A/N Hey guys! I normally don't do requests anymore because I'm wayyy too busy and don't want to single anybody out, but I got a request on tumblr from an anon to write about James getting food poisoning and the anon was super sweet and I found myself pressed to write it in the middle of the night last night. I miss taking requests. Ultimately, I really want to be able to start taking requests again soon, because it's so much fun and I love writing stories for you guys. Anyway, hope all you James whumpers like this ;)
James wrinkled his nose, pulling his piled-high cheeseburger away from his mouth, an odd taste lingering on his tongue. It was 7 pm on September 13th, the day before Logan's birthday, and Big Time Rush were gathered in the tour bus on the way to Canada after a long, hard gym session. The boys were ravenous; they had all ordered multiple burgers and shakes each from some local drivethru and were now stuffing their faces in the back lounge, the tiny room silent save for the sounds of four hungry mouths chewing and swallowing.
"What's up James?" Logan asked, noticing the way James stared at his burger suddenly.
"I don't know," James answered slowly. "My burger tastes funny?"
Even though he was already half finished with his burger, the acrid taste was just now starting to settle on his tastebuds. You know when you are so starved, you just eat anything without really tasting it? Now that the whole in his tummy was filled a bit, he was realizing that something was not right with his dinner.
Carlos leaned over, his mouth full of bun, hamburger, and pickles, and examined James' cheeseburger. He cringed when he saw the mustard oozing out through the veggies. "Probably 'cause it's loaded with mustard. That's nasty dude."
Carlos was right, James didn't even like mustard. The brunet took the burger apart, scraped the overabundance of yellow liquid off, than reassembled it and took another bite. Still, the taste was there, and it almost made him gag. James decided to play it safe and tossed the burger in the trash and started pigging out on his fries and chocolate shake to fill him up the rest of the way.
Since the band had to be in Canada by the next afternoon, Logan's birthday eve was spent on the bus, which wasn't much of a bad thing. The guys pulled out their marshmallow guns and played zombies all evening. By midnight, James was worn out and didn't want to play anymore, even though it was his turn to be the zombie.
Currently, he was hiding in the top bunk, just waiting for one of the apocalypse survivors to sneak past as they searched for food, health packs, or ammo. As he expected, Carlos started somersaulting quietly through the tiny space, trying to get the refrigerator, where they kept all of their "supplies." (Each survivor only had a limited amount of supplies and could only get more supplies once every hour)
Right as Carlos started to flip past James' bunk, James dived down and landed on top of the Latino, squishing him. He "bit" Carlos, changing him into a zombie.
"No! Aggghhh! The pain!" Carlos cried dramatically, gripping his shoulder where he was bitten. James growled and made a triumphant zombie noise. Only two more survivors to change into zombies and he could stop playing this game and get some rest.
Carlos groaned eerily as he slowly turned into a zombie. Carlos always liked to make the biggest show of being a zombie, being the undead enthusiast as he was.
"No, not my Carlos!" Kendall yelled, seeming to appear out of nowhere. "He was just a kid!" The blonde fake-sobbed. He glared at James, who snarled, and pulled out his marshmallow gun to shoot him. He was expecting James to dodge his sugary, soft bullets, but surprisingly, James let the treat shoot him in the head.
"Blarrgggghhh!" James wailed, falling to the carpet in a heap. He more or less let Kendall shoot him. He was feeling really warm and weak and just wanted to lie down.
Unfortunately, part of the game was that until all the survivors-or zombies- were dead, they had to stay in the exact same spot, in the exact same position, as their time of death. So James was forced to lie on the carpet in the narrow passage way separating the back lounge from the kitchen. However, he soon became oblivious to the zombie noises around him faded into distant, garbled sounds and disappeared to silence as he fell asleep.
"Unngghh."
Kendall and Logan looked at each other through the darkness, trying to figure out where the zombie groans were coming from. They were both crammed into a cupboard in the back lounge together in a tangle of limbs. It was uncomfortable, but they took this game very seriously.
