Cade POV
Crosshairs informed me what he had to do to get J.R. to eat and his concern that we might need to consider tube feeding to feed her. It's understandable if I.R. can't sit up or hold much down, but for now, we don't need to do put a feeding tube in yet. The infection hasn't spread since I checked two hours ago. Not sure how often I should check it, but the wound needs to be cleaned more than twice a day. The problem is J.R. can't tolerate any touch of the wound while she's feeling like shit.
"What are you three doing here?" I asked as Bumblebee, Drift, and Hound walk into the room.
"Jamie and Jayce are asleep, figured we better talk about this morning's events," Hound replies; Bumblebee and Drift nod.
Crosshairs tells Bumblebee and Hound how he fed J.R. and how he'd continue that method instead of a feeding tube. They agree a feeding tube is too invasive to use if J.R. should begin to feel better in two to three days. We didn't expect Crosshairs to tell us he thinks this is what Jayce needs to see to start recovering mentally and stop trying to end her life. We agree it's a theory, but he may be right.
"She hates how distraught Jamie is over J.R.'s infection. Though her response is unusual, it seems to be enough to get Jayce to realize the pain Jamie and J.R. would be in if they watched her die," Crosshairs explains.
"Problem is she will struggle a lot more before she gets better," Hound points out.
"She already is, she sleeps for an hour before she wakes up, terrified," Crosshairs tells him. Bumblebee and Hound rush out of the room.
"Why do things have to get much worse before they get better?" Crosshairs sighed.
Drift looked at him as if he wanted to say something but didn't want to add to Crosshairs' troubles, though, and it seems Crosshairs didn't want to tell Drift something. Can't be about J.R.
The rest of the afternoon and night is uneventful. Jamie either doesn't want to ask how J.R. got an infection or Drift already told her. Jayce still can't relax about this, Drift told me he's already tried to get Jayce to talk about it, but she refused. He helped Crosshairs with J.R. I watched to get an idea of how bad she's struggling to keep anything down. J.R. is afraid if throwing up in front of Crosshairs and Drift. Crosshairs tries his best to keep a blanket wrapped around J.R. as he held her. She's still cold, even with the blanket. Crosshairs comforted her before lying her back down.
"I hope she feels better soon. She hates how she feels and what we have to do to help her," Crosshairs comments before leaving medbay. Drift stayed and continued to comfort J.R., who is agitated. Once she relaxed, Drift left the room. Bumblebee comes in ten minutes later and tells me he'll stay here with J.R.
J.R. POV
Two in the morning and I'm awake. It's strange; I feel like shit, but I sleep for three hours before waking up, but I can't stay awake for long; maybe an hour. The lights are on but dim. Bumblebee's holoform sleeping by the wall close to the bed. I see the pain relief infusion finished, and Cade didn't start another. It's fine; the pain and discomfort is tolerable. The door opens, it's either Cade or Crosshairs checking on me even though Bee is here. No, it's Jamie, shit. She stands by the bed and reads the monitor before lying in bed next to me, careful not to hit the IV tubing.
"I'll be fine. Why are you so worried?"
"I don't know," Jamie says in a sad tone, "how did you even get an infection? You can't just get one, especially this type."
Crap, I don't know if They want me to tell her.
"Jamie? what are you doing here?" Bumblebee asks before getting his phone out; I assume he's texting Drift. Once he finished, he sat down by the bed. He must think Jamie will be difficult. The room is quiet for two minutes until both Crosshairs and Drift walk into the room and stand on either side of the bed.
"She wants to know how I got sick," I say before either of them even ask. I doubt Drift would just pick up Jamie and leave the room. The two mechs look at each other, I can tell they're not sure if they should let me tell Jamie or not, but they both tell me to go ahead.
"I was stupid while trying to clean my dagger and fucking cut myself."
"You know now, let's go," Drift says, trying to pick Jamie up. Sure enough, she pushes down right on my abdomen where I cut. I bite my lip, trying not to make a sound.
Get off, get off, get off
I sighed once the door closed. Now I can't ignore the pain.
"She put pressure on the wound, didn't she?" Crosshairs asked though I can tell he's not sure if he should be concerned or not.
"Oh yeah," I say as he looked at the wound. I know he was trying to be careful, but even his light touch hurt. I watched him go to the cabinets, take out a small syringe before going to one of the small fridges on here used for the nutrition drink. I know what he's doing, I hate it. Sure enough, Crosshairs tells me he wants me to have more of the nutrition drink since I can't have much at once. He prepared the large syringe as he waited for the pain medicine to kick in. Didn't expect Bumblebee to say he'd leave or that Crosshairs would be fine with that.
