Chapter Text
Only in my darkest moments can I see the light
I think I'm prone to getting blinded when it's bright
Well, this December, I'll remember
Want you to see it when I do, ooh
I'm alright if you're alright
And I'm okay if you're okay
It's this state in this state I'm living in
It's just a little bit, it's just a little bit
Lonely in this home, it's always colder on your own
My darlin', I, I let the season change my mind
This December - Ricky Montgomery
One of the worst nights of Jake's life started with a simple question.
"I need a favor, you're sober right?"
It was surprisingly warm Saturday evening in December, so almost all plebes from Naval Academy were still gone using town liberty (including his roommate Javy) when Natasha Trace came to his room without even knocking.
Normally Jake would joke about the rudeness of that or how he was underage and he would never drink illegally, but Natasha looked like shit.
She was pale sweaty and holding her stomach, so he just answered her. "Yes. Do you need me to drive you to the hospital or something?"
He asked right away, because he can be nice and he never really saw her look that bad before, so maybe he was a little worried about her.
"What? No, I'm fine. Don't be ridiculous." She said like she didn't look half dead.
"You don't look fine."
"I'm fine! It's just... I just started my period. It's not that bad usually, but today it's hell." She whispered while looking away after he gave her a look.
"Okay, do you need me to buy tampons, pads or anything like that?" She looked surprised at that offer, and Jake felt very offended by that, but she started moaning before he could say anything about it.
"Just shut up and let me talk." She whined. "I'm fine on the period front, but I can't drive like that and promised Bradley I would pick him up."
Jake only then noticed she was holding the car keys in the hand that wasn't clutching her stomach. "Can you pick him up for me?"
He rolled his eyes at that, because of course this is about Bradshaw.
"He is a big boy, I'm sure he can find his way home."
Because fine, Jake is aware that he is what some people might consider acquired taste, but he really tried particularly in these early weeks, and Bradley Bradshaw literally took one look at him and he decided he didn't like him, as if Jake's very existence triggered him.
"I'm sure one of the guys will give him a ride or something." He added after Natasha gave him a look this time.
"No, because he went on a date and it's in Washington. I tried calling him so he wouldn't wait for me and get a taxi or something but I think his phone is dead."
Natasha gave him a pleading look and with how pathetically she already looked, it was very effective on Jake. He already knew he was going to waste his evening on that tasteless asshole Bradshaw, instead of studying (those Hawaiian shirts are fashion crime).
"Please, I don't want him to miss curfew because of me." Natasha didn't even need to add that.
"I'll really owe you one for this." And she definitely didn't need to add that, but since she did, Jake would be a fool not want a favor from her.
"Fine. I'll hold you to that. Just tell me where to pick him up. "
"You're not Natasha." Is the first thing Bradshaw said after he got in the car. He looked so very confused that Jake had trouble refraining from laughing.
"No shit, Sherlock."
"Did you steal her car?"
So Bradley Bradshaw is one of those really stupid drunks. Jake thought. This might be fun actually.
"Yes, I stole her car, and came to the one place she was supposed to be right now, because that is more likely than her just asking me to pick you up instead of her."
And Bradley looked as if he was actually considering this possibility, at least until Jake started laughing, then he mumbled. "Right, that was a stupid question."
"You're really drunk, aren't you?" Jake asked rhetorically. He saw Bradshaw staggering the car earlier but still, he didn't expect that level of drunkenness from Mister Perfect. Bradshaw just flipped him a bird in response.
"I guess the date didn't work out." Jake added because he couldn't help himself.
"It is none of your business. Besides, so what if I'm drunk? I'm over 21! I can drink if I want!" Bradshaw sounded angry now.
Bradshaw is stupid and angry drunk, this won't be fun.
But fine, Jake could handle this, so he stopped himself from making some old man joke, because the fact that he's on the older side of plebs seems to be a very sore spot for Bradshaw.
Jake decided to be nice, he definitely didn't joke about it, because he never saw Bradshaw that drunk before and he might be worried about his reaction.
"Just please fasten your seat belt, so we can leave and not miss the curfew." He just said instead, because he realized Bradshaw had no intention to do so. "It's over an hour away, so we only have a few minutes extra."
"Fuck you, you can't tell me what to do Mav!"
Mav? Who the fuck is Mav?
