Though it was early, the sun shining, the birds (pigeons more like it) were chirping, and the bright promises of a day were before them. Daxter hated mornings.

It was because he hated morning that he was surprised when he'd been allowed to sleep through a great dream where he'd been the huge crazy monkey that climbed towers all day. "Left foot right foot I suppose."

With the experience he felt better able to climb the hard to manage and often broken down buildings in Haven City. He yawned and gave a mighty stench curling over the arch in Jak's ribcage. Jak was giving off a lot of heat and Daxter was enjoying it immensely.

That and the fact Jak never slept in.

Daxter felt quite content to lay back and catch a few more hours sleep before calling it morning. His left ear though, it gave an unease twitch. His tail thumped lightly, Daxter rolled over atop Jak willing himself to ignore whatever his body wanted to tell him for rest. Both ears twitch like sonar and there was a noise his mind brought to the forefront of his conscious thoughts.

It was a very strange wheezing rumble sound. Eyes cracking open his ears pinned forward he was easily able to tell the sound was coming from beneath him. Lying low, Daxter pressed an ear against Jak's chest listening intently, as he was now fully awake.

"Buddy, you don't sound to good. It's all like... flemmy gross sounding in there."

There was a sharp jerk and intake of breath on Jak's part as he was thrown into a violent coughing spell. Daxter flinched backward falling right off the small bed. He waited, ears back eyes just barely peeking over the edge of the bed as Jak's body rocked violently with cough spasms.

When it was done Daxter timidly got back on the bed. "Hey Jackie boy? How we doing?"

Jak was trying to pull himself into a sitting position. One arm flailing out, his weight shifting as he hunched over like a tired old man. His face was pale but his cheeks were flushed red, not to mention his nose was getting red and runny looking.

"Oh Jackie, you got a cold. How in the name of the precursors did you get that? I got you changed and tucked you in all warm everynight. How in the blazes…"

One idea came to mind, then two. "I got to make a phone call Jackie boy. Hang tight."

Hoping down from the bed Daxter wandered across the room to the simple dial tone telephone. He dialed Keira's number but there was no answer at the shop. Foot tapping, tail swaying he wrapped around he possibilities before calling Tess at the bar. No answer. Daxter sighed, he was right. He knew where Jak caught the cold but he felt he should check to be real sure.

He dialed Keira's home phone, it rang and rang and finally Tess picked up.

Daxter's tail swayed and thumped hard on the floor. "Tess baby, it's Orange lightening. I take it Keira's sick?"

He listened to Tess explain how just plain miserable Keira looked and it was real hard to keep her from crawling out the door to work. "I hear you loud and clear Baby Cakes. Jak's got the same thing. Keira must have picked it up from one of her clientele and then gave it to Jackie boy. Guess we both got our work cut out for us. You need anything, food, support, especially some furry nose to nose comfort call me up baby and you'll see exactly why they call me the Orange Lightening."

She thanked him profusely but stated that she should be okay with taking care of Keira. They hung up and Daxter stood there for a moment hand still lying atop the phone. He picked it up again and dialed Torn.

The gruff voice that answered did nothing for Daxter's mood. "Tattooed wonder, it's Daxter."

There was no recognition, only annoyance on Torn's part. Daxter refrained from growling, as he had to resort to name calling. "Jak's rat, yeah that's it. Listen you should check the ink on those tattoos cause I think it's squeezed into your brain. You can find someone else to do you're half assed planned mission cause we're taking' a couple of days to ourselves."

There was a lot of yelling, Daxter had a very uninterested look as he had a very bored look, then checked his nails. "Yeah, right. Burn in hell, got it. By the way can you send some money our way tattooed wonder? We're running on short over here."

There was a dial tone and Daxter looked at the phone, positively perplexed. "He hung up on me?"

Daxter hung up the phone positively miffed as he headed back to Jak. "That has to be the absolute rudest man on the face of this whole Precursor cursed planet. What do you think Ja… oh… eww."

Jak moved over the side of the bed though about to run for the washroom. But he didn't make it as he began throwing up on the floor. Daxter shuddered but scampered forward. Next to Jak he pretended he neither smelt nor noticed a thing. "There, there buddy. Feel better to get that out? Keira's got the same thing you do. Tess is taking care of her. You think you can get to the washroom?"

Jak nodded, feeling hopelessly embarrassed and weak by the whole situation. His head was pounding though a rogue metal head was trying to eat out his brain. "Go take a shower, freshen up big guy. I'll take care of this and get some clean sheets. Turn up the heater, make you some soup from scratch, none of that instant crap for my buddy."

Daxter gave Jak a truly sympathetic look as he patted his best friend's knee. Wishing even more now then ever he was human again so he could help more. "Hang in there."

Jak looked down, staring at the ottsel for a stretched out moment before a weak but very rare and genuine smile crept onto his face. "Thank you. Daxter."