"It's okay, Carlos, just let it out, man," James soothed as he rubbed his ill friend's back.

"Ugh, make it stop," Carlos begged as he laid his forehead down on the toilet, feeling like complete crap.

Carlos had come down with a sudden bug. He'd been fine all day, but since 11 o'clock at night, he'd been stuck with his head in the toilet, throwing up anything he'd had in him. Everyone had already been asleep, except for James, who hadn't left his side once.

"I wish I could, buddy. Hey, you done now, you think?" James asked when he realized that for the first time in two hours Carlos was actually able to speak without having to pause mid sentence to vomit.

"Yeah, I, I think so."

"Let's get you to bed. You need to sleep," James told him. He grabbed Carlos' arm and gently helped him stand. He was a bit wobbly at first, but James steadied him.

"I can't sleep, my stomach still hurts too much," Carlos whined, gripping his stomach as if to further prove his point.

"I'll get you some medicine, let's get you to bed though."

James slowly led him out of the bathroom and through the hall, back to their room. He helped Carlos into bed and pulled the covers tight around him.

"I'll be right back," he told him.

James went to the bathroom and got some Pepto Bismol from the cabinet. He was filling a glass with water for Carlos when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. His eyes were tired and bloodshot. His hair lacked its normal sheen as much as he was lacking in sleep. He let out a small yawn and quickly recomposed himself, for Carlos' sake.

He brought the medicine and water back to the room where Carlos was laying patiently. "Take this," he ordered.

Carlos swallowed the medicine with his fingers pinching his nose to block the taste. He quickly chased it down with the water, chugging it thirstily.

"I can't be sick, James. We have a 9 A.M. rehearsal tomorrow! There's no way Gustavo will let me miss it!" Carlos cried out in clear distress.

"Take it easy. You still have," he glanced at the digital clock on his nightstand across the room, "seven hours to try to sleep this thing off. We'll just see how you feel in the morning, okay?"

Carlos seemed to calm down, slowly nodding his head at James. "Yeah, okay."

James smiled and patted his friend's shoulder lightly. He went to stand up so he could go back to bed when Carlos grabbed him by the wrist.

James stared at him expectantly and Carlos looked away, embarrassed. "Could you, uh, sit with me until I fall asleep. Please?"

James looked at Carlos' puppy dog eyes and couldn't say no. As tired as he was, as much as he wanted to crawl in bed and sleep for ages, Carlos needed him and that was the most important thing at the moment.

James said nothing, only smiled. He got himself situated on the bed next to Carlos. And that's how he ended up rubbing his friend's back until he fell asleep. Even once Carlos was asleep, James never left him. He was terrified that Carlos would wake up sick again and be left to deal with his misery all alone. He couldn't do that to his best friend. So there he sat all night until around 6:30 in the morning when he finally dozed off into a light sleep.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! James groaned as he pulled himself up to turn off the offended alarm. Upon stretching, he noticed something was missing. He turned over to find that Carlos was no longer asleep in bed.

Frantically, James eyes darted around the room. Just as he was about to scream Carlos' name, Carlos popped up seemingly out of no where, a big grin plastered on his face.

"Good morning, James!" Carlos beamed.

"Hey buddy, how are you feeling?" James asked through a yawn he couldn't contain. Even with the hour and a half of sleep he got, he still felt like he hadn't slept at all.

"I feel great! It must have been a quick over night thing. Want some eggs?" Carlos offered, pulling a plate of over easy eggs from behind his back.

James wrinkled his nose and gently pushed the plate away. His exhaustion drained him of all appetite.

"I'm glad your feeling better. How long have you been up?"

"About an hour."

James sighed. That was the one thing James envied about Carlos. The boy could fully function with a few hours of sleep. Carlos was such a ball of energy that he was able to go to bed at late hours and still bounce awake before any of the other boys. James however, did not do well without a sufficient amount of sleep. He was always the second to go to bed, not long after Logan, and the last one to wake up in the morning. He treasured every moment of rest he could get, because truth was he needed every bit of energy he could get to make it through the long days.

