SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE ME STOP WRITING DURING CLASS
Anyway.
I debated making this into two chapters but I already have the next few chapter numbers and their respective events connected in my head and I didn't want to have to change so... surprise? 18 page long Word document of a chapter? Enjoy? If it's too long please let me know and I will gladly split it up! This chapter is the length of three of the four assignments I'm supposed to be working on (but noooooo, I write instead).
I swear the next chapter is going to be so fluffy you won't even believe I wrote it (of course with some little tidbits of angst here and there). For now, please enjoy and leave a comment!

It had been about two weeks since the party, and things were… complicated. Some things had gotten better, and some had gotten worse. Will's hand was healing. Very slowly, but it was healing. It still ached a bit when he made a fist or carried something heavy, but the cuts weren't hurting anymore. They would definitely scar, though. What hadn't gotten better was the PTSD. It was the opposite of better. There was an average of one flashback a day, though the record was three. He was barely sleeping, even after a desperate attempt at trying sleeping pills. Those pills were now locked up somewhere in the flat just to be safe and Will had taken to sleeping on the couch some nights. The nightmares were only worse there without Jem, but at least Jem was able to sleep without being woken up every hour or so.

Speaking of Jem, he was quite busy. He would never agree, but Will assumed that it was almost like taking care of a baby. He had to sit Will down at the table and put the utensils in his hand to make him eat. He had to force him to take a shower most days. He had to get clothes out and sit there and watch to make sure Will didn't stay in his pajamas all day. It wasn't that bad every day, but it was probably most days by now.

Will was just exhausted. He was tired of getting triggered by the tiniest little things. He was tired of not noticing the growing panic until it was too late. He was tired of his hand being sore from grabbing his hair so tightly, tired of his jaw being sore from clenching so hard. Just… tired.

This, however, was not one of those days. Today, he got out of bed instead of being woken up by rolling off of the couch. He took a shower all by himself and then made breakfast for himself and Jem and ate most of it. Then he put on his shoes, sat on the couch, and waited.

The only reason he'd been able to actually do all of that was because he was so stressed about that day's appointment that all he could do to not think about it was be productive. He'd had appointments before. Therapy appointments, nutritionist appointments, doctor's appointments… This one was different, though. This one was at the hospital. He'd been in a hospital just once since the time he spent there after coming home, when he had bitten his own hand just a bit too hard. That had been different, though. It was the A&E closest to their flat, and he'd been half in a flashback and half drugged up and barely remembered anything. This appointment was going to be at the same hospital he'd stayed at, with the doctor who had treated him that whole time.

It definitely wasn't going to be a fun appointment.

He couldn't even imagine trying to read or watch TV or do anything else at the moment, so instead he just sat on the couch and stared into the fireplace and thought about what was coming up until Jem came in and told him it was time to go. As usual, Jem drove. Will still wasn't interested in driving. He was worried that he would have a flashback or panic attack or something and somehow crash the car, so it was probably better to just let Jem and TfL, if he ever worked up the courage to use public transportation again, handle it.

The drive to the hospital was very quiet. Jem tried to make conversation a few times, but neither of them were very interested in talking. They were both worried about how today would go. Will was obviously worried about the effect that it would have on the PTSD, but Jem was both worried about him and thinking about the time he had spent in the hospital when Will came home. It couldn't really be called PTSD, but he definitely had some bad memories associated with it.

Parking and walking to the entrance went in very much the same way. Will only spoke to point out an empty spot and Jem only spoke to comment on how the spot was not empty but instead filled by someone's motorcycle. It wasn't until they got to the entrance of the hospital that that changed.

"I don't even remember getting here," Will said. They were standing on the sidewalk just outside of the doors and he was squeezing the life out of Jem's hand. They'd almost been inside when Will just stopped walking, so Jem just assumed that he needed a minute to calm down before they went in.

"I remember getting here," Jem said. It wasn't something he would ever forget, and not really something he wanted to forget anyway.

If there was ever a time for Jem to break the speed limit, it would be now. He was in his car with a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, racing to the hospital and hoping that he wasn't pulled over before he could get there.

He could still feel the tears drying on his face from the earlier phone call. However, unlike the tears he had been shedding for the last three months, these were tears of relief. Just an hour ago, he had gotten a phone call from Linette and Edmund that was very different from the one he'd gotten three months before.

The first thing Linette had said after his "Hello?" was "They found him." Jem had had to take a minute to process what she had said, and that was when the tears started coming.

"Did you just say that they found him?" he asked.

"Yes, a few days ago. We just got the call a few minutes ago. They sent him and the others back to London and I guess they arrived today. Edmund and I need to take care of a few things here before we can come but I thought since you were in London…"

"Of course. What hospital?"

Linette had read out the information so he could copy it down, then said, "I just don't want him to be alone. I know you two are close and I know he'll want to see you. It'll be so much easier on him if you're there."

Linette didn't need to worry. By that point, Jem already had his jacket on and his keys in his hand, and he was already pulling into the parking lot of the hospital. Thankfully, it was early in the morning and a weekday and the parking lot wasn't very full. He found a spot as close to the door as possible and worked very hard to not run through the parking lot to the door.

Once inside, he immediately made his way to the reception desk. Linette had told him everything she knew, but she didn't know what Will's room number was. Hopefully, the receptionist could help with that.

"I'm here to see Will Herondale. He's in the army and he was transferred here from Iraq."

The receptionist typed something into her computer, clicked a few links, and then nodded. "He's here. Are you family?"

"I'm just a friend but his parents asked me to come. They're in Wales."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I can't give you any information unless you're family or I have permission from his family on file."

