This chapter took me a lot longer to write than I expected. Whew! But I'm getting closer to finishing the story. I've got the sequel coming close after, and as soon as "A Grief Observed" is complete, I'll hopefully have the first chapter of "Surprised By Jay", the second book, up shortly after. I'm pretty certain I just repeated myself. *sigh* I have that problem in both writing and speech.

And I want to give a special shout-out to everyone who has liked, is following, and has commented on this story. Your support really means a lot to me. Special thanks to SwimmerNinja13, Ninja Pony (guest), JayaForever421 (guest), HynotisisAnime Reader, The Mayor of Ninjago City, an unnamed Guest, Craftastic12, and Kairocksrainbow (guest)! I love you guys!

I hope you enjoy this chapter!

5. Friend

Zane gently adjusted the sleeping Jay so his head leaned against the wall and Zane was more free to move. "We should let him sleep," he said quietly. "This shock exhausted him."

As he spoke, Jay's mom came up to the seven. "Hello, Edna," Sensei Wu greeted her. "Jay's sleeping."

Edna smiled faintly. "I'm not surprised," she said. "Even when he was little, Jay always conked out when he was feeling shocked or upset. I can take him to the dojo before I head back home, since he's not going to wake up for a few hours."

"I was meaning to tell you about that," Sensei Wu said. "You're welcome to stay with us at the dojo for as long as you want. We were going to go over the details of the . . . the funeral when we got back."

Edna nodded. "I'd appreciate that. But someone's gonna have to take Jay's motorbike home, since I can't haul it back and Jay's in no state to drive."

"I'll take it back," Zane volunteered. "My motorbike has an automatic pilot that I can program to take it back to the dojo. And I won't need Jay's keys, since my master key will work fine." He produced a small white key out from his jacket pocket.

"Then that's settled." Sensei Wu stood up. "I think we should be heading back to the dojo. Alex and Misako will be wondering where we are."

"We'll be there in a bit," Edna said, sliding in next to her sleeping son. "Don't wait up."

The five Ninja and their sensei walked out of the hospital lobby and out into the parking lot. As she took one last glance backwards, seeing Jay leaning against his mom in his sleep, Nya thought aloud, "I wonder how Jay's going to be after this is over."

Zane heard her quiet contemplation. He was tempted to reply with his own thoughts on the subject, but he didn't say anything. Things like the loss of a loved one cannot just "be over", he thought as he strapped his helmet on over his baseball cap and stuck his key into the ignition of Jay's bike. I'd think Nya, of all people, would know that, because she lost not just one parent, but both.

He didn't have much time to think as he sped through the Ninjago City streets, back toward the dojo. Jay's bike was slightly harder to maneuver than his own, but like with most things, he mastered this new form of technology easily. If only life was as easy to master, he thought sadly as he sped past the park where his Titanium Ninja statue stood.

Jay slept soundly in the copilot seat of his parents' jalopy as it rattled through Ninjago City. Edna heard him mumble something about it not being the right time once or twice, but apart from that, he didn't make a peep.

Poor Jay, Edna thought sadly, turning down the side-street leading toward the Ninja's dojo. He loved Ed so much. He was devoted to him like only a faithful son could. I just wish he had heard before Ed died . . .

The Ninja, Sensei, Edna, and Jay arrived at almost exactly the same time in front of the dojo. Edna gently picked her son, still fast asleep, up in her arms and carried him into the dojo, following the lead of his teammates and teacher.

Inside, Alex and Misako were waiting anxiously in the living room, and their worried expressions melted into ones of relief as the others came in, hanging up their jackets and hats before sitting down on the couches.

Sensei Wu introduced Alex to Cole, Zane, Kai, Lloyd, and Nya, who greeted Jay's friend with cordial nods. Alex could tell they somewhat resented him for making Jay so upset. The only one he didn't sense hostility in was Zane, whom Alex found somewhat odd, in an interesting way, since Zane was a Nindroid.

"Where's-" Alex stopped midsentence as his friend was carried into the room, and laid down on an empty couch. "Is he all right?" he asked Edna, slightly panicked.

"He's fine, dear, just sleeping," Edna assured him kindly.

Alex heaved a sigh of relief. The other Ninja's feelings of resentment toward him melted. They could see that Alex cared for his friend deeply, and they felt guilty for mentally blaming Alex for making Jay miserable.

Speaking of Jay . . .

Jay yawned loudly, and stretched himself out, uncurling out of the ball he had assumed form of for the past five minutes. "Did I miss anything?" he mumbled, sitting up and rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He stared groggily at Alex, then he blinked as his eyes began to focus. "Alex?"

