#i wrote a draft of this weeks ago

Febuwhump Leftover - No Anesthesia

Context: Cadeverse, continuation of the morning after he tried to treat a panic attack with alcohol.

~~~

“So what have we learned from this little experiment?” Donnie said with a lifted eyebrow.

“Beer is not my friend,” Cade said. “Maybe I should have gone straight for the Jack Daniels.” At Donnie’s sharp look, he tiredly waved a hand. “Kidding.”

“Dude, don’t even joke about that. Just don’t.”

“Kidding,” Cade repeated. “You know me, I don’t get shitfaced on a regular basis.”

“I’ve seen people try to use alcohol to run away from their problems,” Donnie said. “It never ends well.”

“Is that what you think I was doing? Running away from my problems?”

“More like staggering away, last night. But yeah. You didn’t want to deal with your brain, so you tried to drug it into submission.”

“But it wouldn’t fucking cooperate, of course.” Cade winced and pressed a knuckle between his eyes. “And now it’s taking revenge.”

Donnie sat down on the chair next to the couch. “You can’t run away from what hurts if it’s inside you, dude. You have to deal with it.”

“That’s what I was trying to do. Like taking ibuprofen for a headache. Speaking of which, do you happen to have—”

“But that’s not dealing with it. That’s trying to anesthetize your brain so you don’thave to deal with it.”

“Then why is ibuprofen OK? That’s what I took for my shoulder. And I could really use some—"

“Did you go to the gym and lift right after that?”

“I’m not a complete idiot,” Cade said.

“Of course not; you knew it wasn’t a magic pill. Pain is how your body tells you to be careful until it’s had time to heal.”

“My stupid brain’s had as much time to heal as my shoulder.”

“Maybe it was hurt more. Look, dude, all I’m trying to say is, there’s a reason for pain, whether it’s in your head or your shoulder. If you want to get better, you have to pay attention to what it’s telling you.”

“So what am I supposed to do, wallow in my feelings?”

“You can face them without wallowing. If you hear a tornado siren in the middle of the night, what do you do? You could put in earplugs and go back to sleep. You could bitch about being woken up. Or you could get your ass out of bed and check the radar to see what’s going on. Listen to the goddamn message.”

“I’mlistening.” Cade said. “I’m listening to my brain right now.”

“And what’s it telling you?”

“It’s telling me that I want to think about what you’re saying, but I can’t concentrate on a goddamn thing until the elephants stop tap-dancing on my skull,” he said plaintively.

Donnie leaned back in the chair with a hint of a wicked grin. “Oh. Do you want some ibuprofen? You should have said something earlier.”