Night at the Museum fics

I'll Always Be Here- Part 2/2 (Jedtavius)

Summary: Jed knew he should have confronted what happened that night in the hourglass but he just couldn't talk about it. That night comes back and bites him in the butt.

"No thanks Bill, enjoy poker but I have a prior engagement." Jedediah said over his shoulder with a wink.

"Oh righ', well have fun." His friend said with a shrug. Jedediah watched the other make his way back to the saloon before heading out on his own journey to the Roman diorama to see a certain someone.

As his mind wandered he didn't notice where he was going and he stepped in a divet in the ground. Because of the unbalance he didn't account for he fell face first in the sand and memories began to cloud his head.

The sand fell and fell and didn't stop. He kicked his legs angrily when the hourglass decided to let out an extra spurt of sand. Soon it was too much sand, sand everywhere, enclosing him, he was restrained. He felt as if the sand had crept into his throat and lungs and was scratching at him from the inside. It was causing him not to breathe, or see........

All this flooded Jedediah's mind instantly but did not have the grace to leave at the same speed.

Jedediah had turned to be sitting but every time he tried to get up all he saw was sand and ended up back on the ground. It had never been a problem before but at the moment all of his senses were too much. And all the terrible memories that didn't want to leave weren't much help.

Soon the memories became real and all he could see was sand. It was enclosing him, trapping him. He could feel the sand once again scratching at his throat. His breathing started to become erratic, out of his control. He soon felt tears fall down his face. He only had one train of frightened thought before someone broke it.

"Jedediah dear I didn't see you over at our meeting place like you....." but by the time Octavius got to a standing position he took in what was going on and stopped speaking.

Jedediah was visibly shaking, hands obviously looking for something to hold but was simply full of the sand beneath him.

Octavius quickly removes his helmet placing it beside Jedediah's own hat which had fallen off.

"Jedediah what's wrong?" Octavius asked worriedly quickly getting as close as he could to other without contact, unsure of his reaction to it.

All that came out of Jedediah in between his shaking, tears, and gasping was a very weak and heartbreaking, "Sand," in a cracked voice. "Too, too much." Jedediah said shaking his head quickly and closing his eyes, as if trying to believe it wasn't there.

Once Octavius realized the problem, he knew he had to act quick. But one thing was for sure, he had to get Jedediah off the sand.

Knowing taking a trip out of the diorama would be out of the question for his dear boyfriend's state, so he did the next best thing.

He detached his cape and set it on the ground, Octavius quickly sat on it and gently pulled Jedediah into his lap.

At the feeling of something other than sand, Jedediah latched his arms around Octavius and gripped the back of his armor. His tears had stopped but his breathing was still erratic and heart wrenching for his boyfriend.

Octavius whispered soft quite words in the others ear like he had done not long ago for him, and simply held the shaking Cowboy to his chest while rubbing his back. Hoping to help him steady his breathing.

Octavius continued rubbing the others back as his gasps became hiccups and occasionally whimpers, Jedediah's eyes still sealed shut trying to whisk away the memories.

Octavius patiently waited for his boyfriend to relax, since he was still quite tense but his question was answered as he felt Jedediah move from his grasp. He glanced over to see his boyfriend had loosened his grip and sealed eyes. And he had shifted so he was kneeling in front of the other instead of curled up in Octavius's lap.

"Are you alright Jedediah?" Octavius said as he mirrored the others position and brought his hand up to cup his boyfriend's cheek the other resting on his waist. "I told you we should have discussed this.... issue," Octavius said with a pause, "before anything got out of hand." Octavius said in a worried yet stern 'I told you so' tone.

"I know," Jedediah said looking at their knees close to each other, "I just, I didn't wanna think about it ya know?" Forget it and I'll be fine right?"
Jedediah said with a sad shrug.

"Obviously not," The Roman said matter of factly, before softening "But now is also not a good time."

Jedediah agreed with a silent nod. "So how about this," Octavius spoke up, earning a glance from Jedediah.

"The car is not far if you're up to climbing down. I can take us somewhere private and we can simply relax." Octavius reasoned softly, hoping the plan was possible.

"Yeah," Jedediah said with a small nod, "That sounds nice.

Thankfully they had invested in a rope ladder which was slightly better than just a rope but there was still some difficulty for them to make their way down. Once at the bottom Octavius gently lead the other to the car and slowly drove them to to the astronomy room and the two shed their extra layers and climbed in the back of the wide car to snuggled up in the blankets they had left there not long ago.

As they looked at the moving constellations Octavius heard a soft murmur of thanks before there soft snores could be heard from his chest. Octavius let out a small chuckle and looked back up at the stars