Inhaling Pain
Summary: Stress hurts your body, and Jeremy finds out the hard way.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Code Lyoko or anything having to do with it.
(A/N: I'm so getting shot for another one of these. I'm only posting One shots right now because I'm stuck on Knife Change/Obeying Fear right now.. Sorry, I promise a happier one-shot soon… Maybe…)
Jeremy sniffed and wiped his watering eyes. No good…. Nothing was working. He had screwed up the materialization program on accident, and trying to fix it was taking longer than he thought. He was cracking… He was getting impatient, stressed. He couldn't stand it anymore. He removed his glasses and put his palms over his icy blue eyes.
"Hello Jeremy," Aelita's voice came form his computer. A window popped up and the virtual girl's smile faded into worry. "Is something wrong?"
"No.. I'm fine…," Jeremy responded, rubbing his eyes with a sleeve.
"You don't look fine. You know you can always talk to me."
"I'm fine!" he blurted loudly, tears pushing out of his eyes. "I have work, I'll talk to you later!" He closed her window and cut off Aelita's protest. He put his hand back on his forehead and let his tears drip. He had no idea why he was so emotional right now… His eyes were red and puffy.
Jeremy's room was dark from lack of sunlight, but even the black, green and blue screen illuminated theroom enough to see. Although.. There wasn't much to see; only the back of a sad boy's head as he cried.
Suddenly Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Kiwi burst into the room laughing loudly. Jeremy clutched the sides of his head, but didn't turn to look at his friends. They didn't realize what state he was in.
"Haha! Jeremy, look at what Odd taught Kiwi to do!" Yumi laughed, pointing at the stumpy dog.
"I have to say, it is pretty funny!" Ulrich agreed. Jeremy didn't turn, but Odd set his dog on the floor anyway. The other blonde teased the dog with a treat. Kiwi did a couple of weird jumps and spins, his tongue lolling about. The three friends laughed once more and Aelita appeared on the computer screen.
"What's so funny?" she asked.
"Odd taught Kiwi this funny trick!" Yumi laughed.
"Oh really? May I-" Aelita was cut off by Jeremy slamming his fist into the Delete key on the keyboard. The screen disappeared and Jeremy spun in his computer chair. The darkness of the room and the light that was flooding into it created a dark look on Jeremy's tilted head. Salty liquid still streaked his cheeks; his friends stared.
"Jeremy?" Odd asked, letting Kiwi take the treat right out of his fingers.
"Get out of my room…." The said boy murmured.
"Are you crying?" Ulrich asked, starting for his friend.
"I SAID GET OUT!" Jeremy yelled, trying to not the tears fall any faster than they already were. He span back in his chair and clutched at his head, his other hand hitting the desk corner on accident. Great. Now he was emotional AND in pain. He bit his lower lip and blinked several times. Aelita appeared back on the screen, looking confused.
"Jeremy… Are you ok?" Yumi asked.
"Yeah, you don't usually act like this," Ulrich agreed, standing next to Yumi.
"If there's something wrong, you can always talk to us about it. Aelita will listen also," Odd said, leaning over to try and look at his friend's face. Jeremy flared his nostrils. Now his temper was starting to rise. He didn't need their sympathy right now. He had screwed up the materialization program, and they would yell at him when they found out.
"Jeremy, we're-" Yumi was cut off by Jeremy spinning and slamming his palm into the side of her face. Yumi stumbled back a couple of steps and blinked, her cheek turning red. All she did was place her hand on his back…
"Jeremy!" Aelita raised her voice, even more confused.
"Don't touch me!" Jeremy raised his voice as well. "I screwed it up, ok! I don't need anybody's sympathy; I don't need any companionship right now! I just want to be alone!"
He shoved his friends out of his room and slammed the door. He turned the lock and leaned against the door. He looked at the hand he slapped Yumi with and sobbed again. He covered his nose and mouth with his hands and slid quietly to the floor.
"Jeremy…." Aelita mumbled. She gave her friend a sad glance before disappearing from the screen to let him sulk.
Jeremy couldn't believe it.. He was screwing up right and left… He couldn't take in that he slapped Yumi and kept deleting Aelita's window. They were only trying to help him; what had he been thinking? He felt himself breath faster and his heart rate began to inch upwards. His nose dripped with blood. After a moment of leaning back and pinching just under the bone to make it stop, he lurched forward and coughed up a clot f blood onto the carpet.
The next morning…..
