Dead on Arrival (Jacob)

[Sean Thaumbery]

"Jacob. Jacob Brant," he told the nurse, not making eye contact.

"Jacob! That's a nice name. I'm Sean, by the way. Sean Thaumbery. Call me whatever you want, I'll probably answer." And sad as it was, it was true. He'd been in the medical field for so long, he was used to answering to 'hey you,' 'Doctor over there,' and 'guy with the fuzzy hair.' Keeping his sense of humor about it kept it all a little more humane.

As he bustled about the room setting up the fire and getting the mugs of hot chocolate, Jacob stayed pretty quiet. Sean wasn't entirely surprised - Jacob had seemed rather withdrawn ever since he arrived. Most night terror victims were hardly chatty immediately afterwards. But that was what the hot chocolate was for. And if he kept talking, eventually Jacob would relax around him. Hopefully.

"I wouldn't know, I've never had hot chocolate," Jacob admitted, for reasons he couldn't comprehend. He took his first sip from the mug the man-nurse had given him. He felt the heat cascade down his throat. It burned his insides, but in a good way. It was incredibly delicious. "Wow..." he muttered. "That's awesome." He cast Sean an embarrassed glance before saying, slightly defensively, "My dad was never around and my mom disappeared when I was little, so I lived with my brother. We never had enough money to buy food, let alone something so...you know, lavish."

Sean was stunned that Jacob had never tasted hot chocolate. But at Jacob's shocked look, he couldn't help a wide grin. He couldn't imagine tasting hot chocolate for the first time at the age - fourteen? fifteen? - it must be amazing. Even if he was, God forbid, completely useless at helping Jacob for the rest of the night, at least he'd helped him try hot chocolate. But he saw a look in Jacob's eyes, a sort of hesitancy that lingered on the brink of spilling over. So rather than comment on the rich delicacies of hot chocolate, he just smiled and stayed quiet.

A moment later, when Jacob started talking again, he was glad he did. The boy began talking in fits and starts, obviously unsure of what he was doing or saying, but rambling on regardless. Sean watched him quietly without interrupting, letting the mug he held warm his palms as he listened.

Jacob finally fell into silence and looked back up to him. He only looked straight into his eyes for a moment before turning his face away, whether in shame or sadness, Sean couldn't tell. He stayed silent for a moment, then put a reassuring hand on Jacob's shoulder. He could tell Jacob was not a boy who took sharing and caring lightly. He didn't think he would react well to a hug or a drawn out reply. So he just squeezed his shoulder in quiet solidarity and said only, "Thank you for telling me" with a smile before releasing him.

He wasn't sorry for him - nobody liked or needed pity - but he was sorry that Jacob had been forced through what he had at such a young age. That kind of trauma... well, if Sean had gone through it, he wouldn't be inclined to tell anyone about it, let alone some strange nurse he'd only met fifteen minutes prior. The enormity of earning any teenager's trust, especially one like Jacob, didn't escape him. He didn't intend to abuse it. If Jacob was expecting judgment or pity or false empathy, he wasn't going to get it.

The thought occurred to him that if he were in Jacob's position, he wouldn't feel particularly like returning to the common room just then. "Do you want to stay here tonight? You don't have to, but you're welcome to if you'd like. You can kick me out and have the whole place to yourself, or I can stick around and chat. Your call." He smiled warmly and bumped Jacob's shoulder with his own lightly.