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Zane smoothed a new dressing over the wound on his shoulder. Jay winced slightly as it pulled, though the pain was significantly less than a week ago. Stupid smugglers and their stupid knives. The gash had been deep enough to require stitches, but nothing serious had been damaged. Only his ego for taking such a cheap hit.
"You are healing well Jay," The nindroid stated, sounding pleased. "If it continues like this, your stitches can probably come out in a week."
"Great," He hopped down off the bench, turning to Zane, "So, can I go back to doing stuff now?"
He blinked at the ninja, putting on his best please face. Zane laughed slightly as he began to clean up. "Yes, you may return to normal activities, thought continue to take care until your stitches are removed."
"Yes!" He jumped into the air. He was so bored. Granted, his shoulder had hurt bad enough the first few days that he didn't want to do anything anyways, but there was only so much of that he could take. "Thanks buddy, I will be."
Jay began to walk towards the door of the med bay, planning what he was going to do first. Maybe some training or, ooo he could see if Nya needed help with any of her projects.
He only half listened as Zane called after him, giving a vague uh huh of confirmation. "I will check it again in a few days, if anything changes, please tell me!"
The next few days passed in a kind of blur. Jay busied himself around the monastery, training and joking with the others. He returned to almost all his usual tasks, but taking care around his shoulder – he wasn't Lloyd after all. It still hurt, more than he expected, but he put it down to the increase in movement. He felt vaguely unwell – Nya had probably given him that cold she'd picked up.
Jay was lying on a creeper, deep in the wiring of one of their mechs. Kai had crashed it on their last mission, and while he had walked away uninjured, the mech hadn't fared so well. Nya and Pix had been working on the repairs, but he was lending a hand.
He was alone in the garage, everyone else having retired to bed. This wasn't unusual, Jay had never been the best sleeper, tossing and turning for hours if he wasn't tired enough. Tonight was particularly frustrating, he felt shattered, yet his body was restless. Training earlier must have been harder than he realised, though it shouldn't have been.
Pushing out from under the vehicle, he rolled his shoulder, wincing as the pain turned from a radiating throb into a sharp sensation. Jay wiped his eyes, rubbing them back awake. Feeling sticky all over, he shivered slightly, debating going and finding a thicker jumper. He sat up, switching out his tools for different ones. A spanner clanged to the ground, and he blinked at it a moment.
It had just been in his hand. A moment earlier. Swiping it off the floor he returned it to the table. Maybe it was time for bed. Grabbing the bench with one hand, he heaved himself upwards.
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The floor was cold. What the hell. Everything was spinning. Jay opened his eyes, staring sideways at the mech he had been working on. He swore he had been standing. Wincing against the dizziness and ever-growing pain in his shoulder, he pushed himself back to sitting, leaning heavily on his good arm.
Everything felt foggy, thick and far away. Like waking from a deep sleep, but this was wrong. Jay remained motionless, world still spinning slightly, mouth dry. This really didn't feel like tiredness. Something curled within him, a frown falling over his face. He'd never fallen over from exhaustion before. Sure, he'd seen it happen – to Lloyd, on multiple occasions – but he felt nowhere near tired enough. This was something else.
He leant against the table leg fumbling with his toolbelt, hoping his com was in there. The small device fell into his hand, and he keyed in Zane's code, before raising it to his face.
"Uh—Zane buddy, are you awake?" He released the button, hoping that he picked up. The com crackled to life a few moments later, the Nindroid's robotic tone coming across the static.
"Jay?" He sounded confused. Fair. It was late and they were all at home so why would Jay be comming him. "Is everything okay?"
"Uh—yeah funny you should ask that." Jay let out a short chuckled, anxiety bleeding off him, before spitting it out. "I'm in the garage, was working on a mech—y'know the one Kai crashed spectacularly—anyway, uh, I tried to stand up, and then I was on the floor."
He bit his lip, waiting for a reply.
"Can you explain any further?" Jay heard movement over the com.
"No? Not really. I swear I was standing and then I was lying on the floor staring at the mech. My shoulder really hurts though." He heard the footsteps over the com accelerate slightly. Okay, that was freaking him out a bit. The world was still spinning, almost sickeningly. He almost missed Zane's reply.
"I will be there shortly."
The line fell dead in his hand. Jay lowered the device to his lap, staring straight ahead and taking deep breaths. Now that he thought about it, his shoulder really did hurt. Like a lot. White hot spikes of pain lanced down his arm, almost as bad as the original injury had been. He knew it had been worse since he started doing stuff, but not this bad. Maybe he tore his stitches. That would be a pain. But he'd done that before, and it normally felt all weird and wet, not burning like this.
The door to the garage hissed open and Jay slid his gaze over to see Zane coming towards him. Concern decorated the nindroid's face, and it only deepened when Jay gave him a lopsided smile.
"Hey Zane, come to join the party?"
Zane crouched in front of him, ignoring his feeble joke. Rude. The nindroid's eyes glanced up and down his form, sprawled against the table. They flashed a brighter blue, scanning him. He was motionless a moment, probably reading whatever they said.
