DISCLAIMER: I don't own Zoids or anything or anyone associated with them.
The Cunning Wolf, Gloria and Dr. Goman are my characters, but if anyone
would like to use them in a story just ask. Everybody and everything else
belongs to Viz and Pioneer. I just use them for my own amusement. I am
not making any money off of this. No infringement is intended.
A/N: This chapter may be a little hard to follow at times, because it's going to switch points of view. I tried to make it clear, but just know that that's going to be happening.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Tears and Confessions: Jamie begins to finds peace in the world
As Jamie surfaced slowly into the world of consciousness, he began to get the sensation of one sitting on some sort of spinning top. Invisible flames licked his skin all over and he flinched inward at the heat. His stomach began to churn; he felt so dizzy… so weak… too feeble to open his eyes or move his arms or do anything except give a weak groan. He gave a start when the sound was muffled by… something… on his face. Something covering his mouth and nose. Jamie began to panic. He squirmed in the bed and groaned loudly, trying with trembling fingers to pry off this thing off.
The man sat up quickly in response to the raspy moan coming form the boy on the bed. Poor Jamie was writhing in his sheets, his white face twitching into expressions of extreme discomfort. The man's heart jumped when Jamie's gray eyes opened a crack and quickly snapped shut. Was he waking up? The man leaned as far over the stirring boy as he dared and whispered something into his ear.
"Jamie." Jamie gave a start as a familiar voice washed over him. Through the world of fever-induced fire and spinning darkness someone he knew very well was trying to reach him. He tried to speak, but that horrible thing on his face kept the sound inside and Jamie knew he wasn't heard. Someone lifted it off for him with strong but gentle fingers.
Oh. Pteras on his chest. Hard to breathe. Hard to think. Really dizzy now. Jamie pried open his chapped lips and tried to speak, but only a scratchy moan came from the back of his sandpaper-lined throat. He slowly opened his eyes and squinted at the whirling scene before him.
He found himself looking down… no up… no… was he on the ceiling? It was hard to tell. A heavily blurred but still very familiar face loomed in front of him for a moment. It divided into two and then three and then many fuzzy tan and brown blurs. They spun and whirled and danced around him as the world continued in its sickening circles. Jamie tried to keep his gaze on that face.
"D-da... d-d-dad?"
The faces all nodded. Jamie closed his eyes, continuing to pant heavily, and began to cry. Not out of sorrow or depression or even out of relief, but out of sheer physical and emotional exhaustion. His weak mind could barely grasp the memory of what happened last night, but all the pain and all the suffering and everything he had felt for the past week came crashing to his shoulders at once. Someone lifted him into a gentle but lovingly encasing bear hug. Jamie let the refreshing tears fall, soaking the shoulder of a familiar leather jacket.
Oscar Hemeros held his son as tightly as he could without hurting him. He ran a comforting hand across Jamie's back and let the poor boy sob into his shoulder. Tears began to prick at the back of his own eyes; the result of a thousand conflicting emotions running through his mind at once. Something was very wrong here. Hard as these reactions normally were on his son, Jamie should not have been this emotionally drained. There was something behind all of this that Oscar felt he seriously needed to know.
But at least the boy was alive.
Oscar stroked his son's black hair and held him close. "It's all right," he whispered into Jamie's ear. "You're going to be okay, son. Just rest. You're going to be fine now."
Jamie let his sobs and the fresh tears fall into his father's shoulder. It felt so good to let loose all his pent-up emotions and just cry into the most comforting embrace he had been given in a long time. He felt his dad's hand on his back and knew at once that he was loved, that there was hope for him in this world after all. A weak smile played at his lips, while at the same time more tears continued to seep into his dad's shoulder.
After a while, Jamie's weak sobs slowed to a stop and he fell once again limp in his dad's protective embrace. Oscar set his son very carefully back onto the bed and slipped the mask over his mouth and nose. He rubbed his eyes with his hand and listened to the even breathing coming from Jamie's chest as it rose and fell in his healing slumber.
