Chapter Text
When Cherri Cola wakes up again, he’s in a room he doesn’t recognize. The walls are whitewashed and plain, and his first thought is that he was captured on the mission to Battery City. Why they didn’t simply slap a drac mask on him is anyone’s guess, but the more pressing question is if the fabulous four made it safely out with the Girl.
Which he has no way of finding out. Great.
After a moment, he notices that the bed he’s lying in creaks, and the paint of the walls is far too chipped to be Battery City. Not to mention the thin layer of dust and sand coating everything, which confirms that this must be the desert. He struggles to sit up, sending shoots of pain through what feels like a hundred small cuts and bruises. Abruptly, he remembers what happened; Poison getting shot, Jet running with Motorbaby, smashing through that glass wall with Ghoul, Dr. Death Defying coming to save them in the van, all of it comes rushing back.
Cherri pushes himself further up, since knowing what happened at the bli building still doesn’t answer the question of exactly where he is, and carefully swings his legs over the side of the bed. His jacket, mask, and ray gun are gone, making him feel strangely vulnerable, but that’s not going to stop him.
What does ultimately stop him is the fact that he gets to his feet and immediately almost passes out. His head is spinning badly enough that he has to sit right back down, making the bedsprings creak even more as he tries to catch his breath. He must have gotten hurt worse than he thought, given his inability to even stand.
After a few moments, footsteps sound in the hall and then a tall, dower-faced person wearing the symbol of a medic walks in. They look Cherri Cola up and down, pursing their lips. “You’re awake already.”
“How long has it been?”
“Only a few hours. Did you try t’ get up?”
“I have to find my friends,” Cherri defends himself.
“Your friends are safe. You’re in the hospital in Zone 2,” They add. “Your friend, DJ Dr. Death Defying, brought you an’ another kid in.”
Cherri blinks, mildly baffled at being grouped in with Fun Ghoul as a ‘kid’. “I’m twenty-eight.”
“Sorry, you an’ a teenager in.”
“Is xe okay? And what about the other members of the fab four?”
“Xe will be fine, xe’s no worse off than you were. Xyr crewmates are all fine as well, although the redhead was in critical condition for a while.” They peel off the bandages on his arm and start examining a long cut he doesn’t remember getting, which is now neatly stitched. “Your friends said your name is Cherri Cola?”
He nods and regrets the movement as his head aches. “That’s me.”
The medic nods in return. “I’m Senior Medic Dowdy, pleased t’ meet you.” Their voice is professional, but they have the rough accent of someone who either grew up in the Zones or has lived here a long while.
Cherri manages to sit quietly as they check on varying slashes, which he assumes are from throwing himself through a glass door. That really was not his smartest idea.
Finally, they’re finished, and he dares open his mouth again. “Can I see my friends?”
“Only the ones who can walk on their own, ‘m not having you up and walking just yet. You lost a lot of blood.” Their voice softens slightly. “I’ll go get them, you stay right here.”
Ten minutes later, Jet Star enters and immediately goes to throw their arms around Cherri. He winces as his varying injuries scream out, but he doesn’t even think about pushing them away. While Jet Star is by far the most open of the Fabulous Four about expressing affection verbally, they’re restrained with physical affection. They’ll return hugs, but rarely initiate them, unless they think one of their crewmates needs one. And they never hug like this, raw and scared with no warning. So even though they’re taller than him by not an insignificant amount, Cherri holds them gently and lets them fall apart for a moment as they cling to him.
“Thank you,” Jet mumbles. “Thank you for coming with us. Thank you for saving Poison. Thank you for getting hurt to save Ghoul. Thank you.”
“Of course. You’re my friends. I’m always going to try to help,” he promises, and that’s a promise he can keep.
They let out a small sniffle. “Love you, Cola.”
“Love you too, Jet.”
