Jay spends a few days in a general ward waiting to be discharged. Cole and Zane spend the most time with him, taking turns sitting in the chair by the bed, worried about his mental state, not wanting to leave him alone for too long. Zane at night, Cole in the day. Jay is still coughing occasionally, but nowhere near as bad as before his intubation. He feels flat, weak, like there is a dense fog over everything, and the gravity has been turned up a notch. He thought he felt weak before, but now even walking the 10 steps to his ensuite bathroom was a struggle, not helped by the fact his ankle was still sprained. Even eating was difficult, his throat still a little sore from the tube, and his appetite was almost nonexistent. He forced himself to eat at least some of each meal, hoping it would help him get stronger.

He frowns, pausing in the middle of his breakfast porridge. "Did I like, not eat anything for 5 days?" He asks Cole.

"They put a tube in your nose." Says Cole, pointing to his own nose. "Fed you mush, straight to your stomach."

Jay grimaces, staring down at the uneaten porridge. The more he learnt about his stay in ICU, the more horrified he felt. Nothing about this was right. His mind wasn't quite right either, he was drowsy all the time, kept zoning out, and sometimes forgot things.

"Jay? You in there?" Asks Cole, tapping him on the shoulder.

"Huh?" Asks Jay, dropping his spoon.

"You need to eat." Says Cole gently, leaning over and putting the spoon back in Jay's hand.

"Right." Says Jay glumly, staring at the food. "Gotta make my own mush."

Cole snorts. "Exactly!"

Cole was doing his best to stay positive for Jay, he hated seeing him like this, like a shadow of what he used to be. The doctors said it would take time. 5 days of ventilation meant at least 5 weeks of recovery before he was likely to be back to his old self.

His asthma medication regimen was significantly increased for the short term. New medications, higher doses. Jay's eyes glossed over when the doctors tried to talk to him about it. Cole wasn't sure if he was unable, or unwilling to focus on that particular subject. But he didn't object whenever it was time for meds.

"Come on Jay, your parents will be here soon, you're gonna need some strength for that." Jay sighs, still staring at the food. "I could tell them not to come, if you're not up to it?" offers Cole gently.

"No, that would just make them worry more." Says Jay with a sigh before finally taking another bite.

"And you have physiotherapy later, did you want me to come along for that?"

Jay slowly chews and swallows the food. Swallowing felt weird, how could swallowing feel weird? Hospitals were dumb. Throats were dumb. Wait, Cole was talking to him.. What did he say again? He scrunches up his face. "Um, do you think Kai would come?" he asks timidly. "He's probably busy.."

Cole blinks in surprise, he wasn't expecting Jay to request more visitors. That must be a good sign. "Sure, good idea, I'll ask him."

Cole watches as Jay puts on a fake smile for his parents, letting them fuss over him, saying things like "I'm fine, just tired all the time." He could see where motormouth got his love of talking from, they were a constant babble of words. Telling Jay how worried they had been, how the drive over was, a different time Jay was in hospital as a kid, the latest interesting finds at the dump, and what they were thinking of making for dinner. After a while Jay tapped the side of his bed three times. That was the signal they had agreed on. Cole stops leaning on the wall and walks over to the happy family, "Mr and Mrs Walker," he interrupts, because waiting for them to finish talking would take far too long, "thank you so much for coming, Jay has physiotherapy starting soon, and we need a bit of time to get ready." The physiotherapy wasn't until much later in the afternoon, but they didn't need to know that.

"Oh my, look at the time Ed! How it really does fly by." says Edna.

"Oh look at that," says Ed, "we don't want to get in the way of physiotherapy, important work that is. Did I tell you about the time I pulled my shoulder? Who knew scrap metal could be so heavy?"

"Maybe next time." suggests Cole, while gently guiding them out of the room. Once he comes back from seeing off the Walkers, he sees Jay is collapsed, leaning back onto the bed, smile from before all gone. "You alright?" asks Cole.