"If I call them and they talk to you, will that do it?"

She seemed to think about it for a very tense moment, but then nodded. Jem wasted no time in getting his phone out and calling Will's parents, and a few minutes later, she handed the phone back to him and said, "He's in room 302, but his doctor made a note that he wanted to discuss his case with whoever showed up. I'll just page him and he'll be down in a minute."

"Thank you so much," Jem said. There were chairs nearby, but he was too wound up to sit down and instead just paced around the reception area until he heard a door open and looked up to see a blonde-haired man in a white doctor's coat walk in. Jem was the only one there, so he went straight to him and introduced himself as Dr. Woolsey Scott, or just Woolsey.

"I just have a few things I want to talk to you about before you go see Will, so if you'll just follow me, we'll go somewhere more private."

Jem immediately nodded and followed him. All he wanted was to see Will, but if he needed to do this first, then so be it.

"So Will is your… significant other?" Woolsey asked as they walked.

"No, no, we're just friends. We've known each other since we were little so his parents asked me to come while they're stuck in Wales." It almost hurt Jem to say that they were just friends. In the last three months, he'd had some revelations. There were a lot of things that he realized he hadn't noticed before Will went missing, and some things he had regretted every day during that time. There were things that he wanted to say to Will and before he got that phone call, he had almost accepted the fact that he may never be able to say those things.

Woolsey opened the door to a small conference room and let Jem through, then closed the door behind them. He gestured for Jem to take a seat and then sat down in the chair across from him.

"I'm sure this is all a bit confusing and surprising," Woolsey said. "If I remember correctly, he was MIA for three months, right?"

"Right. I only just found out that he was found about an hour ago."

"I thought so. I made the note on his chart so I could explain everything that's going on with him before anyone sees him. It's nothing horrible or life-threatening, it's just… a lot. I would think it would be hard for a loved one to see him like that."

"Why? What is it?"

"I'm just going to go down the list and explain everything. The first is probably pretty obvious, seeing as he was held captive for three months. He's pretty malnourished and he's lost some weight. It's not too extreme, thankfully, so he's getting nutrients through his IV at the moment and we're prepared to put in a feeding tube through his nose if it's needed. I doubt it will be but I just thought I should let you know that that may happen. To go along with that, he's pretty dehydrated. He's getting fluids right now but we're a bit worried about his kidneys. They're not doing well after being dehydrated for months so we're just keeping an eye on his kidney function and hopefully it'll get better within a few days.

"He must have been kept in the dark for a while because he has a bit of a vitamin D deficiency. Again, it's nothing too serious. He'll be on vitamin D supplements for a while and hopefully when he's released he can get outside and into the sun. He'll also be referred to a nutritionist who can help him gain back the weight that he lost and they'll also be making sure that he has a very vitamin D-rich diet.

"Now, he also has what seems to be a bullet wound on his leg. We're not entirely sure what the story is behind that but it seems to be at least a few weeks old. Whenever it happened, it must have gotten badly infected and it never healed correctly. It's fine for now, but the plan is to reopen it, clean it as best as we can, and let it heal in a clean environment. It'll still leave a scar but it won't be as bad as it would have been and it'll take away any danger of it getting infected again. He also has wounds on his wrists that seem like what you get with prolonged use of handcuffs or some kind of shackle. Those were also infected but not as badly as his leg so we cleaned and bandaged those. They probably won't scar too badly but there might be a faint mark there.

"It also seems like his vision was affected by being in the darkness for so long and then suddenly being brought out into the light. We haven't noticed anything cause he's sedated but we were told that he was very disoriented and couldn't seem to find people who were talking to him even when they were right in front of him. We're not sure how much he can actually see, but we're pretty confident that he can only see about a foot or so in front of him. It is temporary, so don't worry about that. Any questions?"

"Nothing at the moment," Jem said. He was sitting on his hands to try to keep them from shaking. Every second he spent away from Will seemed to make them shake more.

"I'm sure you want to see him now," Woolsey said. "Follow me and I'll take you to his room."

Jem practically jumped out of his chair at that. He followed Woolsey through the halls once again as the doctor explained that Will had been sedated to keep him calm on the plane ride over. He was awake but pretty out of at the moment, but the sedation would be wearing off soon. Jem was just glad that he would be there for Will when he came back to himself.

As they stopped at the door labeled 302, Jem suddenly felt afraid to go in. He'd spent three months mourning Will and everything he would never get to tell him and now he was right on the other side of that door. He almost didn't want to go in. That would mean having to admit certain things to Will and that would mean that Will might not reciprocate and-

"I know this is hard for you," Woolsey said. "He's not really aware of what's going on right now. You have time to just adjust to him actually being there. If you need a minute, the bathroom is just a few doors down and you can go while the nurse is taking his vitals so you don't have to leave him alone."

Jem nodded and pushed the door open as Woolsey wished him good luck and walked away down the hall. The first thing he saw was Will's eyes. The last time he had seen those eyes was when Will left, when he had smiled and hugged Jem before he got on the plane. Now those eyes were unfocused and glazed over and just staring off into space.

The next thing he saw was Will himself. He was laying on his side, facing the door, and he looked very different. He was thinner and not as muscled as he had been the last time Jem saw him. He was wearing a plain t-shirt and some hospital-issued pajama pants and had apparently thrown the covers off at some point so Jem could see the bandages on his wrists and the bandage peeking out where the leg of his pants had ridden up. He was also very pale. Being from Wales, he already had very light skin, but Jem had never seen him so ghost-like before.

