After four days the doctor wants to try weaning Jay off the ventilator. "The infection seems to be suitably resolved. We can now stop the sedation, wait for him to wake up, then if he can breathe on his own for 30 minutes we'll take out the tube." she explains to Cole. "If he becomes agitated, we may need to sedate him and try again tomorrow, so please talk to him, try to keep him calm." Cole nods. She presses some buttons on the pump. "It can take some time, press the call button when he starts to come to."
Cole holds onto Jay's hand giving it a reassuring squeeze. He was looking forward to seeing Jay's eyes again, seeing some life in his body. "Jay, the doctor said it is time to wake up. Take your time, no rush, but break's over."
After about 10 minutes Cole feels a slight squeeze in his hand, he looks up at Jay's face seeing a flickering of his eyelids. He presses the call button. "Jay? Buddy can you hear me?" Jay's eyes are now half open, trying to look around the room, head rocking from side to side. "Hey, there you are. Don't try to talk, you have a tube in your throat right now, it's helping you breathe, so it can't come out just yet."
The doctor comes back into the room, "How's he doing?"
The muscles in Jay's throat start to spasm, it looks like he is trying to cough, or talk, he reaches a hand up towards the tube which Cole quickly grabs. "Jay, it's ok, I got you, don't fight it, you're safe."
Instead of calming down Jay starts to struggle more, wiggling his whole body, pressing his feet against the rails on the bed, and looking at Cole with big scared eyes. He tries desperately to pull his hands out of Cole's grip as some of the machines start beeping.
"Jay, I'm going to sedate you again." says the doctor while pressing buttons on the pump.
That was apparently the wrong thing to say, sparks form on Jay's hands causing Cole to drop them. "Ow!" he says in surprise. Jay grabs the nearest wire, one of the heart monitor leads, trying to pull it off, more sparks flow into the monitor making the screen go blank and the beeping stop. Cole grabs Jay's hands again more forcefully, now expecting the electricity he grits his teeth and endures it, "Jay, stop!" he yells through gritted teeth, louder than intended. Jay freezes, staring at Cole with alarm. His eyes start to droop, and hands go limp once more.
"Well, that could have gone better." says the doctor while scratching her head, "At least he seems to have some energy. I'll fetch a new monitor.."
Cole starts to tremble, gently lowering Jay's now limp hands back down onto the bed. The last thing he sees can't be me yelling at him to stop! He feels tears forming in his eyes. Jay had looked so scared! He felt threatened, enough to even use his powers. Instead of helping, Cole had yelled at him.
The doctor comes back with a new monitor, and sees Cole snivelling. "Hey, it's ok, we knew this might happen, and these break all the time. We'll try again tomorrow." Cole nods, wiping his sleeve on his face. "But, um, is there a way to make it so he can't do, um, that?" she asks gently.
"Vengestone." says Cole with a sigh. "Vengestone can block his powers."
"Yes, please bring some of that tomorrow. For safety."
Cole goes home and spends the afternoon carving up a block of vengestone, and stringing it into a sort of necklace. "There's no way we are putting a cuff on him.." he mutters. He tests the necklace on himself, making sure there is enough to completely stop his powers. He hates the way vengestone makes him feel weak. An effect of his elemental power is increased strength, without it everything just feels heavier, and harder, kind of like how Jay must feel.. He decides to wear the necklace for the rest of the day, he deserves to feel weak right now.
The next day Cole goes back to the hospital so they can try again. He needs to do better, be more reassuring. The longer Jay stays on the vent, the worse his side effects would be, keep him calm, and get him extubated.
"Did you bring it?" asks the doctor.
"Oh, right." says Cole, removing the vengestone necklace from where it was resting on his neck, tucked under his shirt, he undoes the string, threading it around Jay's neck and tying it back together. "That should prevent any sparks."
"Ok." says the doctor. "I'm going to take him off more slowly this time, see if that will help." She taps away at the pump. "He is still on a small dose, but should hopefully become more alert. Try and reassure him, help him understand where he is, then I'll lower it further."
The doctor gets called away to another patient, and Cole is left alone with Jay and his machines. He glares at the vengestone necklace, they had never used vengestone on each other before, and now he was using it on Jay, when he was the weakest he's ever been. It didn't feel right. Cole slaps his cheeks, there was no time for feeling gloomy right now, he needed to be cheerful, and calm, and reassuring. He reaches out and takes Jay's hand, stroking it gently as he watches the even rise and fall of Jay's chest. "Jay, It's Cole, you're in the hospital, but we're looking after you, ok? You're going to be ok. You needed to rest for a while, so there is a tube in your mouth helping you breathe ok? It probably feels really gross, but it is helping you, so we can't take it out just yet. It's going to be ok. I got you, I'm here." He looks up at Jay's face, blinking in surprise when he sees two half open eyes looking back at him. He presses the call button without taking his eyes off Jay. "Hey, welcome back." he says while giving Jay's hand a reassuring squeeze. It's weak, but Jay squeezes back. The muscles in his neck start twitching and his eyes start to look a little panicked. "Are you trying to talk? Sorry, you have a tube in your throat helping you breathe, can you squeeze my hand if you are trying to talk?" Jay squeezes his hand, and his neck muscles start to relax. "Hey, that's great, you're doing great, just relax and let the tube do its thing for now. You can't talk just yet, but I can, so how about one squeeze is yes, how does that sound?" Jay squeezes his hand glossy eyes focussed on Cole.
