Work Text:
“Alright, It's- you’re okay- It’s all okay- stop moving! Give her some space!”
J felt like she was drowning. She could hardly breathe. No. No, nothing was okay, nothing was ever okay and nothing would ever be okay again. Everything hurt. All she could hear was yelling and screaming and there was entirely too much noise. The voice she recognised barely even reached her through the din. J stumbled back, clutching at her head. Too bright, too much movement, too many things happening all at once and she could see every last one. Every expression, every slight movement, every shiver and every breath taken- she could see it all and it hurt. She kept her eyes shut, but she could still see. It dimmed the pain but only barely.
J didn’t remember waking up. All she remembered was pain and light and noise, because that was all it had ever been and all it ever would be. Her mind felt like it was muffled, foggy- something was wrong but she couldn’t tell what. It was just beneath the surface of the fog, but she couldn’t quite grasp it. Something touched her. Warm, organic, flesh- blood blood blood so much of it coursing down flowing out of her chest- more noise. A roar. Did she make that sound? She flung her arm out, trying to push her assailant off of her. She hit harder than she meant to, shoving them back into the wall with enough strength to knock the air out of the human’s lungs. Humans? She opened her eyes, just for a moment. The room was so crowded. Humans all around her, shouting, screeching, running around. Someone called to her, but she could barely hear. She shut her eyes again.
Something latched onto her arm. J tried to shake it off, but this time, it didn’t budge. Her arm felt weak. She opened her eyes again. Some sort of restraint? Like chains. But it wasn’t chains, it wasn’t shackles- but it was the same thing, wasn’t it? Just in a different form. Thinner, a bit softer. Maybe some form of rope? No, no it wasn’t as fragile as that. Her body reacted instinctively. She yanked at it, but nothing moved. Someone she recognised shouted again. The same person? It didn’t matter. She was going to be restrained again. She was going to be held down and made helpless while someone hurt her and N and V and she couldn’t let it happen again. Another restraint looped around her other arm. This time, she recognised the click of magnets among the noises of the rest of the room. That was why she couldn’t break it. They fucking drugged her.
J bit at the cords, trying to snap them. She needed to free herself. She had to. She couldn’t let herself be vulnerable again, she couldn’t, she had to get it off- but nothing worked. Whatever it was, it was strong. Too strong. She thrashed in her restraints, howling in a broken up glitching voice. Her arms wouldn’t bend. Why weren’t they working the right way? It only bent at one joint, that wasn’t how she was supposed to work, it wasn’t right. Too much noise. Too many voices. Too much light. It was all too much. It hurt it hurt it HURT. She was yanked to the floor with a clunk, the restraints digging into her arms as they tightened. She gasped for air despite the fact she could breathe perfectly well. She felt like something was pressing down on her chest, something massive and heavy and monstrous. Tendrils wrapping around her chest, crushing her plating and ripping her wires, oil dripping down her chassis as she gave a broken, static-filled scream. No one came to help her. They were all gone, all laying unconscious around her…
J barely even registered someone shouting out her name as she snapped at the person who came too close to her. Some kind of worker in a uniform. She didn’t care to puzzle out where she was through the logo on their breast, only that she wanted OUT. Her fangs made contact with the human’s hand, drawing blood. She barely grazed her, but the taste remained in her mouth. It was everywhere, all over her dress… her dress? She wasn’t wearing a dress, she- but she had been when the blood was there. J’s breath came in short gasps, shallow pants that did nothing to relive the tightness in her chest. She growled at someone else who came near, warning them to stay back, showing her fangs. They looked up behind her. She only caught a flicker of motion before someone was on her from behind, looping something around her head. She thrashed with all her might, but the restraints tightened even further around her arms. Another short click and suddenly she felt even weaker than before. She felt the smothering heat of her own breath back against her mouth, and she focused her eyes enough to see some kind of device fastened around her maw. A muzzle. They had muzzled her. Like a rabid dog. From the feel of it, the muzzle had magnets in the back straps too. Her head felt fuzzy, her vision glitched into static. It didn’t help the pain. It added more. The hazy static flickering on her screen only made everything worse.
J let out a broken, guttural cry, wailing as loud as she could through the metal bars. Finally spent, she collapsed to the ground, ceasing her thrashing. She didn’t have the energy for it.
But with the loss of the ability to fight back, J only got back more pain in return. The magnets hurt her head. The restraints tightened once more, digging into her like knives. Her body ached all over. It was still too bright, still too loud, still too much. The person who had muzzled her called something out to someone on the other side of the room. The noise hurt her head. She could barely make out the words. She tried to get her own out, tried to beg, to plead for forgiveness for whatever she had done to deserve any of this, but the sound came out as static and buzzing. It hurt to hear, but she had to do something. She cried out wordless pleads for mercy that bled out into the overwhelming noise of the room with no reply. She wailed and howled, voice breaking over sobs that forced their way out of her throat. She was going to die. She was going to die and nobody was going to care.
