Legends of Ninjago Book 2: Rise of the Serpentine

Chapter 7: Medical Mysteries

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    "Ahh! Who's--what--I'm alive!" Jay was shouting as he sat bolt upright in his bed.
    "Ium dreg korumtikee!!" Cole was yelling on the other side of the room, sweat pouring down his chest.
    "NOOOOOO!" was the first thing Zane said before stopping and looking around with a wild look in his eye and an ice dagger in his hand.
    "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Kai was screaming, and after Jay and the others had a moment to collect themselves, they all turned their attention toward him. It looked as though Kai had attempted to sit up like the rest of them had, but now he was just writhing in pain.
    Covered in sweat, and still very disoriented, Jay threw his covers back and went immediately to Kai's side.
    "Kai, what's wrong?!" he asked stupidly. Cole and Zane came up next to him with the most insane bedhead Jay had ever seen, and started looking around for anything they could do.
    "His feeling's back," Zane noted. "Are there any pain relievers?"
    "As if I know where things are in this place!" Cole cried.
    Just then, the door to Dr. Lee's room flew open and out came the doctor in a disheveled mess.
    "Out of the way, out of the way!" he ordered the boys, and he quickly grabbed a bottle of small capsules and another needle filled with more of that gold stuff.
     Kai was practically doubled over in pain and his screaming wouldn't stop, not even when Dr. Lee forced him to take three of the tiny capsules which looked like it took him a tremendous amount of effort. Next, the boys had to help Dr. Lee hold Kai still while he injected the liquid into his arm.
    "Is he gonna be okay?" Cole asked as they began to back away so the doctor could work.
    "He should be fine," Dr. Lee replied. "But the next few hours will be painful."
    Jay didn't know what to think or feel. There was just something so awful about seeing Kai like this. It was a deeper pain than he thought possible, and he desperately wished he could make Kai better with a snap of his fingers.
    Just then, the doors opened and a familiar voice called out, "Kai!?"
    Jay turned and saw Nya running up toward them, and that's when he realised that the morning sun was pouring through the windows. He and the others stopped Nya from getting too close, but they could see the panic and worry in her eyes.
    "He's gonna be fine," Cole reassured her. "He just needs time to heal."
    "What happened to him?" Nya asked.
    "He fell, and kinda broke his spine," Jay answered.
    "Oh my gosh..." Nya breathed.
    For a long time they just stood there, watching Dr. Lee do his best to help Kai, but after a few minutes he turned around and said,
    "You're free to leave the medical room. Why don't you go down to breakfast and check back in an hour?"
    The boys and Nya all nodded their heads reluctantly and shuffled out of the room without another word. They made a quick pitt-stop by the boys' rooms so that they could change before heading down to the dining room while they explained everything that had happened to Nya. Jay felt especially sorry for her to have to endure seeing her brother like this, not to mention her probably being worried sick while he had been missing.
    "It'll be okay," said Jay, trying to make her feel better as they approached the dining room. "He'll be better soon, he's too stubborn to let something like a broken spine get him down." She gave him a weak smile, but didn't seem any happier.
    Cole sighed loudly up ahead of them just as he opened the dining room doors. "Can't we have a normal day for once? Or at least a normal night?"
    "To do that, you would need to stop breaking in to people's offices and running off in the middle of the night." Ann was sitting at their usual table with Keaton at her side and she did not look happy. Her clothes looked kinda frumpy and there were bags under eyes, leading Jay to believe that she had been out looking for them the whole time they were missing. She slapped a newspaper down on the table just as they were sitting down and Jay tilted his head to read the front page headline.