Will didn't show any recognition or awareness when Jem sat down in the chair next to the bed and said his name. Woolsey was right in saying that Will wasn't aware of anything, but that didn't mean it was easy to see. He was always so lively and basically always in motion. To see him so still was hard. Jem wanted to grab his hand and squeeze as tightly as he could until Will came back, but he didn't know if it would scare him or if he would be comfortable with something like that. Will had always been very touchy, always falling asleep on Jem's shoulder on the Tube or laying on the couch with his legs in Jem's lap while they watched TV, but now… Jem hadn't seen him since before he disappeared. He didn't know what Will had gone through or how much he'd changed.

Jem decided to just sit there with Will without touching him. He took the time instead to get used to the fact that Will was there in front of him, alive and somewhat well.

As time passed, Will seemed to get a bit more aware of where he was. The first thing Jem noticed was his hand clenching and unclenching on the sheets. He carefully slipped his hand in between Will's hand and the sheet and Will almost immediately relaxed. He wasn't sure if that was because Will just thought there was someone else there or if he knew it was Jem, but it worked anyway. That was only the beginning, though. Will got more agitated the more the sedation wore off. Jem squeezed his hand and tried talking to him, but it didn't seem to work. Instead, Will just kicked his legs out at things that weren't there, tossed his head from side to side, and muttered things that Jem couldn't make out.

It all came to a climax when the nurse came in to take Will's vitals and make sure the sedation was wearing off well. She chatted to Jem while she checked his IV and the heart monitor, but then it came time for her to check on the bandages on his wrists. She reached out towards him-

The next thing Jem saw was Will's fist flying towards the nurse's face.

Jem had to squeeze Will's hand to remind himself that this visit was not going to be the same. Will was standing right next to him with no kidney damage or half-healed bullet wound and fully aware of where he was. He'd come very far from how he'd been back then.

Jem took a deep breath and asked, "Ready to go in?"

Will nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

They crossed the parking lot and entered the doors into the reception area. There were small changes, like a different layout to the chairs and a different receptionist, but it was still the same area. They bypassed the reception desk and instead went straight to the elevators, which Jem was very glad of. He didn't want another reminder of the strange mix of panic and relief he had been feeling the last time he was at that desk.

He couldn't avoid the reminders completely, though. As soon as they entered the elevator, Jem saw the floor directory and, right at his eye level, were the words "Third Floor" and the immediate reminder of the time he'd spent on that floor.

Jem had somehow managed to grab Will's wrist before his fist could make contact with the poor nurse's face, but the damage was done. Within minutes, the nurse had called for help and Woolsey was there with a syringe in one hand and a pair of fabric wrist restraints in the other.

"He's already lashed out once," he said. "He'll probably do it again. It's better and safer for everyone."

"No, he just got confused," Jem argued. "You said he can't see. He didn't know what she was going to do and he tried to protect himself."

Jem had positioned himself in between Will and Woolsey without even thinking about it, almost like an unconscious effort to protect his friend. He wasn't about to let Woolsey get anywhere near Will with those.

"James, he's a danger to himself and others. We can help him."

Jem shook his head and stepped back, closer to Will. "He's not dangerous, he's scared. We don't know what he's been through in the past three months. He was just sedated and that probably made it worse. You can't do that to him again."

"Then we have to restrain him."

"You can't do that either. You said yourself that he was probably shackled. He has the injuries to prove it. If you restrain him it'll be just like he was never rescued."

Woolsey looked defeated. "What do you suggest we do, then? We can't treat him if he's acting like this."

"I'll do it," Jem said. "I can keep him calm. It already worked once. He knows me. If I'm there, he'll be calmer. I promise."

Woolsey just stared at him for a minute, but then he sighed and said, "Fine. But if it doesn't work and even you can't keep him calm, he'll have to be restrained. They might remind him of before he was found, but they're soft and they won't hurt him."

"I don't care. You're not putting those on him."

Despite everything Jem had said, the restraints stayed in the room. They sat on top of the table in the corner, in easy reach of whoever decided that Will was dangerous and needed to be restrained. Jem was just glad that they hadn't gone so far as to put the restraints on the bed just in case they needed them in an emergency.

Will stayed relatively calm for the next few hours, up until a different doctor came in to take a look at his leg. They weren't quite ready to work on it yet, but they just wanted to make sure that they could go ahead with the plan to treat it and needed to take a closer look first.

When the doctor, Dr. Abbas, introduced himself to Jem, the first thing he noticed was the man's Arabic accent. The second thing he noticed was Will's hand tightening on his and the slight uptick of his heart rate on the monitor. Jem didn't think anything of it at first. Will couldn't see anything and a new person entering the room was bound to make him a bit anxious.

It was when Dr. Abbas started checking his leg that Jem noticed something wasn't right. The moment the doctor touched his leg to remove the bandage, Will panicked. His grip on Jem's hand tightened even more and his other hand flew up and grabbed a fistful of Jem's shirt. He immediately pulled his leg away. When the doctor spoke again to ask Jem to get him calmed down, Will got even more panicked and started muttering, "No, no, leave me alone, please leave me alone, please-"

Will hadn't actually lashed out at Dr. Abbas yet but Jem was still terrified that they would take this as Jem not being able to keep him calm and restrain him. He sat down on the edge of the bed and grabbed the hand that was still holding his shirt in a tight grip, mainly to comfort Will but also to make sure he didn't go for the doctor. He repeated "You're okay, I'm right here." over and over until his breathing slowed and the heart monitor wasn't beeping so fast that it was a wonder that a nurse hadn't come in yet. Without taking his eyes off of Will's face, he nodded to the doctor to continue before Will started panicking again.

