It was disconcerting to see Kevin looking like that. Sure, Connor had seen Kevin tear up, from anger, he knew that Kevin hated that about himself; or from pain, like when he was sick with appendicitis. But Connor had never seen Kevin break down for real.

Connor was too distraught to even begin to guess what happened. Was it the other Elders? Was it Connor? He didn't recall doing or saying anything that would have upset Kevin. Connor tried thinking back to this morning, when he last saw Kevin. He still seemed fine then, that meant that something must have happened while Connor was out with Poptarts. But there was nothing out of the ordinary when Connor returned. Arnold, Nabulungi, and the rest of the Elders had been their usual selves, all of them, except for Kevin.

"Hey, shhh," Connor sat down gently beside Kevin's trembling form.

He tried to comfort Kevin by rubbing soothing circles on his back, but it seemed to be making Kevin cry harder.

—

It was twenty long minutes before Kevin's sobs quietened down. Connor continued to sit by his side in silence, waiting.

"Help me up?" Kevin unburied his face from the pillow, which was now damp with tears.

Connor jumped at the opportunity to help. He was never good with waiting around in silence. Connor frowned at how warm Kevin felt as he helped Kevin sit up by the edge of the bed. He wasn't sure if it was because of all the crying, or if Kevin was having a fever.

Connor snapped his fingers in triumph when he remembered that he bought a thermometer.

"But Poptarts brought everything back to the village. Dang it!" Connor muttered under his breath.

"What?" Kevin sniffed, alerting Connor that he was thinking out loud again.

"Oh nothing," Connor sat on his bed opposite Kevin, their knees touching, "you're a little warm. Should I be worried?"

Not that he wasn't already all kinds of worried.

Kevin brought his hand up against his forehead and shrugged, "I can't really tell."

Connor extended his hand and felt it for himself, "Hmm, let's just see how you're doing in the morning."

Kevin just nodded and stared at Connor's knee.

The question of 'What happened?' was on the tip of Connor's tongue. But he knew that it was best not to push.

"Okay then. Dinner, and then a movie, how does that sound?" Connor suggested.

"Aren't you going to ask me what happened?"

"I figured you'd tell me if you wanted to. You don't have to though," Connor held up his hand, "I just want to be sure that you're okay."

Kevin stared out of the window forlornly for a few minutes. He cleared his throat and explained, "Arnold brought me a letter from my parents. The postman delivered it yesterday. There was a plane ticket inside."

"Oh," Connor didn't like where this was going.

"They said-," Kevin wiped a stray tear from his cheek, "they said that if I didn't come home now, then I didn't need to come back at all, ever."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Kevin," Connor was gutted.

What if Kevin decided to return to America? What if Connor never saw Kevin ever again? Or what if he decided to stay, and this was all going to end up as a big mistake, and Kevin was going to be shunned by his family for nothing, and he was going to blame it all on Connor for being such a useless district leader. Connor shook his head to stop himself from spiralling.

"Yeah, it sucks," Kevin exhaled.

Connor was afraid to ask, but he needed to know, "What are you going to do?"

Kevin smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, "Dinner, and then a movie I guess."

—

The both of them were on Connor's bed, watching The Lion King. On hindsight, Connor thought that it was a poor movie choice for that night, with Simba losing his family, Scar getting banished and what not. But Kevin seemed to be enjoying it, or at least half of it. He fell asleep halfway after taking his pain medication.

Connor switched off his laptop shortly after the credits started rolling.

He glanced down at Kevin, who was lying fast asleep on his shoulder, the tips of his hair brushing against Connor's cheek. Connor didn't want to wake Kevin up, but it was not the most comfortable position to be sleeping in for eight hours. He was already getting a stiff neck from keeping still throughout the movie. Besides, Kevin was warm, really warm, and Connor's shirt was getting slightly damp with sweat.

Connor tried extending his arm to stow his laptop away, and the movement disturbed Kevin. He stirred and lifted his head from Connor's shoulders.

"Hey, you wanna lie down?" Connor asked.

Kevin rubbed at his eyes sleepily, "I'm not in my bed."

"I know. It's fine, you take my bed, and I'll take yours," Connor freed himself from Kevin, and his blanket, "unless you want to move?"

Kevin grimaced in response.

"I think you've become warmer than before, do you feel sick?" Connor frowned, "Any pain?"

