One Day At a Time ✔️

Ch. 23 Change of Plans

Jamie's P.O.V.
I wake up in the middle of the night, realizing I'm in bed with Drift. For once, I'm happy I can't make a sound with this trach. I sit in the room's corner and let tears roll down my face. A few minutes pass before I feel arms around me.
"You're safe," Drift assures me as he moves me onto his lap. Crosshairs sits beside him.
Do they even sleep?
Crosshairs gets a tissue from his pocket to wipe my eyes.
"You're ok," he says as he wipes my eyes.

Drift waits a few minutes before standing up while still holding me and sitting on the bed.
He hugs me close as he moves in a slow, rocking motion. 

Crosshairs' P.O.V.
I watch as Jamie fights to go back to sleep. It's three in the morning, too early for a walk.

Ten minutes pass before she's asleep.
"I don't like how she hid in the corner," Drift sighs as he puts Jamie to bed.
"It's better than running out of the room, but I don't like how she had a nightmare that frightened her."
I make sure Drift goes to sleep before going back to sleep.

Watching Drift and Jamie sleep as I wait for them to wake up, I think about Drift's idea. What if that's why her oxygen level decreases when she cries? I know these are likely illogical thoughts, but I wonder why else does Jamie's oxygen level decrease if there's no lung damage? I agree with Drift; we need to be prepared if Jamie can't handle having the trach removed, but we need to watch her in the medbay; which she's too frightened to step foot in. There's got to be something we can do.

Jolt's P.O.V.
Jamie has been missing her favorite live streamer for almost five months. I found out they will do a long stream today and requested Ratchet, and I have a little time off. I doubt we'll be able to stay with Jamie for long. Crosshairs and Drift are concerned about this but understand we need to show Jamie she can trust us. We got the terror twins involved, hoping this will help her not be frightened.
Please let this help her. We hate seeing her frightened to see us.

Drift's P.O.V.
Crosshairs and I continue to attempt to get Jamie to talk without being frightened.
"I don't understand why you are afraid to talk? You're safe," I assure her. Surely any implanted monitoring device Megatron ordered the doctors to put in would have been found and removed. "Did they implant a listening device?" I ask. I hate. Jamie squeezes my hand, which means yes. There's more to Megatron's plan than killing her, but what happened that killing her was a better plan? "Let Ratchet look, please?"
I know Crosshairs is texting Ratchet as I'm talking to Jamie. 

Ratchet's P.O.V.
I'm in a meeting with Jolt and Optimus when my phone goes off. Normally this is unacceptable, but I'm allowed to have my phone on while Jamie is recovering.
"Sir, you're going to want to read this," I interrupt and forward the messages to Jolt and Prime. They couldn't believe what they were reading, and I found nothing where the scar was in her throat, which worries me. That's all I need; to have to do surgery on Jamie's head. Our meeting turns into talking about dealing with this issue since Jamie is afraid to see Jolt and me. 

Sunstreaker stays with Jamie, so Crosshairs and Drift can be part of the planning.
"I think we should stick to the plan and watch the Livestream with her," I suggest, "hopefully, she'll trust us enough not to fight us as Jolt puts her to sleep for the exam."
It's hard to know what to do, but we need to find this device.

Crosshairs' P.O.V.
Ratchet and Optimus ask to talk to Drift. I decided to take Jamie for a walk in the park to watch the ducks.
"Why the wheelchair?" Sideswipe asks.
I get why it seems odd. How long has he been waiting to ask this question? Next, he'll probably ask why Jamie wore her sweatshirt in August. Unless he knows she has difficulty staying warm since she's very skinny.
"It's easier to take her to the cafeteria and back with the oxygen concentrator. Easier to take her for a walk," I explain.
Sideswipe knows how quickly things can change, and we need to put Jamie on oxygen.
I will have a challenge if there are doctors around the park on break. We should be happy she's not terrified to leave the base.
I grab some juice before leaving. Sideswipe comes with me. 

Sideswipe takes Jamie for a walk along the path in the park. It's a good short test to see if she can keep her oxygen level up while walking.

Sideswipe's P.O.V.
I see what Crosshairs means as I walk with Jamie. He insisted I take the oxygen concentrator just in case, and it's hard to know if it's unnecessary or not. The ducks have been following us while swimming in the pond, which is unusual. It's a nice twenty-minute walk until...

Crosshairs' P.O.V.
Everything is fine until I catch Jamie running towards me. I quickly realize it was not excitement — though it would be odd if she was excited to see me.
"What's wrong?" I ask her as she hugs me and cries.
Sideswipe finally catches up with Jamie.
"Doctors," he says, out of breath.
Oh boy, this is going to be a challenge.

It takes a few minutes to get her to calm down. Her oxygen level decreased to 95%.
"You're safe; you know we protect you," I assure her as I hear her breathing through the trach. I don't need to put her on oxygen now.
I give Jamie the juice I brought while I hold her.

I carry her back to the base and to our room, where Drift is waiting. He dislikes his girl being scared; I hate how he knows why she's scared.
Our plan is going to backfire quickly.

I text Ratchet to let him know what happened during the walk. Drift is also not sure if we should continue as planned or not. We don't want to trick her, so we can put her to sleep for an exam.
We tell Jamie about the live stream and are happy she wants to go to the lounge room to watch it.  

Ratchet's P.O.V.
Drift lets Jolt and I enter the lounge room an hour into the live stream, hoping Jamie will be relaxed — or at the very least distracted.
Everything is fine for ten minutes before she sees us. She's sitting on Drift's lap and buries her face in his chest. He hugs her as Crosshairs whispers for us not to leave. This is good progress. Jamie mostly listens to the Livestream for ten minutes before relaxing and watching it.
"This isn't good," Jolt whispers, "what did they do to her?"
"We may never know, but I hope we can help her learn to trust us," I reply.
"We need to find out if there's a device implanted or not. It seems Megatron changed his mind, but was that before or after he had those doctors put a device in?"

Our only way is to wait until Jamie is asleep and put her under anesthesia, which wouldn't be s a good idea. Jamie fines waking up, but it's a mistake not having her wake up in the medbay, but we don't want her frightened. I did x-rays when we brought her back. This might mean there's nothing or a device that can't be detected by x-ray; a wild idea, but it's the Decepticons we're talking about.

An hour passes before we take a break and get dinner. Mirage suggests we sit at the table with Jamie.
"....it would be great if we could show her not to be afraid of you and Jolt without causing her to be frightened, but I don't think that's working. The other end of the table — between five other mechs — should be a good start," he explains. 

It's hard to know if this is right, but Mirage planned this well, making sure a few other bots Jamie trusts are at the table.
Jolt, and I talk to Crosshairs and Drift about this plan; both, as uncertain as we are, agree to do this. 

Sideswipe's P.O.V.
I am uncertain about this plan, but I understand how the others think doing nothing will not help Jamie, not be afraid of Jolt and Ratchet. I keep her busy playing a game on her tablet. I was told to put the cap on the trach. Sunstreaker sits next to me; Bumblebee, Mirage, and Jazz join us a few minutes later. I can tell they're not looking forward to seeing Jamie frightened.