Dr. Abbas ended up having to do everything one-handed as the other hand was busy holding Will's leg down. Jem was also basically holding Will down on the bed as he tried to keep the unbridled panic in Will's eyes from turning into something physical. After ten agonizing minutes, the doctor finally straightened up and said he was finished, which immediately undid all the progress Jem had made on getting Will calm.

It was very strange, though. Nurses came in throughout the rest of the day to change the bandage on his leg, and although Jem was ready to have to hold Will down again, he didn't get nearly as panicked as he had before. When Dr. Abbas came back to explain to Jem what they were going to be doing the next day to fix his leg, he didn't come anywhere near Will but Jem still found himself pinning Will's arms to his chest while Will repeated "No, no, no…" and tried to get up. There was just something about that doctor that made him panic, and Jem was afraid that if they didn't figure out what it was soon, the restraints taunting him from the corner of the room would soon be locked around Will's wrists.

Thankfully, Will's appointment was on the fifth floor and Jem snapped out of the memory when the doors opened onto a floor that looked very different from anything he'd seen during that time. This floor was mainly for offices and follow-up appointments instead of actual treatment areas or wards.

But, once again, the reminders were everywhere. Despite the lack of hospital rooms or any real connection to that time, but it was still a hospital and there was bound to be something nearby that was going to remind Jem of something that had happened.

Sure enough, a few feet down the hall, there was a poster detailing the importance of keeping wounds clean and sanitary. The initial memory that this poster brought up wasn't of the time in the hospital but instead of Will telling Jem the whole story of what had happened at 4:00 in the morning. He remembered Will saying that he didn't remember much from when he was shot because of the raging infection that had quickly set in. This memory led Jem to question if Will remembered the next time after that that someone had worked on his leg.

Jem had spent all day trying to get Will prepared for this. He talked very softly and calmly to Will, made sure he was calm before the nurses came in to check his vitals and wounds, and made sure people were quiet if they came in while he was asleep, which was a very rare occurrence. It was all so they could get through taking care of the bullet wound on his leg without him panicking and ending up in restraints.

They would normally take him to an operating theatre to do a procedure like this, but it had been decided that it would be too much stress and he would be better off just staying in his room. Instead, the plan was to create a sterile field on the bed, clean it out as best as they possibly could, stitch it up if possible, and then bandage it again to keep it from developing another infection.

They should have known it wouldn't go to plan.

No matter what they did, Will fought them. He wouldn't let them get anywhere near his leg and Jem was definitely going to be feeling it in his arms tomorrow after trying so hard to hold him still. It didn't help that the doctor that Will seemed to be almost afraid of was in the room. Finally, after a few failed attempts, Woolsey backed away from the bed and said, "Alright, everyone. Let's just take a little break and let him relax. Jem, I want to talk to you in the hallway."

Jem reluctantly followed Woolsey into the hall and positioned himself so he could still he Will through the open door. He needed to be ready to run back in there in case things started to escalate.

"We need to get this done but he's not letting us," Woolsey said. "I know you don't want any restraints or sedation but we might have to resort to that just this once. We'd take the restraints off or stop the sedation as soon as we're finished. We just really need to get his leg taken care of before it gets worse."

Jem shook his head. "I told you, it's not happening. Not even for this."

"What else can we possibly do, then? We can't do this while he's being combative."

"He's not being combative," Jem said. "He's confused and he doesn't know we're trying to help him. He can't see what anyone's doing or who they are or where he is. All he knows is that someone is trying to grab his injured leg and he doesn't understand why."

"Then how can we help him understand that?"

Jem thought about it for a minute until he realized what the solution was. They would have to basically use Will's own body against him. "He's malnourished. He's pretty weak right now. If this was a year ago I would have thrown me off in seconds. I can lay on the bed with him. He'll feel safer cause I'm there and I can hold him down and hold his leg in place with my legs. You said you were going to use a local anesthetic to numb the area, right?" He waited for a nod from Woolsey, then continued, "If we do this right, he won't even realize there's anything strange going on. He'll probably feel the needle going in, but once the anesthetic starts working, he won't feel it. We can't use laughing gas cause that'll make him more confused, so I'm the next best thing."

Woolsey thought over what Jem had said, then replied, "Alright. Let's do this."

Jem and Woolsey went back into the room, where they explained the plan to everyone else and then got ready. Jem laid on the bed behind Will and got one of his arms under him, then put his other arm over the top and held on tight so Will's arms were pinned against his chest and he couldn't move around too much. He did something similar with Will's leg and hooked his ankles together so that Will's leg was trapped and they would only have one leg to worry about if he tried to fight back again. It was very similar to spooning, but spooning wasn't usually used for restraint and was more for comfort. This, however, seemed to do both. Jem was holding on pretty tight, but it didn't seem to be causing Will any discomfort because Jem felt him relax almost immediately, like all the tension he had been holding on to was gone.

Will jumped a bit when they injected the local anesthetic, but after they had left it for a while to give it time to work, he didn't react at all when they poked at the area to make sure it was working. It was only when they really started working on it that Jem had to hold on tighter. He wasn't in any pain, but he could still feel that they were doing something to his leg and he didn't like it. Jem could also feel him tense up every time Dr. Abbas spoke, but fortunately, that was all he did.

The whole procedure was done within a few minutes and Jem was finally able to relax. They were going to have to clean it and change the bandages every twelve hours, but Woolsey came up with the idea of just teaching Jem how to do it so they wouldn't stress him out any more than he already was.

