Pt. 5!
Title: Electricite (Pt. 5)
Pairing: C/Z
Rating: R
Synopsis: Things can go wrong when you're not in control.
Warning: Inference to non-con situations.
Casey wasn’t lying; when Zeke had told him “Get what you want,” he’d taken that liberty to the hilt. They now sat in a booth at one of the local diners, a 50’s style restaurant they’d come across just minutes after getting back in the car. Casey COULD have walked here no problem.
Zeke watched Casey devour his fries eagerly, pouring salt on every single ketchup drenched stick. He was happy to see it; the kid was way too small for his own good. The thing that half-amused, half-annoyed Zeke was that Casey had ordered a bacon cheeseburger. “So,” Zeke said, breaking the quiet eating they shared. “You DO realize you’re eating ‘cattle’ right now, right?”
Casey paused in his dipping fries over and over to look at Zeke. Shrugging, he continued eating. “Yea,”
“Yea,” Zeke muttered, turning back to his chicken salad sandwich. It was silent for a few more moments before Casey cleared his throat and sat back.
“They reminded me… a LOT… of things back at the hospital,”
Zeke stopped chewing and looked up. “Huh?”
“Those guys, back on the road.”
Oh, so he was finally going to get some answers. Count on a hearty lunch to clear someone’s brain. “Yea?” Zeke asked, crossing his arms. Casey nodded slowly.
“Yea,”
“What, exactly?” Zeke asked. He noticed now that Casey was pushing his arms inwards, as if wanting protection. He blinked a few times, wondering if maybe this wasn’t the right time to ask these things. There were more problems in hospitals other than out of date psychiatric treatments.
“Y’now how I told you that- well, I could be a real pain in the ass?”
“Well, that’s a given, yea,” Zeke said, trying to lighten the mood Casey was in.
“Yea. I could get pretty bad. After they started the treatments I just… I wouldn’t stop. They thought it’d numb me up, make me stupid like. It didn’t, it made me angrier.” Casey explained. “But most of the time… it was ‘cause of people just not- listening to me,”
“That was kinda the problem to begin with; they wouldn’t believe you,”
“No… no, not about the aliens,” Casey interjected, shaking his head. “I was trying so hard to concentrate on things. I was working around in my brain, trying to retain everything I could so I wouldn’t forget. The last thing I wanted was for anyone to bother me, to… give me any sort of contact. Sometimes when I was trying my hardest, a pat on the shoulder would make me jump,”
Zeke nodded. “Sometimes that happens. A place like that can be over stimulating,”
“Understatement of the year,” Casey muttered, crossing his arms and staring at the table. He bit his lip, looking to be in deep thought. He glanced back up at Zeke then down again, a steely unwavering gaze set on his nearly empty plate. “There were these two guys, two ‘wardens’,”
“Wardens?” Zeke asked, puzzled. A flash of a smile on Casey’s face emerged, but was gone as quick as it came.
“Orderlies, technically; but they were really wardens. That’s what we called them. I knew enough from hearing other patients talking that the hours of 4 p.m. and 1 a.m. were the worst, and it was all because of those two. Luckily, I didn’t have to be out and about much during those hours; my meetings with doctors and stuff came earlier, so I wouldn’t need to be carted around. Didn’t mean I wouldn’t see or hear what they’d do, though.” Casey explained, his voice growing softer and softer at every word. “All the other nurses and orderlies know about it… they talked in the halls, and wouldn’t be very quiet about it. Problem was, their methods… worked. It gave everyone there a chance to breathe when some of the more violent or messed up patients were quieter and caused less trouble, all because of those two.”
“Christ… what would they do?” Zeke asked tentatively. Casey drew in a shuddering breath.