Kevin took a few seconds to take stock of himself, "I'm okay, I think."

Connor huffed as he took Kevin's arm and help him lay down, "Get some sleep. Hopefully you'll be better when you wake up."

—

Connor spent the night tossing and turning, unable to stop thinking about Kevin Price.

Kevin has always been the one with the unlimited optimism and energy. The presence of Kevin Price makes Connor want to work doubly hard to make things work. If Kevin left the mission, Connor would be at a lost. Kevin was supposed to be the one who had everything figured out, and Connor was supposed to be the one who plans the details based off Kevin's overly ambitious visions.

To make matters worse, Connor was on the edge of drifting off to sleep when he was startled by the sudden coughing fit Kevin had. Connor was wide awake at once, and turned towards the source of the wet racking coughs. In the dark, he could make out Kevin's curled up form, his back facing Connor.

"Fuck," Kevin choked out when the coughs finally stopped.

Connor felt around in the dark for the bottle of water, "That doesn't sound good."

"No shit," Kevin cleared his throat, "sorry for waking you up."

Connor's fingers closed around the cool plastic bottle, "I wasn't asleep yet. Here, have some water."

Kevin rolled onto his back, "you weren't? It's four in the morning."

"Can't sleep. Happens sometimes," Connor shrugged.

Kevin took a swig of the water, while Connor felt Kevin's forehead with the back of his hand. He was still very warm.

"I'm very hot, aren't I?" Kevin smirked with his eyes closed.

"Yes, very," Connor smiled. That was the old Kevin Price he knew and love.

"Ugh no," Kevin uttered before his body was wrecked with coughs again.

Connor was glad that they had stayed in Kitgum. At least he made one right decision amidst all the wrong ones.

"Hospital?" Connor asked.

"Nah, I've probably got the flu or something," Kevin sighed, "there's no need to go back to the hospital."

—

It was eleven in the morning, when Connor and Kevin ended up back at the Kitgum hospital. Connor wondered if Kevin was going to catch a break anytime soon.

All the coughing had caused some of Kevin's stitches to come undone, and his fever was still a cause for concern.

Connor had forgotten how long they had to wait to see a doctor. Not that he wished Kevin was sicker than he was; but a fever, a cough, and a couple of broken stitches meant that they were way down on the doctors' list of priorities. He braced himself for a long long wait.

The exhaustion from his sleepless night was making him more irritable than normal, but Connor forced himself to stay calm no matter what. He didn't want a repeat performance of the previous time he was here.

Sitting quietly beside Connor, Kevin was taking shallow, measured breaths, so as not to set off another bout of coughing.

Connor recounted, "You may not remember it, but the last time we were here, it took three hours of waiting before someone came to check on you."

"And you almost punched someone in rage," Kevin added quietly.

"I did no such thing!" Connor gave a look of mock offence. He was not a violent person, even though he did come very close to losing his cool that night.

"Or that's what Nabalungi said," Kevin shrugged, "I don't really remember the details of that night."

Unfortunately, Connor remembered every single minute of it, and he was sure that the hospital staff did too. He blushed as he spotted one of the nurses stare pointedly at them, commented something to his colleague, who then stared in their direction too.

"Oh no," Connor sank lower in his seat and hid his face behind his hand.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Connor looked at Kevin between his fingers.

"Sit up, will you? You're sliding off the chair."

Connor pushed himself upright reluctantly. He sighed, "I may have lost my temper and yelled at the staff a couple of times that evening."

"Don't forget, you also caused the nurse to trip and drop all her stuff on the floor," Kevin kindly reminded him.

"Thanks Kevin," Connor said indignantly, "I'm probably the 'rude and angry white boy' in their break room conversations. This is embarrassing."

Kevin chuckled before he realised that it was a bad idea, and was overtaken by painful coughs again. Hunched over himself, Kevin whined, "My body hates me."

Connor winced in sympathy. The urge to march over to the nurses' station was overwhelming, but Nabulungi was right, being a nuisance was only going to make things worse.

"Oh! It is you boys again!" A female voice called out.

Connor didn't dare look up at whoever was yelling at them. Did they really make that big of an impression? Maybe it would have been better if they had gone to another hospital where nobody had seen them before.

Connor briefly wondered if he could feign ignorance and pretend to be someone else, and then he realised that there was no way that was going to work for him in Uganda.