Gloria covered her mouth and nose with her hand. She closed her eyes and tried to conceal their unusual wetness. The scene that had just played itself for her, the reuniting embrace between father and son, was perhaps the most touching thing she had ever seen in her time working at the hospital. She knew it was unwise to become emotionally attached to her patients, but the tenderness on that man's face as he lifted and set down his son and the utter frailty of the boy's sobs just ripped her heart out and made remaining distant a difficult task indeed.
She looked up to a hand on her shoulder. Dr. Goman gave her a grim but understanding smile.
"Mr. Hemeros," he said to the boy's father. "If you don't mind, now that the boy is out of danger, I have some concerns that I wish to discuss with you regarding the nature of this particular reaction."
Oscar nodded grimly. He knew this was coming.
"Mr. Hemeros," Dr. Goman began tactfully, "The fact is, there is simply no way the boy could *not* have realized that the drink in that bottle contained strawberries. There was a picture of a strawberry imprinted on the cover of the bottle, the smell of even the empty bottle is distinct and very easy to identify, and there is enough natural strawberry juice in there that we are most certain the taste is unmistakable. That alone has certain implications to it, as well as the fact that the drink was a very strong alcoholic beverage that he could not have obtained anywhere in either this town or the next one. There was no sign of a struggle at the sight in which he was found, so we must assume that he took in that drink wittingly."
Oscar nodded again. God, what he'd have done to the culprit if Jamie had been forced that drink.
"It seems to me," Dr. Goman continued carefully, "As it does the paramedics who handled the boy and the nurses we have had assigned to his case, that the boy was making… a deliberate attempt – to do himself harm."
Now that the idea had been thrust out into the open, it was impossible to avoid or suppress. Oscar closed his eyes, flinching as the utter seriousness of it all finally hit him.
"Has Jamie – recently seemed unhappy with his position on the team?"
Oscar shook his head. "I'd have pulled him off the team immediately if I knew he didn't like it there."
"Has there been any change in him that you noticed that last time you spoke with him?"
"None that I noticed. He seemed really happy to see me, but other than that, no."
"When was the last time you spoke with him?"
"Last Tuesday. I contacted the Torros base and spoke to him that way, because it was his birthday and I knew I wasn't going to be able to see him in person this year."
"Who first received your message?"
"Jamie did."
"Is that – unusual?"
"No. Jamie tends to be the one who answers messages and works with the Hover Cargo's computer systems."
"Has he ever expressed unhappiness at his job?"
"I said *no*," said Oscar angrily. "Look, I told you that if I had any idea this was going on, I would have taken him off the Blitz team right away."
"I know that, Mr. Hemeros," Dr. Goman replied calmly. "I'm just trying to find out what went wrong here."
"Well, I don't know anything about it," Oscar snapped, "I love my son. He's the only family I have left. I don't know what I'd do if I lost him. I had no idea there was anything wrong. I wouldn't have just sat here waiting around for Jamie to kill himself if I did, nor would I have done anything to push him to this level."
"I'm not accusing you of anything. You had no idea anything was wrong, and that's all I needed to know."
Oscar watched his sleeping son sadly. "Can you help him?" he asked the Doctor quietly.
"That's what I'm here for. I will certainly do everything I can. What I would like to do is speak with the guardian of the Blitz team, Dr. Torros, and possibly the other members and the people he sees on a regular basis. However, it is a policy here that only immediate family can visit patients in this Intensive Care Unit, and I would like to keep him here until at least he is able to breathe comfortably on his own. Considering the obvious emotional stress the boy has been under, I will not ask Jamie any questions without your consent. I would, however, ask you to speak to him when he wakes up. Ask him to tell you what happened. The best way we can help your son is to learn why he felt there was no other way and try to help him sort things out."
"Thank you."
"You are perfectly welcome, Mr. Hemeros. Now, may I suggest something to help *you*?"
"What?"
"That you go down to our hospital cafeteria and eat something. Or leave the building and find someplace to get your breakfast. Then take your Zoid out for a fly – I believe you own a Pteras?" Oscar nodded. "You'll be amazed at how much better you will feel if you do."
"I'd rather just stay here with – " Oscar started to reply.