That wasn't the only time Jem found himself in that same half-restraint-half-spooning position. It turned out to be very useful to get Will to relax while the nurses were doing their rounds or getting him to calm down enough to sleep, mainly at night. They had quickly figured out that Will was much calmer when Jem was around, even if he wasn't anywhere near the bed, and visiting hours had just been ignored in the interest of keeping Will calm and the medical staff unharmed. Jem was very glad of that, because there was no way he was going to leave Will alone in this hospital.

Jem hadn't had to use that technique at all since, but he wasn't surprised about that. Will was in a much better state of mind now than he'd been back then, and the technique had been created to protect others. There hadn't been anyone else around to protect in the last few months. It probably still would have helped, though. Jem still remembered how much Will had relaxed the first time and he sometimes wondered if the same thing would happen now. He was so tense sometimes that his hands were in tight fists while he was just sitting on the couch or laying in bed.

Jem heard Will's voice and he looked over to see Will talking to a woman sitting at the reception desk of the waiting area. "We'll call you back in a few minutes," he heard her say, and then Will was walking back towards him and pulling him towards the chairs farthest from the doors.

As they sat down, Jem noticed the aforementioned tight fists where Will had his hands in his lap and gently slid his hand under Will's. It seemed to work because Will immediately opened that hand and held Jem's, then opened the other one and shoved it under his leg.

"How are you doing?" Jem asked quietly.

"Just fine," Will answered. "You?"

"About the same. There's just… a lot of memories here."

"All good ones, I assume."

Jem smiled. "Obviously."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, until a voice came over the PA system to say, "Attention: Code Gray, missing patient. Please be on the lookout for…" Jem stopped listening halfway through and didn't hear any part of the description of the patient because he was too busy remembering the last time he'd heard a Code Gray called.

He'd been gone for two minutes. Two short little minutes. All he'd done was walk ten feet from the door of Will's room to the bathroom, take care of what he needed to, and walked ten feet back. Will had been asleep when he left and he hadn't reacted or shown even the smallest sign of waking up when Jem carefully extracted himself from the bed.

And then when he came back, the bed was empty, the IV was dripping onto the floor, and Will was gone.

Jem immediately panicked. He both slammed the call button and run out into the hallway shouting for help. A nurse, one of the ones who had been taking care of Will, thankfully, immediately came running. He didn't give her time to ask what had happened before he said, "He's gone."

She put her hands on his shoulders and said, "Calm down. Tell me what happened."

"I went to the bathroom. I was out of the room for two minutes and when I came back he was gone."

"Okay," she said. "I'll let them know. We'll find him, I promise."

Within minutes, Woolsey was almost running down the hallway and an announcement of a Code Gray had been made, along with a description of Will and a warning to anyone who found him to not approach him. Jem was sitting on a chair in the hallway with a plastic cup of water that the nurse had brought him and one leg bouncing up and down almost unconsciously. He could feel tears welling up but he ignored them in favor of standing up to interrogate Woolsey.

"Has anyone found him?"

Woolsey shook his head. "Not yet, but it hasn't been very long. Someone will, Jem."

"What if he got outside? He's confused, he can't see, he doesn't know where he is-"

"Jem, there is no way he could have gotten outside. We're in a hospital and he's obviously a patient. Someone would have noticed him long before he got to any door that leads outside. He's also walking on an injured leg. He's probably not moving very fast. He couldn't have gone far."

Jem buried his face in his hands. "I didn't even think about his leg. What if-"

"If he's done any damage to it, we can fix it. The first thing we need to do is worry about finding him. If it helps, you can help us search."

"Search where?"

"We're going to start on this floor and then go to another one if he's not here. We'll need you there, anyway. You're the only one he won't try to attack if you get too close."

"He's not attacking, he's protecting himself," Jem said under his breath. Woolsey didn't seem to hear and gestured for Jem to follow him down the hallway.

It took almost twenty minutes until Woolsey's pager finally went off. After a quick phone call, he and Jem were quickly making their way to a lift while he explained. "Someone found him one floor up. How he got up there, I have no idea. It took them a while to find him because he kind of hid himself behind a supply cart. He seems alright but they didn't want to get too close. That's where you come in."

Jem saw him the second the lift doors opened. He was pretty far down the hall, but who else would be sitting on the floor in a hospital hallway? He ran down the hall to where two nurses were hovering as close as they were comfortable being, which was on the other side of the hall and a few feet down.

Will had curled himself up as small as possible with his face buried in his knees and his arms over his head. Jem sat down on the floor in front of him, but didn't reach out yet so he didn't scare Will, who probably didn't know he was there.

"Will? It's me, Jem. I'm going to just touch your leg, okay?"

The only response he got was a slight twitch of Will's fingers. He assumed that that meant Will had at least heard him, so he slowly reached out and rested his hand on Will's leg. When he didn't end up with a fist to the face or something similar, he got a bit bolder and pulled the leg of his pants up. There were a few small spots of blood on the bandage, but nothing too bad. There was also a few spots of blood on his shirt, but based on the placement and size of the spots, it was safe to assume that it came from his arm where he'd pulled the IV out.

Jem spent the next few minutes talking softly to Will and trying to coax him out of the position he'd curled himself into. When he finally started to relax, Jem nodded to Woolsey, who was standing a few feet away with a wheelchair so Will didn't have to walk all the way back to his room and aggravate the injury even more. Jem gently coaxed Will into standing up and then did the same to get him sitting down in the wheelchair. When he tried to pull away, though, Will grabbed Jem's hand and would let go. It was a bit of an awkward walk back to his room because he'd grabbed Jem's left hand with his own left hand and Jem had to walk with one arm pulled over his chest.

