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“ Mom! ” Jim screams, startling Toby awake. If that hadn’t woken him up, Jim’s tossing and turning definitely would have.
He turns to see Jim, sat up and panting with his hand clutched over his chest.
“You okay, Jimbo?” Toby asks, putting a hand on his sweaty, sweaty shoulder.
“My mom, she—she—she got…” Jim pauses, taking a series of far too shallow breaths. “They killed her!” he sobs.
“It was just a nightmare, dude. She’s okay.”
“I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t save her, I—I—I—” Jim starts to hyperventilate, choking out sobs and gasping for air. “She’s gone, she’s gone, it’s my fault, it’s my fault, it’s my—”
“ Jim! ” Toby grabs his shoulders, shaking him a little. It doesn’t seem to do much good, because all he does is curl further in on himself. “You’re spiralling, man! Your mom is fine.”
He shakes his head. “No, no, no, no, I saw it, I
saw it!
”
Toby’s helped Jim after nightmares before, and Jim’s done the same thing for him, but man, this is a lot worse.
He’s not calming down, if anything he’s only getting worse with each passing second.
“I—I can’t do it, Tobes, I can’t lose her too. I can’t, I can’t breathe—I can’t breathe—”
“Jim, it was just a dream!” Toby says again, hoping and failing to get through to him this time. He wraps his arms around Jim, hoping the pressure will calm him at least a little.
It doesn’t. Not really.
Toby can’t remember the last time Jim had a breakdown this bad. It had to have been when they were really little.
He glances around the room for things to help, before he spots Jim’s phone on the pillow.
“Jim, I—I’m gonna call your mom, okay?”
Jim doesn’t respond, continuing to sob into his shoulder.
Toby grabs the phone with one hand, still holding Jim with the other, unlocks it, and clicks into his contacts, dialling his mom.
“Jim? Is everything okay?”
“Uh, actually, it’s me, Dr. L.”
“Is Jim okay?”
“Yes and no? He—he’s sleeping over at my place tonight, and he had a nightmare where you… died? And he’s really freaking out, like, um—”
A particularly loud sob from Toby’s shoulder seems to prove his point.
“I—I can’t calm him down, I’m trying—”
“Can you put me on speaker with him?”
“Yeah, okay, you’re on speaker.”
Toby holds the phone near Jim’s ear.
“Jim, baby, I’m okay. I’m alive. I’m just at the hospital.”
Jim tilts his head and glances at the phone, opening his mouth, only to let out a whine.
“He’s having trouble breathing, Dr. L. I—I—I don’t know what to do.”
“Toby, can you make sure he’s sitting up properly? He’s gonna be fine, I’m coming now.”
“Okay, yeah.”
Toby plucks Jim off his shoulder and props him up against the wall with some pillows for support. His face scrunches up, and he pulls at his hair, drawing his knees to his chest.
“Stay on the line,” she adds.
“Got it.”
“Jim, honey, listen to me, I’m on my way, I’m okay. I need you to take in a deep breath for me.”
He tries, but after a split second of trying to breathe in, he sobs, and then starts gasping even louder. “Can’t. Can’t .”
“Yes, you can.”
“Mommy…” Jim cries.
“I’m almost there, baby.”
“I need you.”
Toby takes hold of Jim’s hand and squeezes it.
“I’m outside.”
“My grandma will let you in.”
“Okay, I’m gonna hang up, I’ll be there in a second.”
“No, don’t hang up!” Jim shouts just as she opens the door. “ Mom! ” he jumps off the bed, but stumbles, nearly falling before he can reach her. She catches him in her arms and scoops him up, carrying him back to the bed.
“I’m here, sweetie, I’m okay,” she says, peppering kisses onto his forehead.
“I—I—I thought you—you—you were…” he pants, unable to finish his sentence, and instead finishes it by giving her what looks like the world’s tightest hug and sobbing into her chest.
“Honey, I need you to breathe.”
“I—” he gasps, “I thought I lost you—”
“I know, I know, but I’m here.”
“Is he okay?” Toby asks her, though the answer seems to be obviously not.
“He’s having a panic attack,” she says, running her fingers through his hair. “He’ll be okay. Thank you for calling me.”
“Of course. Is—is there anything I can do?”
“Could you get me an ice pack?”
“Yes, doctor!”
Toby runs down, grabs one from the fridge, and runs back up.
Jim and his mom have their foreheads pressed together, and she’s holding his face, leading him through deep breaths as he continues crying.
“I got the ice,” Toby says, setting it down on the blanket and sitting beside Jim, rubbing his back.
“Thank you,” his mom says, taking the ice and placing it in Jim’s hands. He winces and whines. “Cold right?”
He nods.
“It’s supposed to help you ground yourself back in the present. You know, get you out of your head,” she says, kissing the top of his.
“Mmm, you’re okay,” he mumbles, taking in a few shaky, shallow breaths. “You’re alive. I—I… it felt so real.”
“You okay, Jimbo?” Toby asks.
Jim locks eyes with him for the first time since he woke up. “Ah—sorry, Tobes, I freaked you out, didn’t I?”
“Maybe a little, but it’s nothing I can’t handle,” Toby says, giving Jim a light punch to the shoulder.
“I remember when you would come to me crying from nightmares when you were little. You’d make me sleep in your bed for the whole night, and wouldn’t even let go when I had to get ready for work.”
“I—I haven’t had one that bad in a long time…”
“I wonder what caused it,” his mom says, hugging him.
“Uh, just one of those nights I guess,” he mumbles, melting in her arms.
Toby puts a hand over his, feeling how cold his fingers have gotten from the ice.
“Do… do you have to go back to work?” he asks, small and afraid.
“And leave you? Not at all.”
“But you have like… patients and stuff,” he mumbles, sniffling.
“I was nearly done my shift, actually, but even if I wasn’t, I’d be here as long as you need.”
“I was so scared, Mommy.”
“I know. It’s okay, baby, I’m here.”
“And I’m here too,” Toby adds, hugging Jim from behind. “Now you’re a Jim sandwich, see?”
Toby thinks he hears a little chuckle, and that’s more than enough for him to know that Jim is gonna be just fine.