"Where's it coming from?" Logan whispered.
"I don't know, I don't hear any other sounds," Kendall whispered. Carlos wasn't a very stealthy zombie, he usually made a lot of clunky noises as he scoured the tour bus for his victims.
"Should we make a break for it?" Logan asked.
"Nggghh!"
"Something is groaning out there," Kendall whispered. "If he finds us in here, we're trapped! Let's go, move out!"
Slowly, Kendall pressed the wooden cupboard door open and crept out, then pulled Logan out when he saw it was safe.
"Rawwrrr! Mphhlignfdklheifvje!"
"Aggghhhhh!" Kendall and Logan screamed when Carlos slithered from under the couch, grabbing their ankles. The two survivors stepped out of his grasp and took off in a run, passing dead zombie James on the way, who let out a strangled moan, just like they had heard in the cupboard.
"Oh no! James isn't really dead!" Logan cried.
Kendall and Logan climbed up into the top bunk and pulled out their guns, ready to shoot the zombies, but James didn't get up and try to eat them. Instead, he just let out another groan, followed by a real snore.
"James?" Logan asked, wondering if the groaning was really part of the act or not. But before he could get an answer, zombie Carlos shuffled out of the back lounge, snarling.
"Shoot him!" Logan shouted. He and Kendall shot off endless marshmallows at Carlos' head and he collapsed to the ground next to James, finally dead.
"Victory!" Kendall cried, high-fiving Logan.
Suddenly, James let out a blood-curdling scream and jolted upright in a paranoid panic. Hazel eyes searched the room, sweat stinging his eyes as it dripped down his long lashes. It took a moment for Carlos, Kendall and Logan to realize James was no longer acting. He was terrified, pale, and sweaty. Something was wrong.
"James, what's wrong?" Kendall asked, at a loss of what to do. He jumped off the bunk and put a hand on James' back. His t-shirt was drenched.
James gasped and rubbed his eyes, disorientated. He tried to find his voice but let out a dry cough instead.
"I-I had a nightmare," he said.
"That's it, no more late night zombie apocalypse and greasy food. This is what happens," Logan said with a frown. "You look terrible, James. Maybe you should lie down."
James nodded. He was sore from sleeping on the floor. Kendall helped him to his feet and as he straightened out, a wave of dull pain sot through his stomach, as if somebody punched him in the gut. He held in a groan and stumbled to bed, feeling even weaker than he had before he fell asleep.
"Night guys," he muttered, getting under his covers. He fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
What seemed like minutes, but was actually hours, passed. Something stirring in the pit of his belly woke James up. It was uncomfortable as he slept, but now that he was awake, it was actually painful. He was stricken with an awful stomachache, and his whole body was overheated and sweaty, even though he was shaking pretty violently.
Quietly, so he wouldn't wake up his buds, James climbed off of his bunk. As soon as his bare toes hit the carpeting, his head swam and his legs threatened to buckle. The motion of the bus was making his stomach churn, even though he never had car sickness before.
With blurry vision, James made his way to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. The light when he opened the door burned his eyes, and he hissed in pain and closed the door.
James uncapped the bottle greedily and took a couple of sips. The cold liquid did not settle well in his stomach. He whimpered and rubbed his belly, praying he would not vomit on the bus. That would be very bad.
James held onto the kitchen counter and gripped it with white knuckles, panting and trying to swallow. He did not feel good at all. In fact, he had never felt this sick before, and it was scaring him.
Suddenly, James' stomach contracted and he gagged. Tears escaped between shut eyelids as his stomach wreaked havoc, but he did not throw up, thankfully. As quick as it came, the nausea faded. James sat down on the bench at the tiny dining table and put his face in hands. His fingers were trembling violently and his legs were vibrating uncontrollably. His stomach really hurt and he didn't know what to do. James had never been sick on the bus before. The boys were relatively healthy. Things like the stomach flu never bothered any of the boys.
"James? What are you doing awake?"
