Say It, Tell Me

(Day 43: Sunday Morning)

When Doug places his hand on the doorknob he hesitates, before he turns around to face Jay and Carlos, "Just, before we leave… there is something I wanted to ask you two."

"Ask us?" Carlos slowly inquires.

"Not ask," Doug corrects before pursing his lips tight in thought. "More like… I've noticed some things." Carlos and Jay glance at each other. Doug unsurely smiles, "It's great that you guys are close… or whatever, and your offer for me to take one of the beds was really nice, but if anyone asks I think we should tell them that I took the floor."

"Why?" Jay questions.

"Why?" Doug repeats, before he laughs in stress and gestures between the two of them, "Because, this isn't normal."

Carlos eyes Doug's hand as Jay defends, "It was a sleepover. There were three of us and only two beds. What else were we supposed to do, just have you sleep on the floor?" He furrows his eyebrows at him, "Would you have preferred that we let you?"

Doug shuts his eyes for a moment, "This is coming out wrong." as he takes a second to think. "Look. I don't know how things are done where you come from… From what I've heard it sounds ruff, and maybe you're just used to sharing things with your friends. But here, here people don't share everything like that… I may have only attended one or two sleepovers before, but we were required to bring our own sleeping bags and the people who didn't were left to sleep on the floor with nothing but a blanket and just maybe a pillow." He watches as Jay and Carlos glance at each other, "I know that I've heard girls talk about their sleepovers and how they would share beds if there was enough room, but I've never heard anything like that from a guy before." They stay silent. "I'm just trying to look out for you. Whatever it is between you two, you don't have to let the entire world know about it."

Jay looks down at him, "I wasn't aware we were."

"No. Of course, not." He shakes his head, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." before he uneasily smiles at them. "Let's just get down to breakfast. We've already missed enough of it."

Jay nods, "Okay." but when he begins to step forward Carlos blocks him with an arm.

"No." He glares at Doug, "If you have something to say, then say it."

"It's really nothing," Doug insists. He shakes head with a stressed grin, "I just don't get it." before he looks at Jay. "I've seen how you are with girls. Why would you be with him, when you can have any one of them?"

"Who said anything about us being together?" Jay calmly denies.

"Oh. Come on," Doug laughs. "When I went to use the bathroom last night I saw you holding him like— like—" He slowly shakes head, "Some kind of boyfriend or something."

"I was asleep," Jay excuses. "Maybe I thought he was a girl." He smiles as he places an arm on Carlos's shoulder and lightly leans on him, "He's the right size for it."

"Oh. Shut up," Carlos laughs as he pushes him off of him. "I am not that small."

"See. That," Doug points out, and then they look back at him. "The way you tease him and he jokes with you. Are you seriously going to tell me that's nothing?"

"Friends joke all the time," Jay explains away.

"Not like that," Doug refutes.

Jay frowns, "In any case, it's none of your damn business." before he takes a step forward. "Whatever you think you saw, you didn't see it." He raises his eyebrows in question, "Got it?"

Doug leans against the door, "Loud and clear."

Jay slightly smiles, "Good. Now, open the door." and Doug complies.

When Evie opens the door Jay comments, "Hey. I can't seem to get ahold of Mal. She had a date with Ben, and I wanted to check to see how it went. Is she here?"

"Yeah," Evie frowns. "She's sick."

"Sick?" Jay questions. "She was fine yesterday."

"Well, that was before she drank an entire bottle of salted wine," Evie explains, and Jay grows concerned. "I'm scared," Evie whispers. "She was throwing up last night, and now her skin is peeling off." She looks at him hopefully, "You've known her longer than I have. Is it supposed to do that when she's sick?"

"Not when she gets sick," Jay frowns. "When she gets poisoned, yeah."

"Poisoned?" she questions.

"Yeah," Jay answers. "After Mal quit Uma's gang—" He shakes his head, "It doesn't matter. The skin sheading is a good thing. I would be more worried if it wasn't happening."

Evie slightly nods, "Okay. Good."

"Can I talk to her?"

She tries to smile, "Of course." and then lets him in.

When Jay goes over to see Mal he sits across from her on the edge of Evie's bed, "How are you doing?"

Mal laughs, "Crappy. Note to self: cooking wine isn't edible." and then she groans. "I have the worst headache ever."

Jay is quiet for a second, "I would offer you some aspirin, but I think your body is pushing enough toxins out the way it is."

"It's fine," Mal comments. "I've never used those pills before anyway. Why start now?"

"Mal," Jay starts. "You need to tell me what happened."

It takes a moment for her to respond, "Nothing."

"Stop saying it's nothing. It's never nothing. It's always something. Just tell me what it is. What happened?"

Mal slightly laughs, "Ben."

"What did he do?" Jay accuses.

She smiles, "Nothing. He's so nice and kind." but then she frowns again. "How could I compare him to him?"

"Compare him to who?" Jay questions, but she doesn't respond. "Mal. You know how this goes. You need to talk to me."

"She's exhausted," Evie defends. "Maybe you shouldn't be interrogating her right now."

Jay looks over at Evie, "I'm not interrogating her."

"You're asking her questions— interrogating her— because she drank, which might as well be seen as some sort of crime." Jay looks down for a moment. "I never understood this, either. How is bringing up the things she wants to forget a good thing?"

"Because she needs to work through them," Jay sternly responds. "She can't just keep bottling all this stuff up, until she goes grabs another bottle."

"Okay," Evie lets out a breath in defeat, "but she is sick. Is now really the best time for you to get her to talk? In her condition, I don't think she will be grabbing another bottle any time soon anyway."

"Just one last thing," Jay gives in, before he turns back to Mal. "Is it Hook? Is that who you were comparing Ben to?"

Mal shuts her eyes and mumbles, "He deserves so much better than me."

"Mal," Evie steps forward. "You know what Ben said before. He's lucky to have you."

She rubs her face back-and-forth on the pillow, "He doesn't know anything about me… He will change his mind. He won't want me…"

"How could you say that?" Evie debates, "Of course he will."

"No," Mal softly denies. "Not after… I've been ruined."

"Ben doesn't care about your reputation. He cares about you."

Mal keeps her eyes shut, "He doesn't know me. None of you…"

"Mal," Jay prompts, but she doesn't open her eyes. "Mal. What do you mean, we don't know you?"

"Give it up," Evie comments. "She needs to sleep."

He turns to her, "Don't you want to know what she meant?"

"No," Evie evenly answers. "Mal has the worst self-esteem ever, maybe even more than me… It probably doesn't mean anything."

- So, something I should mention... I can't find the link that I got this information from when I first researched this and I can't remember the phrases I used to find it, but apparently when you have a salt overdose you're not supposed to drink water (even when you are human). I think it was something about how there would be salt around the brain, and since water goes to where the salt is it's a major health risk? Basically, if you overdose on salt, the best thing you can do is go to the hospital.