I'm sorry this took longer than you guys expected. Kiwii has a choir concert to prepare for and two essays to write. But you guys make me so damn happy with your reviews and favorites.
The phone rang in Rose's office, prompting her to stop looking at her laptop and answer. She was surprised at who it was.
"Uh, hey Rose." came Tavros' voice.
"Hello Tavros. Have you called for a progress report? Because I haven't made much progress." she said sheepishly.
"No, actually I came to tell you something I thought was important to Gamzee's recovery. I-i'm not exactly sure if this is important, but Vriska came over yesterday and told me weird things." he said. Rose was now intrigued.
"Alright, can you tell me these, "things?"" she asked, grabbing her notepad and pen.
"Well, she said she had almost everything to do with Gamzee getting in here, and that she can do it anytime she wants. I don't know how she even did it though. As far as I'm concerned he was in the car alone the whole time." Rose wrote all of this down, her thoughts racing around as new theories developed. She was starting to intertwine the stories of the arrival of his old smoking buddies, and Vriska saying she knew about it even though she supposedly left him alone after she got out of prison.
Or did she...?
There was only one way to find out.
"Hello all, I'm certain you know why I've called you all here." Rose said, pacing around the room. Seated in front of her was Equius, Eridan, Feferi, Vriska, and Gamzee. They all had very clueless looks on their faces, causing Rose to mentally face palm. She sighed and proceeded to explain. "You are all here because you are all connected to this young man's suffering." she said gesturing towards Gamzee. The others widened their eyes in surprise, as if they were clueless as how they contributed any kind of torture to Gamzee. "All of you have triggered the voice in his head to say things that I've gotten to hear about over the course of time working with him. Now you all probably weren't aware of this, and that's understandable. However, I do suspect some illegal action was taken that caused the crash. I know because over the past few days I've gotten my friend Jane to do some investigative work, particularly around Gamzee's car. This is what she found." Rose said, pulling out a picture of the wrecked car. It was a picture of the bottom of the driver's seat, where the pedals were. Upon closer inspection of the brakes, it was found that the wires were sticking out.
Which meant the brakes had been broken while Gamzee was driving.
His eyes widened in horror as he put two and two together. Someone had tried to kill him. But how had they gotten in his locked car? Something still didn't add up. Nonetheless, he was still angry. He stood up, his eyes filled with hatred.
"One of you motherfuckers tried to kill me! Why?! I did my time for killing Nep! I've given all the motherfuckin' reconciliation I can give!" he screamed at them. Finally, after a long awkward silence, Feferi snapped.
"That's it, I can't take it anymore! Gamzee, Equius and Vriska wanted revenge on you. Vriska wanted to kill you for almost killing her and sticking up for Tavros, and you probably know why Equius wanted you dead. They hired Eridan and I to take apart the brakes. I only did it because my mom has cancer and Eridan's dad is homeless! Please, you have to forgive us!" Feferi said, tears streaming down her cheeks. Gamzee was about to object, but he noticed something about his mental just then. The voice didn't tell him to kill her. Or Eridan. In fact, all he could hear in his mind was the small voice saying kill Vriska, kill Equius, they wronged you... over and over. Was it because he forgave Feferi and Eridan? Did he feel bad for them? Or was he now comfortable around them?
"Feferi, Eridan, you're not gonna hurt me no more, are you?" he asked cautiously.
"Gam, we'll leave alone if you'll leave us alone. Deal?" Eridan asked with a shaky voice, looking like he was going to cry himself. And suddenly, Gamzee didn't feel uncomfortable around them. He managed a small smile as he said,
"Sure thing Eridan. Same with you too Feferi." The two of them smiled gratefully, and both came over and gave Gamzee a tight hug. Gamzee found himself smiling as he embraced the two. As they pulled away, everyone heard Vriska, who was scowling, snort in disgust.
"This is waaaay too sappy for me. Can we get back to the fact Gamzee can still kill at anytime?" she said, earning a glare from everyone except Equius, who agreed with her. Rose cleared her throat and addressed Vriska.
"Vriska, I hope you and Equius know that you two are the reason this whole mess started in the first place. According to him, you two made threats and did things that are not only illegal, but made him uncomfortable, thus triggering his voices. I hope you two are prepared to spend the rest of his five years in this facility with him, because the only way he can only heal is if you two help him along." Rose said sternly. Vriska, Gamzee, and Equius gasped.
"B-but Mrs. Lalonde, it's his fault that Nepeta is dead! He's a killer." Equius protested. Her gaze turned sharp, causing him to flinch.
"Mr. Zahhak, you could've been a killer too. Revenge doesn't solve anything, but you two don't seem to know that." she said.
"What about us Rose?" Feferi asked, with Eridan nodding along.
"Well it seems like he's comfortable with you two, but if you really want to help, you can help others, therefore helping yourselves." she said smiling. The pair nodded in agreement, promising they'd do their best to right their wrongs. And all of this time, Gamzee just sat there, soaking in what was happening. It felt good to know people cared.
