"Wally's in the hospital!" Abby exclaimed to the rest of Sector V. They were only down to three members.
"For what?" Hoagie asked. "Did he punch a wall and break his wrist again?"
"No! It's horrible!" Abby sighed. "Remember how that kid Jeremy died?"
"Wally's friend? I mean, not really-"
"Wally tried to kill himself!" Abby blurted. Her eyes filled with tears.
"Is he going to be okay?" Kuki asked. Her eyes were blank. She didn't understand.
"I don't know! His parents called my dad and they said they're not really sure. He took a whole bunch of adult pills! They said he probably took fifty times the dose an adult could take without getting hurt!"
Kuki burst into tears. "Why would he-"
"I don't know. I don't know." She shook her head. "I'm going to need to call Numbuh 362 down here."
"I don't get it. I thought he was doing better." Hoagie bit his lip. It was impossible to tell if he was crying underneath his goggles.
"I thought so too. He seemed to be getting better, finally." She sent a text message to Rachel. "She's coming down immediately. I haven't told her yet. What are we even supposed to say?"
"Why would he do it?" Kuki sobbed.
Abby came next to her and hugged her. "I have no idea. I don't think anyone does."
Rachel walked into the quiet Treehouse control room. She cleared her throat. "What's wrong?" she asked.
Hoagie also cleared his throat. "Numbuh 4, he uh-"
"Tried to kill himself," Abby finished.
"Oh my God," Rachel murmured. "How? Is he going to be okay?"
"He took a bunch of pills. And they don't know yet."
"Maybe he just thought the pills were candy!" Kuki said, breaking through her sobs.
"Yeah, maybe!" Hoagie said. "Some pills look a lot like candy!"
"I don't know, guys. He might be dumb, but I doubt it." Abby shook her head. "But I can't believe he would even think about this. They said there was no chance it was accidental, but Wally would never."
They turned to look at Rachel. She hadn't moved a muscle. "You're all off duty until further notice," she decided. In truth, she didn't know what to do. She would have to let Janet know, of course, but what else could she do? She felt helpless.
"It must have been accidental, right Numbuh 362?" Hoagie asked, turning to her.
She stared back.
"He was super upset about something even before that Jeremy kid died. What was it?" Abby asked her. "You knew about it."
"Yeah." She sighed. "I don't want to tell you about it behind his back. He'll tell you when he wants."
"But was he all better from it?" Hoagie asked. "I mean, he seemed better-"
"I thought he was better," she interrupted. "But clearly, he was not."
"Wait a minute, are you saying you think he did this on purpose?" Abby asked her, narrowing her eyes.
Rachel sighed. "I don't know."
Rachel was terrified.
She paced around her office over and over. She'd messaged Janet to come in at any moment, but she was hoping it would be delayed. How do you tell someone that they're basically the last person out of their sector left? Wally could very well be dead.
"What?"
Rachel looked up. She hadn't heard the door open or shut. "Oh, hey."
"What's wrong?" Janet didn't have time for pleasantries.
Rachel sighed. "I don't really know how to say this, but…" She stopped.
Janet sighed. "Is Wally dead too?"
"No, but he could be."
"What did he do?"
"Overdosed."
"Shit." Janet shook her head. "I didn't think he would do it. But, whatever. We'll see what happens."
"Do you want to be off duty again?"
"I don't care either way." Janet shrugged. "He's not dead yet."
Rachel nodded. "Okay. But, from what Numbuh 5 told me, it might not end well."
"I'll deal with that if it happens." Janet left the office.
Rachel sat down at her desk and started crying. What had the Kids Next Door done to these kids? And why couldn't she fix it?
Dr. Lincoln stayed home with Kuki, Hoagie, and Abby. They were not well enough to go to school, he decided. It would be too much stress.
They were only eleven. They shouldn't have to deal with something this big yet.
Wally was only eleven. He shouldn't have even considered doing something like that. When he had seen Wally last, he didn't seem too well, but he seemed well enough. Maybe a little traumatized and grieving, and definitely needed to see a specialist, but not suicidal.
Maybe he should have sent him to the emergency room when he had the chance.