Will fell asleep as soon as he was back in bed and didn't wake up even when the nurse put in a new IV. It was probably the most physical exertion he'd had in a while and it had apparently exhausted him. Jem, on the other hand, couldn't even imagine falling asleep. He was still tense and jittery from the stress of the whole situation. Will hadn't gone far and probably would have been caught before he could get outside, but he still found himself imagining a scared and confused and basically blind Will trying to find his way out there. He kept seeing one recurring image of him being arrested for being uncooperative and combative, or someone getting too close to where he had hidden himself behind the supply cart and ending up in the psychiatric ward restrained and drugged.

He jumped when he felt someone's hand on his shoulder and heard, "Are you alright?" He tore his eyes away from Will to see Woolsey standing next to him with a new roll of gauze and bandages.

"I'm just thinking about what could have happened."

"I told you, he couldn't have gotten far. He's safe here."

"I know, but…" Jem sighed and shook his head. "I can't leave him alone anymore. Even if I'm not in the room, I need to know there's someone with him, even when he's asleep."

"A nurse told me that she dropped a pan in the hallway outside his room," Woolsey said. "It probably woke him up and he just got confused."

"He got confused because I wasn't there. He was alone. Nobody was there to tell him that he was safe. I can't let this happen again. I will not leave him alone."

"I think I was looking for the other soldiers."

Jem hadn't been expecting Will to say anything and was a bit surprised when he did. "What?"

"When I ran off while you were in the bathroom. I feel like I remember thinking that I needed to find them. I don't even know if they were actually in the hospital but I was looking for them."

"Oh," Jem said. "They were. They just sent you all to the same hospital. They were on the same floor as you, though."

"At least I was looking in the right building."

"I still don't know how you managed to get up the stairs," Jem laughed.

"How do you know I didn't take the lift?"

That had Jem laughing even harder. "You were trying to look for people while practically blind and injured. I highly doubt you would have had the mental energy to work a lift."

"You don't know that," Will said, crossing his arms. Jem was now laughing at the "petulant child" impression he seemed to be doing, but it wasn't really that funny. He'd felt guilty for weeks because Will had disappeared on his watch. He still had dreams about what could have happened if he hadn't been found. It was still good to joke about it, though. It was already a very stressful day, and getting just the tiniest smile out of Will was important. It always felt good when something Jem said or did got just a little bit of that joker personality that had disappeared with Will to come out again.

Jem heard a door open and looked up to see Woolsey walking towards them. "Welcome back! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Will and Jem both stood up to greet him. "Not long enough," Will said, shaking his hand.

"I can imagine," Woolsey said. "Follow me and we'll get started."

As they walked towards the examination room, Jem noticed him looking at their entwined hands. "Just friends, you say?" he asked.

"Things have changed, Woolsey," Will said. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Woolsey smiled and shook his head. "No, no, no problem at all. It's just that a few nurses owe me money now."

When they got to the room, Jem sat down in one of the chairs against the wall and Will sat on the padded table and swung his legs like a little kid. Wooley washed his hands at the sink in the corner, then turned and asked, "I still remember Magnus's rules. Anything I need to know before we get started?"

Jem knew Woolsey was starting to get worried. They'd barely been able to get anything done in the last few days because every time someone new cam in the room or someone who wasn't Jem got too close, Will panicked. Jem did his best to keep him calm, but it wasn't working as well as they wanted it to. They needed to draw blood to check his kidneys, change his IV, make sure his leg wasn't getting infected, and more, but they just couldn't.

"Something needs to be done," he said to Jem after a particularly scary incident with the doctor that still set Will off every time. Jem still hadn't figured out what it was and if what had just happened became a regular occurrence, his "no restraints" rule was going to become a thing of the past.

"I'm doing everything I can," Jem said. "I don't know what else I can do. He's scared and obviously traumatized and having people come in all the time is making it worse."

"I may actually have an idea," Woolsey said after a few minutes of silence. "I have a friend who works in a different ward. He's worked with traumatized patients before. He might have a few suggestions for us. Even if he doesn't, it would hurt to ask."

Jem nodded. "If it helps Will then we should do it. I can't watch him go through this much longer."

Woolsey had called his friend almost immediately and later that day, a very brightly colored nurse was walking down the hall towards Jem and Woolsey. His scrubs were very colorful and covered in cartoons of cats and his hair almost looked glittery.

"He works in the pediatric ward," Woolsey explained. "They had an art therapist in today to do crafts with the kids."

"Did they pour a jar of glitter on his head?"

"No, that's just how it always looks. He says he does it for the kids but I distinctly remember him having glittery hair for years before he started here."

The nurse in question stopped in front of them and Woolsey said, "Jem, this is Magnus Bane. Magnus, this is Jem Carstairs."

"Nice to meet you," Jem said, shaking Magnus's hand. "Hopefully you can help us."

"Maybe you can help me and explain a bit more about why I'm here," Magnus said. "All Woolsey told me was that there was a patient he needed me to take a look at. I assume you're not the patient?"

"No, it's my friend, Will. He was a POW for three months and he's not doing well psychologically. I'm doing what I can to keep him calm but it's getting harder the longer he's here and we don't know what else to do. Woolsey suggested restraining him but I'm not letting that happen."

Magnus looked almost murderous as he turned to Woolsey. "You wanted to use restraints on a man who just spent three months in captivity?"

Woolsey looked like he'd just been disciplined by his mother and tried to mumble an explanation. "We're going to have a talk about this later," Magnus said, then turned back to Jem. "Is it alright if I just watch him for a while? I think I can help but I just want to see what's going on first."

"Of course. They need to come in and take blood for some tests so I'm sure you'll get quite the show then."

