Michael Part III

One Month Later

One month later...

--Fortune's POV--

"You going to see your dad tomorrow?" I ask ezra as he lays a sleeping Nola down in her bed.

"Yea, someone's got to," Ezra sighs as he grabs my hand and leads me to our room.

"I can't believe it's been a month. How much longer will he be in there?" I ask Ezra.

It's been one month since Michael tried to take his life. One month since Mika had to wrestle Michael for the pill bottle. One month since Mika had to stick his finger down Michael's throat to get him to puke up the pills that he had already taken. One month of hell.

Ezra's been depressed ever since. He started seeing his therapist last week to help. It's been helping more than the pills that his doctor put him on. The pills only made it worse. Thankfully his therapist took him off of them.

Tomorrow will be the first time that Ezra and I will be going to see Michael at the rehabilitation center. We tried to go before, but either Michael wasn't having a good day or Ezra couldn't make it through the front door.

"I don't know. I don't think they even know," Ezra says as he crawls underneath the covers. "I talked to his doctor the other day and he said that he had a really good day Sunday, but then Mika visited him and he's right back to where he started."

"Even if Mika doesn't visit him he'll have to see him eventually," I tell Ezra as he lays his head on my chest.

"I love you Fortune."

"I love you so much," I reply before he drifts to sleep.

--Ezra's POV--

"I don't think I can do this Fort," I tell Fortune as we sit in the car outside the rehabilitation center.

"Yes you can," Fortune replies as he gets out of the car.

I shake my head and continue to sit in the car. Fortune opens my door and unbuckles my seatbelt.

"Let's go," he says as he grabs my hand and tries to pry me out of the car.

I pull out of his grip. I can't see him. I don't know what to say to him. I'm hurt. He hurt me.

He was ready to just leave us. Leave everyone. He couldn't have been more selfish.

"Fortune, please don't make me," I cry out.

Fortune sighs and then shuts my door. He doesn't get back into the car though. When I look out the window he's already inside the building.

--Fortune's POV--

After I sign in at the front desk I sit in the waiting room as Ezra calls me for the tenth time.

"Ezra," I say as I finally answer my phone.

"What are you doing? I want to go home," Ezra says angrily.

"I'm visiting my fiancées father. If you want to go home you can either wait or take a taxi. Up to you," I say before hanging up the phone.

Five minutes later Ezra walks through the front door and makes his way over to me.

"You need to sign in," I tell him before he reaches me.

He rolls his eyes and turns towards the front desk. I chuckle as I hear him mumble: stupid sign-in, stupid pen that doesn't work, stupid place. He then chucks the pen in the garbage before making his way back to me.

"Why are you smiling?" Ezra snaps at me, only causing me to chuckle a little more at his behavior. He then rolls his eyes at me, "you are something else Penniman."

"You too future Mr. Penniman," I reply, earning a smack from him.

"What if he's not doing well?" Ezra asks me after a couple minutes of silence.

"Then he's not. I'm not sure what to say to that Ez. I'm sure he's doing better. Any progress is good," I tell him.

I really don't know if Michael will recover from this mental state that he's in. He's not himself. And I hate seeing it hurt Ezra so much.

Ezra's the only one of his siblings who's even attempted to see Michael. His siblings are either caught up in their love lives or are just angry at their father. Unfortunately it is probably only making Michael's situation worse, which is why I constantly try to get Ezra to see him.

Maybe if Michael sees Ezra it'll motivate him to get better. Maybe this is what Ezra needs to snap out of his depression.

"Fortune Penniman and Ezra Scott?" A nurse questions from the doorway across the waiting room.

We both stand up and make our way over to her. She smiles at us before motioning for us to follow her.

"He's right over there," the nurse points to a couch near a huge window.

"Thank you," I reply as she walks away.

I grab Ezra's hand and guide him towards his father. When we reach him, Ezra lunges towards him and wraps his arms around him in a tight hug. I can't help but smile. Ezra needed this. Michael probably needs this.

Unfortunately Michael doesn't hug Ezra back. Ezra pulled himself off of his father and sat next to him. Michael kept his head down as Ezra continued to stare at him. I sat down across from them and stayed silent. This visit is for Ezra, not me.

"I missed you," Ezra says softly.

Michael doesn't flinch. He's pale. Looks like the life has been drained right out of him.

This doesn't stop Ezra from continuing, "Nola misses you."

Ezra then pulls out his phone to show Michael something. He smiles as he shows his father a video of Nola. Ezra's face lights up when I hear Nola giggle.

Michael watches the video, but is still emotionless. Ezra continues to show his father photos and videos for almost twenty minutes. He occasionally told what we did when the photo or video was taken.

I couldn't help but smile as Ezra did this. He smiled the entire time. But his smile faded when he landed on a photo. When he went to put his phone down, Michael grabbed it. He picked it up and continued to stare at it.

Ezra signed Mika to me. We may not have to use sign language anymore, but we still do. It comes in handy sometimes when you don't want someone to hear what you're talking about.

"You need to get better dad. We need you. All of us. Please," Ezra says before breaking down.

Michael put the phone down on the coffee table in-between us. He then pulled Ezra into his arms and held onto him. Ezra only cried harder when Michael did this.

The rest of the visit was the same. Ezra would breakdown, calm down, then beg for Michael to get better. When we left Ezra cried most of the way home and later that night.