Here you go. Another chapter. Enjoy :D
The movie dragged on; some romantic comedy Tucker wasn't the least bit interested in. Sister liked it, however, so it was worth watching, if she could be happy.
Tucker had been tuning out completely when Sister's phone rang.
"You didn't turn off your phone."
"Yeah, 'cause no one ever calls me." She ignored the annoyed looks from the surrounding people and answered. "Hello?" A moment passed, before a smile lit up her face. "We'll be right there."
Once she'd hung up, she grabbed Tucker's arm and almost ran out of the cinema. "What's going on?"
"He's awake! He's fine and he's awake!"
"Grif?"
Sister turned and hugged him, flushed with excitement. "Yes!"
Disappointment filled Tucker, quickly replaced by guilt. How could he even begin to be upset that Sister was finally happy, and wouldn't hurt herself again? "Wait, what about your arm?"
Sister froze mid-step. "He... he won't see."
"You know he will."
She looked at her wrist, staring at the little red marks. "Shit. I can't let him know, he'll hate himself!"
Tucker murmured quietly, "I did it."
"What?"
"Tell him I did it. He already hates me, it won't matter."
"He won't believe it. Why would you cut my wrists?"
Tucker came up with an answer surprisingly quickly. "I wanted to hurt Grif, make him think you'd hurt yourself, so I reopened old scars. Your brother thinks I'll hurt you, he wants to believe this. Better than believe you hurt yourself."
"Tucker... Even if Grif believed that, he won't just be angry. He'll legitimately want to kill you."
To that he laughed, though somewhat humourlessly. "I'll have Tex and Caboose. Now, I'll walk you to the hospital, then I'll leave. You'll be fine; you have your brother back."
Sister sighed, giving in. "Love you," she muttered, kissing him quickly.
"Yeah, you too," was Tucker's immediate reaction. It wasn't until he left her and began to return home did he remember that they'd never said 'I love you' before now.
"Ok, so, get in pairs and start working on the prac. You know the drill." Kimball passed along the prac sheets as she spoke.
Science was the only class where Doc had neither Wash, Maine, nor Omega. He spent a while wondering who he could pair with that didn't bully him, before seeing a familiar person wearing pink shirt. "Donut, want to work together?"
Donut took a moment to look around the class, which was empty of any other friends, before replying. "I suppose."
Doc frowned, confused by Donut's loss of his usual cheeriness. "Are you ok?" Donut shrugged and made his way to a workstation, slowly due to his crutch. "So... uh... what happened to your leg?"
"Broke it."
Well. That wasn't obvious. Not wanting to seem rude, Doc decided to accept the fact Donut didn't want to talk, though he occasionally tried to study Donut without seeming concerned. What had Doc done recently to deserve this weird silent treatment?
Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe Donut was just annoyed about having a broken leg.
As they begun to burn the solution given to him, Doc remembered something. "I was meaning to talk to you yesterday. I couldn't find you at lunch."
Donut simply shrugged again.
"Uh... Well, um, I went out with Omega the other day and I wanted someone to talk to about it..."
"Can you not talk?"
"What?"
"Just... Let's work on this, ok? I want to get a good mark."
Donut's tone was strangely cold. Doc wished he could help, but he had no idea what was wrong.
Twenty minutes passed, during which Doc managed to successfully complete their experiment without Donut's help, despite the fact Donut claimed he wanted a good mark. Doc didn't protest; he didn't want to cause a fight.
He continued to study his friend and was starting to wish he'd taken more interest in psychology than medicine. First he got Sigma completely wrong, and now Donut seemed really upset, and Doc couldn't do anything.
Donut's phone rang, causing Doc to jump. Ignoring Kimball's protests, Donut answered.
"Hello? He is! Ok, bye."
"Who was that?" Doc tried to ask, though he was interrupted by Donut.
"MissIhavetogobye." Donut had already left the classroom by the time Doc had registered he'd left his stuff behind.
"He's awake, though barely. He's been refusing painkillers, but we'll have to give him some soon, so be quick."
