Hell in the head space

Hey guys, next chapter is final up, there will be lemons next chapter :)

The HIVE series and Deadlock belong to Mark Walden, if you haven't already read it go read it now (its awesome :D)

Again thanks to SpaceDog for proofreading and editing

The sound of the school bell resonated throughout the corridors of the HIVE, the time ticking over on the wall clocks, indication the first lesson of the day at HIVE. As the hundreds of students from the Alpha stream filled off to their first lessons, Otto and Laura headed in the opposite direction. Laura stumbled slightly alongside Otto, holding onto his arm for balance. Otto sighed as he and Laura navigated their way to the HIVE medical wing.

It didn't help the situation that both of them hadn't had much sleep recently, given the fact that they shared a room together. Laura had been kept up throughout the night by her plaguing nightmares while Otto had been kept up with her, trying to help her through her mental situation. Although Otto clearing her mind yesterday had helped her mental state immensely and her nightmares were becoming progressively less intense, she was still a long way from completely back to normal. Her mental state had almost become too much for Otto to handle at some points, so he figured that the best course of action would be to take her to the medical staff at HIVE for professional treatment.

As Otto continued to lead Laura down towards the medical block, both of their blackboxes vibrated in their pocket simultaneously, reminders to leave for their first lesson of the day lighting up the small touchscreens. Otto interfaced with both of their tablets, clearing the messages from their notifications. He didn't mind being late for some classes if it meant helping Laura.

The medical bay and the alpha quarters were on almost different sides of the complex, so Otto knew he wouldn't have to worry about running into anyone. Most alphas were at their first classes before the bell had even rung anyway. As they walked through the slightly eerie, empty corridors of the school, Otto felt the familiar buzz of HIVEmind sending a message to him.

"I assume you are escorting Miss Brand to the medical bay in response to her current mental state?" Otto kept leading Laura as he looked up to one of the school security cameras knowing HIVEmind would be watching everything. Still leading Laura he rolled his eyes at the camera before lowering his gaze as he passed under the overhead camera.

"I assume that's a fancy was of saying yes?" HIVEminds response came through as they continued walking. "Are you certain this is the best course of action Otto?" Otto looked up to the next camera down the corridor with a quizzical expression. Picking up on Otto's lack of understanding, HIVEmind sent through Laura's profile on the HIVE systems.

Otto suddenly halted as the document flashed across his peripheral vision. Potential risk to herself and others, the words on the document echoing around in his head. Laura's profile had been blacklisted, marking her as a potential risk within the school. Another breakdown could mean her being flagged for another evaluation, taking her away from the school to do so once more. This was her second major breakdown since coming back from HIVE, the first of which had been kept a secret by both Otto and HIVEmind. "Being in emotional contact with you seems to have helped her before Otto, maybe you should give that a chance before bringing her to HIVE medical."

Again, HIVEmind was right. Being with Otto had helped Laura before, so he could at least give that another chance before resorting to giving her up to HIVE. Otto stoped walking completely with Laura stoping alongside him. Letting out a sigh, he turned around, back towards the Alpha students block. "One more chance" Otto thought to himself. "I'll try helping her one more day, and if she still is like this, then I'll have to take her to medical" Otto reasoned as he started walking back the way they had come.

Laura noticed Otto stop walking in front of her, as she slowed her pace to his, holding onto his arm. She heard a faint sigh as they began to walk back towards the direction they had come from. Her cloudy mind didn't yet comprehend where they were going at all, but she trusted Otto's judgement and followed with him.

She hugged Otto's arm tighter as they continued walking, her worries and thoughts cleared for a moment as she hung onto his arm. She couldn't help feel that this wasn't fair to him; she didn't deserve to a have a person like Otto in her life. "Otto deservers so much better than me, a person who doesn't betray her friends and let hundreds of people die; someone who doesn't cut herself and attack him when he tries to help her." Laura started crying slightly as she contemplated these thoughts, only to have Otto slip his arm out of her hands and wrap it around her shoulders, hugging her tight.

And yet he still cares for me after everything I've done to him.