"I must insist upon this, Mr. Hemeros. I can guarantee you to things: one, that your son will make a complete recovery, and there is little to almost no chance of anything happening to hinder that; and two, he will not wake up any time within the next two or three hours. Jamie is one very sick and very exhausted young man and he will most likely not awaken before you return. You'll be surprised at the good it will do you."
Oscar didn't reply for a moment. He finally nodded and stood reluctantly to leave.
* * *
"Excuse me," said Bit to the gray-haired receptionist. She looked up tiredly.
"Yes? May I help you?"
"We're here to see Jamie. Jamie Hemeros."
She took a moment to look over a clipboard lying on top of her desk before raising her eyes to the young man with wild blond hair and the three dejected looking people standing behind him.
"Are you family?"
*Hardly,* Bit thought darkly. "No. We're his teammates."
"Then I'm sorry. Only immediate family and hospital staff are allowed to visit him right now."
"What?" Bit cried angrily. "Why?"
"It's hospital policy, young man," the receptionist replied. "He's in Intensive Care, and unless you are directly related to the boy, I can't let you in the room with him."
"Intensive Care?" gasped the Doc.
"But he's okay, isn't he?" demanded Leena.
"I don't know. All I know is what's written here, and his father is the only person not employed here who's allowed to visit him right now."
"Where is his father?" asked Dr. Torros. "Can we talk to him?"
"I can send for him. Please wait a moment," she answered, pressing a button on the desktop. A woman's voice answered over a speaker.
"Yes?"
"I have four people out here asking to see the boy's father," said the receptionist into the speakerphone.
"Oscar Hemeros is out at the moment," the voice replied. "I'm sorry, you'll have to come back later."
"No way!" shouted Bit. "Can't we at least see him?"
"I'm sorry, sir. You'll have to wait until – "
"But what about Jamie? Is going to be okay or not? We didn't come all the way down here just to have you tell us nothing and send us away!"
"He'll recover," the woman's voice replied. "He's a very lucky kid."
The blond haired boy flinched at the last comment. The receptionist found it odd that he was the one to do most of the talking, while the older man stood behind and gazed down the side hallway with an expression that seemed heavily laden with sorrow and remorse. Something seemed to be deeply troubling that poor man, as well as the rest of them. The young man with the brown hair said nothing; he just kept his arms folded and scowled through the floor as though intending to set it on fire. The girl with the raspberry hair mirrored the man in expression, but she kept looking this way and that around the hospital lobby. The blond boy himself seemed as emotionally tortured as the rest of them, though he looked like he was doing his best to hide it.
"Look," she said gently. "I can show you to the window outside his room and have Gloria draw the curtain for a moment and let you look at him."
"Really?" said Bit.
"Sure. Right this way."
Bit kept his gaze straight ahead as they started down the hall of the ICU, trying his best to avoid looking at the people on gurneys, with bloody injuries and mangled and discolored features of every possible sort. People hooked up to more machines than were present in his Liger, fighting with every passing moment to stay alive. It was far too easy to see Jamie in their position, only his spiked black hair recognizable over the rest of him. *With no one to blame except us if he died,* he thought bitterly.
Jamie didn't look as bad as some of the patients they had seen, but his limp form on the bed struck a dagger into Bit's heart that hurt more than any Zoid battle. To think that they had done this to him… Why couldn't he have seen this coming? Why hadn't they remembered?
*Oh God, I'm so sorry, Jamie,* Bit thought as a single tear slipped down his cheek. *If I'd only known… if I had any idea…*
He stole a glance at the Doc and the others, hoping with a dark satisfaction that at least they were feeling as bad as he was, if not worse. The Doc looked at least ten years older than usual. His wrinkled features sagged with regret and his tired eyes gazed regretfully through the glass. Tears were streaming down Leena's cheeks; the usually too-tough- to-handle warrior and trigger-happy maniac didn't bother to wipe them away. Brad's expression hadn't changed since that morning: the same fierce scowl covered his face and he refused to show emotion.
