Gale Watch

by Grainne Ni Bhroin

I Can’t Do This (16)

Gale Force sat on the couch, head hung low. Haki sat beside him, holding the pegasus in his legs. Across from the two sat Call Sign, tears stained the cheeks of all three stallions. On the table between them lay a small pile of pills, the painkillers Gale had been hiding. None of them spoke for a long while until Call Sign broke the silence, his voice trembling.

“Why?”

Gale couldn’t meet his eye, let alone reply.

“How are we going to help you if you won’t talk to us?”

Gale pointed to the pills with a pinion. “You can help by giving those back.”

Haki broke out in a second round of sobbing and pulled Gale closer to him and Call Sign looked like he was about to join him.

“Gale… why? What are we doing wrong? Is the medication not helping? Did something new happen? They aren’t giving you trouble at school are they?”

The pegasus drew in on himself, pulling his legs in tight and and his wings around himself. “Nothing’s helping, they should have just left me on that balcony. At least then I could have died with my own body.”

“They couldn’t do that Gale, and we can’t let you die now.” Call Sign sighed. “You need help, you need serious help. And I’m scared that it’s more than we can give.”

Gale bolted upright at that. “Don’t send me back! I can’t go back to the hospital!” he tried to reach for the pills with a wing but Call Sign grabbed them in his magic before Gale could get them.

“Gale stop. We’re… we’re not going to do that. We’d never put you back in there.” Sign walked over to the sink and dumped the pills down the drain. “But we can’t just leave things as they are. I thought we were doing a good job but we failed… again.”

The unicorn pulled out his phone. “I have to tell High Wind and Monsoon, We’re going to have to talk about this but for now you’re… not safe Gale, and you’re clearly not okay. And I don’t know how to fix that but fucking tartarus I’m going to keep you alive.“

“Until we think you’re safe again, one of us will be with you at all times. And we’re going to try and get you out of the house more, clearly it’s not good for you to be stuck in here all the time.”

He sat down beside Gale and put a leg around the pegasus. “Gale, we all love you. Your parents, Haki, Thunder and I. We all love you, and we want you alive and happy. Please let us help you.”

Gale pulled himself into a ball on the couch. “I can’t do this Sign, I can’t.”

Sign pulled the shaking pegasus into a hug. “Then let us do it until you can.”