Page 3 of Unraveling Connections

“We’re worrying about Luc, and it’s making time go a lot slower than it would normally,” Peter replies.

Trick hums in agreement and then continues, explaining everything that Mr R said, “He said that as soon as it’s safe to handle, they’ll get copies sent through to Peter’s secure email.”

“So, we’ve just got to sit tight until then,” Rafe finishes Trick’s sentence, and Trick nods.

“I hate waiting,” Riot says.

“Me too,” Jensen replies, bouncing around on his feet.

“We could get a hotel or something?” Atlas suggests, “I would say we could go to the parents, but it’s just going to worry them, and then it could get complicated.”

“They’d all be here as soon as they possibly could if they knew Luc was in here,” I reply with a smile, my eyes obsessively watching Luc’s chest rise and fall.

“We could, but it would just mean that we are sitting around the hotel waiting to hear news and further away if we do get a call that something has happened. None of us are likely to get much sleep while we are waiting for news about Luc,” Cash replies.

Atlas frowns, “Yeah, that’s a good point.”

“Alaric’s sent the video feed link over. I will set up the notification to let us know if any of the feeds catch something they shouldn’t,” Peter suddenly announces.

“It might be a good idea to make sure that it actually sounds like an alarm, just in case we do fall asleep,” Jensen suggests, his chair close to mine as he holds my hand, the one not already holding onto Luc’s hand.

Peter nods and goes back to typing on his laptop.

It once again falls quiet and my mind quickly begins to spiral, silence has never really been my friend in stressful situations. The silence just lets my mind run wild, and my imagination, which I usually love, turns on me, making me see the worst-case scenarios possible. Before I manage to get too far into the spiral, I deliberately try to distract myself.

“Do you think maybe he’s not waking up because of the trauma of being back in the house?” I ask.

“Maybe,” Rage replies, his features falling into a deep frown as he adds, “I suppose it is a possibility We all know that he never really had any happy memories there. It could be that even though he appeared to be handling it well, on a subconscious level he was struggling, and now his mind has shut down in order to protect himself.”

“Is that even possible?” Rafe asks, “I’ve never heard of that happening before.”

Rage nods, “Yeah, I think I read about it once, but I don’t think it is probable in this situation. In the article I read, it happened to someone who had just experienced the torture. They got knocked out and then didn’t wake up for a long time. The doctors said that it was the brain's way of protecting itself.”

“I thought brains only did that with physical trauma, like a self-induced coma, if a person is severely injured or if the brain has been injured and needs time to heal?” Cash asks.

“You know this is a conversation that Luc would love,” Jensen points out with a smile.

“Very true,” Rage agrees and then answering Cash’s question adds, “I don’t know man, I just sort of stumbled across it when I was doom scrolling: What I know is pretty much what I told you.”

I smile at his words, “I’ve done that; I know a lot of useless information thanks to that.”

“Exactly. It’s actually quite nice that some of it has proven to be useful,” Rage replies. He crosses his arms over his chest and adds with a frown, “Although we still don’t know why Luc hasn’t woken up yet.”

Jensen shrugs; he says jokingly, “Maybe he is just being lazy? And he has decided that now would be a really good time for a nap.”

The guy's chuckle, but no one actually replies as all their attention turns to Luc in the bed. He is still breathing steadily; there is no change to that, and the heart rate monitors are still steadily going, signifying that all is as it should be, or at least it is as far as I know. Outwardly, he appears to be fine, but it’s what is happening on the inside that is worrying me, I know that Rage said that it is unlikely, but what if he is stuck inside a nightmare? Or worse, memories of things that happened in that house?

His dad is a monster. That is clear from what he did to Luc and also what he put Luc’s sister through; I suddenly feel incredibly guilty, like I should have stopped him from going. I should have known that it would have a negative effect on him. Of course, if I told him not to go, then that would make me super controlling because let’s face it if he wanted to come, then there’s fuck all that I could have done to stop him, and it would have undermined his bravery to tell him not to.

Not that I have that kind of control over him anyway, and I would not want to.

I feel like I am digging myself a hole that I had no intention of digging and I’m not quite sure how I got here. My panic is starting to bubble over. I am also assuming that the reason that he has not woken up is because he is experiencing some sort of trauma-induced reaction to being in the house but what if it is simpler than that? What if he is experiencing some sort of allergic reaction?

Would the doctors be able to pick that up without him being awake to tell them? I mean, surely, they would be able to tell that, right? But what if they can’t? What if he is in pain or something and can’t let us know?

I am aware that I am now completely in spiral mode, but there is no stopping it at all. I know, it is happening, and there’s fuck all I can do about it.

He could be dying right now, and we may not even realize it. His father was a piece of work; maybe he put a poison on it that he knows Luc is allergic to because he knew that Luc knows about his safe, so he is likely to be one of the only people that would get into the safe. Especially since Luc knows the code, and it would take a long time to break into it otherwise. That would, in theory, give him a chance to get to them and intervene before they could open it and escape. We could be assuming that it is far more complicated than it is, and it could simply be an abusive father trying to catch his son stealing information from him.

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