Outer Space

Chapter 15 - Telling Charlie

    "Hey, where the hell have you been girl?" Charlie asked as she instantly picked up her ringing name when she saw Jemma's name flashing on her screen. She knew that Jemma would need her time but she wasn't expecting her to disappear without a word for this long. Usually, when Jemma wants a break she would at least text Charlie to tell her that everything was good.

   "Char... Charlie." Charlie recognized that voice. It took her a second but she recognized that voice. It certainly did not belong to Jemma. It was a man's voice. The last man on earth that she would expect to have Jemma's phone.

   Once Charlie was able to get over her initial shock, she replayed what Maddox had just said in her mind. Except he hadn't even said anything really, just her name. But the way he said her name, in broken pieces, like he was choking up like something was wrong. She began to put the pieces together in the few seconds since she answered her phone. Maddox was calling her choked up about something from Jemma's phone. Something was wrong.

   "Charlie," Manson said again after Charlie didn't respond to him the first time. It didn't sound like he was questioning if Charlie was actually there and listening, more like he was repeating himself in order to obtain her attention. He was repeating himself to let her know that something was wrong. Because why else would he be calling, why else would he be crying?

   "What, what?" She asked not sure else to say or how else to react. She still had no idea what was going on.

   "Jemma... Hospital... I didn't know who else to call." Hospital, that was the one word Charlie was able to latch onto. She didn't bother asking any questions. Not even the ones that were swarming her mind like why the hell is Jemma at the hospital and why the hell are you with her?

   Instead, she just said, "I'm on my way okay. I'll be right there." She grabbed her keys and left, not looking back.


..........

   "I'm looking for Jemma Willis," Charlie told the nurse the second she stormed up to the nurse's station. She didn't see Maddox when she walked in and when they were on the phone she hadn't asked him where he was so she had absolutely nothing to go on when it came to finding him.

   The nurse that Charlie was talking to begin typing away at her keyboard and eventually answered the impatient Charlie, "Jemma Willis, seventeen-year-old female." she droned on. "You can go to the waiting room that is located upstairs, directly above us right now. The elevator is that way." Charlie didn't have time to argue and get more information so she just started following the nurses the directions and jogging towards the elevator.

   Charlie got upstairs and started walking in the direction of the waiting room. She still had no idea what to expect. The only thing that she was able to get out of Maddox was pills. She didn't know what pills he meant. In fact, it just confused her more because Jemma usually refused drugs. The only drug that Jemma had ever partaken in doing was smoking weed, and that one was actually legal.

   When she rounded the final corner she saw Maddox. He was sitting in a chair with his back against the wall. His head was buried in his hands and it seemed like he was shaking. Charlie hadn't seen him in a while but she could already tell that he was different, that he had changed.

   She rushed over to him, in the process she noticed that there was a doctor guy sitting next to him. "Maddox?" She questioned, gaining his attention and getting him to lift up his tear-soaked face. She noticed that the doctor sitting next to him also turned his head to look at her when she spoke.

   Maddox stood up and even though he was much taller than she was she had been waiting for two years to do this and him being a little taller and crying wasn't going to change anything. So she didn't hesitate before slapping him across the face as hard as she possibly could. He barely reacted though. He just re-adjusted his jaw and he seemed to have more tears begin to run down his face; however, Charlie doubted the tears were because she slapped him.

   Since she was able to get that out of the way, now all she was focused on was finding out what was going on and figuring out what exactly happened in the first place. The doctor that had previously been occupying the seat next to Maddox was now on his feet. It looked like he was debating on whether or not to intervene but Charlie was all set now so she wasn't going to hit Maddox again. And it looked like Manson didn't even care that he had just been hit.

   Knowing that with the state Maddox was currently in he would be absolutely no help in the situation, she decided it would be best to ask the doctor guy questions instead. "What happened? Is she okay?" The two most basic questions she could possibly ask but she needed to start somewhere.

   She watched the doctor open his mouth, but as he was about to answer, she heard Maddox's rough voice from beside her. "Suicide." He said, "She tried to commit suicide."

   Charlie had a million things running through her head, but one word in Maddox's response was able to calm her down slightly. He said that she 'tried' to commit suicide. That meant that she was still alive right? Oh, who was she kidding Maddox probably had no idea if Jemma was still alive.

   But she was confused as well, so confused, with the millions of thoughts running through her head. "She would never," Charlie said looking Maddox in the eye. "Not after her mother. She wouldn't do it." Charlie stood her ground. She had heard the stories about what had happened to Jemma's mother when she was a kid and she knew god damn well that Jemma would never follow in her mother's footsteps.

   "I found her," Maddox said. "She had an empty pill bottle in her hand and I swear to god I thought she was dead when I looked at her."

   That's when the doctor guy decided it was a good time to interrupt... and he was absolutely right because if Maddox kept talking he was probably going to get slapped in the face again. "Jemma is not dead and all the signs do point to an attempted suicide. The pill bottle that the EMTs brought said the pills belonged to a Hannah Allen. Jemma is getting checked out and she hasn't woken up yet. At this time that is all we know."

   "Hannah? She hasn't even talked to her in over a year. How the hell did she get the pills? Does her dad know? Please tell me that you didn't call her dad Maddox." Charlie was sure on one thing and that was that Jemma's dad should not be at the hospital because if anything him being here would make things so much worse, for everyone.

   "There was no phone number on file ma'am so no we did not contact Mr. Willis." The doctor responded to the question she had directed towards Maddox.

   She looked to Maddox to get his answer also. "No." He said. "Jemma told me, about what he did to her and I figured that he'd be drunk anyway."

   "Good," Charlie said. "Now tell me what the hell you were doing anywhere near Jemma after what you put her through!"

..........

Things are starting to get real heated around here.

I hope you enjoyed! More tomorrow! Thanks for reading!

    - Claire