The kids lounged on the couches watching TV. It was too silent for a group of kids. He sighed loudly. He and the Beetles had had a long conversation the previous day, and they admitted they had no idea why he would do anything like this. No note, no indications, nothing. The only warning they had was that his old friend had committed suicide. Was that the only thing that set him off? It couldn't be.
There were so many unknowns, along with the possible permanent damage. If he ever woke up.
He was a doctor. He knew he had to be honest with them, but he also knew that the hospital had said that the chances didn't look good. A Tylenol overdose usually didn't kill straight away; it usually took a few days. And they weren't sure how quickly they got to him, or how much he'd even taken. Nobody knew. He had to tell them that he didn't know if or when Wally would ever wake up.
Whatever it was, there were way more facets to Wally than anyone had ever known. He knew that people often considered him an idiot. Even his own parents often hinted at that. But was he? Sometimes when he was over for dinner, and Dr. Lincoln would start talking about his job, he could see a spark of interest and understanding that he didn't often get from his own kids.
"Daddy?"
He looked up. "Yes, sweetheart?"
"Have you heard anything?"
"I'll let you know when I do," he promised, as he had done every twenty minutes for the previous two days.
"Okay." Abby frowned and went back to the couch.
He sighed. He was an ER doctor. He'd seen so many suicides. This was going to haunt him forever.
The kids returned to school the next day. There had been over 24 hours with no updates. Things were still as uncertain as they had ever been, but they needed some structure, the parents decided.
The teachers were all so nice to them. Telling them they could take as much time as they needed before turning in the assignments they missed. Even Mrs. Thompson seemed troubled by the news.
Everyone and everything was in limbo. Every second they weren't at school that week, they were in Abby's living room, trying to distract themselves. Nobody dared to say the obvious out loud. They were all thinking the same things.
"Why, Chad, I haven't seen you since, well, a long time!" Dr. Lincoln clasped the teen by the shoulders. "It's great to see you."
"Yeah, thanks for having me over." Chad sat next to Cree at the table, opposite of Dr. Lincoln and Abby.
"How's things going for you? I heard you're on the football team."
"Yeah, things are going pretty well. I'm on JV this year, but Coach says there's a good chance I'll be on varsity next year." Chad took a glance at Abby and at Dr. Lincoln before looking at Cree. Something felt a little weird. Almost tense.
"That's great!"
The dinner descended back into complete silence. Chad picked at his food, not sure what to do. He figured it would be a little awkward, considering neither of the sisters trusted him. He didn't even know why he'd been invited over. He'd never really been close with any of them.
Dr. Lincoln cleared his throat, as if to clear the tension. "Sorry this is a little awkward. We've all been a little, er, stunned, with the recent news."
Chad blinked. "What news?" He finally got a reasonable bite of food onto his fork, now that he knew he wasn't being held hostage.
"Oh, you didn't hear?" Dr. Lincoln cleared his throat again. "Well, er, it's quite-"
"Wally tried to kill himself," Cree supplied.
Chad dropped his fork. It clanged loudly against his plate as his mouth dropped open. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Wally tried to kill himself," Cree repeated.
"Wally? As in, Wally Beetles? Like, Abby's friend?"
Abby nodded, looking down at the table with downcast eyes.
"And he- is he okay?"
"He should be," Dr. Lincoln assured. "He was a little touch-and-go there for a bit, but he's resilient."
"What did he even do?" Chad mumbled.
"Took a bunch of pills or something," Cree said. Clearly, she was the least affected by it in the family.
"Damn," he muttered. "We got lucky."
"Lucky?! What do you mean by that?!" Abby snapped.
"I mean, we're lucky he didn't do anything worse."
Dr. Lincoln frowned. "What do you mean, Chad?"
"The kid's smart and he could get his hands on various weapons. I'm… kind of surprised he went this route."
"The Wally I know would never do this," Abby mumbled.
"You don't seem to be very surprised," Dr. Lincoln said, not entirely as an accusation, but leaning that way.
Chad sighed. "I've known him a long time. I didn't expect him to actually go through with it, but I could have guessed he would think about it, especially after Jeremy."
