#im pretty sure this is the last part in the france debacle

[hamletandthegang]

France- Part 6

Again, this fic is a little on the heavy side! If things like hospitals and panic attacks are triggering to you, please consider skipping this one! Stay safe kiddos <3

The blaring white light bounced off the glistening stone path. Maggie held her phone up as she walked quietly down the edge of the sewer. She turned sharply when she heard a loud creaking noise behind her, but it echoed around the dim cavern and disappeared quickly. Maggs turned back to the path ahead of her, and shone her phone flashlight back on the path.

The sewers are not a pleasant place. Maggs had pulled her pair of old galoshes from her bag, and descended back into the place where she had spent a good amount of her time in the past many years: the sewer systems of Europe- highly convenient for one wishing not to be found.

Maggie held her phone up, and squinted as she tried to make out the passage further down the tunnel. She was looking for her landmark, because no matter how well you knew the entricit tunnel system, it was almost impossible to navigate. 

She stopped and brushed her hand on the wall. It was in this general area, she just had to find it. Her hand hit the brick sticking out of the wall, flashed a crooked grin, and pushed down with her fist on the oddly placed brick. After a loud ka-CHUNK, the brick tumbled out of the wall, and she was able to reach the latch inside. She turned it, with some struggle, and the wall fell away to reveal the small passage behind it. Maggie crept inside, turned the latch on the inside, and the wall returned to its original state. Maggie then turned and crawled down into the space, and set off. She would soon be underneath the palace itself. 

~~~

Ophelia sat across from Hamlet. They had been sitting right outside the room where Horatio was for over half an hour, waiting for the others to get back from shopping for essentials at the mall across the street. They didn’t know when it would be safe to go back to the castle, or if it would be at all.

Hamlet was hunched over with his head in his hands. He hadn’t moved much from that spot ever since the doctors had booted him out of the room. Ophelia was trying to find a good way to start a conversation, but words seemed to stick in her throat. 

Hamlet sighed and rubbed his eyes, the first time Ophelia had seen him breathe in a while. She wanted to kiss him and slap him at the same time, so she decided it would be best to do neither.

She cleared her throat quietly, then spoke, “So,” Her mind immediately went blank. “Um, that- that was a crazy couple of days, huh?” Hamlet made a soft grunting noise. “Do you wanna talk about it?” Ophelia added softly.

After a long pause, Hamlet said, “I guess,”

“Okay,” Ophelia said, and they sat in silence.

It seemed like silence was the most therapeutic thing possible at this point. One of their friends was dead, two were in the hospital, one of whom was a wanted criminal. Hopefully, they could talk to the king and have him repeal the order, but home seemed so far away. 

“I found him lying in the bathtub at this hotel,” Hamlet said, almost whispering. “He was- he was so broken. I- I didn’t know what to do, so I just let him cry on me, and we just kinda sat there for a few hours.” Ophelia looked at him with wide eyes. He hadn’t moved from his hunched over position. “Then I met Maggie,” Hamlet hesitated. Ophelia frowned. He’d met another girl? “And she said she’d help us get home, because I don’t really know Paris very well, so we said ‘okay’ and followed her to the train, and there was the explosion, and then he had a breakdown on the floor of the train, and then we got on the bullet train, and-” Hamlet stopped abruptly. “And I couldn’t protect him.”

Ophelia stood and sat down on the chair next to him. Hamlet peeked through his hands at her, and she put a gentle hand on his shoulder. Hamlet slowly sat up, and looked at Ophelia. He settled his head on her shoulder, and she hugged him. Hamlet sniffed, and Ophelia started rubbing his back. A quiet tear trailed down his face.

“Baby, there was nothing you could’ve-”

“No,” Hamlet said firmly. “I could’ve gotten him home by myself, I shouldn’t have taken her help! I could’ve lost her at the train station, I could’ve- I could’ve run faster! I could have taken the bullet, and then he wouldn’t have to be half dead right now! Ophelia, this is my fault!”

“No, it’s not!” She shouted. She looked at Hamlet’s desperate face, and her voice dropped. “Look, you couldn’t have predicted what that girl would do. You couldn’t predict Horatio going missing, or Notre Dame burning down, or any of it! You simply acted in the manner that the situation called for at the time. And that’s all you can really do.”

Her words seemed to calm him down a bit, and he leaned back again. “If he dies-”

