Three days. It took exactly thee days for Juniper to buckle under the stress and pressure of not having an easy release from the insomnia... the pain. The emotional suffering she had kept packed deep down inside where she didn't have to deal with it or think about it. 

Three days and two nights of laying awake, eyes burning, but unable to turn her mind off. She longed even for nightmares by that point. Anything other than being awake and alone suffering through her new symptoms with only her cat to distract her. 

Everything made her cry. Almost instantly. She couldn't sing anymore because even a sad sounding note would send her tear ducts into over drive. She was tried of crying. She was tired of ignoring the knocks at her door and the concerned texts from her neighbor. Her newly dubbed best friend. She didn't want him to see her like this.

So.... broken.

She had a carefully crafted image that she wanted to upkeep. He was a ray of sunshine compared to her normally, but right now she felt like a stormy cloud dumping buckets and spitting off lightning bolts. She didn't want to ever be seen so down and pathetic. She didn't ever want anyone to see the poor, frightened child trapped inside.

She had called out sick the first couple of days with a make believe stomach flu. She'd answered texts with vague explanations about why no one could come in. She'd puked everywhere, was constantly on the toilet, was super contagious... Everything in the books that could possible keep people at bay. 

She waited for times when she knew the other boy was gone to let bits of emotion out in bursts. Anything breakable that wasn't considered special to her fell victim to violent mood swings. The few ceramic dishes she owned smashed against walls and cupboards, she'd let out brief, soul wrenching screams, then immediately curl up next to Clyde and let his purring sooth her  frazzled nerves.

Her appetite was non-existent. Nausea plagued her like her own shadow, and she couldn't stop shaking. The bottle had warned that symptoms could and would happen, but she hadn't imagined it would be this bad. She'd gone in to see that damn doctor because she wanted to sleep, and he had given her a drug that made it impossible. It could take a week or two for the symptoms to start to wind down... Somewhere in the back of her mind Juniper knew she wouldn't survive that long before her fragile grasp on reality snapped. 

Looking worse than how she felt inside, she crawled out of her apartment one sunny day to hunt for a solution. 

A very brief internet search led her to a pharmacy, which led her to a possible solution, consequences be damned. She just wanted some sleep.

A hour later she was squirreled away in her apartment again, door locked and music up to block out the sounds from the street down below. She shed her coat on the floor just inside the door, kicked her shoes off haphazardly wherever they fell, and headed for her room past all of the broken things on her floor. It was dark in there, Dark and quiet, and her bed was calling to her. A bottle of water was snagged along the way, and she left her door cracked for Clyde to come and go as he pleased. 

Ignoring any directions printed on the bottle she peeled the safety seal off, discarded it on the floor, and unscrewed the lid. Two little white pills were shaken out, the bottle set to the side on he nightstand next to the prescription bottle. She tossed the pills back with a few gulps of water and got herself as comfortable as she could get under her covers. It would take a bit for the medicine to do its thing... she knew that. She'd find something to think about while she waited, since her brain wanted to be awake anyway.

Currently it was the middle of the day. What was she going to do when she woke back up? How long would she sleep, and what time would it be? Maybe, if they helped, she could go over and let Xavier know that she was feeling better. 

Yeah... start to patch everything back up. She'd let Cora know that she was fine to work again, because sleep would help regulate her mood. Tell Blue it was safe for him to come over again; she was no longer "contagious". She'd be able to attend her classes again, get caught up on what she had missed.

She'd buy Clyde some treats and a new toy. Maybe she'd even go and demand Saul finally fix her shower head so she could take something other than baths.

She laid there for the better part of an hour, thoughts drifting from one subject to another until her eye lids finally started to feel a bit heavy. If she hadn't been so freakin' tired all of the sudden the feeling of sleepiness that washed over her would have probably made her cry again. 

Instead, she curled further into her blankets and pillows as a deep, dreamless sleep finally claimed her.

Juni was very sick.

Like, throwing up everywhere sick. Everyone had been there before, and Xavier felt for her greatly. After all, he was off enjoying school, meeting pricesses, slime girls, and playing in the danger room while she was sitting in front of a toilet.

Still, it was important that she kept up with her studies! That was where he came in. He'd spoken to all of her teachers, and gotten together a work packet for when she was feeling better! He'd gotten Clyde some treats and a new toy as well. He was probably working hard making her feel as good as she could.

The plan fell flat, however, when she didn't reply when he knocked. A frown played its way onto his lips as he waited. Well, she probably couldn't make it to the door was all... oh! Clyde had popped over recently! That meant the window was open! He would check on her from out there.

