Nate woke up in his bed, alone like usual, but he felt like his head was going to cave in at any moment. It was one of the worst headaches he had in a while and he hadn't even been drinking lately. In fact, it was a worse headache then when he was actively drinking and having hangovers on a regular basis. He slowly got up and closed the blinds, which helped for a while. He slowly walked into the bathroom, not really sure what he was doing. He did his morning bathroom business before looking around in the cabinets for some sort of pain killer. He knew he had some and was rewarded as his hand closed around the bottle of Advil. He just downed them without any ceremony and decided to go back to bed. It was easy for him to curl up and go back to sleep.
*~*~*~*
It was nine am and the rest of the team knew something was wrong. Nate had not been down to make breakfast and he was known for rising early since the team got back together. It made it so he could have a bit of alone time, but they usually started around nine or ten – depended around the time that Hardison decided to come in. Sophie sighed and looked at the rest of the group. "Did anyone see him last night?" She asked quietly.
"No," Parker said as she curled up into a small ball on her part of the couch. "Do you think he went back to drinking?" She whispered.
"No," Eliot replied. "If he was, he'd be down here and we'd be able to see him. I think something worse is happening."
"Maybe we should go upstairs and see if he's dead?" Hardison offered.
Sophie gave Hardison a look but got up from her seat. "I'll go see what is happening. Hopefully it is nothing like that. He could just be sick."
"Good point," Hardison said as Sophie went up the stairs. Eliot moved and stole Sophie's seat before anybody else could. He never did like sitting between those two.
"Nate?" Sophie asked as she softly knocked on the door to his bedroom before going in. All she could see was the curled up body of his under the cover. "Nate?" She asked again as she went and gently shook him. "It's nine am."
All he could utter was a grumble as he pulled back the covers. "Sophie?" He asked quietly.
"Yes, it's me," Sophie said with a soft smile. "Have you been drinking again?" She didn't want to ask, but at the same time, she had to. She didn't see any bottles around the bed, but that didn't mean that they weren't hiding under the bed. He had done that before.
"No," Nate replied truthfully. "I feel horrible."
"Do you want to come downstairs? I'll make you breakfast – Eliot, Hardison, and Parker are downstairs too. They're worried about you," Sophie said quietly. She could say that even though the trio hadn't voiced it. She just knew that the children were worried about the one that they kind of saw as a father figure.
Nate nodded a yes as he slowly sat up. Sophie went into the closet and got him a warm robe. "I don't know why I feel so sick," he said quietly. "And I feel like I have the worst headache ever." He left out the part where he felt like he was going to throw up and the pain that was in his lower stomach and abdomen.
"And you're sure you haven't touched a drop?" Sophie asked, trying to keep her voice free of nagging. She knew that he didn't need her nagging. At least not yet, anyways. If she needed to, she would nag at him later to get some rest, if it could really be called nagging. She just wanted to make sure that he got better and not sicker.
"Yes Sophie," Nate replied as he got into the robe that she brought over to him. "Thank you," he said quietly as she helped him up.
"Don't thank me yet – we've still got stairs to go down," Sophie said as she looked at Nate worriedly. She touched his forehead and sighed. "You've got a fever as well. I think you're full blown sick."
"Don't we have a con we're going to start today?" Nate asked quietly.
"Not if you're sick we aren't," Sophie said. "It's not a con where we have a client to report to. All the clients for it are dead and the families were too afraid to speak to us, remember?"
"Oh right," Nate said quietly. "I can still help with that." He moved to start to go downstairs. "We should still start the recon work."
"If you're sick, you're getting bed rest and nothing else," Sophie said, a bit sterner than she meant to. "We can't have you sick where you won't get better, Nate. That doesn't help anyone."
"You're right," Nate said quietly as he let Sophie lead him down the stairs. "The stairs started spinning."
"When you get downstairs you can sit," Sophie said as they started down the stairs. She went ahead of Nate to lead him down, going slow for his benefit. She didn't want him to fall down the stairs and break something. That would be worse for him to be sick and have a broken bone at the same time.
"Thank you Sophie," Nate said quietly as he stopped for a moment to get his balance before they went more down the stairs. Sophie was patient and let Nate set the pace for how fast he wanted to go.
Parker's head turned towards the sound on the stairs. She moved and jumped over the other side of the couch to stand up. She quickly went over to the stairs and helped Nate down the rest of them. "I've got him," she said to Sophie as Sophie went towards the kitchen. Eliot got up to give Nate the chair as Parker made him sit down. "You look horrible," Parker said quietly but only meant it in concern. It was the only thing that she could really think of saying.
"Thanks," Nate said as he leaned back against the chair. It wasn't lying down in the comfortable bed upstairs, but it would have to do for now. "Hardison, do you want to start the information?"
Hardison took one look at Nate and then towards where Sophie was. "Are you sure you want to? Parker's right – you look horrible. We'll take it a step further and say that you look a bit like death warmed up." He winced internally after the words were out of his mouth. He didn't really mean to say that but once it was out, he couldn't really take it back.
Nate gave Hardison a glare. He knew that the master hacker still needed to grow up and learn more social clues, but even that was harsh. "Thanks for the concern. And why are you thinking of asking her? I'm still in charge, right? That didn't change, did it?"
"It only does when you decide to be drunk or sick," Eliot said quietly as he sat down in his normal place in the middle of the couch. "And if you're sick, you're not going to be thinking clearly. If you're not thinking clearly, we might get caught. So we're a bit worried about making sure that you're fine before we start on what we have to do." He couldn't keep the concern out of his voice, even though he was supposed to be tough.
"I just need to wake up more," Nate replied as he smiled at Sophie putting a cup of tea into his hands. The warmth felt good and tea was her answer to everything. Silly Brit, he thought to himself.
"If that was true, you'd not look like you'll fall asleep at any moment," Sophie pointed out to him, the concern coming out more and more in her voice as she talked to Nate. "The people were after are not going anywhere unless they get a whiff of something bad happening. Therefore, we can wait a few days for you to get better."
"We can," Parker said with a smile but the concern was in her voice as well. "Just get better."
"I will," Nate said as he drank a bit of the cup of tea. As the tea hit his stomach, bile came up to meet it. The bile went up his throat as he threw up. Parker jumped away from the vomit as Eliot went to go for cleaning supplies. The next part came when Nate started to vomit blood and Sophie yelled for Eliot to just dial 911 and get them an ambulance quickly. It felt like hours when it was only seconds that the ambulance came and took them to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
