Teenage Nightmare (Jalex)

Oh No, Please Don't Abandon Me

(Song- May These Noises Startle You In Your Sleep Tonight - Pierce The Veil)

(TW: Talk of suicide, severe mental health)


"Sorry? Alex what---" The phone cut off. Oh god. He prayed like hell that Alex was just upset. He didn't want to think of anything else. He texted Zack rapidly though.

Jack: Check on him. NOW.

Jack: ZACK WAKE THE FUCK UP AND CHECK ON HIM

He tried to call Isobel, no answer. She was asleep. Peter was out of town again.

Jack: ZACK ANSWER THE FUCKING PHONE

He texted when Zack didn't answer. Zack slept like a rock.
FUCK.

"Hello?" Jack picked up his phone. He hadn't heard from Alex all night and he was terrified.
It was 1 AM right now. Jack was meant to be sleeping, but instead he was outside already sitting on May's balcony, just wishing more than anything that he was with Alex.
He knew that in the last week or so before he left, Alex wasn't doing well. He wasn't doing awful, but he wasn't doing well either. How could anyone blame him though? As it's been said a million times, pills would never magically make anything better. He could help though, and right now he couldn't. He'd left when Alex needed him. He'd been having panic attacks and yet, he was forced to leave him. That was something he'd never forgive himself for.
The shaking voice on the other end.
"A-Alex is in th-the hospital." Was all the voice said. He made it out to be Zack.
"WHAT?!" Jack screamed, "WHY?!" He was panicking now. He knew why. He didn't need to be there or hear it to know why. He knew and he expected it eventually. Over him leaving though? He never thought it would be that. The love of his life, and only true love he'd ever known did this because of him. He didn't fight hard enough. He didn't stand his ground hard enough. It was so hard because hearing his sister needed him had him pulling that direction, but he didn't know how long he'd be gone. It had been one week and everything shattered.
He went inside as fast as he could, leaving all of his possessions behind. He grabbed the car keys to his mom's car and sent her a quick text.

Jack: Alex in hospital. I know what he tried to do. Don't bother me with this and punish me later for stealing the car but I FUCKING TOLD YOU that I couldn't leave and now he might be fucking dead. So don't DARE try to stop me.

He ran so fast out of his sister's apartment and down to the parking lot. 
He paid no attention to anything around him, not the weirdos who were up this late staring at him, nor the old woman on her balcony smoking a cigarette, yelling for him to quit running and be quiet. 
He slammed the car door behind him and started the car fast, pulling out even faster.
He got on the freeway back to Maryland as fast as he could. This three hour drive was too fucking much. Too slow. He needed to be there NOW. 
Later wasn't fucking good enough.
His phone rang again. Rian.
"Rian I'm coming what the fuck happened. What the fucking fuck happened." He demanded.
"I don't know! Zack was asleep, and according to Alex's phone he was talking to you." Rian sounded fucking exhausted.
"I KNOW! He told me he loves me and he's sorry! I tried calling Isobel and Zack and none of them answered me!" Jack couldn't even cry. He was losing his fucking mind too. 
"Jack he tried to kill himself. He cut himself all over his thighs, all over his wrists, his stomach...The wrist cuts are so deep Jack...It's taking them everything to stop the blood. He's been here for twenty minutes...He fell down the stairs, passed out down then I guess because Isobel woke up when she heard him bouncing off the wall and down the stairs...There's so much blood everywhere Jack." Rian sounded panicked now, like he was about to cry again.
"I'm coming...Fuck I'm coming...Don't let him fucking die...Don't let him fucking die..." He hung up and drove as fast as he could, making sure he didn't go too far over the speed limit. Getting pulled over at 1 AM while underage in a car that's not his wouldn't get him there any faster.

He heard nothing the entire three hours.
Not a single word.
His hands shook against the wheel as he parked and booked it into the emergency room.
Rian greeted him, "He's in a room...I don't know what they're doing to him Jack...I don't know...He won't wake up. I..." Rian grabbed Jack and pulled him in for a hug. They both needed it.
That's when Jack broke down into tears. 
Isobel walked over to them, "Nothing yet." She sounded dead inside. 
Elise was with Zack, then. 
Zack's panic disorder more than likely wouldn't allow him to even consider coming here when his friend's life was on the line.
"He lost so much blood...They can't even figure out if he's got any head trauma...His leg and wrist shattered when he fell...They think is leg caught under him as he fell and broke it...He landed on his wrist...It's shattered...They didn't need an X-Ray to tell that...They're going to take them anyway of course....If he...God I can't think it. Rian, I can't think it. I can't lose another son..." Isobel was shaking. 
Rian let go of Jack and held onto her, "Let's go sit..." He took Isobel to the seats in the waiting room. Jack followed. If Alex was dead, he wanted to be too. He knew he did. He'd throw everything away and he'd end it if Alex died. Young and dumb, but in love nonetheless and if Alex wasn't there, life didn't matter. He'd never get over Alex. Ever. Never. 