“They looked for any excuse, any reason to be assholes to anyone. They’d make shit up to get people in trouble; one guy, Ben, spent an entire day locked in a padded room in restraints, because they’d lied about him stealing another patients’ stuff, including a really expensive watch. They knew Ben was an extreme paranoid-schizophrenic, and would instantly flip out when he was accused of it. After he punched out two nurses, they didn’t care if he’d stolen the things or not,” Casey said. “There was a witness to THEM being the ones stealing it, but… they made sure they were quiet,”
Zeke sighed deeply. “How? I mean… couldn’t that person tell someone, someone safe? Those guys could have been fired if the stuff had been found on them,”
“Zeke…” Casey said, rolling his eyes then closing them, tight. “You just didn’t… snitch on guys like that. They’d seem to KNOW the minute you’d talk to someone, anyone. Plus… if they stored the things in just one locker, that’d only take care of one guy. The other one would be roaming around the halls as free as he pleased… and wouldn’t mind taking out whoever told,”
“There had to be some way, I mean… shit like that needs to be brought down-“
“And who’s gonna do it, Zeke??” Casey’s seethed out; Casey was outright hissing now, gone from calm to angry in a matter of seconds. “Who, tell me- someone not even half their size, standing up to them like they can REALLY DO something about it?? Someone they threaten the worst shit to if they tell, right down to their fucking lives? Yea, Zeke. I’d like to see you try it. You’d pray for MaryBeth to come swallow you whole compared to them. She didn’t have shit on these guys,”
Zeke peered at Casey curiously. “Casey?” he murmured, his voice inquiring and soft. It was no big secret now to who it was that saw them, especially when Casey’s head jerked to look out the window, knowing he’d given himself away.
“Harry cried for weeks after that watch was taken. Weeks. He’d been warned not to take it with him, because stealing always happened in that fucking place. But his dad had given it to him before he left home for a business trip somewhere, and he died on the way when their bus crashed on some icy roads,” Casey told him. “He always talked to me about it… I was the only one he liked talking to, because I was only a few years younger than he was. Plus…” Casey stopped a moment and smiled a little. “Well, we both were pretty mild cases. We weren’t as fucked as most of that place was. That’s why they… put us in the same room,”
Zeke closed his eyes. “Fuck… he was your roomie?”
“Yea,” Casey muttered, pursing his lips a moment before continuing. “I was supposed to be doing some stupid arts and crafts, but I wasn’t feeling that great. Walked back to our room and there they were.”
“Jesus fucking Christ… Casey, I’m sorry,” Zeke uttered, his chest feeling tight. “They didn’t fucking hurt you, did they?”
Casey looked back at the table, his arms visibly tightening. “They gave me some warnings,” he said, shrugging a little.
“What kind of fucking warnings?”
“They just took me aside and got me in the bathroom- the biggest one of ‘em, Justin- he just took me by the hair and pulled me down to the side of the shower stall, where the door closed. ‘Said that there were plenty of accidents where patients busted their heads open on the tiled walls and edges of metal in showers. I tried to be tough. Hah,” Casey paused a second after his derisive laugh. “Told him I’d just not shower on their shifts, and I should be fine. So they gave me a list of other things they could arrange for me, mostly in my sleep,”
Zeke felt his mouth go dry and his teeth hurt from the pressing he pushed upon them. “Oh yea?” he said, voice trembling on the words.
“Yea… said I’d probably enjoy what they could do and wouldn’t bother trying to get the restraints off to fight ‘em. Ya wanna know how fucking stupid I am, Zeke?”
Zeke wasn’t sure; he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know anymore of this. Seeing as Casey probably hadn’t ever told anyone about this however, he felt it was his due to let him go on. “How stupid are you?” he asked in a bland voice. Casey sighed in disgust.
“I told them if they stuck anything near my mouth, I’d bite it off,” Casey told him. Zeke sucked in a breath as Casey nodded slowly, looking away again. “Yea. Fucking idiot.”
“Casey… did they…” Zeke went to ask; he swallowed hard, not knowing if he really wanted to inquire further in this. While he paused for something to say, Casey turned to him.
“No. Not like that.”
“Not like that?”
Now it was time for Casey to be lost in words; Zeke watched his eyes darting around as if searching for something to help him in explaining; he finally sighed with resignation. He brought his hand up and put his middle finger in his mouth; he took it out and made a stab in the air upwards. Zeke stared in mute shock, feeling his insides twist further.