Jem was definitely right about that. Trying to get one little vial of blood out of Will was harder than it sounded. From the moment the nurse walked into the second they pulled the needle out, it was a constant battle. Jem was in his usual position, but he was only able to keep part of Will still. Someone else had to hold his arm in place while the nurse tried and failed to get the needle into a vein that was smaller than it should have been from the dehydration. They eventually had to have Jem lay down so he was facing Will with the arm they needed trapped between him and the bed. It wasn't perfect, but it worked in the end.

When the nurse and her hard-won prize had left, Jem collapsed into the chair next to the bed and Woolsey, who'd been in charge of holding Will's arm in place, leaned against the wall and buried his face in his hands. Magnus, who was standing in the corner of the room, sighed and said, "That's pretty bad."

"That's why we called you," Jem said.

Magnus leaned forward to look more closely at where Will was just staring at the wall. "Is there something wrong with his vision?" he asked.

"He was in the darkness for three months and he basically has a very severe case of snow blindness," Woolsey explained. "We think his field of vision is about one foot in every direction."

Magnus was about to say something when there was a knock on the door and Dr. Abbas walked in. Both Woolsey and Jem immediately stiffened and Jem got up from the chair and hovered over the bed like he was about to grab Will. Magnus didn't know what the problem was, until the doctor started to speak about something to do with Will's leg and Jem had to grab Will to hold him down when he tried to sit up.

Magnus immediately grabbed Dr. Abbas's arm and said, "I've seen enough." He pulled the doctor out into the hallway and gestured for Woolsey to follow. He needed to talk to Jem too, but he was currently laying on the bed with Will to try to get him calm again and Magnus didn't want to interrupt him.

"I need to see both of you and Jem in conference room A in half an hour. We need to do something to help Will and I have a few ideas."

Half an hour later, Magnus, Woolsey, Jem, and Dr. Abbas were sitting around a conference table. Jem had his phone on the table in front of him and kept turning the screen on to check for new messages or missed calls. There was a nurse sitting with Will who'd promised to text Jem with updates or call if he was needed, but he couldn't keep from worrying that he'd missed the notification and Will was suffering without him.

"Alright," Magnus said. He had a notebook in front of him and it looked like he'd been doing a lot of writing in the past half hour. "Let's get started. I've seen everything I needed to see and I have some ideas. We're going to make some rules."

"What kind of rules?" Woolsey asked.

"Rules that are going to make it a lot easier for everyone involved, including Will," Magnus said. "Now, rule number one is about his vision. You said he basically has snow blindness, right?" Woolsey nodded and Magnus continued with, "And you're just keeping the blinds wide open and letting all the light in. I know he has a vitamin D deficiency but right now the sun is causing more trouble than it's worth. He's been in the dark for three months and suddenly he's in a bright sunny room. He probably spends most of the day with his eyes closed because the sun is so bright, even when it's cloudy."

"What do we do instead?" Jem asked, but his eyes were still focused on his phone.

"First, we close the blinds and turn the overhead lights off. There's a reading light above the bed that's much dimmer and the light is more yellow and not as harsh. I would say all the lights are off but the nurses have to be able to see what they're doing. That'll make it easier for his eyes to adjust to the light.

"Rule number two is kind of similar. He can't see, so he doesn't know who's in the room with him or what they're doing. Why do you think he tried to pull away when the nurse tried to draw blood today? He didn't know what was going on at all. From now on, anybody who comes in needs to knock on the door, explain who they are and what they're there to do, and then wait for permission to come in. They also need to explain what they're doing as they do it. For example, if they have to draw blood again, they need to say they're going to grab his arm before they do it."

Jem nodded, but then frowned. "Who do they have to wait for permission from? Will?"

"Ah, yes, I forgot to explain that part. You're the one they ask permission from. Nobody enters the room unless you tell them it's alright and nobody gets close to him without your permission. If they are doing something and you can tell he's getting distressed, you tell them to stop and they don't start again until you think he's ready. If he's already stressed before they come in, they'll leave and you can use the call button to call them back when he's ready."

"Sounds good," Jem said. "Can you add in there that nothing happens if I'm not in the room?"

Magnus nodded and scribbled something in the margins. "Now," he said, turning to Dr. Abbas, "I noticed that it got a little tense when you came in and then even worse when you started talking. Does he do that with anyone else?"

"He gets distressed with everyone but for some reason it's the worst when he's in the room," Jem said. "I can't figure out why but it's just him."

"Okay, that's what I thought. Where are you from?" Magnus asked.

"Iraq," was the answer the doctor gave.

"And where was Will stationed?"

"Iraq," Jem said, then realized what Magnus was getting at.

"That confirms my hypothesis, then," Magnus said. "We don't know what happened in those three months, but whatever it was is causing him to have a very strong reaction to any accents similar to whoever was holding him captive. I'm very sorry. It's not your fault, and you've done wonders on fixing that bullet wound. Unfortunately, you're not doing wonders on his mental state and I don't think you should be assigned to him anymore."

Jem couldn't even imagine how it felt to not be allowed to treat a certain patient just because you were from a certain country. He was sure it wasn't the first time Dr. Abbas had faced something like that and it wouldn't be the last. He didn't want the doctor to have to be reassigned, but he also didn't want Will to have to be reminded of whatever happened in those three months every time he came in.

"No need to apologize," Dr. Abbas said. "It's not his fault either. I always felt bad when I had to go in there because I knew there was something about me that was scaring him so I'm glad that we figured it out and can make a change."

"Thank you for understanding," Magnus said. He then reached under his chair and a second later the restraints that had been taunting Jem from the corner of the room for days dropped onto the table. "We need to talk about these," he said with a pointed look at Woolsey. "These are not going anywhere near him and you can forget about any sedatives. If you put these on him, it will not go well for either of you. You've seen how hard Jem has been working for the past few days to keep him calm and these will make that impossible because he's going to think he's right back where he started."