It took two hours for a nurse to come out. They'd sat in silence apart from gut wrenching sobs coming from Isobel, and quiet cries coming from Rian and Jack.
"Mrs. Gaskarth..." She said gently. 
Isobel looked up at her, eyes wide. Oh god. Bad news? Good news?
"Alexander's bleeding---" 
Jack cut her off. He didn't mean to. It came out without any warning.
"Alex...He likes Alex." He whispered, tears running down his cheeks. Rian rubbed his back.
The nurse nodded, "Alex then." She continued.
"Alex's bleeding has stopped. He's unstable, he's lost a lot of blood, but we're getting him back the best we can. He got a blood transfusion, and he's getting X-Rays for his injuries now...I'll update you when we know more." She said with a sympathetic expression, the one only nurses wore. Isobel would know. She is one. Just not in the ER. This nurse wouldn't know her.
"Oh god" Isobel sobbed out, head in her hands.

 Another two hours.
"Isobel? Alex is in a recovery room...I have to tell you though, when he woke up, he was screaming and fighting us all, we had to re-set his wrist again. He's under right now for his own safety and ours. We have hand restraints on him for his safety when he wakes up again. He shouldn't be asleep for long, it wasn't a heavy dose. He was screaming for one of you...Jack." She said softly.
Jack looked up at her, "That's me..." Alex was screaming for him?
Isobel just stared at her. She knew Alex was completely manic right now. She expected as much.
"They're coming in with me." She said, looking at Rian and Jack.
She'd throw hands.
"I work here, so you don't get a say either. I know the rules of only two at once, but they are coming in with me. You can get me the supervisor or the chief for all I care, but don't argue with me." Isobel got up and took the visitor tags the nurse wrote out. She wrote out three.
Isobel handed Rian and Jack their's putting her own on her shirt. Rian and Jack did the same.
She looked at the room number and lead the way.

Jack was in a completely different world when he saw Alex. He didn't hear Isobel crying, didn't hear Rian choking up. He only saw Alex and heard that deafening heart monitor.
Alex was just not there. His skin was so pale, he looked exactly how he wanted to. Dead.
His heart rate monitor was slow, but not awful. So they'd stabilized him enough. He figured if they hadn't, they wouldn't be in that room right now.
Alex's slightly propped up left wrist was covered in a temporary cast, the restraint around the cast, under the cast was sure to have bandages over the cut. He stared at his right wrist that was bandaged tightly in thick wrappings. Alex's beautiful wrists. His right leg had a temporary cast a bit past his knee, his leg poking out from under the blanket and slightly propped up with a mass amount of bandaging wrapped around his upper thigh. He was sure the left leg under the blanket looked the same. The break must've been more than just a small one after looking at the X-Rays if his cast was above his knee.
His head was resting on it's left side, facing the door. Despite everything else, he looked peaceful in the dreamless, medically induced deep sleep that he was in. 
Jack looked at the oxygen mask on his face. It didn't look right. He didn't like anything on Alex's beautiful face. He hated even more the bruising that was starting to form around the left side of Alex's face, so he landed there. His lip was swollen too, he was sure it was busted on the inside.
He sat down in the chair on Alex's left, putting his hand on Alex's arm above the cast, being careful. He stared at the IV line that connected to a couple different bags that he didn't know what they contained, saline he was positive about. He avoided looking at the catheter coming from the bottom of Alex's bed, he knew what that was there for and where it was. 

His phone vibrated.
He didn't want to look but he knew who it was.

Mom: Where in the hell did you go and why the hell didn't you wake me up

Jack: I told you. I went to the fucking hospital in fucking Baltimore because my fucking boyfriend tried to fucking kill himself and I wasn't there to fucking help him like I should have been. YOU were who May needed. Her mom and dad. Not me. I needed to be HERE and you took that from me and he almost DIED because of it. So you can get over the fact that I took your car. You can ride home with dad. You can punish me for it later, I don't care how, but for right now you will deal with it. I don't care right now that you're my mother, I don't care right now about anything other than Alex. You shouldn't have taken me from him. YOU KNEW HE WAS HAVING A BAD WEEK. I TOLD YOU THAT. YOU TOOK ME ANYWAY. So deal with it. Don't text me again unless it's an emergency. You know where I'll be until he is home and I'll be with him even then too. You're not gonna do that to me again. Ever.

Mom: Wow...Jack...I'll talk to you about this later. I'm sorry about Alex. Be there for him. I agree it's where you need to be right now but you are not in any less trouble. 

Jack: I don't give a fuck what kind of trouble I'm in. I should've never left. He wouldn't have almost DIED. A blood transfusion. Two broken bones. His face is a little fucked up from how he fell. He cut himself everywhere and passed out on the fucking stairs. So just know that. Imagine that beautiful, perfect, wonderful, kind, sweet, loving boy covered in bleeding wounds, broken bones and bandages up and down his entire body. Wrapping around his wrists and thighs. Come see the IV bags they have him hooked up to, the oxygen mask he has on his face and how dead he looks because he's so fucking pale. Come tell me how much trouble I am then. Fuck your car. Fuck that I left. You can get the hell over it unless you want me to send you pictures of everything wrong with the person I am in love with. Don't tell me that if it was dad or May or Joe that you wouldn't do the same thing, because you're full of shit. Don't message me anymore. I don't want to hear it right now. I can't fucking handle it. I am losing my god damn mind. So just fucking stop.

He looked up to see Rian and Isobel sitting in chairs on the opposite side of Alex's bed, both silent, both just looking over Alex the same way he'd been. 
"I love you. I'm so sorry I wasn't here." He whispered. 

Another two hours went by, silence apart from the monitor.