I'll Help You Hide From Them

Colleagues

I glare at the door when detectives Morgan and Blair turn up, a mocking smirk staining their features.

"Look at Detective Woolnough, all injured." Morgan chuckles.

"What are you both doing here?" I murmur, really not in the mood for them now.

"We've been assigned that case you dropped. Say, that new kid, what was his name?" Blair grins.

"Oh yeah, Kemp's younger brother." Morgan finishes.

"What do you want with Kier?" I reluctantly sigh, knowing in my current position, there's nothing I can do.

"After you recruited him, we looked into him. We need to send an agent undercover to the bar that the victim worked at. It seems the killer may be a regular." Morgan points out. "Your late partner's brother is the perfect person for the part."

I can feel my stomach forming tight knots in dread. "He's not ready for a mission like that, he's not even graduated-" I warn.

"-That's going to be vital in working to our advantage. The killer can't find him in the police database so his cover is solid." Blair points out blatantly.

"Plus he still has the tattoos from his undercover assignment. He looks perfect for the part." Morgan adds.

"I'm still not liking the idea, his undercover persona was a drug dealer, I don't think that will attract the killer." I try.

"The victim and your partner's brother have the same figure. How do you think the killer reacts when they see someone looking so similar to the victim?" Blair continues to try to convince me.

"Let me be there to keep an eye on him. He's too young to be put at such a risk." I warn.

"Your face is all over the news, you'd scare the killer off by just being in the same room. He might be eight years younger than you but he's proven to be quite capable." He replies.

"Can you at least hold off until I can be nearby? I want to be sure nothing bad happens to Kier." I try.

"We'll have you tapped into security footage when you're in your new safehouse." Morgan tells me mildly sympathetically.

"If you have any theories on the case, you should remember to report them all directly to us now that we've taken over the case." Blair makes sure to remind me, clearly enjoying being my superior in this situation.

"Fair enough." I murmur. "Do ask Kier for his opinions on the case, he's a lot sharper than you'd expect."

They both chuckle amongst themselves. "Your partner has a nice face but I think that experience will trump his apparent wit." Morgan adds mockingly.

At this point I'm aware that they're not going to be easily persuaded of Kier's natural skill in this case. They'll just have to see him undercover where he can let his skills flourish.

They both laugh as they leave the room, feeling they've done enough boasting for one day.

-

Luke turns up, making up for our missed appointments and apologising for not being available to watch over me like what had been already decided. I tell him that there's no need to worry since I understand that he has other patients to tend to.

"Have you been feeling okay? I don't mean just the stab wound and the lack of sleep but how are you doing in there?" He softly asks when we get down to business.

As much as I'm reluctant to say, I know that, as part of his job, he can help me with things like this. "I thought you should know my paranoia is getting worse. Is there anything you can do to put me more at ease?" I politely ask.

He looks worried but intrigued. "There's nothing I can recommend until I know more. How does this paranoia manifest itself?" He soothingly asks.

This is a little tougher to admit to. "I feel like I'm being watched." I murmur.

"Technically, you are. There's a team of people watching your room's footage to make sure that you remain safe." He tries to reassure, not that it makes me feel any better.

"I'm not worried about them. It feels like there's someone else, patiently waiting for the attention to be turned away before slitting my throat. It scares me so much I can hardly think." I add quietly.

"After what you did to Shane do you really think he'll be able to come here and do any harm to you?" He asks.

My eyes water up slightly. "I don't know. I just can't feel safe regardless. It's like he's hiding in every dark corner watching me. It scares me so much that I don't think I'll actually be able to let myself take those sleeping pills because the idea, the thought, of what he would do to me while I'm asleep makes that paralysing feeling by itself." I weakly admit, doing all I can not to burst into tears.

"Could it be that maybe lack of sleep is what put you in this state in the first place?" He checks.

A tear succeeds in dribbling out of my eyes. "I don't know, maybe?" I weakly answer.

He looks at me with his soft pale eyes to calm me down. "Believe it or not, I'm not just this big for show. If anyone who's not supposed to enters this room while I'm nearby, I can and will knock them out." He reassures. "It's my duty to protect my patients mentally and emotionally so I figured it would be a good idea to do so physically as well." He points out.

"I still shouldn't depend on that, it's part of my job to be able to protect myself." I slowly word.

"Jesus, Drew, you look exhausted! It's no longer just a suggestion, I'm going to see to it that you get some rest." He decides for me.

"But they're watching me!" I try to explain.

"Now I'm here, only an idiot would dare come in here and hurt you. Don't you trust me?" He adds.

I lower my head in shame that I've doubted him.

He's probably worked with other people going through exactly what I am. Of course he knows better about all these things than I do.

"Sorry I doubted you Doctor Illingworth, of course I trust you. I just got scared over nothing, that's all." I try to justify.

"There's no need to apologise." He calmingly replies. "From my professional experience, I'm more than a hundred percent sure that all you need is a little more sleep to give your brain enough to be able to think clearly and cohesively about the situations you're in. You must be familiar with the Russian sleep experiment, right?"

"Isn't that just a creepy pasta?" I counter.

"It is a metaphor for the damage done to the cognitive state, only the writer uses that to tap into our fear of the unknown." He simply replies. "The reason it's such a popular story is that it seems very close to reality. Whoever wrote it sure knows what they were doing." He smiles. "Right now you're so tired all I need to do is give you a slight push and then you'll be out until your mind is well rested."

I give him a worried look, still too scared to even think about sleeping. He seems to understand so he gets out the sleeping pills. "Instead of giving you two I'm only going to give you one. It will give you the push that you need without knocking you out for a few hours." He tells me, holding out the pill.

I slowly take the pill out of his hand, trying to stop my mouth from being so dry before popping it in, forcing myself to swallow it dry. He rests a hand over my right hand in the same way Kier does, softly and reassuringly as I let the softness of the pillows and quilts engulf me while I drift off.