W/N: This is set after my previous fic, A Brief History of Head Wounds, which I advise you read first. Alright. Enjoy the Jeff suffering!
His head was thundering, which wasn't unusual nowadays. Since the concussion (which should've stopped causing him problems last week, that was what the doctor had told him, but still it wouldn't-) the headaches were a regular thing that he really didn't want to be a regular thing. He was laying on the couch in the canteen, arm thrown over his face, covering his eyes. As anyone who paid attention to him would remember, this was also not a good sign. Swallowing hard, he forced down the rising nausea, as throwing up really wasn't the most attractive thing he could do right now. Footsteps approached him - and footsteps that he recognised. Letting out a pointed sigh, he didn't move his arm.
"Jeff, don't you have a class to go to?"
"Skipping."
"But what about your grade?"
"Damnit, Annie, it's one class. I can skip one class!" he almost growled it out, then regretted it as it added a pulse of pain through his head.
There was a moment of quiet and he wondered if she'd gone, but no, he hadn't heard her footsteps moving away. Then he felt the couch shift as she perched on the edge of it, near his head, and he forced himself to move his arm. Squinting in the light, he tilted slightly so that he could see her, perched and not looking down at him.
"Do you not take a hint?" he asked, not bothering to hide the frustration that was being aided by the pain.
"When was the last time you went to the doctor?" he was caught off-guard by the question, and with a sigh, pushed himself up to sitting. The result was a wave of nausea and he had to take a moment, while she slid into the vacated spot his head and shoulders had been taking up.
"I dunno," he finally settled on, "The week after I was admitted, I think." Jeff rubbed roughly at his eyes.
"See, that's funny." Jeff startled at Britta's voice behind him. When had she appeared? "Because you told us after you passed out yesterday that you'd seen your doctor a few days before." he blinked a few times, opening his mouth to reply, but Britta was already ahead of him, "You know, this is just the perfect example of how you won't take a women's opinion seriously!" he was turning with an incredulous expression, a response already on his lips. But Annie got there first.
"Britta, I'd normally agree with this, but I think you're missing the point."
"My doctor is a man." Jeff snapped.
"Oh! Of course he would be. Everybody in a higher field is a doctor and I bet he gets paid twice as much as any woman who was in the same role-" Britta's voice was like a drill and he jerked to his feet, cutting her off midsentence.
"How come you two came to harass me?" he grumbled, "Don't you have classes together?"
"Yeah, but my teacher's off sick." Britta commented, frowning at him. Annie nodded,
"I have a free period." she said, voice soft, a frown crossing her features. Standing abruptly hadn't been his best idea. "Jeff, you look really pale, maybe you should sit down again-" oh lord above she was doing the Disney face. He took a deep breath and turned away.
"I'm going to have a nap in my car, where nobody will bother me." he snapped at them, and walked away, ignoring the stares that followed him.
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An hour later - nap not achieved. He'd sat in his car but found the lights far too bright, even though he'd parked in the shade and tilted his chair back and eventually put his sweater over his face. No good. Backpack on his shoulder, he'd headed to the study group, enduring a vapid session of not very much work getting done and rather too much gossip. Finally, they decided to go get food, though his stomach was churning rather too badly to eat and the idea of being surrounded by all that noise and those people was a horrible one. Still. Abed had been looking at him strangely during the session, as he fiddled with his phone. Or acted like it. The light of the screen had been too bright so he'd mostly pretended. It kept the focus off him, at least.
The feeling of sweat trickling down the back of his neck was unpleasantly familiar; it had the same sensation as the bleeding after the fan had clipped him, if a little cooler. He reached up, running his hand through his hair at the back of his head, feeling that it was damp. He couldn't help but check his fingertips, even though he knew there was no blood there. The rest of the group had moved ahead of him, talking, and he looked up, frowning ever so slightly at them. The corridor looked like it was extending off. His heart felt like it was pumping outside of his chest, and he realised his hands were shaking. Fuck.
"Uh, guys?" His voice was too quiet and he knew it, they didn't turn to look at him. The crowd that was moving around him either paid no attention or just a passing glance at the cocky asshole who happened to be shaking and sweating in the middle of the corridor. "Guys…" he repeated, a bit louder, and took a couple of steps forward. The world seemed to swoop around him and he reached out a hand, finding a drinking fountain, gripping it hard. His adam's apple bobbed in his throat, and he let out a half-strangled breath, staring at the floor. The feeling was starting to get familiar and he wanted nothing more than to dash in the other direction so that they wouldn't see it again but that was out of the question. There was a loud bang but it seemed muffled. People were turning to stare at him, but they were out of focus. The world titled violently again.
