A/N Hey everybody! Halloween is almost here! What's everyone's plans? Hope you all like this chap!

The night shift nurse at the front desk watched in amazement as, yet again, little Carlos Garcia was dragged into the hospital waiting room by a very tired looking Kendall. This time, the Latino was holding his ear with one hand and had his other arm wrapped around Kendall's. The poor thing was crying quietly and looked to be in quite a bit of pain.

The nurse sighed, ready to greet the boys for what was this, the 4th time?

"What happened this time, kiddos?" She asked when they approached her desk. She was a little concerned when Kendall spoke in a hoarse, weak voice.

"It's Carlos, he was saying his ear hurt really bad and he was screaming and it started to bleed everywhere and now there's some gross looking liquid coming out of it," Kendall said, wondering if he shared too much information. "Is he ok?"

"Sounds like he's burst his eardrum," the nurse said, having seen this type of thing many times before. "Come on back, follow me." The nightly nurse got up from her usual perch and led them back to the hospital rooms, making sure to take note of how slowly Kendall was walking and the dark circles underneath his eyes.

"I burst it?" Carlos asked, stumbling dizzily behind Kendall and the nurse who he thought was kind of mean at first but now he kind of liked. "What's that mean? Is it going to… Un-burst?"

"It should be just fine, Carlos," the nurse said, pointing to the single hospital bed in the tiny room. "Lie down."

Carlos sniffled and did what he was told. He wished he could just fall asleep right there, away from the pain and misery, but he knew he would have to undergo annoying, uncomfortable poking and prodding first.

"Alright, what hurts baby?" The woman asked Carlos, grabbing a thermometer off of a shelf.

"My ear and my tummy," Carlos answered with a sniffle. He opened his mouth for her to insert the thermometer, but she turned her direction in a sneak-attack and unceremoniously jammed it under Kendall's tongue instead.

"Hey!" Kendall cried out in surprise, but the older woman gave him a stern look.

"Don't you take that out of your mouth, mister."

Kendall wavered for a second, hand in mid-air next to his mouth, and after a couple seconds of intense stare-down he finally lowered it and pouted with his arms folded across his chest. Finally, the stupid little thing beeped and the nurse removed it, tssking as she read the numbers.

"One-oh-two point four, Kendall. You have quite a fever. Have you been sleeping properly?" She asked, sitting the ill boy down on a chair. He shook his head in shame.

"No, I have been too busy taking care of Logan and Carlos." At that thought, Kendall's fever-dulled green eyes widened. "Logan! He's here and he's sick, I need to go check on him!" Kendall made a move to get up, Carlos made a wailing noise because he didn't want to be left alone with the nurse who he kind of liked but still scared him a bit, and said scary nurse slammed the blonde right back into the chair.

"Ah-ah, you are staying right here and the doctor is going to check both of you out. Logan is fine, his doctor told me just minutes before you got here that his fever was stable and he and James were both sound asleep."

Kendall groaned, too exhausted to argue, and watched the nurse leave the cramped quarters. He looked over at Carlos, who was looking paler by the second. The younger boy caught his gaze and scooted over a bit, patting the small space next to him. Kendall smiled gratefully and crawled up onto the bed next to his small, sick friend.

"You ok, Carlitos?" the blonde asked when the Latino rested his head tiredly against his shoulder.

"Not really. I'm sorry you're sick, bro," Carlos said sadly.

"S'okay, not your fault. I'm sorry your eardrum exploded on you."

Carlos shrugged and mimicked Kendall's word. "S'okay, not your fault." He sighed and looked at his pale older brother. He felt ashamed at himself, the entire time he was ill he did not once think of James or Kendall's health, or even Logan's for that matter. He just acted like a baby the whole time and kept them awake and made them run around for him. Now Kendall was icky looking and James was probably sick, too. They were all sick and for the first time in his life, Carlos was sure Kendall was wrong. It was all his fault.

Carlos whimpered and rubbed his ear. He was so tired of being sick, and it had only been a couple of days. He just wanted to get better so he could take care of his friends as well as they took care of him.

"Carlos, what's the matter?" Kendall asked. Even when the blonde was feeling this sick, he always knew whenever one of his buddies was upset. Carlos definitely looked very upset right now. His lower lip quivered, along with his dimpled chin, and his eyes were round and droopy with sadness. Unfortunately, his question went unanswered because a doctor walked in, the same one who just finished caring for Logan and James and took care of Carlos the first 2 times he was here.

"Hey boys, I heard that both of you aren't feeling too good right now. What's bothering you?"

"My ear hurts and my tummy feels yucky," Carlos answered immediately. Kendall, however, stayed silent.

"Kendall, what's hurting you son?" The doctor asked, pressing his hand to Kendall's hot forehead. The blonde flinched away. Strange people touching him always bothered him. The middle-aged man sighed. "You gotta tell me what's wrong or else I can't help you. Is it your head, throat?"

"No, I'm fine," Kendall said automatically, even though his head was pounding and he felt dizzy and weak. His stomach was starting to act up too, his insides churning very slowly. He knew it could only be the start of a very bad stomachache.