Ophelia cut him off, “He won’t die.” She shut her eyes, and took a deep breath. Hamlet was staring at her. He seemed to wake up from whatever state of shock he was in, and gently wrapped his arms around her. She reciprocated, and they sat together for a few minutes. There was an odd silence in the hall of the white walled hospital. While one could hear a pin drop, there was also the constant humming and beeping that echoed around the hall. 

Hamlet breathed into Ophelia’s shirt, the one that Anna had lent her. “You know what I wanna do?” He asked, and Ophelia glanced at his face.

“Hmm?”

“I wanna go back to college. I want to get everyone out of the hospital, and go to college. Fuck whatever my uncle wants me to do.”

“That sounds so great,” Ophelia mused. “I could finally have a moment of peace away from my dad,” She added, chuckling. “We should wait until Anna’s court hearing is over and done so she could come too.”

“Oh yeah, definitely.”

“Do you think we could all get a dorm together?”

“If anything I’ll get my mom to rent an apartment or two.”

Ophelia sighed, thinking fondly back to her many months studying and reading. The college was fairly small and private, and Hamlet had gotten them all in on an almost completely free ride. He loved to mooch off his uncle. 

Ophelia opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment, a nurse slid open the door to Horatio’s room, and told them that they could see him if they wanted. They both stood up immediately and walked in the room, and the nurse shut the door as she left. 

Hamlet shivered as a chill raced down his spine. The atmosphere in the room was cold at best. Horatio was extremely pale, and was lying unconscious on the white bed sheets. Hamlet dropped to his knees next to the bed, and took Horatio’s hand. Ophelia sucked in a breath when she walked in. She quickly walked over to where Hamlet was kneeling, and put a hand on his shoulder. 

The anesthetic they had put him on was set to wear off soon, but there was no knowing when he would wake up. Hamlet and Ophelia stayed there for a few minutes, and then he glanced up at her. They stood up and sat down on the bench near the bed, and leaned up against the cold wall. 

“How did this happen?” Hamlet said softly. “Like, a year ago my dad was still alive and we were in England hanging out at that little park.”

“I miss the park,” Ophelia whispered. “It’s so run down, but I love it there,” She laughed. Hamlet and her had gone on one of their first dates there. Polonius hadn’t let them go out together while they were still in Denmark. He still didn’t approve, but they found ways to sneak out together. 

“We’ll go back once all this dies down a bit,” Hamlet said, looking her in the eyes. She nodded, and it became quiet again.

“I miss Ben.” 

“Me too,” Hamlet said. “I’m going to kill whoever actually started that fire.”

“They’re saying that he did,” Ophelia glanced over at Horatio.

“Yeah, he does too.”

Ophelia looked back at Hamlet, “What?”

“Yeah, whatever happened in France messed him up a little bit up there,” Hamlet pointed to his head. “I know he didn’t. He would never do that.”

“Fuck,” Ophelia breathed, and leaned back on the wall, putting her hand on her face. She hadn’t thought about the mental repercussions this whole thing would have on Hamlet and Horatio. She didn’t even realize the repercussions it would have on her own mind.

“Yeah.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes longer, listening to the beep of the heart monitor near them.

Ophelia looked up at Horatio, only to realize that his eyes were open. He was staring up at the ceiling. She brushed Hamlet’s arm, and stood up slowly.

“Horatio?” she asked softly.

  His head turned, and his once clear blue eyes met hers. They were more dull and gray than she had remembered. 

Hamlet stood up quickly, and took Horatio’s hand. 

“How do you feel?” he asked hurriedly.

“Stiff,” was Horatio’s reply. “I’m not- I’m not dead?” He looked at them with a slightly confused look on his face.

“No,” Ophelia said, her voice laced with concern. “Why would you be dead?”

“Oh,” Horatio said, and then absentmindedly stared out the small window in the door. 

Ophelia looked at Hamlet, and he quickly said in her ear, “He’s still under a lot of pain meds, don’t freak out.” Ophelia nodded.

Hamlet sat down on the edge of the bed, and the motion drew Horatio’s eyes back to him. A strange look crossed his face, and he said, “I’m hungry.”

Hamlet said quietly, “Sorry bro, they said you can’t have any food or water for a bit. We’ll get you food soon though, okay?”

Horatio stared at him, then went back to his absentminded look out the window of the door. “Do you see it? Do you see it too?” He said, barely audible.

Ophelia and Hamlet both turned to look at where he was staring, but it was nothing but the door.

“See what?” Ophelia asked. “Horatio, what do you see?”

“The fire,” he answered. 

Hamlet looked at Ophelia, who looked like she was about to break down again. He wrapped an arm around her in a tight hug, then suggested that she take a breath outside. She nodded shakily, and shut the door behind her. 

