𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒 | 𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕠𝕞

0.8

"MRI," Dan interjected, and Riley took a moment to force a small smile.

"Uh, yeah, the MRI.. but don't worry, it's completely painless, and you won't feel a thing." Dan nodded as Riley stepped back, crossing her arms and taking a deep breath.

Her breath had an easier time settling for the quiet hum of the MRI machine through the glass, and the small clicks of the computers ramping up the scanner. That was over speaking and having to use medical terms and an listening to an interrupting Dan.

However, that quiet bliss was shattered, as something literally started to tear Eddie apart, his mind sucked back into the rear view mirror as something else started to take over.

His body shook uncontrollably, black veins starting to pulse forward at his forehead, his eyes shifting violently from Eddie's to the same white one's that Riley had seen in the bathroom earlier. 

Speaking of, Riley didn't see any of this with her own two eyes. She only heard the screams that erupted from his body, thundering through the speaker, alarming everyone else in the room that something is wrong.

Riley jerks, her body reacting to the unhuman-like sound that came from the side of the room. She jumps forward, her hand on the speaker as she tries to keep the panic from seeping through her voice.

She fails, "Dad- Dad?!" 

Her brain gets no answer, and makes a fight-or-flight descision. Instead of fighting the urge to ask her Dad questions, she runs. Runs right to the door, slamming a hand on the pad for the gateway to her father. 

"Shut it down, shut it down!" Dan yells, his partner typing wildly on the keyboard to do so. The sound of the machinery booting down calms Riley's wild eyes, but she still scurries to her father and immediately starts to try and get him to sit up. 

Dan appears right next to her, trying to get a better grip on Eddie than Riley does, just because he knows she wouldn't be able to genuinely hold Eddie up if he tried to stand. Riley swallows quickly, one hand on her father's right shoulder while the other holds his elbow tightly. 

"Hey-hey- hey," Dan repeats, "you're okay-- you're alright? Hey- look at me, look at me-"

If there's one thing Dan would be able to force Eddie to do, it wouldn't be to look at him. Eddie's bloodshot eyes look wide as he swats away Dan's arm, breathing deep into his chest at a fast rate. 

"Eddie- take a deep breath- take a deep breath," Dan inhales, taking a step back and instead, noticing how Eddie's shoulders seemed to relax once his grip was released. Expecting him to not listen to him once again, Dan opens his mouth to speak, but is stopped when Riley's hand catches his eye. 

Not the one holding her Dad's hand, but the one holding a firm pointer finger at him, low enough for Eddie to not notice. Dan takes it as a statement, not a suggestion, to stay back until Riley allows him back near Eddie. 

"Dad- Dad, it's okay- okay? We're good, okay? You're fine, I'm here," Riley half smiles as her voice fails her, heart still pounding in her chest, eyebrows raised and her face laced with concern. 

Like before, right when Riley's voice cracked in the apartment and brought Eddie back to his seemingly drivers seat in his mind, the same happened now. Within a moment, Eddie's gaze was on Riley's, and the Brock's both shared a lower heartrate after that, with Eddie squeezing Riley's hand. 

He was semi-okay, is what he told her. She gave a small nod, replying the same way.

They were semi-okay. That was all that mattered. 

For now anyways. 

This meaning that not even hours later, all hell had broken loose. Remember that ten percent of the time that was either extremely shitty or a fever dream? Yeah, the Brock's life became an rare extreme neither was used to-- an extremely shitty fever dream.