He Sacrificed Everything For These Jerks!

by ArcSilverfishTheBugWriter

Summary:

Jon has sacrificed so much for his friends and the entire world over the past several years. But do they focus on that? No. They shame him for needing to eat statements and blame him for almost bringing about the apocalypse and being a potential cause of it going forward as Elias continues his evil plans. An apocalypse that he stopped by causing great medical trauma to himself. And Jon, now in pain and struggling through various therapies, has had it.

Chapter 1: There’s Every Likelihood That You’ll Only Hurt Yourself

Summary:

Jon starts reading the Eye-Pocalypse statement and desperately does all he can to stop.

Eventually he succeeds through causing himself great medical trauma.

Jon smiled fondly at Martin as he left to go get them some groceries and then turned to his statement. “Statement of Hazel Rutter regarding a fire in her childhood home…
Hello Jon…” wait this wasn't right, what?
"I wouldn't try very hard to stop reading, there's every likelihood that you'll only hurt yourself.” What? No, no no this…this was… stop reading, Stop Reading, Jonathan Sims, pull yourself together and STOP READING THE STATEMENT!

Jon spent the next several minutes reading a progressively more concerning statement that would clearly bring about the apocalypse. But he could not stop. He tried, he desperately tried, but kept going. No, no no…. He had to stop! STOP! He begged himself to stop but the words kept tumbling out. He started to sob as he spoke the words but even through his tears the words kept coming, still having their intended impact. Oh G, Oh G, he needed to stop, please, anything!

He tried biting his tongue. His teeth wouldn’t let him. He tried ripping the statement. His hands wouldn’t let him. He tried closing his eyes but they appeared forced open. And yet he wasn’t losing his sight even as he’d at this point remained unblinking for several minutes as his tears kept his eyes necessarily moist for reading the dreaded statement. He tried hurling himself off the couch, hoping to incapacitate himself or at least pause the statement to give himself a fighting chance to get away. His legs wouldn’t let him.

And soon he was at the end. “... Come to us.” On no, oh no, he had to stop this! He didn’t CARE if he hurt himself, that was a price he was willing to pay. He forced himself to try to stop, harder than ever before. “I… Open… The…” Jon made an extreme straining sound mixed with a choked agonized sob, “NOOOOOO!" And collapsed to the floor face-first with a thud.

Martin started off home when it started storming. The meteorologists hadn't seen this storm coming and he was rather frustrated as he hurried home on foot in the pouring rain. When he finally reached the door, he unlocked it with a faint chuckle - Jon was definitely going to tease him for coming home soaked after not even thinking to bring an umbrella or a raincoat, then take him off to the bathroom for a hot shower and greet him afterwards with soft blankets, pajamas, and snuggles. And he could not wait.

He stepped into the house and was somewhat surprised not to see Jon sitting on the couch where he'd left him. Oh well, maybe he was in the bathroom. He called out. “Jon?" But there was no reply. His gaze then fell to the floor in front of the couch and he could just barely see a pair of socked feet sticking out from behind the coffee table. “Jon?!?!” He received no reply and when he hurriedly made his way over he saw that it was, in fact, Jon, lying facedown and motionless on the floor. Martin flipped him over in a panic to see if he was breathing and it immediately became horribly obvious that the man had suffered a stroke.

Martin panicked. He needed to call an ambulance but they had no signal here. So he hurried out into the storm and ran down the hill to the phone booth. There was already a person inside, sheltering from the rain presumably, and he gestured for Martin to move on and find himself another shelter. Martin banged on the wall, sobbing hysterically, and the man thought he should probably see if something was actually the matter. He opened the door.

“Hey, there isn’t really room for the both of us in here -”

Martin sobbed, gasping, “I need to call an ambulance, my boyfriend… he’s had a stroke!”

The man gasped in shocked horror and quickly stepped out of the phone booth and into the rain while Martin frantically dialed. “Hello, yes, I need an ambulance. My boyfriend had a stroke - yes, we live up the hill from this phone booth… you can’t… what can we DO then?!?! He needs medical attention! Okay, um… yes, I can do that. Thank you.” Martin broke down sobbing and hurried out of the phone booth. “They said they’re going to meet us here, they can’t make their way up the hill in the storm.”

