CHAPTER 5
Jinxx POV
The next morning I woke up to sunlight shining right into my eyes and that my body was kinda stiff from the cramped position that I'd fallen asleep in. Groaning quietly, I sat up and opened my eyes to see that I was in a hospital room with Andy, Ashley, CC, Jake and two people in beds, hooked up to monitors and other medical stuff.
Huh? What am I doing here with the rest of BVB? I thought, slightly confused, seeing as I'd just woken up. Then I remembered what had happened yesterday.

Going to the mall with the guys.

CC breaking up with Lauren because she cheated on him.

CC being saved by Arsenal, even though he broke his wrist.

Arsenal breaking her ribs, arm & leg.

Finding out Arsenal has AWESOME musical ability – seriously, she plays 4 instruments, sings AND screams! She’s even able to serve drinks while nailing songs! If that’s not awesome, then I don’t know what is...

Ashley discovering Arsenal is his long-lost sister.

Meeting one of Arsenal's closest friends who has the same first name as me and goes by a nickname way more than his actual name.

Finding out Arsenal's Autistic, ADHD and very childlike.

And a whole bunch of other stuff.

Whoa... I thought to myself as I stood up and stretched to try and get some feeling back into me. Note to self - sleeping in a chair overnight is not the best idea I thought as I left the room to find a toilet and the cafeteria for something to eat, checking the time, I saw it was nearly half past 8 in the morning.

After I found some food (and the loo) I brought it back to the hospital room to see Jake was starting to wake up. Arsenal was also stirring a bit but everyone else was still asleep.

"Morning Ars, how'd you sleep?" I asked her, passing her a drink. "Not too bad" she croaked, not quite being fully awake yet. "Morning Jake" she added, seeing he was also awake.

"Hey Ars" he replied, trying to stifle a yawn (but failing) after taking the drink I handed him.

Arsenal took a mouthful of her drink (I got her a bottle of coke – I wasn't sure what she did and didn't like) and looked over at Andy, Ashley & CC. "Awww, do they always look that cute while asleep?" she asked, giggling softly at them, her eyes resting on CC a bit longer than Andy or Ash.

Jake and I looked at each other, he just shrugged.

"Uh, don’t know, I never really thought of it" I replied, taking a mouthful of my drink which was also coke. "How's your arm, leg & ribs this morning?" Jake asked, going on his phone to see if there was anything going on.

Arsenal shrugged then winced slightly, "Not bad, just a bit sore" she replied, pressing the nurse button. "Ow my back hurts" Andy grumbled as he woke up. "Mornin Andy" said Arsenal. "Hey Ars, how you feeling?" "A bit sore but otherwise ok. Are Ash & CC always the last ones to wake up?"

"Usually. CC's nickname is-" "Last place. You said that in an interview once cos he's 'perpetually the last person to get anywhere'" Arsenal interrupted him using air quotes for what Andy had said in the interview. "You've seen that one?" I asked curiously.

"Mmhm, I’ve watched a lot of your interviews, they're usually pretty funny, though the 2 funniest things I’ve seen of you guys would be CC singing 'Living On A Prayer' karaoke and the other would be Andy & CC reading bits of '50 Shades Of Gray' which I could NOT keep a straight face through, I was laughing so much" she explained, giggling insanely.

A few minutes later Jeremy groaned, signaling he was also waking up. “Morning 5” said Arsenal. “Heya 18. Wait, where’s rainbow dash?” “Down at your feet, don’t know how she got there” Ars replied, pointing to Jeremy's feet where a light blue horse with wings, a rainbow tail & mane was sitting. “Rainbow!” Jeremy cheered, holding it closely.

Arsenal laughed as Ashley woke up groaning, he was probably pretty stiff too from sleeping in a chair overnight. “Heya Ash” said Ars, cuddling stinky. “Bloody hell, CC’s still out?” said Ashley, looking around to see who was awake. “Yup, Chuppy’s still asleep, don’t ask me how but eh” said Jake.

Then the nurses on the morning shift brought in Arsenal & Jeremy’s breakfast, Arsenal immediately sighed sadly, she seems to really hate hospital food. After the nurses left after giving them some pain meds, Arsenal took the pills, scowling slightly then inspected what food she’d been given.

Surprisingly she smiled widely, we half-expected her to complain like she did with the chicken from last night.

“Yay! Finally some decent tucker in this joint” she said, clapping her hands together. “Tucker?” said CC, who’d just woken up. “Morning sleeping beauty, tucker is an Australian slang term for food” Arsenal explained, all of us snickering at CC’s expression when she called him ‘sleeping beauty’.

She and Jeremy ate their breakfast which did look quite tasty too then they got themselves sorted out bathroom wise and sat back on their beds.

“Hey Ars, you don’t mind if we duck back to our places for a shower & change of clothes do you?” said Ashley. “No no that’s fine, go on ahead, we’ll be here – not like we can go anywhere at the moment really” said Arsenal, shrugging slightly.