Bit's eyebrows narrowed in anger. Were they finally getting it? Did they finally understand what they'd done to this poor kid? Bit wasn't going to let them shrug it off this time. He'd realized from the start that Jamie wasn't exactly one of the more respected members of the team, but to completely forget his birthday like that... Wasn't the Doc at the very least required by *law* to know when Jamie's birthday was? The kid hadn't yet turned sixteen, and the Doc as his legal guardian was responsible for this stuff. And as his father's best friend, he *had* to know.
Dr. Torros looked up and caught Bit's fierce glare. He flinched and looked away.
*How could you do this to him?* thought Bit.
The nurse they had spoken to over the phone came out into the hall and told them quietly that their time was up; she was going to close the curtain and they needed to leave. No one argued. They didn't even say anything to one another as they left the hospital.
Bit scowled into the horizon. Jamie was going to be okay. He'd been lucky. The Doc and the others and even *he* had nearly killed the poor boy, just because they'd done nothing. It almost made him sick.
*I wish you could see how sorry I am, Jamie,* he thought in anguish. *I never meant for this to happen to you. Ever.*
*I'm so sorry.*
(A/N: Please note that Bit has not been a member of the Blitz team long enough to have been around when they celebrated Jamie's last birthday, so he is the only person who truly doesn't know when it is.)
* * *
Jamie groaned weakly and pried his heavy eyes open. The room wasn't spinning quite as heavily now, but the flames were still enough to make him want to fall right back into the soothing comforts of sleep.
A dark form sharpened into view. But it wasn't the familiar, comforting form of his father. A high-collared, black leather jacket and long raspberry hair towered over him ominously. Jamie would have gulped had he the strength.
Wolf.
The older man glared downward in a way that was almost frightening. It was a moment before he spoke.
"Yeh disappoint me, Eagle boy," he said coldly. "I'd have thought Wild Eagles were stronger than that. Do true, strong psychies land themselves here like this? Look at yeh. Weak. Sickly. Alone."
The mask wouldn't let him reply. Tears sprang to his eyes again. Why wouldn't Wolf take it off for him and let him speak? Jamie was far too ill to do it himself. Where was his dad? Where was the nurse? Weren't they the people who cared about him? Jamie turned his head to the side on the bed and tried to look for them, but Wolf blocked his view of most of the area he was able to see from this position.
"It's no use, boy," Wolf spat. "There's no one else here. Just me. As usual. Did yeh really think they'd come here to see yeh after all that?"
Jamie tried to move his hands, tried to get this stupid mask off so that he could tell Wolf differently. He wanted to tell Wolf that his father truly had been here, though Wolf would only ask where he was now and why he'd left, an Jamie couldn't answer either of those questions. But he had been here. Jamie had seen him.
Or had he merely been hallucinating?
Jamie heard the door open behind the scary older man. If Wolf heard it too, he didn't give any sign of it. He continued to give Jamie his cold, penetrating stare. Jamie cowered in his sheets.
Wolf opened his mouth to speak.
"Ha – "
"You."
Jamie started. He closed his eyes and nearly cried with relief. That voice, that warm, familiar voice announced the entrance of a man who could finally help him.
"You."
Wolf turned around slowly. Jamie caught a glimpse of a brown jacket in the doorway.
"S'been a while," said Wolf. Was that nervousness in his voice?
"Get out."
"Not happy teh see me? After all this time?"
"Get away from him. Now." There was a cold threat to that voice. Jamie closed his eyes and smiled under his mask.
"What's the matter – "
"I said *now.* Stay. Away. From. Him."
Wolf didn't reply. Oscar Hemeros had a fiercely cold glare on his face as he appeared over Wolf's shoulder.
"Get out of here. And stay out. If I see your face here again, I swear to Zi that I'll call the police on you. You keep away from my son. Get out of here. Now."
"If that's what yeh – "
"*NOW!*"
Wolf obeyed, and Oscar turned to his son, his face softening considerably.
"Jamie?" he whispered to the weeping boy. "Oh God. If I had known. If I'd only… are you all right?" Jamie nodded and felt himself again swept up into a tight embrace.
"He won't hurt you again, Jamie," whispered Oscar. "I promise."