"Tell him Kendall, he will make you feel better," Carlos said innocently. Kendall shrugged because he felt like there was nothing to tell. If doctors were as all-mighty as Logan and everyone else made them out to be, than why couldn't the man just know right away what was ailing him and just give him some medicine?

"You'll even get a sticker," Carlos added, trying to forget about his own pain to get Kendall to open up.

"A lion sticker," the doctor joked, holding up a large yellow sticker with a goofy cartoon lion on the front.

"Oh, I want the lion!" Carlos gasped, reaching forward and snatching it from the doctor's grasp. Kendall smirked, but still kept his lips clamped shut. He was perfectly fine, all he needed was some sleep and he would be good as new.

"Ok, well I'm just gonna look at Carlos here, maybe you'll let me check you out after I am done?" The doctor asked, getting out his supplies to help the youngest boy. Kendall shrugged. It was doubtful, but the doctor hoped the teenager would come to his senses and admit he was sick. After all, the kid looked almost as ill as Carlos.

Kendall watched the doctor fix Carlos up with worried eyes. To him, it seemed like the doctor only was hurting him with the tools, not making him better. The doctor had given him some pain medication right away, but it didn't seem to help any. When the white-coated man stuck something in Carlos' hurt ear to look inside of it, the young boy flinched, resulting in the instrument accidently jamming into his abused ear. Poor Carlos screamed out in pain, followed by a sob. He turned away from the doctor and hid his face against Kendall's chest, his entire thin body trembling in pain.

"Owiee," Carlos sobbed, rubbing his ear to make the sharp pain go away. Kendall gave the doctor a dark look and wrapped his arms around Carlos' waist protectively.

"You hurt him," Kendall accused, rocking the bundle in his arms to get him to calm down, because his loud cries were making his head pound like an angry hammer. The doctor looked at the boys apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Kendall, he has a busted ear drum of course he's going to be in pain. The medication should be kicking in soon."

"Well you're not touching him until it does kick in," Kendall said firmly.

The doctor wondered briefly why he was always stuck with the hard patients, especially these boys. He had taken care of them before, seeing as how one or the other was always falling out of a tree or eating something rotten on a dare, but he had never had all 4 of them in one night. It was starting to stress him out.

The 2 boys and the man sat in awkward silence for a few minutes, the stifling air only interrupted by the occasional hiccup from Carlos. Kendall was starting to doze off, one arm around Carlos and the other moved to clutch his aching stomach. The doctor knew it was only a matter of time before Kendall would be in need of his assistance.

"Carlos, I really need to check your ear again-" the doctor tried to speak, but Kendall snapped his eyes open and glared daggers at the man before turning to Carlos.

"Carlos, is your ear feeling better?" Kendall asked. The smaller boy shrugged.

'I just want to get this over with and go see Logan and James," Carlos replied. He pointed to his ear and cringed. "Hit me."

The doctor smiled and looked inside Carlos' ear. This time, the boy did not flinch and while the intrusion was uncomfortable, it didn't cause him as much pain as before. The doctor did various other things to Carlos that doctors do.

"Is he alright?" Kendall asked for about the 5th time. The doctor smiled, finally finished looking at his patient.

"Well, I think he'll live," the doctor said with a wink. "His fever is still a bit high and he has a touch of bronchitis, so I will just give you a refill on his antibiotics because he'll need to take them for a little bit longer now, especially because he's running a risk of getting a deep ear infection because of his eardrum."

"Is his ear going to be ok though?" Kendall asked. He was filled with questions, such as why it seemed as though Carlos was only getting sicker instead of better.

"It should heal completely in a few weeks. He might have fuzzy hearing for a while, but he'll be fine. If his ear starts to bother him, just put a warm compress on it. But you need to keep him in bed until his infections clear up. His immune system is very weak right now and he needs all the rest he can get, so the infections can get better instead of progressing further. He's a very sick boy right now. I know his tummy is getting upset, but make sure he's eating fruits and carbs and of course, chicken noodle soup and he needs plenty of water."

"How long is it going to take for him to start feeling better?" Kendall asked, running a hand through Carlos' dark curls.

"At least a week, if you follow my instructions."

"Can I go see Logie now?" Carlos asked with a cough.

"I think you need to go home now, Logan is sleeping. You can come back in the morning," the doctor said, hoping that by the time they came back Kendall would give up the stubborn act. The blonde was really starting to concern him. He was too pale for his liking.

"We can't just leave him, I promise I'll be quiet," Carlos said.

"How about this, since you both are sick, Kendall I don't even want you driving right now, you 2 can stay here and sleep for a couple hours and then go see Logan. It would do no good to send you boy's home with nobody to care for you. I'll let you boy's sleep and tell a nurse to come check on you in a little bit. You can even have jello, Carlos."

"Yay," Carlos said weakly. The Latino was given a dose of antibiotics and cough syrup, than tucked into bed by Kendall.

"Get some sleep Kendall," Carlos said, voice slow and eyes closed. The small boy curled against Kendall's side and forced himself to stay awake until he could hear steady, soft snores coming from Kendall's before falling asleep himself.

A/N Oh no, now Kendall's got it! Next chap should be super cute. Have a happy Halloween and a fun weekend love you all! Reviews are frosting!