“Ok, we’ll be back soon” said Ashley, putting our numbers into her phone for her.
Then we left the hospital to go back to our houses to get fresh clothes. Soon we got back to the hospital at around 10:45 or so, a little later than we intended cos Andy insisted we stop and get Arsenal & Jeremy some good food, oh and Ash took ages getting ready as he usually does.

I got my phone out of my pocket and sent Arsenal a text ‘Hey Ars, we've stopped at McDonalds, you and J5 want anything?’ a few minutes later my phone beeped, signaling a reply.

‘YES!!!!!!!!!! Lol J5 wants a medium quarter pounder meal with the meat & cheese only, sweet & sour sauce and a cheeseburger. I want a large double quarter pounder meal WITHOUT the onion & pickle, with a rasher of bacon, sweet & sour sauce, 10 nuggets (also with sweet & sour sauce) and 2 cheeseburgers. THX JINXXY©’ my eyes widened when I read what she wanted to eat.

“Bloody hell Ash, is this what you meant by her appetite could rival CC’s?!” I exclaimed, showing him the message.

He cracked up laughing and nodded, “That’s exactly what I meant! I just had a medium Big Mac meal – she had exactly that! But only 1 cheeseburger and 6 nuggets” then I showed Andy, CC & Jake – their jaws dropped.

“That’s what CC usually gets! I don’t know how he eats all that, but blimey Ashley, your sister really does rival CC in terms of appetites!” said Jake, his jaw on the floor. All Andy could do was say “Fucking hell!” Ash just laughed and we all went in to order our food – we were hungry too.

After we all got our food we went back up to the hospital up to Jeremy & Arsenal’s room to see them battling it out on their DSi’s with ‘Legacy’ playing on Ars’ laptop in the background.
“Fuck, FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! How do you always manage to beat me?!” Arsenal cried, slumping in defeat, and then cringing.

“Oh Arsenal, revenge is sweet and a dish best served cold! And we were playing on an ice course after all” J5 replied, laughing, Arsenal just flicked him off and waved at us madly.

“You ok Ars?” asked Ashley, warily eyeing her. She stuck her tongue out and said “Oh you know, slightly sore bones and I might be on a teensy weensy sugar high” she pinched her fingers close together when she said she might have been on a sugar high.

We all groaned, except CC, he just high fived Arsenal.

Seeing as it was nearly lunchtime we all decided to eat and Andy kept complaining that he was hungry, Jake & CC did too. Arsenal grinned like a horror movie villain and rubbed her hands together when Ashley put her bag of food on her table thing and I gave J5 his.

“Thanks man” he said, “You’re welcome and what the hell are you doing?” I replied before firing the question at Arsenal who pulled her burger in half and opened a sauce packet. “I’m putting on some chips and sauce! This is how I always eat it” she said before doing exactly that and taking a big bite.

Halfway through chewing she stopped and looked up at us – her cheeks were full to the brim and puffed out like a chipmunk.

Jake couldn’t help but burst out laughing as he took a photo of her expression then she swallowed it and took a large mouthful of her drink. “Oh my god Ars you look like a chipmunk!” said Andy as he ate his food.

The rest of us shook out heads and ate.

All our jaws except for Jeremy & Ashley’s dropped when Arsenal finished her burger and her chips – after examining every last inch to make sure she’d eaten it all – and started on a cheeseburger after letting out the mother of all burps, making us stand there blinking owlishly before collapsing to the floor in laughter.

“Very well said” said J5, clapping. Ars wriggled out of bed and bowed, hanging onto Andy for support.

“Thank you, thank you very much!” she said in a ringmaster sort of voice, Jake put his phone away again – he must have been filming. Then Andy helped her back onto her bed and she continued devouring her food, including all 10 nuggets and the other cheeseburger, even her drink cup was empty.

She burped again and said “Whoo! I’m stuffed. Probably won’t eat til dinnertime now” she said, lying back and patting her stomach, burping again.

“Well said again” said J5, “Thanks bro” Ars replied. “Why do you two say that?” Andy asked. “Habit we got into at school, whenever one of us, or our other friends Matt, Mariah & Deltora burped we would say ‘well said’ or something like that, we’ve done it ever since, never really bothered stopping” said Arsenal, looking at Jeremy, frowning slightly her expression saddening.

“Hey, you alright?” I asked her softly, sitting beside her and putting my arm around her shoulder.

She leaned into me & sniffled. “No, not really” she said, crying softly. “Come on, tell momma Jinxx all about it” I said softly, putting my other arm around her and shifting her so I was holding her in my lap as she cried. I looked up to see Jeremy was frowning too, fighting not to cry, his fists clenching. Andy, Ashley, CC & Jake all had worried expressions on their faces too.

“Mariah was one of Arsenal’s closest friends in school; mine, Matt & Deltora’s too. We used to do everything together the five of us. We’d have almost identical schedules; Ars just had more instrument classes than us. We’d go to music festivals together; the year Arsenal moved to Florida which was a year before she started at Riverview High was the first year we all went to Warped Tour together.