END CHAPTER SEVEN
NEXT CHAPTER: Tears and Confessions, Part II: It all finally comes together.
A/N: This chapter may be a little hard to follow at times, because it's going to switch points of view. I tried to make it clear, but just know that that's going to be happening.
CHAPTER SEVEN: Tears and Confessions: Jamie begins to finds peace in the world
As Jamie surfaced slowly into the world of consciousness, he began to get the sensation of one sitting on some sort of spinning top. Invisible flames licked his skin all over and he flinched inward at the heat. His stomach began to churn; he felt so dizzy… so weak… too feeble to open his eyes or move his arms or do anything except give a weak groan. He gave a start when the sound was muffled by… something… on his face. Something covering his mouth and nose. Jamie began to panic. He squirmed in the bed and groaned loudly, trying with trembling fingers to pry off this thing off.
The man sat up quickly in response to the raspy moan coming form the boy on the bed. Poor Jamie was writhing in his sheets, his white face twitching into expressions of extreme discomfort. The man's heart jumped when Jamie's gray eyes opened a crack and quickly snapped shut. Was he waking up? The man leaned as far over the stirring boy as he dared and whispered something into his ear.
"Jamie." Jamie gave a start as a familiar voice washed over him. Through the world of fever-induced fire and spinning darkness someone he knew very well was trying to reach him. He tried to speak, but that horrible thing on his face kept the sound inside and Jamie knew he wasn't heard. Someone lifted it off for him with strong but gentle fingers.
Oh. Pteras on his chest. Hard to breathe. Hard to think. Really dizzy now. Jamie pried open his chapped lips and tried to speak, but only a scratchy moan came from the back of his sandpaper-lined throat. He slowly opened his eyes and squinted at the whirling scene before him.
He found himself looking down… no up… no… was he on the ceiling? It was hard to tell. A heavily blurred but still very familiar face loomed in front of him for a moment. It divided into two and then three and then many fuzzy tan and brown blurs. They spun and whirled and danced around him as the world continued in its sickening circles. Jamie tried to keep his gaze on that face.
"D-da... d-d-dad?"
The faces all nodded. Jamie closed his eyes, continuing to pant heavily, and began to cry. Not out of sorrow or depression or even out of relief, but out of sheer physical and emotional exhaustion. His weak mind could barely grasp the memory of what happened last night, but all the pain and all the suffering and everything he had felt for the past week came crashing to his shoulders at once. Someone lifted him into a gentle but lovingly encasing bear hug. Jamie let the refreshing tears fall, soaking the shoulder of a familiar leather jacket.
Oscar Hemeros held his son as tightly as he could without hurting him. He ran a comforting hand across Jamie's back and let the poor boy sob into his shoulder. Tears began to prick at the back of his own eyes; the result of a thousand conflicting emotions running through his mind at once. Something was very wrong here. Hard as these reactions normally were on his son, Jamie should not have been this emotionally drained. There was something behind all of this that Oscar felt he seriously needed to know.
But at least the boy was alive.
Oscar stroked his son's black hair and held him close. "It's all right," he whispered into Jamie's ear. "You're going to be okay, son. Just rest. You're going to be fine now."
Jamie let his sobs and the fresh tears fall into his father's shoulder. It felt so good to let loose all his pent-up emotions and just cry into the most comforting embrace he had been given in a long time. He felt his dad's hand on his back and knew at once that he was loved, that there was hope for him in this world after all. A weak smile played at his lips, while at the same time more tears continued to seep into his dad's shoulder.
After a while, Jamie's weak sobs slowed to a stop and he fell once again limp in his dad's protective embrace. Oscar set his son very carefully back onto the bed and slipped the mask over his mouth and nose. He rubbed his eyes with his hand and listened to the even breathing coming from Jamie's chest as it rose and fell in his healing slumber.
Gloria covered her mouth and nose with her hand. She closed her eyes and tried to conceal their unusual wetness. The scene that had just played itself for her, the reuniting embrace between father and son, was perhaps the most touching thing she had ever seen in her time working at the hospital. She knew it was unwise to become emotionally attached to her patients, but the tenderness on that man's face as he lifted and set down his son and the utter frailty of the boy's sobs just ripped her heart out and made remaining distant a difficult task indeed.