"I've known him a long time too!" Abby argued. "And he wouldn't even think about doing this!"
Chad sighed louder. What could he possibly say without exposing Sector XX? "Has he said anything about it?"
"He's in a coma," Dr. Lincoln said.
"Oh."
"Right now, they say there's a good chance he'll wake up, but they won't know how he'll be. He could have brain damage. It's been eight days; people don't usually come out of a coma after that long perfectly fine."
Chad blinked. Maybe Wally would become his cover.
Dr. Lincoln cleared his throat. "You say you could have guessed he would think about it?"
Chad blinked again. "Oh, I mean, I don't know, I just heard the statistics about being friends with someone who… you know. And it was always him, and Jeremy, and… Oh God, Janet." He put his head in his hands. "Poor Janet."
"Who's Janet?" Abby asked, narrowing her eyes. "He's not friends with anyone named Janet."
"He was, a while ago. I don't even know how she'd be handling this."
In truth, Jeremy's death had impacted him more than he could believe. Back when he was Supreme Leader, he had tried to convince some of the members of Sector XX to do things that were more in line with their previous work. They'd all refused. Jeremy was the one he'd tried to convince the most. Why would a member of Sector XX decide to be a janitor? He'd offered him every other position in the Kids Next Door, and he'd refused. Did he do enough to convince Jeremy? Wally went crazy when he didn't have enough things to occupy his mind; was Jeremy the same? Why would Jeremy do something like that?
There were too many questions that would never be answered.
It was so bright.
Wally shielded his eyes. The light was pouring from all directions. He couldn't even see what he was standing on, if he was standing on anything.
"Hello?" he called into the abyss of light. He took a few tentative steps. Was this the end? Was this Heaven? Maybe it was Hell, and he was doomed to wander this empty world for the rest of eternity, driving him even crazier than he already had been.
Then, the ground gave out and he was falling. Falling, falling, falling. He heard a scream, but he wasn't sure if it was his.
He crash landed, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw the same brightness. Damn, he thought. He really was stuck.
"Wally? Are you awake?"
The voice felt familiar. But he couldn't think hard enough to place it.
"Wally? Sweetie? Can you hear me?"
The voice was getting clearer. He tried to open his eyes again. There was some incessant beeping. If he had to listen to that for the rest of eternity too, then he was really handing it to God, or whoever was out there. God knew how to make him miserable.
"Wally, come on." That was a different, deeper voice. Maybe God didn't want the compliment after all.
He forced his eyes open. Things were blurry, but he could see ceiling tiles. The specks on them swirled together. He closed his eyes again.
"Wally, look at me." The first voice grabbed his chin. His eyes snapped open. It was his mother, tears streaming down her face. "Oh my God, he's awake."
"I'll get a nurse," his father said, leaving the room as quickly as possible.
"Wally, baby, I'm so happy you're okay!" she gushed.
He blinked a couple times. There was some pressure over his mouth. He couldn't talk. It was choking him, actually. He reached up to grab it.
"Honey, that's just a breathing tube. You don't need to do anything."
He tried to sigh, but the breathing tube was controlling his breath. Nothing was in his control. He wanted to scream. This wasn't how things were supposed to be.
"Hello, Mr. Beetles," a man said, entering the room. He looked up, thankful that it wasn't Dr. Lincoln. Did he know? Did anyone else know? "I'm going to do some tests on you," the doctor said, getting closer and moving the head of the bed up so he was sitting up. The doctor went through some basic questions, which he could only answer with his eyes and his hands. It was humiliating.
The doctor ordered the breathing tube to be removed. It felt horrible, but he was thankful it was gone. But then, he realized, he would be pressured to talk.
"Wally, why would you do something like this?"
"Wally, why did you do it? Did you think we don't love you?"
"Why would you scare us so badly?"
On and on and on. Wally kept his mouth planted shut. He didn't want to answer their stupid questions.
The doctor returned and explained that he would have to stay there a few days. His liver wasn't doing well. It wasn't like he could drink alcohol in the first place, so he didn't care.
"Why isn't he talking to us?" his mother said, breaking into tears.
The doctor frowned. "Maybe it would be best for me to do an evaluation without parents in here."
