We Know What You Did

19: Why?

Sonny opened the door to Chelsea's room and found her laying unconscious on the floor with an empty bottle of pills beside her. "Shit! Chelsea!" He exclaimed. "Somebody call a bus!" He quickly knelt on the ground next to her. Within seconds, the whole team was standing in the doorway. Fin pulled out his cellphone to call 911 and Olivia joined Sonny on the ground, checking to make sure Chelsea was breathing and had a pulse. She fortunately had a pulse and was breathing, albeit her breaths were shallow and slow. "Chels," Sonny sighed. He gently brushed her hair off her face.
Nine minutes after Fin called for an ambulance, the paramedics arrived. They quickly moved Chelsea to the stretcher and loaded her into the ambulance. Sonny rode with Chelsea and the rest of the team went to meet them at the hospital.

"Sonny!" Amanda said once they entered the waiting room. Sonny was pacing back and forth. "How is she?"
"She took a big dose of Vicodin and rinsed it down with alcohol. They gave her Narcan in the ambulance and she woke up pretty fast. The doctors are looking at her now." Everyone was silent, nobody knew what to say.
"Mr. Carisi?" A young female doctor stepped into the room. Sonny approached her. "I'm Dr. Manning, I'm treating Chelsea. She's stable and physically doing much better." Sonny sighed with relief. "I did page one of our psychiatrists to come down and talk with her." Dr. Manning told him.
"Can I see her?" Sonny asked.
"I think it might be best to let her rest for right now," Dr. Manning politely told him 'no'. "If it's alright, I do have a few questions for you." Sonny agreed and followed Dr. Manning to an office where they could talk privately. "I just have a few questions about what happened today." Dr. Manning gestured for Sonny to take a seat. "Do you know how Chelsea got hold of the pills and alcohol?"
Sonny sighed. "I got shot a few months back, had the leftover pills in the bathroom. As for the alcohol, she knows where I keep it." Sonny shrugged. Dr. Manning tried to remain professional but Sonny could see on her face that she was judging him. "Look," he began, "I wasn't being irresponsible or neglectful. Chelsea is a good kid. I had no idea she'd do something like this."
"Most parents don't" Dr. Manning tried to be reassuring.
"I'm her uncle" Sonny corrected. "I should've seen it though." He said mainly to himself. "She's been through hell these past few months and given her mental health history, I should've watched her more carefully."
Dr. Manning listened and nodded. "I'm sure you're doing the best you can."
"Can I please go see my niece now?" Sonny asked.
Dr. Manning gave him a sympathetic smile. "I'll let you know when the psychiatrist is done speaking with her, then you can go in." Sonny thanked Dr. Manning and went back to the waiting room to join everyone else.
———
Chelsea was groggy from the medication she took but was still lucid.
There was a soft knock on the door before a middle aged man entered the room. "Hi Chelsea. I'm Dr. Charles." He introduced himself. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened tonight." Chelsea nodded and sat up straighter. "Why don't you start by telling me what happened?"
Chelsea nervously bit her lip. "I took some pills and alcohol."
"Hm" Dr. Charles nodded. "And why'd you do that?" He sounded curious, not judgmental or angry.
"I wanted it to go away. All of it." Chelsea said. "I'm so tired." She blinked back tears.
"What did you want to go away?" Dr. Charles pressed.
Chelsea stared at her lap and played with the blanket. "The fear. And sadness. And anger. And guilt. And shame. I just didn't want to feel."
"Did you try to kill yourself?" Dr. Charles got to the main point.
"I don't think so" Chelsea shook her head.
"Alright, Chelsea. I'm going to talk to Dr. Manning and we can see about getting you some help. How does that sound?" Dr. Charles asked. Chelsea was on board with the plan. "Nice meeting you." Dr. Charles said before leaving the room.

A few minutes after Dr. Charles exited the room, Sonny came bursting in. "Chelsea," he sighed with relief when he saw she was awake and physically ok. He went over to her and wrapped her in a hug.
Chelsea broke down into tears and clung to her uncle. "I'm sorry" she sobbed.
"Hey," Sonny stroked her hair. "I'm sorry, ok? I should've helped you before it got this bad." Chelsea mumbled something into his chest. "Hm?" Sonny asked.
"You can't" Chelsea let go of Sonny. "You can't help me." Sonny opened his mouth to object but Chelsea stopped him. "No one can help me. No one can make anything that happened go away."
Sonny nodded. "You're right. None of this can go away. But you can learn to live with it. How to move forward." Chelsea scoffed. "Seriously. I work with women like you everyday. Some of them are not nearly as strong as you and they get through this. You will too." Chelsea wiped away a few tears that ran down her cheeks. "Plus, I'm here for you."
"We're all here for you" Amanda stuck her head into the room. Sonny waved her in and the rest of the team came in behind her. Chelsea couldn't help but smile. Although she had lost her parents, she was grateful to have her uncle and his family there to support her.

A/N
Sorry for the slow updates! I plan to start wrapping up the story soon. Thank you for reading!
(PS I know Dr. Manning and Dr. Charles are in Chicago and not NYC but I like them and thought I'd might as well include them in this story instead of creating OCs)