(Warning. This chapter contains bad language).

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A few more extremely uneventful and boring days passed in the hospital, and there was not a single ninja who didn't crave freedom from its clean white walls, and the constant chemical smell of anti-bacterial wash.

Ninjago City's hospital wasn't exactly a horrible place. They'd all visited on many occasions to brighten up a kid's day or help with some fundraiser, but after being confined to it for so long... it was starting to get unbearable.

Bland, loud, and frustrating.

Lloyd, Nya, Zane and Sensei were suffering a lot less than the injured, for obvious reasons. At least they could wander the building as much as they wanted, they were even free to leave. The only reason they stayed was for their friends.

Cole had only woken up a day ago at this point, and felt extremely disorientated and grotty.

Kai was tired of being practically bed bound despite only his arm being injured, and Jay even more so, considering he got away with a few superficial scratches, nothing more.

So, when they were given clearance to finally be able to leave, they were all relieved beyond anything else. The news of their discharge was the best they'd had for a long time.

They met in one of the main corridors, on the floor their beds all happened to be on. Sensei was already back at the Bounty, so there would only be six of them leaving the hospital together.

Cole gave Jay a rib crushing hug as soon as he came into view, and sternly told him off.

"Don't you DARE ever do that to me again Jay Walker! You almost gave me a damn heart attack!" He exclaimed, wagging a finger at his friend, who started to look sheepish.

Cole hardly ever used people's full names, and when he did, he meant business.

"... I'm sorry..."

"Yeah, you'd better be! You ran towards a f*cking explosion Jay! You could have died!"

Jay moved his eyes away, starting to feel really guilty. Not because he put himself in danger, but because Cole followed him into it, and got hurt.

"... we care about you... you know... you're our friend... no matter what. We don't want to lose you. So... please, don't do that again."

He bit his lip and nodded, clenching his fists at his side.

"... Jay?"

"Mmm?"

"Come on. You gotta promise."

"Mmm. I promise."

Cole raised his eyebrows, and with a little smile, offered up his pinkie.

"... pinkie promise?"

Jay couldn't help it. He broke into a bright smile as well, remembering their pinkie promise from about a week ago fondly. He obliged, and finally, it seemed that Cole was satisfied. He turned around to the rest of the group.

"... damnit, we're all here but Kai. Do you know where he is, Nya?"

"No idea. I turned around to tell him it was time to go and he just... wasn't there. That's a ninja for you."

Jay sighed and looked down at the floor.

"We're all bloody sick of this place and he knows that."

It was clear that the whole group was pretty annoyed with the red ninja, and even Zane - who was normally extremely polite - muttered 'a*shole' under his breath.

Lloyd heard him and very near choked on the bad quality donut he bought from the hospital's snack shop.

"... if he isn't here in ten minutes, we're leaving without him. Agreed?" Cole suggested. Nobody had any objections.

One minute passed. Another, then another. No sign of their final member. Just as the ten minutes were about to be up, Kai's familiar mop of messy hair came into view down the corridor, and he hurried over to them.

His hair was as untidy as usual, but had considerably less spike in it. The hospital didn't exactly offer up free hair gel for its patients.

"Jeez Kai, what the hell were you doing? We were just about to leave without you!" Nya questioned as he joined the group. Kai was immediately dismissive.

"I just needed to check a couple of things. Nothing important." He replied, looking straight forward as they all entered an elevator that was heading down to the ground floor. Luckily, it was empty.

"Feel like being a bit more punctual in the future?" Jay chimed in, the irritation in his voice very clear. Usually, he'd be a bit wary of Kai. Scared of him even, considering recent events.

But at that moment, he was nothing but tired, agitated and downright angry with him. Fear threw itself out of the window.

Kai fixed him with a distasteful look.

"... keep your mouth shut." He spat, grimacing.

"... oh, I know what this is."

Something snapped in him. His life was spiralling out of control, his friends all knew his deepest secret, the world hated him for simply existing and his mental health was taking a huge turn for the worst.

If some closed-minded idiot was gonna be a prick, then he'd better expect a bloody reaction.

"Because I'm trans, I don't have the right to tell you that you wasted our f*cking time? Right. That makes sense. What do you want, a round of applause? A prize for this genius deduction?"

"No, I want you to leave me the f*ck alone."

"Sounds more like you don't like being told off by a trans guy."

The elevator doors closed, and the rather slow journey down to the ground floor began with Kai staring at Jay with malicious intent in his eyes. Jay stared right back, bracing himself for whatever cruelties were undoubtedly going to come out of his mouth.

Indeed, Jay was right. A sentence filled the air, dirtying it immediately.

"... and why should I listen to you of all people... Sophie?"

The name dripped off his tongue like venom, and it sent a jarring shock through Jay's body that made him feel almost faint. Even now, hearing that name, come out of a former friend's mouth... was emotionally excruciating.

But after the initial shock was over, and dissipated into the air, Jay's body filled to the brim with pure, concentrated rage.

Without even thinking, his fist flashed from his side, making the journey in less than a second and meeting it's mark. Directly in the centre of Kai's face.

The loud smack entered everybody's ears, and Kai stumbled backwards a couple of steps, and slammed into the elevator wall, too shocked to react.

Jay knew that there wouldn't be any significant damage. He'd been in hospital for the best part of four days, and was hardly at his strongest, but it definitely would have hurt. A small trickle of blood was the only damaging result of his attack.

Kai's eyes darted back upwards, focussing in on Jay's face again, angrier than before.

There was absolute silence in the confined space, before Kai suddenly darted away from his frozen position against the wall.

Jay reacted fast enough, and would have been able to block the assault without any trouble at all, but didn't need to. A firm hand had grabbed Kai's shoulder and prevented him from moving any closer.

"Kai, I know that you're perfectly aware that his name is Jay. If you aren't careful, he won't be the only one punching you for deliberate transphobia. I'll quite happily join in, since calm and civil logic doesn't seem to work for you."

Zane's threat was arguably more shocking than Jay's sudden punch.

Hesitantly, Kai pulled his arm out of Zane's grasp, and moved back to the edge of the elevator. He knew that if there was a fight, he wouldn't stand much of a chance against Zane's superior technology.

Feeling further confident, spurred on by his friend's actions, Jay had one last thing to say.

"Don't. EVER. Call me that. Again." He spoke, his heart beating so hard that he swore that those around him would be able to hear it.

The doors opened, and they all left, Kai trailing very deliberately at the back of the pack.

The rest of the journey back to the bounty was made in complete silence. Nobody felt comfortable enough to utter a single word, and the atmosphere stayed tense for a long time even after they got home.

Kai stormed off to the shared bedroom, unofficially claiming the space until they all went to bed later that night.

Jay received sympathy, and a bit of praise as well. Especially from Cole, as Nya went to her room pretty quickly and Lloyd was a little too shocked to input anything. Zane was quite quiet too. Maybe even he was a little bit surprised at his own stern - but necessary - behaviour.

However, as the rest of the ninja settled down to sit together and talk, Kai sat alone on his bed, staring upwards and trying to work out the mad rush inside his head.

Maybe if they had know what he had been doing as they waited for him, there would have been sympathy. Care. A supportive hand on the shoulder.

But they didn't know.

Sadly enough, nobody bothered to find out the full story.

If things weren't sorted out soon, it was infinitely possible that the damage would be irreparable. To everybody.

The team was falling apart.