Why do I hurt my favorite character so? I don't know, but I do and I do it well. ^_^ Sequel to 'Okay'
Warnings: Drug use. (This is an ongoing story and warnings will be added as I go along.)
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A sigh fell from Chris's lips as he grabbed his buzzing cell phone from off his nightstand. Blinking a few times he waited for his eyes to adjust to the bright light before he let his head drop onto the pillow.
It was another text from Percy asking if he wanted to go out and grab something to eat. He had been able to ignore them for the past three days. Well, not so much ignore them, but postpone them until he felt better.
That wasn't exactly a lie. He felt horrible. Not just because of his ribs and wrist, but because his brain wouldn't let him forget that he had taken those pills. Wouldn't let him forget that they were right next to his phone on the nightstand.
He had promised to himself that he was going to drop them off at the nearest pill disposal, but he hadn't gotten away from his team. Percy was always next to him at their desks and King had gone as far as driven him home while Gregorio took Percy.
Not that he didn't fight against that. He wasn't a child and the pills had worn off by the time they had been kicked out of the office. Pride hadn't seen it that way though. He also hadn't wanted them to show up at work until Monday.
That had been three days ago and there were four more left before he got to go back. A week off of work to do nothing but 'get well'. How were you supposed to 'get well' when he felt like he was going stir crazy?
He had never been able to sit still and do nothing. It had always been in his blood to be moving around doing something. Whether it was doing house work for his mama or grandma or working in his neighbors yards. He was moving. His mama used to say he was a busy little worker bee.
Now that was his only option. When he woke up the next day he tried to clean his house up. Just so he had something to do. Which was near impossible to do when he was moving slower than normal, couldn't use one of his hands, and couldn't bend over.
All he wanted to do was go back to work. He'd sit at his desk filling out paperwork if it meant that he was actually doing something. As long as he was doing something productive he didn't care what it was.
Instead he had spent his time since then laying in bed going in and out of a hazy sleep and sending texts to his teammates. A part of him wanted to ignore them completely, but that would bring them to his door. Something he really didn't want to do.
He wasn't ignoring his team. He just didn't want to be around anyone. At this point he didn't even want to be around himself. If only he could actually fall asleep instead of just laying there staring at the ceiling for hours.
That was another problem with being injured. He had trouble sleeping sometimes, almost all cops did, but when he was hurt it was three times as bad. Add the fact that it was his ribs that had gotten hurt. It was even worse.
So he laid in bed. Thinking. His mind didn't get away from him the same way Cade's did, but he had his fair share of monsters. Ones that liked to come for him when he was too tired to think clearly.
Which was exactly what he was at the moment. Too tired to really think. Too in pain to move around and distract himself from the monsters. Just all around too weak to hold any ground in a fight against himself.
He wished that he could say that he was trying, but that would be a lie. Lying on his bed doing nothing wasn't helping him and he knew that. Every time a text from his team came in he told himself to hope in the shower and go see them.
That never happened though. A running conversation was kept up, but he often stopped replying for hours. He'd just say that the meds had taken over and that he had fallen asleep. He didn't know how long that lie was going to be bought.
He could already tell the Pride was starting to get suspicious. The older man had known him long enough to know when he was trying to get away from people. It was only a matter of time before he was called out.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that not moving was not helping him. That his state of not functioning was not what he needed. He honestly just didn't care about much of anything at the moment. As long as he wasn't dead then he was fine.
He had no idea why he felt that though. Normally he'd be calling up the team and planning dinners or going out to movies with them. He didn't lay in bed doing nothing just because he got a bit banged up.
A sigh fell form his lips at that. His brain had been going back and forth between wanting to get up and function and wanting to disappear under his covers. It was confusing and all it really gave him was a headache. Because that was what he needed. More pain.
'Come on, Country Mouse,' read Percy's text, 'You've been cooped up in your house for days. If you don't come out soon we're going to stage a rescue mission.'
'I'm fine,' he replied back even as his mind screamed at him for lying, 'Just tired. I guess my ribs were worse off than I thought.'
'You okay? I can drive you to the hospital if you need.'
'You can drive?'
'Shut up. Gregorio is here right now. She can drive you.'
'Girls night in? Watching bad 80s romcoms and drinking wine?'
'Again. Shut up.'
'You're right. I'm sorry. Sharpening knives and drinking wine?'
His lips twitched slightly when she sent back a rolling eye emoji. It fell away as fast as it came. That had been the perfect time to tell her that he did want some company and that she and Gregorio should bring the party to his place.
Closing his eyes he pushed all the thoughts away and tossed his phone onto the nightstand. A groan left him when hear heard something get knocked over. He really did not want to deal with cleaning up a mess.
Stretching his arm out as far as he could without hurting himself he grabbed the object and pulled it to his chest. He was just going to toss it a bit away into the laundry basket by the foot of the bed and deal with it later when orange plastic caught his eyes.
He felt himself freeze as he stared at the pill bottle that he had been steadfast ignoring for days now. It had been a shock to him, but he had actually forgotten it was even there. That had been a nice feeling while it lasted.
Licking his lips he rolled the bottle from one hand to the other. His mind went back to how he had felt when he had taken them at the office. It was like a gentle wave of peace had rolled over him. His mind and body had both relaxed.
It really had brought back the memory he had tried hard to forget. That was impossible though. He could never forget just how amazing it felt when he pushed the plunger of the needle down and the drugs finally hit his system.
Gritting his teeth he tried to tell himself that he didn't want that anymore. That he wasn't the same person that he used to be. He was stronger and he had a team, a family, that had his back now. He didn't need the drugs.
Even as he thought that though his hands moved. They opened the bottle and poured two pills onto the blanket. For a moment he just stared at them hoping that they'd just vanish and he wouldn't be tempted to do something he knew was stupid.
On the bed beside him his phone buzzed with another text. His eyes flicked over to it, but they went back to the pills before he could read who it was that sent the message. All he could focus on was the pills.
He knew that he should answer it. That this was his last chance. Whomever it was on the other side of the phone could help him. They could break the spell that the medication had over him at that moment.
His hand reached out and took hold of the pills. Popping them into his mouth he swallowed them dry and took a shaky breath. Closing the pill bottle he placed it next to the silent phone and laid down fully hoping that he might get some sleep now.