The doctor walks over, "Sorry, had a minor emergency in bed 2, how is he doing today?"
"Much better." says Cole. Jay's eyes drift lazily between Cole and the doctor. "Jay, this is your doctor, she's going to take the tube out later so you can talk again. Do you want the tube to come out?" Jay squeezes his hand. Cole smiles, "I thought so, it looks pretty annoying. But you have to put up with it for a bit longer, ok?" Jay doesn't squeeze Cole's hand but instead his eyes start wandering around the room.
The doctor smiles, "Jay, it's so nice to see you awake again, we just need to do a few tests, then I will take this tube out ok?" She taps at the controls on the pump. "Your sedation will be lowered over the next 20 minutes, then we will do a breathing test." Jay nods slightly. She turns to Cole. "Keep repeating the same info, memory can be a bit patchy when coming out of sedation."
Cole nods, before turning back to Jay. "You're in the hospital, but it's ok, we're looking after you…" He continues to talk to Jay for 20 min, reassuring him, trying to guess at what questions he would have. Jay is dazed, slowly looking more alert as the minutes go by. A bit jumpy, eyes darting to any new source of sound, but he remains calm, not trying to pull out his tubes or wires. Near the end of the 20 min he seems to notice the necklace. Frowning, he lifts one hand to the necklace before looking at Cole. "Sorry about that," says Cole, "yesterday you gave us a bit of a shock." Jay's frown remains. "Squeeze my hand if you don't remember." Jay squeezes his hand. "That's ok, it wasn't a big deal. You didn't hurt anyone, just fried one of the monitors." Jay's frown starts to ease as he looks over at the monitor. He lifts his hand making a writing motion. "That's a great idea, let's try that." says Cole cheerfully. He hadn't wanted to try writing too soon in case Jay was too dazed to write properly and got frustrated. He lets go of Jay's hand and passes a pad of paper and a pen. Jay stares at the blank paper for a moment before slowly, and messily writing a single word in large font.
Nya?
Cole stares at the paper, heart suddenly in his throat. He doesn't remember? He doesn't want to panic Jay and ruin the test. Right now his job is to keep Jay calm. Jay taps the paper again, looking at Cole. "Nya's not here right now, she will come by later ok?" Jay takes the paper and slowly writes another messy word.
Why?
Cole quickly tries to come up with an excuse that won't lead to further questions. If I say she's on a mission, he might worry about her being in danger.. If I say she's at home, that wouldn't explain why she isn't here for this.. "You didn't want her to see you with that tube in your throat. Remember? So you need to pass this breathing test so we can take it out, ok?" Jay frowns slightly, but nods, lying back on the pillows. Cole hated lying to him, but it was just for a little while.
Soon the doctor comes back and they start the breathing test. She unplugs the tube from the machine instructing Jay to breathe through the tube on his own for 30 minutes. Jay seems to understand the assignment and is doing a good job at breathing on his own. After about 20 minutes his breath becomes a little uneven, Cole looks up seeing tears in his eyes. "What's wrong, are you getting tired?" Jay shakes his head. "It's ok if you can't do it just yet, we can try again later." Jay shakes his head more vigorously, tapping at the bit of paper still sitting in his lap.
Nya?
Why?
"Oh," says Cole glumly, "did you remember where Nya is?" Jay nods, a tear trickling down his face. "I'm sorry. I was going to tell you after the test.." Jay straightens himself up, wipes his eyes, and then goes back to breathing at a somewhat even pace. Cole reaches out, taking his hand once more. "You want to focus on the test?" asks Cole. Jay squeezes his hand. "Ok, only 9 more minutes, you're doing great."
At the end of the 30 minutes the doctor comes back, seeing Jay alert and still breathing confidently on his own. "Congratulations, you pass!" she says cheerfully. "Ready to take that tube out?" Jay nods eagerly. "It's going to feel weird ok? But only for a moment." She starts undoing the tape holding it in place. "When I count to three, you're going to do a nice big cough, ok?" Jay nods. "One, two, three." She pulls on the tube while Jay coughs. Cole shudders seeing how long it is.
Once out Jay gives another couple of coughs. "Fuck." says Jay with a raspy voice once the coughing stops. "I think my rib is still bruised."
Cole smiles. "Motormouth is back." He says warmly.