Whumph!

After what felt like an eternity of tumbling about in the endless void, Jedidiah landed on something soft enough to break his fall but hard enough to knock the wind out of him. For a second he just lay there, trying to keep his breath even so that he wouldn't throw up. He must have flown out of one of the vents, because whatever he was on did not feel like lint, and he could sense the wide expanse of a Gigantor-sized room around him. Finally, he pulled himself into a sitting position, instantly hating the unbalanced feeling he got.

"Octavius?" He called out hesitantly. He hoped that Roman had come out of the same vent, or one close enough to hear him. "Octy? You there?"

"Jed?" That wasn't Octavius' voice, but it was better than nothing. Jed had never thought that he would be relieved to hear Larry Daley's voice speaking to him.

"Gigantor? That you?" Jed raised his head without thinking and his eyelids opened. He heard a sharp intake of air, and quickly shut them again. He didn't know what his eyes looked like now, but this was the second time in as many instances that he had gotten a shocked reaction from the person looking at them, so they must have looked hideous.

"Jed?" Larry sounded tentative, as though the slightest force in his words would shatter the cowboy. "What happened to your eyes?"

"It's a long story." Jed replied, going forward onto all fours so that he didn't feel like he was constantly balancing on the edge of a precipice. "Is Octavius in the room? I can't see anything."

Jed could feel Larry's bulk moving closer to his location. He wanted to back away, but didn't think he would be able to keep his balance. While he was thankful that he no longer felt like he was floating away into a void, he still felt like he was on the edge of a cliff and that the smallest wrong move would overbalance him and cause him to fall back into the void he had just escaped from.

"I haven't seen Octavius. Do you need help?" Larry's voice was thickly laden with concern, and Jed grimaced. He had his pride, and he hated being vulnerable like this, but he also knew that he had absolutely zero choice in the matter.

"Just find Octavius." Jed snapped. His desire to be manhandled by Gigantor's giant, clumsy fingers was even less than it was when he had actual working eyes. "I don't need any help from you."

Unfortunately, Larry seemed to have other ideas. "Yes, well, I can't leave you here by yourself, so..."

Jed dug his fingers further into the fabric beneath him, trying to make it so that Larry would not be able to lift him up against his will, but felt it be ripped from his grasp as he was dragged into the air by gentle but uncompromising fingers. Immediately, any sense of solidity that he had obtained before was gone, and he had to fight to keep from hyperventilating. His mind was trapped in indecision on whether to try and wriggle out of Larry's grasp (a terrifying prospect at the moment, because he had no way of know how high up he was), or stay in Larry's hand and hyperventilate. Because while he needed someone's touch to ground him, he also needed to be in control of his own body; a need that was being taken from him by Larry's much greater size.

"No! Put me down!" Unlike his usual demands for Larry to stop man-handling him, these protests were prompted not by indignation, but by discomfort and fear. "Larry, put me down now!"

Larry Daley had not expected to find anything except for his middle-of-the-night meal when he went into the break room. The exhibits were, for once, all behaving themselves, and Teddy had promised to patrol the building so that Larry would be able to eat something and take a nap in peace. He managed to finish his sandwich in peace, but never got around to his nap. Instead, he got to watch a bedraggled-looking Jedidiah shoot out of the vent to land on the middle of the couch.

Needless to say, finding out that Jed was blind was enormously alarming, and his eyes were disturbing. Larry had never seen anyone with completely blank eyes before, except in zombie or vampire movies. He didn't know what had happened to Jed, but he knew the two people he needed to fetch: Ahkmenrah, to see if his Tablet could help, and Octavius, to help Jed cope. In hindsight, he would be the first to admit that he didn't treat Jed very well in his rush to find a cure and his unwillingness to leave the tiny cowboy alone. Ignoring the Cowboy's protests, he didn't even think before he picked up the miniature between his fingers the way he usually did.

"No! Put me down!" Jed was squirming awkwardly, bearing a fearful expression that was usually so foreign to his cheerful face. "Larry, put me down now!"