He worked his way through his room onto his balcony, and then the one long step from his to her window, leaning down to peek in.

Oh... woah. There were shattered plates everywhere... Her coat was on the floor... Oh god. Things were not okay! He clenched his teeth, going pale as he forced his way through the window opening, calling out. "Juni?! Juni are you there?!" Had someone broken in? Oh god oh god oh god! He charged in, looking around frantically as Clyde rushed out from her room to greet him. She was in there!

Quickly he rushed in, yelling. "Juni!" He paused, however, looking at a fallen bottle of pills next to the bed. They were scattered about on the floor. Was she breathing? He was almost too afraid to check.

Hours passed, but she didn't notice. Clyde came and went, visited the neighbor to beg for food, and then came back and napped for a bit until it got too hot. He pawed at his owners face, meowed loudly in her ear, nibbled and bit with the few remaining teeth he had, but... nothing. He was hungry. It was 30 minutes after he was supposed to have been fed! How dare she keep on sleeping when he was actively starving to death?!

He sniffed around her room for things to eat in revenge, like some sort of crinkly plastic. That usually got her sprinting out of bed just as fast as a hairball could. Eventually stumbling across the open bottle of sleeping pills that had been on the nightstand, and in typical cat fashion, he sat himself down next to it and pawed at it a little here and there until eventually it fell off the edge and little white pills scattered on the floor.

Still, she didn't wake.

Curiosity and hunger driving him, he hopped down to sniff one of them, lapped it up and mouthed it, and then promptly hacked it back up in disgust. It tasted exactly like the worm medication she gave him every year! Gross! The fat cat proceeded to try and scoop the carpet up over the pills uselessly, before sauntering back out with his tail in the air when he heard a sound from the living room. The other human must have come over to feed him in his owners stead!

"MOW" The large cat greeted as he wedged himself back out through the bedroom door and ran to floof himself around the panicked teens legs in tight circles. The kid ran directly into the bedroom, leaving a very confused, hungry cat standing there.

How dare he ignore him?!

"MOOW!" Clyde followed after, clambering up onto the bed and sitting, twitching his tail in an irritated manner.

Meanwhile, Juniper didn't stir. She was indeed breathing... but in a very shallow, slow manner. She was also sweating profusely and if her pale face and red, red cheeks were anything to go by she was... not well. If Xavier attempted to wake her with shouting or shaking she wouldn't stir either. She was dead to the waking world, for lack of a better term.

Clyde was very insitent, but there were honestly bigger fish to fry. Like the fact that Juni was in bed next to a pile of pills, and not getting up.

Being trained in emergency response, he assessed her quickly. She was flushed. Her breath was shallow. She was completely unresponsive. Within seconds he was dialing emergency.

"Hello, yes, my friend needs an ambulance!" He explained the situation, collected the pill bottle, and paused as he caught sight of another one. Anti depressants. He grabbed that one as well. Maybe they had bad interactions; the ER doctors would need all of the information they could get to help her recover the best way possible.

After he hung up the phone, he returned to her, a profoundly worried look on his face as he whispered to her. "It's okay, Juni... Help is on the way."

Considering the size of the city and how much traffic filled up the roads almost constantly, it was pretty surprising that help was outside of their apartment building within mere minutes. The woman on the phone instructed the tall teen on what to do next and let him hang up, while an emergency crew of 2 were making their way up the elevator from two floors below.

There was a knock at the front door to signal that they were there, and upon being let in the got immediately to the task. One headed straight for the bedroom, careful on of the broken dishware on the floor. The other wheeled a transport gurney in carefully and started with some basic questions for Xavier. Did he know what she had taken, how long had it been, ect.

"Is she still unresponsive?"

They were all in the bedroom now. Both professionals were busy stripping her heavy blankets and sheets off of her, rolling her from her side onto her back and starting vital checks. Breathing, heart-rate, pupil response and so on. Both of the pill bottles and the loose pills on the floor were collected into little bags to be taken to the hospital with them.

Her heart-rate was elevated. That, and the shallow breathing were their main concerns. There were more peppered questions after they had peeled her from her sweat soaked sheets and gotten her on the gurney and strapped securely in place.

Was she a user? Anything vital that could pertain to what was going on?

It didn't take long to get her outside and into the ambulance, and once Xavier had packed himself in they were off to the nearest hospital.

"She'll be alright, son." The older of the two paramedics tried to sooth the poor, worried boy. "It looks much worse for her than is actually is, if those pills were all that she took. We'll know soon enough when they can get a lab done on her." Why did this kid look so familiar? Huh.