She looked up to a hand on her shoulder. Dr. Goman gave her a grim but understanding smile.
"Mr. Hemeros," he said to the boy's father. "If you don't mind, now that the boy is out of danger, I have some concerns that I wish to discuss with you regarding the nature of this particular reaction."
Oscar nodded grimly. He knew this was coming.
"Mr. Hemeros," Dr. Goman began tactfully, "The fact is, there is simply no way the boy could *not* have realized that the drink in that bottle contained strawberries. There was a picture of a strawberry imprinted on the cover of the bottle, the smell of even the empty bottle is distinct and very easy to identify, and there is enough natural strawberry juice in there that we are most certain the taste is unmistakable. That alone has certain implications to it, as well as the fact that the drink was a very strong alcoholic beverage that he could not have obtained anywhere in either this town or the next one. There was no sign of a struggle at the sight in which he was found, so we must assume that he took in that drink wittingly."
Oscar nodded again. God, what he'd have done to the culprit if Jamie had been forced that drink.
"It seems to me," Dr. Goman continued carefully, "As it does the paramedics who handled the boy and the nurses we have had assigned to his case, that the boy was making… a deliberate attempt – to do himself harm."
Now that the idea had been thrust out into the open, it was impossible to avoid or suppress. Oscar closed his eyes, flinching as the utter seriousness of it all finally hit him.
"Has Jamie – recently seemed unhappy with his position on the team?"
Oscar shook his head. "I'd have pulled him off the team immediately if I knew he didn't like it there."
"Has there been any change in him that you noticed that last time you spoke with him?"
"None that I noticed. He seemed really happy to see me, but other than that, no."
"When was the last time you spoke with him?"
"Last Tuesday. I contacted the Torros base and spoke to him that way, because it was his birthday and I knew I wasn't going to be able to see him in person this year."
"Who first received your message?"
"Jamie did."
"Is that – unusual?"
"No. Jamie tends to be the one who answers messages and works with the Hover Cargo's computer systems."
"Has he ever expressed unhappiness at his job?"
"I said *no*," said Oscar angrily. "Look, I told you that if I had any idea this was going on, I would have taken him off the Blitz team right away."
"I know that, Mr. Hemeros," Dr. Goman replied calmly. "I'm just trying to find out what went wrong here."
"Well, I don't know anything about it," Oscar snapped, "I love my son. He's the only family I have left. I don't know what I'd do if I lost him. I had no idea there was anything wrong. I wouldn't have just sat here waiting around for Jamie to kill himself if I did, nor would I have done anything to push him to this level."
"I'm not accusing you of anything. You had no idea anything was wrong, and that's all I needed to know."
Oscar watched his sleeping son sadly. "Can you help him?" he asked the Doctor quietly.
"That's what I'm here for. I will certainly do everything I can. What I would like to do is speak with the guardian of the Blitz team, Dr. Torros, and possibly the other members and the people he sees on a regular basis. However, it is a policy here that only immediate family can visit patients in this Intensive Care Unit, and I would like to keep him here until at least he is able to breathe comfortably on his own. Considering the obvious emotional stress the boy has been under, I will not ask Jamie any questions without your consent. I would, however, ask you to speak to him when he wakes up. Ask him to tell you what happened. The best way we can help your son is to learn why he felt there was no other way and try to help him sort things out."
"Thank you."
"You are perfectly welcome, Mr. Hemeros. Now, may I suggest something to help *you*?"
"What?"
"That you go down to our hospital cafeteria and eat something. Or leave the building and find someplace to get your breakfast. Then take your Zoid out for a fly – I believe you own a Pteras?" Oscar nodded. "You'll be amazed at how much better you will feel if you do."
"I'd rather just stay here with – " Oscar started to reply.
