Parker sat by Eliot's side grasping onto his hand. "So what is it going to take? I'll stop poking you, I promise. I'll even try to act normal, but I may need a little help with that. You need to help me with that. There's still so much you have to teach me, for one, eating right. You don't want me going back to fortune cookies and twizzlers do you? And I just started learning how to fight. You promised me that you would teach me that move you use to disarm an opponent of their gun. You wouldn't back out on promise now would you?"
As she was talking his breathing became broken and strained.
"Eliot… Eliot, I'm going to get some help, just breathe." She advised as her own heartbeat sped up. Instead of hitting the com button she opened the door and started yelling down the hall. Nate and Sophie broke their grasp to come running after the nurse that was standing behind the station.
"What's going on?" Nate asked in broken breath.
"Mr. Eliot, I'm going to have to ask you to calm down." The nurse insisted ignoring Nate's question as she pushed the button for further assistance.
"Is he waking up?" Sophie asked Nate who shrugged.
"Not quite." The nurse finally answered. "But he's breathing on his own and resisting the respirator. That's it, just calm down. The doctor will be here shortly."
Parker smiled as tears of joy welled up at the base of her eyes. "Here that Sparky, you're going to be okay."
Nate held onto Sophie's hand as they waited for the doctor to remove the tube. Both Parker and Sophie turned away as he did. Nate watched as his body convulsed and turned to the side in a coughing fit. He looked to the doctor for an explanation.
"His throat is going to be sore. Can you grab the ice chips?" He motioned to the nurse, once the fit had subsided, who readily complied. "I'll be back in a bit to check on him."
Sophie stepped up to talk to him, softly brushing her hand through his chestnut locks. "Come on… come back to us." She prodded.
"I'm going to call Hardison." Parker smirked and then nudged Nate before leaving the room. "I told you he was getting better."
"I didn't say he wasn't." Nate threw up his arms in submission.
"Nate, look." Sophie caught his attention as Eliot's eyes started to flutter and within moments he was back to hacking again. The sound coming out was raspier than normal, but there was comfort in knowing the fluid in his lungs was breaking up. They both watched as he struggled to get his breathing back to normal.
"Where am I?" Eliot asked barely audible.
"Massachusetts General." Nate replied. "You were brought here yesterday when we couldn't wake you up. I knew that 90 minute rule was an exaggeration."
Eliot smirked as he worked on orienting himself to his surroundings and attempting to take inventory of his physical condition. Mostly his chest just ached and it took extra exertion to get his lungs to work properly. Once his vision was in focus he saw Sophie standing over him in tears.
"Sorry if I scared ya." He huffed.
"Shhh… we have time for that later. Right now just focus on getting stronger, okay?"
Eliot nodded; content in that plan.
"He's on his way." Parker came back into the room. Nate tilted his head directing her to look over toward the bed. She did to see those gorgeous hazel blue eyes looking back at her. He opened one arm the other held tightly over his abdominal region to allow her in for a hug. Parker sat on the edge of his bed and tilted in gently afraid to do anything that could hurt him. "If anyone asks I'm your fiancé." She warned him.
"Oh?" Eliot coughed, not meaning to.
"Yeah." Nate confirmed then pointed to himself and Sophie. "Brother and sister-in-law. Hardison is a long-time childhood friend."
Eliot nodded.
"Same names." Parker indicated and gave him an ice chip to soothe his throat. "Except your Kyle Eliot, but none us call you Kyle, and I'm Parker Jones. That's Nathan and Sophie Ford."
"I think I can handle that. So why am I here?"
"Because you almost died." Parker responded not understanding the context.
"Since you didn't tell us you were sick we had to make it as general as possible so the doctor could figure it out." Nate stated with an undertone of discontent and proceeded to explain the cover story.
"That burning in your lungs…" Sophie explained. "That's pneumonia. It could have killed you; it nearly did."
He saw the look of fear and helplessness painted on each of their faces and it killed him that he was responsible for that. There was no explanation he could give them except he hadn't realized how far he let it go. "I…."
"Not now." Parker stopped him knowing that eventually the explanation and apology's would need to be dealt with, but at the moment he needed to conserve his energy.
"Want to see if there's a game on?" Nate held up the remote control. Eliot nodded in appreciation and allowed Parker to lay next to him feeding him the ice chips.