Chapter 2
Hi everyone and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all my awesome reviewers! I was very surprised this story got as much reaction as it did. Thank you to ladybugkd03, WonderSquint, SnappleSauce, lynn2424, WestonFollower, Lenika08 and my guest reviewers as well! You guys inspired me to write more, so thank you! Read on and (hopefully!) enjoy!
. . . .
"How're you feeling?" Ryan asked as he went to sit next to Max, delivering her a huge bag of Chinese food that they split open as soon as he sat down.
"Like a truck hit me." Weston mumbled quietly.
"Wouldn't expect any less kid."
"God, I was starving," Max said suddenly through a mouth full of Chinese. Weston couldn't help but smile as he looked over at her with a noodle hanging out of her mouth. She honestly was a mess from head to toe, her hair a complete disaster, yesterdays (or the day before thats) makeup running down her face and the biggest bags he had ever seen under anyone's eyes- but he still thought she was beautiful.
"What?" Max asked incredulously as she caught Westons grin.
"Nothing. Food looks good, is all," he said quickly, trying to cover up his bemusement at the sight of her.
"Oh. Are you hungry? You're probably starving." She looked over at Ryan. "Can he have Chinese? No? Of course you can't have Chinese, what am I thinking?"
"I'm fine," Mike said as he laughed at her, Ryan joining in. "I'm nauseous actually, so no, no Chinese.
"Probably all your pain meds."
"Yeah, well-"
"Don't start." She quipped back through another mouthful of noodles. "I never thought I'd meet anyone as stubborn as Ryan, but then you came along…" The two just rolled their eyes at her.
Max set down her food after scarfing it down and rubbed her eyes tiredly, yawning. It was obvious that she was exhausted.
"You should go home Max." Mike said softly.
"No, you just finally woke up! I've been dealing with comatose you for the last 4 days so it would be nice to actually sit with a live person for a few minutes."
"Oh, you'll have plenty of time to sit with me, it's not like I'm going anywhere fast. Go home." Mike knew this wasn't going to be an easy argument to win.
"Nope." Obviously Ryan and Mike weren't the only stubborn ones in the room.
"You're really going to fight me on this?" Mike asked tiredly.
"He's right Max." Ryan chimed in. "Go home and get some rest. You've been here way too long."
"I've been here too long? What about you? You've been here just as long as me!" Max said defensively at Ryan. She was right, of course, but Ryan wasn't going to budge.
"Max…" Mike didn't have the strength to argue with her. While he didn't necessarily want her to leave, he was exhausted and was craving a quiet room if only for a few moments. Max really looked as if she could benefit from some sleep anyways, and unless you were on as many drugs as he was he knew sleep wouldn't come easy in a hospital.
"Alright." Max said with a sigh, giving in. "I'm just going to go home and shower and change. But that's it."
"Well, that's something at least. Be careful, okay?" Mike said the last few words quite seriously but Max didn't seem to pick up on it as she was scrolling through her phone and grabbing her coat.
"Mhmmm." she said absentmindedly as reached for his hand on the way out.
"Hey." he said sharply, catching her off guard and getting her attention. "I mean it."
She smiled down at him. "I know. You're right. I will, don't worry."
"Well, we'll both worry. Send me a text when you get home." Ryan said, knowing this would ease Weston's mind at least a little, as well as his own. While the three of them had never discussed Max and Mike's relationship, or whatever the hell it was, Ryan had picked up on the subtle hints (or not so subtle hints as of lately) long ago that passed between the two that they were more than just co-workers or friends.
Ryan watched as Max left and spoke as soon as she was out of earshot. "Well, I know all you want to do is sit and stare at a wall, because I've been in your shoes many times. You want me to put something on TV? Give you a break from Max's badgering for a bit..."
"That'd be great. Thanks." Mike said sincerely, sighing inwardly with relief and closing his eyes. As much as he wanted to ask Ryan about everything that had happened, he didn't think he could handle talking about anything right now. And sleep sounded wonderful...
And then suddenly he wasn't in the hospital anymore. Suddenly, he was in a room with Carroll and...Roderick? Wasn't Roderick dead? Well fuck them, he didn't have much to lose, and he for sure wasn't going to give up Claire's location- that's what they wanted, right? But God, it did hurt more than anything he had even felt before. Death wouldn't be so bad. It would be alright. Enter Lily Gray and Max suddenly. Fuck, not Max. They were going to kill Max if he didn't give up Claire's location. Oh God, stop screaming Max, I'm sorry. That's not Max screaming, is i-?
"Mike!" Mike's eyes shot open. There was no Carroll, or Roderick. Ryan was standing over him with a terrified look on his face, shaking him awake.
"Mike, hey kid, it's me. Mike. Max is fine. You're in the hospital, okay?" Mike just looked at Ryan unbelievingly. What had just happened?
"You alright?" Ryan questioned him again. Mike looked around, confused. He was in the hospital. There was no one here that was trying to hurt them- at the moment, at least. Had that really been a dream? If it was, then it had been one hell of a nightmare.
"I...What the hell just happened?" Mike asked Ryan, confused.
