Hound POV
Another rough week has passed. Crosshairs struggles to keep up with pain management. Jayce was able to help J.R. with a shower though J.R. still cried from pain, even though we waited until the infusion finished. Jayce became stressed afterward. She's been struggling all week. Jamie isn't sure why J.R. is still in excruciating pain. It's been five weeks since Jayce attacked J.R. It Wouldn't make sense for her bones to take longer to heal but not break easily. These girls are also fighters and stronger than any other human. There's no evidence proving this, but Cade, the other Autobots, and I think it's because of all the crying J.R. does. Even if it's proven to be impossible, the three girls are on the unusual side medically.
I went to the medbay while Jayce is still asleep. We had to use a sleep aid on her last night, and she'll be asleep for at least another hour.
J.R. is asleep, but it seems it was a rough night.
"She had that nightmare again," Crosshairs tells me before I even ask.
Damn, so she's dreaming we'll hate and abandon the girls once a week. How long before this is daily? How long before Jayce has the same nightmare?
"They both think this shit is permanent the longer this continues," I sigh.
"The longer we risk Jamie finding out about their terrible mental health as well," Crosshairs adds.
The room is quiet for a half-hour before J.R. starts moaning. Crosshairs wastes no time trying to wake her up while trying to keep her calm. Crosshairs carefully moves onto the bed behind J.R. We still keep the bed at a 45" angle. I fix the blankets on J.R. before leaving the room.
Jayce wakes up a half-hour later, and as I expected, she's scared. She'd been like this all week. Drift has been the one to get her to relax enough to get out of bed and go downstairs to watch T.V. Jamie thinks Jayce is worried about J.R.
I try to get her to get out of bed, but nothing I say works. Drift walks in ten minutes later. Like we've been doing all week, I leave the room while he sits with Jayce but stay close in case he needs help. She ended up having a severe panic attack and seizure twice the last week, making it harder to get her to get out of bed. We know she's afraid Jamie will find out about all this shit and thinks staying in her room is a good idea.
Bumblebee comes upstairs and peeks in the room.
"It's not looking good, Bee. I was hoping she'd have a calm morning, but I don't think she will."
Bumble goes to Jamie's room.
Damn, I hope Jamie doesn't wake up soon. No way Bee will be able to keep Jamie in her room.
Well, we don't need to worry about that now because I'll be closing the door to Jayce's room. Damn it, what cruel force is letting this shit continue?
Between the panic attack, seizure, and crying afterward, it's been a rough hour. Jayce is terrified today. .damn, don't tell me you had the same nightmare as J.R.? I thought sleep aide kept the nightmares at bay, or is her mental state that bad? Drift has me get a bottle of nutrition drink.
I hate that Jayce is crying when I leave and is still crying. She won't let Drift lie her down either. She knows she'll fall asleep and is afraid to. I'm amazed we don't haven't have to deal with this every day, though we've dealt with this numerous times. I'm sitting at the desk in case I need to help.
Drift POV
I don't know if Jayce is still going through a panic attack or another one is coming, but she's not relaxed. This isn't simply uncontrollable crying either.
Damn it, I do not want to have to use drugs.
I move to the edge of the bed with Jayce on my lap. Moving in a slow, rocking motion has been helping her; hopefully, this continues to work. A few minutes pass, Jayce isn't calming down at all; she's coughing from crying. I have her water bottle in her room. I hand it to her, and she drinks from the water bottle, but she ends up throwing up all over herself.
She made sure I didn't get hit with vomit. Saying nothing, Hound leaves the room.
Like J.R., it upsets Jayce that she threw up. I can't leave her alone in her current state, even for a few minutes to change her shirt.
Moving her off me, I got a new shirt and took the soiled one off. Jayce is helping as she cries.
"It's ok," I tell her once I put the shirt on, sit on the bed and hug her. She's been like this for ninety-five minutes, "you need to calm down; everything will be ok."
I know she does not believe this. This situation has been dragging on for five months. My last option is a drive, but I can't hold her while driving. What else can I do?