Jake just looked at Bradshaw while blinking, because dude not only turned fully into a moody teenager from alcohol, but was also having some kind of hallucination or something?
"I'm not Mav? I'm Jake." He tried to be reasonable. "This is literally the law. I'm not starting this car until you do so."
"Whatever." Bradshaw answered with an eye roll but he actually did buckle up, so Jake started driving.
"Wait, why did Natasha ask you to do this? Did something happen to her?" Bradshaw suddenly asked after a few minutes of silent drive.
"She's fine. She just started her period and it's a rather bad one, but she's fine beside that."
Bradshaw relaxed his head against the window again after hearing that, and after a while he started snoring.
The last thing Jake remembers is mostly that snoring, and that he looked at the time thinking they would easily make it before curfew.
He didn't know that they would not even get to leave Washington that night.
The thing is he ended up not remembering the crash, but apparently this is the case sometimes, and this is not something to worry about.
Jake didn't really mind that, because he always wished he could also forget what he did remember. All that blood, noise and pain.
He knows, but doesn't remember, that at the junction they were hit by a drunk driver who ignored a red light.
Apparently there was nothing he could have done to avoid that, and Jake wasn't sure he believed that, but he really didn't remember anything about the crash, so he tried to believe official reports that all the blame was on the other driver.
(He felt guilty anyway.)
What he ended up remembering is waking up in a car thinking his head and left arm were killing him.
Someone was screaming outside the car (Please shut up.) and he could smell the sharp stench of petrol and blood.
He also remembered realizing the car is wrecked and thinking Natasha is going to kill him.
And then he remembered looking at the bloodied and stiff Bradshaw, and forgetting about his own pain because Bradshaw looked like he was dead.
He remembered blooding (there was so much blood everywhere) his shaky hands while trying to find his pulse and swearing when he couldn't.
"Don't you die on me you fucking asshole."
The last thing he remembers before darkness came is thinking he killed Bradshaw and now Natasha was really going to kill him.
Jake was used to waking up in a hospital bed, so at first he didn't panic.
Even when he noticed that his left arm was in a cast, he still didn't panic.
Then he looked around the room, and noticed Bradshaw lying in the next bed, all in bandages like a mummy, recalled last night and he perhaps did panic a little.
He almost killed Bradshaw, his social life was over.
So a slight panic was very much in order.
The nurse who came to reassure him was young and beautiful, but after having a panic attack in front of her, he was unlikely to have a chance with her.
After he calmed down, they had a typical conversation with questions like ‘how many fingers am I holding up?’ and ‘do you know your name?’ to see if his brain was working.
"Do you remember what happened?"
Yes?
No?
Kinda?
When she noticed that he was considering his answer she added. "This is normal if you don't remember everything."
"Car crash?" She nodded in response.
"I don't remember crashing, but I know that I was driving, and then I woke up in a wrecked car. Bradshaw was fully covered in blood. Is he all right?" As soon as he asked about it he felt stupid.
Bradshaw was literally drowning in bandages next to him and he asked if he was all right.
"Don't worry, you and your friend seem to be very lucky." She smiles, but he can tell she's hiding something.
"And don't worry about the naval academy." She changed the topic. "They were informed of the situation right away because you both had emergency contacts set up as staff from the academy. They can't come, but they said to not worry about your absence, it will be excused."
Normally Jake would feel a little offended by the sympathy in her voice, but he's too focused on the fact that Bradshaw also has no one private he can set up as an emergency contact.
He is always surrounded by people, does he seriously not have normal contact in case of an accident?
Not even Natasha? They seemed to have been non-stop connected since the beginning of the academic year.
Although, all in all, it only has been a few months.
Fuck, speaking of Natasha, he really needed to call her.
He put on his best smile. "Is it possible for me to get my phone back?"
After a little negotiation he got his phone.
A phone that was almost discharged, because it turned out that Natasha and surprisingly also Javy tried to contact him practically all night.
He was most surprised by the number of worried text messages from Javy.
He did not expect that he would care so much about him.
His last message was from an hour ago. "We know about the accident but they didn't tell us much and they won't let me and Natasha leave to come to the hospital. Please get back to me when you are able to"
Jake definitely did not expect Javy to want to visit him in hospital.
He texted Javy "it's fine and i'm fine" (He didn't say anything about Bradshaw because he was still laying like mummy next to him, so he couldn't really say that he's fine).