We’d go every year no matter who was playing, we’d just see the bands we liked and wander around the rest of the time, taking photos, eating food, going to signings and meet & greets all that sort of thing, sometimes we went to Soundwave in Australia.

Gradually Mariah started getting more distanced from us, like she used to dress how we do, like ‘metalhead’ and all that then she went and became one of the preppy snob bitches.
Usually we didn’t care who was prep, who was jock and all that sort of thing – usually they kept to themselves when they weren’t shouting at us, but Mariah crossed the line when she went, all the bullying we usually got worsened and became physical.

Arsenal self-harmed more than ever, I did too.... anyway Mariah became one of our worst tormentors, she had no remorse, nothing... and the teachers did jack shit to help us... Anyway we – that is me, Ars, Matt & Quest were all in the same year, we were held back a bit, once Ars was 18, we packed all our shit and found some good apartments that were on our price limit in LA.

We swiped some stuff off our ‘families’ – things like money and some alcohol and all that, then we loaded our cars – well mine & Deltora’s, Matt didn’t have one at the time and Ars only had her motorbike – but we had to get a few trailers for it all what with all our things and our instrument stuff and we drove up to LA with a few stops on the way.

We moved into our new apartments, and that night seeing as Ars is insomniac, she went and got her Metallica chrome ninja star tattoo on her hip and her lip pierced as well, she’s just not wearing it at the moment” Jeremy explained, wiping away tears.

The guys all went and gave him a hug; I gave him a sympathetic & understanding look. Hearing about what made Arsenal upset reminded me of when I was in school; it wasn’t something that I liked to think about... “That’s awful Ars, I can’t imagine how bad that must have been” said CC, hugging her gently. She sniffled and hugged him back.

“Riverview High was an awful school; the music program wasn’t too bad. Anyway we had finished junior year when we moved here – they’d been kept back, I just missed a year, seeing as the Grayson’s didn’t enrol us for a year or so.

Then we found a new school and decided to check it out. Then we enrolled and happily finished our schooling there. We stopped self-harming, well I did for a few years... and I got even better at my 4 instruments, I learnt Screamo while I was there, practicing often but not too much to make me lose my voice.

It was at school here in LA that I picked up violin, as I said yesterday it was to fill up my schedule at first and now I really enjoy it. I also ended up getting my RSA which I need to work at the Bourbon otherwise I couldn’t legally sell alcohol” said Arsenal sitting up and wiping away the last of her tears.

“How bout we do something else for a while, get your minds off all the sad stuff” suggested Jake, seeing Jeremy & Arsenal didn’t want to talk about whatever was still on their minds.
I could tell they preferred to keep it to themselves, and I didn’t blame them for that. I’ve only told the guys about my home life when I was a teen, they were kind & understanding and didn’t pressure me into telling them more after I broke down, same with Sammi, Juliet & Ella.

“Hey J5, can you teach me to play that game you beat Ars in? It looked fun” said Andy, CC going to join him, Ashley too. “Sure, Ars, can we use your DSi for this?” “Sure” said Arsenal passing it to him, before looking to me.

“Hey Jinxx, can you help me over to the loo?” “Sure, do you want me to carry you?” “Yes please, I don’t want to try walking just yet” she said as I put one of my arms around her back after she sat up a bit, and my other arm under her knees and lifted her up carefully as she put her arms around my neck.

We got to the bathroom and I put her down carefully, I stepped out of the room while she went and went back in when she called out to me. I helped her over to the sink so she could wash her hands. Then I carried her back to her bed, noticing her body was pretty cool temperature-wise but she didn’t notice.

“So what do you two want to do? Those guys are gonna be AGES over there, J5’s very thorough when teaching people how to play Worms which is what we were playing when you guys came back earlier” Arsenal asked. “Can we see what covers you’ve got?” asked Jake, an eager expression on his face.

Arsenal raised her eyebrows, “Are you this enthusiastic about every guitarist you meet or just ones that play bass, drums & violin as well?” she asked, eyeing him as she brought her laptop over.

Jake snorted, “Nah I’ve never met anyone else who can play those four instruments and screams too” “Hahahhaha then sure I’ll show you two what I’ve done” she said, opening the videos folder. “Which OA first?” “OA?” I asked, slightly confused. “Original Artist” she explained.

“Cinematic Awesomeness?” said Jake, trying not to break out laughing as he looked through the folder names. “Hey I couldn’t think of anything else to call it! Anyway that folder has my covers of songs in movies, sometimes J5 & Deltora join in” Arsenal said, opening the folder and plugging in a pair of headphones then another pair into the first pair and handed them to us. Jake and I looked at eachother curiously then put on the headphones.

Arsenal double-clicked on a random video, opening it and the theme from Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ started playing, except it was more rock/metal than orchestral. Mine & Jake’s jaws dropped, she did a pretty good job.

Then looking at the movie we saw she had dressed up as various characters from the movie and included stills & short clips from the movie. The song finished and me & Jake sat there with our jaws on the floor. “I take it you enjoyed that?” she giggled.