When J saw the human above her holding a taser, she struggled again. She writhed around on the ground as best she could, wailing louder to be heard over the shouts and cries and chaos that was echoing around the room. She made out a few words. “Neutralize” being one, “Stun” being another. She sobbed again, the tears that had been beading up on her visor finally beginning to fall as she gave her final struggle. The taser switched on with a crackle and a buzz. J put all of her energy into one final thrash, howling as loud as she could possibly make herself. The human stumbled, but didn’t fall. Her voice box stuttered, and then cut out mid-cry, overloaded by the overwhelming pain and emotions and noise. She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself and waiting for the pain. It finally got quieter, just by a bit, as people began to quiet down to watch the end of the fight.
A lone shout in the crowd. J couldn’t make out the words. But, for a moment, she almost understood. “GET AWAY FROM HER!” Suddenly, the human with the taser hit the ground beside her as a new presence took their place. J opened her eyes just in time to see the taser fall out of their hands and clatter to the floor as the shouts started up again- this time all directed at one person. J tried to lift her arms to shield her audio receptors, but found once again that she was still very much stuck. The human who had taken her assailant’s place stepped off of her, and J screwed her eyes shut tight again as they knelt to face her, giving a staticky whimper to try and show defeat as she braced herself for a strike. No more pain came, though. Instead, they began to fumble with her restraints. They tightened again, and J let out a short growl, but quieted herself as she felt them shift their hand to give a gentle touch on her shoulder. They said something- something she couldn’t quite understand, but the words sounded familiar anyway. Their- her? Her voice was familiar too. She recognised it. It didn’t have a face or a name attached to it, not yet, but she remembered something. J picked out one word from the jumble of noises; “Jaybird.”
That name… it was a name, wasn’t it? Whatever it was, it meant something. Happiness, love, warmth- but most importantly, safety. She clung to it like her only lifeline. This person was safe. She didn’t know how she knew, but she could feel it as strongly as if it had been interwoven into her base code itself. She stopped struggling, letting the safe person try to get her restraints off. They pulled out a pocket knife, and hacked at the wire as best she could. J, in return, hissed and bared her fangs at an approaching worker to get them to back off.
Suddenly, her arm was free of the biting cords. She flailed to shake the cord off, and tried to prop herself up with one arm. The restraint on her other arm still kept her pinned, though. Before she could start clawing at it herself, everything got louder again, and J had to put her free hand over her receptors to stop the pain. Her human shouted something indistinct, something including an obscene insult J only just barely recognised. She started sawing at the other cord for her, letting J keep one hand over the side of her head. Someone approached her human, but she pulled the pocket knife back and waved it at them threateningly until they backed off, and went right back to cutting. J was starting to be able to recognise words again, finally. One of the other humans called hers “insane.” Another said she “must have a death wish.” Yet another said they’d “report her.” Her human didn’t bother to say a word back to any of them, focusing all her attention on J instead. She said nothing but endless reassurances towards the drone below her. She told J she was safe, that everything was gonna be okay, and that she was gonna get her out of these horrible things. J believed her wholeheartedly, even if she could only pick up the words in small chunks.
By the time J’s other arm was finally free, she was mostly able to recognise full sentences again. The moment the human let go of the cord, she clapped her hand over her other receptor. For the first time since she had woken up, the pain began to quiet down.
“You’re gonna be alright, you hear me jaybird?” the girl asked, cupping J’s face in her hands and lifting it up to look her in the eyes. She had the prettiest, forest green eyes J thought she had ever seen. She looked so kind. Recognition flickered in the back of her mind. She knew her. She had seen this face before. This was the most important person in her life, right? Yes, yes, that was right. She was safety. She was warmth, she was love, she was…
J’s awe didn’t last long. All of a sudden, someone had grabbed her by the arm and yanked her hand away from her head. A flood of noise assaulted her sensors as they shouted and the noise of everyone else became clear and distinct again, overwhelming any thoughts she might have had with a sudden bolt of unbearable pain. She howled again, rearing back, lashing out almost blindly like a cornered dog. Her human cried out, and J reopened her eyes just in time to see the girl put her full strength into ramming into the other and shoving them to the ground. The room went silent. Blissfully, wonderfully silent. J remained frozen for a second longer, before she began clawing at her muzzle with reckless abandon. Her human got up and rushed back over to her, and started undoing the muzzle.
“You- you’re insane!” cried the person J’s human had just body slammed into the floor. “I know for a fact that you were never given clearance to interfere like thi-”
“And you think I give a single fuck what clearance I have?” J’s human spat. “You were hurting her!” The muzzle fell with a small clack to the floor, and J felt as if she could finally think again. There were only two voices to keep track of now, and her head was clearing up now that she was free of the magnets. J’s human came closer, and slowly wrapped her arms around her. J flinched for a moment, rearing back in fear, before the coolness of her body began to properly soak into her overheating chassis, and she leaned into the touch. J slumped over the girl’s body, trying to take in as much of the cool relief of her comforting touch as she could. In response, her human whispered reassurances and pulled her in closer. J’s shaking didn’t stop, and she continued to pant and whimper in her arms.