He tried to force himself to call Natasha next, since she didn't text, only tried to call him, but before he could do this, Javy started calling.
It was almost like he started calling the second he got his text.
Weird.
Weird, but nice. He was a little scared to call Natasha anyway. Not only he wrecked her car but also wrecked her best friend.
Any excuse was good to postpone that conversation.
So he picked a call from Javy, and that conversation was even weirder because Javy seemed so sincerely worried about Jake.
And it turned out that just before he was together with Natasha and they were worried together, but now she went to the bathroom.
He figured out that he will allow himself to be a coward this time and will take the easy way out, so he tried to finish that conversation fast, before Natasha could come back and yell at him.
He asked Javy to pass everything on to Natasha, not that he knew a lot to be honest and that he will call when Bradshaw wakes up, but right now he's getting tired.
He fell asleep almost as soon as he finished talking, so he didn't even really lie by saying that he's tired.
He was woken up by Bradshaw talking to some other nurse.
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Then he was quickly reassured by the fact that Bradshaw sounded reasonably functional.
Once the nurse left, there was an awkward silence between them, before Bradshaw asked to borrow Jake's phone to call Natasha, since his own phone didn't survive the crash.
Despite it feeling a little wrong, Jake let him have his phone since it's the least thing he could do for him after landing both of them in the hospital.
Jake turned his back to Bradshaw to give him the illusion of privacy, during that call, even though he could hear every word Bradshaw said, and could figure out from context most of Natasha's responses.
"You can call someone else if you want too. I didn't mind." He said when Bradshaw didn't move to give him his phone back, even after the call clearly ended.
That seemed to spook him. "I don't want to call anyone!" He said like he was trying to convince himself of that, before throwing Jake's phone back at him. And that was rude! They were already down to one phone and who knows for how long they will keep them here.
Not to mention Jake couldn't afford the replacement!
"Hey, Mister I don't want to call anyone, what's that then?" Jake said when he noticed Bradshaw put in some unknown phone number in his phone, but didn't end up calling. "Your date from last night's number? Maybe I should call her? Show her what the real good time looks like?" Jake added because he really can't stop himself sometimes.
"Fuck! Delete that fucking number! Now!!?" Bradshaw's sudden angry scream spooked Jake so badly he accidentally started calling this number, and he even dropped his phone on the hospital bed.
"Geez, chill! I'm deleting your failed date's number." He said as he picked up his phone, and canceled that call. Hopefully she wouldn't call back, because he didn't want to piss Bradshaw even more, by admitting what he accidentally clicked.
"Sorry." Bradshaw said after a moment, and Jake wondered what kind of drugs they gave him, because Bradshaw never apologized to him before. "I didn't mean to scare you." He added quietly.
"Fuck you. I wasn't scared." Jake lied.
"Sure, Jan." Bradshaw said, so Jake showed him the middle finger with a hand that wasn't in the cast. In response Bradshaw rolled his eyes at him and turned his back to Jake.
Before he could figure out what to respond verbally to that disrespect, Bradshaw's failed date started calling.
Jake rejected that incoming call.
She started calling again.
Jake rejected that call even faster.
He quickly texted "sorry, wrong numbers." before she could start calling again.
She texted back "Bradley?"
Fuck, I'm fucked. Fuck.
He looked at Bradshaw, he didn't dare to admit that he accidentally contacted that girl from yesterday. Considering how badly that date ended with Bradshaw getting so fucking drunk, he figured he was safe in assuming Bradley wasn't planning on meeting her again.
So he texted back impersonating Bradshaw. "Yes, but forget it. I'm in hospital so I must have suffered a momentary lapse in judgement by trying to contact you." He figured that was more or less what happened.
Since that date clearly was a disaster, he figured that, this girl wouldn't care.
Surprisingly he got a text back almost immediately.
"If you don't call me in the next five minutes to tell me if you're fine, I'll call Steven F. Thompson's personal number to find out if you're fine, and then I'll call Him."
What the fuck?
Steven F. Thompson's personal number?!?!
That's the current superintendent of the United States Naval Academy?!?
And who the fuck is this Him, that apparently more important than superintendent?!
Just who the fuck was Bradshaw on date with?!
"Ummm, Hudson we might have a little problem." He said awkwardly when he noticed he got another text that said. "I'm serious you have four minutes left."
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