Dream Like New York

Who: Nathan Mitchell and Alec Campbell
What: Second Opinion
Where: Psychiatry Department, Mount Sinai
When: Monday

Nathan checked his watch to see how long he had at his disposal and then softly knocked on Alec’s office door. “Hey, dude. Do you think I could pick your brain for a few? Off the clock. It’s a personal matter. Kind of a second opinion thing…” In truth, Nathan didn’t really know how to couch what he was trying to ask. He knew Alec pretty well because he had been Justin’s pediatrician since he landed on Mark’s doorstep and puked on his shoes. He had been through all of Justin’s up and downs with the family. He had specialties in juvenile and youth trauma, but general psych issues fell out of his spectrum.

Alec looked up from the case notes he was finishing up from his last patient and smiled, gesturing to one of the chairs at his desk. “Yeah, of course. Take a seat, mate. You okay?” Since he started his job at the hospital, he had consulted with Nate quite a few times with some of his older patients in their teens, or even some parents of his younger patients who seemed to have some psych issues themselves. He also spent a lot of time when he first moved to New York chatting with Nate about Justin so he could support his nephew in the best possible way. Nate had been incredible with Justin. In many ways, he was the reason Justin was still alive. Of course Alec had some time to spare for the guy.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just got a curly issue for you that you might be able to shed some light on. I’m consulting with Jenson in Neuro but it’s a bit of a unique situation.” Nathan handed over two medical records for Alec to look through. He sat and settled in, but he was scratching the back of his head thinking things over. “That’s Ty and Germ’s files. You know Germ’s being discharged and he’s coming home to us, and… Ty’s going to be his carer. The part I’m struggling with, which is going to sound so stupid when I tell you, is that lately, Ty’s been… normal. Mostly normal. Like, pre-rape normal.”

( Alec already had both files open, skimming the clinical notes... )

LOG, COMPLETE

Germ on Skype from England, pre everything. Needed bringing back ― with Jeremy Peterson

HERE @ muserevival

Devotion
n. 1. profound dedication; consecration. 2. earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.

For Nathan, being a doctor was the easy part. The hard part was watching the man you loved get torn away from you and knowing none of the skills you learned to become a doctor could help. It couldn't stop the pain. Overcoming the guilt was proving to be a near impossible task for him. He felt like he had let Tyler down not realising early in the game that the awful thing that happened to him had rapidly exacerbated a mental illness. If he had just realised, would he have been able to stop a lot of the pain?

( In the early days, in the wake of Tyler's sexual assault, Nate had tried to hard to keep it together and be the strong one... )

Ty's attempt to stay up and watch movies all night with Jez. Has as much stamina as his twin, who is out and drooling on my recliner nearby. Seriously exhausting Thanksgiving, but astounding.

Who: Nathan Mitchell, Jeremy Peterson and Tyler Peterson
What: Like seeing a ghost
Where: Nathan's apartment
When: Late Saturday night

Nathan was relieved at the fact that Tyler had gone three 'good' days now. By good, he meant not necessarily bad and that was the best he could hope for. Tyler was responding more and more, though. He was working hard to try to get better too. They had finally found a cocktail of medications that seemed to be helping rather than hindering him, and he had now been on them long enough that the side effects were minimal. Yesterday, Tyler actually decided he wanted to come grocery shopping with Nathan and pushed the shopping cart around while Nathan tossed everything they needed into it from the list on his iPhone. He used to just be a shop-as-needed sort of person because it had only been him and his hectic schedule he had to worry about. He ate on the run, ate a lot of take-out too. Now his priority was Tyler, and part of Tyler's rehab regime was a diet that encouraged his body to recover, not just his mind. Nathan was cooking more than he had since, well... since things crashed and burned with Tyler. Before, they used to cook meals together, end up doing naughty things on the kitchen counter, and then resume where they left off. For now, Tyler wasn't even sure about sex. He had broached the subject once, but it was like he didn't remember it. It was absolutely not something Nathan was going to bring up. With Tyler's mental stability still patchy at best, and all this cause by sexual assault trauma, he wasn't sure Tyler would ever have that ability again.

It was seriously late now. Tyler wasn't ready to sleep, so they were watching some TV. Nathan was dozing off with his head on Tyler's shoulder when, of all things, the apartment buzzer went and Nathan nearly crapped himself, shooting up off the sofa with a little disorientation and nearly trod on Tyler's foot. "Fuck, sorry, babe. You okay?" he asked Tyler, touching Tyler's knee once he righted himself on his own feet. "I'm just going to get that, okay? Hold tight." It could be Carmen, or any of his friends. Plus, he had told Justin more than once if he needed someone and his parents weren't there, he could come to Nathan any time. He wouldn't not answer the door, no matter what time of day or night.

He made sure his clothing was at least in a presentable state, and then went to get the door. He lived in an apartment with a doorman, so if it had been someone the night doorman didn't know, he would have buzzed through to Nathan first. Whoever it was, Nathan knew. He would never have been prepared for who was at the door when he opened it, though. It was Tyler... only not. Tyler was in his living room on the sofa, which meant this was-- "Jeremy!" he gasped, almost choking when he sucked in a sharp breath. "J-Jesus fucking... how are you... shit..." The words were failing him, and he quickly realised Jeremy was standing there in track pants and a hoodie over a hospital gown, complete with an IV canula still in his hand. He was also soaked to the bone because it was bucketing rain outside. Oh shit, this could be a disaster considering his twin didn't even remember he had a twin.