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The group hadn't noticed Jeff lagging behind; it wasn't an unusual thing for him to be so enraptured by his phone that he sometimes stopped moving in the middle of the corridor. They did, however, notice when somebody dropped something. Glancing over her shoulder, Shirley let out a slight gasp, and that brought the rest of the group's attention. Jeff was stood to the side of the corridor, twenty feet behind them, gripping onto the edge of a water fountain and looking close to collapse. His backpack lay on the floor, where he'd lost his grip. There was a group moment, frozen, then Annie snapped out of it and dashed towards him, rapidly followed by Troy with the rest of the group following suit a moment later, if a little slower.
"Jeff?" she reached him first, reached up for him, had a startling moment of fear. His face was paper white, his blue eyes wide but pupils dilated. He looked terrified. Their gaze met then was broken as those eyes rolled back. "Jeff!"
Troy arrived just as Jeff went limp, dropping his considerable weight onto Annie. Without hesitation, he reached up to help her, taking most of Jeff's weight. He was completely limp; passed out cold. When the rest of the group arrived, they eased him down onto the floor, laying next to the water fountain. Now they were getting a lot of glances, but Pierce was shooing them off with various nasty and racist comments. Britta had a phone in her hand, dialling for an ambulance. Abed crouched, watching Jeff, tilting his head a little to the side. Shirley was murmuring about Jesus, which didn't help Annie, who looked close to crying.
She noticed that Abed's mouth was moving, and frowned ever so slightly.
"What are you doing?" Annie whispered. His eyes moved to hers.
"Counting."
"Why?" okay, her voice may've cracked a little. Britta lowered his phone, announced the ambulance was coming.
"To make sure that he doesn't sustain brain damage. It's important information for any tests he may need." and Annie cracked, tears pouring down her face. The group went quiet again. Jeff may've been a dick, but he was their dick… or something to that effect.
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"Seventy-two seconds."
Jeff's eyes were open.
"Oh, my god, Jeff."
The world was still blurry and out of focus and he felt like he was floating. It was odd. Not entirely unpleasant. There was a crowd around him. Friends, he thought, feeling a vague smile on his face.
"Hey."
"You passed out again. Oh, god, Jeff." Britta? He thought that was Britta. Yeah. Tilting his head up slightly, he saw the light catching her curls. She was a good bang. "The ambulance is coming, alright?"
"It happened again?" he swallowed, feeling bile in his throat. The more awake he became, the more his head was aching.
"Jeff…" Annie. "How often has this been happening?" fear made her voice higher, her throat tighter. He couldn't think properly to filter.
"Every couple days…" he mumbled, heard Shirley gasp.
"You've been driving?!" Troy was the one to speak this time, "Jeff, I can't believe you, man." the feeling that he shouldn't've shared that information was starting to grow. He felt more awake. Awake was good. Lying on the floor was bad.
Making to push to his feet, it was Annie who shoved him back down.
"You're staying there until the paramedics check you over." he groaned. "That's an order!" he tried to roll his eyes but that made him dizzy. Britta grabbed Shirley's arm.
"We should go wait at the entrance for the paramedics." Shirley seemed glad to escape and nodded, though she kept shooting worried glances over her shoulder as they left. He was sure he heard her mutter something about him meeting Jesus… ridiculous. Then his eyes returned to the little gathering around him. Pierce was pacing nearby, apparently unnerved.
"At least let me sit up." he appealed, and Annie - soft hearted as ever - allowed it. As she and Troy helped prop Jeff up, tucking his back into the corner made by the water fountain and the wall, Abed flicked his phone out and started filming. Jeff gave him a disparaging look, which was - as usual - wasted on Abed. Without warning, Annie got up and scurried off. He assumed that was to cry or something, but was a touch surprised when she returned, placing his backpack next to him. Then she pulled a tissue out of her bag, dabbing her eyes.
After a moment, Troy moved, sitting next to Jeff, leaning against the wall. He let his eyes flicker over to his friend, and a faint smile curled his lips. "Thanks, buddy." Jeff murmured, letting his eyes half shut again. He wanted to close them but didn't want to scare the crap out of Annie again.
"This is worse than yesterday." Troy's voice was soft.
