Jerry (Learning to Fly)

Jerry is a pianist who injured his finger while cutting fabric.
==History==
Jerry came to station 19 after cutting himself on the finger with a fabric cutter. He was scared to go to the hospital because he was living with HIV and had read that station 19 had a mobile hospital unit. When he asked Ben about it, he learned that it was no longer in commission, so he decided to go home and put ice on it and hope it healed, as he needed his finger to do his job. Ben relented and agreed to treat Jerry at the station on the condition that Jerry didn't tell anyone. Jerry agreed and Ben brought him inside.
While Ben stitched up his finger, Jerry talked to Ben about the similarities between the AIDS crisis in the 80s and the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the fear was similar, as he was living in the city and on his own for the first time when gay men started dying of a mysterious illness they came to call "Gay-Related Immune Deficiency." He lost friend after friend and felt constantly pulled down by his grief. When Ben finished his work, he told Jerry he'd have full use of his finger in about a month. Jerry recognized the grief in Ben's face and asked about it. Ben said his mother-in-law had died of COVID and a friend had also been recently murdered. Jerry knew about Andrew from the news and joked about the tragedy of losing someone so attractive. He apologized, saying joking was one of the ways he learned to cope with so much loss. He tells Ben the trick is to have something that keeps you afloat so you can keep moving forward. His was music and he suspected Ben's was helping people. He thanked Ben for patching his life preserver before leaving the station.
==Relationships==
===Friendships===
He had a friend whose partner had died of COVID in the hospital. They'd gone to the hospital for chest pain and three days later, he was on a ventilator and three day after that, he was dead. This increased Jerry's reluctance to seek medical attention at a hospital due to his HIV status lowering his immunity.
==Career==
He is a pianist.
Category:Characters
Category:S19 Characters
Category:S19 S4 Characters
Category:S19 Rescuees