AN: I have a bunch of inspiration all of a sudden, and it took me way too long to update last time, so here's another chapter, yay! Also: I've never written an OC before, so let me know what you guys think of the character introduced in this chapter!

Jack didn't remember falling asleep that night, but by some miracle he must have, because the next thing he knew, he was startled awake from yet another nightmare. He bolted upright on the stiff mattress, breathing heavily. He groaned and ran a hand through his hair as he tried to calm himself down. Being able to sleep through the night just once would be nice, though he doubted he'd get much sleep at all in this place.

He looked around the room, and let out a startled cry as he saw a boy sitting on the other bed watching him. The boy jumped, apparently also startled. Jack sighed.

"Christ, kid! What're you staring at me for?"

"You were yelling. Woke me up."

Jack scoffed. "Yeah well I'm gonna be doing a lot of that, so you oughta get used to it." He muttered.

"So is that what you're here for? You yell in your sleep?"

Jack, in his sleep deprived state, found the naive question funny, and he started laughing. "It's a little more than that, kid." He looked at the other boy, and it suddenly struck him just how young he looked. "How old are you, anyway?"

"Sixteen. I'm not a kid." He had a pointed look on his face, and Jack just rolled his eyes.

"I got almost four years on you, that makes you a kid."

The boy still didn't seem happy, but he shrugged anyway, pulling the blanket off of himself and moving over to Jack's bed, holding out his hand. "I'm Louis Anderson."

Jack hadn't planned on making any friends, but he had to admit it was nice to meet someone who seemed to be pleasant and not totally out of his mind. And besides, he reminded him of one of his boys, so he shook his hand. "Jack Kelly. What are you in here for?"

"My parents sent me here, and the judge said he thought I was crazy, so I got admitted." There was a tone of bitterness to Louis's voice, and Jack frowned.

"You don't seem crazy to me."

"Neither do you." Louis pointed out.

"That's cause I'm not. I was in the war, got what they call shell shock. Means I get night terrors and flashbacks where I re-live the stuff I saw."

"That's why you yell in your sleep." Louis concluded, and Jack nodded.

"Yeah, that's why. They said they can help me here."

"Do you think they can?"

Jack shrugged. "I think they got a better shot than anyone else."

Louis nodded thoughtfully. "Think they have a good shot at fixing me?"

"Don't see anything that needs fixing. Do you know why your folks thought there was something wrong?"

Louis shook his head. "No. I'm sure they had their reasons though."

Jack was just sure that Louis had way too much trust in his parents.

oOo

Hours later, after the sun had just barely come up, a man who Jack assumed was an employee opened the door without knocking. Jack looked up, not having been able to get back to sleep, but the  man didn't even seem to notice whether he was asleep or awake.

"Time to get up. Breakfast is down the hall." And he closed the door again.

Louis jerked his head up from where it had been slumped against Jack's chest (the two had already decided to trust each other, considering they were both in the same situation). He blinked up at Jack.

"What'd he say?" 

"Breakfast is down the hall."

"Good, I'm starved." 

So was Jack, so they got up and headed down the hall. Unfortunately, they discovered that what the asylum served for breakfast wasn't any better than what they'd served for dinner the night before. A piece of unidentifiable meat, a slice of dry bread, and a glass of water. This place had begun to remind Jack too much of The Refuge - even at the army camp, they'd been given good, nutritious food.

They headed to a somewhat empty table, Louis dropping his tray down next to Jack's with a distasteful look. He stared curiously at the meat.

"Do you know what that is? Beef? Pork?"

Jack shook his head, already digging into it. "Whatever it is, it won't kill us to eat it."

Louis tentatively took a bite, and Jack laughed at the face he made after tasting it. Louis gave him an odd look.

"This is awful. How can you eat it?"

Jack just shrugged. "I've had worse. Besides, it's all we got, so I suggest you eat it, too."

Louis looked at him with wide eyes for a moment before returning to his meal, and Jack smiled softly. He had a lot to teach this kid.

They'd been told that their treatments wouldn't start right away - something about how they should get acclimated to life at the asylum first - so, after breakfast, Jack and Louis headed into the main room to find ways to pass the time. As it turned out, there were none. They looked around for a minute and merely saw other patients either talking to each other, or staring of into space, some of them muttering to themselves. So, with no other clear options, the two of them decided to follow the example and learn more about each other.

"Any siblings?" Jack asked, starting out with the basics. He'd never been too great at talking about himself or asking about other people.

Louis shook his head. "My parents were talking about having another though, so I won't be surprise if I've got one by the time I leave here." He smiled, clearly excited at the prospect of a sibling. "What about you?"

Jack grinned at the thought. "Yeah I've got a whole slew of brothers."

"How many?"

"About twenty." Jack said without thinking, and Louis gaped at him. "Not biological, I mean. I was a newsie, all the other boys and me got so close we're like brothers." He explained, before pausing. "I did have an older sister though, a biological one. Dunno what happened to her."

"You have a wife, though, right? Katherine?"

Jack looked concerned. He hadn't told Louis about Katherine. "How do you - "

"You talk in your sleep, too."

He let out a breath of relief. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm married." He smiled. She's... amazing."

He allowed himself to think about Katherine for a few more seconds before shaking his head and turning the conversation back around. If he thought about her for too long, he'd start to miss her too much.

"How about you, huh? You got a girl?"

Louis shook his head. "I mean... there's one who I liked... but she won't even glance in my direction after this. Who wants to go out with the guy who's wrong in the head?"

Jack didn't know what to say to that. He couldn't exactly tell her that he was wrong, that nothing would change, that girls wouldn't mind being with him. He'd gotten lucky with Katherine, she was something special. He knew that most girls - most people at all, in that matter - would run from people like them, people with illnesses that couldn't be seen.

So he remained silent.

oOo

They carried on like this for a while, engaging in conversations ranging from their childhoods to who they thought would win the World Series, and after lunch, Jack decided gathered his courage and decided to ask one of the nurses if he could have some paper and pencils. Her reaction was less than preferable.

"For what purpose?"

"To draw with."

"Draw what?"

Jack shrugged. "Anything. It's harmless, I'm just getting a little stir crazy sitting here." He was trying to be as polite as possible.

"Is it harmless?"

"... Isn't it?"

"Mr. Kelly, asking for pencils is the exact opposite of harmless, do you realize that?"

"What?" From what Jack could tell, this woman was being completely serious, and he was perplexed.

"You could very easily stab someone with a pencil."

"Listen, I really just wanna draw something."

"If you're 'going stir crazy', as you put it, you should retreat to your room for some rest."

"I don't see how that'd help." 

"You'll feel rejuvenated afterwards. I'll escort you. Come."

So Jack, not knowing what else to do, cast a helpless look at Louis, who was giving him a confused look, and followed the woman to his room.

He didn't rest though. Instead, he simply sat. All he could think about was how much being in his room alone reminded him of the POW camp. So he closed his eyes and tried to shut out the memories that were closing in on him.