"I must insist upon this, Mr. Hemeros. I can guarantee you to things: one, that your son will make a complete recovery, and there is little to almost no chance of anything happening to hinder that; and two, he will not wake up any time within the next two or three hours. Jamie is one very sick and very exhausted young man and he will most likely not awaken before you return. You'll be surprised at the good it will do you."
Oscar didn't reply for a moment. He finally nodded and stood reluctantly to leave.
* * *
"Excuse me," said Bit to the gray-haired receptionist. She looked up tiredly.
"Yes? May I help you?"
"We're here to see Jamie. Jamie Hemeros."
She took a moment to look over a clipboard lying on top of her desk before raising her eyes to the young man with wild blond hair and the three dejected looking people standing behind him.
"Are you family?"
*Hardly,* Bit thought darkly. "No. We're his teammates."
"Then I'm sorry. Only immediate family and hospital staff are allowed to visit him right now."
"What?" Bit cried angrily. "Why?"
"It's hospital policy, young man," the receptionist replied. "He's in Intensive Care, and unless you are directly related to the boy, I can't let you in the room with him."
"Intensive Care?" gasped the Doc.
"But he's okay, isn't he?" demanded Leena.
"I don't know. All I know is what's written here, and his father is the only person not employed here who's allowed to visit him right now."
"Where is his father?" asked Dr. Torros. "Can we talk to him?"
"I can send for him. Please wait a moment," she answered, pressing a button on the desktop. A woman's voice answered over a speaker.
"Yes?"
"I have four people out here asking to see the boy's father," said the receptionist into the speakerphone.
"Oscar Hemeros is out at the moment," the voice replied. "I'm sorry, you'll have to come back later."
"No way!" shouted Bit. "Can't we at least see him?"
"I'm sorry, sir. You'll have to wait until – "
"But what about Jamie? Is going to be okay or not? We didn't come all the way down here just to have you tell us nothing and send us away!"
"He'll recover," the woman's voice replied. "He's a very lucky kid."
The blond haired boy flinched at the last comment. The receptionist found it odd that he was the one to do most of the talking, while the older man stood behind and gazed down the side hallway with an expression that seemed heavily laden with sorrow and remorse. Something seemed to be deeply troubling that poor man, as well as the rest of them. The young man with the brown hair said nothing; he just kept his arms folded and scowled through the floor as though intending to set it on fire. The girl with the raspberry hair mirrored the man in expression, but she kept looking this way and that around the hospital lobby. The blond boy himself seemed as emotionally tortured as the rest of them, though he looked like he was doing his best to hide it.
"Look," she said gently. "I can show you to the window outside his room and have Gloria draw the curtain for a moment and let you look at him."
"Really?" said Bit.
"Sure. Right this way."
Bit kept his gaze straight ahead as they started down the hall of the ICU, trying his best to avoid looking at the people on gurneys, with bloody injuries and mangled and discolored features of every possible sort. People hooked up to more machines than were present in his Liger, fighting with every passing moment to stay alive. It was far too easy to see Jamie in their position, only his spiked black hair recognizable over the rest of him. *With no one to blame except us if he died,* he thought bitterly.
Jamie didn't look as bad as some of the patients they had seen, but his limp form on the bed struck a dagger into Bit's heart that hurt more than any Zoid battle. To think that they had done this to him… Why couldn't he have seen this coming? Why hadn't they remembered?
*Oh God, I'm so sorry, Jamie,* Bit thought as a single tear slipped down his cheek. *If I'd only known… if I had any idea…*
He stole a glance at the Doc and the others, hoping with a dark satisfaction that at least they were feeling as bad as he was, if not worse. The Doc looked at least ten years older than usual. His wrinkled features sagged with regret and his tired eyes gazed regretfully through the glass. Tears were streaming down Leena's cheeks; the usually too-tough- to-handle warrior and trigger-happy maniac didn't bother to wipe them away. Brad's expression hadn't changed since that morning: the same fierce scowl covered his face and he refused to show emotion.