"I figured."
"We been worrying about you for awhile, man. Ever since you passed out at the apartment." Jeff shut his eyes.
"We know you were recovering. Pierce still thinks you faked half of it." Pierce isn't too far from the truth, though it was less than half.
"But this fainting, Jeff. You could mess up your face, man. You gotta take care of yourself, alright?" Troy nudged Jeff with his arm, remembering that the Jeff he'd met in that first semester would never have allowed himself to get this helpless.
"Yeah." Jeff whispered.
Thankfully, a diversion happened in the form of Britta, Shirley, and several paramedics rushing down the corridor towards them. He tried to hitch his classic smile into place, lifting his head to look at them, then let it slide away. Damnit. All men.
Britta was going to have a field day with this.
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He hated hospitals. Not just because of the paper gowns (not flattering), the pitying stares (there's nothing wrong with me), and maybe he did kind of like the attention from sexy nurses but … well. That wasn't important right now. He was sat up in a bed (I don't need to be in a bed), his hands on his lap, friends around him. There was a glass of water in his hand that he wasn't drinking, the group gathered around the bed. Pierce and Shirley had been given the two chairs, and the rest stood in a loose circle. He felt remarkably uncomfortable.
"So," he sighed, fiddling with the glass in his hands. He rubbed his thumb over the condensation and wished it was a glass of scotch instead.
He'd managed to shake them off for awhile but they'd insisted on being there when he knew what the results were. "It's still a concussion, guys. But, uh…" he swallowed hard. "They're not quite sure what the fainting is. They think it's probably something like post-concussion symptom or something stupid like that. It'll wear off." eventually. "So thank you all for rushing me here and missing class on my case, but it's fine. They've given me painkillers for the headaches and I've been told not to drive for a bit." uch. He'd probably jog to and from Greendale.
"Alright, good, I'm out of this snore fest." Pierce pushed to his feet. Jeff gave him a vague smile, secretly relieved, even as Shirley scolded him. "See ya later." he clapped Jeff on the shoulder before he walked out of the room. Jeff grimaced and brushed his shoulder off, as if it had been dirtied by the touch. Abed unquestioningly sat in the seat, staring blankly at Jeff.
"I think you made him uncomfortable."
"What?" Jeff was genuinely astonished. He had no idea what Abed was on about.
"Well, he was addicted to pills, and now he sees you're going to be on powerful painkillers. I think he must be jealous and feeling guilt because of that jealous feeling, because he shouldn't be jealous of you being on painkillers. On top of that, he'd probably be unwillingly concerned that Jeff might suffer the same fate, like -"
"Alright! Alright, I don't need a vague pop culture reference, Abed. I get it."
He let his eyes flicker around the little group. "I'm not going to get addicted to pills, guys. I'm not Pierce. I have a life, I have - had - a career, I drive a Lexus and I actually get to bang hot chicks that Pierce likes to imagine himself banging!" he realised he was getting angry and Shirley was looking frustrated.
"Alright, well, I should get going." she got to her feet, glancing at the group, "You take care now, Jeffrey, I'll see you Monday." he realised belatedly that maybe his comment had pushed her a little, but right now he didn't exactly want all of them gathered around him. He was exhausted, but thankfully - due to the painkillers he'd been given immediately after being okay'd for them - the pain in his skull was considerably diminished, if not gone entirely.
Shirley leaving seemed like a cue to the rest of them. Troy and Abed claimed that they had a lot to do with the dreamatorium tonight and slipped away. Eyes shut, leaning back against his pillows, he listened to Britta talking quietly with Annie and almost drifted into a doze. Then he heard them getting up, thinking he was asleep, a hand brushed over his and then they shut the door quietly behind them. He let his eyes open a crack, peering in the direction of the now shut door, slid his bed totally flat, and actually fell asleep.
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Tipping two pills into his hand, he swallowed them dry, imagining he could feel them already soothing the start of one of his headaches. Of course, they weren't actually immediately, but still… he glanced over to Annie. Neither of them said anything, but he turned his eyes back to the group.
"Alright, I guess we better get on with studying, huh?" the cocky smile that was held on his face faded ever so slightly when he realised Annie's gaze hadn't dropped, but he didn't comment on it. He was fine. Why did they all doubt him so much?
W/N: I got somewhat carried away aha … ha… as ever, fav, please comment and tell me what you like/what I should improve/ if you want a followup.