Chapter Text
Will Graham was getting tired of the way that everyone treated him. They seemed to think that he was some delicate piece of china yet they insisted on using him over and over again instead of thinking for themselves once. He paced around his front room, his dogs watching him as he did so, their heads swinging back and forth with his movement. He knew that he had not been feeling the best lately, with the constant migraines and hallucinations that were bothering him but it only seemed to be a problem when he said something that was in disagreement with their thoughts. He was on his last leg if he was being honest, but no one seemed willing to listen to him.
He stopped in the middle of the room and a moment later, Winston was at his side, nudging his hand in comfort. He could not help but kneel down and pet Winston, finding comfort in the familiar movement. A moment later, he was surrounded by dogs and he gave each of them some love. He felt like he had so little time for them lately, with his teaching and consultations. Something needed to change but what?
He decided that the first thing he needed to do was see an independent doctor. There was something not right about his symptoms and Hannibal always brushed them off as a stress response. While Hannibal may be intriguing to talk to, he was too close to Jack to be truly partial and was more likely to take Jack’s side than his. It was frustrating as at other times, he thought that Hannibal may be trying to drive a wrench between him and Jack. For someone that was so smart, Hannibal was not very sauve with him, not sauve at all. He had seen him charm Alana, who was wrapped around his figure but the same did not happen with him. It may have when he first met him but now he felt like he could see right through him, maybe not the full truth but more than before.
He took a deep breath and pulled out his dusty tablet that he had not had the time to use in weeks if not months. He pulled up a list of local doctors, and spent entirely too long reading reviews online, in order to find the best option. He could not remember the last time he had been to a doctor, though he got a yearly physical at the academy, they always brushed aside any issues that he tried to bring up. He finally found a small clinic, not far away that met his needs. He was relieved as he was unsure how safe it was for him to drive.
He glanced at the clock and was relieved that there was enough time to at least call today and make an appointment. He dialed the number into his phone, his leg jiggling with anxiety as he waited for the phone to be picked up. Finally, what seemed like an hour later, a perky voice answered the phone.
“Knogh Family Physicans, This is Laura speaking.” the voice was perky, yet tired as if it had been a long day and they were counting the minutes until they could clock out. He got that feeling, he always felt like that when he was forced to hold office hours. He’d rather the students just emailed him rather than sitting uncomfortably in the office, and not saying anything. It led to neither of them accomplishing anything, and then that same student would email him the question they had refused to ask earlier.
“I was looking to make an appointment to speak to a doctor about the symptoms that I am experiencing,” he told Laura, hoping that she would be willing to help him and take him seriously unlike everyone previously.
Laura almost seemed bored as she asked, “And what symptoms are you experiencing, sir?”
He took a deep breath and started to explain, hoping it made sense, “I have had this constant headache for the last few months. I have also experienced hallucinations, night terrors, sleepwalking, and sweats. Sometimes I have aches elsewhere, and I am constantly tired, even when I get enough sleep.”
Laura was silent for so long that he thought that she did not believe him when she said, “You need to come in right away sir. Those symptoms are very concerning. How soon can you get here?”
He glanced at the clock and said, “I can be there in 15 minutes but..” he trailed off, unsure how to explain what he was feeling.
Laura’s voice softened, “What’s wrong sir?”
He took a deep breath as he said, “I am unsure if I can drive safely at the moment, the world is sort of spinning around and everything is too bright.” He could not help but collapse into the chair that was next to him, hoping that would help the world stop spinning. He rubbed his temples, hoping it would relieve the tension but it did not seem to relieve any of the symptoms. He wanted to reach for his bottle of ibuprofen, but he was unsure where it was currently located. Was it in the car or his coat pocket, the coat that was hanging on a peg by the door?
He could barely make out the voice of Laura on the phone, she was trying to get his attention back on her. He wanted to focus on her, he really did, but her voice seemed to be so far away. Everything sounded like it was coming through a long tunnel and the things that he could hear, cutting through his brain like a jackhammer. He barely noticed himself dropping the phone onto the carpet, focusing more on holding down what little food was in his stomach. He lost that battle fairly quickly and tried to reach a trash can, and ended up throwing up on the carpet. That would be hard to clean up when his head calmed down.
He weakly pushed away the dogs that were trying to investigate his vomit, as he did not want them to get sick from it. He took a deep breath but somehow instead of feeling better, he actually felt worse. He collapsed further to the ground and just laid there, praying for his head to stop feeling like it was on fire. He just needed a moment of clarity so he could make the dogs dinner and then he could curl up in a hole, as long as Jack did not come calling. He would not take no for an answer, no matter what the problem he was experiencing was.
It was then that he remembered that he had been on the phone when the episode started and tried to lift his head to see where the phone ended up. It was a short distance away, and the screen was still blinking, making him wonder if the call was still connected or if Laura had given up on him as a lost cause. He tried to reach for the phone but it was a bit too far away for him to reach from his current position, and he could not quite bring himself to move from his spot on the ground.
He stayed curled up for a long time, trying to make his body calm down but nothing seemed to be working this time. It was like now that he was admitting there was a problem, it was time for an all-out attack. He took a deep breath, pushed himself to a sitting position, and was finally able to reach his phone. There was no sign of the call that he had made and he wondered if he had hallucinated the whole thing. He just leaned against the wall, trying to get his strength back, but things did not seem to be improving.
It was then that he heard a siren and he wondered where they were going in this remote area. Maybe Mrs. Collins a few houses down had taken a fall or old Mr. Newman, who loved his dogs like they were part of his family, had forgotten the key to his house and a locksmith was coming to let him back into his house. He was unsure how Mr. Newman managed to do it so often but he swore the cops must have made a copy of the key to the house by now, as often they had to stop by.
The sirens seemed to get closer and closer, and it was then that he could hear someone driving over the gravel of his driveway. He wondered if someone had accused him of murder and if he was going to jail. It was then that he could see the blurry outline of an ambulance and he realized that someone had sent it his way. How did they know he needed help? It did not matter how they knew he was here, just that they would hopefully be able to help him now.
Soon, he was surrounded by paramedics, and all he could think of was how they looked similar to the dogs that had surrounded him earlier. He thinks that he may have pet the nearest paramedic's head but everything seemed to be hazy at that point. It was then that he was loaded onto a stretcher and taken out to the ambulance. He tried to shade his eyes but found that his arms just seemed too heavy to move at that moment. His eyes slipped closed and the next time he woke up he was in the hospital.