Snippet #1518585

It took a full three minutes of blank staring for Max to fully process what he had been told, during which time he blinked expressionlessly at Fenix in a faintly absent manner. He had heard what was said, that was obvious, but he was either so muddled or so surprised by the content that there was a delay between hearing and fully understanding. When the information finally went in, however, Max’s expression morphed into one of blind terror.

“Please,” he whispered, all of his former arrogance falling away to leave a vulnerable child crouching where a belligerent young man had stood not so long ago. There were no longer tears running down his face, but his shocked, panicked expression suggested there would be more when the full force of the emotional reaction caught up with him. “Please, I won’t tell anyone.”

His voice was frail, thoughts running faster than he had ever felt then run before; the Big Nurse wouldn’t let him leave. He wasn’t committed... he can’t have been sectioned without knowing about it... this wasn’t prison, he’d never let himself do anything that bad... “I won’t tell anyone. It just comes out. Honest. But- I’ll say I did it climbing out the window. Please, just- please let me go to the hospital.”

He huddled into a protective ball around his arm, feeling the combined weight of the two wrong choices threaten to smother him. He didn’t want to let this unqualified woman set his arm (illegal! Dangerous, his frantic mind wailed), but he didn’t know where this other doctor was. He didn’t want to see some stranger, and the idea of walking through the house with his arm in such a state, trying to find this mysterious and unheard-of doctor... Hansel and Gretel; he’d be stuffed in the oven for sure.

“I’ll- I’ll do anything you want. I won’t- I’ll pretend I can’t talk. Anything. Just- please let me go to the hospital. Or call Horatio! Please, he’s in town...” Momentarily, panic surged up to choke him; what if they stopped the man becoming his legal guardian now that he was in this place? “He’s a doctor... he knows how to get to the hospital. If you don’t want to take me he can. I mean-” Panic. “-I don’t mean you won’t want to just- ...if you’ve not got time.”