawn to a bored pair of piercing blue eyes. The handsome boy looked up, catching Taylor's gaze. Electric shocks raced up her spine, sending tremors to her hands. They stared at each other with mutual interest, both examining each other and sending messages through their stare, as if to say: who the hell are you? After what seemed like hours of their locked gaze, Taylor dropped her eyes and turned back to Melissa.
"He's cute," Taylor admitted timidly, still shaken by her intense interaction with him.
The exchange went unnoticed by Melissa. She began to chatter insistently and giggle every now and again, explaining her admiration for the handsome boy. She sounded like a love-stricken school girl, the kind Taylor had always scoffed at in the past. Taylor had never been one to get giddy over a boy. They were just boys- plenty of them, totally disposable in her mind. But something about this particular boy had Taylor awe-stricken and she was frustrated for being so taken by him.
"What's his name?" Taylor asked.
"Jackson- that's it, one name. No one knows if it's his first or his last. He's an enigma. He doesn't speak to anyone; he always looks like he's thinking something really deep- he's really just a mystery. Oh, and he's totally hot."
A/N: Tada, my second chapter just as promised. Thanks for the review(s) and those who PMed me with praise, criticisms and comments. Not to sound like a broken record, but feedback is greatly appreciated. In later chapters Jackson and Taylor will begin to have interactions with each other and the emergence of the foreshadowed love triangle will appear much like the poorly handled one the show. I mean, am I the only one that thought the series ended the Jackson-Melissa-Taylor conflict on an unsettling and largely unresolved note? I enjoy both couples immensely so I would have enjoyed seeing at least one of the potential relationships develop. The writers could have at least written in a kiss somewhere. Anyway, you can tell me your thoughts on the series' (poor) ending in your comment. Hope you enjoyed the newest installment! Review away!