Room 207; Antonio Fernandez's room

His body jerked upwards when two orderlies opened the door harshly and started getting closer to his bed. He glanced at them sleepily and wondered what they were doing here, behind them was a nurse carrying a silver tray with three small cups on it. ‘Oh they were here to give him medicine’.

He heard something along the lines of ‘Do we need to hold you down or are you going to take your medicine?’ He shook his head “no” (he didn’t feel angry right now, or in the mood for fighting, just incredibly tired) and offered a hand where the nurse put one of the white cups gently. There were two pills on it, a white and green capsule and a tiny yellow tablet. He eyed them warily, trying to recall if those were the same pills they use to give him in the other hospital. The ones that made his mouth dry and didn’t let him sleep well some nights. But he took the water being offered anyway and both pills went down his throat with no difficulty.

The expression on the nurse’s face lightened and relaxed and she offered a nice smile to Antonio but the man knew better than to trust her that easily. She then handed him another silver tray, it contained a plate with scrambled eggs, a piece of bread and a glass filled with some read liquid. Antonio took the glass and smelled it carefully before taking a tiny sip, his eyes widened and his mouth watered instantly, they had given him tomato juice and enough reason to spend the day happy.

The nurse set to leave then but before that she told him, she was expected in group therapy as soon as he finished his breakfast and that a doctor will come and fetch him. The orderlies gave him the regular warnings about attacking other patients or trying to escape but he just shrugged them off, as long as he wasn’t provoked or as long as there wasn’t anything that would make him sad and angry he should be fine.

After finishing his breakfast Antonio laid down on his bed, waiting for the nurse to come, and for the first time since he arrived here, he let himself think of Lovino. Where was he right now? Was he eating properly? Was he happy? A tear slid down his eye and his hand moved to his pocket, taking out the crumbled picture of Romano that he kept there. He studied his face, his features, that ever present frown on his forehead and a second tear followed quickly by a third came out. The flow didn’t stop until Antonio’s pillow was wet and he had somewhat closed his eyelids… He saw the Italian on his short dream, talking and smiling to him and he knew then that if he ever wanted to survive this place or even just get better, he needed the Lovino back into his life.

Antonio didn’t hear the knock in the door until the girl standing outside his it clicked the door open and called up to him. She spoke French, just a simple word and Antonio understood. He opened his eyes slowly quickly and remembered he was still on his bed clothes, trying his best to smile and conceal the tears that were previously adorning his eyes he quickly grabbed a futbol red shirt that was lying around and the jeans he had been wearing when he arrived to the hospital.

“Hola, uhm pasa porfavor” It wasn’t until the words left his mouth that he realized he had spoken them in his native tongue but he guessed she understood, since she was now inside his room.

He stood up hesitating, this must be the doctor that was supposed to look for him and drag him to that group therapy thing right? Well… she looked more like a nurse or an assistant, or something like that. Too young to really hold a position of high power and she looked too fragile to even want to be here. But he guessed it was just the same, he wasn’t going to cause any problems… yet.

It wasn’t until she was very close to him that Antonio noticed she was shaking and moving her feet uncomfortably. The look in her eyes gave her away, she was afraid of him and Antonio’s heart couldn’t help but wretch at the thought of such a lovely little creature being utterly scared of him.

With his head down he approached her and managed to smile hugely. The kind of smile that always made Lovino happy and always managed to change his mood.

“I won’t hurt you, I promise” He looked at her eyes deeply, trying to transmit the sincerity of his words “Are you here to take me to the group therapy? They told me you would come”

She was still nervous, Antonio could tell by the way her legs seemed to move to much, or the way she was working her lower lip with her teeth, probably without even noticing. He contemplated reassuring her again but really what would that accomplish. He was a patient on a mental hospital; she had every right and reason to be afraid of him.

He sighted and his smile faded a little bit. He could feel his previous depressed mood coming back and… Joder Weren’t the medicines supposed to help with his mood changes?

Images of his childhood and his teenage years flashed through his mind. How he could spend days and nights angry, sad or plain happy and how easy that could change in matter of minutes. He didn’t think he was going to lose control right now but it was best to be prepared, he couldn’t risk hurting her. They needed to get out of there; Antonio needed to be in the presence of a doctor right now in case something triggered an angry reaction inside him, the sooner he got to group therapy the better, at least in there, she could count on someone to stop him.

He stood beside her then, waiting for her to move to the door or call one of the orderlies or something. But that didn’t happen, he arched an eyebrow in confusion and moved passed her to the door aiming to open it.

“Shall we get going then?” he tried his best to smile at her but it was getting harder by the second. His hand reached for the doorknob and opened the door slightly and stepped aside waiting for her to exit the room first.