Jay couldn't help but notice that a lot of his life consisted of mysterious messages left by questionable sources. The cameraman stood in front of his car, shifting his attention between the woods ahead of him and the camcorder in his hand. His free hand slipped into his pocket and he brushed a finger over a small pocket knife to tap at his cell phone. This particular message was a cryptic text sent by Tim in the middle of the night that simply read 'Meet me at the park'.

He probably shouldn't have come out without actually talking to Tim first, but his attempts at texting him had failed and Tim wasn't answering his cell. Some part of Jay couldn't help but point out that this situation could've been avoided if they stayed in the same hotel, but he firmly told it to shut up. Tim probably still hated his guts and Jay wasn't sure if he trusted the smoker enough to share a room with him.

Still, Tim was his only friend left in this mess. The text had brought a nasty, twisting feeling in Jay's stomach and within the next hour he had arrived at Rosswood, camera in hand. The rising sun did little to banish the foreboding feeling the woods emitted. Every instinct in Jay screamed for him to run, go back to his room, and hide there. Jay shook the urge away, steeled himself, and walked into Rosswood.

It took twenty minutes of hiking through trees for Jay to realize he had no idea what he should be looking for. Jay paused to take a breather and rub at his sore legs. This is stupid. I don't even know if I should be looking for anything. The sun had finally had an effect on the wild life, and he could hear birds chirping and fluttering around him. In any other case, a walk through the woods might've been soothing. Instead, the distant crackling of twigs and leaves set Jay's nerves on edge. Every snap was that Thing; was Alex coming with his gun in hand and hate in his eyes. Jay felt panic well up in his chest. It was stupid of him to come out here. If Tim was in danger, surely he would've said something more urgent, like 'Help me!' or 'I am in this exact location, come here!'.

Jay turned, fully intent on returning to his hotel room. As he did, a nearby bush shook just hard enough that it clearly wasn't just the wind jostling it. Something small and dark shot out of the vegetation, narrowly avoiding hitting him in the side. Jay silently screamed, heart pounding. It's Alex, he shot at me, I'm going to die. Time passed and as the small thing continued to flit around the trees, it occurred to Jay that bullets typically follow a forward path.

A bird circled around him quickly, then lit on a nearby tree. Out of instinct, Jay followed it with the camera. He stood there, giving the small bird a dirty look as he tried to slow his heartbeat to something more regular. His brain, still kicked into overdrive from the scare, grabbed useless information to process. The stupid bird was black with white markings over its wings, the branch it was on was wobbling precariously, and he could hear coughing in the distance.

Jay froze up, torn between retreating and forging ahead. It could be Tim, but it could just as easily be anyone else. He nervously chewed at his lip. The bird that had scared him chirped and flew off towards where the coughing seemed to be coming from. Jay took a deep breath and followed it. He mentally cursed out his shaking legs when he stumbled over a tree root.

Jay moved forward cautiously as the coughing grew louder and more painful sounding. He struggled his way past a row of brush, wincing as a branch scraped over his cheek. Finally, the upcoming trail came into view and with it, a body. Jay felt his blood turn to ice. Tim, with blood dotting the front of his shirt,was propped up against a tree, coughing hard into his sleeve. Jay called out to him and rushed forward, catching Tim as he started to fall over. The camera almost fell out of his hand as Jay moved to pull Tim's arm up and over his shoulder.

"Tim, what happened, why were you out here?" Jay frantically asked. Tim's head lolled and he clearly was not okay, because his eyes were glassy and unfocused, and there was blood dripping from his mouth. A violent coughing fit took him, and as it shuddered in Tim's chest Jay realized with horror that Tim was spitting up blood. Jay's thoughts raced and he staggered under Tim's weight. He needed to get them out of Rosswood and Tim needed medical attention.

Jay's brain snapped into overdrive. It kept repeating a mantra of 'Get out of here now!'. "Tim, we gotta go. We need to move." He took a slow step forward and to his relief Tim lurched into movement with him. The other male pulled heavily at his side though and their next few steps were a struggle to not trip over each other. Jay might have been taller, but Tim was bulkier than him and it wasn't making it easy to support him. Jay grit his teeth and kept moving, gently giving Tim encouragement under his breath.

