Chapter Text
Jojen woke up confused and disoriented. Everything was dark as always, but the smell was not his normal hospital chamber.
He tried to sit upright, but it didn't work. He fell back on the bed immediately.
Jojen opened his mouth to say something, or yell for help. But nothing came out except for a gurgling noise that made him realize he couldn't breathe.
He felt like a fish on the shore. He couldn't really move except the spasms of his chest. He started to feel light headed and everything starts to hurt.
His limbs heavy and suddenly he didn't have any control anymore over anything.
His chest hurts and his lungs didn't seem to want any air in it.
"Jojen?" The voice seemed so far in the distance that the owner was unknown.
Jojen tried to scream for help but his airway was blocked and all he did was gasp to air that didn't enter his lungs enough for satisfaction.
Jojen opened his mouth to say something, to get the attention of whoever was calling for him.
Nothing came out as the times before. And with all the pain he felt, it didn't really mattered that he fell unconscious, away from the present.
•••
Bran woke up by someone clutching his arm and the sound of gasping.
He slowly opened his eyes and rubbed them before sitting up in the bed.
When Bran fully woke up he suddenly became aware that Jojen lay next to him, eyes screwed closed and gasping for air.
Jojen was coughing and wheezing, gasping for air and spasming around. His lips a odd color.
"Jojen?" Somehow Jojen wheezed louder and seemed to want attention from Bran. He needed help now!
Bran didn't hesitate to push the emergency button immediately, trying not to panic too much, he was in a hospital remember?
But everything went to hell when Jojen stopped spasming around and his body fell limp on the bed. The older boys chest didn't move up and down, and no breath escaped his mouth or nose.
"Jojen?!" Bran cried out. Panic rising in his chest. "NO NO NONONONO! Breathe!" He yelled desperately.
"SOMEONE HELP!" Bran yelled. He started to hyperventilate. "HELP! HELP!" His voice was raspy and raw from the yelling.
Suddenly the door opened and two doctors and four nurses walked into the room, suddenly Bran was carried out of his bed and put into Jojen's.
Jojen was put onto a other bed and he was surrounded by hospital people.
Bran couldn't see what they were doing, but there was a lot of shouting and people and and and...
A nurse stopped right in front of him. The man talked, but Bran could only think about Jojen dying.
Dying. Death. Not here. It was too much he couldn't breath.
"Stark. You need to breath with me you need to-"
Everything went black.
•••
When Bran woke up the room was full of people.
He noticed that he could breath properly and he wanted to panic again, but he couldn't.
Bran slowly sat up because he couldn't move fast.
He blinked lazily with his eyes. He felt so weird. He felt like he was floating.
"Are you okay son?" Ned whispered and looked at his finally woken son.
Bran hummed softly, why did he felt so weird?
Ned ruffled his hair. "You had a panic attack two days ago. They drugged you and waited for you to calm down for some more." His father talked so soft Bran had a hard time understanding everything.
"Jojen?" Bran asked a bit too loud he supposed because the entire room turned to him.
He spotted Meera with red eyes from crying. He saw Dany heavily pregnant sobbing in a big scary looking man. He saw two older people who looked similar to Jojen with somber depressed eyes. And a big man with a scar close to his eye and grey hair was hugging Meera in comfort.
Everyone looked at Bran with big watery eyes.
"What happened?" He rasped out. His throat hurt to talk, but oh no was Jojen...
Meera walked to Brans bed and hugged him tightly. Her face buried in his hair and crying softly "Thank you. Thank you so much." She whispered.
Bran hugged her back. "You're welcome, but what for?" He asked, Jojen wasn't dead. He couldn't be if Meera thanked him.
She looked at him with a small smile. "You saved him. You noticed him chocking. If you were a minute later he'd died. But... But you saved him. There was liquor in his lungs... He couldn't breathe anymore because of it. They immediately did a stomach operation, they removed the tumor there. The stomach cancer is gone. But they fear that the liquor came, because of lung cancer..." Bran nodded his head, even though his mind worked slow at the moment, he understood the information.
"Why... Why is everyone crying?"
Meera sniffed softly. Using a tissue to whip her tears away. "The brain tumor has grown dramatically... And his lungs are very hard to cure. But it is cure-able. But his brain may function worse than before... He hasn't woken up yet, but he'll be devastated."
Bran gasped at the information and felt like it was suddenly too much for him.
So darkness came again.
•••
Jojen had cried when the news came. He wasn't dramatic, no he just looked extremely sad in Brans eyes.
Jojen was unable to move out of his bed for a week. So Bran begged Jon to pretty please carry him into Jojens bed.
His older brother couldn't say no anyway.
So Bran lay there, next to a mostly asleep Jojen. Who was nearly chocked to death if it wasn't for Bran. Which Bran was proud of. He saved someone. He saved his savior.
Bran didn't know if Jojen could hear him, the boy still mumbles in his sleep and his able to eat some pudding when he was half awake but more asleep.
Bran always reads out loud. What if Jojen could hear him and was bored as usual.
Bran played with Jojens hair. The boy was sleep talking again. Most things were groans or mumbling. But sometimes there were words here and there.
Bran always listened to Jojen. Pure because the things he said were hilarious sometimes, but also because every time Brans eyes closed he could see Jojen stopping with breathing and gasping for air.
•••
There were many visitors for Jojen. His parents flew back to England after two days, and Dany's husband didn't really came again, but the man with the scar came more often.
Bran found out his name was Hodor, who gave Jojen private lessons at home, so the sick boy never had to go to school. Which was too hard because some days he had to do his school work in his bed.
Hodor was very sweet and caring. He told Bran that it was hard for him to stay away so long from Jojen, who was his favorite student.
He also talked to Bran about going back to school, about that it was a good thing to get away from home and the hospital.
Bran had listened interested, all the time holding Jojen, who still had to wake up.
•••
Dany was still there often, she tried to cheer everyone up, but she was also tired and sad about everything that happened.
"It's unfair." Bran told her, when she couldn't hide the single tear that fell from her eye.
She nodded, grateful for the handkerchief he gave her. "It really is. He is do young. So sweet and pure. Young beautiful creatures shouldn't have all of this thrown unto them. You two should be happy."
Bran couldn't agree more.