ICARUS¹ [ on hold ]

chapter two.

☄▐ HER HANDS fiddled nervously with the laminated menu on the sticky table top in front of her. Icarus still sat in her scrubs, her hair falling in waves over her shoulders as she studied the menu, aware of the meticulous eyes of her counselor, Marcus Gilbert. His green eyes studying her behavior,

"How have you been sleeping, Icarus?" He asks softly, making her glance up

She shrugs, "Better, I guess. The medicine helps."

Marcus raises an eyebrow, "You haven't been taking it, have you?"

The young woman sighs, and falls back in her seat, taking her hand theough her dark locks, "No, I haven't."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like it!" She exclaims loudly, drawing people's eyes to her, "It makes me feel wrong."

The man before her nods empathetically, "How?" He asks, moving to grasp the glass of water befire him as he brought it to his lips

She drops her hands to her lap, lowering her eyes to her fingers, watching as her left thumb picks at the skin around her right thumbnail, "It makes my brain get fuzzy, but it won't turn off. It slows everything down and I start to feel sick, like when you're at the top of I roller coaster and your stomach plummets suddenly as you start to go down."

"When did you stop taking it?"

"Last week," She sighs, looking up at him with guilty eyes

He nods and a soft smile spreads across his face, "I'll get you taken off of it and we'll find a one better suited for you."

Icarus nods, grabbing her own drink and bringing it to her lips to swallow part of it as Marcus opened his own menu nad glanced at its contents,

"So why did you want to meet here?" He wonders, looking at the cheerful surroundings of the diner that they sat in, the bright fake red leather contrasting with his clients dark blue scrubs

"It's quiet," She shrugs, "We won't run into anyone I know, and I like it. It's quiet."

"You already said that," He pointed out, making confusion cross over her features

"Said what?"

"That it's quiet." He elaborated, "You said it twice."

She puckers her lips, "Well, it is quiet and I need the quiet a lot now, I guess."

Marcus chuckles, "There's nothing wrong with that, we all need the quiet sometimes." He pauses, "How's work? Are certain things still triggering you?"

"No, I've been doing better, there are still a few things that cause them but not to many." Icarus explains, scratching the side of ber nose

"And what are those things?"

She shrugs lightly, messing with her empty glass, which now only held ice, "Glass breaking, doors slamming too hard, large copious amounts of blood, and yelling."

Marcus nods, "Do they send you back there or is it only the flashes?"

"Its mostly flashes, I haven't been back there a lot lately. But it gets worse when my anxiety gets too bad or I get too stressed."

"Well, working at a hospital has got to give you bad anxiety and I know it's one of the most stressful of places." He notes, green eyes studying her

She squints, "Not -- not really. I've been moved to the long term care unit, with the more subdued patients, that's easier, less stressful."

"That's good. How's it like at home?" He asks

"The quiet swallows me whole." She admits, taking him off guard, "It gets too loud, i have to turn on the TV or the radio to drown it out. Even if Scott is there, it swallows me," Tears had begun to burn her eyes, and she tired desperately to blink them away, "It feels like I'm suffocating or that -- that I'm drowning and no matter how hard I try, I can never reach the surface."

Silence engulfs them and Marcus drops his eyes to his clients hands, "You're bleeding."

She looked down too and her eyes widened, in the palms of her hands and on the sides of her fingers was the bright red liquid, covering the whole of her hands. She gasped and the blood shrank away into a small puddle of it in the bed of her thumbnail,

"Shit," She curses, and stands up, "I gotta -- I gotta go. Thanks for seeing -- seeing me." She scurried off, her bag flying dramatically behind her as she left Marcus

He fell back in his seat, watching as she got into her car and drove off, he sighed, shaking his head as he finished off his drink before standing up himself. Icarus was suffering and she refused to let him help her, that infuriated the man to no end

° °° || °° °

☄▐ ICARUS FUMBLED with her keys, struggling to open the door before it finally clicked open and she stumbled forward. She yelled out, tripping over her feet before her hips rammed into the bottom of the railing of the stairs, stopping her as she gasped in pain. In her hands she held two very hot boxes of pizza that were burning her hands.

"Scott!" She hollered up the stairs, dropping the pizza boxes on the stairs and shaking out her hands as she hopped up and down on her feet in pain, "Pizza's on the stairs!"

Two pairs of feet come hurtling down the stairs, stopping in front of the box and Icarus jumping in pain, "Hi, Stiles." She greets, her face in a grimace, "The box was hot,"

The boys laugh and pick up the boxes and leading the way into the kitchen the older McCall trailing behind them as she blew on her hands before falling into a seat besides Stiles.

"I thought you weren't coming over tonight," She hums, reaching for a slice of pizza

"I wasn't going to but dad had to go to work again and I didn't want to be home alone tonight." He explains, chowing down on the food she had brought

She nods and reaches over to run a hand over his buzzcut, "Glad to see you remember that you're welcome anytime, little buddy."

Stiles smiles happily, a goofy grin spreading across his lips as he looks at her, "Thank you."

"Anything for my other brother." The girl states, placing a kiss on his cheek, making them flush red as he stuttered out a thanks