BrainDead ficlets

Alternate Ending to That Night

"Ummm Laurel? Laurel?" Gareth shakes her a bit, when she doesn't respond he moves her so that he can hold her easily. He stares up at the ceiling, wondering what the hell had just happened. Laurel begins to stir under his arms, "hey Laurel, are you alright?" She looks up at him, then sits up quickly, "they're gone. Rochelle, Gustav! It worked!" They run into Laurel's room and Gareth immediately gets confused again. "I- uh, I think I'm gonna go." Rochelle throws her hands up, "no, Gustav and I will go, you stay." They quickly walk out and Gareth gets up, getting dressed quickly. "Do you wanna tell me what that was about?" He sits down on the bed next to Laurel, "Gareth, I really don't want to talk about what just happened." He looks down, shaking his head, "I think we should talk about it. I've had good nights, I've had bad nights. But that was..." "Odd, yeah." He snickered a bit and then reached his hand over to her arm, "why did that happen? And are you okay?" Laurel looks as though she's trying to figure out how best to explain things. "I get these migraines sometimes, and I needed human contact." Gareth furrows his eyebrows, "And if I wasn't here?" "You were here though." "Yeah, but...when you get these migraines what do you do?" Laurel looks a bit offended but also playful, "are you asking if I sleep around?" "No, no I just. I just want to feel like I wasn't being used tonight." Gareth stands up to fasten his belt and throw on his shirt. Laurel speaks up, "it was great." "It wasn't great, it was weird." They laugh and Laurel gives in, "okay yes, it was weird. What do you want?" Gareth sits back down on the bed, "For things to be normal. I want to talk and joke and take you out to dinner. And pay. And then kiss you on your stoop one night and feel awkward about calling you the next day. And then I talk to my friends and they tell me not to call because I'll come across as too vulnerable, but of course, I call anyway. And then we're I don't know, happy and a little awkward on the phone together." Laurel nods, "okay. Let's do that. Why can't we do that?" "Because you were yelling at me to go faster while you ate chocolate and salami, but maybe we should get drinks sometime or something?" Laurel smiles at him as he stands back up, "I'd like that, yes." He gets up to leave and Laurel grabs his arm, "please don't go. I usually don't get this vulnerable around a guy, but I would like it if you stayed for a little bit. Just to be sure nothing else happens to me." Gareth smiles at her as if to say, 'that's all I want to do.' He crawls back into her bed and wraps an arm around her, "are you sure it was just a migraine?" "I think there are bugs getting into people's brains and making them stupid." He sits up, "is that a democratic thing or?" "Gareth, there are ants that crawl into people's brains and eat half of their brain, causing different things to happen to them. I had them in my head and we discovered that to get them out I would have to enhance dopamine levels." Gareth unwraps his arm and leans over to where Laurel left her bottle of scotch, he takes a drink and then turns back to her, "huh."