Save me from myself (Joshler AU)

Hospitals and observations

Josh's POV:

Tyler had been in the hospital for about a week, and was coming home today.. Nothing was the same though. The 6 days Tyler spent in his small, white, glowingly disinfected hospital room he would barely talk or do much of anything. He was making a conscious.. Or maybe unconscious, I'm not really sure.. Effort to avoid the events of that night, and I couldn't blame him.. But I wanted so badly to help.. To help him get the closure he would need for the experience and passed experiences.

Tyler had been diagnosed with PTSD, which I had already suspected before the kidnapping but this only made matters worse, of course. Each day he was there I made little notes on my phone under the 'notes' section. I wanted to better understand and observe him since he wouldn't talk to me or anyone for that matter. Tyler would stare off in no particular direction avoiding eye contact and human interaction.. He just seemed empty inside.. Numb.

Day 1: After about an hour of being at the hospital Tyler's mother burst through the doors frantic and sobbing and we could hear her from 2 hallways down. We tried our best to calm her down and explain the situation, which she was not too thrilled about but breathed a sigh of relief when we told her Tyler's father had been arrested. She waited there beside Tyler for a few hours before being called into work and left begrudgingly after telling me to look after him and that I was a good friend.

Day 2: Tyler didn't wake up till noon today and was quite disoriented. All day I sat with Tyler and accommodated all of his requests, though mostly he was just quiet and took naps. Around 8 PM when Tyler woke up for a 4th time today after yet another nap I attempted to ask him about the incident and what happened before I got there and he just shook his head. I grabbed his hand realizing it was probably too soon and apologized to which he brushed off and fell back to sleep.

Day 3: Tyler's been giving me the silent treatment for 2 days now and I keep trying to drag is out of him carefully, not even what happened or how he felt, just words in general. Tyler's mother and my mother would stop in every few hours now and then to check up on us, I say 'us' rather than 'him' because I hadn't left his side for 3 days. I just wanted him to talk to me..

Day 4: Tyler's father was sentenced life in prison, as expected, for a list on ongoing things, some of which I was only just now aware of.

Tyler was crying and panicking in his sleep and I had to shake him so he would wake up. When he saw that I had been shaking him awake he wouldn't look at me, as if his traumatic past was shameful somehow. It hurts so much to see him this way, oh god.

Day 5: I haven't slept in over 72 hours other than occasionally nodding off from exhaustion. Tyler is to go back home tomorrow, which should be good because then maybe he'll talk to me in the privacy of his own home. He would barely talk to his therapist about what all had happened but I had hoped he'd trust me enough to at least tell me where he was at and how to help him.. I love him so much, everything hurts.. oh god.

Day 6: Tyler's been in bed all day still and had a permanent unamused and slightly disgusted facial expression glued to his features, and he was obviously so over being in this same small, white, glowingly disinfected room.. I just hoped he would be different when we got back home.

~

We arrived home and Tyler sat on the edge of my bed, gnawing blankly on his bottom lip. He was still avoiding me and conversation even though we would now return to sleeping in the same bed and sharing the same space. "Ty?" I said quietly. "Yeah?" He replied not turning to face me. "I love you. Now please stop pushing me away". "Okay Josh".