~~~

Ophelia had walked all the way outside the cold hospital, and was sitting on one of the iron benches next to a tree. She was trying to stop herself from shaking, but she wanted to break down and cry. She was trying so hard to be there for Hamlet and Horatio and everyone else, but she was exhausted. 

What Horatio had said had scared her. She knew that the meds hadn’t worn off, but still. He was still seeing the fire. He thought he had died. That wasn’t normal, was it?

She opened her phone, and swiped to Annalise’s contact. She tapped on it, and waited for her to pick up.

“Hey, what’s up?” She said.

“Hey, just wanted to let you guys know, Horatio woke up.”

“Really? Should we come back?”

“Uh, well right now Hamlet’s talking to him, and honestly, it might be best to just give them some space for a bit. He’s not in a great place right now.”

“Is he okay?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, he’s fine. It’s just that the drugs they put him on are making him a little… strange.”

“Oh, okay. Do you maybe wanna join us at the mall? It’s actually pretty nice, and you’ve been at the hospital for a while now.”

Ophelia hesitated. “Yeah, that sounds great, actually. Lemme check with Hamlet and make sure he doesn’t need me, but yeah.”

“Okay! I can come pick you up. The boys are getting us those cinnamon pretzels, want some?”

“Yeah, I love those,” Ophelia answered. “I haven’t had those in forever.” 

“Okay! See ya in a bit!” And she hung up. 

Ophelia texted Hamlet, and he said that it was fine, he’d stay with Horatio for a while. 

~~~

“Did I scare her?” Horatio said, after Ophelia had left the room. 

“No, you’re fine, she’s just been really stressed about all this.” Hamlet smiled at him reassuringly.

“Okay,” 

Hamlet sat back down on the bed. “So, uh, how’re you feeling?”

“Fuzzy,” He mumbled. 

“Yeah, that’ll wear off soon,”

Horatio shifted, and tried to sit up in the bed. A pained expression crossed his face, and he looked down confusedly at the bandages around his stomach. 

“Is that..?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re itchy,” He noted.

“I know. Don’t mess with them, okay?”

“Okay,” Horatio said with a small voice.

“Do you still see the fire out there?” Hamlet said after a brief hesitation.

“No, it went away.”

“That’s good. It’s not here anymore. You’re safe.”

Horatio looked at Hamlet, and the edge of his mouth pulled up a little bit. “Yeah, it’s gone.”

Hamlet smiled back, but even he knew that it wasn’t genuine. He took in a deep breath. “What happened in the cathedral?” He didn’t want to upset Horatio, but he wanted to know.

Horatio looked at Hamlet with an unsettling blank expression, and after a few moments, started talking. “Laertes said to stay there and look for the spies. I sat there and looked around, and then the people started screaming, and the fire made things start falling from the ceiling. I tried to get out, but I got trapped in the center of the church. Then I found Marc. I tried to get him to leave with me, but he wouldn’t until he found Ben. I would have been crushed if I had stayed any longer, and Marc ran off into the fire.” Emotion dripped into his voice the longer he spoke. “I ran outside, and a big part of the church collapsed. Laertes said…” Horatio trailed off, and a troubled expression crossed his face. He couldn’t remember. “...something. He said something and I got scared and ran away from the cathedral. A group of people saw me on the news and started following me, so I hid under the steps of the underground walkway, and waited for them to leave. Then I found Maggie.” He stiffened when he said her name. He stopped talking, but something dawned on him.

“Hamlet, where are Ben and Marc?”

