There was a cold blooded cruelty to the one wonderful night of sleep that Derek had been able to get. In the past, he had always known that the only way for him to go to bed and be able to get some sleep, was through the use of medication. The medication had always left him feeling out of sorts, barely able to string two sentences together, let alone have complex thoughts.
That was how he had seen things before. No sleep meant that he could think, even if his head, eyes and every other part of his body hurt. Sleep meant swallowing down pills, and hoping that no one asked him what one plus one was. It also meant contending with feeling disconnected from the rest of the world.
Those were the trials and tribulations that he knew, and he had made peace with them. Then along came that night, and it tore apart all that Derek thought he knew about the world.