They were offended. They argued back. "Our son nearly died, and you won't let us stay with him?"
Wally stared at the doctor, pleading with him in his eyes. The doctor ordered the parents out. They finally listened, and he shut the door.
"Well, Wally, I'm Dr. Smith. Do you know where you are?"
Wally nodded. He could guess well enough.
"I'm going to need you to talk. Or, try to talk. Otherwise, I'll need to order an MRI."
The threat got to him. "I'm in the hospital," he choked out. His mouth was so dry and raw. He started coughing.
Dr. Smith gave him a cup of water. He gratefully chugged it down.
"There you go. Now, then, do you know what the date is?"
He blinked. Dr. Lincoln had asked him this too. He had made it a point to memorize the date every day until he did… it. "Saturday, November 5?"
"Well, not quite. It's November 13."
Wally blinked. "Huh?"
"You've been in a coma for eight days."
Eight days? "Then why am I still tired?" he blurted without thinking.
The doctor laughed. "Being comatose isn't exactly the same as sleeping." He wrote something on his paper. "What's the year?"
"What, are you going to tell me it's been five years next?" But he relented and answered all his silly questions to figure out if he'd done serious damage.
Dr. Smith cleared his throat. "Now, it's onto the tough questions. Do you know why you're in the hospital?"
Wally glared at him.
"Do you?"
Wally rolled his eyes. "I did something stupid."
"Do you remember that something?"
"I took a bunch of Tylenol." He didn't like this conversation anymore. Maybe he could pretend to forget how to speak.
"Why did you take the Tylenol?"
Wally shrugged.
"Were you in pain? Did you want the pain to stop? Did you want to die?"
He slowly nodded. Yes, all those things were true.
"Why?"
Where to even begin? "I don't know…"
"Your parents mentioned that a friend died of suicide recently? Is that true?"
"Yeah."
"Did you ever think about this before he passed away?"
Wally shrugged. "A little."
The doctor scribbled more in his notepad. "Your parents say that your attitude has been negative in the recent months. Would you agree with that?"
"I guess so."
"Looking at your history, your performance in school has been lacking. Is it because you can't pay attention?"
"I don't know."
The doctor asked some more leading questions. Wally tried to answer them honestly. He was way too tired to even think about lying.
After that, his parents came back into the room. They still looked pissed off. Wally barely paid attention as the doctor declared him depressed. He gave them a couple of options of what to do. Mental hospitals. Institutions. Long-term care facilities. More than once, his age came up. He was only eleven, and had already made a serious attempt at his life. It did not bode well for his future.
His parents decided that they would take him to a psychiatrist and a therapist. Acute care was not needed yet. Yet. Were they expecting him to do it again?
No, the next time he would make sure it was foolproof.
Dr. Lincoln's phone rang. "It's Mrs. Beetles," he said to the table.
Abby's eyes widened.
"Hello?" He stepped away from the table and out of view of the rest.
Chad stared down at his plate. He never wanted to see food again. The table stayed silent. Only the clicking of a clock kept them company.
Dr. Lincoln came in again. "Good news, everybody," he said. "Wally woke up from his coma, and he seems to be perfectly fine."
Abby burst into tears and hugged her dad.
"Completely fine? Wow." Chad blinked. This dinner had been more of a rollercoaster than he expected it to be.
"He's going to be in the hospital for a couple more days, and they said that they weren't really sure what to do with him afterwards. Chad, you said you think he might be able to get access to weapons?"
"I mean, I don't know." Did Sector XX still have a weapons arsenal? "I don't know what he's thinking."
Dr. Lincoln looked at him skeptically. Chad didn't budge. He'd had to keep his loyalties secret for long enough. He could handle this.
"Can we see him, Daddy?" Abby asked.
Dr. Lincoln nodded. "They said we can come basically any time. But we have a guest here."
"Oh, it's fine, really. I'm just glad Wally's okay."
"Do you want to come see him, too? It sounds like you're friends with him."
"I don't think now's a good time for me to see him. Maybe later."
Chad walked home alone. His mind was racing. How close had he been? What all had happened recently to push him over the edge?