"It's not easier with two of us. I have to do this slowly, or she'll throw up," Crosshairs explains. With that, Bumblebee leaves the room. I don't feel pain, but I feel nauseous and dizzy as Crosshairs sits me up. How can he say this is easier than Bee helping him?
Crosshairs POV
J.R. is leaning on my arm; I don't think she can sit up, which means she feels very weak. I might just be asking to be thrown up on, but I want her to have a little. Small amounts seem to decrease the chance that J.R. will throw up, but I'm still taking a chance. Anything to avoid putting in a feeding tube. After putting a blanket around her, I give her 100 ml. What should take not even five seconds takes thirty seconds, then she will rest for two minutes. J.R. takes it though she's afraid she will throw up. The door opens, and Cade walks in.
"I didn't tell Bumblebee to get you," I tell him, trying not to get angry, "he should know I can tell you how she did in the morning."
"It's fine, Crosshairs."
Cade looks at the monitor and infusion pump before looking at J.R. Not sure if he's concerned or not. He sits on the chair by the table.
"Well, Jamie came in here," I say as I put the syringe on the table to let J.R. rest. I tell him the lie J.R. told her.
"Well, it's not a complete lie-."
We are interrupted by J.R. throwing up, and she starts tearing up over it. I was prepared, and she didn't get it all over herself. I don't know if I can deal with bathing her, nor do I think she'd like it since she does not like how I have to feed her. I wanted to ask Cade if J.R. is worse than we thought, but I don't want to scare her.
"It's ok; we're done for now."
She threw up what I just gave her. I lay her down so I can clean up the mess. Cade starts another infusion of the medication to help her not feel nauseous and reduce her fever, tells me the antibiotics infusion will finish in a half-hour, and he'll do another round of antibiotics infusion in the morning before going back to bed. I looked over the medical binder we have, a quick reference for things related to Jamie's care, though we have very detailed records in the system. I found what I wanted; the section on feeding options we use during different stages of a flare-up. As I thought, even the minimally invasive nasogastric tube seems extreme if J.R. will feel like this for two to three days. Still, I worry she's not getting enough. I'll try again later after the infusion finishes. J.R. fell asleep ten minutes later, just as Drift walks in. He's not pleased to hear what happened in the last fifteen minutes. Both of us are unsure if we should continue what we're going or give in to an invasive, yet better, method. Drift then tells me about Jamie how she was calm when they returned to her room and went back to sleep, no problem. Drift sits on the chair next to me.
J.R. slept for four and a half hours; she was not happy about still feeling like shit. She was feeling a little better, enough for her to eat a little. J.R. was not pleased that I wanted her to eat a little even though she just woke up. I explained to her how I want to avoid IV options, and since she can't eat a lot at once, I want her to eat when she wakes up. J.R. was not happy hearing how much I want to do to take care of her.
Drift POV
Looking at the monitor as Crosshairs took care of J.R., only good is her temperature went down but slightly. Not enough to not make J.R. feel like shit.
At least you're getting better.
I watched how agitated J.R. is getting. J.R. will feel this way for a few days, but she hates the care she needs. It makes me wonder how often Jamie thinks about what's needed to care for her during a flare-up? Even minor ones require a lot of care. Might be J.R.'s personality. Our friend who keeps emotions bottled up, thinking It's a sign of weakness to show emotions, now needs help even to eat. I don't know if she's too weak to argue or agrees this is better since it's just for a few days...we hope. J.R. was able to eat. Though Crosshairs worries about giving J.R. enough, he also wants to be careful not to give her more than her stomach can handle, so he only gave her 100 ml.
"All right, enough for now," Crosshairs says as he hugged her. I stroked her forehead, not liking how warm she feels. We hear the medbay door open and close.
"How is she doing?" Cade asked.
"Still feeling like shit but able to keep a little bit of the nutrition drink down," Crosshairs tells him, "I'm just not sure how often to feed her. She gets upset when she throws up."
"She seems to agree though a feeding tube is uncalled for," I add.
"I've been told Jamie found out. How'd that go?"
"She knows about the infection but not what I have to do."
"She understands J.R. will be ok," I tell him as he looks over J.R. and works on the antibiotics infusion, "Bumblebee is with her," I added.
Once Cade started the infusion and left, Crosshairs tried to get J.R. to eat a little more. She still won't relax and is afraid to throw up in front of us. We assured her once again that it's ok if she does, and she'll feel better soon.