Chapter Text
“Wait here!” Gil said firmly as they ran after Liam.
Malcolm sighed. He paused for a moment, considering, but– who was he kidding? He started after them.
“Wait, wait! Hold up. …What the hell is that sound?” He heard Gil ask ahead of him.
“Ugh. What’s that smell?” JT muttered.
As he caught up to them, Malcolm learned what they were talking about. A snarling growl, then another, and the stench of, well, animals. A lot of them. “He’s a black market animal dealer,” he explained.
“Damn it, Bright, I told you to wait.”
Yeah, well… The three detectives turned to move forward after a moment, and Malcolm used their distraction to walk on in a different direction.
He did his best to keep his nose from scrunching as he entered a foul-smelling room filled with animals not meant to be kept this way. A leopard turned in circles in a cage hardly large enough for it to pace. Birds screeched their displeasure, and he watched as an eel twisted within its tank.
A thud turned his attention from the eel to the figure slowly standing up from behind another tank.
“Liam. We just want to talk,” Malcolm said. For a moment, Liam only stared—but the hiss of snakes seemed to give him an idea. He glanced between Malcolm and the direction of the hisses. Then, he took off. Malcolm tried to give chase, but his vision was obscured by— really? Liam threw snakes at him? He stumbled backwards into empty cardboard, feeling a sharp pain on his wrist as he fell.
“Bright?” He heard Dani as he stood. Panting, he pointed in the direction Liam had gone.
“That way,” he breathed. Huh. Shouldn’t be this short of breath…
“Uh- Bright.” Dani’s tone made him look up at her. Liam had run off, so why was she scared? He followed her gaze to his arm–
Oh. That’s why.
He threw the snake off of himself and laughed nervously. “It’s fine. Fine, it was just a small one,” he mumbled, ignoring his sudden dizziness. “Probably not e…”
Which, in hindsight, may have been a bad idea. He realized this as his legs stopped holding him up midsentence and, again, he collapsed backwards.
Okay, the snake may have been venomous, he thought, but found himself unable to speak as his lungs froze in his chest. His eyes widened.
Distantly, he heard Dani’s panicked voice. He only caught a few words– several numbers, “ambulance” ...
“Bright!” Oh, that’s me. “I need you to look at me, okay? You’re gonna be…”
His hearing faded in and out, replaced with a loud ringing.
“...Breathe. Breathe…”
He was trying, he was, but his chest wouldn’t move, his limbs kept twitching, and–
His thoughts seized along with his body. The ringing took over as his world went dark.
Dani could only stare as Malcolm’s eyes rolled back into his head and he started convulsing.
“Nononono, Bright, no, come on,” she begged, turning him onto his side. “Stay with me. Bright, please… Malcolm…”
Familiar footsteps sounded behind her. “Dani?” Gil presumably looked from her to Bright’s unconscious, seizing form. “Oh, Shit. Bright?!” He crouched at her side, fingers dropping to Malcolm’s neck to feel for a pulse. “What the hell happened?!”
“Liam,” Dani panted. In her peripheral vision, she caught sight of a nervous JT watching with arms raised aimlessly, unsure what to do. She wasn’t sure either. “He ran off, I- I don’t know. I walked in and Bright had a snake on his arm, and then…” she trailed off. Her mind conjured up the image of Malcolm holding a syringe to his wrist, and she shook her head to clear it. Damn it, Bright, you had better hold on… “I already called for an ambulance,” she added, voice breaking as Malcolm’s limbs jerked in her arms.
Gil gave a short, nervous sigh. “Well, they’d better hurry the hell up,” he said, helping her to keep Malcolm in position.
As if on command, the sound of sirens approached and stopped just outside, and the sound of equipment and footsteps entering the building accompanied them soon after. Dani found herself paralyzed at Malcolm’s side until an EMT pushed her and Gil back to lift Malcolm onto a stretcher and fitted an oxygen mask to his face.
She let out a breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. He'd get through this now. He had to. There was nothing she could do except stare as the EMTs hovered over him, calling out medical terms she didn’t understand. Maybe she would have, if her mind wasn’t clouded by concern. Malcolm was still convulsing on the stretcher, shallow gasps and grunts muffled through the oxygen mask, though the convulsions seemed to be less intense than they had been a minute earlier.
“Damn it, Bright,” Gil muttered under his breath, running hands over his face. “Don’t you dare check out like this.” JT placed an awkward hand on his shoulder.
“He’ll make it,” Dani said. Her words were far more confident than she felt.
To all of their relief, Malcolm’s seizure had begun to subside, reduced to twitches, and the EMTs prepared to roll him out. Gil didn’t hesitate. “I’m going with him,” he said, voice leaving no room for disagreement from anyone. He shot Dani and JT a look, wordlessly trusting them to keep things together while he was gone. With that, he took off alongside Malcolm. Dani’s chest tightened as he took the consultant’s hand in his own, holding it firmly as though keeping him tethered to life. She watched them disappear from sight and did her best to blink away the tears in her eyes.
Malcolm felt himself drifting. The box in front of him drew him forward, though his legs weren’t moving. He wasn’t in control. Only floating along like a ghost. He had never believed in ghosts, not really; he’d hallucinated enough times to know any sightings of something supernatural were most likely conjured up by the mind and highly unlikely to be real. Yet here he was, possessed by some spirit of his past. A voice sang to him — a siren song, maybe, or a warning — and a cacophony of his father’s words joined the song, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing but watch himself reach toward the box, undo the latch—
And then his father was holding a cloth to his mouth—
And he couldn't breathe—
He screamed and flung his eyes open.