Juniper was still out, but her fever had dropped a little as soon as the had gotten her out from her hoard of blankets. She was still sweating quite a bit and unresponsive, but her pupils had dilated and her breathing and heart-rate seemed steady, if off. She been hooked up to equipment to monitor her pulse, and had a steady supply of oxygen strapped over her mouth. A saline iv had been inserted. It was quick, but awkwardly quiet trip to the doors of the closest ER doors.

The last 12 hours had been... a lot. He'd gone from a panicked phone call, where he'd followed instructions and answered questions to the best of his abilities, to an ambulance ride, to taking what felt like the first breath he'd taken in hours.

"Thank you..." She would be okay. That was the best news he'd heard all day. Still, he had to make sure she was going to be okay. He followed her around like a lost puppy. They asked his relation. He gritted his teeth, and told a serious lie for the first time since he was 7. "I'm her brother."

That gave him family access. He would have to wait until she was out of the ER. He felt like a tangle of spare wires waiting there, stressful and useless. They'd stablized her a few hours later, and he was able to visit.

By the time she woke up, he would be asleep. He was missing class, as it was now monday morning. There in the room, leaned against a wall in an uncomfy chair and snoring lightly, he didn't seem to care about that at all.

It was weird coming out of a deep sleep. Like.. there was nothing. No sound or anything, and then suddenly there was.

The first thing she became aware of was a muted sense of... ick. Total, whole body ick. The more and more she started t come too the more it felt like she was waking up after a bout of serious drinking, and one of the worst hangovers of her life was looming over her. She was half tempted to just roll back over and sleep it all off. There were sunbeams trying to stab her in the eyes through her eyelids, which was weird because her curtains were supposed to stop that from happening.

She managed get her eyes to open slightly, though there was a little protest. Her body didn't seem to want to fully do what she wanted it to do at the moment.

Confusion set in quickly, because for one there was no black canopy above her bed and her ceiling did't normally look like it belonged in an office building, and for two her vision was fuzzy and distorted. The combination of not knowing where the heck she was and feeling like she had been drugged set off sirens in her head and she sat up with a jolt. Her arms were strapped down gently to the sides of the bed she was in, which furthered the feeling of panic to the next level when she couldn't immediately move them how she wanted. She wouldn't know that they were only there to keep her from tossing and turning in her bed and possibly ripping her iv and monitoring equipment out.

Speaking of...

Her panic had caused her pulse to quicken, which the machine she was hooked up to picked up and chirped accordingly. She phased her arms out of the straps blindly, also ridding herself of everything else that had been attached to her. The Machine started screaming as her heart rate monitor dropped off, which caused her to jumped and let out a shriek of surprise of her own.

The door to her room banged open as the nurse currently on shift watching over her barged in to see what was wrong, which earned another shriek of surprise from the small blond on the bed, who had only just discovered that she wasn't in her clothes, and her power just kinda... activated on it's own.

Juniper fell straight through her bed, the floor beneath, and landed on a (thankfully) unoccupied bed the floor below.

It took 20 minutes and a short game of hide and seek to find a disorientated Juniper where she had fallen. Thankfully by that time she had woke up a bit more, and before she knew it she was back in her bed with her iv and HR monitor back on, red in the face from embarrassment as her portly nurse chewed her out for the third time in a row.

"S-sorry..." The door to her room slammed shut again and then she was alone. Er, well, she was alone with Xavier. Who she had no idea what to say to. She had gleaned just a bit of information from the nurses rant but still was largely in the dark about what had happened between the time she went to bed and the time she woke back up.

The nurse had said something interesting on her way out though. Something about how she 'needed to apologize to her poor brother, while they tried to contact her parents again'.

"...Brother?" She blinked at him, too tired to make a joke about it.

Normally, Xavier was a fairly sound sleeper. He valued his sleep. It kept him sharp, and it helped him remain presentable so that people would view him as a credible hero.

That being said, hospital chairs were notoriously impossible to sleep in. He started to come to a confused form of counciousness as he heard machines start beeping suddenly. He bolted upright as the attendants burst into the room and started looking for her. Juni was gone?! He got up to help find her, ignoring assurances that they didn't need help.


After 20 minutes of searching, it turned out they didn't need help. He was pulled out of a laundry room and told she'd been found and that he better not get up to any more shenanigans or they would kick him out. He was settled back into the room soon before she arrived.

He watched her sheepishly as she was hooked back up, looking away as they hooked up her IV.

She spoke to him. He looked off to the side still. "I had to tell them something... Juni... What happened?"

