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Trevor's head was fucking aching. Not only that, he was covered head to toe in bruises, the skin of his forearms was singed from the fireblanket and he was pretty he could breathe on an open flame and put it out with the amount of chemicals he'd inhaled from the fire extinguisher. Despite all of these aches and pains, he was wandering around backstage. There was something incredibly important he needed to do, but he couldn't remember it for the life of him. That probably had something to do with the white bandage someone, presumably Annie, haphazardly wrapped around his head. It wasn't exactly doing much, other than being a visual reminder of being hit in the head with a plank of wood.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling there was something really important that needed to happen. Or that he needed to stop from happening. Or that he had to tell someone needed to happen. Or stop from happening.
He figured the best way to jog his memory was to walk around, so he gingerly made his way downstairs, every footstep reverberating through his skull, muttering quietly to himself.
"Something, something important, something I need to do, or someone needs to- oof!"
Trevor got the wind knocked out of him when he barreled into something, or rather, something barreled into him. Two thin arms wrapped around his torso, trapping his arms, as he realised it wasn't a something, but a someone.
"Thank you!" came a quiet, high pitched voice from underneath a black bowler hat. Trevor sluggishly looked down.
"What?"
"Thank you thank you thank you!" the voice repeated. He blinked slowly.
"What?" he repeated.
"I was so scared," the voice continued, "I was so scared b-but you caught me, thank you so so much!" Slowly, something clicked in the brain of the concussed stage manager.
"Lucy?"
Lucy Grove took a step back, still holding on tightly to his upper arms, and looked up at him with glistening eyes. Every inch of her was shaking, it didn't seem like she'd had a moment of peace ever since Robert forced her to be on stage. It broke Trevor's heart a little.
"Uh, yeah, no worries kid," he said, clumsily going to ruffle her hair and accidentally knocking her hat off. She smiled through tears forming in her eyes and hugged him tightly again pressing her face into his chest. He huffed out a laugh and put his arms around her shoulders.
The pair stood like that for a moment, simply holding each other. However, the nagging feeling he was forgetting something wouldn't leave him, so Trevor cleared his throat.
"Listen, could you maybe- whoa," and he wobbled on his feet as he felt a wave of nausea. He started moving backwards, letting go of Lucy briefly to feel for the nearest wall without having to open his eyes.
"Sorry about that, could you maybe- fucking hell, I need to sit down," he muttered, already sliding down the wall onto the floor, unceremoniously dragging Lucy with him.
"Oh, sorry, yes of course," she quietly said, and joined him on the floor. He still had one arm around her shoulders, the other he used to cover his eyes from the harsh LED light. Lucy still had her arms wrapped around his torso, one now trapped between Trevor's back and the wall, but she didn't complain; she still clung on tightly to him, as if he were the only thing keeping her afloat. Her breathing was erratic, and Trevor wanted nothing more than to help her feel calm.
Right now, he was not in the right state to comfort her. He hoped his presence was enough to ground her, as her presence was surprisingly grounding for him.
He felt Lucy shift beside him slightly, and he moved away from the wall with great effort, expecting she wanted to move her arm from behind him. He felt a hand gently taking his wrist and removing it from his eyes. He let the hand guide him and flinched in expectation of the harsh light filtering into his eyes, but instead he felt something being placed over his face. Something slightly scratchy but dark. He sighed in relief. He patted the hand appreciatively, hoping the thank you came across without words spoken as speaking required too much energy and caused another wave of nausea.
Lucy settled back down next to him, her arms still around him. The pair sat like that in blissful silence for another few minutes before Trevor's phone started buzzing. He groaned, feeling the vibration behind his eyes worsening his aching head, despite the phone being in his right pocket.
"I can get it," Lucy said, "if- if you want?"
Trevor took a deep breath. "Please." He shifted his body to make his pockets easier to reach as she very gingerly took his phone.
"It's Annie," she said, before accepting the call. "Hi Annie- no, this is Lucy- uh, yes, uh, Trevor is here- n-no, he can't come to the phone right n- no he's, he's okay! Um, I th- I think. Where are we? Uh…"
"Stage left, halfway down the stairs, near the fire exit," Trevor mumbled into the hat. Lucy repeated the directions into the phone.
"Uh-huh. Y-yeah, of course. Will do, thank you Annie," and Lucy hung up. "The paramedics are on their way," she explained as she settled back down next to him.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur; the paramedics whisked all the injured members of the society to the nearest hospital and looked them all over. Trevor got deposited in a bland hospital room where he was woken up every few hours. After a long night, Trevor awoke to a room with bleak sunlight streaming through the open curtains to his left. There was a collection of things at the foot of his bed, some cards, some of his favourite biscuits and a dark blue backpack with clouds. Trevor blinked groggily. It wasn't his, he recognised it but didn't know what he recognised it from. He looked to his right and saw a steadily breathing figure curled up on one of the chairs by his bedside, covered almost entirely by a big fluffy blanket that definitely didn't belong to the hospital (it had penguins on it).