"I understand," Woolsey said. "They'll go back into the cabinet."

"No, they'll go back to the psych ward where they came from. You put them away, and you go back to your boyfriend," he said to Jem.

"We're not- we're just friends," Jem said hurriedly. Magnus nodded slowly, like he didn't believe a word that Jem said.

"You go back to your friend, then, and I'll go print out a sign that's going to be posted on the door so anyone who comes in sees the rules. I don't want anyone breaking any of them, even if they think they need to."

Another half-hour later, Jem was pretty sure that even people who were just passing by were going to know the rules. The paper that Magnus printed out was the size of four standard sheets put together and it was very brightly colored. "RULES" was highlighted in red at the top and was also italicized and underlined, so it would be pretty hard to miss. Under that was the list of rules:

Blinds closed at all times

No overhead lights whatsoever

Clearly explain who you are and why you're there when you knock on the door

Do not enter without permission from Jem

Clearly explain what you're doing as you work

Nobody enters without Jem's permission

Nobody touches Will without Jem's permission

Nobody does anything on Will when Jem is not in the room even if they have permission

NO RESTRAINTS

NO SEDATIVES

This sign was taped to the door with an obscene amount of tape to keep it from falling off, and all the medical staff on shift that were assigned to Will were informed of the rules with the instructions to inform anyone on the next shift before they left. By the end of the day, Magnus had been temporarily reassigned from the pediatric ward to Will and Will only, and once Will was discharged he would go back to the children who were not happy with the reassignment. He had also been put in charge by Woolsey and no treatment or vitals check happened without permission from both him and Jem. Dr. Abbas had also been reassigned and was now treating a patient whose family was from Iraq and they had quickly bonded over their shared heritage.

The change in Will after the rules were implemented was amazing. The next day, Will reached out his hand towards Jem when he came back from the bathroom. This in itself wasn't anything special because Will had been reaching for him multiple times a day since he got there. This time, though, he actually reached out in Jem's direction and grabbed his hand. He didn't seem to know where Jem's hand was until he was in arm's reach, but it was still an improvement. Two days after that miracle, Jem found himself sitting next to the bed with his hand resting lightly on Will's arm while a nurse drew blood to check his kidney function again. He was still ready to grab Will if anything happened of course, but the fact that he was just sitting there almost made him cry. Now that Will wasn't so confused and scared, everything was so much easier for everyone.

"Alright, everything's looking good," Woolsey was saying. "Your leg looks much better than it did a few months ago and your hand is healing well. Just keep it clean and keep the brace on and don't try to take bites out of yourself anymore."

"I can do the first two but I can't make any promises about the last one," Will said as he jumped off of the table.

Woolsey took another look at them, laughed, and muttered, "Just friends…"

"It was true at the time!" Jem said.

"I'm sure it was."

"Thank you, Woolsey, for the reminder of our refusal to admit our feelings for way too long, but we really must be going," Will said, probably to save them from any more embarrassment if the bright red blush was anything to go by.

The walk back to the car was a lot easier than the walk there. They had already been reminded of everything that had happened all those months ago, and now it was just the tension that was left. By the time they got to the car, Will's hands were shaking and it took him three tries to get the car door open.

When they got in the car, though, they both immediately relaxed. They could still see the hospital through the windshield, but they weren't in it anymore and that was enough. Jem was pretty proud of both of them, especially Will. He knew Will didn't remember much of that time, but he definitely remembered the confusion and fear that came from both just having been through a horrible event and not being able to see. Jem, on the other hand, remembered all of the fear and the worry and concern that he felt every time he had to watch Will panic just because a nurse tried to check his IV or hold him down while they tried to do things to help him.

"It's a bit late but do you want to get lunch?" he asked Will.

"I'm not hungry but you can get something," Will answered. He needed to eat at some point, but Jem didn't want to argue and force him to do it.

"I can have something at home. I don't want to get something if you aren't."

Will was silent for a minute, then asked, "Can we go to that one bridge you like?"

. .

It wasn't easy to find a parking spot close to the bridge, but Jem was finally able to find the last spot left in a full parking lot and pulled in before anyone else could. Parking spots in central London weren't easy to get, and were almost impossible to find on a weekend at the peak of tourist season. Not entirely impossible, though, as evidenced by Jem's hard-won spot.

They still had a ten-minute walk to actually get to the bridge and they spent the time holding hands, as usual. They didn't say anything, though. Will seemed like he was thinking about something pretty important and Jem didn't want to interrupt that.

Finally, the red and white iron railings and the sign stating "Blackfriars Bridge" came into view. They walked along the side of the bridge farthest from the unsightly rail bridge for a while, past a piece of paper taped to the railings that mentioned some characters from a book series they'd never heard of, and stopped somewhere in the middle of the bridge.

Will leaned forward with his elbows on the railing and said, "I know it all comes from what happened in the cave, but I think I have some kind of secondary trauma from the hospital. Not from anything you did, obviously. You were great. It's just… not being able to see and not knowing what was happening and all that."

"I can understand that," Jem said. "It wasn't the same as what happened before you got rescued but it was still pretty bad."

They stood in silence for a while, just looking out at the river and the boats and the people on the next bridge down the Thames. Jem rested his hand on Will's back to try to get him to relax a bit because he could see how tightly Will was clenching his hands together to try to keep them from shaking.

Will's voice broke the silence as Jem was watching a boat going under the bridge. "Jem?"

"Yes?"

"I want to get a service dog."