~~~

Annalise stopped in front of where Ophelia was sitting and honked the horn. She smiled and got in.

“Thanks, I need to get out of here for a little while,” She said as she buckled her seatbelt.

“Yeah, no problem. So, Horatio woke up?” Annalise asked. Her dark hair was bundled up in two buns on the top of her head.

Ophelia nodded. “He was saying stuff about how he thought he had died, and then said he could still see the fire. I got kinda freaked out, and Hamlet suggested I take a few minutes outside while he talked to him.”

“Okay,” Annalise thought for a moment. “Well, I left the guys at the pretzel stand so we’ll meet up with them and hang out for a while. It’s really nice to just kinda pretend that everything’s fine and just be a group of teenagers at the mall.” Annalise laughed. 

“Yeah,” Ophelia giggled. “Marc was still sleeping when I left,” she noted. Marc had been sleeping a lot, so they couldn’t talk to him much. Even when he was awake, he didn’t want to talk to anyone. He wasn’t doing well with the news about Ben. None of them were. They were all pretending that it hadn’t happened. Until the funeral could be held, there wasn’t anything they could do. Nothing about it seemed real, and reality hadn’t sunk in yet.

They arrived and parked the van. Anna linked arms with Ophelia and steered her towards the pretzel stand, and they saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern sitting on a bench, with Rosencrantz draping his legs over Guildenstern’s. Guildenstern was tapping on his phone, and looked up when Annalise said hello and started playing with his hair. 

Ophelia sat down next to Rosencrantz, and he gave her a small paper cup full of small round pretzels covered with cinnamon.

“Wow, I haven’t had these since I was a little kid. My mom took me to the mall and we would get these for lunch.” Ophelia said as she stuffed one in her mouth.

“I got a red slushie,” Rosencrantz said gleefully, holding up the cup he was drinking from. 

“So Horatio woke up?” Guildenstern asked Ophelia.

“Yeah, he’s really out of it because of the pain meds, so Hamlet’s talking to him and trying to get him back to his senses.”

“Do you think he knows about Ben yet?” Rosencrantz asked softly, then seemed surprised when Ophelia answered, as though he thought he hadn’t said it out loud.

“I don’t think so. Hamlet said that he thinks that the whole thing is his fault, so it might be best if he doesn’t know.”

“Why would it be his fault?” Guildenstern asked. “He’d never hurt anybody.”

“I know, but-” Ophelia hesitated, trying to gather her thoughts. “Something happened to him while he was over there.”

“Other than-”

“Yes, other than him being shot,” Ophelia cut Rosencrantz off. “Like, mentally. I think he’s got a lot of trauma from whatever happened in the cathedral. And, yeah he’s not in a good place right now.”

“Oh,” Guildenstern said. He stared blankly at the crowd of people milling around. After a few moments of quiet, he said. “I’m going to dye my hair.”

Ophelia looked at him and smiled, “Okay? What color? Why?”

“That’s just how I deal with things. This is the first time in a while that I’ve actually had normal colored hair. I’m gonna dye my hair.”

“It’s true,” Rosencrantz laughed. “A couple years ago he dyed it almost every month.”

“Yeah, well, I was going through hell,” Guildenstern laughed. “We’re going through hell again, and I’m gonna dye it.”

“Alright, do you wanna go get some colors?” Anna said excitedly. She loved helping people with hair. She was the one who’d given Guildenstern his first short haircut after he’d gotten away from his family. “I think there’s a shop down that way with hair stuff,” She said, gesturing further off around the corner. 

“Absolutely, Anna you’re the best,” he said, pushing Rosencrantz’ legs off of him and standing up. He picked up his cup of pretzels and started to walk off with Anna. 

“I thought you were the impulsive one,” Ophelia said to Rosencrantz, laughing.