Alex grinned. "It's good to see you again, Jay," he said.

Jay grinned back, the first real smile the Ninja had seen on his face since he got the news about his father. He got up and gave Alex a hug, his old friend returning it heartily. Then, they slapped right hands, then left hands, then fist-bumped with the back of their hands. Then they burst out laughing. "How in Ninjago do you still remember that?!" they exclaimed.

Nya studied the two young men carefully. They didn't look that much alike. Jay had messy ginger hair, Alex had black hair neatly tucked under a gray baseball cap. Jay's eyes were sea-blue, Alex had gray irises. Jay was lean and muscular, while Alex, even though they were the same height, was somewhat on the sturdy side. The main things they had in common were their playful smiles and their tall frames. It was hard imagining them being childhood friends. But then Nya mentally shrugged. Jay and Zane were best friends, and it was hard imagining those two having that friendly of a relationship.

"Jay," Sensei Wu said gently, "I think we should go up to my quarters to look over those papers."

Jay's smile faded slightly, but he nodded. He glanced at his mom at almost the same time Wu glanced at Misako. The two women nodded their consent, and the four exited the living room. That left Alex and the Ninja in the room, gazing awkwardly at each other.

Nya attempted to make conversation. "So, Alex," she began hesitantly, "how long have you known Jay?"

"We've been friends as far back as I can remember," Alex replied. "I was his next door neighbor back in his old neighborhood, Wintergate. We used to do all sorts of stuff together, even though it was somewhat hard to do once school started."

"How come? Didn't you see each other at school?" Kai asked.

Alex shook his head. "I'm not sure Jay would want me to tell you," he said nervously.

"That's all right, Jay told me," Zane said. To his teammates, he said, "He didn't want to tell you himself because he was afraid you'd laugh at him or think he was strange or something like that. Jay didn't attend public school. He was homeschooled."

The others shrugged. "It's not that weird," Lloyd said. "Though coming from a guy who spent most of his childhood in boarding school, I shouldn't be talking."

"Nya and I were semi-homeschooled," Kai admitted. "Mom and Dad pulled us out after a bad bullying incident in fifth grade."

"I hated public school, but I had to do it because my dad wanted me to," Cole sighed. "A lot of things in my childhood were like that."

"I never attended school," Zane said. "I had the knowledge required of a twenty-one-year-old installed in me when I was built." When the others gave him confused looks, he said, "What? I couldn't help that!"

"Sooo. . ." Alex said hesitantly, "how did Jay meet up with you guys? I haven't talked with him in about . . . three years, I think."

The Ninja took it in turns to explain about how they met Jay when they became ninja. Alex whistled when they were finished talking about the destruction of the Preeminent. "Wow, I really need to get out more," he said with a weak chuckle.

~Several hours later~

Zane walked past Jay's quarters, when he heard something like panicked squawking coming from inside. Loud clattering and thumping noises, like furniture was getting kicked and tossed all over the place, made Zane cover his super-sensitive ears with a wince. "What on earth is he doing in there?" he asked aloud.

Pixal, the android girl living inside his head, replied, "Maybe you should find out. He must be quite upset, since he has not bothered to activate his room's soundproof muffling system."

Zane's respect for privacy was frantically screaming for him not to burst in on Jay, but his worry for his friend won out, and he rapped on the door several times. The clattering and thumping stopped abruptly, and Jay squeaked, "Who's that?!"

"It's me, Jay," Zane replied.

The door cautiously creaked open, and, once Jay had made sure it was Zane, unceremoniously yanked his Nindroid friend into his room. Zane's head almost slammed into the rim of the doorway, but he managed to duck just in time. As soon as Zane's body was completely in the room, Jay darted behind him and shut the door with a loud slam. "What in the world was all that about?" Zane demanded. He glanced around the room, and almost pulled a panicked Jay and squawked. "WHAT IN NINJAGO WERE YOU DOING IN HERE?!"

"Keep it down, Zane!" Jay clamped a hand over his mouth.

Zane shook his hand off. "But it looks like a tornado just went through here!" he hissed.

"Geez, I didn't remember you were such a neat freak," Jay muttered.

"Excuse me?" Zane demanded. "I heard you going maniacally hysterical in here, and you call me a neat freak?!" Then, he got a closer look at his friend. "Um . . . what are those on your face?"

"What's on my face?" Jay asked, frantically pulling something off his face and shoving it into his pants pocket. "There's nothing on my face. See?"

Zane sighed. "I suppose there isn't anything on your face," he replied.

