Direct Messages| Reddie

(16)

We get to the hospital and rush inside. I practically run to the receptionist.

"Edward Kaspbrak?" I ask.

"Relationship to the patient?" she asks.

"Boyfriend. The doctor called me and told me to come"

"Ok. I'll get her"

"Thank you" I say. She nods and I sit down with the Losers. A few minutes later I hear Eddie's name. I get up and walk over to the blonde haired doctor.

"Is he ok?" I ask.

"He's stable for now" she says. I feel a huge weight lift off my chest.

"What happened?"

"He attempted suicide by blood loss"

"Oh my God...."

"Did he have a history of self-harm or suicidal thoughts?"

"Um y-yeah. He uh tried once before and he was talking about suicide the day before he was taken to conversion therapy"

"He was taken to conversion therapy?"

"Yeah"

"Ok, I'm gonna place a call with CPS"

"Can we see him?"

"Who's we?"

"Those five people" I say gesturing to them.

"How about just you for now? The others can go in smaller groups later" she says. I nod and tell her I'm gonna go fill them in.

"What's going on?" Bev asks.

"He tried to kill himself again" I sniffle, "but he's stable. I'm gonna go see him. The doctor said you can go in smaller groups later" Bev pulls me into a tight hug.

"Go see him" she says once she releases me. I go back to Dr. Prescott and she leads me to Eddie. He's on the third floor room 284. When I walk in I see him with a breathing mask and some tubes attached to him.

"I thought he was ok?" I ask.

"He is, we're trying to keep him that way. The breathing mask is just to offer some support. He's got an IV giving him fluids and another slowly replacing some of the blood he lost. The cords are just the heart monitor" she explains.

"Oh ok"

"I'll leave you alone"

"Thanks" I say. She gives me a sad smile and walks away. I pull one of the chairs over to the side of his bed. I look over him and notice just how broken he looks. He has dark bags under his eyes and his usually tan skin is a worrying pale. He's somehow smaller than when I lost him. They probably haven't been feeding him much. I take hold of his hand very gently, worrying that I'll hurt him somehow. I see the white bandaged now stained with red covering his wrist.

"You're not going back there. I promise. Not the conversion place or your moms. You need to be somewhere where people with actually take care of you. Like my place or Bill's or Mike's. We'd all be happy to have you there. Bev's got her dad, Stan would try to help but I don't think he'd know what to do, and Ben doesn't have the room. I don't care where you wanna go, as long as your safe and happy. You need to get better, ok? I miss kissing your adorable face" I say. I lean back in the chair and watch his chest rise and fall in slow, even movements. I sit there for about 45 minutes before I see his eyes flutter open.

"Hey, Eds. How are you feeling?" I ask. He looks at me then around the room, tears fill his eyes.

"I'm alive" he says barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, you are. Thank God"

"I have to go back"

"No, the doctor is taking care of it. You're never going back there again" I say. He doesn't say anything, he just looks at me. I see a small smile form but it quickly drops, "what did they do to you?" I ask quietly.

"I couldn't take it anymore. What they said, the seizures, the pills"

"What pills?"

"They give you a pill to make you sick and show you gay porn. Something about associating gay sex with nausea"

"That's really fucking messed up"

"Yeah"

"How did you have seizures"

"Shock therapy"

"Oh baby....." I sigh and rub my thumb in his arm.

"Can you come up here with me? I missed you a lot" he asks.

"Of course" I say. He scoots over and I lay down on the side of him that doesn't have cords tubes. I put my arms around and he curls into my body.

"I'm tired" he mumbles into my chest.

"Go back to bed, Eds. I'll be here when you wake up" I say. Not longer after I can tell he's asleep. I grab my phone off the bedside table and text the group chat.

Me: he looks terrible. he fell back asleep not long after he woke up

Staniel: what did he say?

Bevvie: ^

Me: just what i thought happened. shock therapy, nausea pills, said some nasty stuff to him

Haystack: he can't go back there

Me: there's no way i'm letting him

BigBill: his mom is gonna make him go back

Me: no. he's not going back to his mom either

BigBill: what, r u gonna kidnap him?

Me: basically

BigBill: was not the answer i expected

Me: he's staying with me or one of u if he feels more comfortable there. and if its ok with u

Mikey: whoever he wants to stay with is fine with me...unless it's Sonia

Bevvie: ^

BigBIll: ^

Staniel: ^

Haystack: ^

Me: thanks guys. who wants to come back next?

Mikey: i think Bev, Stan, and Bill then the rest of us will go later. they're his best friends out of all of us

Me: is everyone good with that

Haystack: yeah

Staniel: ok

BigBill: yeah

Bevvie: yes. Rich, how bad is he? Like if the day before he left was a 5 on a scale of 10, how is he rn?

Me: rn he's actually pretty peaceful. when he was awake he was like....8? 10 is probably like no talking, no eating, a lot of panic attacks. yeah like and 7 1/2 or 8

Bevvie: wow ok