Why... why wasn't he looking at her?

She took a moment to check herself out to make sure she wasn't missing a limb or an eye or anything. So what then?

"I.. don't know?" She blinked, still feeling a little out of it and glanced around the room again. "I just went to bed and then.. um.. here? Where is here? Someone try to murder me again or something?"

Her gaze landed on the IV in her arm and she squinted at it. The door to her room creaked open again, a bit more slowly this time, and she looked up to see a woman come in. Not the burly nurse from before, either.

"Glad to see you are awake finally, Ms. Brown. You gave us a bit of scare when you first came in."

The small blonde blinked at the woman from her bed, before shifting her eyes back to Xavier, and then back again. Oh. Ohhh. Was that why he wasn't looking at her? Her nerves thrummed a little and her heart did a funny little jump that made that traitorous machine beep funny and announced it to the room.

"Um... yeah, about that-"

The woman paused her question with a lifted hand as she looked over a clipboard in her other hand. "I know you probably have some questions, but I have some of my own I need to get out of the way first." Juni's jaw clacked back shut and she waited and watched owlishly.

"We were able to determine from the bottles brought in by your brother here that you didn't intend to overdose on the pills you took. From what we could gather you took two, or maybe three of the sleep aids? Nothing else showed up on your urine lab."

Juniper sat up a little straighter. "I what?"

"The likely cause of most of the serious symptoms you came in with could be traced back to the new medication, as well as being pretty severely dehydrated. When was the last time you can remember drinking any water?" She rattled off a few more questions related to why the phaser had apparently ended up in the hospital, and Juni gave as many answers as she had. By the end of it she felt pretty stupid for nearly killing herself from simply not drinking anything.

"We couldn't get a hold of your parents through the numbers that were linked to your past hospital visit... is there a new number you would like us to try and contact them by?" Nobody had asked yet, not even to Xavier. The doctor glanced between them until Juniper forced a smile and shook her head.

"Nah. They are on vacation right now. No phones, no internet. I'm fine." After scribbling the note down, the doctor excused herself and left.

"...I'm sorry." Juniper turned her head to look at Xavier. "I didn't mean to give you a scare by being reckless."

Xavier went deer in headlights for a solid second before he realized that Juniper was telling him she didn't know why she was here.

"J- Juni... you..." The door opened. Thank god. In came the doctor. He looked away when she mentioned he was her brother again, ashamed of the lie he'd told. His attention went back to Juniper as the doctor explained that she'd been severely dehydrated. Oh, from the upset stomach? That made sense.

That all meant that... well... she hadn't meant to. He let out a sigh of relief. It was comforting to know that this was all just an accident.

He looked up when her parents here called into question. She was... evading the subject? He knew her well enough to know when she was throwing out bull@#$%... How off the rocker were her parents if she didn't want them to know she'd almost died?

"Oh, I'll be sure to let... our parents know. Thank you. Um... for your help and expertise." He nodded.

And then they were left alone. He looked to her with a serious expression once more. "Juniper. I'm your friend. If you need help, or even if you just want someone to be there. Tell me."

He looked at her a moment longer, and then his expression softened. "I know it's hard... everything. You have to have a support network, okay? I can be a part of that, if you want."

Awww, crap. She was terrible with this kinda stuff.

It didn't help that the expression he was aiming at her just made her want to curl up in her blankets and actually die. Coupled with what he was saying, and the fact that she was still trying to wrap her head around how she had put herself in this position in the first place, it was... a lot. A lot for someone who had just wanted to get some sleep until her meds leveled out and she could go back to pretending everything was fine.

He sat there, looking all soft and full of concern and sunshine, and she was sitting in her bed with her sheets in a death grip looking like she'd just eaten something rotten.

"... Thanks..."

She shifted her gaze away to stare at the iv in her arm. It was weird feeling something under her skin. Like... she wasn't used to that at all.

"Look..." She started eventually, once the beeping of the machine and ticking of a nearby clock started to get to her, "I'm not used to.... to this." She gestured between then awkwardly with the arm that wasn't tired down by tubes.

"I don't have a lot of friends, because I don't want a lot of friends. I don't like relying on people. I don't like...um... sharing things? It's weird." Jesusf@#inchrist she was making this worse. It didn't help that it still felt like there was a whole goddamn body of water stuck in her head that thoughts had to swim through.

Straight up telling him that she didn't wanna involve him in her problems because he didn't need to have any of her problems weighing on him was... too personal? It sounded to much like she cared and she was still trying to be somewhat aloof her. She still hadn't even told him that she probably would have rejected his BFF card if she hadn't been drunk off her ass because it was just too damn personal.