"See? What'd I tell ya?" Jay turned and collided head on into a chair that had been standing in front of him for the past fifteen minutes.

"But I also suppose there's something that should be on your face," Zane said. "Out with it, Jay. You know better than to hide it."

Jay sighed. "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

"Not much," Zane admitted with a shrug.

Jay heaved another sigh, then produced a pair of black-rimmed glasses out from his pants pocket. "I haven't had to wear glasses since I graduated from high school," he said, placing them back on his face and blinking rapidly. "But all this crying's messed up my eyes again. Luckily I had a pair that would fit me close by. I kept one in case I'd ever need it."

"What's wrong with your eyes?" Zane asked, frowning.

Pixal, who had quietly scanned Jay while they were talking, answered, "Jay suffers from anisometropia."

"Anisometropia?" Zane looked confused. "Isn't that when one eye is far-sighted and the other eye is near-sighted?"

"Yep. In this case, my right eye is near-sighted, while my left eye is far-sighted," Jay explained.

Zane stared at him blankly. "I am unsure of how such a thing could occur," he said.

Jay sighed. "When I was a kid, I always closed my left eye in order to focus more clearly on minute details with my inventions and stuff. Well, turns out my right eye got used to seeing things close up, while my left eye got used to seeing things farther away. I got corrective lenses," he tapped his glasses, "but just a little too late. It was worst when I was in high school, but after I graduated and prepared to go to college, my eyes suffered less and less from the anisometropia. Even though I can't have perfect 20/20 vision, I was able to cope well without glasses and wearing contact lenses occasionally. But now my eyes are going wonko again, so I have to wear these."

He blinked again, then cocked his head to one side. "Why are you doing that?" Zane asked.

Jay made an embarrassed groaning noise. "Right now, my left eye is the one focusing while my right eye's doing zilch, so I have to tilt my head in order to regain focus."

After a few seconds, Jay tilted his head straight again. "Now can you explain to me why you were panicking even more violently than usual?" Zane asked.

Jay nodded. "We were going over the details of the funeral, when something came up that I have to do that I'm terrified of doing!" He slammed his head into his pillow. "This is the worst day ever," Zane heard him mumble into his pillow.

"It can't be that bad," Zane said hesitantly. "What is it?"

"Well, it's not as much terrifying as it is hard," Jay said, sitting on the edge of his bed. He made a weak little sighing noise, then said, "One of the things my dad wanted for his funeral was that after I did the main speaking part, not the eulogy, but the stuff toward the end of the service, he requested that I . . ." He trailed off.

"That you what?"

" . . . that I play the guitar and sing two of his favorite hymns to close the service," Jay mumbled, cheeks burning a bright red.

Zane gave him a skeptical look. "I've never heard you do either, except when we're at church," he said.

"I never told anyone about that," Jay said, walking over to his closet and pulling out a tan-colored guitar, with a band that was embroidered with the words, "God Is Greater." He strummed a chord experimentally. "I practice the guitar in my spare time, just working with songs I've heard on the K-RIST station, and stuff we sing at church. I used to get the sheet music from the worship leader, until he moved away."

"How good are you?" Zane asked curiously.

Jay shrugged. "I'm okay, I guess. I'm no Matt Maher, that's for sure."

"If you don't mind," Zane said, "I'd like to hear you play."

Jay's cheeks went slightly redder. But his mouth curved into a weak smile. "I'll try," he said. "I'm probably not gonna be in my best form, though."

"I won't mind," Zane said, settling himself in the chair Jay had bonked into in his anisometropic haze.

Jay played a couple more chords, while at the same time clearing his throat and humming a few bars. Then he started to play, and accompanying it with his voice. "Dark days are gonna go away, they won't have the final say. These bones were always gonna fade, cause we were made for another place. . ."

Zane was astonished at how well Jay played and at how well he sang. His voice, which had moments ago been tired and weak, was now strong and clear, somewhere between a baritone and a tenor, and he sang as easily as he spoke. His guitar almost blended in with his song, both exactly in tune with the other.

"-The moment of our final breath, when all our fears are put to rest," Jay sang, closing his eyes as silent tears began streaming down his face. "Every tear will disappear . . . heaven is real . . . We're gonna live on for-ever . . . forever . . . We're gonna live on for-ever . . . forever . . . We are not where we belong . . . We have a hope . . . We're gonna live on for-ever . . . forever. . ."

Then Jay's voice cracked, and he started coughing loudly into his fist. Zane just stared at his friend in stunned awe. "Jay, that was . . . amazing! Why have you hidden a musical talent like that for so long?!"

