Insomnia:

A/N: Hello my beauteous readers! My musical is over and now I can get back to my true love, writing! I really missed being able to have the time to relax and write for not only my own entertainment, but for yours too. I have been wanting to write another story similar to 'The Family Hero' for a long time but I just didn't have the ideas or time. Now I do! Not to mention that 'The Family Hero' was my most popular fic ever. This takes us back to a certain thief in a videogame… I hope you guys enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Also, TW for PTSD. This isn't going to be a bright, happy sort of fic.

Have you ever been so tired that you don't even feel it anymore but you know you should? Or when your own brain can't even begin to comprehend the true complexity of the world, but it still was the basic everyday life of Ezekiel Jones at that moment. At the moment he was on his sixth episode of Friends that night and it was already 4 AM. He wanted to sleep, God did he want to sleep, but he just couldn't. He stared at the screen, only for a moment before everything went a bit strange. The world flashed between his own dimly lit bedroom and a world of pure darkness. The laugh track from the TV kept going on and on the pitch deepening slowly before it stopped being laughter and became deep growls. The world spun quickly before him, making him dizzy. Suddenly the rapid pace slowed down to an almost halt. That's when he was transported back. He was trapped under the crushing mirage of the past, unable to escape it's cold trembling grasp. It was there where he watched it happen once again. The deaths of his favorite people. They were all screaming, begging him to help them but he couldn't move. It was like his legs were made of lead. All he could do was stand by as they were ripped to shreds and know that they would run through the same door they had five minutes before with looks of naive confusion before running head first into a fight they couldn't win. Then the process would simply repeat. It was far more tortuous than anything he'd ever experienced. Loud sirens blared in the background when the world began to fade. The screams turned back into sick, twisted laughter, the sirens into the alarm clock by his bed. He jumped with a gasp as the world flashed back into reality. He felt dizzy and nauseous as he stumbled, trying to stand. Suddenly his phone rang, startling him much easier than it should've.

"What?!" He snapped into the phone.

"Hello to you too. Baird wants us at the Annex as soon as possible. How fast can you get here?" Jake mused into the other end of the phone.

"Really depends on how quickly my coffee machine can boot up." Ezekiel groaned as he discover that he was completely out of Red Bull.

"Since when did you drink coffee? I thought you hated it. Too bitter." Jake sounded confused from the other end.

"Since I haven't been able to sleep at night." Ezekiel mumbled, knowing it was too quiet for Jake to hear. "I don't know. I found that the more sugar you add, the better it tastes. I'll be there in like 20." Ezekiel hung up before changing out of his pajamas into a graphic tee and sweats, certainly not up to his usual flair. He did a quick comb through his hair when he realized how pale he was. He slapped his cheeks a bit, hoping to add some color before leaving for the Annex.

Cassandra the first to arrive, followed by Jake. The last to enter, or, moreover trudge in, was Ezekiel. Jake couldn't help but laugh when he saw him.

"I told you not to go out last night. We always have an early morning." He nudged the thief who gave a weary smile. Naturally Jake thought he had spent the night drinking and partying. If you could consider binge watching a 90's sitcom a party, then yeah, he was a party animal. Eve had taken until that moment to enter the room.

"Really Jones? Hungover on the job? That only worked for Cassandra that one time. The rest of the time it's completely unprofessional." She laughed as the young man winced at the lights overhead.

"Oh how inconsiderate of me." Ezekiel mumbled. The mission was a flop. They succeeded but it came at a great cost. They had exposed magic to four mortal teenagers who had to be placed under hospital watch due to the traumatic ordeal. The cause of the ordeal? A very sleepy thief. He had a moment where he froze and it caused the entire mission to go haywire. Needless to say the team was a bit miffed.

Jenkins was dusting one of the artifacts when he heard loud yelling. Ezekiel walked in quickly and silent. Jenkins knew something was wrong by the fact that he was so quiet, so he put his hand out to stop him. The normally passive man knocked his arm out of the way and continued to walk, far from the team who was following him closely.