“You’d be surprised,” he answered, and they stood up and followed them.

~~~

Ophelia and Annalise rushed in the door, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern behind them. 

“What’s wrong?!” Ophelia shouted, and stopped to catch her breath.

“It’s Horatio, I- I had to tell him!” Hamlet stuttered, looking bewildered at her.

“Tell him what?!” She yelled, and rushed to Horatio’s side. He was openly sobbing, and curled up on the side of his bed. Ophelia kneeled down, put a hand on his shoulder, and started trying to calm him down.

“About Ben!” Hamlet said. All four of them looked at him, and he shrank back into the bench. 

“I think he’s having an extreme panic attack or something,” Ophelia said, ignoring Hamlet, and slowly stroking Horatio’s messy hair. He refused to look up, and stayed crumpled in on himself. He was hyperventilating and covered in sweat. 

Hamlet had called her a few minutes after they had finished in the salon, and they had driven over as fast as they could. 

Annalise walked over to the bed, and sat on it. She put her knees to her chest, and scooted back to be next to him on the bed. She tapped him on the shoulder, and whispered if she could touch him. He slowly nodded after a moment, and she curled up next to him with her arms around him. He continued shaking and sobbing, but after a moment, looked over at her. 

“Hey, it’s me. Annalise. I’m here. You’re not there anymore, you’re at the hospital. You are safe.” Anna spoke calmly and softly. “Take a deep breath, please?”

“I can’t,” he answered groggily.

“Okay, that’s fine. Here, breathe with me,” She said, and started breathing deeply and holding Horatio’s hands. He turned, and began to copy her pattern of breath. After a few moments, he started to calm back down. 

“Do you want to talk about it yet?” she asked. Horatio shook his head slightly. “Okay, we’ll just stay like this.”

Annalise motioned to Ophelia to get the guys to leave, and she took Hamlet’s hand and moved him to the chairs outside. Rosencrantz followed him, but Guildenstern stayed behind. 

“Hey, can I try something?” he asked Anna, and she nodded. He sat down on the center of the bed in front of them, and put his hand on Horatio’s knee.

“Breathe in for four seconds,” He said softly. Horatio complied. “Hold it for seven seconds, and now release for eight seconds.” Horatio looked at him as he let out the breath, and Guildenstern smiled. “In for four, hold it for seven, out for eight,” He continued the pattern, and soon Horatio had completely de-escalated. 

Ophelia was watching from the bench by the bed. Annalise was still holding his hand, and, after he seemed to be more stable, asked, “Horatio, are you okay now?”

Horatio looked at her, “Yeah, thanks.” 

“It’s okay, don’t be embarrassed,” Guildenstern said. “I have a lot of experience with panic attacks and stuff, that’s one of the things I picked up over the years. I don’t remember who taught that to me, but it always seems to work.”

Horatio nodded. After a few moments, he said, “I’m a murderer.”

“You’re not,” Annalise said. “You could never have predicted what happened-”

“But it’s my fault!” He shouted. 

Guildenstern shifted. “Hey, look at me,” Horatio looked at him, “How did you get to France?” 

Horatio frowned, “I don’t know.”

“How did you start the fire?”

“I- I can’t remember.”

“Did you realize that the fire was there before everyone started freaking out?”

“No.”

“Well then, how is it your fault?” Guildenstern looked him right in the eyes.

“I should’ve told them to get out! I saw them, but I didn’t say anything until it was too late!” Horatio said.

“You didn’t know what was going to happen. And you didn’t start the fire. Someone else did. If you had said something, you might have put yourself in danger, because of Laertes, right?”

“Yeah...”

“Then it’s not your fault.” 

Horatio looked down. “I still feel guilty.”

“Yeah, that’s okay. We’re all going to have to get through this together, and try to move on as best as we can. That’s really all you can ask of yourself.” Guildenstern smiled sadly. “But you need to forgive yourself, and it’s okay if it doesn’t happen today. Or anytime soon. But you need to. Right now though, you need to give yourself time to rest. Taking a bullet to the stomach doesn’t heal overnight. The doc said you have to stay about a week and a half. They said Marc could be released after a few days. We’ll take you both home soon and hang at the castle a while. We also have to sort out that whole thing with the police. They want you back in Denmark, and I’m sure we’ll get to see a wonderful screaming match between Hamlet and his uncle.” Guildenstern laughed, as did Ophelia. Horatio smiled. They had seen too many of those.