Abby had messaged the others immediately to let them know what happened. Sector V was driven by Dr. Lincoln to the hospital. He led them to the room.
Wally sighed obnoxiously as they entered. His parents had finally left to get some food.
"Wally, how could you?" Kuki immediately yelled, her voice clouded with tears. "How could you do this?"
"Kuki, please don't stress him out." Dr. Lincoln saved the day. But Wally wasn't too happy about seeing him. Or any of them. Last time he'd seen Dr. Lincoln, he'd said that he should go to the hospital. And here he was.
"Hey, Wally," Abby said, cautiously.
"Hey." He tried to avoid eye contact. How could he look them in the eye? They knew what he did.
Hoagie hid in the back. Were they still best friends? He didn't know.
The room descended into a tense silence. It had been like this ever since he'd woken up. He didn't want to talk to his parents. He didn't want to talk to anyone. He wanted to melt into his bed.
"Um, I brought you your homework. I've been collecting it." Hoagie cautiously went up to the bed, staring at all the various machines Wally was hooked to. "And I brought you some comic books, too." He gingerly placed them on the bed.
"Thanks." Wally picked them up and flipped through the various worksheets. Anything would be better than listening to his parents trying to convince him to talk to them and tell them why.
"Have they said when you're being discharged?" Dr. Lincoln asked.
Wally shook his head. "They said I'd have to be here a couple of days."
"Abby and I had dinner with Chad Dickson tonight. He might be interested in coming over."
Wally frowned. "Okay." Chad wasn't exactly the first person he wanted to see, but maybe he could get some answers from him. His current state could definitely lead to some pity-revealing.
The room fell silent, other than the incessant beeping. Wally had quickly learned to tune it out.
"We should let you rest," Dr. Lincoln said. Wally breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're doing okay. I know they are, too."
Abby and Hoagie nodded furiously. Kuki kept glaring. But they all left his room.
Wally closed his eyes. Would they ever want to see him again?
"Hey, Wally."
He opened his eyes. It was Monday afternoon. The other kids were at school, and his parents had left to go do their jobs. Now that he was stable, they could leave him alone.
"I thought you had school."
"I told my mom I was sick and snuck out." Rachel pulled a chair up to the bed. "How's it going?"
He glared at her. "How do you think?"
"Point taken." She sighed. "I just wanted to see for myself that you were, you know…"
"Has the Kids Next Door rumour mill chugged anything out?"
She shook her head. "I'm keeping it completely under wraps. The only people who know are Sector V and Janet."
"Chad knows."
"He does?"
"He was having dinner with the Lincolns and learned some things." Wally rolled his eyes. "Apparently he wants to come see me."
"Why would he want that?" Rachel shook her head. "I don't understand. I don't even know what he's doing!"
"I thought he was a run-of-the-mill double crosser, like Maurice. Until the treaty happened."
"What do you mean, like Maurice?" Rachel narrowed her eyes.
"Nothing. I'm crazy, remember?"
"Well, that will certainly help in my planning." She cleared her throat. "Are you really okay? Like, you're not going to die or anything?"
"Nope. Apparently all I did was damage my liver." He rolled his eyes. "They said it was miraculous."
"It sounds like it. I don't think people recover this quickly from comas." She sighed. "They're not going to just let you go home, are they?"
"They are."
"Oh, God. Why on Earth would they allow that?"
"Because I'm under the custody of my parents. All I've gotta do is take some happy-pills and see a therapist and I'm good to go."
"Wow." She pulled a small notebook from her pocket. "I wrote everything in here because there was so much I needed to say. Okay, first of all: Sector XX weapons. I'm going to tell Janet to lock it up as much as she can."
"I can get past the security stuff. And, I wouldn't use them anyways. It would just cause too many questions of where I managed to get the gun. Then again, I wouldn't be there to deal with the fallout…."
"Okay! Okay, I believe you." Rachel tried to control the pure terror in her voice. She was sure he could hear it, but maybe it would be good for him to hear that people really did care. "Secondly, I don't know what to do about missions. Sector V is off duty for now, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to jump straight back into missions once you come back. You guys are down a member, anyways. You need to do more training. Unless, I move another person into your sector to ease the transition."
