Work Text:
Damn.
Fuck.
God dammit.
For about ten minutes now, Jeremy had just. Starred. At the phone before him. Why was this so difficult? Hadn't he done much harder things in his short time with B.L.U? And yet, here he was, starring at the only phone they had in this whole fucking base.
He knew this had to be done. He knew he could not go and continue day to day without informing his ma about this. With more of a shaky hand than he had expected, the scout reached out, pressed the metal horn between his left shoulder and ear, and dialed in his mother's phone number with his remaining right hand.
It seemed like actual months ago, that he had lost his left arm. A freak accident, really. A one-in-a-million encounter with a monster, outside of town. How should he have known the dangers that were out there? Definetly not something as weird and wacky as an actual zombie with a katana. Well, the scout had learned his lesson: he was never going back there.
No one picked up for so long, Jeremy was nearly convinced that his ma wasn't there. Which would be insane. They promised each other to call each week, at this time. His ma.. he remembered before he was send out here. How scared she was, that her youngest, disabled son would be send out there, all alone, in this rotten desert. And he had assured her so often that he would be fine.
Seemed like her fear had been well placed.
Finally, someone on the other side took the phone.
"Hello? The O'Neill family here." The voice on the other side was chipper, a little shrill, and immediately made Jeremy homesick.
"Hey ma." He started. "It's me."
"Jeremy!" Darlene O'Neill, mother of eight, shrieked out in delight when she heard her son from the other side of the phone. He could hear the awful scratch of wood on tiles. Seemed like she had moved the phone back to the kitchen again.. "Oh honey, I have missed you so, so much! How has my little fighter been?"
This really had to happen, huh?
"Uhm.. I've been.. alright-"
"That's great! Thats really good." She interrupted him. "Hey Jeremy. I believe something has gone wrong with the mail recently. You wouldn't believe what just happened!"
"What happened, ma?" The scout asked, crouching down on his mechanical legs, so he could lean against the wall. This could take a long, long time.
"I received a notice from the bank yesterday! At first I thought, oh they must have send me some sort of compensation for your traveling bills down to New Mexico, which I still need to receive!-" Afraid that his mom was actually going to go on a rampage over that friggin' fifty dollar plane ticket, he sighed. If he had another hand, he would've pinched his nose.
"Ah, but anyway. When I opened it up, you could imagine my surprise, when I instead received a gift of five teen thousand dollars!"
Jeremy's stomach dropped. He knew exactly where the money came from. "Really now..?"
"Yes! I contacted the bank, but they keep insisting that it had been no mistake. The money had been send by one mister Beau C. And get this! Today, I received a letter in the mail by mister C., which included the ownership papers of a brand new Chevrolet!" Her high pitched giggle made Jeremy want nothing more than to throw himself into her arms, but at the same time hanging up the phone, just to avoid this whole situation.
"Ma.."
"I have no clue what I have done to receive such gifts but-"
"Mam."
"Oh Jeremy, what if it is a secret admirer? I do say, he is coming on a bit strong, but-"
Oh for God sake. "Mam!"
Finally, she stopped her chatter. "What is it, Jer?"
Now is the time, Jeremy. Be a man, and confessed what happened. "I need to tell you something."
Nothing created more fear and unsettlement than the scout hearing his own mother say, in such a scared and nervous voice; "What do you need to tell me?"
"I-.." Come on man! "I have been in an accident."
"An.. an accident?"
He might as well have choked on his words, when he spoke; "I got attacked, ma. N-Not durin' the battle! Aftah wards, when I was in town. I got attacked by this crazy guy, wearin' a black mask and shit, a-an he had a sword, an' he yelled at me and he went aftah me, so I had tha' run away from him and-" it felt almost as if he wasnt getting enough air, his heart battering against his ribcage.
"Oh no, hun that's horrible, are you okay?"
"I.." Jeremy pressed the stump of his left arm close against his body, sliding down to sit on the floor, pulling the phone cable taught. "M' not. I am not okay. Ma, I got hurt so bad, I had tha' get my arm amputated."
The scout had expected silence. The question 'are you kidding me?', maybe a 'is that really true?'
What he had not expected, was the immediate, hysterical crying coming from his own mother. As Darlene was sobbing, and screaming, and crying
"Tell me it's not true! Jeremy O'Neill tell me its NOT TRUE!! You can't! You cant have lost your arm! Please!!" All he could do was listen, taking all effort not to start bawling himself.
"You cannot-- I cant- you-" The words she spoke were barely understandable, and he knew it would take some time for her to actually start speaking normally again. All he could do, was try and console her. "M-Ma, its alright! I'm okay! I lived, and that fucker is dead. They are gonna give me a new arm here- they have given me new legs already, too!"
Her crying was lessening to whimpering, which was a good sign.
"J-Jeremy.. come home."
He felt his heart freeze up.
"You can't-- I cannot l-let you stay there, in that hell, to.." the woman could not even finish her sentence before she started crying again.
And Jeremy knew why she started to cry again.
"Ma, you know I can't do that. " His voice was barely louder than a mutter now, not wanting to hurt his mother's feelings any more. "M' on a contract, remebah? I have to stay here until October." That, and he knew that he was an important source of income for his poor mama. If he'd leave again, they'd be back to square one.
For the next couple of minutes, it was just his mother crying, albeit a lot more controlled, whilst Jeremy was trying to sooth her worries, telling her that he was alright, it wasn't that bad, he was doing fine now.
"H-How does the wound look?" His mother hiccuped through the phone. It was clear she was trying to seem strong again, for her little boy.
Jeremy glanced down af his stump. Different from normal amputations, which could take months to heal, his upper arm already had a perfectly fine rounded stump on it, with little to no scar. But how was he going to explain to her that a mad doctor with a magical gun fixed up his bleeding wound, but could not safe his arm?
"Its.. fine. Dont really feel much, with pain killers n' stuff."
"Good.. that's good." The B.L.U mercenary heard the rustling of papers on the other side of the phone. "S-So.. the money and the car.. was that.."
"That's from a friend." Jeremy said. Somewhere deep inside, he scowled, knowing he had to call that red spy a friend, but it would make all this easier. "He.. wanted to help, so I told him to send ya some money."
"Oh sweetheart." She chirped, then blew her nose. Ew.. "Even when you are in such a bad situation, you still think of your mama." And for the first time since the call started, Jeremy smiled.
"Yeah.. Can't leave my ma hangin' without giving her a hand."
The way his mother blew up over the phone, shouting at him how 'inappropriate that joke was' and she 'would not allow such things to be said by a son of his', was enough to make him burst out in laughter, until both of them finally calmed down.
A quiet ping could be heard through the horn. He had nearly reached his max half hour of call time for this week.
"Ma, I hav' ta hang up soon."
"Oh no, is it time already? I love you, Jeremy. Please, please be careful, okay? Dont be reckless, take your time to heal, and come visit soon, alright?"
"I love you too, ma. I'll try ta visit soon. Bye bye"
"Bye honey."
The tone of a dead line that followed their goodbyes, made Jeremy's stomach clench. But, his heart was full. He had been able to tell his mother what happened, and she seemed to have been able to accept it.. for now.
With a grunt, the scout got off the floor, and put the phone back on the hook.
Time to see if the engineer was at the base. Maybe he could do some tinkering with his arm.