"I didn't think anyone would notice," Jay mumbled, but Zane's face broadened into a smile.

"If nobody notices someone who can play and sing that well, they would have to be deaf or not know an excellent musician when they hear one!" Zane's smile turned into a look of deep thought. "So if you play that well, that's probably not the reason you're nervous . . ."

Then it hit Zane like a blow to the head. "Are you afraid you're going to break down in the middle of your performing because you miss your father so much?" he asked.

Jay nodded, taking his glasses off in order to dry his eyes. "The songs I had in mind were two of my favorites as well, but they remind me so much of Dad that whenever I tried practicing, I started to cry," he explained. "That's why I was throwing furniture around the room. I was taking my frustration out on my stuff. But as you can see, it didn't help me at all."

"Throwing a power tantrum never soothes frustration or anger," Zane said. "You should know that by now after living with Kai for so long."

Jay laughed. Zane was relieved to see his teammate laugh for real, the second time almost all day since the news about his dad. Then he asked, "Which two songs were you considering?"

"'The Revelation Song', and . . . oh, shoot, what was the name of that other one?" Jay frowned as he fixed his glasses back on his face. "I think it was 'I Can Only Imagine'."

"Yes, I know the two you refer to," Zane said. "Why do they remind you so much of your father?"

"I'm not sure," Jay said thoughtfully. "I think it's because Dad put God first in his heart, above all other priorities, more than I've seen in any man before or since. Whenever I caught a glimpse of Dad singing those songs at church, with his arms raised toward heaven, and his eyes closed in pure emotion, I just felt like he truly meant what he was singing, wholeheartedly, not like some recitation or anything like that. I'm not sure how to describe it. To him, it just seemed so . . . so real."

"Your father was a man after God's heart," Zane agreed. He gazed reflectively out the window for several moments. When he finally spoke, he asked, "Why are you doing this, Jay?"

"What?" Jay stared at him, bewildered.

"Why are you taking on this endeavor?" Zane repeated.

"To make my dad happy because it's what he wanted, I guess," Jay replied, shrugging as he moved his guitar off his lap.

Zane frowned. "I guessed as much. But are you doing it just out of duty? Or are you also doing it to please God and worship him as well?"

Jay's expression was first surprised, then slightly skeptical. "I guess I never thought about that," he conceded. "I never actually thought of a funeral as a time to worship God. I mean, to be honest, no one would feel like doing that because God took away the person the funeral is being held for."

"You have a valid point," Zane said, "but we should do everything in order to praise God and glorify Him, even when it's the last thing we feel like doing, shouldn't we? From my time knowing your father, and what you've just told me, he tried to do just that all his life. I'm not surprised that you feel upset when you think about those songs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but another reason you might feel pain when you think of the songs and of your father is that you wonder if you're living like him, putting God above all else, or that you're doing the things a Christian should out of a sense of duty rather than love for God."

Jay's jaw dropped, and he gaped at Zane. "How do you do that?" he demanded.

"I did not have to really do anything in order to figure that out, Jay," Zane replied. "I just have to know people. In this case, you and your father. I know how much you wanted to make him proud, to live like him and follow his example. A situation like this one should raise questions like that to someone like you. And I don't think that it's wrong that you might have considered doing this only out of wanting to make your father happy, that's a very good thing. But it's better if you do it, not out of a sense of duty, but out of a worshipful heart, a desire to praise God in these situations, ones in which any ordinary person would least expect someone to be worshipping. If you do it for that reason, it'll show clearly in how you perform, and it can give people hope for the future, and for those who are in doubt, that there is a God, and that He loves you and cares for you deeply, and that you love Him and trust that He's going to make things right, even though your life may be hard right now."

Jay just stared off, silent, not sure how to respond to his friend's statement.

Zane got up from his seat. "I'll leave you to think about that," he said. "And if it helps you, I'd be ready and willing to accompany you in the performance if you need it."

"Thanks, Zane," Jay said quietly. "I'd appreciate that."

I hope you enjoyed that! When I had my mom look that last section over when I was writing it, she said she hoped it would encourage a lot of people. I hope it does too. I do not own the song Jay sung a section of. It belongs to the band, the Afters, and I did that all from memory.

Anisometropia is a real thing, and I also just found out my mom is slightly anisometropic, so that's kind of a cool coincidence. I was inspired to give Jay that problem when I read about a President, I think it was either James Buchanan or Millard Fillmore, who had that problem with his eyes. I'm kinda quirky in that way.

Well, God be with you! NMOTF OUT!

#God's Not Dead!

#Lightning Forever!