What are you waiting for?
ooc: This is mainly for mun knowledge, unless your pup knows Michael well enough to suspect something like this is running through his head at the moment. :)
Everyone acts as if he shouldn't worry anymore. They act as if he had just been hallucinating about Jack being alive, as if now he's safe because Charlie is behind bars and will probably be in jail for the rest of his life.
The doctor tells Michael that he needs medication and plenty of rest before he's released, just to make sure the infection will be completely controlled. That the incision and stitches are healing nicely. That the function of his right hand should go back to normal after a few weeks, since the cut he had received along his forearm had been somewhat deep. He will still need to take medication for the next couple of months, but other than that he should be okay soon. He should be going back to normal and what everyone seems to be waiting for is for Michael to just heal so they can put the ugly incident in the back of their mind and move on.
Because that's what a person is supposed to do, isn't it? Pick up and move on?
Michael isn't waiting for the green flag from the doctor to just go back home and move on, though. What Michael's waiting for is what no one else seems to be thinking of, because they think things are controlled by now.
Stephen has blamed him of being paranoid. Of worrying too much. Of hallucinating, of over thinking, but none of that changes the fact that there's something in the back of Michael's mind that doesn't let him rest. It's there when he smiles at his sister when she visits him, and it's there when he supposedly looks calm as he rests. It's there, just lurking, and it comes out during the night when he doesn't have to hide it anymore. It's the one time during the day that he can think things through, and he doesn't have to pretend anymore about how he's 'moving on.'
It's not worry, and it's not dread, what overtakes him when he thinks about it; it's a sort of anger that is slowly boiling within him. It's not obvious - at least he doesn't think it is - when he talks about Jack, and Charlie, and the rest who have left him beat up and resting in a hospital bed. Nonetheless, no matter how many ignore it or simply don't see it, it's there and it's slowly making its way to the surface.
What Michael is waiting for is for Jack to show up again. He's waiting for him to make his grand entrance in his life again, and he's waiting to see just what the fallout of that is going to be. Because, even if Stephen doesn't seem to be taking him seriously, Michael knows that what he saw that night when he had been captured, even if he had barely been conscious, wasn't a hallucination. It had been real, and Jack had been there even if no one seems to believe him. Even if no one wants to believe him. But it's normal, he figures, that they wouldn't. Why believe him, when they figure that now he's safe? Why believe him, when they think that Jack is no longer a threat since he's supposed to be dead? Why believe him, when just giving that thought a chance might open a whole can of worms? So they brush him aside, figuring that Michael's imagination played a trick on him due to the drug they had been injecting in him on a daily basis.
It'd be foolish for Michael to wait for everyone else to just get through their heads that he wasn't hallucinating, but that doesn't matter to him. He'll just wait, as patiently as he can, for Jack to show up again. He'll act "normal," and he'll smile and even laugh when he's supposed to, but that doesn't mean that he'll be like everyone else in forgetting the whole incident. It'd be foolish for him to forget, because as long as he keeps it mind he can be mentally ready for whatever is coming next.
Part of him wonders if Jack remembers that one of the worst things he can do is make Michael wait, especially in this sort of situation when he's just growing angrier and his thirst for revenge is getting stronger. Michael, Jack should know, isn't good at waiting but it doesn't really matter. In the end it's going to be Jack's downfall and not his own. He'll see to it that it ends that way.
For now, he'll just wait.
And he'll save the 'I told you so's for everyone who didn't believe him for later.
Everyone acts as if he shouldn't worry anymore. They act as if he had just been hallucinating about Jack being alive, as if now he's safe because Charlie is behind bars and will probably be in jail for the rest of his life.
The doctor tells Michael that he needs medication and plenty of rest before he's released, just to make sure the infection will be completely controlled. That the incision and stitches are healing nicely. That the function of his right hand should go back to normal after a few weeks, since the cut he had received along his forearm had been somewhat deep. He will still need to take medication for the next couple of months, but other than that he should be okay soon. He should be going back to normal and what everyone seems to be waiting for is for Michael to just heal so they can put the ugly incident in the back of their mind and move on.
Because that's what a person is supposed to do, isn't it? Pick up and move on?
Michael isn't waiting for the green flag from the doctor to just go back home and move on, though. What Michael's waiting for is what no one else seems to be thinking of, because they think things are controlled by now.
Stephen has blamed him of being paranoid. Of worrying too much. Of hallucinating, of over thinking, but none of that changes the fact that there's something in the back of Michael's mind that doesn't let him rest. It's there when he smiles at his sister when she visits him, and it's there when he supposedly looks calm as he rests. It's there, just lurking, and it comes out during the night when he doesn't have to hide it anymore. It's the one time during the day that he can think things through, and he doesn't have to pretend anymore about how he's 'moving on.'
It's not worry, and it's not dread, what overtakes him when he thinks about it; it's a sort of anger that is slowly boiling within him. It's not obvious - at least he doesn't think it is - when he talks about Jack, and Charlie, and the rest who have left him beat up and resting in a hospital bed. Nonetheless, no matter how many ignore it or simply don't see it, it's there and it's slowly making its way to the surface.
What Michael is waiting for is for Jack to show up again. He's waiting for him to make his grand entrance in his life again, and he's waiting to see just what the fallout of that is going to be. Because, even if Stephen doesn't seem to be taking him seriously, Michael knows that what he saw that night when he had been captured, even if he had barely been conscious, wasn't a hallucination. It had been real, and Jack had been there even if no one seems to believe him. Even if no one wants to believe him. But it's normal, he figures, that they wouldn't. Why believe him, when they figure that now he's safe? Why believe him, when they think that Jack is no longer a threat since he's supposed to be dead? Why believe him, when just giving that thought a chance might open a whole can of worms? So they brush him aside, figuring that Michael's imagination played a trick on him due to the drug they had been injecting in him on a daily basis.
It'd be foolish for Michael to wait for everyone else to just get through their heads that he wasn't hallucinating, but that doesn't matter to him. He'll just wait, as patiently as he can, for Jack to show up again. He'll act "normal," and he'll smile and even laugh when he's supposed to, but that doesn't mean that he'll be like everyone else in forgetting the whole incident. It'd be foolish for him to forget, because as long as he keeps it mind he can be mentally ready for whatever is coming next.
Part of him wonders if Jack remembers that one of the worst things he can do is make Michael wait, especially in this sort of situation when he's just growing angrier and his thirst for revenge is getting stronger. Michael, Jack should know, isn't good at waiting but it doesn't really matter. In the end it's going to be Jack's downfall and not his own. He'll see to it that it ends that way.
For now, he'll just wait.
And he'll save the 'I told you so's for everyone who didn't believe him for later.