A/N: Thoughts on smut? So far it seems positive.
WARNING: DEPRESSION, SUICIDE, DRUG USE
When they got home, Adrienne was barely a person. Her eyes, puffy and red, were almost completely closed as she dragged herself up the stairs and into Laf's room after discarding her shoes, toque and jacket.
Lafayette hung up her jacket and shed his, slipping off his shoes before following after her. Catching up, he wrapped an arm around her and sat down on the bed. She shrugged his arm away, wiping at tears that came and went.
His hand fell limp on the bed behind her and his other went to pull her hands away from her eyes and to make her look at him. "Look at me, mon ange." He murmured and Adrienne did so. Pressing tender kisses under her eyes and near her temples, he just waited until she was ready.
"I had a sister." She breathed, "Older than me but she was my best friend." Her eyes darted away as he held her close and laid them both down, cuddling in the center of the bed. His legs hung off the lip of the mattress but she curled into a ball in his arms. "Adalene. Much prettier, much smarter… she was this perfect kid. She was diagnosed with clinical depression since… since she was fifteen I guess. It's come and went." Her voice was small and shaky but calmer now as her arms around his waist tightened. "She, erm, she dropped out of school and started doing drugs. And… and I caught her."
"What did you do?" He asked out of turn and he bit his lip, hoping she wouldn't take offence.
"Suddenly," she let out a breath, "suddenly I wasn't Adrienne Noailles, you know? Suddenly I'm the sister who is hiding drugs for her older sister from our parents and I'm the kid who skips days. I was the daughter who was taking care of her sister while she was in eighth grade. I was just beginning. I was the kid everyone makes rumours about, y'know?" A shrug against him. "No one wanted to be my friend, and, uh, I was in danger of dropping out too."
"Shit," he whispered to himself and she sighed.
"So, my parents met with my teachers and Adalene promised she'd get better. She loved me - it wasn't her fault."
"Did she?"
"She was lying." Adrienne scrunched her eyes closed, "She went out to a party and she didn't come home. It was one of those frat parties. She was only seventeen. That was the day she met James. Said he changed her world and they started dating." The slightest quirk of her lip.
"James Madison - the man we met at the hospital." It was all making sense now. The dots were connecting to form one big picture. He couldn't imagine the desaturated man they had met in the hospital full of life as he held hands with a woman or hung out with friends.
"It was amazing how much he helped her. Like, he gave her a reason to live when we weren't enough." The smile was gone. Anger consumed her face as well as grief and she looked like a whole new person. "Yeah, so," she cleared her throat because her voice was getting thick again, "She went to rehab and shit. I got my grades up. I thought everything was going to be okay." Of course it wouldn't be, Lafayette mused bitterly as Adrienne nudged her head into his neck, trying to find more comfort in the warmth he emitted. "As always, it wasn't."
"Classic," he agreed drily and she let out a slight chuckle. Leave it up to him to make her laugh when she was reliving the shittiest part of her life.
"James and Ads got engaged."
"And that's a bad thing?"
"No. I was happy for them - they were serious and in love and… around James, she was happy. It was like you couldn't tell she was depressed in the first place. But… a few weeks before the wedding, she was having a fucking awful day. I don't know - when I woke up, I could tell it was going to be a bad day. So I skipped school."
"I thought those days were over."
"No, they just weren't as often. I made sure my parents never knew. But she said this thing... it's really stuck to me. I..." her voice died out and he pulled her close as her tears stained his shirt.
"It's okay, sh," he winced at how fake he sounded.
"She said we didn't get to be happy, said our parents were selfish enough to take all our happiness." Lafayette could remember meeting Adrienne's parents the day he went to pick her up. They seemed happy, no turmoil from a dead daughter under their smiles. "I thought she was right."
"You deserve everything in this world, Adrienne," he told her firmly, kissing her briefly but she didn't return the gesture. Whether it was because she was too tired or too wrapped up in her memories, he was unsure. But when he pressed their foreheads together, her eyes slid closed and one hand ran up and down his arm.
