Chapter Text
Concussions were the worst. Drip had only been dealing with his for just over 72 hours, and he was already sick of feeling like his head was being pulled through molasses. The rest of the team were doing their best to make him feel better, but Drip knew that they all had jobs to do…and honestly, as much as the little skid steer loved his friends, even their breathing was currently too loud for his frayed nerves.
Eventually, the smokejumpers had been called out on a fire, leaving Drip to his own devices, which mainly involved quietly sitting in the dark trying not to think. The hours both dragged and rushed by as the little vehicle sulked. Occasionally, Maru would come and check on him to make sure that he was still breathing or Cabbie would bring him something to eat, which Drip would choke down because he couldn’t bare to make the old plane look sad, but most of the time he just sat and wished for something…anything to help him fill better.
Drip didn’t know when the idea of just letting himself sink into a pile of pillows first drifted through his head, but when it did the idea stuck and suddenly it was the only thing that the little vehicle could wrap his head around. He wanted…no he craved a giant pile of pillows and he knew that he would fill better if only he could get his scoop on them.
The challenge was, how was he going to secure these precious pillows when he couldn’t even drive in a straight line. The obvious answer was of course to head out into that blinding sunlight and see how many pillows that he could steal. And that is what Drip tried…and he made it less than 30 feet from the hangar door before Maru stopped him in his tracks.
“Stay put and give me a moment.” Mechanic sighed heavily after he had gotten the ground pounder back in bed and Drip finally convinced the mechanic that he wasn’t sleepwalking and actually did want a couple of boat loads of pillows.
So, Drip waited in the dark, for what felt like another eternity, but was probably less than an hour. When Maru finally arrived with Cabbie in tow the two vehicles were hauling more pillows that the smokejumper realized were located on the base.
Drip spent the next eternity of an afternoon building his ultimate pillow fort. It was a process that required a lot of trial and error and even more breaks, but it gave the little vehicle something to keep his mind off of the pain and brain fog. He was exhausted by the end, and was happy to roll into his dark, warm cocoon. And there he slept and let his brain heal, knowing that he was safe from the rest of the world.
Pillow – A cushion designed to support the body while it is at rest. While most commonly used for sleeping or sitting, pillows have also become a popular decorative item.