It ends up being another day before Poison even wakes up, and another couple after that before Cherri is healed enough to go see them. During those days, he sees the Girl, who gives him sweet, little-kid hugs and whispers “thank you, Cola”, and Newsie, who gives him a ridiculous amount of shit for almost dying but grins fondly and says “I knew you’d make it, you lucky fucker.” Show Pony somehow manages to smuggle a cherry-flavored lollipop into the hospital for him (where ey got it is anyone’s guess), and gives him almost as much shit as Newsie for almost dying. Cherri just smiles, knowing that it’s eir way of saying that ey cares.
Dr. Death Defying also comes to visit, and the first words out of his mouth as he wheels in the door are “Never do that again. You could have died!”
Cherri almost laughs at how on-brand it is for D that the first thing he does after they’re reunited is scold Cherri for nearly dying. “I love you too, you worrier.”
D sighs. “I love you, even if you gave everyone a fright.”
“I did promise I would come back.”
“I didn’t believe you.”
Cherri knows. It wasn’t a promise he was sure he could keep either, but he’s certainly glad he did.
Although everyone else is able to visit, he doesn’t get to see Fun Ghoul, Party Poison, or Kobra Kid until he can walk on his own. While Kobra is mainly uninjured, he refuses to leave Poison’s side, and Cherri understands that.
The day Cherri finally goes to visit Party Poison is also the first time he sees Ghoul since the two of them were buying the rest time to run.
Actually, xe almost runs into him outside of Poison’s hospital room. “Oh! Cola!”
“Hey, Ghoul,” Cherri offers with a smile.
Xe fiddles with xyr hands. “Thanks for. Y’know. Savin’ me and all.”
“You did just as much,” he gently reminds xem.
“Yeah, but you didn’t have t’ throw yourself through a glass door an’ use your body to shield me from the glass.”
There’s no way he can possibly express, not with any words in his vocabulary, how impossible it would have been to stand by and not do something to help xem. Instead, he just gives Ghoul another small smile and hopes that his true meaning comes across. “I was only doing my best to help.”
Ghoul shakes xyr head. “Dr. D would say you don’t give yourself enough credit.”
“D is very kind, but really I was just doing what I could.”
He swears xe rolls xyr eyes at him as he opens the door and finally gets to see the last two members of the Fabulous Four. Poison looks much smaller and much younger than normal, sprawled out on the bed, but their playful grin is firmly set on their face, and most importantly, they’re alive. The rest of the crew is already arrayed around them; Jet Star is standing next to them, Kobra Kid sits on the bed by their other side, and Motorbaby is snuggled up next to them. Dr. Death Defying is sitting next to Jet, and Newsie grins from the corner, where she’s sitting with Pony.
“Cola! Up and walking, I see.”
“Slowly, but yes.”
“So I shouldn’t tackle-hug you.”
“Not unless you want to tear some of these stitches, no.”
She laughs and comes to give him a gentle hug. “I think the venom siblings have something to say to you. Right, Poison, Kobra?”
Kobra huffs a sigh. “Sorry we were assholes to you when you offered to help.”
“Yeah, we were scared for Motorbaby, but you didn’t deserve t’ be treated like a stranger,” Poison contributes.
It’s rare to hear either of them apologize for anything, so he has a feeling that there was some convincing from Newsie and D involved, but it’s an apology nonetheless. “It’s okay. You were scared and separated from someone you love, and I’m not exactly known for being a fighter.”
“’M really glad you were there,” Poison mumbles. “Kobes says you kicked Korse’s ass.”
“Swear jar!” Jet reminds as Cherri winces.
“I don’t know about that, but I did my best.”
“That’s good enough for us,” Ghoul puts in.
Cherri isn’t supposed to stand for too long, so they let him sit on the other side of the bed from Kobra, and Ghoul perches on the foot of the bed alongside Pony as Dr. Death Defying wheels close enough for Cherri Cola to lean a little on him, and NewsAGoGo and Jet Star do their utmost to gather all seven of the rest into a hug. And even though it all still hurts a bit, and even though there’s a long fight ahead of them, for those few minutes, surrounded by the people who have become his family, it feels like everything is going to be okay.