South Park: Dragging Me Down

Restless

A few days had passed since Kenny, Karen, and Wendy visited Pip together. Since then, Kenny had been staying with him every day, sitting by his side and trying to keep his morals high.

Despite his friends' efforts in comforting him, he was still plagued by painful nightmares of past memories. Being yelled at, being attacked, being left alone, being shoved into his school locker, having his head pushed into the toilet, being tied up, being bent over, being whipped with a belt; the list was endless.

As a result of these traumatic memories, Pip had stopped sleeping altogether. He hadn't told anybody else about this problem yet - not even the hospital staff, but when Kenny came to visit him again the following morning, he could tell something was off with Pip.

As he crossed the ward, he saw Pip perk up in his bed towards the very back of the room, much like a dog awaiting his master's return. Kenny smiled and strutted to his bed, taking a seat to his right.

"Howdy, Pipsicle." he beamed, throwing out a gloved hand to pat Pip's arm. "How are you feeling today?"

An exhausted Pip threw up the biggest smile he could muster. "I'm feeling good, thank you! How are you? How's Karen?"

Kenny's eyes met Pip's own and he noticed how worn out he was looking. He had heavy bags under his eyes and they were looking a little bloodshot. "We're fine, thanks. Uh... are you sure you're okay? You look... exhausted."

Pip just smiled and shook off his comments. He shuffled up in his bed and pulled his duvet covers over his arms to warm them.

"You cold?"

"A little." Pip actually admitted, a big step for him.

"Want some tea or somethin'?"

"N-No thank you."

"Hot chocolate?"

"I-I'm okay thanks..."

"Coffee?"

"Coffee's gross." he pouted, making Kenny laugh.

The ward door opened and Doctor Thomas crossed the room to talk to him. Pip suddenly felt shy and half hid his head behind the covers.

"Good morning, Pip! Hope you're feeling okay today!" he smiled before turning to Kenny. "And it's nice to see you again, Kenny, but I feel you're always with us. Pip never stops talking about you when you're gone."

From the corner of his eye, Kenny saw Pip go beet red. He chuckled at the response.

"So how are you doing today, Pip? Anything that you'd like to talk to me about? Have you developed any new aches and pains I should know about?" the young doctor adjusted his glasses, giving Pip his full attention.

"No, I'm... okay thank you." Pip replied warily, still getting used to the doctor's daily check ups. He was used to people ignoring him on a daily basis so he found it weird when they didn't.

"No bad dreams or anything, no?" the doctor asked, acknowledging how tired he was looking.

Kenny's head shot towards the Brit. "Are you still having those?"

"N-No?" came the unconvincing response. Pip peered out from his covers to see Kenny and Liam morphing into his sister and her boyfriend. He closed his eyes tightly and opened them again. They had gone. "I've been fine. Normal."

"Well if you say so." Thomas didn't push the issue. "But if anything's wrong or you feel stressed out or anything, you can always talk to me if you want to. Let me know how you're feeling."

Pip nodded. "Thank you."

"Good. Well, I've got to finish my rounds now. I'll see you this afternoon, Pip."