Sister nodded, not really listening. "Can I go in now?"
The nurse let her past with a nod.
"Grif!"
"Hey Kai."
"How are you?" Grif made a pained grimace, and Sister interrupted him before he tried to speak. "Yeah, bad question. You don't have to speak if you don't want to."
He shrugged slightly. Even that movement obviously hurt. Kaikaina sat in the seat beside him, worry slightly dimmed by relief and joy. "Shouldn't you be on painkillers?"
"Don't wanna sleep."
"Oh you big baby. I'll be here when you wake up, don't worry."
Her brother rolled his eyes. "Fine. Can you get a nurse? Fuck- this hurts."
Sister complied, muttering 'baby' under her breath, which caused Grif to grin slightly.
When he was out, Sister continued to sit beside him. Her brain buzzed with conflicting emotions, her scarred wrist hidden against her side.
At least he's still himself. He's still here.
"Simmons! Siiimmons!"
"What do you want, Donut?" Donut nearly crashed into the library table in his haste, gaining angry looks from the school librarian. "Did you run all the way here from class?"
"Y-yeah. Wow... I'm... puffed."
Rolling his eyes and painfully reminded of Grif, Simmons offered Donut a seat. "What happened?"
Donut ignored the chair. "Need... to go. Got a phone... call. Grif..."
"What. What about Grif!"
"He's awake!"
"Shit!" Simmons grabbed the textbook he had recently been studying and threw it into his bag, following Donut out of the library.
"Do you think we should tell the school where we're going?"
"Does it matter?" Simmons asked. "They'll figure it out." Silently the words he's awake he could be ok he's awake he could be ok fluttered around Simmons' brain, accompanied with a euphoric sense of hope.
"Tex, have you seen Tucker?"
"No. Why the fuck are you asking?"
"Haven't seen him all day."
"Why would I know?"
Church shrugged. He wasn't really sure. "Wrong answer, by the way."
Tex glared at him, but rubbed out the equation anyway. "How the fuck are you so good at math?"
"No idea. I just get it."
Tex muttered something about how unfair that was and tried to solve the equation several more times, Church announcing each answer wrong.
"Fuck this. Do it for me."
"No way. Just because I'm good at math doesn't mean I don't hate it."
"Yeah, but at least you can actually do it."
"I'll show you how."
"I don't need your help," Tex replied harshly. They sat in silence as Tex focused. "Is that right?"
"Nope."
She glared at her book as if she wanted to set it on fire. Noting Tex's rage -which was dangerous in any circumstances- Church slid the book over to his side of the desk.
"Watch. You need to cross out the x and multiply it there." She looked over his shoulder as Church slowly explained each step.
"I would have figured it out myself."
Church grinned, taking her not-overly-harsh tone as a thank you. It was the best he'd get from her.
Usually, when Tucker saw Donut and Simmons outside of school, he'd walk the other way to avoid them. Today he was just annoyed and kinda depressed about his decision with Sister- which would probably end with him not being able to be with her- that he decided to fuck it and pick a fight. Tucker justified it with the argument that by being an asshole to Simmons, Grif would believe Tucker was being an asshole to Sister too.
"You two look like you're being chased by a freaking murderer. Good luck to him."
Simmons, who was probably ecstatic that Grif was up, stopped and glared at him. "What the hell do you want, hypocrite?"
The two stared each other down for a moment, Tucker amazed that Simmons could call him a hypocrite. Donut just fidgeted beside Simmons, looking like he wanted to turn invisible.
"Must have missed not having anyone to fuck for the past three days. You get desperate quickly, do you?"
"Says the guy who's skipped school just so he could take advantage of the fact no one's gonna stop you fucking Kai."
There it was again; the hypocrisy accusations. Simmons was the embodiment of an asshole and he didn't even know it. Tucker dearly wanted to yell at Simmons how he'd been helping Sister when they'd just abandoned her, but it'd completely stuff up the whole pretending-to-be-a-jerk thing.
"Dude, I skipped school 'cause it's shit. You wouldn't understand, obviously. Nerdy kiss-ass."
