Silence Falls

Jack marched back to the Male’s ward with only one thing in mind. He was gonna track Bert down and give him a piece of his mind. How dare he try to LITERALLY use him to break out of the Hospital!? Better yet, how dare he try to USE him PERIOD!

Bert had exited the bathroom a little ways down the hall and was about to turn into his room when he was abruptly nabbed by his front collar by an unknown assailant and literally heaved into his hollowed cell, landing sprawled on the arctic linoleum floor. From the floor, he barked out. “What the fuck!?” Before glancing over his shoulder at his aggressor, his heart racing in his chest. It had been their Orderly Jack. My god, he had presumed the worst! Getting back up onto his feet, Bert brushed himself off while he complained. “Jesus Fucking Christ, man! I know you’re our Orderly and shit, but can you be a little more gentle? You scared the shit out of me!”

“Oh, that’s nothing compared to what I've just been through at the Women’s ward!” Jack spat intensely, before striding over to shove Bert onto the bed behind him. He then began to pace the room as his young patient began to brace himself for his unforeseen wrath against him.

Despite the fact that Jack was really being a jerk right now, they still required Jack to escape, and so they had to be on their best behavior with him until they’d completely indoctrinated him to their cause. Bert let out a faint sigh from where he was hustled onto the bed this time and then sat up to ask. “Alright, what's going on now? You’re clearly pissed about something.”

“You’re damn right I’m pissed about something!” Jack bellowed, throwing his hands up as he proceeded with trying to pace away his dallying frustration with Bert and his friends. “Where the fuck do you get off on trying to devise an escape plan behind my back, huh? Are you trying to get me in deep shit or what? Or maybe you’re just trying to end up DEAD!?”

“Wait, what? I don’t understand what you’re talking about, man.” Bert told Jack, not following his maddening rant. What escape plan had he manufactured behind his back that he didn’t know about? And what did that have to do with the Women’s ward anyway?

“Don’t play dumb with me, Bert, I’m really not in the fucking mood for it! I’m telling you this right now before we go any further! I was just there in the Women’s ward this morning when I discovered this ‘secret’ going on between you and Otep! God only knows how you two managed to find a way to communicate with each other in this goddamn place!” Jack finally disclosed, hoping to see the terror surface on Bert’s face at having been caught, but all he got was a befuddled expression.

Bert steadily shook his head to himself, trying to remember anything corroborating with what Jack was accusing him of. He got nothing and tentatively told Jack so. “Nooooo, I’m not getting anything out of what you’re saying, Jack. What about Otep again?” His eyes suddenly ballooned in size as his stomach swelled with lethal dread. “Oh god…did something to her or the girls!?”

“No, nothing happened to them! They’re fine. But that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve being disciplined after what I’ve uncovered going on between you two. Can you explain to me why Otep saw a reason to get her hands on the exact missing blueprints the visiting contractors had on them when they came here two or three weeks ago!” Jack hissed down at Bert, battling to keep his voice down but finding it a real challenge to do so after what he’s come upon.

Bert’s befuddled expression finally shifted, and it was into pure joy. He couldn't believe what he heard! His girl got her hands on the blueprints!? He could hardly contain himself from where he sat on the bed and so he banged his fists down on the mattress, imitating a drumroll as he shouted out in bliss. “FUCK YEAH! I’ve said it once, my dear friend, and I’ll say it the fuck again for the rest of my life until my dying days! I HAVE TO MARRY THAT WOMAN!”

“Well, I’m glad one of us is happy.” Jack grumbled in irritation, crossing his arms over his chest. “She wanted me to give the blueprints to you since you’re some mastermind and all.”

Bert wiped the happy tears from the corners of his eyes. “I know I am, but that’s enough about me.” Lifting his eyes to Jack, he eagerly inquired. “So, where is it now? Did you bring it here with you?”

Jack began to feel that familiar condolence again burgeoning inside his chest as he slowly opened his mouth to confess the gruesome truth. “No, I didn’t. I destroyed it.”

Taken aback, Bert made a weird face, not comprehending what Jack just admitted to. “Excuse me? You did what?”

“I ripped it into pieces right in front of Otep’s face.” Jack elucidated, no longer feeling like he was in the role of the big bad wolf anymore but rather the innocent little red riding hood terrified of the wolf.

Bert’s face was beginning to transform into a glare. “You ripped it? That’s where it is right now? In pieces on the floor at the Women’s ward? At the very feet of my girl who had to do god knows what to get it for me?”

“That's right, and I’m gonna tell you what I told her. Crazy people belong here!” Jack recited proudly, standing his ground on his decision.

Jack’s air of certainty drove Bert to do the unthinkable. He flew to his feet and snatched a hold of his Orderly’s white shirt with his fists, pinning him against the wall with all his strength. Not caring as to who might hear them through the cracked doorway, Bert roared in his face. “YOU ASSHOLE! THAT WAS OUR ONLY MEANS OF ESCAPE! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO US?!”

“You all belong here! You’re all crazies! You have to stay here! It’s for the best!” Jack managed to retort back as calmly as he could considering the circumstances. He had no desire to butt Bert off of him and batter him down with his own licensed baton. No, he just took the shouting like a child, knowing somewhere in his heart that he deserved this. He deserved everything Bert was saying. Yes, it went against the rules for these kids to flee the Psychiatric Hospital, but for the first time since he first started here, Jack wanted them to prevail. He wanted to see them exit this place and take off to whatever happily ever after there was out there for them. The more time he spent around them, the less he cared about the rules and what would happen to him if he chose to abet them.

“BULLSHIT! This place will be the very place that we’re all gonna fucking die in and YOU’VE let it happen! I KNOW these boys and I KNOW these girls! Yes, they have problems but none of them deserve to die like this! They’re my family and I’ll be damned to let you, or your fucking posse KILL THEM!” Bert reared back a hand to punch Jack right in the jaw before the other Orderlies from down the hall came to the rescue and wrenched him off, pinning them down to the floor with their collective weight.

Jack merely stood there against the wall, his words resonating in his head as he began to smooth down the wrinkles on his shirt. He watched with concern as they tussled Bert into a straitjacket, then secured him onto a gurney to wheel him out of the room. All the while, Bert kept fighting back. Jack should've felt relieved, he shouldn't feel like he was only doing his job. That kid deserved it. But as one of the nurses briefed Jack on what was to be done to his patient, he couldn’t help but feel like he let down a friend in need with every word. “Your patient, Bert McCracken, is going to undertake electroshock therapy and have some pints of blood drained from him for the next few weeks. This will make it to where he will be bedridden from the loss of blood.” She was about to depart from the room before recalling. “Also, Jack, the head wanted me to inform you that he has a very important task for you, so you better get your ass to his office ASAP.”

Jack shook his head, coming out of his own self-loathing thoughts to hear that he had another task from the head. He gave her a nod before trudging through the hallway towards the exit of the Male’s ward, all the while ignoring the distressed stare of Cris, and the venomous glares from both Bam and Connor.