"Are Kendall and Logan up yet?"

"Yeah. They told me to come get you or else we'd be late for rehearsal."

James groaned at the idea of rehearsal. Four hours of singing and four hours of dancing sounded the same as murder to him. He wasn't in the mood to be yelled at and pushed around all day. However, he knew he had no choice but to go. Gustavo would be less than sympathetic to him if he were to complain about being tired.

"How long until we have to leave? Did Logan say?"

"Uh, we have to leave in 45 minutes, I think. Get up, get up! Come on, James." Carlos chanted, bouncing the bed happily in order to drag his groggy friend out of bed.

James chuckled, "Okay, I'm going."

James stretched his long arms and legs before dragging himself up out of bed. Grabbing some clothes, James made his way into the bathroom to get ready.

He turned on the shower, hot as it could be, and stepped in with hopes of it waking him up a bit. However, instead of it waking him up it had the opposite affect. The hot water only made him feel sleepier. He finished washing up and styling his hair, ready to just get the day over with.

Emerging from the bathroom, he was greeted by three impatient friends, tapping their feet with their arms crossed. James sighed and looked at the kitchen clock and sighed, seeing they had fifteen minutes to get to the studio.

"James, come on! We're going to be late again!" Kendall said, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the door.

"You ate breakfast, right?" Logan questioned, following them closely. Since he was the smart one of the group, it was up to him to make sure all of them were set for the day.

"Uh, yeah. Carlos gave me some eggs," he answered. His head was spinning with exhaustion, he couldn't even think about food.

"You didn't eat those eggs," Carlos pointed out as the doors of the elevator closed, ready to send them to the lobby.

"Yes, I did," James responded, maybe a little too quickly.

Carlos furrowed his eyebrows with confusion before innocently repeating, "No, you didn't. You pushed them away."

"Yeah, but then I, uh, I ate them when you left. Just before I went into the shower."

Carlos nodded, seeming to be satisfied with the answer. Logan however, looked a bit skeptical. James ignored it. He was busy trying to focus his tired brain on making it through the day.

Soon enough, they reached the studio. As soon as they walked through the door they were pushed into the sound booth. Four hours of recording, mostly Music Sounds Better With You over and over again. Gustavo just didn't think it sounded quite good enough the first fifty times.

Normally four hours of singing with no break was no problem; they were used to Gustavo not giving them breaks. Normally, it wouldn't have been a problem. And like normal, Kendall, Carlos and Logan had no problem with it. However, it was pure Hell for James.

James kept pushing himself, silently praying that it'd be over soon. He could practically feel the walls of the tiny room closing in on him. He was hot, sweating buckets it felt like. He felt a little bit weak. He was extremely tired and unfocused. It took all he had in him to keep up with the others. He couldn't let them know, no he could not.

Not soon enough, they ended the song and Gustavo pressed his little button and his voice filled the small sound booth.

"Okay, dogs! That was not completely awful! Take five and then we'll move on to the dance studio with Mr. X!"

The guys shuffled out and headed over to the couch, plopping down. They all grabbed for water bottles. James thirstily chugged down two water bottles. This did not go unnoticed by Kendall and Logan.

"Whoa, James, thirsty much?" Kendall observed.

James shot him a glare that seemed to say "shut up" and Kendall shot his hands up defensively.

"Kidding. Seriously though, you okay?" Kendall asked.

"Yeah, you look a little," Logan pulled the moist sleeve of James' shirt up, only for it to cling back to his skin when he let go, "damp."

"I'm fine!" James snapped, jerking away from Logan. He looked over and immediately regretted snapping when he say the hurt and confusion in his friends' eyes.

"Dude, chill. We're concerned, that's all," Logan said.

"Well knock it off! I said I'm fine!" James snapped again. He wanted to cry. He didn't know why he was being so mean to his friends when they only wanted to help. That wasn't like him. He couldn't help it though. He was just so tired….

