Our Past - Quackity

6

"I..." How can he answer that? Yes, I have one; your father raised him up after I left him on your doorstep. Yes, but I haven't seen him since he was two months old. Yes, he's your... brother?

(He can always limit it to a simple yes, or lie and say no and save himself an explanation he doesn't know how to give. But in front of him is the only person who might be able to help him see Tobías again. This is the direction his conversations need. He has to move forward with his plan.)

Alex tries to calm his troubled mind. But at the same time he feels a lump in his throat so thick it makes it hard to breathe and the room begins to move around him. His breath hitches and he can't help but inhale with some desperation. Alex had not known this feeling in years.

"Hey, don't you dare fucking choke now, goddamn it. It was just a little slap, you fucking wimp."

The last thing Alex expected now was to hear Schlatt's voice, as clear as if he were standing next to him. The night those words were spoken returns to him, going back to being that terrified boy, the sheer anxiety and terror almost preventing him from breathing because his partner had decided to take out his frustration on him. A hand touches his arm and Alex flinches violently, feeling that same terror return to his body. He is trapped.

Closing his eyes tight, Alex touches his desk, clinging to the edge of it and trying to take a deep breath and push away the dizziness. Wilbur's understandably worried voice is present in the background, apparently screaming for help at the door to his office.

His attempts to breathe normally again are quite futile as Schlatt's voice drills into his brain, filling his mind with scenes he's desperately tried to forget countless times over the years. His baby's cries echo in his ears, crushing his heart with the pain of witnessing Tobías' terror. Alex makes the mistake of trying to get up from his chair.

The next thing he knows is that he is on his back on the floor, someone who leans over him obstructing the light from the lightbulb above their head, and is speaking directly to him, but Alex cannot understand exactly what they're saying. To his left he can feel one more person approaching.

"Mr Maldonado. Alexis, can you hear me?"

He can feel the movement of the person to his left, moving closer and then walking away. Somehow Wilbur's voice stands out above whoever is hovering over him now.

"Yes… uh… tell Toby I can't pick him up today."