Chapter Text
His hearing came back to him first. His senses kicked in slowly, one by one, his sight being last to come back to him. But he could definitely hear. So, he listened out for anything and was confused with what he was met by. Or, what he wasn’t met by. Silence. Complete silence, often broken by the shuffling of clothes or his own breathing. He felt a sheet over his arms. When had he gone to bed?
But aside from the rustling, it was silence.
No patter of skipping feet. No humming or singing in the high-pitch he’d grown used too. No tap of fingers on dress-fabric; a twitch he’d noticed in her. No maniacal laugh or giggle she usually gave when presented with pain. He knew she was there, but she didn’t do anything that announced it. Lauren was absolutely silent.
When he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was he was in his own hotel room – books on the desk and clothes on the floor beside his closet and his foot strapped up in a more professional manner, laid on a pillow at the foot on his bed. He was in his own bed in his own room with his own things, and to his left, Lauren sat motionless, watching his face buffer into consciousness. Her hand gripped them mattress of his bed.
“Chef had to leave,” she told him. She spoke quietly. “He bandaged your foot and checked your head. You have a very thick skull.”
Damien didn’t respond. “Pain medication is in your nightstand. Nichelle is with the boys. He said you need to sleep a lot.” Damien nodded slowly. “Thankyou,” he managed. His voice dragged, heavy from sleep. “What time is it?”
Lauren looked at the clock above his door. “One pm.”
“I slept for twelve hours?!”
She giggled. “Yeah.”
"And you sat here? Surely not- for twelve hours?!”
She looked out the window. Light snuck out the curtains and struck across her face. “Chef was here until three. And I had to leave to get Nichelle-“
“Lauren, go get lunch.”
“What?”
Her smile widened. Her head snapped towards him. She was trying to scare him? Damien shook his head. “I’m serious. If you’ve been here since four, you need to go eat.” She stared at him for a long time; smile plastered over his face almost desperately. Then, without another noise, she stood up and left.
☆
Lauren watched over Damien for the rest of that day and night. She brought him food and insisted he sleep he sleep as much as possible. Her smile hardly wavered for the rest of that day, and Damien was beginning to understand why. She sat by his side most of the day, set up a movie for him to watch – an old murder mystery called Clue™. They watched in silence except for Lauren giggling to herself, usually when someone died.
If Damien drifted off to sleep during the film, he’d fall asleep and wake up to Lauren, still sat on his bedroom floor. He’d wake to her watching him closely and then once she saw him awake, she’d smile her trademark scary grin, and press play again. They finished the film after four long hours. Lauren didn’t complain.
When Damien fell asleep again that night, roughly ten pm, Lauren sat on his floor, watching a horror on low-sound on his TV. It was a slasher of some sort slasher film, and he fell asleep to her giggle breaking the silence every so often.
When he woke up the next morning at five am, she wasn’t there.
Who was there, however, was Nichelle and Wayne. Wayne was stood in his doorway, holding open the door and looking nervously between Damien and the hall. Nichelle stood over his bed, and shook him gently by the shoulders. “Damien?” she said upon seeing his eyes flutter open. He blinked groggily at her. “Nichelle? Wuh?” he mumbled. “What’s happening?”
“It's Scary- er, it’s Lauren.” Damien's sleepy mind ground to a halt. Something cold settled over him. “Lauren?”
Nichelle nodded and glanced at Wayne. He shared her expression.
Damien pushed himself up and sat against the head board. “What’s happened?” Nichelle moved back a step and held her hands out for Damien to take. “Can you walk?”
“I can try.” He rolled himself off the mattress, and with the actresses help, came to stand in the centre of his room. She threw his arm over her shoulder and hastily carried him over to the doorway.
