Chapter Text
There was a reason Wednesday Addams didn’t get attached to people and one of those reasons was sitting inside a glass box, for lack of a better term, in front of her.
It’s been a month since the Thornhill and Crackstone incident and in a surprising turn of events, she received a letter from none other than Donovan Galpin. At first, she refused to open it or even acknowledge it. She told Lurch to burn it but days later, she found it sitting on an accent table in the sitting room and she had a feeling one of her parents had something to do with it. She picked it up with the intention of burning it herself but found herself standing in front of the fireplace staring at it, unable to toss it into the fire. She knew that whatever was in the letter had to do with the younger Galpin and she had been spending the last month trying to erase anything to do with him out of her head. She even tried some old rituals she found in Grandmama’s ancient spell book but it was useless. It didn’t matter what she did, she couldn’t get his boyish smile and golden curly hair and certainly not his betrayal out of her head.
It’s said that curiosity kills the cat but she sat and opened the letter anyways and she was shocked to see what he had written.
Addams,
You should know that you are the last person on earth I have turned to but I need your… help. God, never thought I’d be writing that.
Tyler won’t talk to anybody. He barely eats anything and has turned into a shell of a human. I know I’m partly to blame for what happened but I can’t watch my son suffer like his mother did. He deserves more than that after everything he’s been through.
The doctors think that for some reason you might get a reaction out of him. Hell if I know. I know you don’t owe him anything but I’m asking you to at least try.
He’s being kept at a special psychiatric facility for Outcast’s. If you decide to come, swing by the house and I’ll bring you there.
Thanks,
Donovan Galpin
So, that’s how she finds herself sitting in front of a reinforced glass wall across from Tyler. The room is more than he deserves, in her opinion. He should be rotting in a cell or six feet under but she supposes that the sheriff either pulled some very thin strings, or someone wanted the chance to study a Hyde. She suspects it’s the latter because the sheriff would have to know some powerful people to keep his son kept here.
The doctors were right though because when she walked into the room, Tyler’s head shot up and he whispered her name before moving and sitting down so that his knees were pressing against the glass.
“You look awful.” Is the first thing she says, and his mouth twitches as if he’s trying to hold back a smile. It’s not an insult though because he truly does look terrible. It’s obvious he’s only eating enough food to stay somewhat healthy and he has bags under his eyes and just looks lost .
And she hates that somewhere in the back of her mind she feels bad for him.
“Yeah-” he begins to say but she cuts him off.
“Was this some ploy to get me here? Not speaking to anyone for a month, having everyone worry about you so they would ask me to come?” She snaps and his face falls, eyes trained on the floor.
“I didn’t have anything to say to any of them.”
“And you have something to say to me? I heard enough that night.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“I didn’t know you had a twin.” She says dryly, starting to stand up because she doesn’t want to listen to his feeble attempts to trick her again.
“Wednesday! Wait, please.” He begs when she turns to leave. She keeps her back to him but stops.
“When Lau- Laurel was my Master I had no choice in what I said. Whatever her thoughts were, they were mixed with mine so even though I didn’t want to kill, I had to because she liked it. I didn’t have a choice.”
She thinks back to what Faulkner’s diary said about Hyde’s.
Born of mutation, the Hyde lays dormant until unleashed by a traumatic event or unlocked through chemical inducement or hypnosis. This causes the Hyde to develop an immediate bond with its liberator, who the creature now sees as its master. It becomes the willing instrument of whatever nefarious agenda this new master might propose .
He didn’t have a choice about the killing, but what about his feelings for her? Were they ever true or was that also part of Laurel’s sinister plan? Was he just following his Master’s orders and tricking her?
Then she realizes something that makes her turn on her heel and stalk toward him.
“What do you mean, when she was your Master ?”
Tyler gives her a confused look. “She’s dead. I have no Master.” She watches as his eyes dart behind her and she sees a doctor standing by the door. Wednesday didn’t even notice him until now. “They’re trying to figure out why I haven’t turned into a maniac without one.”
Hydes are unpredictable without a Master, she ponders. That was another thing she learned about them when she was researching during her investigation.
“Have you… transformed since that night?” She asks carefully, not wanting to trigger something in him.
He shakes his head slowly but Wednesday looks behind her for confirmation from the doctor who also shakes his head.
“You don’t trust me,” Tyler states, sounding a little too upset for her liking.
“Do you blame me? You almost killed two of my friends and attempted to kill me,” She snaps, “not to mention all the other innocent people.”
She watches as he starts to get frustrated, face turning red and his breathing increases, “I didn’t have a choice.”
