Nightshift 45: Group Therapy Room 3

[byname_bynature]

( From here.Sean's legs were starting to burn from the effort of keeping Schuldig on his back. It was only a few more feet, he told himself. Like he always did when he was running with the soccer team. He was always last, but he could finish the run at least

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[k4t4str0ph4l]

Taking inventory of oneself was something a body naturally did when the brain came back online, whether from sleep or some other form of unconsciousness. For Schuldig, this meant that he was aware of a heavy numbness in his limbs - and considerable pain in his chest, and between his temples - even before he'd begun forming coherent thoughts again.

Forcing his eyes open, he found himself staring at a ceiling. As memory spooled back, however, that didn't actually make any sense; he'd been outside, hadn't he? At least, that was the last thing he remembered, which opened up all sorts of questions as to what had happened since that he didn't remember.

With a faint groan, he closed his eyes again, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose as though, despite all previous experience with headaches, that would help. The throbbing pain behind his eyes was hardly going to lessen no matter what he did, but he'd long ago realized that people wanted to be in control. Faced with a pain they couldn't alleviate, they would do things like curl up, or hold their head, or close their eyes, and try to convince themselves that it actually helped a little even if it made no difference at all. And even knowing this intellectually, as he did, changed nothing in regards to the desire to at least feel as though he had some control over the pain he was in.

[byname_bynature]

The moment Sean saw movement from Schuldig, his attention snapped away from Artemis.

"Schuldig...!" Sean crawled awkwardly over to Schuldig. "Can I help? Do you need something? I have... pillows..."

Artemis rolled his eyes behind Sean. There wasn't much he could do, though. He didn't have any medical supplies and his shirt was on Chris' shoulder. Though... he vaguely remembered massaging Schuldig's head when he had a headache. He didn't know if that was real, though.

"Can you talk to me...?"

[k4t4str0ph4l]

"Arty?" It was only after the name passed his lips that he recalled the identity crisis debacle - 'Sean' was what the boy had called himself with Badou earlier, wasn't it? - but he didn't feel like calling the boy by that fake name anyway. Why reinforce the delusion?

Still, Artemis' presence answered two questions - why he was inside, and whether or not Schuldig had actually given him time to get away. Just as well; he sure as hell wouldn't want to be suffering like this for a failed rescue attempt.

"We really need to stop meeting like this," Schuldig informed Artemis, or more accurately the hand he now had covering his eyes. Honestly, the kid was going to be the death of him.

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Sean looked over at Artemis. His delusion shrugged slightly and gestured at Sean to go on.

"Y-yes... it's Artemis," he said, feeling supremely ridiculous. He looked over at Artemis again for help. What was he supposed to say now? Artemis heaved a world-weary sigh.

'If we didn't meet like this, something would be terribly wrong.'

"If we didn't meet like this, something would be terribly wrong," Sean repeated. Like always.

'One of us would most likely be dead. It's a miracle we aren't now.'

"One of us... would most likely be dead. It's a miracle we aren't now."

[k4t4str0ph4l]

Well, whoever and whatever Sean was, he was a terrible actor. Schuldig didn't even know what had happened to him, but it hadn't been nearly severe enough for the boy's miserable performance to be enough to fool him.

"I'd have to be dead to believe that you're Artemis," he murmured, not bothering to lift his hand. "He lies better. Not much better, but nevertheless." After a pause, he added, "What happened?" It was rare for him to have to ask such a question, but it was weighing on his mind.

[byname_bynature]

Sean bit his lip. He'd tried, he really had, but he'd lost whatever had made him Artemis before. He thought that talking to Artemis would make Schuldig feel better, but he was a terrible interpreter and liar. He knew that well enough.

"The, um... the monster hit you with a lightning bolt. Chris grabbed your hatchet and um... distracted it. He carried you back inside and we... holed up here. Chris gave you CPR."

He stared at his hands, eyes stinging with tears. "I'm sorry Schuldig. You were trying to protect him and I... I didn't let you. And this happened... it's my fault."

[k4t4str0ph4l]

"Trying to protect both of you," Schuldig replied. "Running headlong into danger like an idiot is vintage Artemis. Either you're part of him, or you've at least got enough of him in you to be mostly indistinguishable." The satisfaction of the boy having actually been gotten through to was enough to allow Schuldig to be somewhat magnanimous, although he was trying to avoid thinking about needing CPR. That thought was a little alarming even for him.

Anyway, it sounded as though they'd saved his life. Granted, it wouldn't have been necessary for them to do so if not for their antics, but it was still significant.

After a pause, he let his hand fall away from his face, glancing at Artemis. "You said you could still see him, right?"

[byname_bynature]

Sean didn't feel like Schuldig should be protecting him. Artemis was his friend, Sean had nearly gotten Schuldig killed. There was a serious difference.

Still, Schuldig had a point--one that Artemis had been trying to make to him before Schuldig woke up. He and Artemis were strangely a part of one another, even if they didn't seem to have anything at all in common. Artemis was all cold calculation and manipulation, while Sean could feel himself starting to cry over this man whom he'd never considered a friend until now.

