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Spider sat patiently while Norm and Max poked and prodded him. Well, mostly patiently. He fidgeted and squirmed as the men ran their hands all over his body, took vitals, jotted down notes. He shivered as cold metal touched bare skin. He flinched as needles punctured flesh. Murmured reassurances and apologies did little to ease his discomfort.
It was hard not to get flashbacks to the RDA as his friends, these men he had grown up with, drew blood and ran scans and kept him closed up within white walls and plastic. The smell of antiseptic had nearly sent him into a full blown panic when he'd first gotten here.
But he tried not to let any of that show. Tried not to let on that he was freaking out, just a little bit.
They didn’t need to know what had been done to him all those weeks ago, in a different lab with bright lights and harsh instruments and metal machines.
Spider sat on the exam table now, paper crinkling beneath him, swinging his legs as Norm admonished him to try and be still, be patient, just a few more tests. He sighed, looking around the room aimlessly and spotted Jake standing outside, watching through the glass. Spider raised a hand to wave. The IV tugged against his skin and he winced in discomfort. Jake stared at him for a moment, expression unreadable then turned away, eyes cast downward.
Spider felt uneasy, though he couldn't pinpoint why. Jake had been acting weird, ever since he'd found them in the forest. Ever since he'd spotted Spider, face exposed, lungs breathing the toxic air of their home.
Spider had thought Jake would be relieved, excited even. His mask had been such a weight on all of them, such a cause of worry and stress. This solved all that, didn’t it? This meant he could stay with the Sully's now, without being a burden, a nuisance. He was just like them now.
Wasn't he?
But now Jake wouldn't meet his eye. And he and Norm kept going off in the corner and whispering. Were they whispering about him? Spider's skin prickled with an uneasiness he couldn't nail down. Sure, what was happening to him was crazy. And they did need to understand it. But why did Jake seem so...unhappy? Almost angry?
Spider glanced once more out the window at Jake to see the avatar staring back at him once more, a frown on his face, his brow furrowed in thought. Spider gulped and looked away hurriedly. He didn't like the way Jake stared at him like a problem to be solved. This WAS the solution. Why didn’t he seem to see that?
He sucked in a sharp breath as Max slid another needle into his arm, bringing his attention back to the med bay.
He was going to try not to worry about it. Jake would adjust. Everyone would adjust. They'd see how great this was, how this fixed all the problems he'd been creating for them his whole life. Maybe they'd finally accept him now.
This was a good thing. He just needed to make them see it. And if that meant getting poked and stabbed and scanned, then that was what he'd let them do.
Everything would be fine. It would be great.