"Come on," Zane grabbed his good arm, position him to help haul Jay to his feet, "We are going to the med bay."
He pulled Jay up, taking most of his weight. The world span again and Jay was pretty sure if Zane wasn't holding him, he would be straight back down on the floor. He panted slightly, and the white ninja paused, allowing him a moment to catch up before starting towards the lift.
Jay lolled his head on Zane's shoulder, barely noticing as the lift began to ascend up to the main monastery. They stumbled down the hall, arriving at their med bay. Zane deposited him on one of the cots, moving him to lie on his uninjured side.
Jay sighed as he lay down, world spinning slightly less. He closed his eyes, hearing Zane moving around, opening cupboards and stuff. A gentle tap on his cheek prompted him to open his eyes, staring up and the nindroid in front of him.
"I need to take off your shirt," He explained, "And you need to stay awake until I have confirmed what is wrong."
He grumbled slightly but shifted into a seated position, and with Zane's help pulled off his hoodie. The movement form his shoulder was excruciating, FSM how had he not realised it was that bad earlier. Once the garment was removed, Zane lay him down again, walking behind Jay.
Now out of his field of vision, he began to ask Jay questions, pulling the dressing off his shoulder.
"Has your pain been worse recently?"
"Dunno—I guess. I thought it was just because I was moving it more."
"Do you have any other symptoms beside the pain and your apparent collapse?"
"I'm really dizzy," Jay turned his neck to try and see the other boy, "Though you probably noticed that. I'm also freezing."
Now without his jumper, shivers racked his scrawny frame. Zane draped a blanket over him, but left his shoulder exposed. The nindroid touched around the wound, and Jay yelped. He jerked away from the touch, nausea filling his stomach.
"Sorry, sorry," Zane walked back around into Jay's vision, swimming more as he tried to breathe through the spikes of pain. "You have an infection Jay, several days old. I need to clean the wound, redress it and give you antibiotics. This will not be pleasant"
Great. Just what he wanted to hear. Zane lifted his other hand and wiped the back of it. Reaching over and grabbing a canula kit from his gathered supplies. Jay rolled his eyes slightly, sighing. He felt miserable. Maybe this was his problem, not whatever minor cold he thought he was coming down with. It wasn't his fault Nya had one – he just thought he did too.
Zane spoke again, "I'm going to give you a sedative, so I can address this issue." Jay winced slightly as the needle slid into his hand. "I will also start you on IV antibiotics, so the infection doesn't worsen."
Jay nodded tiredly. He hadn't slept well in days, funny thing – shoulder injuries made sleeping a nightmare. As much as he felt stupid for not noticing sooner, he was tired, and sleep sounded great. Zane flushed something into his arm, and Jay felt his body growing heavier. The nindroid reached out and brushed his curls from his face, endearing look in his eyes.
"Go to sleep Jay." That was all he heard before he fell away.
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His eyes blinked open, heavy with sleep. He was lying on his front, face smushed sideways into a pillow probably so he didn't suffocate. The ache in his shoulder was still present, though far less pronounced.
Sluggishly remembering the events of last night, that explained his surroundings and the pull of a drip in his arm. At least he wasn't dizzy anymore. Blinking heavily for a few minutes, he focused on Zane sitting in the chair beside him. The nindroid was watching him quietly, waiting for him to wake up more. Jay shifted slightly, and Zane began to speak.
"Good morning, Jay, how do you feel?" He inquired politely.
The master of lightning was slow to respond, taking stock of his body.
"Okay." He muttered, "Shoulder feels better."
"Good." Zane looked up at something behind him. Jay decided he didn't care what it was. "I imagine sleeping for fourteen hours will do that."
That got his attention. "Wait, fourteen hours?! What about the others?"
"They are aware of your condition, however, were called out on a mission." Zane explained. "Nya was particularly reluctant to leave, but my staying behind seemed to help this."
Jay groaned, closing his eyes. Great. Now he'd probably get a lecture. He decided to test his luck with Zane. "You know, I didn't realise right?"
Zane's expression did not change, and a sheepish smile spread across Jay's own.
"I have realised that. How you did not notice, I am still unsure. But it does seem once you did, you sought appropriate help."
That was fair. Jay didn't know how he hadn't noticed either. At the time, everything could be explained away. Now, it seemed so obvious he felt a bit dumb. Noticing his downcast expression, Zane leant in and spoke again.
"I told the others this, and they seemed to understand." A metal hand landed on his back. "You will be fine Jay, none of us are mad with you. Baffled yes, but not angry."
The blue ninja sniffed slightly, effects of the sedative still in his system. "Thanks buddy."
"You do not need to thank me. You would do the same for me and have done on many occasions."
That was true. It normally fell to Jay if Zane needed repairs. Less since Pixal had got a body again, but still more often than not. He wiggled more comfortably into the bed. The others probably wouldn't be back for a while, so he figured he could sleep a bit longer.
"Still though, thanks."
Zane inclined his head, before returning to his position, noticing Jay's slow return to rest. He closed his eyes, shoulder still aching, drifting back off to sleep.