He nodded. "Y-yes, I can still see him. I usually see him when I'm upset."

[k4t4str0ph4l]

Schuldig tried to sit up, which he recognized as unwise, but if he let considerations like that stop him from doing what he damned well pleased then he simply wouldn't have been Schuldig anymore. By the time he was about halfway upright, however, nausea and lightheadedness hit him in a wave and he was forced to fall back again. "Can you hear him, as well?" he asked, closing his eyes again as he fought down the urge to pass out all over again.

[byname_bynature]

Sean nodded again, pulling over another pillow and sliding it under Schuldig. For some reason he didn't understand, Schuldig wanted to get up after being struck by lightning. What that was about, he had no idea.

"He likes to talk," he said with a small, sniffling chuckle. "But you probably knew that already... I can hear him too."

[k4t4str0ph4l]

The idea that he'd essentially been struck by lightning was one Schuldig would have had difficulty parsing at all, if he'd really been trying to give the matter any thought. As it was...well, he wasn't. There was no real point to thinking over what had happened to him - and the fear and horror directly preceding the moment he'd lost consciousness were feelings he didn't want to relive, or even acknowledge having. He was alive, and seemed to be more or less in working order; that was really all he needed to go on.

"Ask him if he has any ideas for how to get things back to normal," he murmured. He didn't go quite so far as to elaborate that by 'things', he meant Artemis - and Haku, by extension. Schuldig wasn't personally concerned about Haku much, but Arty would be, and besides, Haku was the one who'd apparently gotten him away from the monster and given him CPR, so he owed the boy a favor or two.

[byname_bynature]

"Things...?" Sean repeated, not understanding what Schuldig was getting at. Was Schuldig just delusional now or...?

'He's talking about getting me back,' Artemis provided. 'Being injured is the status quo in this building. The only thing that's changed is that we've suddenly become 'Sean'. Understand?'

Sean looked at Artemis then back down at Schuldig, worrying his lip.

"How do I go back...? To being you?"

Artemis looked at Sean evenly, then looked away in thought. 'Do you believe? In the truth of the Institute?'

"It's going to be hard not to, after tonight."

'What about the rest?'

"...the rest?"

'The magic. The torture. The fact that Chris is not Chris, but Haku. The family.'

Sean stared at him, obviously fighting with himself to accept this. But he just couldn't... something inside him refused to accept that as his reality.

"There is no such thing as magic."

'Oh, isn't there?!' Artemis shouted, standing up. 'You were strapped to a TABLE and had magic force-fed into your very soul! Even now, you're glowing enough to light up a runway! And you tell me there's no such thing as magic.'

"That didn't happen! There's no way that--!"

'Go on. Tell Schuldig you're being difficult and refusing to accept who you are. I'm sure that would just thrill him,' Artemis spat.

Sean's lip trembled. He didn't want to tell Schuldig he was being difficult and refusing things. But he couldn't just do something he didn't feel was right. He couldn't believe he was Artemis any more than he could believe he was Schuldig. Or Chris.

"Okay... I'll give you that this place is... is really screwed up. But I'm not..."

[k4t4str0ph4l]

Watching Sean and his bemusing one-sided conversation - it was so odd; Schuldig knew the other half was taking place within the boy's head, but he'd been very much shut out ever since Artemis had started thinking he was Sean, so he had no way of hearing the other half(exceedingly annoying, since without these arbitrary restrictions it should have been squarely in his territory) - was an exercise of the imagination. Schuldig found himself trying to fill in the gaps where Artemis' replies would have been by context alone; it was harder than it sounded.

Still, he recognized the look that stole over Sean's face, and suppressed a groan. "Don't start crying," he instructed the boy; he had enough problems without Sean going into hysterics. "If you can't, then you can't. It wasn't likely to be as easy as flipping a switch." That left the question of how it could be done, but aside from the fact that it might be something they'd have to wait out, Schuldig really couldn't focus enough to give it much thought at the moment. Maybe it would be best to leave such questions until tomorrow, at the very least.

Dizziness encroaching upon his consciousness, Schuldig let his head fall back and closed his eyes. Maybe he hadn't come off as unscathed as he'd initially thought...

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"I won't," Sean said petulantly, clenching his jaw and trying to keep himself from tearing up. He hated Artemis sometimes--he was so critical of Sean when he did something wrong. Wasn't that another reason he'd come up with to try and give Artemis the boot?

'You say that now, but you're going to eventually. That's all you do when you're up against a wall.'

"Shut up!" Sean snapped at Artemis. "You cry too, I've seen you!" God this was crazy. He was telling his delusion that it cried. Oi he was so far gone.

Artemis' eyes snapped back to Schuldig when the man put his head back down, and Sean looked down as well. "Wait, don't fall asleep!" he said, panic in his voice. "I don't know if it's safe for you to go to sleep yet!"

'He doesn't have a concussion,' Artemis said, rolling his eyes. '...that we know of, at least.'