A/N: I've altered some of the dialogue and I think Will's anger makes a bit more sense now!
The sunlight seemed to pierce straight into her brain from the moment she opened her eyes. A low groan escaped her mouth as she sluggishly pulled the pillow over her head to block out the light. She couldn't remember sunlight ever being this painful, not even in those first few moments every day when she opened her eyes. She needed to roll over, but she couldn't find the strength in her body she needed to move. Her head was pounding. It felt like the watermelon from the video she had seen where someone wrapped thousands of elastic bands around the fruit until it caved in. Her head felt like the elastic bands were squeezing on it from every angle.
She managed to shuffle herself around until she was facing away from the window. It was now dark enough that she could open her eyes just a tad, enough to see where she was. There was a trash can beside the bed, which she could now identify as the source of the funky smell that seemed to be hanging around her. She didn't remember vomiting last night, but she guessed she must have. Luckily Will had put out the trash can, otherwise that would be quite the mess for the housekeepers.
Her stomach gave a warning roll, the smell seeming to have made her brain register the sickening nausea pressing in on her abdomen. Eyes barely open, she reached out and grabbed the trash can, managing to lift it high enough to hold it beneath her mouth with a shaking hand. She retched, the contents of her stomach making a grand reappearance, burning her mouth and throat as they did. It seemed to go on for hours, but eventually, after what was probably only a minute or two, it stopped. Groaning, she weakly pulled herself up to sitting, still clutching the trash can as she stared blearily around the room.
"Nice"
Turning her head, JJ realised for the first time that Aly was sitting in the armchair by the window. She looked more pissed off than JJ had ever seen her.
"I feel like shit," JJ croaked, pressing a hand to her forehead and squeezing her eyes shut. One side of her nose was blocked and hurting like hell. She had no idea how much alcohol she would have had to drink to feel this bad.
"You look like shit," Aly said flatly.
"What happened?" JJ groaned. "Why am I… where's Will?"
"What happened?" Aly repeated incredulously, sitting forward in her chair. "Are you fucking kidding me JJ?"
"What?" JJ asked wearily, her voice a little stronger than before.
"You fucked up is what happened!" Aly exclaimed, getting to her feet. She looked incredibly mad.
"How much did I drink?" JJ asked, her voice fading again.
"Drink? Oh my god JJ," Aly said in disbelief. "You really don't remember do you?"
"Remember what?" JJ asked weakly.
And suddenly Aly flew towards her, her face set in furious stone as got within an inch of JJ. "You took fucking cocaine!"
JJ's stomach gave another dangerous lurch.
"I- no… I wouldn't-"
"You did!" Aly yelled. "I didn't believe it either, you disappeared for like half an hour and when you came back you were so unbelievably wasted. And then, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, I watched you do it AGAIN!"
Tears burned JJ's eyes as she dropped her face to her hand.
"But here's the real kicker," Aly said, her voice scarily quiet again. "You disappeared again. I had no idea where you had gone. I was scared you were going to hurt yourself. So I got Will to come and get you. I still didn't know where you were, so we both started searching. And where did we find you?"
JJ swallowed hard, her heart hammering away in her chest. She had a sickening feeling that she knew the answer, but she didn't know if she was ready to hear it.
"Locked up in a room with some random guy. With his hand in your underwear," Aly finished.
A sob began to build in her chest, but before it could truly escape, she leant over the trash can again, another wave of vomit hitting her like a truck. No sooner had it finished than she started to cry. Blinded by tears, she sat there numbly as Aly prised the trash can from her hands. She buried her face in her hands, her body overcome by tears as the reality of the previous night hit her.
However bad she had imagined it being when she woke up… nothing was as bad as this.
"Will saw it. I don't know if you remember, but he was pissed last night. You guys were yelling for hours"
"Where is he?" JJ sobbed.
"In your room," Aly said darkly. "He was fighting mad… I knew he wouldn't, but I honestly thought he might hit you. And you were upset… so I brought you back here"
"I thought it was all just a bad dream," JJ choked out. "Please tell me it was just a dream"
"I saw it, JJ. You did it. You fucked up big time," Aly spat. "You're so goddamn lucky that you're my best friend and I love you, because I could've actually strangled you last night… why the hell do you wait until it's too late to tell people you're struggling? Because I know you… I know that's why you did all this shit, because it was the only way you knew how to get rid of the pain. But you know something JJ? That pain relief is only temporary. Because when this hangover clears, you're still going to be just as sad and in just as much pain as you were this time yesterday"
JJ looked up at Aly, her eyes brimming with tears as her friend stared down at her, her face set in stone.
