Special?

Scott shuts his desk drawer too hard, rattling the desk just enough to knock his stack of papers off onto the floor. Bending down to pick them up, his elbow catches his soda pop can, knocking it onto the floor as well. He lets out a frustrated groan as he winds up on his knees, trying to clean up his mess. Half his papers wind up in the waste basket after being ruined by the pop, and he tosses his can away as well.

Still on the floor, the knock on his door suddenly stops him. If someone wanted their computer fixed, usually they just used the intercom. Who could want him? He wasn’t exactly in the mood for visitors. He didn’t like being grouchy…he knew that it was out of character for him…he’d already gotten an “are you okay?” speech from Susanne after she’d apparently noted his mood change. But right about now, he didn’t care.

Sighing, Scott continues to clean up his mess. “Yeah, come in,” he calls.


Kyle laughs. “As many blunders as I make, I’m glad you can’t recall them all.” He gives Katie a cheesy grin. “You have to promise to be at our next show though, that’s in a couple weeks. And I was gonna ask…”

Phil elbows him.

“I was gonna ask…”

Phil elbows him again.

Kyle’s face suddenly grows red and he changes what he was going to say. “I mean, we’re gonna have a good lineup, so you won’t want to miss it.”

Mike glances down at Kyle with a smirk. “Would you learn how to talk?”

“I could if my brother wasn’t making me stutter!”

Phil elbows Kyle again for good measure.

“Hey!” Kyle rubs his ribs and looks to Katie. “As you can see, Phil hasn’t changed a bit!”

Jen rolls her eyes and wheels closer to Katie’s bed. “Just ignore them. Kyle is right about one thing though…they haven’t changed.” She giggles. “Gotta love ‘em though.” She gives Katie’s arm a pat, switching subjects. “So, it’s pretty cool you can walk, huh?” She beams. “Told ya you could do it, and you did.”

Mike comes up behind her and rests his hands on her shoulders. He knew that Jen knew good and well Katie didn’t remember her own news that she would probably never walk again after her fall. Yet she was still so excited for her friend. It was that big heart that Mike had fallen in love with.

“Hey, where’s Jason?” Kyle asks. “Figured he’d be around here somewhere with Camryn. I…”

Another elbow flies in his direction.

Kyle’s face grows a little red. “I mean, I figured he’d, well, be…um…”

Phil sends his eyes to the ceiling and back down again. “Kyle…stuff a sock in it.”

Kyle looks down at his feet. “You know, Bro, that’s kinda a gross thing to do.”

“With you it is,” Phil agreed. “I wouldn’t want one of your socks in my mouth.”

“Yeah, well like yours are all that pleasant.” Kyle grimaces and looks to Katie, thumbing at his brother. “You ever want to get rid of somebody quick, just have Phil come over and take off his shoes.”

This time it’s a slap to the back of the head Kyle receives.


Jason’s eyes only open slightly as his ears pick up the sound of his fan. A buzzing sound rouses him a little more, but it takes what seems like an eternity to remove the strange fog from his mind.

Finally opening his eyes fully, he tries to distinguish what is going on…what’s that annoying sound…

Grimacing, Jason rolls over, throwing his hand to the nightstand to slap his alarm off. He gives a groan and looks at the clock, expecting to read six o’clock when he’d set the alarm for. Instead, the bright digital numbers announce that it’s seven forty-eight.

What on earth… Jason sits up, and immediately puts a hand to his throbbing head. His alarm had been going off for almost two hours and he hadn’t even heard it. By now he can hear Trooper moving around outside his bedroom too, anxiously awaiting being let out.

Standing up, Jason is hit with a wave of dizziness, severe enough to make his stomach lurch. He almost falls back onto his bed, but realizes that would be a mistake, and instead, he stumbles to the bathroom, promptly throwing up.

Still trying to shake exhaustion, now Jason tries to figure out what on earth was going on. What day was it…what had happened last night…

The fog slowly lifts, and he groans in frustration as the truth hits him. It was developed enough now, that anything he took that suppressed any emotional activity at all would make him sick. Great. Just great. Anything to just put his mind out for a while was going to cause his emotions to bottle up and reek havoc on his body. Wonderful.

Cleaning himself up, Jason takes a shower, grabs some orange juice for breakfast and heads out, taking Trooper with him. He knows the band is visiting Katie this morning, and decides to wait until lunchtime when Con would be going to see her too. He keeps his cell phone on though, just in case anyone needs to get a hold of him if something has changed.


Carson starts about his tasks, but stops when Herb mentions his eye. It was more obvious than he’d wanted it to be. Even though Herb did a good job of not making him feel humiliated, he felt like it anyway. He wasn’t used to taking a beating without fighting back.

He doesn’t answer Herb right away and just sticks to his work for a short while until he can take a quick break. Sinking down in a chair in the corner of the kitchen, he leans back with a slice of steak to put over his eye, letting his other eye go shut as he holds his ball cap in his hand. “Yeah…” He finally speaks. “They hounded me…roughed me up is more like it. The detective didn’t like my answers and…he wanted to teach me a lesson. Said I hadn’t been punished enough for the things I’d done before…said I hadn’t received severe enough sentences for the things I’d done, and obviously I was no good because I kept getting myself into trouble, and that I’d most likely never learn. I’d be a no good scoundrel the rest of my life.”

A dry laugh escapes. “Poor bloke didn’t know how close to the truth he was, I reckon.”

He sighs deeply. He shouldn’t be bothered by what happened. He just needed to let it go. He never would have let this get to him before…he’d always been able to let everything roll off his back. But he’d gotten so tired of fighting, that finally they’d broken him to the point that now, it just felt like they were still kicking him when he was already down and it did get to him whether he liked it or not.

“Anyway, what’s the special today?”