“Damn that was awesome!” she laughed and picked another video. I recognized the song as ACDC’s ‘Back In Black’, Arsenal (in the video) was playing lead & rhythm guitar, bass & drums. “That was cool” I said once the video was done. Arsenal smiled, “Thanks”.

We watched some more covers including ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, ‘All The Things She Said’, ‘Girls Girls Girls’, ‘Sad But True’, ‘Nothin But A Good Time’, ‘Orion’, ‘Cherry Pie’ (THAT did not surprise me, she smirked evilly EXACTLY like Ash does when he describes what he does with the girls he brings to the tour bus or whenever someone says something that can be taken in a sexual way), ‘Paradise City’, ‘Sk8er Boi’, ‘Killing In The Name’, ‘We Don’t Belong’ and way more.

“Hey Ars, do you wanna jam with us sometime?” Jake asked; me, Andy, Ashley & CC looking at her hopefully – when we listened to ‘We Don’t Belong’ we ditched the headphones so Andy, CC & Ashley could hear how awesome Arsenal is with an instrument and/or mic at our songs.

She thought for a minute, mockingly I think as I saw in her eyes how happy she was at the thought. “Definitely!” she exclaimed, next second she was surrounded in a BVB sandwich (again).

Then she showed me & Jake some more stuff on her laptop when I saw she was a bit pale, I just shook it off.

“So yeah those are the guitar & bass designs I’ve drawn up, that’s the drawing I did of ‘Purdinxx’, there’s ‘Janxx’ & ‘Jeddie Van Pitts’ or JVP for shor-or-or-ort” said Arsenal, trying & failing to stifle a yawn behind her hand.

Jake and I exchanged a worried glance as she looked very tired, but she hadn’t had any medication today, so that couldn’t be it. She also went to bed fairly early last night from what J5 said. Apparently she’s insomniac and often doesn’t sleep til around 4 or 5 in the morning, sometimes using sleeping pills to help her get some sleep from her crazy schedule at the Bourbon and her cupcake job.

She went to sleep at 10 last night which according to J5 is an early night for her and got up at around 8:30 this morning so she had plenty of sleep.

While Arsenal talked me & Jake through some of her other guitars I noticed she was shaking, “Hey Ars, you alright? You’re shaking a bit” “I’m ok” she said, not looking at me or Jake, at least not in the eye. I frowned and put my hand on her shoulder. “Holy shit, you’re freezing Ars!” I said, Jake put his hand on her other shoulder and said the same thing. Arsenal frowned and asked for her bag.

She riffled through it and sharply tossed it to the end of her bed (Jake caught it when she threw it a little too far) when she couldn’t find what she’d been looking for. “Dammit!” she screamed/growled, holding her head, a lot like Andy when he’s pissed off.

“What were you looking for?” “My bloody medication that I hate taking!” she growled angrily, sitting up and crossing her arms. “Wait, what do you need it for? It’s not for your ADHD is it?” “No not that, there’s another condition or two I have that I prefer to...” she trailed off as she collapsed, falling to the edge of her bed.

I caught her before she fell off as Jake called out “Ashley! Jeremy! Something’s wrong with Arsenal! She just collapsed for some reason” “Oh no, Ars!” said Ashley, taking her from my arms.

“What happened?” said Ash & J5 at the same time. “We were chatting about her guitar & bass designs when she suddenly yawned, then she was shaking and we noticed she was freezing. We asked if she was ok and she said she was but she didn’t look us in the eye” I began explaining.

Sometimes Ash randomly collapsed on tour, thankfully it was never while we were onstage or with fans.

“Then she searched frantically for something in her bag and got pissed when she couldn’t find it. We asked what she was looking for and she said she was trying to find the medication she hates taking. She said it wasn’t for her ADHD but one or two conditions that she had and prefers to something but then she collapsed”

“Not again!” cried Jeremy. “Again? This has happened before?!” shouted Ashley, getting more and more worried.

“Yeah she’s collapsed before but always refuses to tell us why, she ignores us or changes the subject whenever we ask her about it. You’ll have to get Doctor Jones aka Flying Dutchman, I don’t know what’s going on with her” Andy scrambled out the door to find the doctor that was in charge of looking after them.

Ashley frowned for a moment, “Oh fucking hell, I bet she has the same condition I do” he mumbled, I barely heard him but didn’t comment. Andy came back with Doctor Jones following close behind. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Arsenal collapsed, we don’t know why” said Andy, slightly out of breath. Doctor Jones frowned. “Is her skin cold?” Ashley nodded, “She’s really pale too doc” “She looked a bit fatigued earlier” I added, wondering what was going on.

“Jeremy? Do you know when her last menstrual cycle was?” me & Jake looked at each other as though to say ‘WTF? Why would he need to know that?’ Andy & CC had the same expression.

“She just finished it day before yesterday, why?” “Darn, she’s gonna need a transfusion and a stronger dose of her meds and soon” Doctor Jones muttered. “What’s going on with my sister?” asked Ashley.