"Ezekiel! What is going on?" Jake yelled behind him. The cowboy reached out and grabbed Ezekiel's shoulder, turning him around roughly. "You don't normally freeze up like that. Talk to us man!"

"All of you just bugger off! I'm fine. I don't want or need to talk to any of you. Just leave me alone!" Ezekiel shouted before stomping away. As soon as he was out of earshot and eyesight, he sunk to the ground and put his head on his knees. He had forgotten why he was so angry but it completely melted away. He breathed heavily into his knees for a moment before he felt a hand on his back. He jumped up and away from said hand.

"Hey it's alright. Are you okay?" Flynn asked gently, looking at him with those gloomy dark brown eyes of his.

"Ye-yeah. I'm fine." Ezekiel stuttered, making Flynn look a bit more unsure.

"Ezekiel-" Flynn began again.

"Like I said, I'm fine." Ezekiel whispered before turning and walking away. He suddenly felt the weight of his exhaustion on his shoulders as he drove back to his home, away from his concerned teammates.

Meanwhile, the aisles of the Library remained vacant while the main room of the Annex became full.

"So what happened?" Flynn asked. He had returned after a mission of his own.

"We were being attacked by a huge group of these monster people and when he saw them growling and hurting people, he froze. We asked if he was alright but he freaked out on us." Eve explained to the man she loved.

"That's so weird. He was all curled up when I found him. He looked so small and young. I've never seen him look that scared." Flynn sighed as he worried for the younger man. "I think he went home. Should we go see if he's alright?"

"No. I think we should give him some space to breathe and figure out what he needs and then we can help him get what he needs." Eve instructed them.

Ezekiel returned to his home and stumbled through the door. He crashed onto his couch where he fell into a deep sleep immediately. It took barely 20 minutes worth of sleep before he sat up with a jolt. He breathed heavily as he draped his hands over his face feeling tears spring up in the corners of his eyes. Nightmares haunted him and broke the peace of sleep. He sighed before dragging his exhausted body off the couch. He barely made it a step when he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Someone was in his house with him. He turned quickly, but found no one. He felt like he had someone breathing down his neck and it was driving him insane. He just wanted it all to stop. That night he skipped dinner. In fact he skipped every meal for that entire week. He hadn't gotten more than a few hours of sleep either.

"I can't take this anymore." Cassandra whispered to Eve as they watched from the balcony above the Annex. Ezekiel was just sitting there, watching nothing for hours. It was kind of what he did now. "There's obviously something he's not telling us, so why not be direct about it?"

"Yeah for real? He's clearly suffering, we should try to hit it at the root and figure out what's happening so we can fix it." Flynn agreed.

"I just don't think this is a great plan." Eve rubbed the back of her neck reluctantly. Over the months they had all been working together, Eve genuinely loved and cared for every one of the Librarians, but things had changed immensely between her and the thief. At first he annoyed her and she underestimated him. Now he was like her son and it pained her to see him suffering in such a way.

"I agree. Ezekiel bottles stuff up. He's not one to tell us anything, no matter how much it hurts him." Jake argued. This was a rare occurrence. In fact it was impossible for it to happen to them. With five teammates you can always have a majority rule.

"We'll ask Jenkins what he thinks, until then, no questioning him about it or bringing it up. It might make it worse." Eve instructed the group. Jenkins had actually told the team not to disturb him unless it was a serious emergency that day because he had some very formal business to attend to. Colonel Baird should've known that with two stubborn geniuses on one side that it wasn't going to go according to plan.

Cassandra walked meekly up behind Ezekiel and placed a hand lightly on his shoulder, causing him to jump hardly. Flynn was trying his best to make it look like he was enthralled with his book, when in actuality, he was studying the duo.

"Easy. It's alright. Calm down. Are you okay?" Cassandra asked, blue eyes filled with concern.

Ezekiel nodded but kept his eyes glued to the tabletop in front of him.