"I'm not a fucking kiss-ass."
"You are, figuratively and literally. Fucking faggot."
Donut could probably sense how close the two were to punching the other. "Simmons, c'mon. Don't want Grif to see you beat up."
The mention of Grif seemed to calm the fucker down, and Donut led him past Tucker. Weirdly, Donut didn't seem that annoyed at Tucker. More... pitiful.
Epsilon was irritated. I-want-to-murder-someone-but-it's-the-middle-of-school irritated. York had refused to allow him to assist in any way regarding the captured gang members. Not that Epsilon really minded, but it was a chance to hurt others that was denied to him.
Since O'Malley had stood up for Wash yesterday, Epsilon hadn't seen his favourite target alone once. The fact David now had two protecters was something Epsilon would have to deal with soon.
Epsilon wasn't well-built physically. He knew which parts of the body would hurt the most when poked with a knife, and how to mess with someone's mind, but in a physical fight he couldn't do much. A fact which had always annoyed him, but he had usually managed to 'play' without needing strength.
However, Maine was almost impossible for Epsilon. The brute seemed to never be affected by his words, and of course, could easily beat him in a fight. At least O'Malley had a soft side in the form of his sister, and sore history with Tex.
And there was the problem of how to upset York's authority. Just the fact York thought he had the right to hold Epsilon back proved it needed to happen. However, Epsilon couldn't think of anyone to target that would annoy York without destroying the protection Freelancer provided.
Without an answer to either of his dilemmas, Epsilon decided just to wander around the school grounds. Recess had only just begun; most students were still in the corridors or late to exit class. He liked being alone; liked feeling like he was all that was left in the world. As though no one would ever stand against him. He was fantasizing about the idea when a student crashed into him, red hair in her face.
"Oh! Sor- crap." Sigma took an instinctual step back, well aware of how alone she was. Epsilon put a firm hand on her shoulder to keep her still, a plan to alleviate boredom already forming.
"Don't touch me." She stepped back again. Epsilon followed her so to keep his hand in place, meeting her eyes with a knowing grin.
"What are you gonna do about it, pushover?" Epsilon forced his voice to become deeper and rougher. It had the desired effect; Sigma froze completely, staring at him with wide eyes.
"How..."
"It's obvious," he replied, returning to his normal tone. "I knew months ago."
Sigma shook her head, part attempting to clear her head, part trying to deny what was happening. "How do you know what my dad sounds like? Howdo you know what he said?"
Epsilon's smile widened, the familiar bubbling of glee forming in his stomach. "I'd be a horrible psychopath if I just told you." He stepped closer. Sigma yelped and sprang back, right into a rather helpful wall.
"Don't touch me. Omega-"
"Cannot stop me, and you know it." His hands slightly shaky from adrenaline and excitement, Epsilon brushed her neck gently, in a way he knew would freak her out more than anything.
Sigma, however, reacted more violently that he expected. She pushed at his chest with enough force that Epsilon stepped back; suddenly enough that he took a moment to recover from surprise.
Long enough time for Sigma to start running. Epsilon was tempted to let her go; let her terrify herself with anticipation of what he'd do to her next. Unfortunately, his boredom would return too quickly if he ended this now.
Epsilon may not be strong, but he was fast. He was easily able to catch her before she had taken more than a few steps, slamming her into the brick wall rather harshly.
"Get the hell away from me."
"Hmm... No." He almost giggled, examining the hidden terror on her expression. He paused for a moment, a million possibilities swirling through his head. It was always like this with a new victim; what should he do, how will they react? He hesitated a moment too long.
"Sigma!" Maine's cry was warning enough for Epsilon to push Sigma aside and duck out of the way of the punch.
Maine continued to go after him. Interesting. As he retreated, Epsilon noted Maine's obvious, startling anger. He likes her.
That was perfect. Unbelievably perfect. Because Maine couldn't protect both Wash and Sigma at once.
As always, Epsilon was fun. He's also a major jerk. I need to focus more on Church and Tex. They're so easy to write, where Donut and Simmons are almost impossible.