Bit's eyebrows narrowed in anger. Were they finally getting it? Did they finally understand what they'd done to this poor kid? Bit wasn't going to let them shrug it off this time. He'd realized from the start that Jamie wasn't exactly one of the more respected members of the team, but to completely forget his birthday like that... Wasn't the Doc at the very least required by *law* to know when Jamie's birthday was? The kid hadn't yet turned sixteen, and the Doc as his legal guardian was responsible for this stuff. And as his father's best friend, he *had* to know.
Dr. Torros looked up and caught Bit's fierce glare. He flinched and looked away.
*How could you do this to him?* thought Bit.
The nurse they had spoken to over the phone came out into the hall and told them quietly that their time was up; she was going to close the curtain and they needed to leave. No one argued. They didn't even say anything to one another as they left the hospital.
Bit scowled into the horizon. Jamie was going to be okay. He'd been lucky. The Doc and the others and even *he* had nearly killed the poor boy, just because they'd done nothing. It almost made him sick.
*I wish you could see how sorry I am, Jamie,* he thought in anguish. *I never meant for this to happen to you. Ever.*
*I'm so sorry.*
(A/N: Please note that Bit has not been a member of the Blitz team long enough to have been around when they celebrated Jamie's last birthday, so he is the only person who truly doesn't know when it is.)
* * *
Jamie groaned weakly and pried his heavy eyes open. The room wasn't spinning quite as heavily now, but the flames were still enough to make him want to fall right back into the soothing comforts of sleep.
A dark form sharpened into view. But it wasn't the familiar, comforting form of his father. A high-collared, black leather jacket and long raspberry hair towered over him ominously. Jamie would have gulped had he the strength.
Wolf.
The older man glared downward in a way that was almost frightening. It was a moment before he spoke.
"Yeh disappoint me, Eagle boy," he said coldly. "I'd have thought Wild Eagles were stronger than that. Do true, strong psychies land themselves here like this? Look at yeh. Weak. Sickly. Alone."
The mask wouldn't let him reply. Tears sprang to his eyes again. Why wouldn't Wolf take it off for him and let him speak? Jamie was far too ill to do it himself. Where was his dad? Where was the nurse? Weren't they the people who cared about him? Jamie turned his head to the side on the bed and tried to look for them, but Wolf blocked his view of most of the area he was able to see from this position.
"It's no use, boy," Wolf spat. "There's no one else here. Just me. As usual. Did yeh really think they'd come here to see yeh after all that?"
Jamie tried to move his hands, tried to get this stupid mask off so that he could tell Wolf differently. He wanted to tell Wolf that his father truly had been here, though Wolf would only ask where he was now and why he'd left, an Jamie couldn't answer either of those questions. But he had been here. Jamie had seen him.
Or had he merely been hallucinating?
Jamie heard the door open behind the scary older man. If Wolf heard it too, he didn't give any sign of it. He continued to give Jamie his cold, penetrating stare. Jamie cowered in his sheets.
Wolf opened his mouth to speak.
"Ha – "
"You."
Jamie started. He closed his eyes and nearly cried with relief. That voice, that warm, familiar voice announced the entrance of a man who could finally help him.
"You."
Wolf turned around slowly. Jamie caught a glimpse of a brown jacket in the doorway.
"S'been a while," said Wolf. Was that nervousness in his voice?
"Get out."
"Not happy teh see me? After all this time?"
"Get away from him. Now." There was a cold threat to that voice. Jamie closed his eyes and smiled under his mask.
"What's the matter – "
"I said *now.* Stay. Away. From. Him."
Wolf didn't reply. Oscar Hemeros had a fiercely cold glare on his face as he appeared over Wolf's shoulder.
"Get out of here. And stay out. If I see your face here again, I swear to Zi that I'll call the police on you. You keep away from my son. Get out of here. Now."
"If that's what yeh – "
"*NOW!*"
Wolf obeyed, and Oscar turned to his son, his face softening considerably.
"Jamie?" he whispered to the weeping boy. "Oh God. If I had known. If I'd only… are you all right?" Jamie nodded and felt himself again swept up into a tight embrace.
"He won't hurt you again, Jamie," whispered Oscar. "I promise."
END CHAPTER SEVEN
NEXT CHAPTER: Tears and Confessions, Part II: It all finally comes together.