Central Park ──with Tyler Peterson

Getting close to Tyler's possible discharge from hospital. But for now, sitting with Jez and waiting for him to wake up. He's apparently conversing a little more, so I want to see if I can make any leeway.

All he does is ask for "Ty". His parents are asking -me- what they should do. How the fucking hell am I supposed to know?

Bumped into Tyler's folks at the hospital. That was as awkward as fuck. They didn't even know he was in.

Who: Nathan Mitchell and Tyler Peterson
What: No one understands what we went through
Where: ICU, Mount Sinai
When: Very early Sunday morning

Nathan always checked Facebook on the nights of his long on-call shifts. He couldn't go home, he had to remain on premises. Sometimes, they could pass without a hitch and go smoothly, albeit for a long time. Other times, he could be on the hop the whole time and be exhausted by the end of it. This shift had been one of those shifts. He was so busy he wasn't hungry, but he had forced himself to sit and rest, have a coffee (and a Red Bell chaser) with a chicken wrap just so he wasn't running on empty. It had been around 2am, and even though Facebook could be quiet at that time, he still had a look just to keep in touch with the real world and not feel like he was a walking zombie in scrubs.

That was when he saw it. The first post from Tyler in a very long time. Nate had blocked him after they broke up, but one night when he had no sleep and couldn't get his eyes to shut a few weeks ago, he had unblocked him. There was no explanation why, he just had. But Tyler hadn't been posting, of course. He didn't have access to a phone. The last one he had he had apparently sold for drugs. Nathan didn't know how he knew that. It had been one bit of information in the piles he had tried to absorbed that brief time he had been Tyler's medical proxy before it all got too much and he had to walk away.

He had tried to focus on work then. He had even forgone spending time with Carmen to take more shifts. At first, it was hard knowing Tyler was only a floor away, but he pushed it out of his mind. He was the head of the Pediatrics ICU now, and had been since the start of the year. It was a promotion he had scored out of the blue, and it was an amazing opportunity. A lot of hard work, though. He lost a lot more patients here than he ever did in the general peds ward. It had taken a lot of getting used to. That night, the long on-call shift of 24 hours, he had lost no less than five young children in his ward. Three were in a bus crash and had only been patients of the hospital for a day and a half before they lost their lives, each within an hour of each other. Then there was a little girl, Lucy, who had battled with leukaemia for three years, only to pass away peacefully in her sleep at aged 9 around 4am. The week before, she had only been given three months left to live. She hadn't made it. The last had been a toddler. Fell down the stairs on the watch of a babysitter and was stabilised in resus. As soon as he was transferred to the PICU, he arrested and Andrew hadn't been able to do anything to save him. The damage to his brain was too extensive. It was probably a blessing at the end of the day, but that would never be how the parents saw it. Never.

And it had been Tyler's post that had fuelled Andrew with the adrenaline to deal with that case, and it had been that haunting song in the back of his head when he had delivered the awful news to the toddler's parents in the early hours of that morning. It was now 6.10am and Nathan was finally finished his long and seemingly endless shift. He got out onto the sidewalk, jeans and his leather jacket in the place of the scrubs he had been in all night. Hew as going to call a cab because his legs were too tired to walk the short distance to his apartment. Instead of hailing one, though, he took his phone out and brought Tyler's Facebook post up on his screen. Putting the earbuds in, he hit play on the video and listened to the song again.

By the time it had finished, he had backtracked into the hospital without thinking about it. He was in the adult ICU and then he was there, standing at the door of Tyler's room and a couple of tears escaped his tired eyes and slowly tracked down his cheeks. He didn't wipe them away. Tyler was awake, but barely. Enough to notice when he arrived. Enough to look at him and drop cell he had sitting on his lap, and it landed on the floor with a soft crash. "I miss Tyler Peterson. And if you're going to destroy him and take him away from me forever, then you can destroy us both."

Who: Nathan Mitchell with Tyler Peterson
What: Who do you think you are, running 'round leaving scars?
Where: Intensive Care Unit, Mount Sinai Hospital
When: Simultaneous to Damien's performance

It had been just under a week, but to Nathan, it felt like years had passed. He felt aged, and almost frail. It got to the point where he could just no longer get broken, uncomfortable and restless sleep in a chair beside Tyler's bed or along a row of seats in the ICU waiting room. He couldn't keep living on sandwiches and coffee from the vending machine. He was beginning to feel constantly sick because of it, and he knew it was his body's way of telling him it needed a time-out. All that on top of worry, stress, and even a few weak moments where he had just hoped Tyler would die so he didn't have to keep up this fight anymore, and it was starting to take its toll on him. If he wasn't careful, he would end up in one of the hospital beds himself. He held out as long as he could, and even longer than he should when he saw Tyler was showing signs of regaining consciousness. The doctors confirmed it was a positive sign that he was unlikely to be brain damaged, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to wake up with any number of long-term effects from the trauma his entire system had been through.

They were insignificant signs so far. Some fluttering of his eyes, increase in heart rate when examined if he was conscious to pain, pupils equal and reactive to light when they hadn't been before. Nathan just didn't even know if he should be present when Tyler regained consciousness, or if he wanted to be. He sat there a few hours longer, alone this time because everyone else was at a concert for Damien Larson. Nathan had supposed to be there to DJ the music for the after party, but for obvious reasons, he had to pull out of the gig so Luke could replace him. His heart and mind weren't in work right now. He could barely get his mind to string a sentence together and he just felt miserable.

( He gave in eventually and caught a cab home to his apartment... )

RP Narrative, scene complete