We're back with a new installment, and this one features the team reacting to Woody's collapse.

Woody had collapsed due to exhaustion. He had skipped on his evening and morning shots, and had used more energy than his body could make. On top of that, his body was showing signs of lack of sleep, like he was barely getting a few hours a night. This was the diagnosis Dr. Hellop had given Hagan over an hour ago. The doctor had been compassionate and understanding, not even bothering to tell Hagan to leave when the man arrived with the nurses and the patient. He had taken one look and gestured to a chair that Hagan had sat himself in immediately. When the medical staff left after Dr. Hellop reassured the man that Woody would live and would wake up eventually, Hagan pulled the chair closer to the bed, keeping a closer eye on the young man. The doctor had Woody hooked up to a bag of water to rehydrate his system, and had his nutrients in another bag, injected into the same arm. Woody was also hooked up to a heart monitor, though this was out of precaution rather than necessity.

Hagan studied the younger man in silence, listening to the repetitive beeps on the heart monitor and the ticking of the clock. It was soothing, and helped to keep the rage in check. Hagan didn't believe himself to be a wrathful man, but the situation with Woody had him furious; this, of course, was only brought upon by fear. He knew that exhaustion wasn't entirely life threatening (Woody would bounce back after a good rest), but it was still troublesome that Woody had been pushed to this extreme. He had willingly ignored receiving his injections, and then pushed himself during his training. It wasn't just a physical problem; there was also a mental problem.

From the hallway, he heard two pairs of footsteps slapping against the tiled surface, betraying the urgency in their steps. Hagan wrote off the sound as the medical staff rushing off to surgery or something, but he was proven wrong when the door was flung open. In the doorway stood Herman, panting lightly. From behind him appeared Zach, who was panting a little heavier. Hagan glanced at the clock quickly, finding that it was ten minutes past their lunch break; it made sense why they were here. Both men wore similar looks of concern, before glaring at the man in the seat.

"What the hell man!?" Zach demanded, pushing past Herman so he could approach Hagan, poking him in the chest. "Why the fuck didn't you tell us he was here?"

"I wanted to keep an eye on him," Hagan responded, which was code for I didn't want to leave him alone in this place while he was knocked out.

His two teammates quickly caught the message and settled in their rage. Herman stepped into the room fully and closed the door behind him, leaning against it afterward; no one would be getting in without meeting resistance. This created a small space of safety, and the three men who were wary of the medical wing felt they could breathe a little bit easier. Zach took a step back, giving Hagan back his space, and waved with his cannon at the body in the bed.

"What happened?" Zach asked. "Those shitty military dudes wouldn't tell us a thing."

"Exhaustion," Hagan answered. "He skipped his two meals,-" If you can even call those damn things 'meals,' Hagan thought to himself, "-hasn't been getting enough sleep, and pushed his body too far in training today. He fell to the ground halfway through."

"And the docs said...?" Herman trailed off, crossing his arms as he waited for the answer.

"He'll be fine," Hagan responded. "He'll just need to get some rest, and they've already got the water and substances going into his veins."

Herman had taken note of Hagan's tone; it wasn't overly assured, like he knew something else was wrong. "But that's not the only issue?" Herman asked in confirmation.

Hagan shook his head. "It's not the only issue," he echoed in agreement. "This-" he gestures to the unconscious body, "-is a mental problem."

"How are you sure?" Zach asked.

"I have a teenage daughter," Hagan replied. "I made it a point to learn some psychology. Woody, who is always on schedule, suddenly skips two of his meet-ups with Dr. Hellop. Woody, who never let his training sessions bother him, suddenly asks for additional training and then proceeds to push himself past his limits. Does that sound like our Woody to you?"

Zach took a moment to think over Hagan's words before shaking his head.

"No, it doesn't," he agreed.

"How much you wanna bet it's an inferiority complex," Herman commented, looking contemplative. The comment gained the attention of his teammates, and so he continued with his thought process. "He mentioned to Vandenbloom that he didn't want to be a weak link to the team. What if he's thinking lowly of himself in comparison to us?"

"Why the hell would he think that?" the young man questioned.

Hagan and Herman sent Zach an are you serious? look. The young football star stood firm, looking between the two of them quizzically. It was Hagan who decided to answer, Herman simply looking like he was going to slap the kid upside his head (and Hagan was tempted to let him).

"Zach, you above anybody else belittles him every time he mentions his training session," Hagan stated.

"You've been doing it since we first got tangled up in this mess," Herman added.

Zach opened his mouth to argue the point, but he didn't have anything to say, so he closed his mouth. For a moment, he looked abashed.

"I know you don't mean it, but your constant picking on him wasn't helping," Hagan continued.

"It's not my fault he's sensitive!" Zach said in his defense, looking flustered.

"He's always been sensitive," Herman commented. "He just hides it."

"So that's my fault?" the younger man questioned.

"No, it's all our faults," Hagan responded, trying to calm any tempers that threatened to flare. "Woody should have told us what was bothering him, but we should have noticed something wrong with him. He doesn't think we appreciate him, or care about him, and we're going to have to change that."

Zach's face scrunched up, but he nodded in agreement, and a noise of compliance was heard from the doorway. Their conversation was interrupted by a noise coming from the bed, and all three turned their attention onto the young man that was returning to consciousness.