That got Larry's attention, and he stopped before he reached the door of the break room. He had never heard the miniature call him by his real name before, not even when he was in danger of being buried alive in an hourglass. To have Jed call him by his real name meant that there was not an ounce of joking left in his little body. He was 100% serious, and 100% freaked out.

Larry very carefully placed Jed down on the table, making sure that the smaller man was seated before he took his hand away. Jed didn't say anything, he just leaned his back against the side of Larry's lunchbox and breathed deeply. They must have stayed like that for at least five whole minutes, with Jedidiah lying, gasping on the table with Larry looming over him in concern.

Finally, Jed reached up and patted his head a few times before realizing that his hat was gone. "Look, just go find Octavius." The miniature cowboy sounded exhausted. His eyes were open, but the lids were drooping so low that they might as well be closed, and he was slouched so far that he was almost lying down. He looked like he would fall asleep at any moment, despite the fact that he still looked a little freaked out. "I don't know where he is, he was in the vents too. I just... I need him to watch my back."

Larry nodded, even though he knew that Jed couldn't see it. "Okay." He said simply. "I'll go find him. You wait here, and I'll lock the door so that no one disturbs you."

Jed nodded back, although his was more of a head jerk than an actual gesture. "Okay." He echoed. "Just... hurry, okay?"

"Okay." Larry repeated, before hurrying out of the room and locking it behind him. He didn't blame Jed for wanting Octavius there instead of him. If he were in the cowboy's boots, he knew that he would be much more comfortable having a friend his own size taking care of him, rather than some clumsy giant. Besides, once they had stopped fighting, Octavius had developed an uncanny ability to calm Jed down. Even if Jed hadn't asked for his friend's presence, Larry would have sought out the miniature anyway.

His eyes landed on the help desk, and he smiled as he thought of a way to find Octavius without running around the whole building.

Octavius, for his part, had come out of the ventilation system in the Hall of Mammals. Thankfully, the lions had never paid the miniatures any mind, or else there would have been trouble when the Roman landed in one's mane. The only reaction his intrusion elicited was a giant yawn and a shake of its shaggy head that sent Octavius sprawling onto the ground.

Octavius quickly scrambled to his feet. "The Hall of Mammals." He mumbled to himself, before limping away across the floor. He had twisted his knee wrong when he landed, but he didn't care at the moment. He needed to find Jedidiah. For all he knew, his friend was stuck somewhere and panicking himself into a fit of hyperventilation. Octavius wanted to go down the halls, asking everyone he met if they had seen Jedidiah, but he knew that that would be a waste of time and energy. What he needed to do was get to the Hall of Miniatures and round up the Romans and Cowboys to help him search. He would also need to find Larry, so that the night guard could enlist the help of the larger exhibits.

Several of the other exhibits paused to look curiously at the tiny Roman limping down the hallway, probably wondering what he was doing and why Jed wasn't with him. He paid them no mind, focusing instead on walking as fast as possible without putting weight on his bad knee. Where was the RC car when you needed it? At the rate he was going, he wasn't even going to make it halfway there before sunrise.

"Octavius to the front desk, please." Larry's voice echoed over the speaker system. "Octavius to the front desk. I found Jed. Over and out."

He had found Jed. The magic words. Octavius forgot about his knee and attempted to run, but no matter how enthusiastic you are about something, an injured knee is still an injured knee, and it buckled as soon as he tried to put his full weight on it. He managed to avoid falling on his face, but he still collapsed to the floor, clutching his knee and trying not to all-out cry. Jed needed him, this was no time to be weak.

"Octavius?" A shadow fell over the tiny Roman, and he looked up to see Ahkmenrah standing over him. The pharaoh must have been visiting the lions again and come out just in time to see Octavius collapse. He crouched down next to Octavius, his young face concerned. "Are you all right? Do you need a lift to the front desk?"

This time Octavius had to hold back tears for a different reason. He had never been so glad to see the young pharaoh in all his life. Trying to keep what last shreds of dignity he still possessed, he climbed painfully to his feet and gave Ahkmenrah a tight but sincere smile.

"A lift would be much appreciated." He said gratefully.