Chapter 2

That night, I looked through the folder that I had been given. The man's name was Gamzee Makara. He was a year older than me at twenty three and had been arrested three times before he was brought to the rehab center, all for illegal drug possession. The first time, he had been thirteen, then seventeen, then twenty one. His mug shots and his age were all the information I got on the arrests, but I did find something interesting. He wasn't wearing that odd face paint in the first picture, but it was there in the last two. I found that odd. Maybe something had happened to make him wear it? But it seemed to be a strange design. Why would he paint his face like a clown, of all things? Oh well, my job didn't involve asking him about the odd greyish paint that he chose to wear.

The next morning, I wheeled myself through the door of the rehab center and was greeted by a bubbly black-haired girl. I smiled and waved at Jade as I passed, but didn't have time to stop and chat. I needed to go talk to Gamzee before the withdrawal symptoms kicked in. It had said in the file that he had gone sober before, when he had been arrested, and that he got very violent when he was going through withdrawal. I didn't know what they meant by "very," but I was certain that I didn't want to be in the room when I found out.

"Tavros! Are you going to talk to your new patient?" Nepeta, an over excitable nurse with a strange obsession with cats, bounced over to me and grinned.

"Um, yes, I am. Do you need something?"

She giggled shyly, clasping her hands behind her back. "Well, Equius is in charge of the security over there… so, can I come with you?"

I smiled and hid my chuckle behind a hand. The entire staff knew about Nepeta's crush—well, obsession—on the burly security guard, except, of course, for Equius himself. It was quite comical to watch how utterly oblivious he was to every one of Nepeta's attempts to get him to figure it out already. Honestly, though, I didn't think he would notice unless she said it outright. He was more oblivious than me, and that was saying something.

"Sure, Nepeta. Let's go."

She squealed happily. "Yay! Thanks!"

I laughed softly and made my way down the hall to room 351, where I assumed Gamzee was. Sure enough, as Nepeta and I rounded the corner, we saw Equius standing outside the door of the room. Nepeta immediately bounced up to him and started talking excitedly, clinging to his arm like some sort of parasite. He nodded at me, letting me know that I could go into the room, before turning his attention to her.

I left the two of them alone, knowing that Equius wouldn't allow anything to happen even with the added distraction of the cat-obsessed girl hanging off him. I opened the door and wheeled myself through it as carefully and quietly as possible. I had lost count of how many times I had narrowly avoided accidentally rolling over a patient who had passed out on the floor.

To my surprise, though, Gamzee was wide awake. Yes, he was sitting upside down on the bed with his feet against the wall and his hair brushing the floor, but he was awake. He had a lopsided grin on his face, but he seemed to be much more sober than he had been the night before.

"Yo, motherfucker. You the bro who's supposed to be all takin' care of me and all that shit?"

I chuckled softly at how blunt he was, while at the same time being incredibly vague. It was intriguing. "Well, um, y-yes, I suppose you could, um, put it that way. Gamzee, right?"

He chuckled and nodded, rolling over so that he was lying on his stomach. It was a bit easier to focus on him when he was right-side up.

"That's cool, bro. It's a motherfuckin' miracle that I got a cute little bro like you instead of that bro outside who's all motherfucking huge and shit. Who the fuck even up and has all those motherfucking muscles?"

I laughed again, though I could feel my cheeks burning in embarrassment. I decided to ignore the 'cute' comment for the moment. "Well, um, Equius is the head of security here,"

He nodded. "Well, that makes sense and all. Anyway, what's your motherfucking name, bro?"

I smiled and held out my hand for him to shake. "I'm, um, Tavros Nitram. It's nice to meet you."

He laughed and gave me some sort of sideways high five. "That's a motherfucking cool name, Tavbro."

It was at that moment that he seemed to notice my wheelchair for the first time. However, he didn't act surprised or even remotely uncomfortable, which surprised me. Most people were a bit put off by it at first, until they got used to it.

"That's one nice motherfuckin' four-wheeled device you got there, Tavbro. All up and fucking shiny and shit."