"Bad dream." Ryan said with a small shrug. "Probably drug induced, so it was more vivid. You were screaming that they were going to kill Max for most of it. Max is home, okay? She's fine. You're at Mercy West remember?"
"Yeah…I'm fine. I am. I just...it seemed real."
"I'm sure. Well, the doctors were trying to prevent you from having any of those. They want to keep your heart rate down, and that's definitely not going to help."
"Yeah, I can guess not…"
The two sat for a few moments in silence as Ryan let Weston get his thoughts together. Mike felt ten times more drained now then he had before he had fallen asleep now that the adrenaline was starting to leave him.
God, he hated this.
"Well," Ryan said cautiously. "I thought if you took your mind off things for a bit that might help, but obviously not. You wanna talk at all?"
Mike thought for a moment and then nodded his head. He did want to talk, but his head was still a jumbled mess of thoughts that didn't make sense.
"What's, um, the last thing you remember?" Ryan asked cautiously.
"I...I don't know. I remember up to when I was knocked out. Waking up…and all of them asking where Max was. They wanted to use us to get to you….and the only way they could do that was if they had both of us. And then everything really blurs together. I'm not saying I don't remember anything, I just don't know what happened when. I feel like I'm remembering things out of order."
There was silence for a moment. "And...this is going to make me sound crazy, but I keep seeing Roderick in there too for some reason- everything that happened when he was trying to get Claires location out of me? I keep remembering that too. And that's not right." He looked over at Ryan with questioning eyes. "Right?"
"Well…" Ryan said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "It's not surprising." He shrugged slightly. "This whole thing was similar to what happened with Roderick, and it's….common to be able to remember past experiences much more vividly if something similar to them is happening to you in the present. This time they were just trying to get Max's location out of you instead of Claire's. Very similar situation. So the two are probably just blurring together."
"As if I wasn't crazy enough." Mike said with a sigh. "When I would try and think about the Roderick thing before this though I couldn't remember the majority of it. It's always kind of bothered me, actually. Not that I was trying to think about it, but..."
"Could have been the concussion that you got back then. More than likely you were blocking it out, though."
"I...you think?"
"Dissociative amnesia. I'm sure your head was just fine, but you blocked the whole thing out. PTSD."
"I don't have PTSD." Mike retorted very defensively.
"Okay kid. Sure you don't….well, if you didn't before, then you sure do now."
They were both silent. Ryan watched intently at Weston as he stared straight ahead of him, obviously turning things over in his head. Ryan knew what his biggest concern was.
Well, here went nothing.
"You know, none of this is going to make her think any differently of you." Ryan said, out of the blue. It completely caught Mike off guard.
"Wh-what?" Mike stuttered out, looking over at Ryan now.
"I know how you feel, believe me, I do. I've been there. You feel like a damaged piece of shit, and you don't want to admit it, especially to her. "
"Who-Max?"
"No, your French Maid. Yes Mike, Max."
Mike knew this conversation had been coming- the I know you want to have sex with my niece but if you do or if you hurt her I will kill you slowly- and you know coming from me that is not an empty threat conversation. Weston had been meaning to bring it up- one day- but when you were constantly chasing a serial killer there never seemed to be a time when it didn't seem frivolous to be discussing his feelings for Max to her Uncle. Well, that was an excuse. But now he had no choice but to sit here and listen. He could honestly say he was less terrified when he was being beaten within an inch of his life.
"I know how you feel." Ryan continued. "If you admit your fucked up from all of this then you're admitting you're not good enough for them- for her. And, well, that's not true, especially with Max. None of this is going to make her think any differently of you. You can sit there and deny things like the PTSD all you want, but you're only hurting yourself in the end."
Ryan stopped for a moment, looking down at his hands and searching for words.
"What I'm trying to say is, Max is my niece- well, she's more then that now. With my brother dead that makes me more her father then Uncle. And no one- no one- will ever be good enough for her, and I'll probably never be happy with the man she settles for, because, well that's just part of being an Uncle or father figure, or whatever I am, but…If she has to end up with someone, I'm sure as hell glad it's you."
Ryan stopped for a moment, looking away and then cleared his throat. "But, you know, if you hurt Max I'll find you, and probably kill you. I will." The threat was accompanied by a grin, but it just made it seem more serious to Weston. But of course, relief spread over him at Ryan's words. The dreaded conversation was over, and he had actually survived, for now.
"Thank you," was all Weston could spit out. It felt like a lame response, but it was all he could get manage to get out. Ryan's words meant more than he could say, so he chose to not say anything at all. Though he did add- "And yes, if I hurt Max I give you permission to kick my own ass."
Ryan returned a laugh and Max walked in not a second later, looking much more showered but not any more rested.
"Well, you two seem to be having fun." Max said with a grin.
"Oh, of course. You know us."
Little did either of them know, Max had just overheard their entire conversation.
. . . .
Like, Love, Hate? Review either way and let me know! I felt this was slightly (maybe?) out of character esp compared to last chapter but I had a lot of feels and things I had to get out. So hopefully it wasn't too bad! :)