"Come on, guys, we better get to the dance studio," Carlos interrupted, trying his best to break the tension.

James stood up to go and was soon followed by his worried friends. All four boys headed into the dance studio where Mr. X stood waiting for them.

"Today you will be learning a dance that's EXtremely complEX! You need to focus!" He warned the boys.

He started showing them the difficult moves they'd be doing. When he finished, the boys were to copy him.

They started off well, even Logan didn't mess up. But a few minutes into the routine, James began to feel a bit woozy. His head throbbed in his skull as the room spun before him. He froze. He felt everyone's eyes on his as he stopped dancing, he didn't care one bit though. He was just trying to make everything stop.

He reached his hand out for something, anything, to grab onto as he felt himself waver on his feet. His hand didn't have time to find anything as his knees buckled underneath him and he fell to the floor.

"James!" everyone in the room seemed to shout.

Kendall was at his side in a flash, tapping his cheek in an attempt to wake him from his unconscious state. The blonde looked up and Carlos, who was biting his lip with worry, and then to Logan.

"Logan, fix him!" the blonde cried out.

"Uh, okay," Logan took a deep breath and bent down to check his friend over. He placed his hand on his forehead before announcing, "No fever."

He checked the rest of his vital signs, finding that his pulse was a little high, but everything else seemed normal. He began to gently pat James' cheek much like Kendall did.

"James? James, c'mon, man. Wake up." Logan called in a loud voice.

James eyes squinted and slowly began to open. He closed them again as soon as he saw the bright lights of the studio shining down on his face. His head lulled away from Logan's voice.

"Wha?" he mumbled, almost incoherently. "Wha happn'd?" he slurred.

Relief washed over them all.

"You passed out, buddy. C'mon, let's get you to the lounge," Logan told him.

"No! Can't," he replied.

"C'mon, we'll help you," Logan said. Not waiting for another protest, Logan and Kendall each threw one of his arms over their shoulder and hoisted him up, practically dragging his to the lounge.

After tossing him onto the couch, they further tried to wake him up more. The spoke to him in loud, what James thought as irritating, voices and had him sip water. Finally after a few minutes, he began to come to.

"What happened, man?" Kendall asked.

"Uh, I'm sorry. I'm just really, really tired," James confessed, eyes starting to droop again.

"Why couldn't you just tell us?" Logan asked.

"I don't know," James replied, "I just didn't wanna let you guys down."

"James, you'd never let us down by not feeling up to a rehearsal," Kendall gently scolded, "Why are you so tired, anyways?"

"It's all my fault!" Carlos gushed, "James stayed up all night taking care of me because I was sick!" Tears poured out of his eyes as he sobbed with guilt.

"You were sick? Why didn't you come get me?" Logan asked, a bit shocked that he had turned to James for help instead of him.

"Well, you were sleeping. And James was just there. I'm so, so sorry, James!"

"Calm down, buddy. It's not your fault. Besides, I'd do it all over again if it meant making sure you're okay." James flashed him a weak smile before it was quickly wiped away with a yawn.

"Well, I think we should get you home. You need to sleep. I'm gonna go call the limo guy." Logan said before walking away with his phone in hand.

"And I'm gonna go tell Kelly, Gustavo and Mr. X that we need to leave," Kendall added before getting up and leaving the two remaining boys.

Carlos turned to look at James, who was resting with his eyes closed and head leaning on the arm of the couch.

"Hey, James?" Carlos called.

James' head lulled toward the sound of Carlos' voice and he cracked his eyes open. "Hmm?"

"Thanks for everything. Again, I'm real sorry."

James smiled, "Anytime, man."

Blah. Okay. Yeah. Review? If you want to, I mean. Personally, I like this chapter. Love to know if you guys do too. I hope I can update soon :/ I have a request from wolfprincess14 coming up, in which James loses his voice. Drop a request for a James angst/hurt/comfort/friendship oneshot if you want!