"WHAT'S GOING ON WITH MY MOM?"

Remy glared up at Jayne who had picked him up from school, the woman sighed as she simply told him to buckle up before taking him to her house where Tony and Brad would watch over him while she was with Birdie.

"I don't know," she whispered, sounding so broken and so drained, her weariness evident on her entire person.

It had been days since Thanksgiving and Remy hadn't seen his mother since. Wilma had pulled Jayne aside and explained everything the next day, and the blonde, loyal to a fault, promised to watch over Birdie until she was okay. Despite Tony's fierce insistence, neither woman explained to him the situation, because not even Jayne knew the whole story.

Birdie herself couldn't even remember.

So Remy was forced to move into his godmother's house temporarily, Tony offering to take him up to stay with him at the facility. Jayne had argued against it, saying Birdie would feel better soon, but as the days went on she was starting to think it would be best for Remy to distract himself rather than brood in his guest room; Brad couldn't go to work because of it, and that wasn't good for them either.

She was broken out of her thoughts by the sound of sniffling. Glancing over, she found Remy crying in his seat, wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his shirt. Her heart ached for the boy; his mother was all he had, and for her to shut him out even more, it must have been devastating. She more than anyone knew how that felt.

"She'll be back to normal in no time," she whispered, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder.

"Has she done this before?" Remy asked, and Jayne thought for a moment.

Maybe she had. There were times when Birdie had just fallen off the face of the earth for a few days bordering on almost two weeks at most, before returning, seeming to be okay for the most part. Wilma had always been there for her at that time, once going to Jayne and explaining that while she couldn't tell her, what was occurring had nothing to do with her and was solely something Birdie had gone through.

"Yeah," she whispered, "But she's gonna be okay."

"I don't remember her doing anything like this," he said, but even he sounded uncertain. If it was what Jayne thought it was, then all those times Birdie had to go to Mark's for the holidays seemed to be part of the reason.

Forcing herself to push away the thoughts, she continued along their way home, or to her home, rather, where Tony was waiting. She wanted to get back to Birdie's as soon as possible, as she had left the woman to eat, but wanted to make sure she actually did and didn't just hide the food.

She pulled into her driveway and looked towards Remy who simply nodded and got out of the car. Before he closed the door, he paused to look at her, pulling his sleeve away from where he was rubbing his eye.

"Tell her I say hi. Please."

º º º

Birdie shivered underneath her blankets, but the room wasn't cold. Well, not any colder than she was used to, but she just couldn't seem to get warm despite the pile of blankets on top of her, enveloping her into a hug that just didn't seem quite right.

She shouldn't be doing this. She shouldn't, but she just couldn't find it in herself to get up and Wilma hadn't done much to help her do anything but lie in bed. Of course, Jayne had been the one taking care of her, but she didn't really want her to. 

She just wanted to sleep.

"You didn't eat."

She sighed as she opened her eyes and found Jayne standing next to her, pointing to the untouched bowl of soup on her nightstand. She avoided her gaze, knowing that the blonde was looking down at her, concerned and disappointed.

"Do you want me to bring you something else, I can get you whatever you want," she offered, and Birdie shook her head because she didn't want to eat anything. She didn't want to do anything, she didn't want anything except sleep.

But that didn't mean she was able to sleep.

Jayne sighed and moved to the other side of the bed, climbing in and sidling up right next to her best friend, wishing she could take the pain away from her, or at least help her carry it, because never before had she seen her so broken.

That was a lie. There had been many times when she had seen Birdie broken near beyond repair, but all those times Jayne knew what was going on, knew what caused it, and could at least try to offer guidance or help.

Now, both of them were helpless and she was beginning to see why Birdie hated the feeling so much.

"It's been years since I've seen him," Birdie mumbled, and Jayne perked up, grasping onto her words and listening carefully.

Birdie tried to continued, but kept faltering, her skin prickling and her stomach turning. Her head began to spin and her chest began to constrict. Throwing herself out of bed, she stumbled towards the bathroom, just barely making it to the toilet before throwing up the contents of her empty stomach, just dry heaving over the bowl.

"It's okay..." Jayne whispered, pulling back her hair and rubbing her back, "It's okay. I've got you. No one's gonna hurt you anymore."

Birdie sobbed as she slumped to the floor, struggling to breathe and listening to the sounds of sobbing and unintelligible mumbling, not realizing that all the sounds were coming from her, the white noise in her ears partly being Jayne who hadn't stopped whispering, her words having no meaning other than the general hope they might do some good.

Birdie sniffed, wiping her eyes, before feeling herself gag again. Throwing herself against the bowl, she continued to dry heave and choke, gagging and coughing and wanting nothing more than just to sleep.

She rested her head against the wall, Jayne rubbing soothing circles into her back. She was surprised to find she didn't pull away or stiffen at the touch, only to remember that she had no reason to; this was Jayne, and Jayne would never do anything to hurt her. She was there when no one else was, and there was no reason to feel sick at even the thought of being touched by her.

Rising on shaking feet, Birdie went to go brush her teeth, Jayne right by her side to hold her up, the two looking at their reflections in the mirror. Birdie looked away immediately, unable to stomach looking at herself for too long, but Jayne just held her own gaze, eyes flickering towards her friend's reflection for a moment, if only to take in the two of them together.

It wasn't the prettiest picture.

But that wasn't the point, so Jayne didn't make it the point. Instead, she just reached out to smoothen her friend's hair, sighing as she did so, wishing she could brush out the pain as she did.

"Let's get you back to bed, okay?" Jayne whispered, leading her back into the main room, "Just go to sleep. But promise me you'll eat when you wake up, okay?"

Birdie sniffed and nodded, arms collapsing underneath her as she crawled back under the covers, her entire body aching as she relaxed, sighing as the blankets piled around her. She sighed with content as Jayne stayed right next to her, reminding her that she wasn't alone.

"Thank you," she sobbed, rushing into the cold, comforting arms of sleep, "Thank you."

Jayne smiled ruefully; there was no reason for Birdie to thank her. She would always be with her, no matter what.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I'm really sorry for the length of his chapter and its contents, but I did need to show that this really affected Birdie, to the point of neglect of basic needs and responsibilities. I hope I portrayed this correctly, this is a territory I haven't experienced, so I'm not completely well-versed in, but I wanted to show Jayne and Birdie's relationship as well as Birdie dealing with her past.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.