"If you aren't that's okay too because we're here if you ever need-" Cassandra began to go down the typical route.

"Just stop. Don't tell me that you're here if I need you or that everything will be fine because it won't! Everything has changed for me and none of you can understand that I just want to be left alone." Ezekiel snapped causing Cassandra. He made the mistake of looking at her face. It was pure pity and sadness, as well as intense guilt. Flynn had an almost identical expression but he also added a bit of poorly concealed shock to the mix as well. Ezekiel looked at them, back and forth in pure horror. "S-Stop that. Stop looking at me like that!" The cold chill went down his spine again. "Who the hell is behind me?" Ezekiel whipped around to find empty space. No one was behind him.

"Ezekiel-" Flynn began.

"I'm fine!" His voice cracked as he ran out of the room. Flynn was tired of this game. He did what none of them had done. He followed him. When he found him, and it was hard, he found him in the same position that he had the first time he had found him. His head was tucked into his knees and he was whimpering softly. His back shook as a sob erupted from his chest. Flynn felt his own heart clench at the sight. Ezekiel wasn't meant to go through hardship. He was young and happy. He was arrogant and fearless. Now, he was small and terrified. Flynn sat in front of him and clasped his shoulders, making sure he couldn't run. He didn't even try. He lifted his head, heavy and dizzy on his shoulders, and looked him dead in the eye with an empty, broken expression.

"I don't know what to do anymore." He whispered. Flynn, who was holding his breath in shock let it out slowly.

"How can we help you?" He asked slowly.

"I don't know. I can't even help myself at this point. Trust me, I've tried." Ezekiel swallowed thickly.

"Well maybe you can start by telling me what's been going on." Flynn gave him a sympathetic smile. Ezekiel took a shaky breath before sighing and deciding that it was time.

"It all started a few weeks ago. We went through a door and it began a video game time loop thing, except I was the only one that remembered all of the different loops. The others got reset every time the loop reset." Ezekiel stopped.

"What made them reset?" Flynn tried to get the rest of the story from him.

"They- they'd die." Ezekiel's voice broke as another sob rattled him from the inside out. "They died and I couldn't stop it from happening. Over and over again! It was so gruesome. Worse yet, in the end I died and had to be reset myself then had to lie and say I didn't remember anything. Just so that I wouldn't be treated differently. Guess that didn't work out so well, huh?" He gave a humorless smile.

"Oh Ezekiel." Flynn breathed in pity, before doing something completely unthinkable. He hugged Ezekiel. It was short but sweet and it got the point across. Ezekiel didn't even protest. "You've been suffering for so long and we have done nothing. You've been showing all of the obvious signs of PTSD. I mean there is definitely mental things going on right now, but has anything happened physically?" Flynn asked.

"I haven't slept or eaten in nine days. It's taking a toll on me. I don't feel healthy. I'm exhausted all the time but when I try to sleep I can't. Either I lie there, unable to fall asleep, or I do fall asleep but have terrible nightmares that wake me up. What can I do? I can't live like this anymore." Ezekiel gave him a pleading look.

Flynn noticed that the door that Ezekiel ran through was cracked open a bit and there was four heads watching their exchange intently.

"We have magic that can help you sleep and will help you retain your appetite. It will also help clear your mind which should help you sleep, but it's not a cure. You'll still remember it all and it will still get hard at times. Trust me , I know. I went through a very similar thing myself. The first ever love of my life died tragically in my arms. I thought the world would stop revolving but it didn't and I think thats life. You have to try to move on, even when you don't want to. We'll always be there to help you too. You're certainly not alone." From that point on, Ezekiel gradually helped himself get better. Some days were harder than others, but he knew that his family was always there to help him.

A/N: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed. I had a lot of fun writing this and I'm going to have more fun reading the reviews about how much you cried. I cried a bit writing this. I enjoy torturing myself. It's even more fun to torture you. I love you all more than I love a crossbow wielding zombie slayer. ~FGaT XOXOXOXOXOXO