"Yeah.." says Jay weakly. "I love them, but.. They can be a bit.. much."

Cole chuckles. "Indeed they can." He looks at Jay, glad that he could relax in front of him. "Thanks, for trusting me with the real you."

Jay frowns slightly, it wasn't like he had much choice. Cole was here all the time. A week ago he would have hated it, he remembered telling Zane to keep Cole away, but now? Cole's was the voice that he'd woken up to. If he's already seen me like that, well, this was nothing, and he needed someone. He looks up at Cole examining his face. Was it even the real Cole? Is he masking, putting on a fake smile for me? He looks tired, and he is still wearing the necklace.. Jay could see the string sitting just above the collar. Why was he still wearing it? Did he think he might need to use it on me again? I'm too weak to be a danger to anyone, fuck I never knew being tired could be this exhausting.. Wait, what did Cole say again? Jay furrows his brow further, trying to remember.

"Hey, Earth to Jay?" says Cole, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Huh?" says Jay, completely losing his train of thought.

Cole sighs, but then puts on a grin. "Yeah, I thought that would wear you out. You want a drink or something?"

Later that day Kai wheels Jay to his physiotherapy. He was absolutely chuffed that Jay had asked him to come with. Totally worth cancelling the afternoon class, not that he would let Jay know he had moved his plans around.

"I've never done physiotherapy before.." says Jay. He was imagining scenes from movies where people were trying to walk using parallel bars for support. They always looked like they were in so much pain. "Does it hurt?"

"What?" says Kai with surprise, "Physiotherapy is a way of using exercise and movement to support healing. It shouldn't hurt any more than a good workout."

"Oh, ok." says Jay. He wasn't fully convinced, right now he definitely wasn't up to a good workout, and imagined a regular workout would hurt quite a lot.

"Don't worry, I won't let anyone else torture you with exercise." says Kai. "I'm the only one who's allowed to do that." He sees Jay smile slightly, yeah, totally worth it. I am on Fiya!

"I don't know why they wanted to start today, my ankle is still messed up." says Jay worriedly.

"It's been over a week." says Kai gently. "If it's really a minor sprain, like you keep insisting, you should probably start weight bearing."

Jay tenses slightly, so they will make me use the torture bars..

Once they arrive the therapist unwraps Jay's ankle, admiring the reduced swelling and instead of wrapping it back up applies some strapping tape, agreeing with Kai that it is time to start weight bearing. "Still use a crutch for support, but both feet should be on the ground whenever you are walking." Kai is enthralled, hanging on her every word and even taking a photo of how she taped up Jay's foot.

Maybe they will talk so much, we will run out of time for exercise.. Hopes Jay.

Instead of walking they started with some breathing exercises, and arm stuff with long stretchy bands, then coughing while holding a pillow, this was the strangest workout Jay had ever done, most of it could even be done while sitting down. Kai was taking lots of notes, asking lots of questions. Jay's focus was fading, he had tried listening at first, but now the voices were just noise. His eyes were drawn to the parallel bars on the other side of the room.

"And we're done for today." says the therapist cheerfully, pulling Jay out of his thoughts. "Remember, these are to help you build strength, we don't want you working yourself past the point of exhaustion. Taking a small walk each day is also great for building strength, but you need to stop as soon as you start feeling winded. Start small."

Kai nods enthusiastically, proud that her advice in starting small was matching his own.

"I don't have to use the walking bars?" asks Jay with a look of confusion.

"You already know how to walk, right?" says the therapist, before going to greet her next patient.

Kai wheels Jay back to the room. "See, that wasn't so bad?" He says.

"Thanks for coming with me, I knew I wouldn't be able to remember half of that.." says Jay tiredly.

"Oh, is that why you wanted me along?"

Jay shrugs, "I needed someone I could trust." And it wasn't fair making Cole do everything.

A stupidly large grin spreads across Kai's face. "I get to come back next time too, right?" he asks eagerly.

"Sure." Says Jay.