He was no longer in the basement, but the fear still clung to his lungs like ice.
“Hello?”
The room around him was empty and sterile, and the beeps of machinery replaced the song he’d been hearing. No. Where…
“Where is… Hello?!”
A woman rushed into the room. He didn’t recognize her. Desperately, his gaze flitted around him, catching on the tube attached to his arm.
“Wait, wh– what’s in this?!” The woman — a nurse, she had to be — was saying something, hands reaching out. Whatever it was, it wasn’t an answer. “What drug did you give me?!” he asked desperately. “I need to be able to wake up!” She only continued her attempts to placate him. It’d be a lot more helpful if she’d listen, he thought, I can’t be trapped there. Please don’t trap me there. His hands reached for the tube, but they could only find air. All he could do was repeat himself. “I need to be able to wake up! What did you give me?!”
Please.
Please don’t trap me there.
I can’t be stuck there.
Not with her.
Not with him.
Distantly, he heard a more familiar voice trying to get his attention. He was too focused on trying to escape the darkness that crept at his vision. No, no, no, I can’t go back there, please…
His lungs weren’t doing him any favors. He still couldn’t breathe through the ice. He couldn’t breathe. Hands were on him, trying to… he wasn’t sure. They felt like claws.
He tried to scream again, but all that came out was a whimper as the darkness took over.
The next time he woke up was with a gasp, not a scream. Whatever dream he’d been having faded quickly from his mind. He must have been interrupted by something before it got too intense.
When he glanced to his side, he realized what the interruption had been: his phone was sitting next to him, buzzing with a call notification. Claremont Psychiatric Hospital. He sighed and pressed the red deny button, revealing… 16 missed calls. Really?
Scrolling down further showed him a text from Gil, which he opened.
Hey, kid. Sorry I had to step out. Liam’s lawyer wanted to speak with me. Get some rest. Ainsley is on her way.
He smiled. Of course Gil had been by his side. Malcolm wouldn’t be heeding his advice to rest, but he was sure Gil already knew that.
His smile dropped as he remembered why he was in the hospital to begin with. Seeing someone suffering the effects of snake venom couldn’t be easy, and he felt a twinge of guilt at the thought that Dani had been forced to deal with it.
And his sister was coming. Great. At least she’d be a little easier to convince than Gil or his mother; he needed out.
Admittedly, he did find himself feeling grateful when Ainsley arrived, although her reaction to the missed calls did put a damper on that. Understandable, but at least he hadn’t answered them—and if he had, it would’ve been his business. He needed answers, and he told her as much.
“I think there’s some missing time between when I found the girl in the box and when I called the cops," he explained.
She looked conflicted. “How much time?”
“I don’t know," he replied. "Dad’s the only one who can help me understand it and remember it.”
“You think our serial killer father is going to help you?" she asked incredulously. "After everything he’s done? Don’t do this.” Her pleas were interrupted by a sharp pain in his head. He shut his eyes against it, doing his best to mask the pain as consideration, and forced himself to focus on her words. “Don’t go back to him. Don’t let him in your mind.”
The pain faded to a dull hum and he re-opened his eyes. “What else can I do?” he answered her quietly. “He was there. He knows the truth. …I have to go.”
She sighed. For a moment, he thought she might relent. Unfortunately for him, she was stubborn… and perceptive.
“What about the whole snake-bite thing?” she questioned. “It’s been, like, a day, and you’re not as subtle as you think. It doesn’t take a profiler to figure out you’re still in pain.” Ugh. Why does my family have to be so smart? “You had a seizure, Malcolm. Are you sure you’re okay to just leave and act like nothing happened?”
… Huh. He hadn’t known about the seizure part, but it made sense. It was one of the possible symptoms of Black Mamba venom, after all, which was most likely what bit him. Still, it was only one seizure, and he wasn’t at risk now.
He shut his eyes again, this time in annoyance. “It isn’t that bad. I’m not in any danger. I’ll be fine, honestly.”
She gave him a look. “You say that a lot, and it’s rarely true.”
Malcolm opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by another stab of pain that made him gasp. Ainsley placed a concerned hand on his arm, but said nothing. Just as before, the ache dulled itself, and Malcolm looked back up at her. There was worry in her eyes, but there was something else, too. He couldn’t quite place it until–
He froze as Ainsley’s arms wrapped tightly around him. Ah. Relief. That was it. He softened. Slowly, he raised his own arms to return the hug.
She let out a trembling breath. “You could’ve died,” she mumbled into his shoulder.
His heart ached. “I didn’t,” Malcolm reminded her gently.
They fell into silence as she held onto him, and he couldn't help but melt into the embrace. It was nice, realizing how much she cared. He'd known, really — she was his sister, of course she cared — but knowing it was one thing. Feeling it was another. And…
He'd never admit it, not to anyone, and least of all to his little sister, but he'd been scared, too. And he was tired. So tired.
But he couldn't rest. Not even if he tried to.
His face crumpled, and it took all he had not to break completely.
It was another minute before she hesitantly released him, avoiding his eyes. “I know you’re going to leave the hospital one way or another, so I’m not going to stop you, but…” She breathed. “But just be careful, okay? Please.”
He smiled. “I’ll do my best, Ains. Hey.” She looked at him. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
She pursed her lips and nodded, a hesitant smile appearing on her face.
Ainsley stayed with him as he signed the papers. He was glad to have the company for a little longer. The doctors weren’t happy about him signing out AMA, but they never were, so it was easy enough to ignore. He couldn’t stay.
He needed answers, and he knew where to find them.