Stepping Off Of Precipices Colson Baker X Reader

Stepping Off Of Precipices

Word Count: 944

Y/F/N Y/L/N is 18 and has just been let into the world after being in foster care for the past 4 years. She has been beaten and mistreated and misunderstood by most of her foster families and she has been depressed for a few years, not that she'd admit it willingly. She had been abandoned by her family when she was 15 and eventually was put into foster care shortly after she turned 16. She leaves her last foster home a week after she turns 18 with all her very few possessions in a plastic bag and heads out. She has no idea what she is going to do and for the past few months, she has been silently cutting herself and seriously considering suicide. She doesn't know what her other options are and she feels as if everyone would be better off if she wasn't alive anymore. She looks up and finds her solution. The bridge over the river. Quick, painless and easy. That's all she's ever wanted.

Cause of death is usually either straight-up blunt force trauma or an incapacitating injury, caused by same, and swiftly followed by drowning. Some describe it as breaking  the surface gasping greedily for air, sucking it into your lungs, heedless of the painful way it cuts at your insides. Water filling up your lungs cutting off life force just like the depression that was drowning her, it's like a horrible catch 22. 

Meanwhile Colson Baker is returning from a party he's pissed off beyond all belief and he knows that. He's not far from home when he sees a figure on the ledge of the bridge. He stops his car, he carefully but quickly walks over and sees a girl around his age standing there crying.

"Hey, don't be scared. I just want to help you."

"Go away. You can't help me. Leave me alone."

"I can't do that. I'm involved now. As soon as I saw you, I was involved. Do you want to at least come down and talk?"

"No. Leave. Leave like everyone else."

"I'm not leaving you. How about I introduce myself? I'm Colson. What's your name?"

"Y-Y/N."

"Y/N, huh? Lovely name. Very… poetic. I like it. What's got you so down you're standing on the bridge ledge?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Okay then. I'll work up to that. How old are you?"

"18."

"Well, I'm 29. Can I say you sure don't look 18?"

"Please, Colson. Just go. I have to do this."

"Do what? Throw yourself off a bridge? Things may be bad, but they can't possibly be bad enough to kill yourself."

"How would you know? You don't even know me."

"True. How about you tell me about yourself?"

"Not if you don't first."

"Okay. That's how it's going. Well, I my father was an alcoholic– and my mother took off on me when I was 9. See? We all have our shit."

"I just got kicked out of foster care because I'm legally an adult. I've been beaten and abused by the 5 families I've been living with and one of them tried to rape me. I've been in the system for 4 years because my family abandoned me."

It was the first time either Colson or Y/N had told anyone these things and they barely knew each other.

"See? I know where you're coming from. I can understand."

"But I bet you've never tried to kill yourself."

"I have. I tried so many times. But it wasn't my time. This isn't your time either."

"H-How?"

"What?"

"How did you try?"

"Let's see. I tried to use my aunt's medicine to overdose, I tried drowning myself twice. Once in my bathtub and once in a pool. I cut myself so deep I almost bled out and I was about to jump from a third story window when one of my homeboys stopped me." Colson holds out an arm and shows Y/N his scars. "See? I have the same scars. What have you tried other than this?"

"I tried overdosing but I took too few pills when I was 16 and I cut myself. Still.", Y/N says as she holds out a shaky arm to show the cuts all up her forearm.

"Please don't try this, Y/N. There are other ways. This doesn't have to happen. Not this way. Please."

"Where do I have to go? I have nowhere to live."

"Stay with me. I don't mind."

"I hardly know you."

"Nope. That's not right. The things I told you tonight? I've never told anyone that before. You know me better than any of my friends. Please come down."

Y/N looks into the eyes of her rescuer and sees fear and care and reassurance in his deep blue orbs. Her arm is still outstretched from showing her scars and she moves it closer to his outstretched one. It is only when their hands touch that she realises there is a bit of a crowd watching them. There are a few locals and police and paramedics standing back watching the two youths.

"Okay."

Y/N steps towards Colson and he picks her up around the waist and lifts her off the ledge and even when her feet touch the ground, he still holds her tightly. The small crowd cheers and applaude the two. After being checked out by the paramedics, Y/N is met by Colson and his car with her bags.

"Well? Shall we?"

"Okay."

"This isn't going to be easy, Y/N, and it may take a while, but I'll be here for you every step. Okay?"

"Okay."