Laura brought her own arm up around his shoulders, reciprocating to his own arm around her shoulders. As she put her hand onto his shoulder, she quickly retracted her hand, wincing as the cuts in her palms she had made yesterday made contact with his shoulder. Otto noticed her hand quickly jump away from his shoulder, stopping where he stood and looking into her eyes. He gently grabbed her by the wrist, careful not to touch any of her cuts as he did so. Looking into her eyes Otto and Laura spoke without words as the door to their room slid open.

As they walked into their room, Otto walked towards the bathroom looking for something to treat Laura's cuts. Yesterday they had wrapped her hands in bandages, but during the night Laura had seemed to tear them off somehow. Otto fumbled through the small medicine cabinet in their bathroom, searching for some fresh bandages and antiseptic.

As he searched through their cabinet, a message from HIVEmind came through. "I took the liberty of flagging yourself and Miss Brand as unwell for today, take all the time you need."

Finding the bandages he was searching for, Otto gave a small smile. He had the entire day with Laura, an entire day to comfort her, an entire day to help her. As HIVEmind had said, some time alone with him would be her best chance on recovering.

Laura sat down on her bed with a thud, waiting for Otto to return from their bathroom. She instinctively ran her fingers along the wounds in her other hand, feeling the marks she had made upon herself. Otto trudged back into the main room of their quarters, bandages and antiseptic in both his hands. Laura pushed her self upwards into a sitting position as Otto sat down next to her.

"Hopefully this isn't gonna hurt as much as last night" Otto said his thoughts flicking back to last night as he attempted the same task, Laura's sounds of pain almost unbearable to him as he treated her cuts for the first time. Otto laid out the equipment he had gathered next to him, unscrewing the top from the vile of antiseptic. "Given that we've already done this once, this shouldn't hurt too much. Yet it'll still probably sting like a bitch." As he spoke his gaze met with Laura's, he eyes still with a twinge of nerves, but underlying with trust in Otto. He gentle grabbed hold of her wrist and held her arm outstretched. Grabbing the antiseptic coated swab, he brought it up above her hand, making eye contact with her before he did anything to her.

"Ready?" Otto asked as stared into her eyes once more. Giving a small nodding gesture, Laura clenched her eyes shut and turned her head away. Through gritted teeth, Laura quick drew in a breath as the swab made first contact with her hand. While still keeping an eye on his task at hand, Otto kept glancing up to Laura closed eyes as she allowed him to help her.

Quickly withdrawing his hands from hers, Otto whispered "Done" to Laura as her eyes slowly flicked open and looked at her hand. Grabbing the bandage Otto quickly wrapped it around her hand without any pain or protest from Laura. "Alright were done here, you alright Laura?" Otto said cutting the excess bandage away and putting it with the other things on the bed.

"I guess I deserved it" she sobbed as Otto shuffled closer to her, putting an arm around her shoulder. He brought a hand up to her face, brushing her hair off Laura's face as he leaned in closer. As his lips made contact with hers, once again Laura's thoughts shifted in as instant, focused solely on Otto. Laura leant forward and began slowly sliding her tongue forward, unsure whether Otto would be alright with this. Otto slid his hand from her should up to around her neck, his thoughts too being lost in the moment. He felt Laura edging forward, wanting more from their current kiss. He slid his own tongue forward, making slight contact with hers. He felt way out of depth here, he and Laura had only ever kissed once before, and he had never been this close to anyone before. Wing made it look so easy with relationship with Shelby. It also didn't help that he was Wing, a person with nerves that were made of ice or something even colder. Like really cold ice…

Otto's thought snapped back to the current situation as Laura gentle eased her tongue into his mouth. As she did so her thoughts were afflicted in a similar way to Otto's. This was her first time doing anything like this with Otto, or anyone else for that matter. It didn't help her that her closest friend was Shelby, a girl who seemed to have no trouble whatsoever with these sorts of things. Shelby was so much better than her; she was the sort of girl Otto deserved. But yet even though Shelby is so much better, I'm kissing Otto right now, not her.

Otto checked the time mentally as he slid his hands slowly down Laura's back. It's still pretty early in the morning he though before his thoughts snapped back to Laura. We've still got most of the day ahead of us, Otto though as he and Laura slid into a side position on the bed, still interlocked with each other.

And it's going to be an awesome day...