"I… Aly, I… I'm sorry," she said tearfully.
"Save the apologies for Will," Aly said quietly, letting out a heavy sigh. "You're going to need them"
The tension surrounding the three of them as they sat in the boarding lounge at LAX was so thick, Aly swore she would have needed some sort of Samurai sword to cut through it.
In the three and a half years she had known Will, she had never known him to be this angry. Having overheard the red hot shouting match that he had had with JJ the previous evening, Aly knew he was hurting. He was pissed. And, quite honestly, he had every right to be. It was, after all, him who had found JJ practically unconscious beneath the drunken hands of another man who had also had very little clue to what was actually happening.
Beside her, JJ was curled up in the smallest ball she could work herself into. Will's black hoodie was hanging on her like a dress, the hood pulled up and over her face to protect herself against potential paparazzi and the chance of being recognised by some kid. Her head was resting on Aly's shoulder, and even though her arms were folded tightly around her stomach, her hands were shaking.
They had barely spoken at all. Will had uttered a few short sentences to Aly, but only when it was necessary, and as far as she was aware, he hadn't spoken to JJ at all. She knew, for Will's sake more than anything, she was going to have to sit between them on the flight. Not that she really wanted to, but she would take five hours of tension over the two of them erupting into another screaming match in such a confined space.
She was broken from her thoughts by JJ suddenly lurching out of her seat and running in the direction of the bathroom, clapping a hand over her mouth as she went. Setting her bag down on the empty seat, Aly quickly followed, barely noticing when Will looked up from his phone at the exit of both the girls.
She caught up to JJ just as the blonde was staggering into a toilet stall, already heaving up the contents of her stomach. Grimacing slightly as JJ fell to her knees and was violently sick into the bowl, Aly knelt down behind her and pulled the hood down from her head, gathering her hair away from her face with deft fingers. JJ retched again, coughing and spluttering as Aly rubbed her back in the most comforting way she could manage. She was sick once more, clutching the sides of the toilet with shaking hands as her stomach violently rejected its contents. When she was sure it had finally stopped and she was safe to move, she collapsed back against the wall of the stall, revealing to Aly for the first time just how awful she looked.
Reaching up, Aly flushed the toilet, before lifting a hand to JJ's face and pushing her hair back from it. JJ's skin was slightly puffy, and nearly as pale as the porcelain tiles on the wall behind the toilet. Her hair hung limp and dull around her face, furthering the haggard look in her eyes. She had clearly spent most of the previous night in tears, for her eyes were swollen and red, a stark contrast to her ghostly white skin.
"I'm sorry Aly," JJ said tearfully, her voice nothing more than a cracked whisper as fresh tears formed in her eyes.
"It's ok, I know you're not feeling the greatest," Aly replied softly. JJ shook her head.
"No... I'm sorry for... last night," she sobbed, pressing her head back against the wall of the stall. "I ruined everything"
"It's ok," Aly breathed, taking her friend's hand. "JJ, I know you better than almost anyone... you acted the way you did last night because you were hurting like hell, and while it scared me, I do understand. But I swear to god... if you ever do that to me again, I'll kill you"
"Will might get there first," JJ choked out, her voice suddenly terrified.
"He's never laid a hand to you JJ... yes he's mad... but he'll come around," Aly replied. "Come on... let's go back out to our seats"
They barely lasted two minutes over the threshold upon arriving back in Pittsburgh before Will couldn't take it anymore. As soon as he'd dropped his bag in their room, he exploded. Sandy, who had yet to learn all the details of what had happened, disappeared into the lounge room; she knew something had happened, but she planned on waiting until they had both calmed down to figure out what it was.
"You were so fucked up last night that I don't think you realise what you did!" Will yelled, his voice carrying angrily out of the room and down the stairs. "Do you remember drinking yourself into a hole? Snorting cocaine? Letting some random fuckwit with who knows what kind of diseases PUT HIS FINGERS INSIDE YOU?"
"I said I was sorry," JJ sobbed, shrinking back against the wall.
"Well you know what JJ, I'm sorry, but sorry isn't going to cut it for me right now," Will spat angrily, tearing a hand through his hair as he turned his back on her. His chest was heaving, his breathing ragged with anger. Seconds later, he whipped back around to face her, fury written all over his face. "You cheated on me! And not only that, but I've spent MONTHS trying to get you to talk, and you kept insisting you were fine, and I knew you fucking weren't, but I let you go, and look where that ended! You fucking drank your own body weight in vodka, snorted shit up your nose, and then came within seconds of fucking some random dude! I can't… what the fuck is wrong with you JJ, this isn't how healthy people cope with shit!"
