One Day At a Time ✔️

Ch. 38 A Complicated Issue

Sunstreaker’s P.O.V.
My plan was to take Jamie for a walk around the park before lunch. We met several Autobots before leaving, and Jamie got anxious, and I failed to keep her from crying. To my surprise, Sideswipe scolds everyone to leave the area while I take Jamie from the wheelchair and hug her. I didn’t plan for a few Autobots to try to interact with her, but if I knew she’d get upset, I wouldn’t have stopped to let them interact with her.
“Let’s take her to the medbay,” I hear Jolt.
He pushes the wheelchair close while I carry Jamie to the medbay and into the same room Jamie was in when she was sick. Sideswipe has to help with the IV pump and medicine bag.

I see Ratchet kept the recliner in the room. I sit on the recliner and hug Jamie close.
Jolt walks in, puts the wheelchair in the corner, and crouches down by the chair.
“What’s the matter?” He asks as he wipes Jamie’s eyes and puts the IV bag back on the pole on the wheelchair.
Sideswipe puts the oximeter on Jamie’s finger, “95%,” he informs us.
That’s concerning, but we’ll see what happens.
Jamie won’t say anything, but I think Jolt knows the problem. He was hoping to get her to talk.
Should I? Sideswipe asks.
No, they need to relax for a while. Jamie is doing ok.

It’s funny; Jolt now carries Jamie’s favorite candy in his lab coat. Though he tells her he’ll give it to her after lunch. No mention of her mechs upsets Jamie.

Jolt’s P.O.V.
“She wants them,” I tell Ratchet as I walk into his office, “I know they need a break, and getting them to take one is a challenge.”
Ratchet sighs and leaves the office and medbay. I suspect he will talk to Crosshairs and Drift, hoping they’ll agree to let another Autobot take Jamie after lunch, if Jamie will cooperate.

With the infusion finished, we let Jamie walk to the cafeteria. Making sure that’s where she’s going. She looks down the hall where the lounge room is located, hoping her mechs are walking down the hall. I let her wait two minutes. Before I try to get her to continue towards the cafeteria, I see Crosshairs and Drift walking down the hall. Jamie unexpectedly runs down the hall and hugs Drift.
“Uh, is this clingy behavior or fear they left her?” Sunstreaker asks me.
“I fear she thought they left her,” I regret saying before we hear Jamie cry. Sideswipe rushes to them and puts the oximeter on Jamie’s finger before the three mechs meet up with Sunstreaker and me. I take Jamie’s hand, which has the oximeter on. She’s doing better, keeping her oxygen level up; just a slight drop to 95% as she cries. It’s ok if it doesn’t decrease further.
“Shh, it’s ok; we’re not going anywhere,” Drift assures her.
“I don’t like how she’s not liking how her mechs go off to do something else for a while,” Sideswipe whispers, “it’s not like this is new, and if it was; this behavior is concerning.”
“You know we love you and don’t stay away for long. I know you have fun with the twins,” Crosshairs comments as he wipes Jamie’s eyes. By now, she’s quit.
“Come on, time for lunch,” Drift comments as he walks down the hall. Crosshairs, the twins, and I follow him.

Drift’s P.O.V.
This is troubling and upsetting. We could normally leave Jamie with others or alone for a while, but we left her with the twins for two hours once she woke up before she ran to us, crying. We need to talk about this when Jamie falls asleep for her nap. No way she’ll be able to stay awake the rest of the day.

We kept lunch simple though this time, we let Jamie eat a tuna fish sandwich rather than just the tuna fish. The trach worries me even if Ratchet says it’s fine. Jamie let me cut the sandwich in half, though I did it more if she couldn’t finish it. 
Jamie does well and finishes the sandwich. She lets me put her in the wheelchair.
“Let’s go for a walk,” I suggest as I cover her with the blanket Sunstreaker put in the basket at the back of the wheelchair. Her oxygen level is up to 97%.
“Let’s go get a treat,” Crosshairs suggests.
I figured the twins would want to come. We invite Jolt to join us.

Jolt holds Jamie as he sits on the bench. Jamie leans on him, clearly getting tired.
I give her half of a cookie I bought from Panera Bread.

“This is good, even with what happened earlier,” Crosshairs assures me as we walk down the path, “she’s ok being with Jolt and the twins.”
“For an hour before she’ll panic,” I remind him.
Crosshairs sighs, “she’ll be ok. It’s just going to take time.”

Crosshairs’ P.O.V.
It’s hard; we watched her in a twelve-week coma, and it’s been ten weeks since she woke up. She’s been seriously ill twice in that time, afraid of Jolt and Ratchet for half that time, and we’re still working on many things. We find out Jamie is scared to be with others for a while, yet two days ago, she was fine with being with the twins for four hours.

We walked the entire path around the park. Finding Jamie is asleep by the time we get back to the bench. I suspect Sunstreaker already took a picture of Jolt holding Jamie before he and Sideswipe left. We let Jolt enjoy this for ten minutes before telling him to put Jamie in the wheelchair.
“She ate the cookie,” Jolt tells us once Jamie is in the wheelchair. We’re still putting her on oxygen.
Good, now we need to get her to eat more before feeling full unless is it possible her stomach shrunk? I’ll have to ask Ratchet.

“No, I fear she had very little food while in that asylum, and she has had little food. She’s not getting much while tube feed compared to eating food. She’s doing well considering what she’s been dealing with since Jamie woke from the coma,” I know he means the medically induced coma, “The best I can do is increase how often she’s fed. The most is every three hours, but she may not want to eat food.”
It’s hard not knowing what the right way is.

Drift fell asleep with Jamie. I sit on my bed, questioning what we should do. We can’t get Jamie to talk, and it’s hard to understand what she’s been thinking. Not like she’d tell us if she was talking.

I didn’t think the terror twins would come by.
“They’re both asleep,” I tell them.
“Then you can go do something,” Sunstreaker insists.
“I don’t know....”
They know Drift has been struggling, and I don’t know if he’ll be ok taking care of Jamie alone. Sunstreaker sighs, and the two leave the room. When will this end?