Seth and Roman helped Dean inside Seth's house. They got him down to sit on the couch and Roman sat down next to him. Seth looked at his two friends. Both of them were like zombies these days. Dean because of the meds, Roman because of his mind.
"I'm flushing these," he said.
He held up the bottle of pills they had given him when he checked out Dean. There was no way he was gonna feed Dean anymore of those damn pills. Roman just nodded but didn't seem to care. Seth walked to the bathroom, dropped all the pills down in the toilet and flushed. One step closer to getting at least one of his friends back.
"Are you hungry?" He stuck his head through the doorway and looked at Roman.
"A little," Roman shrugged.
"I'm gonna make some pasta with tomato sauce for dinner but I'll make some sandwiches right now. I'm not sure they actually fed Dean before we picked him up," Seth said.
Roman just shrugged again and Seth sighed before heading for the kitchen. It was so hard holding both of them up but he had to be strong for them. When they first told the story, it had sounded like something out of a horror fantasy movie but never once had he not believed them. He knew they were telling him the truth. The fear in their eyes alone was a dead giveaway.
"Here we go," he said.
He tried to stay happy as he carried a tray with sandwiches and lemonade into the living room and placed it down on the table in front of them. Roman reached for a sandwich while Seth picked one up and placed it in Dean's hand.
"Eat, Dean," he said softly.
Dean still functioned normally when it came to things like that. He lifted his hand and started eating but that was about it. He didn't look at Seth or say anything. Seth missed hearing his friend's voice. He missed both of his friends. Even though they were in the same room, they were further apart than ever before. He wasn't gonna lose them, at least not without one hell of a fight.
"When he's done eating, let's get him into my bed and let him sleep off some of the meds," he said.
Dean slept all afternoon while Roman stayed on the couch with the tv running. He would answer whenever Seth asked him anything but the days where Roman started a conversation on his own were long gone. Seth wanted to tell him that he had tracked down Beverly and even went to see her but he wouldn't want to get Roman's hopes up for nothing. If Beverly chose to stay away, he wouldn't blame her one bit, and it would only hurt Roman even more.
"Go wake up Dean. Dinner's almost ready," Seth said.
Five minutes later Roman and Dean came walking out. Dean blinked and looked confused.
"Where am I?" He asked.
"In my house," Seth answered.
"I thought it looked familiar," Dean said. "Fuck, my head hurts."
"You're going off the meds. Your body's gonna kill you for a few days," Seth said.
"Thanks," Dean sat down. "That place was insane. No one believed me in there so they just stuffed me up with that shit to keep me quiet."
"No more of that. Let's all eat," Seth said.
He and Roman sat down too and just as he started putting pasta on their plates, the door bell rang. He snapped his head up and couldn't keep his smile down. It could only be one person ringing his door, or at least he hoped so. He stood up to find a fourth plate in the cabinet.
"Roman, mind getting that?" He asked.
"Why me?" Roman asked.
"I think it's for you," Seth answered.
With a confused look on his face, Roman got up and walked to the front door. When he opened it, he found a hooded figure looking down at her own shoes. She slowly lifted her head and although her body looked nothing like he remembered, those dark green eyes were still the same.
"Beverly?" He asked. "Oh my god, it is you!"
He swallowed her up in his giant arms, dragging her through the open door and kicking it shut behind him. He didn't put her down before he had dragged her all the way to the kitchen where Seth and Dean were looking at the weird scene. He pulled the hood down and revealed her face to them. Dean's jaw dropped and he slowly got to his feet and wrapped his arms around her.
"Great one," he cried in a whisper.
"How did you...?" Roman turned his head and looked at Seth. "Seth, care to tell me something?"
"I found her," Seth smirked.
"He made one hell of a speech to get me here. He can be quite persuasive," she said.
"No shit," Roman chuckled.
The sound of Roman chuckling had Seth smiling instantly. It was so good to hear something like that come out of Roman's mouth. Dean released her again and took a step back while Roman once again eyed the skinny person in front of him.
"What happened to you? You used to be healthy to look at," he said.
"I was chubby," she said.
"No, you looked good. Like a real woman," he blushed.
"I'm still real. It's just..." She sighed. "Things have been really rough, you know. And from what I hear, you haven't been able to cope too good yourself."
"She doesn't eat for days," Seth said.
"Seth!" She snapped her head to look at him.
"There's not gonna be any lies between us," Seth said firmly. "You don't eat, Dean's been in the loony bin, Roman's fucking numb and I'm trying like crazy to get you all back to normal again. Now sit down and eat this fucking dinner I've made before it goes cold!"
He hadn't meant to shout but he couldn't control his own anger and hurt any longer. He wanted his friends back and she was the first step. She had come through and that meant everything.
"Do they even know?" She asked as she sat down.
"Know what?" Dean asked.
"No, they don't," Seth sighed.
"Seth wants us to go back in there," she said.
"No fucking way!" Dean growled.
"Like I told Beverly yesterday, I'm going with or without you," Seth said.
"You don't even know where it is," Roman said.
Dean looked down ashamed and Roman growled in anger.
"Dean? Did you fucking tell him?" He asked.
"I had to. I remember," Dean said.
"We were in the back of vans," she said.
"Did you keep your eyes closed the entire time?" He broke out in a little smile. "Because I didn't. No one was back there with me since they thought I was asleep so I sat up and looked out of the back window the entire ride. I never forgot the way and one night I told Seth."
Seth started putting pasta on plates again. They all watched him like children watching their father. He didn't speak again until all plates were filled with pasta and tomato sauce.
"So, yeah, we're going back in there," he said.
"Fuck, no!" Roman said.
"I am," Seth said.
"I'm going with him," she looked at Roman.
"No, Beverly, you know what it's like in there," Roman said.
"I wanna shut that place down. How many people died in there after us? I don't want anyone else to ever go in there. We're going in there and I don't care if you go with us or not, Roman. You're not gonna stop me," she said.
"I'm not letting you go in there alone," he reached over and stroked her cheek. "You got us through that place once before. You can do it again."
"Only this time we're taking the back entrance instead," Seth said.
Roman was still stroking her cheek and he managed to put on a smile for her.
"We'll go in three days," he said.
"Why wait three days?" She asked.
"First of all, we need to make sure Dean is clean and that his body can handle it. And second of all, we need some food in you to make sure your body can handle it too," he said.
"You care too much about my body," she said.
"I'm alive today because of you. I owe you everything. And besides..." He smirked. "I really liked your body back then. I'm so gonna fatten you up again."
She grabbed her fork and dug into the pasta with a smile. The three men followed and soon after Seth's delicious dish was completely gone.
"One thing though," Dean said.
"Yeah?" Seth asked.
"If we go in there, we're gonna become murderers ourselves because there's no way in hell I'm gonna let any of those mad scientists out of there alive," Dean said.
"We'll figure it out," Roman looked at Beverly again. "Somehow, we'll figure it out."
He was with Dean in that matter. He was ready to tear everyone apart that had brought this kind of hurt not only on himself but on Beverly too. For nine long months he had thought about her everyday and he wasn't about to let her hurt anymore.
"What about Peyton?" She looked up.
"She took the pill," Dean said.
"I tracked her down too. She's happy. She's gotten engaged. She doesn't remember anything," Seth said.
"Good," she said. "Let's keep her out of it and let her live her life."
"It's time for you three to start living again," Seth said.
"And time for those motherfuckers to stop," Dean said.