"Come on," I pick Jayce up and carried her out of the room, downstairs to the garage.
Crosshairs walks out of the medbay as I walk by. He stops me and tells me to go to the unofficial guest room.
"I've tried everything the past ninety-five minutes," I tell him as he takes Jayce from me after putting a bed down.
"She's trembling," Crosshairs informs me, "Jayce, it's ok."
"No, it's not," Jayce sobs.
Crosshairs says nothing as he hugs Jayce tighter.
I worry she had the same nightmare J.R. has had twice, but she's in a worse mental state than J.R., and it's harder to get her to understand we will never leave them.
A few minutes pass before Crosshairs can lie down with Jayce. She's finally getting tired from all this. I move a chair left in here close to the bed and rub Jayce's back.
Jayce falls asleep ten minutes later.
"Finally," Crosshairs sighs, "this isn't good, Drift. She gets worse the longer this lasts. It's amazing, she didn't get this bad sooner. J.R. thinks we'll abandon them. What do you need to see to understand everything is ok, Jayce?" Crosshairs picks her up and walks out of the room.
"You're bringing her to the medbay?"
"J.R. wants to see her."
" But she'll freak out seeing Jayce asleep in the medbay."
Crosshairs tells me to go to Jamie's room; he'll deal with Jayce. We assume she'll wake up terrified.
I sit on the bed, staring at the wall, thinking about Jayce and this situation. What else can I do? I don't want us to give up, to have to tell Jamie and J.R. that Jayce can no longer go on adventures with them; I don't want to hurt my girl. A few minutes pass before I need to leave the room.
Jamie POV
I watch Drift leave the room, feeling like something is wrong, and he's not happy. It's only eleven in the morning, what— oh no, J.R.
Forget running; I use instant transmission. I'm in the medbay in two seconds. Crosshairs isn't here, which isn't unusual if he knows J.R. will be asleep for a while.
J.R.'s healing is unusually slow. She should have been fully healed by now. This is the first time I've failed to heal broken bones.
"I'm sorry," is mumble, failing not to cry, forgetting I'm right by the bed.
A few minutes pass before I feel hands under my armpits, and I am slowly lifted.
"You're small and light, but trying to get you up here from this angle is hard," J.R. comments. She has me laying on my stomach on her, "relax," she says as she gently pushes my head down to her chest.
Does she want me to listen to her breathing? Why this way?
"Are you sure you're not in pain?"
"It's fine."
J.R. sounds fine as she's talking. Why is she taking so long to heal?
J.R. POV
Damn it, keeping this shit from her is causing stress. I know Drift has kept her stress level low most of the day, and she doesn't seem to be plagued with nightmares. Yet, if Jamie knows what's going on, she can talk to Jayce, and that could help Jayce.
Jamie falls asleep twenty minutes later. This might end badly if my pain returns while she's on me.
Ninety minutes pass before both Crosshairs and Drift walk in.
"Get her off; it's starting to hurt," I whisper.
Drift gets Jamie off me and holds her while sitting on the chair by the bed.
I watch Crosshairs prepare an IV bag. I do wish I knew when the last infusion finished.
"We have to tell her," I whisper once Crosshairs is by me, starting the infusion.
"You know what will happen," Crosshairs says as he takes my hand, "I know you want this shit to end but do we want to take that risk?"
He bends down, knowing I'm going to cry. I watch Drift get up and leave as I try not to cry, but I know it's pointless.
"Can you get me up to Jayce's room?"
"No, I'm not putting you through pain if we can avoid it. We'll try to get her to come down when she wakes up."
Crosshairs repeats what has been said time after time, but I'm starting not to believe it.
Crosshairs POV
I know J.R. is slowly not believing this shit will end in a good way. Not much I can say, so I get a bottle of nutrition drink from the fridge. We need to start thinking about making Jayce and J.R. eat food, but these two are so depressed that getting them to drink nutrition drink is sometimes hard.
"You think you can get to the couch?" I asked.
J.R. tells me she can walk.