A hand on James' back made him all but jump to the ceiling. Kendall came into view, concern etched in his sleepy features.
"Hey, are you alright?"
James kept his face in his hands. He was too sick to even talk. Kendall wrapped his slender fingers around James' clammy wrists and pulled his hands away from his face, stooping down to his eye level. The brunette was deathly pale. His face and lips were an unsettling grayish color and his eyes were glassy and unfocused.
"You don't look so good, buddy. And your pulse is racing," Kendall said, feeling James' pulse pound against his fingers.
"I-I d-don't feel s'good," James slurred in a whisper. He slouched forward, his head landing on Kendall's stomach. Kendall ran his hands through his long hair and pulled him back for a moment so he could check for fever.
"James, you're burning up!" Kendall gasped, bringing his hand back as if he was scalded by his body temperature. "Can you tell me what hurts? You have to tell me, buddy."
James clutched his stomach. "It hurts, Kendall." Again, James began to gag. Kendall ran to the front of the bus to get the bus drivers attention.
"Hey, can you please pull over, James is about to throw up!"
The bus driver pulled over to the shoulder of the highway. Kendall grabbed James and pulled him outside just in time for the brunet to fall in his knees and start vomiting. Kendall was alarmed; he had never seen James so sick before. He had never seen anybody throw up that violently, actually. James looked like he was going to be torn apart by the force of his heaves.
"It's going to be okay, just relax," Kendall cooed, rubbing James' back through the ordeal. After vomiting three times, James let out a broken sob and began to cry. Kendall wrapped him in a hug.
Carlos and Logan ran down the steps of the bus to James side, rubbing his back as well.
"James! We heard you were sick!" Carlos said softly. "You alright?"
James shook his head. Even after throwing up, his stomach only hurt more, and on top of that, he was embarrassed, because he was in his best friend's arms like a small child with his vomit all around them. He had never been so humiliated in his life.
"We need to get him inside," Logan announced. "It's cold out here and he's running a high fever."
"Will he need a doctor?" Kendall asked as the three boys teamed together to get James into the tour bus.
"He might," Logan said regretfully. "If we can break his fever and he stops throwing up he might avoid it, but a hospital visit sounds inevitable."
Logan was right. A couple hours went by slowly, and James spent the entire time vomiting into a bucket. He was throwing up quicker than Logan was able to give him water. He was becoming weaker and in more pain by the minute.
"Guys, I think we do need to get him to an ER now," Logan whispered. James was in a half sleep, wrapped up in an oversized hoodie, his third change of vomit-ruined clothing in the past two hours. Every few minutes he would let out a pained moan or whimper, but Logan was thankful he had at least a little bit of rest from such an agonizing night. The sun was just now starting to come up, and Logan, Carlos and Kendall were exhausted, but stayed wide awake at James' side the whole time.
"Poor guy," Carlos said. He hated seeing his friend in so much pain.
Kendall shook James' shoulder gently. The sick boy blinked his eyes opened wearily.
"Huh?" He asked. Kendall didn't have time to answer the question before James was hunched over the bucket again, vomiting nothing but water and stomach acid now.
"Come on buddy, we are going to the ER. Logan's telling the bus driver right now," Kendall explained.
"No," James croaked, head still dipped in the bucket. "No hospital."
"It will make you feel better, James. They can help you. They'll give you special medicine to fix your stomach and give you an IV so you don't dehydrate. You're getting worse. We should have taken you to the hospital a while ago."
James was teary eyed, but too weak to argue. A few minutes later, they arrived at their destination in Canada and took James straight to the hospital, where he was immediately attached to a saline drip and given medicine to settle his stomach and help him sleep. It was like a nightmare for Kendall, Carlos and Logan though. They were anxious and nearly sick themselves with worry over James. The doctor confirmed it was food poisoning, obviously the foul tasting cheeseburger, and assured them James would be fine in a few hours. He had dehydrated himself pretty badly and his fever was still raging, but at least the vomiting stopped and he was able to sleep peacefully.
