Problems

|| Chapter 16 ||

TW: panic attack, mentions of abuse
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They were four hours into the eleven hour drive and Alex was brooding.

Well, not brooding, exactly. He was scared, and worried, and annoyed at traffic, and had a ball of anxiety tucked up underneath his ribs like some wriggling knot of worms.

He was sitting in the back of Laf's car (because it got better gas mileage than Herc's rusty tin can, Laf had argued), and Alex had been doing everything to keep himself entertained and distracted. None of it was really working.

He tapped his fingers impatiently on his knee, watching cars pass from the window. "Can we go any faster?" he pleaded, and Laf glanced up to look at him in the rearview mirror.

"Trust me, Alex, I'm trying. But if we get pulled over, that's just going to take even longer."

It was logic, but Alex wasn't happy with it. John could be dying-the hospital hadn't said anything, only that there had been an accident and they were in his emergency contacts.

"How about you try and get some sleep?" Hercules suggested, and Alex snorted under his breath. He knew that that was futile, no way was he going to be able to sleep like this.

He already had basically permanent dark circles underneath his eyes, and he knew that he looked bad-like some sort of sleep-deprived college kid.

Oh, wait.

At least he had brought the essentials in his flurry of stuffing things into his suitcase. Some books, a notebook, and, as always, his laptop. He needed some semblance of normal on this trip.

Maybe Herc was right. Maybe he should try and get some sleep.

He pulled out his earbuds and popped them in his ears, closing his eyes and leaning back, letting the motion of the car lull him to sleep.
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Surprisingly, he slept almost the entire ride. He finally woke up when they were pulling into the parking lot of the hotel where Laf had booked a room.

"Um...why aren't we at the hospital?" Alex asked groggily, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. He sat up and yanked the earbuds out of his ears, wrapping them up and stuffing them into his pocket.

"Because some of us actually need to sleep. It's ten at night. We don't all run on coffee and stubborness," Laf joked, putting the car in park and stretching. Alex sighed. Now that he had taken a nap, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep that night. Whatever. At least he could get in some decent writing in.

They checked in at the front desk, then dragged their stuff into the elevator, where Laf proceeded to start falling asleep against the wall and Herc had to nudge him awake.

When Alex opened the door to their room, Laf immediately tossed his suitcase down and flopped onto one of the queen sized beds, letting out a small groan.

Alex smiled a little and dropped his suitcase next to the other bed, pulling out his laptop and plugging it in on the desk. Hercules had already laid down next to Laf and turned on the tv, flipping the channel to the National Geographic network, making himself at home on the bed while Laf started snoring.

Pulling out pajama pants and an old t-shirt, Alex mad his way into the small bathroom and changed, then came out to see Laf snuggling up to Hercules like a giant french koala. Alex suppressed a smile and got into his bed, plugging his earbuds into his phone and popping them into his ears.

Time for another sleepless night.
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The next morning they took the shuttle from the hotel to the hospital, and as soon as they walked through the doors, Alex started freaking out.