Stuck In The Box: Back To Normal

Chapter 3: He Could've Made A Worst Move

The next day is Saturday John woke up at midnight from another OCD-related nightmare only to suffer from a bad bronchospasm. This instantly woke Andy up and he almost fell out of bed as John suffered from an attack that eventually woke Jim up. "Hey, John, what happened?" Jim asked, trying to calm John down as soon as he saw tears in his eyes. "I think it's another attack, I'll get the neb," Andy said, going to John's medicine cabinet where he kept all his medicine. Ranging from steroids, albuterol, inhalers to medication for heart defects. He found the nebuliser machine and the albuterol bullets, set it up, put the albuterol in the cup and administered the medication via blow-by because he remembered seeing Simon do so with Nick.

"Woah, how do you know how to do it?" Jim asked. "I saw Simon do it to Nick so I know what to do," Andy said. "Well, thanks lad," Jim said, patting Andy on the shoulder before going up to John in order to soothe him. "John, you're okay, lad, just breathe, you can do it," Jim said as John began to calm down. "John, you alright?" Andy asked in concern. "I'm fine, Andy, just another coughing fit," John weakly said before he gave a weak smile. Andy couldn't help but feel so small and helpless, he felt bad for John. Not to mention, the amount of adrenaline Jim had to use just to soothe John. While Andy, being the younger boyfriend, only contributed by setting up the nebuliser machine. Those thoughts that were running in his head couldn't help but make him cry.

"Lad, what's wrong?" Jim asked, as soon as he noticed Andy crying. "I feel bad for John, I couldn't help but feel helpless around him," Andy said, wiping out his tears, being careful not to mess with his feeding tube, especially the tape. "Why would you feel helpless around him? You're both chronically ill," Jim said. "He had to carry me around a lot, even though he has really bad lungs, he's still willing to do it. I'm supposed to be grateful for it, sometimes walking hurts but I dunno why I felt like a pushover," Andy said as tears started forming in his eyes again. "Andy, I know you're really small and younger than all of us but you're not a pushover. You've already shown us how brave you are, you were willing to save us from that evil doctor and even got rid of your old feeding tube just so that it won't melt though you did get a new one," Jim said, recalling when he and the other Wild Boys went to Scotland to save their classmates only to be captured.

"And you've already shown me that you're not helpless, you helped set up the nebuliser when John was in an attack. Look, when John asked me if we could have an open relationship when you came around, I was hesitant at first worrying it might ruin our relationship. But when we started bonding with you, I realised that you're not here because you're John's side chick or anything, you're not the third wheel either. You're just another member of this relationship, you've proven enough that you don't always need 2 people in a relationship, you sometimes need an extra person," Jim added, brushing some of Andy's bang's out of his face. Even with the dark room only being lit with the lamp, Jim could see more tears forming in Andy's midnight blue eyes.

"We gotta change the tape," Jim said after wiping off Andy's tears. He went up to the medicine cabinet to find the extra tapes for Andy's nasogastric tube in order to change out of his old one. He also found alcohol wipes to wipe out the area of his face that is going to have the tape. "So, this is how you do it, right?" Jim asked, as soon as he taped the tube towards Andy's cheek. "Yeah, you're doing it right," Andy said before John's nebuliser treatments were done. Jim kept the equipment while Andy went up to John, who was able to telepathically read what Andy was thinking. Instead of being mad at him, he just comforted the smaller teen. "Andy, please calm down, okay? You're killing me," John said. "What about he sleeps with me tonight?" Jim asked as he placed Andy on his bed.

"I don't mind sleeping while sitting up though," John said. "I know, but you gotta let Andy be with me from time to time as well," Jim said. "Yeah, you're right, night Jim," John said as he laid on his bed and began to sleep. "Night John, and goodnight to you, Andy," Jim said. The next morning, Curt woke up, did his repeated morning routine because of his OCD, disconnected the IV from his PICC line and then went to the common room. He was surprised to see George and Andrew there but still in their pajamas. "Hey guys," Curt said. "Good morning Curt," George said. Curt just grabbed his breakfast before sitting next to Miyagi on the sofa. Then, Andy came to the common room. Curt, George and Andrew were surprised to actually see him come out of the room with his feed and walking by himself.