“Long story short, she has anaemia and iron deficiency. She was starved while living with the Grayson’s so her iron levels were low, she has heavy periods too so both of those caused her anaemia.

She takes medication but when she forgets to take it seeing as her iron levels are in the danger zone still, this happens and she’s also on the contraceptive pill to try and slow down the bleeding. When it does happen we give her an iron injection, some vitamin shots and a blood transfusion, which I will organize now.

In the meantime, she needs to be warmed up ASAP, which is best done by skin-to-skin contact, meaning one or two of you will need to undress til you’re just in your boxers or whatever underwear you use and will need to cuddle with her until her temperature’s back to normal, preferably until she gets a little too hot” said Doctor Jones, leaving the room.

“Poor Arsenal, imagine having to live with that...” said Andy, looking like he was going to cry. I stood up and walked over to him and gave him a hug.

“Looks like she does have my condition, but more intense than I do” said Ashley.
“What do you mean?” asked Jake. “I have iron deficiency too. Those random fainting spells I get? That’s what happens if I forget my meds, my body doesn’t have enough iron in it. That time I was hospitalized briefly on our ‘Set The World On Fire’ tour? I had to get a blood transfusion” he explained, taking off his clothes.

He got into the bed and cuddled Ars, shivering slightly.
Andy pulled the covers up to help Arsenal warm up a bit quicker as Doctor Jones came back with a few nurses who began connecting Arsenal’s IV to the blood bag and injected a few things into her.

“What are the injections for?” I asked. “One is for her iron levels; the others are vitamin C & B12 along with others to help her body get back on track. She’s still getting used to eating regular portion sizes, though sometimes she can eat a lot” Doctor Jones explained.

“I’ll be back guys, just gonna go for a quick walk” I said, leaving the room and walking outside. After a few minutes of standing around, crying and feeling awful for Arsenal, my phone rang with the ringtone I’d set for my wife Sammi. “Hey baby” I said, answering her call, my voice choking up a bit. “Hey baby what’s wrong?” I heard Sammi ask.

“You know how we found out the girl who saved CC turned out to be Ashley’s missing sister Arsenal?” “Yeah?” “She collapsed earlier” “Oh my god, what happened to her?” “Turns out she suffers from heavy menstrual bleeding and iron-deficiency anaemia and is on iron medication along with the contraceptive pill. At the moment they’ve given her a few shots to do with iron and vitamins and she’s getting a blood transfusion right now” I explained.

“Oh my god, no woman should have to endure that every month, the poor dear... anyway I rang to say me, Juliet & Ella are at LAX now” “OK I’ll come pick you girls up” “Ok, see you soon baby” “Ok I love you” “Love you too” “Bye” “Bye”

I hung up and texted the guys to let them know I was going to pick up the girls from the airport, they texted back saying ‘Ok’. Arsenal, please get better soon I thought as I drove to the airport.

Sammi POV
I woke up on the plane I’d taken from London with Juliet & Ella when Juliet was shaking my shoulder, “Sam, we’re about to land” “Thanks Jules” I said, yawning & stretching.

As we made sure we had everything we brought in our carry-on bags with us I heard Ella say “I wonder what Ashley's sister’s like?” “Don’t know. Apparently she’s very childlike, has ASD & ADHD and plays 4 instruments from what Andy told me” said Juliet. “What does she play again?” asked Ella.

“Guitar, bass, drums & violin and she’s able to sing & scream too” I said, checking the time on my phone as the seatbelt sign turned on. Soon we had landed and gotten our luggage, I decided to call Jinxx and let him know we’d landed. I unlocked my phone and went to Jinxx’ contact and pressed ‘call’.

After a few moments he picked up, “Hey baby” he said, his voice choking a bit for some reason. “Hey baby, what’s wrong?” I asked, attracting confused looks from Juliet & Ella.
“You know how we found out the girl who saved CC turned out to be Ashley’s missing sister Arsenal?” “Yeah?” I said, wondering what was going on. “She collapsed earlier”

I gasped in horror, “Oh my god, what happened to her?” I asked, worry leaking into my voice.
“Turns out she suffers from heavy menstrual bleeding and iron-deficiency anaemia and is on iron medication along with the contraceptive pill. At the moment they’ve given her a few shots to do with iron and vitamins and she’s getting a blood transfusion right now” Jinxx explained, he sounded like he’d finished crying a little while ago.

I gasped again, tears leaking out of my eyes; Juliet shot me a worried look and mouthed ‘what’s going on?’ I just shook my head and said to Jinxx “Oh my god, no woman should have to endure that every month, the poor dear... anyway I rang to say me, Juliet & Ella are at LAX now” “OK I’ll come pick you girls up” “Ok see you soon baby” “Ok I love you” “Love you too” “Bye” “Bye”

I hung up and stuffed my phone into my pocket and wiped away the tears that were flowing from my eyes with a tissue Ella handed me. “What's wrong Sammi?” she asked.