“Will you need help getting him?”

Martin sobbed. “I should be able to get him but thank you.” Then he ran up the hill.

Jon was lying where he had been previously, but was now moaning slightly. His eyes were unfocused but opened when Martin entered the room.

“Jon!” Martin sobbed. “It’s going to be okay, I’m getting you help.”

Jon wasn’t really with it at the moment and only barely registered that Martin was there. His head was pounding and that took almost all of his concentration. Martin lifted him carefully into his arms and grabbed a raincoat on the way out, draping it over his head and shoulders in a canopy to keep the water from going onto Jon’s face.

When he returned to the phone booth, the man quickly opened it and got back out so he could bring Jon inside. Fortunately the ambulance arrived shortly after and loaded Jon up while Martin climbed in beside him.

Chapter 2: Waking Up

Summary:

Jon wakes up in the hospital and explains what happened to Martin. While the apocalypse was averted, the fact that the Fears got so close started strange and bad weather patterns for 2000 km in every direction from the epicenter and places are flooding. They eventually have to evacuate the safehouse and go back to where they started near the Magnus Institute.

Jon isn't doing well and is currently unable to walk and barely able to move much at all without exhausting himself.

Jon woke up to find Martin passed out beside him, curled up uncomfortably in a hospital chair. That was going to hurt when he woke up. “M-Martin?”

Martin sat up with a start. “Jon? You’re awake?!?” He rushed to his side and Jon noted the deep shadows under his eyes that hadn’t been there when he’d gone out to the store.

“Where… where are we?”

“You’re in the hospital, Jon. You had a hemorrhagic stroke and you just got out of the ICU earlier today.”

Jon was confused. “... Today? What day is it?”

“We’ve been here for four days.”

Four days. Wow. He’d been… “And the world, it’s still… it’s still there?”

Martin looked at Jon and raised a tired eyebrow. “Jon, what do you mean?”

Jon tried again. “There’s still, um, a world right? It’s not been overrun by Fears?”

Martin let out a slight nervous chuckle. “No, Jon, not unless you count the fear I’ve been going through worrying about you. Are you… are you hallucinating or something?” He scrutinized his face carefully “Should I call a nurse?”

Jon realized that this probably hadn’t been the best way to start a conversation after just waking up from a stroke. “No, no… did you happen to see the statement I’d been reading?”

Martin facepalmed. “Oh, are you hungry? I’m so sorry, I forgot to grab any, I can go get one -”

Jon gently cut him off. “I am but that’s not what I meant - the statement, the one I was reading… it caused this. Magnus planted it and it was supposed to bring about the apocalypse by bringing all the Fears into our world.”

“Wait, what?” Martin stared at Jon in shocked horror.

“When you go to get me some statements to eat, grab the statement I was reading as well and see for yourself.”

…

Martin choked back sobs as he flipped through the pages of Elias’ statement. “OH G, OH G, this almost… ended the world.”

“I know.” Jon was exhausted. “I’m… I’m not even sure how I managed to stop it. But I somehow did.” He let out a wry chuckle, “and he wasn’t lying - I did end up hurting myself when I eventually managed to stop reading.”

Martin turned to him with tears in his eyes and gently kissed his forehead. “Jon, I am so sorry, I should have been with you. I shouldn’t have left you all alone!”

Jon spoke gently, “Martin, there’s no way you could have known. Even I didn’t know and I’m supposed to Know things. No… Jonah Magnus was too clever for us both.”

Martin sniffled and climbed up next to him on the bed and enveloped Jon in a hug. “I’m never leaving you alone to read statements again. Oh G, I feel so bad-”

Jon sniffled. “Oh, Martin. It’s really not your fault -”

Martin broke down into sobs. “I could have looked through those statements - I brought them home to you and I didn’t even check. I gave you poisoned food.”

Jon stifled a sob, “Martin, everything’s okay now. The apocalypse didn’t happen, we’re both alive -”

Martin continued sobbing. “Jon, you’re not okay though.”