We're not even out of the room, and she's struggling to walk. Good thing Bumblebee is sitting on the couch. I pick J.R. up and walk to the couch while Bee wheels the IV pole.
"You should have told me walking would be painful," I say as I put J.R. on the couch in a sitting position. She's in pain but not excruciating pain. I hope this pain doesn't get that bad before the pain medication kicks in. I wait a few minutes for the pain to pass before giving her the bottle of nutrition drink and turning on the T.V.
One hour later
Jayce POV.
Not surprised, one of the Autobots is sitting at my desk, but I didn't think it would be Drift. I move to my side, facing the wall. Not even thirty seconds pass before Drift lays on the bed with me and holds my hand. I can tell he's worried I'm going to start panicking. At this point, I'm either panicking or having nightmares. Not even five minutes pass before my pain starts.
"Come on, let's go downstairs," Drift insists though he doesn't give me a choice. He's carrying me downstairs.
Drift puts me on the other side of the couch, laying down. I see J.R. watching me, worried.
"She's fine, J.R.," Drift says before going to the kitchen.
I can tell J.R. is in pain again. I went ahead and moved to sit next to her. We both see Crosshairs and Drift talking in the kitchen and Drift preparing something.
Damn it.
J.R. stares at me like she wants to say something but is afraid to. She starts talking, fear in her voice. Repeating what Crosshairs and Drift have been telling us, adding how it's been five months, the Autobots and Cade have kept us safe. By now, she's shaking. I move closer to her though she's afraid I'm going to attack her. I'm not helping by hugging her. She stops shaking after a minute and tries to tell me she's afraid I will have to stop going on adventures with her and Jamie before crying.
I don't know what to say. I don't know exactly why I'm like this. I need to do something to get her to stop crying. By now, Crosshairs is with us, trying to get her to stop.
"Go get the oxygen condenser," Crosshairs tells me.
Shit, I didn't know she'd start crying this easily. Though we know J.R. will need oxygen,
Crosshairs forgets we need to see what J.R.'s oxygen level is once she stops crying before giving her oxygen. I think he's more worried about her having a panic attack. I also grab the stethoscope.
Crosshairs is having a hard time getting J.R. to stop crying. I will not be much help with that I put the pulse oximeter in J.R.'s finger. 96% is fine, but it's slowly dropping. Drift tries to help calm J.R. down.
"It's ok, we're not giving up on either of you," Drift tells J.R. I know he's hearing how bad her breathing is.
"Go take care of Jayce," Crosshairs tells him before moving J.R. onto his lap, hugging her as he moves in a slow rocking motion, monitoring the pulse oximeter. Drift takes my hand and pulls me to follow him to the table.
"She'll be ok; Crosshairs will help her," he says as his hands are on my shoulders, "I want you to eat food."
Drift made the tea to help the pain and a little oatmeal.
"What are we going to do if Jamie comes downstairs?"
"She's working."
A few minutes pass before J.R. stops crying, and as I expected, she needs oxygen support.
Crosshairs keeps moving in a slow, rocking motion for another five minutes.
"Should we take her back to the medbay?" He asks Drift.
"No," J.R. answered though her voice is muffled.
"Ok, we'll let her stay here for a while," Drift says before he finds the stethoscope I brought from the medbay and listens to her breathing; his back is facing me, so I can't see his facial expressions. He says nothing as he returns the stethoscope to the medbay.
He returns to the table as I finish eating. I need to lay down; the pain is getting worse even with the tea. I lay on the couch, facing the T.V.
"You need to relax. That's why the pain is getting worse," Drift whispers as he sits on his knees by the couch, "J.R. is fine...well, you know what I mean."
"This shit situation is delaying her healing, and it's my fault. It's my fault she's even injured."
It wouldn't matter if I whisper since I'm crying.
J.R. POV
Fuck, I need to get to her but moving hurts.
"She'll be ok," Crosshairs whispers.
All I can do is hug him and listen to Jayce cry.
To the force in the universe keeping Jayce from healing, you can fucking stop now. She's suffered enough pain in the past five months.