“It’s Arsenal” “What happened to her? Aside from the broken bones that is?” asked Juliet.
“She has heavy menstrual bleeding and iron-deficiency anaemia and has to take medication for that and the pill to slow up the bleeding. Anyway she collapsed a little while ago, they’ve given her a bunch of shots and she’s in the middle of getting a blood transfusion”

“Oh no, no woman should have to go through that month after month... wait, doesn’t Ashley have iron deficiency?” said Ella. “Oh god he does too, he sometimes collapses when he forgets his medication and had to get a transfusion once too...” Juliet chimed in, holding her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide.

“Let’s get Arsenal a present while we wait for Jinxx, that might cheer her up” I suggested. Juliet nodded, “I’ll watch our stuff Sammi, you two go on ahead” said Ella.

“Thanks El, we won’t be too long” I said, taking Juliet's arm and walking to the gift shops. On the way I texted Jinxx asking him what sort of stuff Arsenal likes. ‘She likes Hello Kitty like ash, she’s a metalhead, hates most pop music, loves Star Wars & Harry Potter and cat plushies’ he replied after a few minutes.

Juliet & I walked into the gift shop and immediately spotted a punk Hello Kitty plushie, we looked at it and each other, nodding as if to say ‘that is SO Arsenal Jaxx/Purdy’, I grabbed it while Juliet spotted some get well soon balloons and we picked out a rock n roll get well card.

Then we also spotted a silver sharpie to write in the card with so we paid for it all and went back to Ella. “Oh my god that plushie is adorable! Ashley’s so gonna be jealous! Nice card & balloons too” said Ella, laughing at the stuff we brought back.

“Oh we know which is why Juliet went back in and got another one for him!” I said while laughing. Then we wrapped up the plushies and wrote on the card for her.

I wrote: ‘Hey Arsenal, hoping you feel way better way soon! Can't wait to get to know you, we should play sometime, I hear you have quite the musical ability from momma Jinxx! Love ya lots Ars, Sammi Doll’

Juliet wrote: ‘Get well soon Ars! Andy will want his ‘big sis’ back and soon! Totally can't wait to meet & get to know you, maybe we could sing sometime, Andy mentioned you’re pretty good at singing & screaming ha-ha! Love ya lots, Juliet Simms’

Ella wrote: ‘Hey sweetie, hope you recover fast! Jake’s hanging out for a pizza buddy J looking forward to hanging out with you and the girls © lotsa love Ella Cole’

We smiled and put the card into the envelope and sealed it as Jinxx pulled up outside. We grabbed all our stuff and went to his car as he hopped out and pulled me into a very passionate kiss.

It probably would have gone further but Juliet & Ella interrupted us and we had to breathe anyway. “Hey baby” said Jinxx, smiling at me. “Hey yourself Mr. Mystic” I replied, a smile on my face too.

“What you girls got there?” Jinxx asked, seeing the stuff we’d bought from the gift shop. “Oh we got Arsenal a punk Hello Kitty plushie, an awesome-as-hell rock n roll card & some balloons” I explained. “What's the other parcel?” “We thought we’d get Ashley one to be on the safe side, he’d probably get jealous if we only gave Arsenal one and you know how he is about Hello Kitty” Juliet explained, giving Jinxx a hug hello.

“Fair enough, why don’t we drop off your stuff at mine & Sammi’s place then head up to see Arsenal? She’s looking forward to meeting you three” Jinxx suggested, opening the car boot for our luggage. “Sure” “Sounds good to me” “Ok” we all replied, bringing our stuff over.

After we dropped off our suitcases we drove up to the hospital and Jinxx lead us to the fourth floor and into room 5. “JULIET!” Andy cried, running to Juliet and embracing her. “Ella!” said Jake as he went to her and held her closely before kissing her.

“Hiya Sammi. Hey to you guys too!” said Ashley & CC from where they were, CC from next to J5 and Ashley still cuddled with Arsenal who had the blood thing connected to her IV drip. Juliet & Ella laughed and we greeted the other guys. “What the fuck is going on?” Arsenal grumbled as she woke up, still shivering slightly.

“Aww you lot woke her up!” said Ashley, playfully pouting; Arsenal did look adorable while asleep. “Who said that?” she grumbled. “Me” I said, raising my hand slightly, realising I said that out loud.

“Sammi?” Arsenal asked, still a little disoriented. “That’s me” I said, walking towards her and gently hugging her, noticing her skin was still a bit cool. “Nice to meet ya Sam, even though I’m wrapped up with things jabbed into me. It’s kinda like I’m a wannabe vampire with the blood bag” she joked, making us laugh.

“I’m Juliet Simms” “And I’m Ella Cole” Juliet & Ella introduced themselves. “Hiya” said Arsenal, now fully awake. “We also got you a little present” I said, handing her a package, Ella giving her the card, Juliet set the balloons in between the beds, introducing herself to the guy in the other bed, who was still chatting to CC about the little gadget thing in his hands. Arsenal opened the card and read what we’d written.