Jon sniffled. “I’m… I’m alive and fully aware of my surroundings and able to communicate which, from what I Know about this sort of medical situation, is already doing pretty well. And look - I can still snuggle.” He wrapped his arms around Martin and buried his face in his chest.

Martin let out a sniffle and kissed the top of Jon’s head. “Yes, at least there’s that.”

Jon mumbled into Martin’s chest, “can we lie down and you snuggle me?”

“Of course.”

…

Within a week they were back at the Safehouse. First thing, Martin moved the bed downstairs to the living room and moved the couch upstairs. They didn’t really need a couch after all if they had the bed to sit on, he reasoned, and he could always re-organize again if Jon ever got to the point where he could go up stairs. For now however they were confined to just the living room, kitchen, and a bathroom. It worked well enough for basic survival but he reckoned they might want to move to a larger single story place at some point. Jon wasn’t moving around much though yet so it wasn’t all that urgent - it took a lot out of him just to get to and from the bathroom and Martin had to help him with anything else. He was in physical therapy but that could only accomplish so much within such a short amount of time.

For how bad the stroke had been, the doctors were absolutely amazed at his progress - apparently he should have died.

“But that’s Avatars for you,” Jon had chuckled after the doctor left the room. “We don’t die easily, do we?” Martin had smiled weakly in response - he really didn’t like thinking about that. How easily Jon could have just… stopped existing. While Martin was out at the grocery store no less, his heart full of expectation to see him again. He could have come home to an empty house. Every time he thought about it it made him tear up and he had to resist the urge to just bury himself in Jon’s arms, just to reassure himself that yes, his heart was beating, yes, he was still warm, yes, he was still there. But Jon was still very weak so he knew doing so would likely hurt him. Instead he settled for scooping him up in his arms and gently nuzzling his hair. Jon made the most endearing sounds when he did that.

And they were rather snug in their refuge. The only real concern is that the storm that had started the day Jon had almost brought the apocalypse had yet to end and a lot of areas were starting to flood. He might have stopped the apocalypse but the Fears coming so close had messed with the weather patterns for about 2000 km in every direction, the worst of it at the epicenter but it was still bad across all of the UK and anywhere else within the same distance. Jon wasn’t sure how long this would last and only expressed hope that it would eventually end once the fears were done going back to where they had come from. Martin felt bad for him - he dealt with a lot of guilt over this so he kept him from seeing the news as it kept updating the total devastation.

Unfortunately, after a couple weeks the flooding got too severe and they had to evacuate. Things were somewhat better in the UK near the Magnus Institute and there was a mass flow of people leaving the area so there were plenty of newly available first floor apartments. Martin got Georgie to help him move his and Jon’s items from their individual apartments and into the new shared first-floor one.

“Hi Jon. How are you feeling? I haven’t seen you in a while.” Georgie was nicer than she had been in a while now that she viewed him as more of a friend in need than a terrifying eldritch monster.

Jon gave a weak half-smile, half-grimace. “Well, as good as can be expected I suppose.”

Georgie let out a bitter chuckle. “Fair enough… wait, it just occurred to me. Did you at least have your stroke before the weather turned or did you have to worry about that the whole time too?”

Jon and Martin shared an uncomfortable look. They had purposefully not told anyone about Jon’s connection to the recent weather patterns since they knew he’d only receive hate for his part in it.

“Um… they started the same day.”

“Ugh, that’s such an unfortunate coincidence!”

Jon awkwardly stared at his feet. Then he couldn’t take it anymore, the guilt, the secrecy. “I… I actually started it.”

…

After he explained everything, Georgie ended up storming out of the house and slamming the door, leaving Jon sitting there with tears streaming down his face and Martin standing there at a complete and utter loss for words. He had warned Jon not to say anything but he also knew that the man could not sit with guilt so this wasn’t exactly a surprise. He only wished he’d had Georgie help with the place while Jon was… where? Where else could he go? It’s not like people were really going anywhere these days, what with all the flooding. The UK storm sewers were so far managing to keep up - barely - but it was to the point that people didn’t really go out for pleasure anymore on the chance that they might not be able to get back home after. Essential travel only then right back home to hunker in place and pray to whatever powers they might have believed in. Jon might have stopped the apocalypse but there was still terror aplenty.