"Thatdidn'tsoundlikeIwantedittoofuck. Okay...so..i'll try?" She hazarded a glance back at him, frowning a mighty frown and wanting for all the world to just go back to sleep again. "I'm seeing a shrink anyway, so... I guess at some point i'm gonna have to start opening up and @#$%, might as well start now."

Pushing him away was easier. Hell, it was the easiest thing to do seeing as she was a pro at it. But... she also should have pushed Blue away then. She also should have left April as a one time thing instead of hanging with her again. There were a lot of people she had failed to push away in her few months in the City, so... maybe she owed that much to Xavier too?

Xavier just watched patiently as she spoke at first. He didn't react to the half hearted pushing away. He'd seen that act a million times from his dad. It was the want not to be a burden. The thing was... It was okay to be a burden every once in a while. When you loved someone, you helped carry their burdens, and they in turn supported you when you needed it.

That was just down things worked.

He lit up a bit when she conceeded that she would try. "That works for me, Juni!" He nodded when she mentioned she was seeing a professional about things. He had an idea what things were. He'd been around depression a lot. She was a little more frantic, so probably anxiety as well. "Any time you need to practice opening up, I'm here, okay? You don't have to get the words right, cause I'll be your safety net." He pointed to himself with his thumb, smiling widely.

"I'm tough, I can take what ever you can dish out!" Emotionally. Physically, she was one of the few people he'd met that he had to admit he'd have no way of knowing how to fight.

Somehow he always managed to drag out the worst expression from her. Crying, looking sour, super frowns.

She squinted at him uncertainly as he spoke. "Don't expect a lot from me, okay? I'm not just gonna spill the beans on everything I am like a poorly written fanfiction character."

Heaving a sigh, she flopped back on the bed dramatically. "...A stupid jerk at the school found my fake ID and snapped it, so I had to find another coping mechanism to help me sleep. I get nightmares a lot and bouts of like, I dunno, insomnia? Figured an actual medication might be in order." She shrugged her shoulders, or attempted too. It was slightly harder to shrug while laying down.

"I've never been on one before, so... I dunno, I guess I wasn't prepared for all the side effects."

... Damnit, she'd still need to call and talk to her doctor, wouldn't she? That was gonna be awkward as heck.

"I expect a lot from you, Juni. I always will! But that's the thing. I'll help you get there, okay?" He radiated a wave of warmth in that response. Friends built each other up. It's what they did.

He blinked when she told her story. Okay, good start, someone did her a favor and destroyed her fake ID. She had a fake ID? No, that made sense, what with the alcohol she had around.

She'd been drinking because she had nightmares? He hadn't known that. Had... something happened to her? He didn't press it. She was on SSRIs but they were messing with her. "Oh, you're supposed to call your doctor if the side effects are bad." He nodded. His father had to try and few different medications and doses to hit the right spot for him. Brain chemistry was no joke. You had to get it right.

He looked out the window. "Well... What now, then? Will you let me help you through this? I have experience with it... My father suffers from depression. I've been around it all my life, actually."

She stared at him owlishly from the bed. This was easier with Blue. Blue and her could share a tidbit here or there and then easily and mutually run away from the rest.

Xavier just... @#$%. He was too genuine. It reminded her a lot of Mason, and yet... not. Mason hadn't been all sunshine and smiles. He'd had that same energy, but more reserved. More quiet. The kinda guy who would sit and hold your hand while you spill your guts out and not speak a word, but just that connection was enough to ground you.

Xavier was so much more bright. It was hard to look at him sometimes because the kindness, the want to help, was just so intense. Coupled with the fact that he expected her to be more than she currently was?

Frightening.

She couldn't imagine herself differently. She couldn't imagine being anything better than what she currently was.

"...Uh.. Y-yeah. Sure."

So, she'd ignore it. Look away and pretend it was different. Disassociate.

"I know... I just didn't wanna." A lame reply if there ever was one. "I didn't even wanna go talk to him in the first place, but I didn't have much choice. It was either that or go slowly insane."

She sat back up when he asked a weird question and then mentioned his experience with it. She wasn't sure why, but something about it didn't mesh well with her.

"Erm." For once, she didn't make a face at him. "I don't know..." She paused, searching for anything that sounded not crappy to say. "I don't know what that means. I'll try? I'm not comfortable with, well, %$#@, any of this really. The last person I really talked with about any of this @#$% died on me years ago, so... i'm rusty."