The next hour passed in a blur of stumbling through woods and murmured assurances. Tim stopped coughing halfway out, which Jay took to be a good sign at first, but then he began muttering under his breath. Between Tim's fevered mumbling and their way too slow progress, Jay's nerves were completely shot. After what felt like ages, they finally emerged from the woods into the mostly empty parking lot. Jay felt a tight lump in his chest unclench. He knew it was stupid to believe that they were any safer outside the woods, but the sight of his car waiting still made him feel better. The two staggered towards it. Jay carefully maneuvered Tim (who was still muttering too low to make sense) into the car then eased into the drivers seat. He carefully pulled out, then raced down the highway that would take him to his hotel.

Jay staggered up to his room, doing his best to ignore the questioning stare the lady at the counter gave him. Some part of his brain registered that he must've looked shady as hell dragging in a bloody, wheezing man. He roughly shouldered the door open and dragged Tim into the safety of his tiny hotel room. He deposited the smoker onto his bed, where he flopped and took tiny, shallow breaths. Jay fell to the floor and let out a long breath he hadn't known he was holding.

(A tiny ,warm feeling was spreading through his chest and with a start he realized it was pride. He had saved Tim. Him, scrawny little Jay, who had ruined at least two peoples lives, did something good. Saved someone.)

Tim began shifting on the covers, and his breathing had quickened to a worrying rate. Jay quickly sat up and moved to sit on the bed next to him. His camera, which had been long forgotten, fell out of his hands and onto the floor. Jay cursed and went to put it in a safer place on the wardrobe that he never used. He hadn't even realized he grabbed it when he left the car. It was just second nature to have the bit of plastic in his hands. When he turned back, Tim had moved to sit against the headboard, and he had pulled his knees up tight against himself.

His eyes were locked onto Jay. "You're gonna leave now." he accused, eyes narrowing. Before Jay could even begin to process what was happening, Tim had put his head between his knees and he was near hyperventilating. "You're gonna leave like she always did and I'll be alone and that thing will come and I can't get out why can'tIgetout-!" Tim's voice broke into a dry sob (and God did that sound painful after all his coughing) and Jay darted forward, but hesitated, unsure of what he could possibly do to help. His hands hovered in the air as Tim shuddered hard, occasionally emitting small whimpers and sobs. Jay's insides twisted painfully. Tim would probably hate to know that he had seen him like this. Maybe it would be for the better if he left Tim to work this out on his own?

Just as Jay began to turn away, he heard Tim quietly whimper what sounded like his name, then "You're the only person I have left."

He acted on instinct. Jay knelt on the bed and wrapped his arms around Tim the best he could, which resulted in elbows sticking into his sides painfully. He held tight as Tim completely froze under him. Jay began babbling, words pouring out before he stopped to consider them. "I'm not leaving, you're safe, it's fine, I'm gonna stay right here I promise just please, please calm down."

Eventually Tim's breathing slowed down. When Jay felt him ever so slightly relax he backed off, sliding back onto his spot on the floor. Tim pulled his head back to rest against the headboard and stared off at the wall. How long they sat like that was anyone's guess. The tension in the room seemed to grow until Jay felt like he could barely breathe. He was desperate for something, anything really, to break the stifling silence that had filled the room.

"Jay?" Tim sounded scared, hurt, but more there. Without waiting for an answer he continued, "She... She did visit, sometimes. Back then, I mean. In the hospital." He shuffled a bit, and Jay wanted to ask who she was but held his tongue, because if he interrupted Tim might stop talking, and right now that was the only thing assuring him Tim would be okay. "When she did, she would sing for me. Stupid stuff, old rock songs they don't play on the radio anymore. Kid's lullabies." He trailed off and closed his eyes, groaning slightly.

At least Jay thought he was groaning, until it grew louder and he realized that there was a definite tune to it, one that he recognized. Tim was humming and he began swaying slightly to the implied beat in the notes. Jay swallowed hard and made his second slightly stupid decision of that night.

When Tim hit the chorus, Jay tentatively joined in, wincing when his voice cracked slightly. (Even when things had been normal, he tended to reserve his singing for shower karaoke.) Tim's humming had faltered, and he looked at Jay as if he was only then seeing him. Jay kept singing under his growing embarrassment. Just as he was starting to seriously regret his decision, Tim's lips had quirked ever so slightly up. Not much, but enough to be counted as a smile. His eyes slid back shut as Jay finished the song and quickly launched into a slow ballad.

Jay tried to fill the silence as long as he could with his voice and, somewhere in between a love song and Twinkle Little Star, he realized Tim had fallen asleep. He wrapped up the last few notes of the song then wiggled until his back was resting against the side of the bed. Jay had full intentions to stay there all night, keeping vigil over (well under) Tim.

