A Match Made in Heaven | Doctor X OMC | Doctor Who

The Big Bang (Part 3)

Haylen sat at the breakfast table, tracing the grain of the wood for the millionth time. There was something wrong with him. That was the story of his life, he thought dully as something twisted angrily inside him.

His father was moving restlessly around the kitchen, trying to put the finishing touches on the speech he'd be giving later that day. It was very distracting, and Haylen could feel a mounting frustration as people kept bustling in and out of the room doing things.

He was trying, for Amy, not to let things get to him, but everyone had changed his usual morning routine, and it was starting to get to him despite his best efforts. He flexed his hands, the movement automatically continuing on up to his shoulders, flexing the muscles in a way that felt at once like rote motor function, and like something was missing.

He gritted his teeth against the feeling, but it wasn't helping. He brought his hand up to his mouth and bit down on the fleshy part that connected his thumb to his palm. The pain brought him back to the moment, and he relaxed in a way that he hadn't been able to for what felt like weeks.

'Haylen, dear,' his mother said, bustling into the room only to sigh as she spotted the blood welling up from between his teeth. 'Oh, stop that. You have chew toys for a reason.'

She moved toward him, frowning as she pulled a pen with a hard rubber piece of chewelery on the end toward her. 'Come on, that's it,' she said, not bothering to try and make him look at her thankfully, 'let go.'

The feel of her hand touching the skin of his arm made his senses scream at him, his skin crawling with the wrongness of it all. He opened his mouth, distressed noises falling from his throat that just got louder and louder until she let go.

She sat back with another sigh and put her head into her hand, the other hand pushing the pen toward him. 'Stop it, Haylen. I'm sorry, alright?' she said, something so very weary in her voice. 'I thought we talked about this. You can't just scream at people for doing things you don't like. You have to use your words.'

He nodded, agreeing with her absently as he chewed on the so-called 'light-saber' end that he'd chosen from the many available choices. It looked more like the handle of a screwdriver to him, but that was what it was called, and they hadn't been interested in changing it when he'd written to them, so there was very little he could do about it.

'Alright, dear,' she said, voice softening in a strange way after a moment, 'your sister just got up, so you should go and get ready. It won't be long til we need to get down to the church.'

He nodded again, pushing his chair in and turning to move the way he always did, only to almost walk into someone who was in his way. He frowned, head not lifting as he waited for them to move. They must not have seen him, because they just kept standing there, thoroughly in the way.

'You're in the way,' he told them, not looking up. He wasn't in the mood to be assaulted by the rush of feelings that happened every time he looked someone in the eye, no matter how rude it made him look.

He didn't know what that random great aunt 'never' and he didn't care. Once she'd moved out of the way, he made his way up the stairs, his mood worsening at the rushing about that all these interlopers seemed to be doing.

His sister's bedroom was on the same floor as his, which meant that a lot of the activity was happening far too close to his room for him to feel comfortable. Normally, he'd just retreat to his room until the people were gone, but that wasn't really an option this time, since it was for his sister's wedding.

Apparently, Mels was allowed to miss it, but he wasn't.

Maybe he should go out and commit crimes so that he wouldn't have to attend events too, he thought to himself. The squirmy feeling that thought brought up told him it wouldn't work. It just wasn't something he could do, unfortunately.