The Birds & The Bees | S.R.

Ch. 7 | Unwelcome Visitors

Summary: Bunny and Spencer visit the prison, and later she pays him a visit in his dreams.

Content Warning: Prison, sobriety, addiction, detailed relapse scene, needles, opiates, flashbacks to canon-consistent trauma (references to gun violence, murder, forced drug use, bullying, child sexual assault, pedophilia, abandonment), unhealthy jealousy, inadvertent spying, extreme self-hatred

A/N: PLEASE read the content warnings, even if you usually avoid them! It's a bumpy next couple of chapters, but I remind everyone that I always post warnings if I'm contemplating an unhappy ending. Since there is no such warning here, you can always assume that issues will be resolved, albeit not always in the same chapter. I don't like cliffhangers, personally, so I do try to avoid them the best I can. But a lot of times, it really is the natural conclusion of the chapter. Enjoy reading!

EDIT: Just because I keep getting messages/comments about it - it does not matter why they are at the prison. They are just there for work/volunteering. Grad programs often have clinics that involve prisoners. Pick whatever reason you want (interviewing, educating, socializing).

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The weather never really got better. It'd been raining for practically a week straight, and it felt oddly fitting for my current circumstances. From the front door of the prison, we could still hear an occasional buzzing or shouting from a distance over the steady beating of the rain.

There were two umbrellas in the car, but Spencer had insisted on only bringing the one. Less to keep track of. Less to remember. Less to forget.

Of course, as everyone who's ever tried to fit two people under one umbrella already knows, it ended with one of us being sheltered while the other turned damp.

I had tried to move closer to him when we arrived, to encourage him cover more of himself, but Spencer stubbornly stayed at an awkward distance away from me. When it came time to leave, it seemed he'd forgotten the device altogether. He stepped out into the rain before I even had a chance to open the umbrella.

That seemed fitting, too.

He tilted his head back, taking a deep breath through an open mouth, like he couldn't get to the fresh air fast enough. His hands that were tucked in his pockets were still moving like he could shake the droplets away as they made contact.

I watched him for a minute, observing how he seemed so far away despite standing only a few feet from me. I thought back to how I must have looked, drenched and stranded on the side of the road.

I wondered if he needed to be saved, too.

Without asking or contemplating the thought too hard, I stepped forward and let the colorful canopy burst open. Spencer didn't even seem to notice until I held it as far as I could above him. I got wet in the process, but I found the dampness to be a suitable sacrifice.

Once the water could no longer reach him, he opened his eyes to see the difference in the overcast light when it filtered through the fabric. He smiled to the sky, but not to me. In a way, I was glad that he hadn't. It made something about the curvature seem more genuine, to know that he wasn't parading it for my comfort.

Any sign of a smile was long gone by the time we got to the car. The chaotic echoing of the rain felt like the worst kind of static noise, sending Spencer straight into another trance despite being safely behind the doors.

"Is everything alright, Professor?" I finally asked after noticing how his knuckles had blanched from the pressure he exerted on the steering wheel.