Sorry for abandoning this story before- life has most certainly gotten in the way. New place, new job, new academic year (now as an honours student)! But I hope you all still have some interest in finding out what is going on with our Gregory.
Please review – let me know what you think, if you want more, if you don't!
Undertow
(6)
The small lab was almost packed, a large percentage of the day shift having shuffled in and taken up residence while waiting to hear what Henry had found. He stood before them holding a piece of paper in his hand, the charts and matches almost visible. His expression giving away the tone of the discussion they were going to have.
"I ran the usual and the unusual tox panels…" Henry paused meeting Russell's eye before continuing. "I found a high, most certainly more than a therapeutic level of oxytocin in Greg's system. Pain killers like that… can cause hallucinations, delusions, and change in personality and blackouts… They don't call it the 'hillbilly heroin' for no reason" The silence rung throughout the room as it sunk in that Greg had been living a life they had all been oblivious of. He had lost himself to something and they had all been too busy to see.
"What do we do?" Sara asked in a quiet voice attempting to think through all of her interactions with Greg in the past month as to a clue to how all this had happened. It occurred to her that she had been so wrapped up in her own problems that she had barely been there for him. There were a long list of missed lunch dates, coffees and Friday night dinner's had been completely forgotten. But in the grand scheme of things it hadn't seemed too bad.
"We get him to a doctor, or a clinic…or at least him make him more comfortable" Nick responded. "He came in this morning… The last hit is probably going to be wearing off soon."
Without a word Sara made her way out of the lab heading towards lock up attempting to imagine the state Greg was in. The guilt followed her as she wished that she had checked in with him at least once. There were the usual excuses- life, work and the amount of time spent just trying to stay above water.
There had been signs. There had been things she should have noticed and asked Greg about but she had been blinded by her own problems. He had started to complain about headaches more often. It was something small, just a note of something that was irritating him at the time but it all added up now. She had seen a bottle of migraine pills in the glove box of his car but who in this line of work didn't suffer from something.
Anxiety. Depression. Back aches. Heart conditions. Migraines were no all too surprising in the grand scheme of things but it was clearly more than that. They had completely crippled Greg in a way he had been able to brush under the carpet for far too long. She should have asked. She should have offered her help but like everyone else she assumed he had been coping just fine.
As she stood outside of the room they were holding Greg in she found herself thinking back to how she had felt just before she had left Las Vegas. Facing death every day had a strange way of stealing life away from under your nose. Every night she would go home exhausted and drains by what she had seen. And evidently it had done the same to Greg…
Greg sat in the corner of the room, his head buried in his hands and his eyes closed tight. She felt a surge of sympathy for him, her entire body willing her to just wrap him in her arms and absorb all his shame. He had always been there for her, with a smile or a joke or an unexpected coffee. She wondered exactly when it had all stopped, she tried to convince herself that it had happened organically over a long period of time but in actual fact they had stopped being best friends as abruptly as they had started.
"I know what you found" He muttered, forming the words seemed to pose a huge task for him and he screwed his eyes tight as though his head was protesting. "I don't want to talk about it"
Sara dismissed the police officer standing at the door and took a coy step forwards. Greg didn't change position, didn't look up or budge over, and didn't attempt eye contact or conversation. She felt like she was intruding but she pushed ahead anyway, determined to find out what had gone wrong and how they could fix it together.
"You know, I remember not long ago I told you the same thing..." Sara ventured. Greg didn't respond, she found herself bending at the waist to study him carefully and make sure he was still breathing. With a deep breath she sat beside him, mirroring his position with her hands clasped on her lap.
Sara cast her mind back to the last time she had found herself drowning and it was a similar situation to this. Life got too much for her and the half a glass of wine every night soon became a couple of bottles, the pills to take the edge off multiplied without her noticing and she wasn't sure where it would have ended had it not been for Nick and Greg pulling her through. They were a family and that meant supporting each other through the hard times as well as the good.
"I always wished I had told you sooner... what I was feeling...what I was going through" Greg continued to ignore her although his hands fell from his face and sat in his lap. She could see the tremble in them, although she pretended not to. He was suffering withdrawals and Sara could tell he was afraid. It took something like this to make an addict recognise their addiction and that was a frightening prospect.
"Do you remember promising me you'd be there for me?" Sara asked, unable to keep the emotion out of her voice.
Greg raised his head and met her eyes. A deep red colour had tainted the whites of his eyes and his pupils were wide and uneven. She had never seen him like this, he must have been keeping himself medicated at all times. She reached out a hand and held onto his, his skin was clammy and moist with sweat but she didn't let go. This gesture probably told him more than her words ever could.
"I promised you the same thing" She whispered as he allowed his head to rest gently on her shoulder. Tears rolled slowly down his face and despite her internal promise to keep it together she found herself crying along with him.