“We were doing what was necessary to prevent any harm-”
“Oh, stop pretending you were being professional! All you were doing was making everything worse and you know it!”
J hid her face in her human’s shoulder and whined. The girl moved one hand up to rest on the back of her head and press it into the crook of her neck. “That’s it girl. You’re okay.”
J whimpered, and tried to make her voice box work well enough to parrot back the words. “I-I’m-” Her voice broke off into a sob. She dug her hands into the human’s shirt, balling it up in her fists. “T-tessa- I-”
“I know,” Tessa said. J hadn’t even known her name a few seconds ago. It just… came to her as she tried to choke something out. “I know, Jaybird. It’s okay. You’re okay. I’ve got you”
“She bit someone!”
“She was scared,” Tessa cried. “She was scared and confused, just like the others were! And please,” she scoffed, “she barely even nipped her.”
“She was aggressive- did you even hear her? Besides, we weren’t gonna hurt her, we were just going to-”
“To stick a taser in her? To shove her to the ground and freeze her circuits just so you could make her quiet down? She was less aggressive than V was when she woke up! Were you not paying attention? None of that was aggression! Those are distress sounds! We know this! It was documented! The only difference here is that V had a competent team watching over her, and poor J got stuck with a bunch of untrained assholes!” Tessa clutched J closer, as if to defend her from the humans surrounding them. “You know how you calm someone down? You treat them with some BASIC FUCKING DECENCY. And what did you do instead?”
Tessa waited as if she actually expected a response. When no one spoke up, she continued as if there had never been any break. “That’s right. You muzzled her. Like a dog. I don’t know how any one of you got into this room today but I have no doubts that your supervisor would love to hear about this.”
“You-” the human, who J just now recognised as the one with the taser from earlier, sputtered, face red with shame and anger. “You don’t even know who she is! Don’t go making threats you can’t-”
“Oh, I know her all right. Trust me,” Tessa spat, “Not one of you incompetent fuckwads are going to be wearing those stupid coats by tomorrow morning. I know what your instructions were, and I know for a fact that they included an explicit order to NOT use force unless completely necessary to prevent serious injury. J only bit that woman because she was being held to the ground and-” Tessa cut herself off with a laugh. “Ohh man, the amount of direct orders you ignored completely is enough that one look at the security cameras here could get every single person in this room demoted to scrubbing floors by sunrise! And that’s if you’re lucky enough to not get fired entirely!”
The room fell silent once again. Other than J’s muffled gasps and shaky, uneven breaths, not a sound went through the room. Tessa took a deep breath.
“Out. All of you. Go home.”
The team leader (or at least, who J could only assume was in some kind of leadership role here) broke their team’s silence by stepping forwards and clearing their throat. “You can’t-”
“Out.”
Tessa’s growl had enough force behind it that it only took a moment’s hesitation for the team to slowly start shuffling out of the room. The leader stayed behind a moment longer, looking as if they wanted to say something, before giving up, following their team out, and closing the door behind them. And then- silence. Complete silence this time.
Barely two seconds had passed before Tessa’s attention was back on J. She held her close and gently scratched her head, pressing herself as close to J as she could. “That’s it. You did so good. Such a brave girl…”
J didn’t hear the rest as she broke down into sobs under the gentle, reassuring presence. “I-I didn’t- I didn’t m-mean to-” She cut herself off with another choked sob.
“Mmhmm. It’s okay. You’re not in trouble. You’ve been through a lot, okay? Just… rest. I’ll take care of you.”
J’s head was still spinning, but at least she could breathe now. Everything still hurt, but at least the room was quiet. She was so tired… but…
“T-too much..” she stuttered out. God, she sounded pathetic.
“Hmm? What’s wrong girl?”
J tried to get words out, but ended up just whining and clutching at her head. Tessa’s eyes travelled up her body, paused for a moment, and then she seemed to understand.
“Here,” Tessa said, carefully pulling away to grab a blanket J hadn’t even noticed shoved into the corner. She pulled J back into her arms, and carefully put the blanket over her head. All of a sudden, it was dark. Wonderfully dark. She could still see- Tessa hadn’t covered her visor- but somehow she had fixed the problem without J even having to tell her what was wrong. “That better?”
“Mmhmm…” J mumbled, relaxing into Tessa’s gentle touch.
“Try to sleep. You need the rest.”
“...Wh-what if they come b-back?” J sniffled.
Tessa huffed quietly. “Then I’ll kick that pig-headed idiot’s ass! If they wanna get to you, they’re gonna have to drag me out kickin’ and screaming.”
It was a crude threat, sure, but… somehow, it did make J feel safer. She let a low rumbling purr slip out as she closed her eyes. It was okay. She was safe. Tessa was here, and that meant everything was gonna be okay.