Get out

Dwelling

Eddy never did manage to sort his clothes or do anything related to basic hygiene. He knew he wouldn’t, he could feel it in his bones. His body felt too heavy to move. One thing did change though; the number of blankets on top of him grew. He was hidden under a blanket mound, making a little fortress, although there was a little opening for air. He also pulled all the pillows under it for comfort. This was where he lived now, his blanket dwelling.

Ray had just gotten back, but Brett didn’t want to push Eddy by sending in someone he didn’t know. So, he found himself knocking on the door to check if Eddy would be okay with having anyone there.
“Eddy? It’s me,” he said through the door, waiting for a reply. He didn’t want to just enter in case Eddy wasn’t dressed or anything like that. He didn’t need the reminder of how he really felt about Eddy.

Eddy shuffled a bit from under the blankets, “You can come in.”
His voice was of course muffled but it was clear enough to understand. Or so he hoped it was. It sounded loud to him. 

Brett opened the door, peeking inside. He didn’t see Eddy, only the big pile of blankets on the bed. He furrowed his brows.
“Are you in the bathroom? I can come back in a bit…” he said, standing in the doorway unsure what to do with himself.

The blankets moved as if they were alive… Eddy poked his head out through the little opening for the air. His hair was all messed up, defying gravity, mostly due to static, “I’m on the bed.”
His eyes squinted a bit to focus on Brett’s form.

“Oh!” Brett exclaimed, jumping with surprise. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”
How was he so cute, though? And why was Brett even thinking that he was? Stupid. “Ray’s here with medication.”

“It’s okay,” Eddy ran a hand over his face, “ He can come in too if he wants.”
He wanted to burrow back under his blankets. Eddy would refrain though if need be. For now his tired eyes lingered on Brett.

“He’s downstairs. I can call him up though, if you want to hear what he found out right away,” Brett said softly, still just sort of standing there. He hated that he was so awkward around Eddy, but he couldn’t stop it. “Just thought I’d double check with you and all.”

“If it’s okay, I would like that,” Eddy didn’t want to move or leave the warmth of his little cave. Even if he managed to get out from under the blankets, it wasn’t like he had enough energy to go downstairs and then back upstairs. That in itself sounded like hell.

“Of course,” Brett said, fishing his phone out of his pocket and texting Ray to get up there. Once the message was sent, he just kind of stood there. Was he allowed on the bed? He felt unsure.

“You can join me if you want,”  Eddy noticed how Brett was standing there awkwardly. It wasn’t hard to notice when it seemed so obvious. Eddy couldn’t blame him though. He could understand why Brett was awkward around him.

“Oh I… only if you’re comfortable. Don’t mind me if… you know,” Brett said quietly, running a hand nervously through his hair.

“I’m comfortable and I don’t mind,” Eddy was pretty comfortable for the most part. He found nothing wrong with Brett being in his space. Brett had a soothing presence even in his awkward stance.

“Okay, thank you then,” Brett said softly, going to the bed and carefully sitting down on the edge. He had barely sat down before there was a knock on the door.
Eddy looked at Brett then at the door, “Come in.”
He figured since this was kind of his room that he should be the one to give permission to enter. On the other hand, it was a part of Brett’s house so the man had the ultimate say.

Ray peeked inside, finding his boss sitting on the edge of a bed filled with blankets. If he was honest, it looked quite cozy to rest under them.
“Hey, I’ve got some meds and stuff…” he said with a small smile. “Wanna come out of the blanket fort and have a listen?”

Eddy’s lips pursed a bit, he didn’t want to. He knew he should though to give Ray his attention so as to show some form of respect, “I can do that.”

He carefully got out, even though he didn’t want to.

“May I sit?” Ray asked, gesturing to the bed. Brett scooted over to make space for him, but Ray still waited for Eddy’s reply.

“You may,” Eddy didn’t mind Ray, even if he didn’t know him that well. He knew that Ray was easy to get along with though, from that one time he walked around the mansion with him and such. The other workers were a bit meh, because he was pretty sure they didn’t like him.

“Thank you,” Ray said, sitting down on the bed and crossing his legs. He placed a paper bag between them. “So, let’s talk a bit about your prescriptions.”

Eddy nodded softly at Ray, “Let’s, I’m all ears.”
He lightly tapped his leg, occasionally scratching just to try to keep himself focused.

“So, for the most part the prescriptions do make sense,” Ray said as he pulled the new pill bottles out of the paper bag. “Though there’s one I would like to ask you about, if I may. Just to figure something out.”

“Oh okay, you can ask me. I might not be able to answer though,” Eddy said honestly, he wasn’t in full control of his medications. So it made sense that he might not fully know anything. 

“Well, what I wanted to ask is if you have a history of high blood pressure or something like that? Or heart disease?” Ray asked him, looking up at him once he had gotten everything out of the paper bag.

Brett furrowed his brows. He hadn’t heard anything about anything like that before at least, so that sounded suspicious.

“No, I don’t. The only time my blood pressure would really rise is with anxiety or a strenous struggle to kill someone,”  Eddy spoke softly, he wondered why Ray was asking. Although he could connect dots to know that it had something to do with his meds.

“Well, then I need a word with the person who prescribed your medication, because you’re on beta blockers. Which you definitely shouldn’t be if you’re not suffering from high blood pressure,” Ray muttered, shaking his head. 

Either luckily or not so luckily Eddy typically avoided taking his medication on way or another, “Well you’d probably have a hard time talking to them. I was first prescribed meds when I was in London, then the rest in the organization.”

“Well, what we’ll need to do, at least, is to slowly reduce that. We can’t just cut it, unfortunately,” Ray said, shaking his head. What kind of person would give a healthy person beta blockers with all the potential side effects that could cause? “The good news is that the rest seems to make sense. Some antipsychotics, antidepressants and sleeping medication, right?”

“Yeah that’s all that I have. Maybe we could just cut it….? I don’t take my meds that often. Only really the stabilizers before going on missions or before I got to see Alex again,” Eddy had a lot of time on his own, even if having a loving relationship. Time alone meant time to lie about taking the meds. Not to mention he didn’t like sleeping all that much because he could very well die. If he didn’t wake up someone could kill him.

"How much of your medication have you been taking recently, though?" Ray asked him, furrowing his brows.

“None of it,” Eddy had been at the mansion pretty long and hadn’t taken any of them, “The last time I took the ones for my mood was the night I came to kill Brett.”

Ray’s brows were already furrowed, but somehow they became even more so upon hearing that statement. He quickly stood up.
“Stay here, I’ll be right back. I need to get something,” he said, scurrying for the door with a worried look.

“What’s going on?” Brett asked, clearly worried too when he saw Ray’s reaction. “Tell me.”

“I don’t know, I didn’t think not taking my meds was that big of a deal.” Eddy was just as confused as he looked at Brett. Eddy knew he felt tired though and that this was generally just exhausting.

“I just need a… a cuff. I’ll be right back,” Ray said just before the door closed behind him. Quick footsteps were heard down the hall before disappearing as Ray got too far away.