Wayne noticed them coming over and moved back and let them through. Damien was momentarily stunned by the bright light of the hallway, but when he adjusted, he saw where Wayne had been looking. “Lauren Lovett.” The name scared him, but now for the wrong reasons. Nichelle began to help him hobble down the hall, essentially carrying him over her shoulder by that point. His toes lifted off the floor but he didn’t complain – it was early; his eyes may be awake, but his legs definitely weren’t. Wayne didn’t follow them.
“She’s… uh….” Nichelle began, but every word seemed unsure. “Well… Zee went for a walk about half an hour ago, and she was sat on her window ledge, er, sort of hanging over the side. Just her legs though!” Damien didn’t respond.
“Zee tried to call her down, so did me and Axel, but she won’t respond. We didn’t know if this was normal or…”
“It’s not,” he said softly. Nichelle nodded as if she expected as much.
She got him to the door and left him down and onto the carpet again. He leant himself onto the wall for support. The picture of Lauren smiled at him from the door, almost taunting him. Nichelle seemed to stare at it with the same unease. She then took a step back and managed a weak smile. “I don’t wanna… scare her,” she explained. “She’s used to you. I’ll go look over the boys.”
Damien nodded. “Thanks Nichelle.”
With that, she turned and walked back to Raj’s room, and disappeared inside. Wayne watched her go, and looked back to Damien. He didn’t smile as he usually did, instead gave a brief swing of his arms, as if encouraging him to go in, and then also disappeared into his room. Damien took a breath and opened her door.
☆
“What are you doing?” Damien didn’t even realise he was talking until he heard his own voice. It was forcefully calm and shook on every syllable. Lauren didn’t so much as flinch. Her head stayed fixated on the horizon line. Not looking down; just looking out, over the ocean. She sat on her windowsill, windows wide open before her. Her legs dangled aimlessly over the side and knocked against the walls whenever she swung her feet. “I’m thinking.”
Damien nodded as he crossed the room. The lights were off so the only light came from the sun that had only just began to rise. The room was cast in a dull yellow glow, and it made her seem even paler where she sat. He kept as slight distance between them. “What are you thinking about?” He had one answer in mind. He hoped it was the wrong one, though part of him knew he was wrong. Lauren hardly moved, but her grip seemed to tighten on the ledge. “You know, the usual,” she said plainly. “Blood, pain, people,” she began to list. She looked back at Damien. Her smile stretched thin and meagre. It was hardly a smile anymore. “You.”
“Me? What about me?” he asked. He took another step. Lauren didn’t respond. She looked back to the view. Her smile widened painfully. “When you fell,” she said. “I thought I would laugh. Be happy or giggly like I always do, like I should do.” Her breath shook. “I didn’t. I didn’t feel what I should feel. It was--” She hesitated. “It scared me.”
“It’s not nice, is it?” he said gently. There was no malice in his tone. No sarcasm. Genuine concern. “Being scared?” Laurens mouth twitched into a desperate grin. “But it’s supposed to be! I’m Scary Girl, not Scaredy Girl, I shouldn’t be scared, I-” Her voice tremmered. “I can’t be scared. But I was.”
Damien took another step forwards. If it could be called a step. He shuffled himself towards the window a little more.
“You’re allowed to be scared, yunno? We all are, it’s human nature. Raj was scared too. Wayne said he was. He said so was he, and Nichelle,” he began to list. Lauren looked back at him. Her smile buffered on her pale features. Her nails dug into the wood of the window sill. She couldnt face him. “And you’re not.”
“Not what?!” she asked, an almost hysterical tone edging her words.
“Scary Girl. Or Scaredy Girl. You’re Lauren if I ever saw her.”
Damien held up a hand for her to see and slowly placed it on her shoulder. Her skin beneath the dress was ice cold from the morning wind. He shivered at touch but shook it off. “Come back inside,” he whispered. His own voice wavered. “Please?” Lauren didn’t move immediately. Her eyes stayed locked on the hand on her shoulder. Damien's grip tightened. “Do you want to jump?”
