Barely Alive - Josh Washington x Reader

Chapter 40

"It seems like you've gotten used to living like this now."

He eyes the way her pen glides across the paper. Words in ink slowly filling up the pages of her notebook. One she had newly bought especially for him, because of course, his case had been highly unusual. She seems fake, even now. Previously, before everything that happened on Blackwood Pines, she would barely bat her eyelashes at his words. He had been nothing more than another source of income.

Her interest had suddenly peaked once the press gotten ahold of his story. She had accepted to be interviewed by the local newspaper, and told the media about what a difficult and highly complicated guy he was. As if she cared about him.

'I didn't have much of a choice, did I?"

She sighs at his words, shutting her notebook and plucking her thin glasses from her nose. There's a look of annoyance in her eyes, and while she tries desperately to disguise the expression, Josh reads her like an open book.

"Perhaps not, but still you managed to accept the fact that it happened instead of spiraling into more mental issues."

For once, he agrees with her. He indeed managed to keep himself sane through all the shit people pulled him through. 6 years have passed since the accident, of which 3 years had been a complete nightmare, and the remaining 3 had been full of recovery and happy memories instead of traumas.

He had ups and downs, with both his depression as well as with friends and family. They couldn't pin-point him at times, and had trouble adjusting to his new form, which resulted in heavy fights and hurtful discussions.

There had been one constant element in his life though, and that was you. You had been right by his side when things went wrong, and helped him through every obstacle along the way, rooting from the sidelines and sometimes even helping him on the course itself.

You had been the person that fueled his recovery, not his therapist, and not his doctors. Still, you wanted him to continue meeting up with her. At least so he could get some things off his chest.

"You're thinking about her, aren't you?" She asks him, noting the way his eyes quickly avert to hers. The twitch of his lips tell her enough, and it has her smile a bit as well.

"How is she?"

"She's doing... good. I think she does, she seems content, happy. Ever since..."

Josh stops talking to think about you, a smile on his features. His therapist writes something down at his reaction, before clicking her pen once more and turning back to Josh.

"Ever since the baby?"

Josh opens the locket around his neck and nods, inspecting the hidden picture of you holding your baby girl, a bright grin on your face.

"She's my world..."

"How is she coming along?"

"Good." Is the only thing Josh wishes to confess, not really feeling like telling her about her rapid growth in the past few days, and her somewhat curious appetite.
She eyes him up and down, nodding before scribbling some more words in her notebook. Josh was an odd case. A truly unique human being, if that's what you could even call him. He had a sense of empathy like no one other, and even through all the trauma he had been through, he still acted like it was all his own fault.

"I think that's all the time we have for now. I'll see you next week."

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A bus and train ride later, Josh arrives back in front of his apartment. A sigh falls from his lips when finally back in the safety of his own home. He flees inside, not wanting to attract any more attention than he usually does. By now the world knows about him. About what a monster he had become, and why his father was still in prison. His mother was lonely, missing his father's presence around the house, and trying to fill the empty space by constantly asking Josh to come over.