When Richie got to the store he suddenly discovered that he didn't particularly feel like being around other people. He felt self-conscious like everyone was watching him and paranoid. He was watching the customers' movements to make sure they didn't get too close, close enough to touch him. He was so busy worrying and watching that he couldn't concentrate on actually working.
It seemed like he forgot everything, where a piece was from, how to wrap the purchases properly, even where the charge slips were. The low point was definitely when he broke a fifteen thousand dollar vase. He didn't mean to, he was turning away from the glass counter to get something and his arm must have knocked it. He stared horrified as it shattered on the ground.
"Holy shit!" Richie's exclamation caught the attention of everyone in the shop, but particularly Duncan MacLeod. The Highlander's face immediately darkened and he strode over to the shocked teenager, cutting a path through the customers who suddenly decided to look somewhere else.
Duncan gripped the boy's arm, pulling him close. "What is the matter with you?!" he said in a harsh whisper. "It's bad enough that you were careless enough to break a rare antique, but…" Duncan yanked the arm for emphasis. "You know better than to use language like that!"
The wide-eyed look on Richie's face disappeared to be replaced with a mask of anger. "Well if I'm so useless maybe you should just fire me!"
Richie wrenched his arm away and stormed off to his room. Duncan let him go. They both needed to calm down. He hadn't meant to grab the boy like that; he was just so frustrated by Richie's behavior. He had forgotten how skittish the lad was.
Richie's anger at Mac disappeared by the time he made it back to his room. His anger at himself however was another matter.
Why had he said that? He didn't want to leave, and now he certainly had nowhere to go.
Tessa was the one to call the boy to dinner. He tried to refuse, saying he wasn't hungry, but the Frenchwoman would have none of his excuses. He had missed breakfast and lunch! With a sigh, she sat on the bed and looked at the redhead curled in the nearby chair.
"Richie, you know you can talk to us about anything, non?"
Richie responded by rolling his eyes and giving a frustrated groan. "There's nothing to talk about!"
"Petit, I know how some rape victims are ashamed…" She was interrupted by Richie yelling.
"Stop saying that!"
But Tessa continued, undeterred. "Particularly with your past…"
"I was not raped and I was not an abused child! God!"
He was breathing heavily now, feeling like there was a tightness in his chest that was cutting off his air supply. He had never been /abused/, he was a trouble magnet and therefore got a few whaps upside the head and quite a few strappings as a child, and there had been fighting at school and in the group homes and then getting beaten up on the streets for walking into a gang's territory, but never abused!
"You need to talk about this," her voice was pleading and slightly desperate.
"How could you possibly know?!" The accusation sat in the air between them.
He was right, she thought. She had no idea what to do, how to make this better. It had been a foolish idea to think that he would open up to her. Nothing like this had ever happened to her and if it had, she had a wonderful and loving family to lean on. How could she think that she could be that to this boy who had already been through so much?
"I'm sorry," she said hurrying out of the room before letting the tears fall.
She ran into Duncan in the hallway and she let him hold her for a long moment before ushering him back into the kitchen. It didn't seem like any of them felt like eating dinner that night though.
"I told you we should have left it alone," Duncan broke the continued silence. Tessa dropped her fork and glared at the man.
"We have to do something, Duncan. Richie will starve himself to death at this rate."
"I know Tessa, but…let's just give it to the end of the week. He's a teenage boy, he'll snap out of it. He just needs a little push in the right direction, that's all." Duncan took a bite of his chicken, swallowing it despite that it tasted like ash in his mouth.
"Richie's not the only one who hasn't been eating well Tess." He looked pointedly at her untouched plate. The rest of the meal was spent in silent contemplation.