Lauren didn’t look shocked by the question. As if she’d heard it before. “Sometimes,” she said, the last remnants of a smile fleeing her lips. Damien nodded to himself.
“Okay. And now?”
Lauren turned back and looked down at the drop. She felt herself recoil at the height and shook her head. “Not anymore.”
☆
Ten minutes passed before they left the room. When Lauren recoiled, she slipped off the window ledge and fell back into her room, then taking Damien- still wobbly on his feet- with her. It took an entire five minutes for both of them to get up, and another five to get to the door. When they came into hallway, warmth hit them immediately. It wasn’t necessarily hot inside, but the window open in Laurens room for so long had cooled it down immensely. Nichelle and Axel ran out of the boy’s room the second they heard footsteps, and both let out the same breath of relief upon seeing Damien and Lauren.
Axel ushered them both into Damien's room because “it’s warmer in there than any other room up here. And you both need rest.” Nichelle ran downstairs to make warm drinks, and on the way, dug out some hot water bottles from the cabinet. Within the hour, Lauren was laid on a mattress on Damien's bedroom floor with a blanket, a hot water bottle, and a mug of what he assumed was hot chocolate. He didn’t have one- Raj had drank it.
Axel burst back in at six am and Damien went to scream in surprise. Laurens icy hand gripped his wrist. “Nope,” she sighed. “Six am.”
Axel raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Both of you need to rest now. Me and Nichelle will look after the boys for you. Damien, you need to sleep more, and Lauren, you are freezing cold.”
Lauren managed a thin smile. “I’ve been colder.”
Axel nodded slowly. “Well, regardless, rest.”
Nichelle came up behind her and placed her hands on Axels shoulders, beginning to steer her away from the door. “Yeah… sleep well guys, we’ll come check on you around noon.”
Damien smiled at her gratefully. “Thanks girls.”
She nodded, and with a click, the door closed, plunging the room into a comforting darkness. Damien looked to Lauren. She stared at the ceiling fan like it had personally offended her. She laid soundless on her back; hands folded neatly over her stomach.
Within the next hour, she had fallen asleep, and Damien was left to his own thoughts, and the noises in the hallway.
☆
Nichelle stood in the kitchen, phone to her ear, Chef’s instructions in her hand. “No, it’s not for the boys this time- yes, I know! No, it’s for Lauren she- … SCARY GIRL, WHO D’YOU THINK?” Axel sat across from her, sipping at a mug of milk. She had almost choked on it when she had began yelling down the phone. It surprised her, that’s all. She remembered Nichelle when she had arrived, a sobbing, shouting mess. Now, she was still shouting, but it was cool to see her be shouting at someone who was there now.
“Yeah, I know. the boys are fine, but she had an… episode this morning- I know. SHE HUNG OUT THE FUCKING WINDOW FOR AN HOUR. NOW ARE YOU COMING OVER OR NOT?” He was coming. Nichelle hung up the next moment and groaned heavily. “That man, is the worst person to call. How has Damien dealt with him so far?”
Axel stared at her for maybe too long. She was beginning to ask herself some questions about what she… liked. She shrugged. “Damien’s probably the most relaxed her.” She paused.
“Aside from Zee.”
“Aside from Zee.”
Nichelle came round the kitchen island and dropped into the stool beside Axel. She leant her head onto her shoulder, like she had done a thousand times previously, but Axel felt something inside her jump this time. Nichelle either didn’t notice, or if she did, she pretended not to. She put her arm around the actress in a way she hoped was comforting. “When will her be here?”
"Tonight apparently. He said he’s setting up the next game all day, and Chris would throw a hissy.”
“Sounds about right.”
They sat their for about half an hour, until Ripper came downstairs and coughed loudly, before telling them to “Get a room!” The morning ended with Axel at Ripper’s throat, Nichelle pulling her back by the arms, and Caleb inevitably coming downstairs to break it all up.
Damien listened from upstairs and smiled to himself.
He’d have to talk to Nichelle about that.