And now the others knew.

Chapter 3: Confrontation

Summary:

Georgie and Melanie go to harass Jon for causing all these weather problems and still having the audacity to be alive when Elias can use him.
Unfortunately Jon is still currently his weak and guilty feeling self. Poor thing.

Martin knew their peaceful morning was over when the banging on the front door started. He got up with a groan and walked to the window, peering out. Sure enough it was Melanie and Georgie. And Melanie looked ready to kill. He glanced over at Jon who was dozing rather peacefully. Martin had to admit he’d rather increased his tolerance for sleeping through sounds with his own incredibly loud snoring though he assumed the constant Eye knowledge had something to do with that as well. As he watched, Jon gave a little twitch and snore, followed up by snuggling Martin’s pillow. There was no longer a Martin in the bed so apparently the unconscious Jon had to satisfy his snuggle needs in the next-closest way. It was adorable.

Then Melanie banged on the door again and Jon sat up with a start. “Wha-?” He looked over to Martin, confused and scared.

Martin was resigned. “It’s Melanie and Georgie.”

“Ah… and I’m assuming it’s not for housewarming?”

“Seeing as Melanie’s wearing a glare that honestly scares me… I’m going to assume not.”

Jon let out a sigh. “Well… are you going to let them in?”

Martin raised an eyebrow. “Should I?”

Jon let out a snort of laughter. “No, we should just leave them there, furious with me, on our doorstep in the pouring rain that made them furious with me in the first place. It will definitely help their moods and for sure won’t result in Melanie just breaking a window to get to us.”

Martin spluttered. “She wouldn’t!”

“Oh, she most definitely would.”

Martin sighed and opened the door. In barged an irate Melanie and Georgie.

“JON! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!?! WHERE ARE YOU?!?” Upon hearing Jon’s frightened squeak, Melanie marched up to the bed and got right in Jon’s face. He tried leaning back and fell backwards onto the bed, frantically flailing his arms out. She called out to Georgie, “Did he just fall over?”

“Yes-”

Melanie scoffed in disgust at Jon. “Oh, don’t you dare act so innocent! Like you didn’t cause this!”

Jon stared up at her with a mix of fear and shame. “I’m really sorry, Melanie, I didn’t mean -”

Melanie cut him off angrily. “You NEVER mean to, Jonathan Sims, and yet you always seem to do these things anyway, don’t you?”

Jon felt a tear roll down his face. Or had she been yelling so hard that she had spit on him? He honestly couldn’t even be sure and didn’t really want to ask the Eye. Mostly because he didn’t think he’d been crying.

Martin advanced on Melanie. “You leave him alone!” Melanie rounded on him in fury. “You didn’t even TELL US that Jon had caused this. You just kept it secret! I thought you were supposed to be on our side in this, not on that… that MONSTER’S!”

Now Jon really did begin to cry. Martin was not okay with this. “He stopped the literal apocalypse by sacrificing himself! That’s why he had the stroke - he was trying to save everyone!”

Melanie gave a humorless laugh. “Doesn’t seem sacrificed to me. Seems Pretty Darn Alive.”

Jon sat up with effort. “Melanie -”

“Don’t you DARE talk to me!”

Jon sniffled and looked at his lap.

Georgie looked uncomfortable, “Melanie, he did end up pretty injured -”

“I don’t CARE! He’s ALIVE! He’s STILL ALIVE and YOU KNOW WHAT HE’S DONE TO THE WEATHER!” She swung out a fist in Jon’s general direction. In the past he could have easily dodged it but he didn’t currently have the physical ability. He fell backwards against the bed for the second time in a five minute period, whimpering softly and clutching at his shoulder.

“Melanie! Stop!” Georgie sounded frantic. “We did not come here to assault him!”

Martin let out a warning growl and got between Melanie and Jon. “Don’t make me hurt you, Melanie,” he snarled.

Melanie laughed bitterly. “Like you even could!”

Georgie saw this was getting out of hand and gently pulled Melanie away. “We’ll… we’ll come back later. Bye.” And they were out the door. Martin slammed it shut.

“Jon, are you okay?”

Jon just sniffled.