"Well that was scary," Logan said. It had all happened so quickly. One moment he was fine, playing zombies and acting crazy, and the next he had almost died because of one stupid hamburger.
"I know. The doctor said he'll be okay, but he doesn't look okay," Kendall said worriedly. James was still gray in color and looked like a little vulnerable boy.
"He'll be fine," Logan promised Kendall. "We'll just get some sleep and when we wake up he should be okay. Sick and weak, but nothing like this morning."
"Happy birthday, Logan," Carlos said, settling down on a chair to sleep on.
"Yeah, not so happy now," Logan whispered.
By that afternoon, James' fever had broken and his doctors took him off the IV so he could back to the hotel and rest. He wanted to go home and sleep, but the hotel bed would do just fine. As long as he could get out of the hospital bed.
"My friends and I have a show tonight," James said to his doctor as he dressed. "Do you think I can perform tonight?"
"Absolutely not," the doctor warned him. "James, you were dehydrated, your body is still trying to recover what it's lost. Going on stage and sweating buckets like you do any other night is just not safe. You need to rest for the next day or two, okay?"
James sighed. "Fine," he said with a pout.
Kendall took James back to the hotel and tucked him into the king sized bed.
"You stay in bed for the rest of the day, and call me if you need me," Kendall said as he set up ginger ale, water bottles and crackers at James' bedside, and also the TV remote so he could order movies off pay-per-view.
"'Kay," James said, obviously not happy.
"Are you sure you feel alright? Do you want me to stay with you? I can-"
"Kendall, just go," James said with a weak chuckle. "I am alright. You guys need to do the meet and greet, and Logan's Cowboy surprise party backstage. I'll survive in the cold, tiny, miserable hotel room…"
Kendall laughed, messing up James' long hair. "Shut up. Alright brother, love ya!"
"Love ya brother," James said, settling into the pillow. Even though he pretty much just woke up, he fell asleep right away. A few hours later, he woke up feeling much better. He even ate some crackers and drank some ginger ale. His stomach was sore, but it was nothing compared to last night, and he actually felt hungry.
As James munched on his stomach-settling food items, he flicked through television channel after channel. He went through all five hundred channels and looked through the movies three times, but nothing interesting was on. James groaned with boredom. He had to do something. He played games on his phone, tweeted his fans, and thought about how much fun his boys were having without him. It was kind of depressing, actually. He wanted to be meeting his cute fans and party with Logan.
By the time 7 pm rolled around, James made up his mind to stop moping around and get in on the action. He dressed quickly and, even though his legs felt like jello, he made it to the venue they were set to play that night and crept backstage. He could see Kendall, Logan and Carlos all about to go onstage and the fans yelling excitedly. Immediately, his ill after effects were replaced with exhilaration and adrenaline. Right as he heard Kendall about to announce James was too sick to perform, James hopped out from backstage, waving at the wild crowd.
"Guess what guys, I'm feeling better!" He yelled through the mic. His voice was gravelly from throwing up and he hadn't warmed up yet, but if he took it slow, he would make it through this show.
"James," Kendall said disapprovingly. James brought his buddies into a hug.
"Hey, I already ruined Logan's birthday. I'm not about to ruin this show, either," James said.
"James, you didn't ruin anything," Logan said sincerely. "You need to be in bed."
James pouted with huge puppy dog eyes.
"Ugh, fine, but don't over-do it and drink plenty of water. We have our eyes on you!"
James all but squealed. "Thanks guys!" He said, than turned to Kendall. "You mad?"
"Nah, I'm proud of you dude. Knew you'd be out here anyway," Kendall said with a bright smile. "Just take it easy, like Logan said."
"Alright," James said with a cheer. "Let's get this party started!"
A/N Another stupid ending but I have to be at work in ten minutes lol whoopsie. Sorry for typos! I hope this came out like you wanted, anon! Reviews are cupcakes! Also I will be updating Lost Souls this week! As for my other stories… Idk yet :/ Things are crazy but I'm trying! Please review! Thank you!
