A/N: I'll be honest; this idea came to me while listening to the song Gift of a Friend and it took me a while to write it out. I even looked up some stories from mental hospital patients and they mentioned a 'Children's Ward' which I had to rewrite a little. I even looked up quotes about friendship.
Time Stamp: 2/2/16
Summary: A blast to the past. Blake is in the mental hospital, worrying if his two friends still cared about him after he attempted suicide. He gets a surprise instead.
"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood." — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"Turn left!" The seven year old ordered, "no! Don't turn right!"
Blake looked at the girl and then at the news station. He was sitting on a chair with his knees pulled to his chest. He would've been untying and tying his shoe laces, but the workers took them away, along with other objects he could use to kill himself with.
He scratched at the protective gauze that was wrapped around his arms and at the plastic mental hospital bracelet. His white clothing made his skin look a little gray. It annoyed him.
It annoyed him more when his friends hadn't shown up in two weeks to ask how he was. His mother didn't know what his friends were up to. Dean showed up last week and had to leave again because WWE demanded him to travel. Uncle Charles was back in prison and Aunt Robin showed up with some snacks, when she wasn't trying to keep Charles out of prison.
That left him to marinate in loneliness, until his mother, his aunt or uncle show up. He had to go through his days in a strange fog like haze, while wondering if his 'best friend' decided to drop him after what he had done.
He knew people condemned suicide, seeing it as an act of cowardice.
"Stop shooting at people!" The girl demanded.
Blake gave her a weird look and looked back at the news station. He was more interested in what the others would say during Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
He looked away and noticed Gertrude, a sixteen year old girl, sitting at a table. She was furiously drawing something.
Blake remembered a guy from his 'Sharing Session' group told him that Gertrude killed her parents and her three younger siblings. Gertrude was going to be moved to a mental hospital for the criminally 'insane' in a few weeks.
"Moonstone, Blake!" A lady called and Blake stood up from his chair. He walked over to the desk where the lady, Margaret, was at. "You have visitors."
Blake thought visitors? He said, "I'll make sure my cousin doesn't try to climb the walls or flip the tables, again."
The lady shuddered, remembering Dean. That guy really needed to be locked up, not at this facility, but a different one. Blake stepped to the visitation area and was pulled into a hug by his best friend, Dylan.
Blake stood still and allowed his friend to hug him. He looked over to see that Alex was giving them a weird look. Blake patted Dylan on the back and said in a monotone, "pat, pat?"
Dylan moved back to the table and Blake sat down too. Dylan leaned in close, "who's that woman watching us?"
Blake looked over at the red-haired woman, Sidney. He looked at Dylan, "that's Sidney. I'm not allowed to have unsupervised visits. She's making sure that I don't talk you into killing me."
Dylan nodded, "I see." He ran a hand through his blond hair and looked at Alex. "If I slap him, will I get restrained or something?"
Alex looked startled. "What?"
Blake shrugged, "I don't know. I'm sure it will set a bad example for Gertrude."
"Who the hell is Gertrude?" Alex asked and Blake looked over at the furious teen.
She glanced up and looked at the three boys. "Stop looking at me! I'm not an animal in the zoo!"
Blake looked at his friends, "she murdered her family. I heard they were going to move her to a hospital for the criminally ill."
"You mean insane?" Alex asked. Blake winced and looked down. Alex really regretted saying that, "sorry."
Blake shrugged and looked up from the table. "So, how come you guys didn't show up in two weeks?"
"Dylan spent two weeks trying to understand why you did you what you did," Alex said.
If Blake didn't feel like a zombie at the moment, he would feel touched at Dylan's attempt to understand why, so he forced a smile in thanks. Once he stops feeling like the male version of Bella Swan, he would give Dylan a proper thanks; maybe he would buy Dylan tickets to see Raw or Smackdown live.
Dylan looked around the visitation area and saw a poster on the wall. "Does that say, 'urine is for the restroom'?"
"Yes," Blake stated.
Alex looked at it, "I need to know the story on how that poster came to exist." He looked at Blake. "Do you know the story?"
"That poster was there when I was brought in," The black haired teen said.
Alex nodded, "where is the restroom?"
Blake blinked, "it's down the hall and to the left…"
Alex looked at him, "I'll probably get lost. Then fall down some stairs while at it."
Blake sighed and stood up. He looked at Dylan.
Dylan replied, "I'll stay here."
Blake nodded and led Alex out of the visitation area. Sidney followed after them and Alex looked back at her. He looked at Blake, "does she have to follow you everywhere?"
"Yes," Blake said. "She waits for me outside the restroom. I have timed restroom breaks and if I go over the time, she will come and get me. It's her job to watch over me."
"That's…" Alex started. He blinked and shook his head. His brown hair flew around.
"She waits outside the door," Blake said.
"That would be very creepy if I went inside," Sidney said.
Alex nearly jumped up, since he didn't hear her. He felt bad for talking about her, when she was right there. Blake was just explaining what was going on, they weren't talking bad about her. He still felt bad for talking about Sidney like that.
"Does it make sense to spend almost thirty minutes in there?" Blake asked.
"You timed how long I was in there?" Alex asked, looking a little disturbed.
"No. The clock did," Blake said. "Sidney was beginning to wonder if she should send in other workers to make sure you didn't die."
"You know, I was expecting to see more adults and old people," Alex admitted.
"We're in the Children's Ward," Sidney said.
Blake nodded, "yeah. If you want to fulfill your elderly fetish, go to the wing on the right."
Alex looked horrified at the mention of 'elderly fetish.' "That's disgusting."
"Oh, right, I forgot. You would rather date Dylan, than an elderly person," Blake said.
"I don't have a crush on Dylan," Alex said. "I have standards."
Blake shrugged and led him back to the visitation area. There was a table that looked set up for a party. "It looks like it's someone's birthday." Gertrude was gone and so was the seven year old girl who had been screaming at the TV. He remembered the last birthday that they celebrated and they had a sponge cake with plastic tasting frosting.
Dean, Christina, Aunt Robin, Uncle Charles, and Dylan popped out from behind the desk, saying, "surprise."
Blake instantly burst into tears, surprising himself. He would later blame it on his anti-depressants for messing with his emotions. He knew it was sort of a late 'birthday' thing, but it was a nice comfort to know that his friends didn't leave him behind. At least he didn't have to deal with plastic frosting aftertaste.
Christina had brought cupcakes and soda with her. While they were talking with each other, Blake placed four cupcakes and some napkins on a small paper plate. He walked over to Sidney and held out the plate to her.
Blake smiled, "you shouldn't be left out."
Sidney smiled, "thank you."
Blake motioned to the group, "come on." He led Sidney to where the impromptu party was at.
Christina held a gift bag out to her son. "Here, you might enjoy this."
The fourteen year old took the bag and took out a book titled The Demons I Slay. He looked at his mom, "thanks?"
"I'm sure you will relate to the character Daniel a lot," Christina said.
A/N: I admit, I got the sponge cake part from a book called We'll Never Be Apart, which I never finished, because I figured out the twist.
The Demons I Slay is a made-up book title. I even looked it up to make sure. It was the book that Blake was talking about in the chapter Bookstores.
For the people that might get confused about when Alex and Dylan became an official couple, they both hooked up on December 3rd, 2014.
Blake was in the mental hospital for six months since June 2014. I guess you can say that Dylan and Alex had gotten closer when Blake was in the mental hospital.