Work Text:
Familiar, Jean was something and someone
familiar in this place. Mick died and she broke into a thousand pieces. He was her boy. She should have been a better mother, she knew it. Shirley knew it about all her children.
Shirley Carter who could always bounce back from anything , suddenly couldn't when he died.
She hated this place, but Jean was a comfort. Understood what it was like to feel mad and alone. Understood what it was like to break and try to mend.
Jean will get better. When the meds begin to work, she will be better and leave this place. She deserved to get better. Jean wasn't a bad person.
Shirley doesn't believe she will ever get better. That she will ever step outside this place, the doctors disagree with her. "You have to want to get well," they tell her all the time.
But the pain was too much. The only time it felt bearable was when she's in Jean’s arms.