"Jeremy? Jeremy, may we come in?" Odd's voice sounded form behind the locked door.
Silence….
"Look, whatever we did yesterday, we're sorry," Ulrich added. He tried the knob. Still locked. "C'mon Jeremy; can't we at least open the door?"
A loud, hoarse, clogged-up cough from the other side of the door faintly resembled someone throwing up. Ulrich and Odd exchanged glances when they heard Aelita yelled something about Jeremy and something about blood. Moments later Jim unlocked the door with a master key and opened it.
Jeremy was crouched over round stains of red. Dried blood was smeared around and below his nose, and fresh blood dripped from his chapped lips. His eyes were wide with pain and his hands were cupped in front of his chin. A small puddle of thick blood sat motionless in the creases on his hands. He was gasping for air like he was having problems with his breathing.
"Oh thank goodness!" Aelita sighed when she saw Ulrich and Odd. "I have no idea what's wrong with him!"
"Stern, call an ambulance," Jim instructed. "Della Robbia, clean him up while I go get the principal."
Ulrich pulled out his cell and dialed 911. Odd grabbed the tissue box off the dresser and crouched in front of his blonde friend. He pulled out a tissue and started wiping off the blood.
"Jeremy, what happened?" he asked.
"I don't know…" Jeremy choked before coughing up another blood clot. "My nose started bleeding last night and…."
"Ok, don't talk. It's not helping," Odd interrupted, wiping a fresh coat of blood from Jeremy's lips.
"The paramedics should be here in a couple of minutes," Ulrich said. Jim rushed in and scooped Jeremy off the floor. Mrs. Delmas told Jim to take him downstairs and Jim followed orders as quickly as possible. Ulrich and Odd ran after and met Yumi on the way out to the ambulance.
Later….
"What's wrong with him?" Yumi asked anxiously as a doctor came out of the emergency room after looking at Jeremy.
"Well, he seems to have small pools of blood in both his right and left lungs," the doctor. "There isn't much, but it's enough to put a bad affect on his body."
A couple of nurses pushed a stretcher with Jeremy's body on it out of the door behind the doctor and started wheeling him towards the operation room. The three friends tore off after it and ran on either side.
"Don't worry Jeremy, you're going to be ok," Ulrich assured with a warm smile. Jeremy took a shaky breath of the fresh air coming from the plastic device covering his mouth and nose.
"Sorry… Yumi…" he muttered just loud enough for him to be audible. Yumi smiled sympathetically and took a hold of his hand.
"Hey, don't sweat it," she said, rubbing a thumb over her friend's fingers. A light amount of blood sprinkled the plastic as Jeremy exhaled. Blood lined his lips once more.
"Materialization.. Is…. Broken.." he murmured, shutting his eyes.
"You'll fix it, you always fix things when they're broken," Odd said through the lump in his throat.
"What if… I don't make it?"
"Don't talk like that, we always pull through," Yumi squeezed Jeremy's hand and tried to swallow back her tears as she spoke. Jeremy just smiled slightly and tightened his loose grip on Yumi's warm hand. They approached the operation room and the two were forced to let go of each other. Ulrich, Yumi and Odd were escorted to a small room just to the right.
They waited for an hour. The friends had no idea what they were doing to Jeremy to get the blood out of his lungs, but whatever it was, it was taking what felt like an eternity. When Jeremy was wheeled out of operation, he was red and sitting upright. His eyes swirled dizzily behind his glasses and the respiration device had not been removed from his face. He smiled tiredly at his friends as he went by, and they ran after the stretcher.
He was placed into recovery and was allowed to see his friends.
"Thanks for not being angry with me," Jeremy said, wishing he was allowed to eat and drink.
"Why would we be angry at you?" Ulrich asked.
"Yeah, this gave us an excuse to miss school!" Odd joked. Jeremy chuckled painfully before coughing.
"I messed up the materialization program. I thought you guys would be mad..."
"Why? We're not as obsessed with Lyoko as you are," Yumi said with a small laugh. Jeremy smiled at his friends. He had gotten all worked up over his thing and his friends loved him anyway. It was probably the non-stop Materialization program for Aelita that started it all. It had been weighing down on him, and deleting part of the main program made him snap. But it was all over now. Any stress build-up was shot down by that bloody nose.
Who would have known that Jeremy was saved from himself by a silly blood leak in his nose?
Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it. Flame are accepted, and I will love it if you reviewed in general. See ya next time.