The first thing Woody registered was his brain. It was pounding rather loudly in his ears. Woody instinctively reached up to touch his ear, but his hand hit his helmet instead of flesh. Holding back a sigh because of course he'd forget that he was wearing a helmet. Wasn't like he didn't wear the damn thing 24/7. Woody forced the pounding away through sheer willpower, and after successfully getting it to settle down, he began to hear other noises. There was a steady beeping sound coming from his left, and he easily identified it as the heart monitor. With the helmet's heightened senses, Woody was able to hear the breathing of three occupants in the room, and that startled the young man. With a sense of urgency because a feeling of fear overcame him, Woody attempted to sit up, struggling a bit because he hadn't opened his eyes yet. A pair of hands was on him immediately, trying to still his movements.

"Woody, buddy, calm down," a voice said, and he recognized it as Hagan. "You're okay pal. Just lay back down and get some rest."

Woody, despite feeling tired and all around upset, didn't want to get more rest. Hagan (and most likely the rest of Lazer Team) was present, and he didn't want to look weak. He was already wasting their time, lying there on the bed. He needed to get up and get back to his training. He made another attempt to move, but Hagan was relentless and pushed back firmly, managing to get Woody lie back down.

"Woody, it's okay, I promise. Don't move, alright?" Hagan advised sympathetically.

Woody frowned, and decided he didn't like being talked to without being able to see. It was a weird feeling, and one he wanted remedied immediately. With some effort, Woody managed to open his eyes, squinting when the blue light and the bright hospital lights shone into his eyes. He managed to adjust to the two lights quickly, and gave a quick scan of his area.

Hagan was standing beside his bed, his hand still on the younger man's shoulder. Herman was by the door, leaning against it with his arms crossed over his chest. Zach was at the foot of his bed, his face a mixture of emotions that Woody couldn't really peg down what Zach was feeling. Woody averted his attention onto his left arm, finding the ever familiar injections hooked into his arm. He frowned slightly at the sight of them, and was tempted to remove them, but he didn't think he'd be allowed to get away with it. After spending a fair amount of attention on the medical equipment, Woody moved his attention to Hagan, who was still gripping his shoulder in an attempt to keep Woody in place.

"What did the doctors say?" Woody asked, looking over at him.

Hagan's lips formed a small frown before forming a neutral line.

"You're exhausted, though I bet you've already figured that much out." He did, he just didn't want to admit it. "You skipped on your evening and morning sessions, so they're giving you your missed sessions and your lunch injection. Also, your muscles are most definitely sore because you overused them." Hagan was trying to inform him of the details in a detached manner, but Woody could still hear the scolding in the tone.

"I see," Woody commented.

"That's it?" Zach demanded from the foot of the bed. "You skip your meals, overwork yourself, and your response is 'I see?' Who the hell does that?"

"Zach," Herman warned at the same time Hagan sent the youngest of the team a glare.

"I don't want to talk about it," Woody responded, his voice dull. "I just want to go to our training session."

"You're not going to that," Herman stated.

"We're going to move you to the barracks so you can rest some more," Hagan explained. "You need to get more sleep."

"But-"

"You can go to training tomorrow," Hagan placated. "But you need to rest up. You're not going to be any good if you don't."

Woody's jaw clenched at the word 'good,' but he didn't fight it. The three of them wouldn't budge, and he wasn't in the mood to fight them. Reluctantly, he nodded before turning his face away, focusing on the wall. Hagan, noticing Woody's shut down mode, stared at him in concern. Still, he wanted to get Woody somewhere safe, so he motioned for Herman and Zach to get the wheelchair. They left with little complaint, though Zach looked like he was still fuming. When the door closed, Hagan looked at the young man.

"Woody-"

"I don't want to talk," Woody interrupted, sounding annoyed.

Hagan blinked in surprise, because he had yet to hear Woody sound annoyed. It unsettled him, but he pushed on.

"We need to talk about this," Hagan stated.

"I don't want to talk," Woody replied. "I just...I want to be alone."

"This is too important, Woody," Hagan responded, holding back his exasperation. "You're lucky you're only exhausted. You could have hurt yourself today."

"You're right Hagan, I'm exhausted," Woody stated, still annoyed with Hagan and his relentless persistence. However, his exhaustion did come through and his shoulders slumped, and he sounded tired when he spoke next. "I want to be left alone for the night."

Hagan wanted to continue his talk with the young man, but one glance at Woody's tired face and Hagan deflated in defeat.

"Fine, I'll let you rest. You did have a tiring day," Hagan reasoned, sighing in exasperation. "But don't think you've gotten away with this. We will have a talk about your recent behavior."

Woody didn't respond, and Hagan wasn't willing to continue the fight. They waited in silence for only a few minutes, when Herman and Zach returned with a wheelchair. Taking out the needles and getting Woody in the wheelchair was simple, though Woody wasn't too thrilled that he had to be pushed around. He didn't notice the fact Hagan defected from the group and instead went off to find Dr. Hellop. In his current state, he wouldn't have cared where Hagan had gone off to.

Returned to the barracks, Woody immediately crawled into bed, not responding to either Hagan's or Herman's bids of goodnight. He just wanted to shut himself to the rest of the world and ignore the feeling of shame and failure.

I can't do anything right.