Chapter Text
Bright, blinding pain. Rich felt like his skin was melting off. He was teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, just barely hovering on the conscious side of the precipice. Something jerks him back just as he starts to let himself drift off, this was what he wanted, right? No voices.
“RICH” that was Jake’s voice. Jake’s voice that was so full of pain and panic. Rich wanted to call out, to say something, to assure Jake that everything was okay. He wasn’t scared anymore. Suddenly there are arms around him and it hurts. He wants to curl into the solid chest he’s leaning against but it hurts too much to move. There’s a cool breeze on his burning skin. Then something pulling him down as the air whooshes past him.
They thunk hard against the ground and someone’s screaming. Rich is sure it’s Jake. Sure that it was Jake that rescued him. Sure that Jake hurt himself saving Rich--saving Rich from himself.
~~~
Rich’s head was pounding. He looked around, everything was blindingly white, then his dad popped up in front of him.
‘Bastard. You can’t even die right. You couldn’t even do me that one favor.’ His father’s speech is so slurred Rich has trouble understanding him. He disappears and Jake appears in his place.
‘Why would you do this?! We’re best friends! You can tell me anything!’ Jake looks like he’s crying.
Rich’s brother is next, ‘you dumbass, I can’t believe you. God, I’m so worried about you.’
The last person to visit him in this weird limbo is his mother. She cradles his face in her hands. “My poor little boy. I am so sorry I left you. But it’s time for you to go back now.” She hugs him tightly before stepping back and disappearing.
“Mom! Mom wait!” Rich calls desperately, turning in circles looking for someone, anyone.
The SQUIP laughs maliciously. “Did you really think that was all it would take to get rid of me?”
Before Rich can respond the ground rushes up to greet him.
~~~
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
The steady, persistent beeping coming from somewhere on Rich’s left was about to drive him insane. His first priority however was to figure out how to breathe properly again. Once the alarms start going off signaling to the nurses that he was awake his room is swarmed by people in scrubs. They pull the tube that went to his stomach and give him a glass of water.
They leave him alone after they make sure he was able to breathe normally. Every breath hurt like the fire was scorching his lungs all over again but he was alive. He was alive. The realization makes him laugh gleefully. The laughing launches him into a coughing fit that has the nurses running for his room again. When he tries to move it feels like someone was touching a hot fire poker to his skin.
He’s the only one in the room right now, but there was another bed next to his. A nurse comes to ask him some questions about being comfortable but he finds that it hurts to respond to her and that his voice was gravelly. He sounds like he’s been a pack-a-day smoker for sixty years. They keep him well supplied with water and gradually his voice starts to return to normal.
His primary nurse is kind. She changes their routine on the second day he was there and awake. Rather than stand at the foot of his bed she comes and sits in the chair that had been pulled up next to the bed in case any of his family decided to come visit.
“Rich? Can I ask you something?” Her face is grave and a jolt of fear lances through him. He cautiously nods. “All up and down your back, there are these scars, new ones and older ones, all layered up and down your back. I’ve only ever seen scars like that on people that have electrocuted themselves lots or with very strong currents. And there were some other scars, some of them look self-inflicted, but others don’t. Is there anything you want to talk about with me? I’m here for you, Rich.” Her expression is so open and honest but she wouldn’t believe him about the SQUIP and he wasn’t going to nark on his dad and then be shipped off to foster care.
He shakes his head and she sighs, running her hands down her pant legs as she stands. “Okay. I’m not going to force you to talk, but if you need someone to talk to, you can talk to me.” She taps the top of his foot lightly before reaching down for his chart of vitals.
“Oh, that reminds me, that boy you came in with, he’s awake and asking about you if you’re okay and ready to have visitors yet.” She watches the variety of emotions flit across Rich’s face before putting the chart back and checking his IV. She checks his bandages and lets him know they would replace the salve later in the day. “Just tell me when you’re ready to let people come visit. Okay?” He nods numbly, thinking about the fact that Jake went back into the house because of him . That Jake was here because of him . That Jake no longer had a house because of him. That Jake was hurt because of him. Rich felt like he was going to be sick. Luckily he wasn’t allowed any real food yet. Just jello and similar things that would be easy on his digestive system.
~~~
Jake couldn’t feel his legs. He couldn’t feel his legs. He pries his eyes open and jerks upright, only to be greeted by the sight of both of his legs encased in casts. A young nurse came in and introduced herself as Angela. He was struggling to wrap his mind around everything that had happened.
“That was a real brave thing you did, going back to rescue that boy. You probably saved his life.” She says on the second day he was there. She was trying to convince him to speak to anyone. The only thing he had said so far was to ask if Rich was alive. When he didn’t answer Jake decided to stew in silence until someone gave him an answer. This nurse did, if indirectly.