"I went out to get strawberry icecream. It was her favourite," she sounded older, exhausted with life, "and I come back and see her not breathing," her voice was hard, trying to stop the tears but it didn't work. "And not living. The bathroom floor was so cold... her skin was colder. There was no heartbeat-"
"Adrienne, that's enough-"
"I called 9-1-1. That's what you do in those situations, right? Call the ambulance?"
"Adrienne-" Looking down at her, he saw the brunette's dull eyes opened and staring off into the distance.
"Time of death was 4:57 on June 7th. Not a minute more or less."
Lafayette, rarely, didn't know what to do. Now, as he held his still girlfriend, was one of those times.
"James got diagnosed with depression a week later and I was the only one there. I sat in that office again and heard the same things the doctor had told my sister, again. All I could do was hold his hand. I felt - I feel useless."
"You lost your world," cold air reaches his chest and he watched as she pulls away with a shake of her head. She flipped onto her other side, facing away.
"I lost my other half," her words were quiet, barely able to be heard but the shaking of her shoulders told him everything. "But he lost his world." He tried to imagine the pain that still bit her soul raw but found that the only pain he could imagine was the one that stabbed him in the back.
That was different.
He needed to focus on her.
Lafayette just shuffled closer and pulled her back to his chest until she stopped crying and fell asleep.
.
When she woke up, the air beside her was cold and she realized Lafayette was gone. Blinking, she felt the dried tears on her face and wiped at her skin angrily as the door opened. Dropping her hand, she glanced up at the door to see all of the Schuyler sisters. They took in her messy hair, still-red eyes and puffy nose with smiles, faked ignorance and hugs.
"What are you guys doing here?" She mumbled as Peggy jumped onto the bed beside her.
"We're here for a little girl time. Honestly," the youngest woman looked at her friend, "this place reeks of testosterone."
"Okay…" Adrienne was still waking up as Eliza slid over a tin of freshly baked cookies. "Thanks."
"Angelica made them," they all looked at the oldest Schuyler perched on the edge of the bed as she surveyed the room. "I think she's in shock at the room."
"You know I am," Angelica whispered and they all laughed, albeit Adrienne a bit forced. Biting into the cookies, the sweetness exploded on her dry tongue. "I don't have words." Confused, she tried to hear for any sign of the boys.
"First of all, where-"
"I kicked them all out." Eliza said and Adrienne genuinely chuckled, the image making her more amused than it should. "Hercules proposed a few drinks by the lake near the campus. Guess you could say he's cracking a cold one with the boys. The house is all to ourselves."
An exchange of looks between the sisters.
Peggy sprung up, grabbing the cookies and tugging Adrienne along as Eliza took her other hand. Angelica swung open the door.
Basically throwing the sad woman onto the couch, they gathered drinks, blankets and snacks as Eliza set up Netflix. "Sherlock, Once Upon a Time or Supernatural?"
"Sherlock." Adrienne answered. She was definitely in the mood to get lost in Benedict Cumberbatch's and John Freeman's amazing chemistry. Eliza nodded, sitting down beside her with the laptop before taking a cookie.
"Season two, obviously, because Irene Adler." Eliza stated as a fact and Adrienne rested her head on Eliza's shoulder. Angelica returned with popcorn, chips and cans of pop while Peggy nearly tripped down the stairs dragging Alexander's blanket. Snuggling together, the four of them press play and turned off the lights as A Scandal in Belgravia played before their very eyes. The cookies, popcorn and chips shared between the women, they didn't speak.
They didn't need to.
Adrienne smiled to herself, as small as it was. It was nice, she thought, to have friends who cared this much. As Peggy held her hand under the blanket and gave her that bright smile, she felt alright.
She felt at home for the first time in a long time.
And that's what mattered.
A/N: I love the end of this chapter. It's so cute. ANYWAYS, MORE BACKSTORY.
REVIEWS:
RainbowBarfingUnicorn: Her name is Adalene, close enough! Thank you for your chapter - it's like I can feel your energy through the screen!
BlusicalMusical: Feel bad for everyone in this fic. I haven't even gotten to the good part yet, HAHAHAHAHA.
RiseUpWiseUp: Dude, angsty angry sex. Just an idea ;)
