Chapter Text
It took a minute for Wednesday to register where she was and what was going on as she came back to reality, now cradled in Tyler’s arms instead of laying on the ground. There was a pain in the back of her head, and what sounded like multiple frantic voices surrounding her.
“Did she just have a seizure? Do we need to call an ambulance?” one of them was asking, “She hit her head pretty hard.”
Finally able to fully register what was going on around her, Wednesday looked up at Tyler and shifted a bit to let him know that she was conscious again.
“Wednesday!” his grip on her tightened a little, “What just happened? I mean, I know what happened but you were out longer than I’ve ever seen and…oh my god, I didn’t even see you fall. I just heard you hit the pavement and your eyes rolled back into your head and I know that’s normal when you have a vision but-”
“Calm down,” she managed, trying to get him to calm down and take a breath, “It wasn’t any more violent than any other I’ve had.”
“Did you miss the part where your head smacked the sidewalk? I think paramedics are on their way now.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Addams,” the sheriff’s voice cut in, “For the love of god, you’re going to let them look over you and confirm if you do or do not have a concussion. If they say you need to go to the goddamn hospital, you will go. Tyler has explained your visions or whatever to me before, but all the other officers and bystanders saw what happened and I’ll be damned if I get shit on because I let a concussed teenager walk away from medical help.”
She rolled her eyes, pushing herself out of Tyler’s arms and sitting upright, “I’ve had worse injuries than this before and didn’t seek medical attention. I’d like to further assess the scene, please.”
“Wens,” Tyler pleaded, “Please just…for my peace of mind if nothing else? My dad can cover the police work.” he lowered his voice to whisper in her ear, “Hyde is screaming in my head right now. He already felt like he was failing because of this stupid stalker, and now you got hurt while I was standing right there. I don’t know if you noticed, but your head is literally bleeding right now.”
She hadn’t noticed, in all honesty. But reaching back, she felt the wetness of her blood that was now also matting in her hair. Again, not a new feeling to her but she was forced to consider that the paramedics wouldn’t only be helping her - they would unknowingly also potentially be helping to calm down a distressed Hyde. If nothing else, that would be a good enough reason to put up with it, she supposed.
“Fine,” she grumbled, “I’ll let them look over me, but I’m not going to the hospital.”
It wasn’t long after that did the aforementioned paramedics show up, agreeing to an examination in the back of the ambulance before deciding if she would need more advanced screening than what they could offer. They were cleaning the wound on the back of her head when Nevermore’s headmaster came running up and began nearly yelling at her.
The semi-new headmaster came right up to where she was, “Wednesday Addams! Do you have any idea how late it is? Curfew was hours ago! We had to reach out to your parents, the police, set the school on a lockdown…just to find out you were out with your boyfriend! Your roommate was worried sick, as was your family.”
“My family would never worry about me under such circumstances. You could tell them I’d been the victim of an attempted murder and they’d be thrilled. Trust me, it’s happened before.”
The woman crossed her arms, “Even so, you’ve disrupted this evening greatly. I hope you’re well aware that you will be punished for this. I’ve let you get away with too much this school year, seeing as what you went through before, but that ends now.”
“Ma’am-” one of the medics tried to cut in, probably going to ask that she refrain from screeching at their patient, but they were waved off.
“You will only leave your dorm for class and meals,” the headmaster continued, “And you’ll be lucky if you see this town again before-”
Donovan stepped forward now, the yelling drawing his attention away from where he was waiting with Tyler, who had been asked not to hover over his girlfriend while she was receiving care. “I’m going to have to ask you to step away from the scene,” he said as professionally as he could, despite the fact that they were not technically on the crime scene itself anymore, “And a word of advice, I wouldn’t go around screaming and upsetting students who have just been injured. It isn’t a good look, professionally speaking.”
“She wouldn’t have been injured if she would’ve been in her dorm, where she was supposed to be!”
“Then perhaps you need to get a better handle on what’s going on at the school of yours. I’ve caught multiple students in town after curfew, should I start citing them? I’m sure the people here would love to have a reason to point to Nevermore as a reason for rising crime rates.”
Wednesday drowned out the rest of whatever stupid argument the two adults were having, the pounding in her head getting worse. It wasn’t often she got a headache like this and she wanted to enjoy it without all the bickering. All she wanted was peace and quiet, maybe a record playing to help keep the headache going. If only the world would just shut up for a minute….