Wednesday starts to slowly back away from him, watching as his eyes close and his breathing gets faster and faster until she’s convinced he’s going to turn into the Hyde but all of a sudden, he goes completely limp and falls to the floor in a heap. He’s still breathing as far as she can tell from her current position but there’s something bubbling inside her. Curiosity, interest, worry ?
She’s not sure what she is feeling but the doctor rushes past her and surprisingly, goes into his cell along with a few guards carrying some heavy weapons.
She can only see part of him now, the doctor and guards impairing her vision so she leaves the room, pushing through the crowd of people that seem to be going to his room. Her intention is to leave the facility but she comes to a halt when she sees Sheriff Galpin sitting in a room that looks like it’s acting as a room for visitors. There are a couple of armchairs and a couch, a tv mounted on the wall, and a water cooler.
The Sheriff is watching something on a tablet and as she steps into the room, she realizes it’s a video feed from inside Tyler’s cell which means he heard their entire conversation. It’s curiosity that makes her wander further into the room and her ears strain to hear the voices on the tablet.
“Lift him onto his bed.” She hears a voice say. “I gave him a sedative that should keep him calm once he wakes, but I want around-the-clock watch until he regains consciousness.”
“That’s the most he’s said since I put him in that cell.” Sheriff Galpin says in a hoarse voice, still looking at the screen and Wednesday scolds herself for getting caught off guard twice in one day. She’s not sure what he’s expecting her to say, but she slowly walks into the room and sits down on a chair.
“Guess they were right when they said you’d get a reaction out of him. Wasn’t expecting that much of a reaction.” His eyes meet hers and she forces herself not to react when he says, “guess you hit the wrong button.”
“Why did you really call me here, Sheriff? We both know you don’t like me and the feeling is mutual. Why ask me to help him.”
He puts the tablet on the table and leans back, crossing his arms over his chest. “The doctors said-”
“The doctors didn’t even know me.” She snaps. “What did you tell them?”
She watches as he hesitates before shrugging. “Tyler liked you. Enough that he disobeyed my orders to stay away from you multiple times. Figured maybe he would talk to you.”
“That was Laurel.” She snaps and his face turns red with anger.
“ Don’t say her name.”
She stands up, not wanting to talk about this anymore because it’s mixing up her feelings toward the entire situation that she has been trying to forget. He doesn’t say anything when she leaves the room and stalks down the hallway with the goal of actually leaving this time but she hears a different voice call out to her.
“Miss Addams!” The person calls out and she growls in frustration, turning around to see the doctor running towards her. He’s out of breath by the time he reaches her but she waits unimpressed until he can speak.
“I’m Dr. Adler. I wanted to thank you for coming and I hope you will come again. We made some real progress today!”
“I almost caused him to Hyde out.” She says dryly. “That is what you call progress?”
“Miss Addams, the words he spoke to you today are the first he’s said since he was admitted here a month ago. I think with time, he might open up, and then we can start working on figuring out our next step.”
“I didn’t agree to stay in Jericho and I certainly did not agree to see Tyler more than once.”
He looks at her with interest for a moment before speaking again. “Why did you come here in the first place? The two of you seemed very close from what I heard.”
Who told him that? The sheriff? She wonders but doesn’t ponder on it for long. She’s already done more than she should have.
“I’m not coming back.” She tells him, turning around and actually leaving the building this time. Dr. Adler mutters something but she doesn’t hear it.
Stopping by security to drop her visitor's badge off, she walks outside to the car where Lurch has been waiting for her. She’s glad her parents didn’t come with her because they would badger her with questions she isn’t ready or doesn’t know how to answer. She does wonder why she did agree to make the decision to visit Tyler at all. Was it because she wanted answers that only he could give her? Or was it something else?
She had absolutely no obligation to come here, to talk to the person she trusted, and let herself be vulnerable only for them to turn around and betray her. And what exactly did Sheriff Galpin say to make the doctors think that a 16-year-old girl could get Tyler to talk when they are supposed to be the experts?
The drive home leaves her with so many unanswered questions and too much time to think about them. She briefly acknowledges her parents when she finally gets home, going straight to her room and sitting at her desk to write down what exactly she knows.
First, Tyler is without a Master but is somehow controlling his Hyde to a certain degree.
Second, he will only speak to her but she doesn’t know why. Could it be a ruse to try and get him to trust her again?
Third, the doctors believe she is the key to unlocking the answers about the Hyde. Things that Faulkner didn’t uncover before he died.
And lastly, why can’t she get Tyler Galpin out of her mind?