I found this in my notes, and I'm not sure if I have published this yet, so here it is.
Tired
He was tired. So god-damn tired.
Insomnia was a bitch that couldn't be tamed, and she had a habit of rearing her head at the most inopportune times.
Like now.
Sitting at his desk with a mountain of paperwork but no drive whatsoever to complete, which was very unlike him.
Usually he survived on the two-three hours he managed a night, but several nights of little sleep coupled with heavy rescued and the ever-expanding reports pile had combined to give him the beginnings of a monster headache.
Maybe he should grab a coffee. But even the effort of thinking about moving made him even more tired.
He lent forward and rested his forehead on the large pile in front and closed his eyes. Only to snap to attention as John cleared his throat behind him.
The sudden movement caused his headache to pound harder, and he couldn't stifle the yawn that followed. But he didn't turn to see John. Rather, he picked up top file and started to work on it. Or tried to.
He didn't see John's shoulders set, nor the frown on his face as he watched Scott attempting to work. He did hear John leave, only at this point realising that John had been there in person.
Fifteen minutes later and Scott hadn't moved. He was still staring at the same folder, a slight frown of concentration on his face as his brain flatly refused to take in any information whatsoever.
He was concentrating so hard he didn't notice John returning, nor that John wasn't alone. Scott was totally unaware of his audience as he sat and stared.
It was the hand on his shoulder that did it. It took a lot to sneak up on Scott, but John, Virgil and Grandma had been standing behind him watching him simply stare at the file in his hands.
But when Virgil placed his hand gently on Scott's shoulder it was as if a gun had gone off. Scott shot up, knocking his chair out from under him and dropping the file.
Rather than the laughter that may have caused in his youngest two brothers, it just caused his immediately younger brothers to be more concerned, especially when he swayed alarmingly before attempting to sit back down on a non-existent chair.
John and Virgil rushed forward and took an arm each before he fell down, and they hauled their protesting brother off to his bedroom with Grandma following. Scott protesting was to be expected, but both brothers knew he could have stopped them usually. The fact that he couldn't at the moment spoke volumes regarding his current state.
They didn't give him opportunity to change or move or flee. And quite honestly, he didn't have the energy to anyway. Grandma handed him two headache tablets which Scott swallowed gratefully, then they left him to it.
He was asleep before they even made the door.