"I didn't go in there with the intention of cheating on you!" JJ cried, launching herself off the wall with surprising force. "I would never dream of doing that to you, ok, it just happened, I was angry and I was upset and I was hurting, it just happened, I didn't mean for it to!"
Will's eyes flashed with rage, but seconds later, the tension slumped off him. Looking defeated, he held out his hand. "Give it back," he said softly.
"What?" JJ asked, her face flooding with shock even as she remained wary of his sudden change in demeanour.
"The ring. Give it back," Will said bluntly.
JJ's face crumpled. "No, Will… I'm sorry," she said tearfully, taking a step back. "Please"
"Give it back!" he yelled, startling JJ to more tears. She relented, sliding the engagement ring from her finger and holding it out to him with a sob. He snatched it from her hand, his jaw clenching as she sobbed before him.
"Is that it?" JJ asked through heartbroken breaths. "We're done?"
"God, JJ, I don't know!" Will exclaimed. "I just need time, ok, I don't even know you anymore"
"I'm still the same-"
"No you're not!" he yelled, lifting his face to meet her gaze. "The JJ I know and love hasn't been here for a long time, and I don't even fucking know if she's ever going to come back! I can't live like this, JJ, I can't live not knowing what your next fucking move is going to be!"
JJ's eyes suddenly burned, and she launched herself forward until she was just millimetres away from him. "IF YOU'RE THAT ANGRY AT ME, JUST HIT ME!" she screamed.
Fully primed to shoot back another angry remark, Will halted, not quite sure he'd properly heard what JJ had said. "What?" he asked, his voice much softer than it had been just moments before. Even so, he didn't need the clarification… anger was still throbbing through him like angry red waves. But now, something else was behind the anger. Something that felt oddly like pain.
"Just hit me," JJ sobbed, the tension radiating away from her frame as her shoulders slumped. Suddenly she looked so small… so vulnerable.
Will felt a stab of fear slice through his heart. This wasn't his JJ… this wasn't the girl who competed proudly and strongly for her country.
"JJ… no, I'm not-"
"Just fucking do it already!" she yelled through gritted teeth, taking a striding step towards him and looking up at him through floods of tears. "I know you want to, just FUCKING HIT ME!"
"I'm not going to hit you," Will said as calmly as he could manage.
Grabbing his hand, JJ roughly brought it up to her cheek so it was resting against her angry red skin. "Do it!"
"JJ, no," he said sharply.
Letting out a frustrated sob, JJ threw his hand back down by his side before collapsing in an angry sobbing heap against the bedroom wall. Her body shook terribly with the sobs coursing through her heaving chest, her face hidden against her knees.
Frozen in place, Will simply stared at her for a moment, rattled by just how broken she'd become. He didn't move a muscle, not until what felt like hours later, when she finally spoke.
"I just want to hurt… on the outside… as much as I do on the inside"
As angry, as hurt, as upset as he was, Will slowly sank to his knees before her, fighting back the lump in his throat as he reached a shaking hand out towards her shoulder. When his fingers brushed the material of her jacket, she pulled away, huddling further against the wall than he thought possible.
"I've never laid a hand to you in any way that wasn't motivated by love," he whispered, his eyes burning with tears. "I'm not going to change that tonight… not only because I can't bring myself to hurt you, but because I know it's not going to fix anything" Managing to take in a breath, he hastily wiped away the tears making tracks down his cheeks. "I'm so angry at you… but I'm also terrified, JJ… I think you need help… I think we need help"
Hearing footsteps approaching the open door, Will looked up to see Sandy slowly walking towards them from the landing, her eyes wide and fearful against her pale skin.
"I know I said I would give you some space to work this out… but what I heard just now scared me… what's going on?" she breathed, one her hands shakily reaching for the doorframe to steady herself.
Unable to voice everything to Sandy at that moment, Will turned his attention back to the sobbing mess in front of him that was JJ. The wails coming from her mouth were hardly even human, and despite the anger still throbbing in his veins, Will couldn't help but hurt terribly for the pain she was so clearly feeling.
"Will you let us take you to the hospital?" he asked quietly, half expecting her to immediately jump up and resist him. Instead, he was surprised when, her head buried beneath her hands, she managed a nod.