It wasn't until he noticed the boot sticking out from underneath the blanket that Trevor realised who it was. He was too shocked to notice the door had opened.
"Morning Sleepin' Beauty."
Trevor turned to see who walked in and was greeted by Annie.
"How long has Lucy been here?" he croaked out, voice rough from disuse.
Annie wrinkled her nose in fake annoyance. "Most people start with 'hello Annie, thank you so much for coming Annie, it's so lovely to see you Annie, how are you Annie'," she said as she made her way over to the other side of his bed.
Trevor scowled at her before smiling and reaching out to hug her.
"Thanks for coming An," he muttered into her ear.
"Course Trev."
When they let go of each other she pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. He smiled in appreciation at her and found his gaze drifting back to the sleeping figure in the chair on the other side of his bed.
"She refused to leave your side."
"Hm?" Trevor turned to see Annie smiling softly at Lucy.
"When the paramedics and I came round to pick you up you couldn't answer any questions. Nice change of pace that, you shutting the fuck up for once."
"Shut up Twiloil," Trevor joked, reaching over to playfully bat her knee. Annie dodged and swiped at his hand and locked their fingers, resting their hands on her knee. She turned her gaze back to Lucy.
"She answered all their questions for you, as best she could. She looked like she was about to faint from the stress of it all, my goodness, but she kept going. We tried to convince her to go home, that it was alright, we'd be here to look after you when you woke up but she simply plonked herself down by your bedside and wouldn't get up. Max brought her bag from the venue and we kept her company before she fell asleep."
"Oh." Trevor said, looking back at the sleeping figure. He couldn't believe it. Lucy Grove, the girl so quiet and scared it took her two weeks of rehearsal to even say hello to him. He recalled the first time she joined a rehearsal of Murder at Haversham Manor. It was a particularly bad one, Sandra unfortunately wasn't on voice rest and had to let the rest of the cast, crew, and by extension the people walking past their rehearsal studio know how dramatic she could make Florence's "episodes". Trevor had wanted nothing more than to sit in his tech booth with his headphones on blasting Duran Duran when he came across a pair of legs sticking out from underneath the desk. Robert had insisted on bringing his niece along for a rehearsal but had seemingly forgotten about her. She looked terrified so Trevor did what he did best and distracted her. He told her all about the different lights he'd rigged up for the show, showed her how to use the lighting desk, the sound desk. He even let her press some of the buttons (much to the dismay of the actors on stage in the middle of rehearsing a scene). Chris' angry voice scared her again and she hid under the table. Trevor shouted something half-clever back to him and switched the lights back on before deciding to join Lucy under the table. The two sat there for a little bit, listening to the rehearsal going on downstairs.
When rehearsal finished, she still hadn't spoken a word to him, but when Robert finally remembered he was supposed to take her back to her parents, she looked up at him and waved quickly before running after her uncle.
Robert brought her along to a few more rehearsals that she ended up spending in the tech booth with Trevor. It had taken a while, but the young girl had slowly warmed up to him. By the time she joined the cast for Peter Pan, she'd spend her lunch breaks in the workshop with him before slowly mingling with the rest of the cast. Even after that, she'd still come into the workshop from time to time when she was feeling overwhelmed, despite the fact there were quieter spaces in the building.
"There are quieter spaces, you know that right?" he'd said one day, moving his protective headphones off his ear.
Lucy curled in on herself even more than she already had. "I can stop coming here if it's bothering you," she said quietly.
"No not at all! Just, this place," he said, gesturing around him to the dusty workshop filled with half-finished set pieces and old tools, "doesn't seem like the best place to, y'know, destress."
Lucy shrugged. "I like it here." For a moment, she looked like she was about to say something else, but stopped herself.
Trevor walked over to where she was sitting. "Well, you're welcome anytime," he said with a smile, ruffling her hair, and she smiled up at him appreciatively. From then on, he'd made sure there was always an extra pair of ear protectors in the workshop.
Annie's voice brought him back to the hospital room. "Jesus Trev, are you crying?"
"No," Trevor lied, quickly wiping a tear away, "it's the drugs. Has she been looked at?" he quickly changed the subject, feeling too vulnerable even though Annie was his closest friend. "Her foot, is it alright?"
Annie smiled. "Yeah, don't worry. The doctor came in here. She's shaken up obviously, the stress of it all really took a toll on her. She's gotta wear the boot for another two weeks and then come back for a checkup."
"I'll drive her."
"You massive softie."
"Shut up."