She smiled and teared up a bit and opened her pale arms for a hug, which we all gave her.
She sniffled and wiped her eyes before tearing into the present as though it was her birthday or Christmas. She cheered when she saw the Hello Kitty plushie and cuddled it closely.

“Thanks guys, I love it!” she said. Ashley’s jaw dropped when he saw it and a hint of jealousy flashed in his eyes. Ella noticed this and tossed him the other one which he swiftly unwrapped and cuddled tightly like Arsenal was. We all laughed at them being all cute and childlike. It was seriously adorable; everyone was taking photos of it.

“How are you feeling at the moment Ars?” Ella asked, sitting on Jake’s lap. Arsenal shrugged, “Not too bad at the moment, what happened anyway?”

“Well you were telling me and Jinxx about some of your guitar designs, then we said your skin was cold, you were a bit fatigued, pale. We asked you if you were alright, you said you were but didn’t look at us when you said that.

You searched frantically for something in your bag and got mad when you couldn't find it. You said you were trying to find medication that you hate taking but it wasn't for ADHD, rather a condition or two that you prefer to something” said Jake.

“Prefer to something?” “That was when you collapsed, Jinxx caught you before you fell off your bed which you nearly did. After J5 said that this sometimes happened Andy ran to get the doctor who said you have iron-deficiency anaemia and heavy periods and that you were starved when living with the Grayson’s and that you were still getting used to regular portions though you could sometimes eat a lot. He also said you’re on iron medication and the contraception pill to slow up the bleeding and because your iron level is still in the danger zone this happened. They had to give you iron & vitamin injections and a blood transfusion and ash had to strip down and hold you closely to warm you up, apparently skin-to-skin contact is the best way to warm you up” Jake explained, looking worried as were we all.

Arsenal sighed, “I knew I couldn’t keep this secret forever, it’s something I prefer not to tell people about. I knew I had to tell Jeremy soon and at some point you guys too” she said, lying back with her hands on her face.

“You know Ars, you're’re not exactly alone in all this,” Ashley started to explain. “What do you mean Ash?” “I have iron deficiency too. I have to take medication for it and I faint if I forget to take it, fortunately it never happened onstage or anything like that”

“We’re a pair of nut jobs aren’t we? Iron deficient, fainting spells, a few extra things with me...” Arsenal said, hugging Ashley. Ash laughed, “Yeah we’re a funny pair aren’t we?” he said, hugging her back and kissing her head.

“So how did you two end up in here?” Juliet asked Jeremy & Arsenal. “Well I was riding my bike and listening to music on my iPod, and I got hit by a truck. I tried to slow up but couldn’t. I broke my knee ligament, pelvis, a few ribs and fractured my shoulders a bit and punctured a lung and had some gravel rash that’s healed up” Jeremy explained.

“Blimey that must have hurt a lot” I said, giving him a hug. “Yeah I recently got the screws holding my pelvis together taken out, that was causing me a heap of pain” “It’s true, whenever I came up to visit him, he’d be cringing in pain and holding onto my hand and rainbow dash” Arsenal chipped in, sitting up a bit. “How about you Ars?” asked Ella.

“Well I had been hanging out at the mall for something to do and I’d gotten guitar & bass strings, a heap of picks and a bunch of drum sticks, then I went and had some lunch and looked at a bunch of shops for a while then I was walking down the streets listening to ‘I Am Bulletproof’ and singing quietly to it. Anyway I heard people shouting in front of me, I paused the song and looked up to see CC arguing with who I’m guessing is now your ex-GF?”

“Yeah I broke it off with her” “Ah, anyway she went back inside, you stomped off, your four following him and me too, seeing as I was going that direction anyway. Then you shouted at them to shut up and Ashley said something and you snapped at him and started going across the road. I stopped about 2m behind you guys and gasped as I remembered the last time that happened, except it was Ashley. Anyway I heard a car speeding towards CC and tossed my bag towards you guys then ran towards CC and shoved him out of the way, taking the hit and landing near CC, breaking 3 ribs, my left arm and right leg and coughing up some blood with a bitch of a headache then blacking out” Arsenal explained, examining her arm cast.

“How bout from your point of view C?” said Juliet, sitting on Andy’s lap and I sat with Jinxx.

“Well we’d gotten back from tour that morning and hung out at the mall for a bit; me, Ashley, Jake & Jinxx got some stuff and Ash was checking out girls as usual, mainly this chick dressed in boots, black skinnies, ripped tee, bandana’s, leather gloves and she had blue what are laughing at Arsenal?” CC started explaining before Arsenal started laughing her ass off, Andy & Jinxx realised what she was laughing at and they started laughing too.

“CC, you realise that you’re describing exactly what I was wearing at the time?” she choked out. Ashley’s face paled at that when he realised he was perving on his sister. “Dude! Perving on your sister? OMG” Juliet laughed. “Oh that’s not all he’s done with her!” said Andy, still chortling.

