Chapter Text
“David,” you said again, attempting to pull your patient from his thoughts. He was going to the far-away place again. Spiraling. And for someone like him, that was a bad place to be.
His pale blue eyes snapped back to yours and he shook his head as if to ward off wayward flies. “Hm?”
You gave him a gentle smile, and reached across the table to place a hand on his fidgeting ones. He seemed surprised by the gesture, though… not in a bad way. No one had touched him without forceful intent in a long time. You knew this, and it saddened you. The action steadied him, but also sent his mind racing down a new path of thoughts. Warm and shiny ones.
“I just asked how you felt about the new medication. Any better? I know you were foggy on the Prolixin,” you retracted your hand. “Are you clearer now?”
A crease formed in his brow. In all honesty, he had forgotten about his request to switch medications. Considering it then, he realized his thoughts had been coming to him faster recently, and there was less of a struggle to find words or stay with ideas. That was nice.
Mostly, he was just happy to see Nurse Y/N again. No other person in Clockworks was kind to him the way she was. No one looked at him like a regular person anymore- except her.
Maybe that’s why he’d requested the switch. To see her. He couldn’t be sure. His own reasoning was lost on him sometimes.
“Uh… yes. I am, uh… My thoughts are… clearer now,” he laughed at himself,” I know it may not seem like it, but they are.”
“I’m so glad to hear that. How is everything else? I know I’ve been gone a lot. I started my masters degree, had to take less hours here.” She gave him an apologetic smile. “You know how it goes.”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” he waved his hand in the air. “Um… everything is fine. I guess.”
He glanced around the common area. So many people wondering about and so many ears to hear things that weren’t meant for them. He needed to talk to Y/N in private about the hallucinations that didn’t stop, his confusion and memory gaps that no medication or talk therapy had been able to fix. He couldn’t tell Lenny, Amy, the doctor, or any of the other nurses without risk of them putting the straight jacket on and medicating him to high hell. She was the only one he could trust. She understood.
Leaning towards her and lowering his voice to a whisper, David said, “Can we talk in my room? Or an office maybe? I just need to talk to you alone.”
She looked surprised by his request, but to David’s relief, did not reject it outright. “Is something wrong?”
He responded by standing up and motioning for her to join. She obliged.
________
When David shut the door to his room and turned to look at you, you wore an expression of concern. He tipped his head toward the bed, and you both sat, him cross legged.
“David… What’s wrong?” you asked. He hadn’t realized that he’d begun whispering to himself again. To the voices. Once he saw your face, he apologized and squeezed his eyes shut. Silence them. Silence them. He could not think with all this noise.
She said his name again, still gentle, but more insistent now. Her patience with him calmed him, her presence one of understanding and delicate compassion. There was no way for him to tell her what she meant to him without being too far too forward and running the risk of creeping her out.
He swallowed his comprehension.
“I’ve been seeing.. Um… I’ve been seeing… things. A… monster. Kind of. And there are things I remember that don’t make sense and… the psychiatrist says its drugs but its not. I know what-” he breathed raggedly, “I’m not.. I’m not stupid. I’m not. You probably think I’m just… Look, I don’t think any medicine will fix this. It hasn’t yet and it’s been years. Years. I- I- I… I don’t know to do.” He looked so desperate and broken in that moment and it made your heart lurch.
You knew everything about David and his condition. His suicide attempt. His drug addiction. You had been afraid that he would grow to feel helpless like this. He’d been at Clockworks for so long. In fact, he was already here when you’d started your first day working at the clinic.
He would hardly meet your eyes back then. You figured he was used to people looking at him the way people look at rabid, stray dogs. Scared. Pitying. Not worth the danger or work that would be required to rehabilitate them. You understood.
Once David realized that you understood, the two of you had begun talking quite a lot during your shifts in the common room. You snuck him a cream soda once, and from the way he’d reacted, you would’ve thought it was a million dollar lotto ticket. His rare, genuine smile had warmed you to the bone.
“David, I believe you. If there’s something deeper going on, we’ll figure it out, okay? I know how scary this is. You’re not alone.” You reached out to squeeze his shoulder reassuringly, and he covered your hand with his ohwn. He looked ready to collapse and his eyes glistened. You wished you could hug him.
“Thank you.”
You smiled at him. Nodded. And with one more squeeze of his shoulder, you left the room, promising to tell the other staff that he was to be left alone for the remainder of recreation time.
________
When you came into work the next week you were met with destruction. Sirens. Police. Fire trucks. Chaos.
And David was gone.
You tried to ask around the turmoil about David. Had anyone seen David Haller? Was he inside? Who’s been let out? What’s going on?
