☁️Little Charlie☁️

CH 38 // "It's good to be back"

In the quiet hours of St. Row's Hospital's Cafeteria, Mia sits with Heather at a table for coffee. Heather's movements were slow and zombie like, only moving her arm to sip her coffee and put it back down. She remained stuck, staring off into space.
"All this time..." She finally spoke. "I had no idea he had been hurting...I had no idea he was self harming until I found him last night..." She trailed off. Reacuring memories came flooding back to her.

"Alex! Baby, what happened?!" Heather rushed over to Alex's side. She was so distracted by all the blood that she didn't notice the pocket knife if Alex's hand until he dropped it. "Oh my god baby what did you do?!"
"M-mom" Alex cried. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry" He spoke in a shaky voice.
"Hang on hun I'm going to call for help...Alex? Alex honey wake up! Alex!"

Mia placed a gentle hand over hers, brining Heather back. Heather let out a sigh and looked down. "The cuts weren't too sever. It still gave me quiet the scare though.The Doctor's diagnosed him with Depression and generalized anxiety".

"I know it's not what you want to here" Mia began, "but now that you have a diagnosis, you can help him get better".

Heather looked up at her. "I guess your right...but, how do I even start?"

"Well, Therapy can be a great help. I actually found a great one this morning online. Her office is just in the next town over too. I've been trying to find one nearby for Charlie, thank god I decided to look in the newspaper Instead of hopelessly searching online again" She said before taking a sip of her Iced Latte. "Here, let me give you her number".

"Oh that would be amazing" Heather said. "Thank you so much".

"No problem at all. And, I know you can get busy with work so If you need me to I can give him a ride up anytime after 2".

"Thank you so much Mia" Heather said tearing up.

"Of course" Mia said handing her the therapists number on a sticky note.

"Should we check on the boys?"

"Yeah, we've been gone for a while now" Heather replied. They stood from the table and started to make their way back.

************

The first thing Charlie did when he had entered the room was hug Alex. He squeezed his eyes shut trying not to shed tears. "I'm so sorry" he whispered.

"Don't be" Alex whispered back.

Charlie pulled away and held the boys hands in his own. He rubbed his thumbs across his skin and kissed his knuckles every so often. The two of them talked for a bit until they were both smiling ear to ear, just happy to be in each-others presence. Then came the gift giving. Charlie held up a small gift bag and pulled out a dragon plush. Alex gasped with excitement and smiled even more until his face hurt.

"What are you ganna name him?" Charlie asked holding up the Dragon stuffie. He brought it to Alex's cheeck, the dragon gave him a smooch.
Alex giggled and looked at the plushie trying to come up with a good name.

"Hmmm, maybe Blaze? Or...Spike?" Charlie giggled to himself.

"What?" Alex said smiling. He loved Charlie's laugh.

"Nothiiing" Charlie said blushing.
Alex's feet wiggled in anticipation.

"Tell meeeee! Or I'll tickle you later!"

Charlie gasped. "You wouldn't..."

"Try me"Alex said raising his eyebrows.

"Fine" Charlie said blushing even more. "When you said spike, it reminded me of a character from a show called...My Little Pony..."

Alex gasped. "Dude, no way!" He said excited. "I love that show! Have you seen the season Finale? Oh my god was it good!"

Charlie looked at him surprised. This was unexpected. "What?" Alex said laughing. "I love that show. I've watched it since after a year it came out".

"Wow" Charlie said impressed. "I've only just started watching it last week".

"Oooooh we are defitantly having a MLP marathon the second I get out of here" Alex giggled.

"Why wait?" Charlie said. "We could watch it on your phone".

"Good Idea!" Alex said. "Could you fetch it for me? It's on the night stand".

"Mm-hm" Charlie said getting his phone. He turned it on and opened up the Netflix app. After putting the show on, He carefully layed down next to Alex and held the phone up as they watched their favorite cartoon together. It felt like heaven to them being able to cuddle again.

A little while later, Heather and Mia walked in to find them asleep next to eachother while the 5th episode of MLP continued playing.
They smiled and decided to leave them be for now.

When they came back, Mia went up to Charlie and gently shook his shoulder.
Charlie's eyes fluttered open. He sat up and looked over at Alex who was still fast asleep. He looked so peacful.

"Here" Mia said handing him a bag from Mcdonalds. "You should eat something".

"Oh, thank you" Charlie said taking the bag. He opened it up and started to happily munch on his chicken nuggets.
He couldn't help but bounce a little in his seat. His movements eventually woke Alex up.

"Hm?" He said opening his eyes.
Charlie looked behind him and felt bad for waking him. "Oh, I sowwy Alex" He spoke quietly.

"Its okay, you can make it up to me by giving me a nugget" He giggled. He opened his mouth waiting for his food.

Charlie laughed and gladly popped a nugget into the goofballs mouth. "Mmm" Alex hummed. "It's been so long since I've had one of these".
Charlie giggled and layed back down next to Alex sharing his chicken nuggets with his boyfriend.
"Wow" Charlie thought to himself while smiling big. "I'm so lucky to have him as my boyfriend".

************

For the next few days, Charlie would visit Alex at the hospital after school. He showed up with small gifts every day, either a doodle of them on construction paper or a piece of candy. Alex would tell him that just his presence was more than enough, but Charlie brought him gifts anyway. Alex would giggle and tell him how thoutfull he was and how he was going to spoil him rotten when he got better.

After the 4th day, the doctor's decided that Alex's mental health had improved enough for him to be discharged from the hospital. His scars were still healing, but he could move his arms a lot easier now. The first thing he did when he was out was take Charlie to his tree-house.

"Aw man" He said taking In the cool breeze from the balcany. "I missed the outdoor's" He said with a happy sigh. Charlie smiled and admired how at peace he was. He was so cute he couldn't help but kiss the blonde on the cheeck. Alex looked over at him, his cheecks tinted a light shade of pink. He pulled Charlie closer to him and kissed him on the nose, then his cheek, and finaly his lips. When he pulled away he giggled. "I don't think I'll ever get enough of your kisses". Charlie chuckled and happily kissed Alex once more"

"HOLLY SHIT" A voice shouted from below. Charlie and Alex quickly pulled away and looked down. Both of their hearts skipping a beat.
It was Opal, with the rest of the gang just behind her. Opal smiled big. "I knew there was a thing between you two!" She laughed.
Alex's face turned bright red. He lifted his hood over his head and pulled the strings tight until only his nose was vissible. Charlie blushed as well but giggled and hugged Alex. "Aww you don't have to hide Alex!" Opal said making her way up the ladder. (A/N: I think one of my chapters got deleted :/ or it never posted. Pretty early on in the book I introduced Opal, age 13, Tino who is 5, and I think you guys already met kirara and the Twins Ricky and Riley. These are some of the kids that live in Alex's neighborhood and they're all really close. okay back to the story ^^')
"We are your family afterall, right guys?" Opal said looking behind her to the rest of the kids.
"Yeah!" Kirara said with a wide smile.
"What's going on?" Tino asked.
"Yeah whats happening?" Rickey added.
"They're in a relationship" Opal answered just as she got to the top. "And we accept it" She said looking at Charlie and Alex who was still hiding in embarassment. Opal laughed and went up to join Charlie in hugging him. One by one the kids reached the top and added on to the group hug.
Eventually Alex took his hood off. "Thanks guys" He said smiling. "It's good to be back".