Arsenal growled, “Juliet, permission?” said Arsenal, gesturing toward Andy with her head. Juliet nodded, Ella & I smirked – this would be interesting. Andy warily made his way towards the Purdy siblings, Ashley watching on curiously.

When he was close enough, Arsenal smacked him up the head and growled “DON’T. EVEN. THINK. OF. TALKING ABOUT THAT. GOT IT?” Andy blanched and nodded frantically, Juliet, Ella and I fell on the floor laughing – the guys (including Ashley) all looked like they pissed themselves, which was quite a funny sight.

“SO what are we missing?” asked Ella. “Ashley’s tattooed Ars and made out with her at one point” said Jinxx. “Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, we were both drunk at the time!” exclaimed Ashley, dragging out the word ‘excuse’, complete with his sassy bitch tone and he just crossed his arms.

Arsenal just sighed and shook her head before face palming. “God help us” she muttered. “What tattoo of yours did he do Ars?” I asked, Andy was pouting childishly.
“This one” said Arsenal standing on her knees and indicating to the spiked ball & chain thing on her side. “That looks cool” said Juliet. “Thanks, it’s a song one actually” “How’s that?” asked Jinxx.

“See the purple markings in the energy binder? The glowy bright blue part between the handle & spiked ball?” “Oh yeah, ‘here’s to your perfect weapon’” said Andy.

“Getting all the fine details done, that was the worst of it in my opinion” said Arsenal, lying back down again. “Only cos she’s really ticklish, she couldn’t stay still while I was outlining it then filling that in” said Ash, wincing as Arsenal elbowed him.

“Ugh I feel like going outside, I’m gonna get bored stuck in here all the time” Arsenal grumbled. “Why dont we see if they’ll let you go outside for a bit? I imagine staying cooped up in here won’t be too fun” said Andy. “Thanks Batmandy” Arsenal grinned.

“Well while Andy does that, why don't we help you get dressed, even if you don't end up going outside?” I suggested. Arsenal grinned and nodded, “It’d be nice to get my hair washed, it’s all greasy and gross” “Let me guess, Ashley isn’t the only Purdy that makes a fuss about their hair?” said Juliet.

J5 groaned, “That’s why she takes ages getting ready to go places! And she wears BVB warpaint nearly everywhere she goes so that takes her a bit of time to do” Arsenal just poked her tongue at J5 and flipped him off as Juliet & Ella helped her up and I found her bathroom stuff in a bag nearby.

Once we had everything we needed in the bathroom and the door was shut we set about helping Ars.

“Hey guys, can we dye my hair?” “Sure what do you want to do?” “Get rid of the blue and replace it with pink and re-do the chrome” “Yeah we can do that” I said, finding some hair dye and the other stuff you use. Soon Arsenal’s hair had a bunch of foil strips where the dyes were doing their thing. We also took a bunch of selfies and uploaded them onto twitter & instagram.

Then we helped Arsenal into the shower and washed her hair out, her new hair looks awesome! “Wow Ars, your hair looks epic!” said Ella, who was rinsing it. “Thanks Ella” she replied, sighing contentedly.

Then we helped Ars out of the shower and dried her off as Jinxx knocked and said through the door that Arsenal was allowed to go outside in a wheelchair and she was to keep her IV with her. “Thanks Jinxx” I said, going back to where Ella & Juliet were drying her hair off.

“Hey Ars, Jinxx said that you’re allowed to go outside in a wheelchair, you just have to keep your IV with you” “Yahoo! And fair enough I guess” she said, digging in her bag for something to wear. She dug out a pair of ripped mid-thigh length black shorts and a Mötley Crüe tee along with a pair of hello kitty boxers & a crop top.

Then we carefully helped her get dressed again and we helped her out of the bathroom and back to her bed. “Nice hairdo Ars” said Ashley who’d gotten dressed again.
“Thanks Ash” Arsenal replied as Jake brought in a wheelchair for her to use while Arsenal packed some stuff in a bag to take outside. Then Ashley helped her sit in her wheelchair and Arsenal gasped in pain and clutched her ribs. “Ars, what’s wrong?”

“Ribs” she choked out, trying not to cry. Andy pressed the nurse call button and she gave Arsenal some morphine which kicked in pretty quickly. “Ow” Arsenal whimpered, breathing deeply and holding onto Andy’s hands as the pain in her chest faded, she sighed in relief when it was finally gone.

“Um Arsenal?” Jeremy asked, fear & nerves leaking into his voice as he cautiously looked at Arsenal. “What?” she asked, picking up on the fact that Jeremy was probably gonna ask something that she won't like.

“Jason just texted me” Arsenal’s face hardened, her fists clenched and her expression turned to one of hatred & malice. “And?” she growled, this can't be good, maybe this ‘Jason’ guy screwed her over. “He’s coming up to visit me; he doesn't know you're here” if looks could kill, Jeremy would be long gone by now with the entire room on fire.

“Get me out of here. NOW!” Arsenal yelled, shaking as tears started streaming from her eyes.

*revised 30-10-2014*

Notes