She wasn’t sure when she had closed her eyes, but when she opened them again she was at the hospital with a worried, tired looking Tyler sitting next to her. He quickly noticed when she woke up, giving a weary smile, “For the record, you totally have a concussion or something. You passed out while my dad was in a screaming match with whatever demon Nevermore employed to replace Weems. They pretty much immediately brought you here.”
“Fantastic,” she mumbled, “When can I leave?”
“I mean, they’re going to want to make sure you’re okay to leave first. Your parents somehow talked your demonic overlord headmaster down from all those threats and actually said that you won’t be staying at Nevermore until you’re cleared to go back to class. I don’t think they were exactly happy at what dad told them was said to you.”
“Cleared to go back to class? And where am I supposed to stay, exactly, if not in my dorm?”
Tyler let out an exhausted sounding laugh, “Wednesday, you just suffered what’s arguably a pretty bad head injury. You can’t really expect to just go back to school, at least for a few days? Give yourself time to recover. Dad said you’ll be staying with us since you don’t have anywhere else to go, everyone just agreed you don’t need to be on campus while whatever her name is chills out.”
“Should I be concerned as to why your father suddenly seems to care about my well-being?”
“I’d like to believe he’s finally warmed up to the idea that you’re going to be part of his family one day, and he can’t treat you like shit forever. So uh…what exactly did you see, anyways? In your vision?”
Wednesday thought back, trying to recall what her abilities had deemed so important that it needed to be seen right then and cause this mess. “There were people at the Weathervane, waiting for your coworkers to leave. As soon as it was clear to do so, they tried to pick the lock but got irritated and broke a window instead to get in. Once they got the money, almost all of them left. Two stayed behind, I couldn’t tell who they were. But they were the ones who wrote the message for us. It’s a bit blurry, but they said something about payback and learning a lesson. One seemed to hesitate a bit more, but the other was adamant about it.”
“Seems to match with what the camera’s could catch, mostly. Dad said a group of students from Jericho High broke in and stole the register, it was all on tape. They’ve actually been able to ID most of them and are assuming they were responsible for all the other break-ins. There’s no cameras on the outside of the building, so the most they got was grainy silhouettes of someone painting…that…on the window. But it only caught that for one person, not two.”
“Do you think it’s our stalker?”
“I dunno.” he sighed again, “Dad’s putting me on lockdown now too, by the way. Since the Weathervane is gonna be closed for a while he’s said I’m not allowed to leave the house under any circumstances. He’s freaked out because that message had to be targeted at me, right? Which means someone who either already knew is going to reveal who I am, or someone found out somehow. But that doesn’t really align with the stalker, does it? And nobody from that school knows about Hyde…it doesn’t really make sense.”
“We agreed earlier that the stalker has primarily targeted me, maybe now they’re going after you. I don’t think we should rule it out. As for it making sense, the break-in might’ve just been used as a cover up. Our lovely friend or friends saw your place of work being attacked and decided it was the perfect time to mess with us a bit more. The students would get blamed, and nobody would go looking for them.”
“Is it time to tell my dad about this, then?”
“Not yet.”
“Wednesday-”
“I need more time to put everything together and come up with a solid suspect list. Currently, every Nightshade member and everyone else who knows about Hyde is on it, including those from Willow Hill. I need to narrow that down significantly. If there’s anybody from Jericho High that would…” she paused for a second, “I’m adding that girl from earlier to the list too. Perhaps the monster comment was for me, seeing as she had some colorful things to say about outcasts.”
Tyler decided against fighting her on this, knowing that allowing her to focus on whatever aspect of this mystery she wanted would at least keep her stationed inside and not out getting into any type of trouble. If this is what it would take to get her to stay semi-still and rest, then so be it. “I'll let them know you’re awake, maybe we can get you discharged soon and you can start writing all of this down,” he offered, standing up and gently kissing her forehead before walking out of the room.
Unbeknownst to either - seeing as Tyler’s phone had died once more due to lack of time to charge it, and Wednesday’s being tucked away in her bag somewhere - their newly formed group chat was active once again.
Unknown Contact: Well, that sure was fun, wasn’t it?
[Multiple images attached]