“H-he’s alive? He made it?” Jake’s face is hopeful.
“He is. The EMS said they had to pry the two of you apart because you were holding on to him so tight.” She’s making small talk as she moves around his bed and room attending to his meds and vital charts.
“Rich, he’s something else.” Jake smiles to himself. “C-can I go see him?”
Angela feels bad when she tells Jake he isn’t allowed to be up and moving yet.
Every time she comes in to check on him, Jake asks a different question about Rich. Normally she either doesn’t know or can’t tell him the answer, but that doesn’t stop him from asking.
The following day Jake could tell his questions were wearing on her and he felt bad for a moment. But then his thoughts circled back to Rich. He needed to see with his own eyes that Rich was alive. That he made it.
Later in the evening Angela relents and gets another nurse to help put him in a wheelchair. Jake wanted to try and push himself, sure that he would be going faster than Angela was right now, the only thing that stopped him was the fact that he knew he would hit someone or something. When they finally get to Rich’s room someone else was already there, their voices floating out into the hallway softly, despite the mostly closed door.
When the door opens and he sees Rich, laying in the hospital bed looking really worse for the war it breaks Jake’s heart. If only he had been faster. He’s jerked out of his guilt by the nurse announcing to Rich and that kid--what was his name--Michael--that Jake was a very loving and devoted boyfriend. Jake wants the floor to open up and swallow him whole. Sadly it doesn’t. He doesn’t even bother to correct him when she calls him “Jacob” instead of “Jake”.
Once he’s close enough to the bed to actually see Rich he feels even worse. As he’s getting ready to apologize Rich beats him to it.
“I’m so so--” he stops part way through and Jake’s thoughts come to a grinding halt. Since when did Rich have a lisp? Since when was Rich’s lisp so adorable? Rich’s blush deepens even more, which he wasn’t sure was humanly possible. Jake was grinning at him like a fool.
“Rich, I accept your apology, but can you say it again, please?” Jake bites his bottom lip, pleading. His face is soft, but when he glances at Rich’s face he regrets asking.
“I can’t. Be-because, you’ll make fun of me.” This is the first time Jake has ever heard Rich stutter, and Jake wants to shake himself because he was already head-over-heels for Rich, and Rich was clearly going through some issues. Jake’s heart breaks when he realizes that Rich has been made fun of for his lisp in the past.
“I would never. Please can you say it again, for me?” He wants to hold Rich’s hand, to provide some form of emotional support, but he doesn’t, worried that he’d overstep his bounds even more. He knew he was taking a risk, asking Rich to say it again for him, but he just selfishly wanted to hear Rich’s lisp again.
Rich avoids his eyes but apologizes again nonetheless. Jake wants to just grab Rich and protect him from the world, so he does the next best thing. He reaches out and grabs Rich’s hand. Rich looks surprised, but not entirely unhappy so Jake doesn’t pull away.
Rich takes a deep breath, “What, um...why did I need t-to repeat it if you already forgive me?” Jake notices that he carefully avoids words with ‘s’s in them. His heart breaks a little more for Rich.
Jake sits for a few seconds, trying to come up with something to respond with, but the longer he thought about it the redder his face got. He pulls his hand away from Rich, burying his face in his hands, trying to soften the blow of what he was about to say. How exactly does one tell their best friend that they think the way they talk is amazing and cute and endearing?
He mumbles it, knowing that Rich wouldn’t be able to understand. When he peers through his fingers Rich was making the cutest face, his eyebrows were furrowed and his nose was scrunched up. Rich asks him to repeat what he said and he tries to find the courage to say it to Rich’s face in a comprehensible fashion, but his nurse comes back into the room and tells him they needed to go, that he had a visitor, and for a moment his heart soared, maybe his parents had come to visit him.
Angela starts to pull him away but Rich’s arm flies out and latches onto his tightly. Jake can tell how much the effort cost Rich, and so can Angela. She stops moving the wheelchair and looks at Jake to see what he was going to do.
“W-wait. What did you s-say, Jake?” Rich’s voice is cautious and he stumbles over the word ‘says’ but the fact he said it at all convinces Jake to tell him. He didn’t want to freak Rich out, but he needed him to know that Jake loved his lisp and that he didn’t have to hide it. He turns around and sends a pleading look at Angela. She smiles and rolls her eyes good naturedly, stepping back to let the boys have the illusion of privacy.
He struggles to propel himself forward to be next to Rich’s head. In the quietest voice he can manage but that he knows Rich will still hear he says “I said, because your lisp is cute.”
Rich jerks his head to look at Jake’s red face as he gestures for Angela to pull him away from the bed. “Wh--y-you c-can’t just l-leave n-now.” Rich was struggling now and Angela puts her hand on his. She convinces him to settle down. Jake offers him one last lopsided grin as he leaves, despite his red face.