Jack woke up feeling really shitty. His head was pounding and he felt congested. He groaned and rolled over to check the time, 5:00am. The only person that he could think of to be awake at this time would be Daniel, and maybe Henley. He tried to go back to sleep but ended up failing. Slowly, he got up and took a shower. Hopefully that would help with his congested feeling. Unfortunately, it did nothing to relief the feeling.
After getting ready he went down to make some tea. As he was walking to the kitchen, he saw Daniel looking at the plans for tonight's show. Being the control freak he is, he felt the need to make sure everything would work and be perfect. Since he was so absorbed into the plans that he was reading, he completely missed Jack as he went to go sit on the couch and turn on the TV. Suddenly, he felt really cold and went to go get a blanket and curl up on the couch. He must have dozed off again because the next thing he heard was Henley's voice waking him up.
"Jack, Jackie, wake up. We need to go over the plans for tonight's show." Jack slowly wakes up, not registering everything that was said to him.
"What?" He asks Henley. Jack could see that Henley looked worried considering Jack usually gets what's said the first time.
"Are you okay?" She asks.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, just came out of a really weird dream." Jack responds. Henley still looked worried, but let it go. Jack continued to have a headache but went over to the table where they were going over the plans that The Eye had sent them. Feeling uneasy, he tried his best to work with the other horseman. They finished going over the plans sooner than they thought, so Jack spent the rest of the afternoon practicing with his cards, while Merritt was reading a book and Henley tried to get Daniel to stop working on the show since they had it figured out. Jack skipped lunch since he didn't have an appetite. He must have passed out on the couch again since this time, Merritt was the one to wake him up.
"Rise and shine Jackie, time to get ready for the show" He says. Jack slowly got up once again and went up to his room to get ready.
A little while later, the four horseman were ready to hit the stage. Well, all of them except for Jack who was still feeling really bad. He managed to get through most of the show and do fine. However, during the last act of the show he felt a hot flash coming and started to feel clammy all over. He tried to take deep breaths but that wouldn't work, thankfully he had already done his act so all he had to do was assist the others. Soon, he could feel his stomach churning. It seemed to take forever but the show finally ended without a hitch. The crowd was going wild.
"We are the Four Horseman! Goodnight!" The four of them say in unison and they all exit the stage. Jack leaving faster than the others. Jack leaned against the wall sweating and shaking. He was trying to take deep breaths again.
"Jack, are you okay?" Henley asks for the second time that day. Jack nods his head, trying to make it not seem like a big deal, and collapses onto the floor, having exhausted himself from the show. Daniel and Merritt watch as Henley goes over to Jack and feels his forehead.
"You're burning up. How long have you been feeling this way?" She asks. Jack nods his head feeling to weak to even talk.
"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Merritt asks. Jack just shrugged, unable to respond.
"Are you feeling to weak to talk?" Henley questions. Jack nodded his head again. "Okay, looks like we need you to get back to the apartment fast." she says. Throughout all that, Daniel just stared at Jack. He had never seen a sick person before and on top of that, Jack didn't seem like the type of person to ever get sick. Daniel was more confused than worried.
The trip back to the apartment took longer than they hoped but they eventually got there. Henley helped Jack back to his room. The four horseman went to sleep hoping that Jack would feel better in the morning.
The next morning, only three of the four were present for breakfast. It was well into the morning when Henley went up to Daniel with a bowl of soup.
"Give this to Jack."
"Why should I have to do it?" He complains.
"Because you didn't help at all last night with Jack" She responds.
"But Merritt didn't do anything either." Daniel argues.
"Are you kidding me? He helped clean up the vomit that you so eagerly avoided." She says in a raised voice.
"Anybody would run away from vomit. It's natural with how disgusting it is."
"How about you say that after you've had to clean it up." Merritt says. Daniel glared at him. Henley shoved the bowl of soup at Daniel with a piercing look that said if you don't do this I will personally kick you in the balls. Daniel sighs, takes the bowl and goes up to Jack's room.
"Food service delivery." Daniel says while knocking on the door. He looks into the room to see a semi-conscience Jack on his bed with kleenex everywhere and what seemed to be a barf bowl on the table next to his bed. Daniel sighs again and walks up to Jack.
"Got you some soup, not sure if you're all that hungry though."
"Thanks." Jack says. As he was about to help him to the soup he barfed all over Daniel and onto the floor. Being the clean freak that Daniel is, this repulsed him a lot.
"I'm so sorry," Jack said.
"Don't worry, I'll just have to clean it up." A new shirt, and lots of cleaning products later, the mess was cleaned up. Since he was already vomited on, Daniel didn't see the problem in coming closer to Jack, so he went to sit on the bed.
"How you feeling?" He asks.
"I still feel like shit." Jack responds, soon followed by a coughing fit. Daniel patts Jack on the back to try and help. To his complete and utter surprise, Jack started to tear up.
"Damn it, I hate being sick. It makes me feel so vulnerable." He says. Daniel stares, so shocked that he cannot say anything. He knew a little bit about the kids history. About how he lived on the streets and could understand that if you were sick on the street, anybody could attack you. Daniel moved to sit beside Jack and put an arm around him.
"Why do you feel vulnerable?" He asks, knowing that he probably already knew the answer.
"I don't know. I just never actually let my guard down when I stopped living on the streets. I guess when someone lives on the streets for a long time, they can never feel safe. I was sick a few times when I used to live on the streets and those were the times that I was attacked the most because I couldn't defend myself as well."
Not expecting to get that as an answer, Daniel once again had no idea what to say to Jack. After a lot of thinking, he finally came up with something.
"Listen to me Jack." Daniel said. Jack looked up at him with teary eyes. "You are no longer on the streets. You are in an apartment building with three other people who will protect you whenever you need to be protected. You no longer have to worry about defending yourself from others, we can do that for you. Whenever something is troubling you, you will always have the three of us to talk to. You know that right?" Daniel had no idea that he was capable of saying that, and was once again, shocked, but glad he was able to say that. Maybe, just maybe, he can start to lower his guard a little too.
"You really mean that? You three are going to be there for me when I need it most?" Jack asks.
"Of course, we will always be there for you." Jack sighs in relief and starts to eat the soup that lay untouched on the table. Once he was finished he cuddled into Daniel a little bit more. Daniel was new to this feeling, but thought he liked it. Soon the two of them fell asleep on Jack's bed.
"I think you should check on Daniel and Jack. I expected Daniel to bolt right in and right out of that germ infested room." Merritt says to Henley.
"Yeah, your right. It's been about a half and hour already, what could they possibly be doing." With that, Henley walks up to Jack's room and quietly opened the door. To her surprise, she saw both Daniel and Jack sound asleep on the bed, together. She smiles and walks away, closing the door to give the two some privacy.
"So?" Merrit asked
"I think the two have gotten quite comfortable with each other." She says. Merritt smirked at that response knowing all too well what she meant by that. Henley sits back onto the couch with a smile on her face. Hopefully, she thought, that soon both Daniel and Jack will lower their guards around her and Merritt. It seems like they have already done that for each other.