Waiting

Rick watches Katie for a moment, deeply saddened by the state this thing was in. He knew that both Katie and Jason had reacted differently since the beginning. Neither was right, neither was wrong. But with different goals and ideas about their connection, things like this would just keep happening.

Setting down his tools, Rick approaches Katie quietly, slipping an arm around her. He wasn't sure he'd ever done that before, but it felt like the right thing to do.

"It'll be okay," he soothes. "And you'll be okay too. If you need to go home then... then that's what you should do. You and Jason are... so different. But you have so much in common too. This will pass. I promise it will and... and you'll make it through everything you're dealing with now too."


Jason stalks downstairs, opening the rec room door with a bang. Pain shoots through his skull and he sinks to the floor, his legs giving out on him. With a little cry, he lets the negative emotions out more forcefully than intended. One of the lightbulbs above him shatters, spraying fragments of glass all over the place.

Wincing, he stays on the floor, feeling as though he were in the middle of a tornado, except it wasn't wind - it was raw emotions coming out... emotions he'd been holding back, harboring so that Katie wouldn't have to deal with them... so that she wouldn't question his intentions or misinterpret what he was feeling.

Tears stream down his face until he's curled up into a ball on the floor, tortured by something he himself had created. Tortured by the upheaval of emotions and the knowledge that things had evolved to a new level. He could no longer filter out his emotions and save them to let out later. It had gotten worse, this... thing.

Finally, slowly, the rampant emotions begin to fade. Jason's whole body feels numb and weak as he just lies on the floor. He breaks out in a cold sweat and starts to shiver, his bloodsugar at a rapid nosedive. But he just lies still, closing his eyes as if hoping when he opened them again, the nightmare would be gone.


Scott pulls up in front of Hope's house, not knowing if he should honk, park and go to the door, or just wait. He settles on just waiting, and reaches over to scratch Domino on the head. He'd chosen jeans and tennis shoes and a loose tee. They were going to the lake, not some fancy restaurant.