Only one person had any reaction to your questions as the others ignored you. He approached, presumably after hearing your inquiries, and looked to be flanked by security guards in black fatigues. David’s name is what had drawn his attention.
“Did you say David Haller?” he asked. You analyzed him. The man had salt-and-pepper hair and wore a very nice brown suit. His vibe said high business or government. Perhaps both.
“… Yes? Why, how do you know him?” Once again, you eyed him suspiciously. He took notice of this and tried to level with you.
“David Haller is in trouble and a danger to himself. We have reason to believe he is the cause of this,” he gestured to the commotion towards the building, ”And its gravely important that we find him before he hurts anybody else. Miss, if you have any idea where he might be, we need you to help us. Come with me.”
You scoffed at his words. Yes, David was unstable at times, but he would never hurt anyone on purpose. Not like this. This just wasn’t him.
But before you had a chance to question or protest, a hand grasped your arm, and you fell unconscious.
_______
You woke up to find yourself slumped over a table. In front of you sat the man from before. Groggily, vision still blurry from sleep, you glanced around the room. There was what looked like a nurse in a… pink beanie cap (?) and a second man whose head was haloed by short brown curls. One of his eyes looked as if he’d been injected with milk as it sat deep in his gaunt face. His presence unsettled you, and it seemed as though that eye could stare straight into your very being.
The one in the brown suit who had spoken to you snapped his fingers to get your attention. You looked at him, confused. Angry. And being literally snapped at only served to piss you off even further. “We understand you know David very well. There was a girl at the hospital he was friends with. A blonde. Do you know who I’m talking about?”
You glared at him. “Look, if you wanted to question me, you could’ve just asked like a regular person instead of doing this extremely cliché, secret government, kidnap thing.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up and he inclined his head towards you. “Something told us you wouldn’t have cooperated. The less struggle and attention drawn to our organization, the better.”
You rolled your eyes, looked away. He continued his interrogation.
“So. The girl. Do you know her?” You tried to remain aloof. Act as if you didn’t know anything about her. Sydney Barrett hadn’t been your patient for very long, but you’d be damned to let these creeps get their hands on her if you could help it. You attempted nonchalance.
“She was new. I didn’t know her very well.”
He didn’t believe you.
“Ms. Y/L/N, we know which patients you were assigned to. We know your track record for bedside manner,” he leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table. You just stared at him, a mix of fear and hatred in your eyes, hoping he could feel the daggers you were mentally lobbying at him. “And you should know, we have David Haller.”
This revelation stopped you cold, your mask of disregard falling away instantly. What did they want with David? Had they hurt him? He must be terrified.
The man saw your reaction and cracked a tight smile.
“Now that I have your attention: where would she go if she was trying to hide? You know her, you know how her head works. Where would she go?”
“I want to see David.”
He sighed. “We can’t allow that.”
“You mean you won’t.”
At your quip, you saw the man’s jaw clench in what was his only outward display of frustration. The rest of him, his expression, his posture, remained saddled with that air of calm. But you could tell you were grating on his nerves. Good.
Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but you were stubborn, and you despised being bullied or pushed around. And that’s all these guys were: Bullies.
Bullies with a lot of fire power and weird, sleep-inducing drugs.
“Let me put it this way: You can help us now, and get out of this situation before it gets any messier, or, you can continue to be obstinate and make this much, much harder on yourself. You’re putting your patients in danger, Mrs. Y/L/N.”
His threat was not lost on you, and you inhaled sharply at the insinuation of what they might do to you. A fire ignited in your stomach, and you fought desperately to tamp it down- you weren’t so worried about yourself, but they could hurt David if you spoke out of turn. You stared at the man across from you, feeling the rage burn in your eyes. His gaze never left yours, and it was as if you were challenging each other. But he saw that flame, evidence of your quiet rage, and it told him he had won. A smugness upturned one corner of his mouth, the bastard. You wanted, oh-so-badly, to punch him in the fucking face.
You felt the milk-eyed man’s gaze boring into you. Sitting back in your chair, you studied both of the men in turn. “Who are you people?”
Only the interrogator spoke. “My name is Clark. I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re violating some of my rights by holding me captive against my will, Clark. What happens if I leave and tell the police what you’ve done here?”
“Nothing.” You gave him an dubious look, and he explained, “As a branch of the U. S. government, we are allowed certain contingencies due to the important, and secretive, nature of our work.”
“Yeah? And what’s that? You’re work, I mean.”
He sighed. “That, I can’t tell you. But you’re a smart girl, Y/N. Maybe you’ll figure it out.”
His use of your first name unsettled you. He gave a nod to the milk-eyed man, who advanced on you brandishing a syringe.