I smiled, a bit embarrassed, and shrugged. "It, um, it's fairly standard. Nothing special, really."

He laughed and shook his head. "Whatever you motherfucking say, bro. I still think it's cool as all fuck."

He made some sort of honking noise, which made me laugh again. I figured that under different circumstances, we could be friends. I was still a bit nervous around him, though. The amount of security that he had had when he was admitted had scared me a little, and I still had no idea what he had done to require it.

"Um, Gamzee, I hate to kill the mood, but I-I do have a couple things to ask you to make sure that we don't end up accidentally keeping you here illegally,"

"Nah, it's all cool. Them police bros are pretty chill and all that shit."

I chuckled softly and shook my head. "Sorry, but I do actually need to know some of this stuff."

He shrugged slightly and I took that as a sign to continue with the questions. "So, first of all, do you have anyone you want me to let know of where you are?"

He thought for a moment. "Yeah, I think my bro should know. Kurloz is all sorts of motherfucking protective of me, he'll be pissed that I got arrested again."

I nod softly. "Is he your actual brother, or just a friend?"

Gamzee laughs, the sound deep and throaty and oh god I need to stop noticing how attractive he'll probably be when he's sober.

"Anyone else?"

He was silent for a minute or two before his eyes went wide. "Oh, motherfucking shit. Yeah, I need you to tell my best bro where the hell I am. He's probably all up and panicking. His name is Karkat Vantas. Tell him before you up and call Kurloz, 'kay?"

He seemed urgent, so I nodded and wrote the name down in big letters, underscoring it several times. It sounded like it was important. Gamzee was almost… panicked.

"Alright," I soothed. "I'll call Karkat right after I'm done here, okay?"

He nodded, seeming to relax. "That's cool, bro. Sorry for getting all up in your face."

I smiled reassuringly and shook my head "No, it's fine,"

He nodded again. "Anything else?"

I asked him a few more things—where his parents were, what his job had been, things like that. He seemed tight lipped on the subject of his mother, but clearly stated that his father had left them after Gamzee was born. Unsurprisingly, he hadn't had a job when he got arrested.

When I wheeled out of the room afterwards, Equius was still standing there, even though Nepeta had apparently gone to do her job. He nodded once at me before staring off into space again. I went to my office and over to the phone on the wall. I did have a cellphone, but I didn't like using it for calls when I was at work, even though I kept it with me at all times.

First I called the police station, getting the phone numbers of Kurloz Makara and Karkat Vantas before calling the latter. When I dialed the number, it took a few moments for anyone to pick up.

"Hello, this is Kankri Vantas. What may I do to help you?" The person on the other end of the phone sounded very professional and like he was about the same age as my own brother, Rufioh.

"Um, h-hello, I'm looking for Karkat Vantas. May I speak to him?"

There was a pause, then the man spoke again, sounding hesitant. "Well, I am not sure that is a good idea at the moment. You see, he's been triggered—"

There was violent static and muffled swearing for a minute or two before someone spoke again. It seemed like the two were fighting for the phone.

"What the fuck do you want? I have more important things to be doing than listen to some stuck up douche try to implant a two by four into his ass, so hurry it the fuck up."

I blinked in shock at his rather creative language, then collected myself and started again. "Um, Karkat Vantas? This is T-Tavros Nitram. I'm a doctor at Alternia Rehabilitation Center, and—"

He cut me off. "Get to the damn point, fuckass. I told you, I have things to be doing."

His excessive use of swear words was starting to make me nervous. "U-um, well, I'm calling about your friend, Gamzee Makara,"

There was silence for a moment before he started talking. His speech was broken and rushed, like he was panicking. "Gamzee? What happened? Is he alright? Where is he?"

"Gamzee's fine. He's here at the center, and he's perfectly fine. He got arrested last night and brought here." I said soothingly, trying to answer all of his questions at once.

He sighed, apparently in relief, and when he spoke again he was much calmer. "Alright, good. Now, where did you say you were again?"

I gave him the address of the center. "Thanks. I'll be there in a moment."

Before I protest, there was a click and silence.