"Who?"
"Janet?"
"Are you fucking crazy?"
"I mean, it sounds good to me. You guys have all your 5-person tactics in place, and you get someone you relate to."
"Our cover would be blown immediately."
"Would it?"
Wally paused. Would it? They'd stayed far away from each other for years, and so far, he wasn't aware of anyone noticing all of the members of Sector XX at Jeremy's funeral. Maybe they were finally safe. "I don't know," he admitted.
"We'll try it for a while," Rachel decided. "I have a list of other things, but I think that can wait. I just want to get you back on the field. You do better when you're on missions regularly."
He frowned. That was what so many Supreme Leaders had said about him. Maybe they were right.
"Will you be okay on the field? I mean, both physically and mentally."
"I'll be fine as long as I don't take a fuckton of pills again," he mumbled. "And I really don't care what happens. If I cared what happened to me, I wouldn't have done it."
Rachel sighed. "Okay. Abby told me that it was really rough when they visited."
"Yeah, because none of them know me. And Kuki immediately started yelling at me for being an idiot." He rolled his eyes. "I know they don't understand this at all. They were giving Jeremy shit for killing himself. They're too immature to know."
"Eleven year olds shouldn't be suicidal."
"Eight year olds shouldn't be put on a mission against a serial killer," he spat back.
"Do you want me to leave?"
"I don't care. It's not like I have anything else to do."
"I brought a deck of cards."
"Anything is better than staring at this damn ceiling."
They played cards for a couple of hours in near silence, until Chad walked in.
He coughed. "Uh, hi."
Rachel turned to look at him. "Hi, Chad." It sounded extremely forced.
"I just wanted to see if you're okay, Wally," he said. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at the ground. "I didn't know you were in the hospital until yesterday."
"I'm fine. See? You can go now."
"I need to say something else first before I go. After that, I'll leave, I swear."
Wally crossed his arms as well as he could with the IV in his arm. "What?"
"I think you and Janet need to go to the police."
"No."
"Seriously, Wally, how far are you two going to let this go in the name of keeping your cover? No one cares about your cover anymore. It's been years. You two can finally just bring this to justice. How many of you are going to have to get hurt or die before you finally admit it?!"
During Chad's tirade, the heart rate monitor slowly picked up the pace. "It's too dangerous," Wally said, keeping his voice steady. But that damn beeping betrayed him.
"Is it?! Nothing has happened these past three years! You all gathered for Jeremy's funeral! Literally nothing would happen if you finally told the police what you know."
"You don't know how many enemies we had," Wally argued. The heart rate monitor started chiming an alarm.
"How many of you are going to die before this is fixed?! Either you tell them, or I will."
A nurse rushed in. "Your heart rate is very high," she said, brushing through Chad and Rachel.
"I'm just stressed about how much schoolwork I've missed," he said, the lie spilling from his tongue without a sign. "He was telling me all about it."
"Maybe hold off on that," the nurse said to Chad. "The doctor ordered a small sedative in case this happened." She took a syringe and inserted it into his IV port. The monitor's beeping slowed down.
Once she left, Wally glared daggers at Chad. "I swear, if you tell them…"
"Chad, maybe you should just drop it," Rachel said. "I understand, but now is really not the time."
"Something has to be done. Wally, you almost died."
"And I wish I had!" he bit back.
"Guys, just quit it. Chad, maybe you should go." She shook her head.
"Do you not get how scared everyone is?" Chad continued. "Abby was sobbing when she found out that you were awake! Everyone had expected you to die!"
"Chad!" Rachel snapped. "Get out! Now is not the time!"
He let out a loud breath. "Sorry. I didn't mean to get all worked up like that. Feel better, Wally." He shuffled out of the room.
Rachel sighed. "You look like you're about halfway asleep."
"They gave me a sedative. What do you think sedatives do?" His words were slightly slurred.
"I'll stay until you fall asleep."
"Thanks." He yawned and let his eyes close. "Don't let Chad do it."
"I won't."
Finally, his eyes closed. Rachel waited for a few minutes before ducking out. As much as she hated to think it, Chad was right.