“Woah woah woah, wait!” Out of your chair and scrambling away, you extended a hand to hold him off. He hesitated, looking slightly confused that he’d abided by your plea. “Can we do without the roofie this time? I mean look at me,” you gestured to your not-so-athletic frame, ”It’s not like I’m gonna fight my way out of here.”
The brown-haired man looked back at his superior who studied you thoughtfully, almost an amused expression across his features. Then, Clark’s fingers flew to his ear piece- a message. You watched with fingers crossed in the hope that this wasn’t an order to kill you. Looking up to the camera in the corner of the ceiling, he nodding knowingly, and motioned for Milk-Eye to stand down. You wondered who was on the other side of that lens.
“Perhaps you can be of use.”
At that, the men left you to your increasingly panicked thoughts.
The only sense of time you could gather was from a window to the right of you. And it seemed like a stupidly long time before the man, Clark, returned, now alone.
“We’re going to bring David in.” Your eyebrows shot up. He clarified, “You must do everything in your power to keep him calm. He still thinks we’re police. Understand?”
After you gave him a tense nod, he leaned outside the door and motioned for someone to come in. The man with the curly hair crossed the threshold and following him was your close friend and patient: David. He saw you, and his expression changed to one of confusion.
“Y/N?”
“David!” You jumped out of your seat to embrace him. “Oh my god, are you okay? Are you hurt?” You checked his face, turning it every which way, and scanned his body for any signs of possible abuse.
“I’m fine,” he said with a breathy laugh, grasping your hands. It was his turn to steady you now. “But what are you doing here?” He looked around. “Where are we?”
You couldn’t answer.
“Have a seat, please,” Clark said, motioning to the table. The other man had brought in a chair for David, and a group of those nurses in pink beanies shuffled in, rolling a large machine in front of them.
“Alright, we just need you to answer some questions, David, about the incident at Clockworks.”
David didn’t answer or sit down, but eyed the machine suspiciously. “What’s that for?”
“We just wanted to see what happens in your brain when you… feel things,” he answered with a smile. David looked to you, a question on his face. You gave him a reassuring nod.
He sat down next to you, and as the nurses applied the electrodes, you reached over to squeeze his hand reassuringly. A bit of tension seemed to leave his shoulders. He glanced over at you, blowing air out of his mouth, breathing out stress. “Just don’t like being studied.”
“I know.”
“Now, David,” Clark started, “We just want your statement on what happened at the hospital.”
David looked at you, and seemed almost… embarrassed? Turning back to Clark he started explaining how he thought he switched bodies with Syd, how the rooms in the hospital all suddenly didn’t have doors, and how he was chased in the city by a man and a woman.
David’s file had explained his delusions about having super powers, but you hadn’t thought much of it. A lot of patients experienced hallucinations about being God or hearing people’s thoughts. To you, this was relatively normal- - although, this Freaky Friday, horror movie thing was very new. Of course, you believed David about his experiences, but you were simply confused.
Then you thought, why do they want him and Syd so badly? So badly that they would threaten you, and kidnap you and David?
You realized that there was much more to this that you didn’t know.
Clark repeated his story dubiously, sarcastically asking David if that was what he was telling him.
“Well, you don’t have to be a dick about it, and yes, that’s what happened.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, you couldn’t suppress the snort of laughter that came out of your mouth. David smirked.
Clark looked agitated with the two of you, his mouth forming a line. “Yeah, this isn’t working. Take her outside.” He motioned one of the nurses towards you, and knowing the consequences if you didn’t comply, you stood up to be escorted out of the room. This, David did not take to kindly.
“Hey, hey! Where are you taking her?” He burst out of his chair, backed up to the wall. “I-I-I wanted to help but I’m tired, I’m just so-… I want a lawyer.” You saw that he was escalating to a potentially bad episode, but you were powerless to stop it. He started hyperventilating, clutching his head in his hands. “No, no, no!” he groaned over and over again.
Clark started calling long, drawn out versions of his name, vying for his attention. He gestured at the milk-eyed man, whom you saw grapple David by his shoulder and the scruff of his neck, slamming him against the table. You screamed at them, half out of the doorway, and jerked against the nurse’s hold on your arm.
“David,” said Clark,”Just take a deep breath. Try to be calm. Try to relax. David.”
But it was too late. The walls were shaking. You saw a pen fly into Clark’s face. What the hell? Then, in an expression of exaltation, David lifted his hands into the air, and everything flew. Everything except you.
The man holding onto you, as well as everything in the room apart from you and David, sailed through the air and hit the surrounding walls. The two of you locked eyes. David grinned.
Then a hissing sound, a fog, and the floor came very fast as you passed out again.