Terrorist Attack Gone Awry:
Suspects Still At Large

    "Uncontrollable forest fires spreading, eight people in the hospital, three in the ER, gasoline and oil polluting the river, part of a road completely destroyed, a one million-dollar car stollen, and--this is my personal favourite--a freak ice formation in the river bed," Ann recited, folding her arms and squinting. Jay couldn't decide what was worse: the fact that they had messed up that badly, or that they had to hear about it from Ann. "I'm going to skip the explanation here because I'm sure I'll be hearing about it all week. No, what I am here to say is this: in one day the four of you boys have left a bigger footprint on Ninjago than Keaton or I have left in our entire lives. Not only did you cause an extremely dangerous explosion, but you also put yourselves in danger, not just from the Skulkens, but also from the military." She pointed to a black-and-white picture on the front page. "A street camera caught the four of you last night just before you got back. You're lucky we were able to interfere with police investigations in time, or else you would be in jail and our cover would be blown."
    "Do we at least get a prize?" Jay asked after everyone was silent for a while.
    "Your 'prize' will be disciplinary action," said Ann coldly. "I don't know what Sensei Wu has in mind, but I'm sure it'll be harsh."
    Everyone was sitting around the table, not talking or even looking at one another. That bombshell of a conversation seemed to really destroy any hint of a good mood Jay had been mustering before.
    Something moved in the corner of Jay's eye. He looked up and saw Keaton lean her head against Cole's shoulder which slowly led to her arms rising up to grab his torso in a slow hug. She appeared to be even more sleep-deprived than Ann did, to the point that her eyes looked almost hollow. Cole seemed fairly unsure at first, but as Keaton's hands began to clamp down on his shirt, he realised that there was no getting out of it, so he gently put his arms around her. No one was really quite sure what to do--not even Ann--until Keaton looked up with her big eyes at Zane and reached out her hand toward him. Slowly, Zane approached them and was sucked into the group hug with the skinny thirteen-year-old at the center. Then, Keaton's eyes fell on Jay and he felt his heart get pierced by her large, watery eyes. When she reached out to him, he felt practically obligated to get up and join the hug. He had one arm around Keaton and one around Zane, and there was a lump forming in his throat the longer they stayed there. Nya joined on her own and one of her arms came down across Jay's shoulder which made his heart do a weird flip.
    Jay's vision shifted from Keaton's face--buried in Cole's shirt--up to Ann who was still sitting in her seat and looking on with her jaw locked and her eyes looking glassy. Her gaze was fixed on her sister, seemingly lost in painful thought which almost softened her expression in a way that Jay had never seen before. When she saw Jay starring at her she blinked several times, fiddling with her hair, and got up to leave.
    "I'm heading back to bed," she said quietly, and then left.
    At the same time, the group hug began to unravel and Keaton released Cole's shirt so she could rub her nose.
    "I thought I'd lost you," she said, so quietly he almost missed it.
    Jay didn't know what to say at all, so he gave Keaton a reassuring rub on the shoulders before going back to his own seat and finally eating breakfast in stunned silence.

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    After a slow, uneasy breakfast, it was back to the medical room for the group. Whatever Dr. Lee had done in the last hour, it had quieted Kai and he was lightly napping now. Everyone was sitting on various beds in silence, listening to the sound of their own breathing and the quiet twitter of birds just beyond the windows.
    Nya happened to be sitting right next to Jay and he felt the urge to comfort her with a side hug, but he couldn't seem to do it. He still remembered when they had met for the first time, back in the Underworld. It was a brief introduction, but it stuck with him, and the more he had gotten to know Nya over the past few months, the more he realised why. Well, kinda. They didn't spend a lot of time together, but that just made the time they spent all the more special. Something about her just sent Jay's heart fluttering, and although he didn't know the reason yet, he never wanted it to stop.
    "You sad sacks gonna just sit there moping all day?" Kai asked, sounding half-asleep. He didn't even open his eyes when he spoke and his tone was very flat and sarcastic.
    Nya chuckled. "How're you feeling?" she asked.
    "Like I broke my spine," Kai replied in the same tone. "I also can't move anything."
    "That would be the paste working," said Dr. Lee as he glided through the room. "I had hoped that I gave you a good enough coat last night to stop you from hurting yourself in the morning, but I suppose I miss-calculated."
    Jay noticed Nya taking a shaky breath in and then he cleared his throat. "Maybe we should let Kai get some rest?" he suggested. He looked around at the others who started to shift in their seats and detach their gaze from Kai's bed.
    "Yeah... okay," said Cole. He slowly slid off of his mattress and everyone else began to do the same.
    As Jay started for the door, he stopped and looked back at Nya who walked over to Kai's side. She bent over him and whispered something in his ear which made him chuckle a little, then she straightened and started filing out with everyone else. Jay made sure to stay next to her as much as he could and he wanted to make conversation, but he couldn't think of anything interesting to say.
    "So, uh... where you from, anyway?" He asked nervously, even though he already knew the answer.
    "Harper Vale," she replied. Her face was toward him, but Jay could tell her eyes were still with her brother. "Where're you from?" She asked.
    "Oh, uh... you know, uh, heh heh, I'm... just from..." he started to panic the more she looked at him expectantly. What should he say? Being born in a junkyard didn't sound very cool or suave in the slightest. "Ninjago City," he lied.
    "Really?" Nya replied. "That's cool." She still sounded pretty tense, nervously fiddling with her hair and tugging on the fabric of her shirt.
    "Do you miss it?" Jay asked, trying to keep the conversation going.
    "...yup," she said with a sigh. "Hopefully, we'll be going back soon."
    "You're pretty anxious to get out of here, huh?" said Jay, uncomfortably. He hadn't realised that Nya might not be completely happy to be here. Nervous about her brother? Sure. Wanting to see her parents again? Of course. But anxious to leave and maybe never come back?
    "Well, don't get me wrong, you guys are great," she started. "But our whole world was completely torn down, and... all I want is to have things feel normal again."
    Jay understood what she meant. Even though his old life had been kinda dull, it was more familiar and filled with less imminent danger than the life he was leading now. And... now that he really thought about it, he did kinda miss his mom and dad... a lot, actually. He hadn't heard from them since the day he left, and something kinda moved inside of him. It's not like he hadn't been thinking about them this whole time, it's just... his point of view seemed to shift a bit.
    "Well, don't worry. I'm sure things will take a turn for the better soon," Jay said, pulling his thoughts together and trying to make Nya feel better. This time she smiled a real smile and they continued to walk down the hallways together. Where they were going was anyone's guess. It was just nice to talk with a friend.