Cross In The Light ✔️

Ch. 44

Lightning POV
I open the door to Drift's room, hearing Jamie cry. I take my chance and go into the room. Drift isn't in here, and by her movement, Jamie is in pain again. She will not trust me to give her medication, even if Drift texts me instructions. I text him to get here fast before trying to comfort Jamie. Jamie panics, but the pain is too intense to move away from me. I sit on my knees and show her my hands to show o have nothing that'll hurt her.
"Easy, I will not hurt you."
I can't believe she is fighting the pain to get away, but she doesn't get far.
"I'm here," Drift assures Jamie as he takes her hand. Crosshairs works on getting pain medication. I sit on the platform as Drift moves Jamie back in bed, resulting in louder crying from Jamie. I worry there's a complication developing as Drift listens to her heart and breathing — or tries to with her crying.
Damn Ratchet, have you had to watch Jamie go through pain like this?

A few minutes pass before Crosshairs insists we leave.
"She's terrified of me," I tell him as he closes the door, "even though I know I'm not the first to try to kill her, I don't think Jamie is terrified of Jadin."
"I don't know what's going through her mind. I've watched her fight Jadin myself; she's not afraid of Jadin, but she is afraid Jadin will hurt any of us. She's afraid you'll hurt any of us...so, I don't know what she's thinking now."
"What did I do to cause so much pain?"
Crosshairs sighs, not wanting to answer, "major internal bleeding and organ damage. Though the organ that had to be partially removed can repair itself. All I know is a small amount was removed. Now, as for unable to have sparklings; nothing there was damaged, but Jamie says it's never going to happen."
I laugh at his last sentence. I'm not even going to ask if Drift gave his thoughts on that or why Jamie says it will never happen.
"I can't believe how much pain that's causing her."
Crosshairs looks at me like I'm wrong.
"Crosshairs?!" I demand.
"Three fractured ribs."
Oh, scrap, that's bad, but knowing how close the bullets were to her heart...
Crosshairs hugs me as I cry.

I dread telling Prime what happened, but he needs to know Jamie's reaction to seeing me. I'm not paying attention to the conversation; I'm bothered by how much pain Jamie is dealing with.
"... use sedation for a while?" Hot Rod — who I didn't know was a part of the conversation — suggests, "and Drift holding her will help her feel safe as Lightning is near Jamie doing something like watching T.V."
I realize everyone is here; even Rangeblade is concerned about how much pain Jamie is in, and I don't think it's only because Rangeblade knows nothing about the human body — through using a holoform is a great teacher.
"I don't know if we should try something now or wait until Jamie is healed," Prime points out.
"I say now; she's in a lot of pain to fight. Lightning can show Jamie she won't hurt her," Bumblebee suggests, "I know we still need to be careful, but I think this way is better."
Everyone, even Drift, agrees.
"No!" I exclaim, "I don't want to cause her more pain or cause a delay in her healing."
"Trust Bee when he says this is a good time to heal your relationship with Jamie," Prime says and walks away.
Crosshairs has me go to my room with him and Drift.

"This is a bad idea," I tell them while looking at the picture I've yet to give back to Drift.
"It's going to take time," Drift says.
"You want me to divide my time now?" Crosshairs asks.
"No... I don't know....," I can't continue without crying. Crosshairs hugs me as I cry.

Crosshairs POV
There's so much going through Lightning's mind; guilt, regret, and uncertainty. Worried about Jamie's recovery and if it will terrify Jamie to be around her now, all from one decision.
Rangeblade walks in, fear on her face as we look at each other. Shame her decision to show Lightning my Photoshop work put Lightning on the right path — even though there's more to deal with — but she's more afraid of me. She nervously asks Drift how Jamie is doing, leaving once she gets her answer.
"So much to work on," Drift sighs, "and everything can fall apart so easily."
I think everything has fallen apart, Drift. Now we're fixing everything to how it should have been from day one — except for Rangeblade. Lightning wouldn't leave her to die. If that's all we had to deal with, I think we'd be done with dealing with trust issues.

Rangeblade POV
How much more can things fall apart? The bots who've been together for years on this planet turning against each other? Ok, Hot Rod was furious at Crosshairs and hurt him, but I think they're friends again.
"Are you ok?" Hot Rod asks before leading me to my room.

"I-I don't know," I tell him as we sit on the bed.
"This scrap isn't your fault. You know this would happen even if Lightning didn't meet you."
"I don't care if Crosshairs or the others will hate me; I want Jamie to recover and for Crosshairs to get what he wants."
"Even if he still wants you kicked out?"
"I don't think he does, but I doubt he trusts me."

Optimus Prime POV
There's a change in the trust exercise plan. Hard to know if this is an extra step or replaces one I had already planned. I can only hope that everyone will trust each other by the end of this, and Crosshairs gets what he wants. I don't think he still wants Rangeblade kicked out. It's hard to tell if he now wants to be her friend or not.

Hound and I go into Drift's room. Hound wants to look at Jamie's injuries as she sleeps. 
"Damn," Hound says as he lifts Jamie's shirt. Most of her torso is bandaged. We've seen photos of the healing wounds from bullets and incisions. Even her red chest from the fractured ribs. While we would have liked the ribs to be repaired during surgery, we understand why the decision was made for the ribs to heal on their own. Unfortunately, that's most Jamie's pain.

As we leave the room, Lightning walks in. Crosshairs watches as Lightning goes by the bed and kisses Jamie.
"She wanted to," Crosshairs tells us.
"I know it'll be a long time before you believe me, but I am so sorry," she says, walks out of the room, and hugs Crosshairs.
Jamie has trusted humans who've had bad intentions because she believed they are good as she thinks with Rangeblade, but I'm not sure if it's anything to assure Lightning there's still hope. All I know is it was a good decision not to tell anyone Jamie was dead before Cade and Hound brought her to our friend.