An hour later Jay was fast asleep on the floor.

Jay woke up feeling more rested than he had in years. His dreams last night had been blissfully free of nightmares, and he (dare he even think it?) actually felt pretty damn good. The camera man turned onto his side and stared down the dust bunnies that were hiding under the bed. As much as he wanted to just lay there for the next few hours, Jay figured he would have to confront Tim about what the actual hell had happened yesterday; if Tim even remembered what happened. He didn't seem to have had a camera on him, so if the memory loss that the two suffered from had taken last night's memories, they may never know what had went down in Rosswood.

Although, considering the events of last night, maybe a bit of memory lost wasn't too bad. Jay felt his face heat up slightly. Did he really hug Tim? Was that really his tinny voice that had squeaked out old ballads? Jay huffed, which caused the dust bunnies to stir and dissipate. For whatever reason, he didn't really regret comforting Tim. It had been embarrassing, but he felt it had been the right thing to do. Jay pulled himself up and rolled his aching shoulders. The floor did not make for a good bed. The thought of talking to Tim seemed like too much, so Jay resolved to find something to do. He shuffled around his room, tidying up this and that and trying to make as little noise as possible. He figured Tim deserved to sleep in for as long as he could. Unfortunately, he had very few possessions to look after and by the time he was cleaning the camera lens for the third time, he figured he might as well wake Tim up and go get some form of breakfast.

Jay sat on the side of the bed and took a moment to prepare himself. From what he remembered about him, Tim had always seemed to be a fairly level-headed guy, ignoring the incident that landed Jay a black eye, but he still could react violently. Jay turned so he was facing Tim. The man looked... peaceful. He felt a little bad about waking him up. Tim probably suffered from the same shitty dreams that he did. Jay shook him and scowled when the only response was Tim flapping a hand at him weakly and rolling over. He redoubled his efforts and after a bit Tim rolled back to face him and glared at him. Or tried to, anyway. It seemed that a sleepy Tim couldn't decide which eye he wanted to squint angrily out of.

"There had better be an emergency Jay," Tim yawned and stretched out, limbs cracking with a satisfying pop sound.

"Well, if you consider food an emergency, then yeah, we have one." Tim seemed to pause and consider what he said, then nodded and sat up. "Food is fairly important, breakfast more so than the other meals." He then surprised Jay by actually grinning at him, before pulling a hand through his hair and glancing around the room. "So, uh, where am I?"

"My hotel room. You texted me last night, and I went out to Rosswood and found you, and-" Tim cut him off with a confused sound and "Wait, I texted you? You went into Rosswood?" They stared at each other for a moment while Jay inwardly whined, because of course Tim didn't remember what had happened. He sighed and asked "Yeah. How much do you remember?"

Tim scrunched his face up and thought for moment. "I was in my room, and my head hurt... Then I think... I was in Rosswood? And there was a building... Then you showed up and I was laying down and someone was singing." Tim yawned again, then turned to look at Jay. "Were you singing?"

Jay was fairly certain his face was turning red. "You, uh, I mean... You asked me to, and you looked really bad so I had to!" He was blustering and Tim was giving him an appraising look that made him stare at the floor.

"I asked?"

Jay nodded and managed to mumble out, "You said she always sang for you..."

Tim froze up, his sleepy face smoothing out into a blank expression as he let out a tiny "Oh." After a few tense moments of silence, he sat up properly and bumped his knuckles on Jay's arm.

"Well, thanks Jaybird."

Jay was fairly certain his face was burning up, and he was pretty sure something was wrong with his heart because it was currently residing in his throat. He swallowed hard and squeaked out a strangled "You're welcome." He kept his eyes trained on the floor as Tim got out of the bed and shuffled over to the bathroom. "I'm gonna clean up a bit. The taste of old blood is not very pleasant."

Jay looked up at Tim sharply and after a moment cracked a grin. "Wow, way to ruin the moment."

"Moments can wait until after breakfast." As Tim disappeared behind the bathroom door, Jay fell back onto the bed and grinned like a lunatic, because Tim was okay and Jay did something good and he's pretty sure that they trusted each other a little more.

And in a shitty situation like the one they were in, Jay was willing to consider the day a success.

AN: aaaaaah dialogue is weird and hard. i'm still new to this stuff, so any advice on grammar/ text positioning is welcome!