Matt was pretty sure that there were sicker people in the world. Thousands of people died of horrible diseases in germ-ridden third-world countries by the minute, but right then, at the particular moment he was pretty sure that it wasn't possible for the human body to contain that much fluid or to feel that utterly awful.

Matt felt a soothing hand rubbing small circles over his back as he finally finished dry-heaving. This was so completely humiliating. After a second, Kurt handed him a cap-full of mouthwash to help with the god-awful taste of bile.

"That's the third time tonight," Kurt said dismally as he spit into the sink.

Like Matt didn't know that.

"Matt, if you don't make a doctor's appointment by noon tomorrow, I'm making one for you." He said as he helped Matt back to the bed, which was one of the few things that the thieves were gracious enough to leave behind.

Even the feel of the 300-Thread Count Organic Cotton was too much for Matt's skin. He was too hot if he bundled up under the covers, but if he didn't keep at least four layers of blankets on top of him, he couldn't seem to stop shivering.

"But I don't want to go to the doctor," Matt whined. "Feel my forehead! I'm fine!" Even as he said it, he knew it was a lie. Mostly because he was coughing up a lung the minute his voice escalated even the slightest bit.

"You're burning up," Kurt said, looking worried as his long fingers brushed away the sweaty fringe of hair along his forehead. "Leah's going to kill me if she finds out that I let you go one more day with a temperature above a hundred without making you go to the doctor. Forget waiting until noon. I'm calling Dr. Inman first thing in the morning."

"Just promise me one thing," Matt pleaded. "I've been sick all weekend and it's not like you being here is going to make a difference one way or the other. I don't want you staying home tomorrow on my account."

"Oh please, you can barely walk in a straight line. BJ can watch the office. Anything important happens, and she can call me."

"And if BJ mouths off to one of your big accounts and you're not there to smooth things over?"

Kurt sighed. "It's either me or BJ staying home with you tomorrow, take your pick."

"I really don't think I need a babysitter. I'm not a little kid. I can take care of myself."

"Matt, do me a favor and stand up. Right this second. Just…humor me and stand up."

He did…and promptly fell face-forward on the bed.

"Point taken," he managed to croak out between coughs.

"You didn't have to come with, you know," Matt croaked as they stepped off the elevator and made their way down the hall to the doctor's office.

"Yes, I did. I had to come because I need to know which doctor's orders you are going to be directly disobeying in the very near future."

"Excuse me, WHO is the doctor here? I think I know what I can and can't live without."

"You're a PSYCHOLOGIST. There's a big difference between the exact science practiced in that office," Kurt said jerking his head towards the door. "And what you do."

Matt just shook his head. It was a sign of how bad he felt that he didn't even have the energy to come up with a good comeback for Kurt's dig.

The doctor's appointment first thing in the morning wasn't awful, Matt knew, but he hated the doctor's office. He hated everything about it. The musty smell from all the old couples sitting around he and Kurt made him want to throw up all over again.

After trying to get cell phone reception and failing, Kurt picked up a six month-old issue of Vogue from the table and began thumbing through it, even though he had already seen the it due to the fact that a couple of his clients had been featured in that issue, but it was either that or Highlights and all the puzzles had already been filled out, so it was a lost cause.

Matt rested his head on Kurt's shoulder and ignored the dirty looks they were getting from a couple of the other waiting patients. His head was pounding and he mostly wanted to never get up again as long as he lived.

"They're going to make me take pills Kurt," Matt whined.

"Probably," Kurt deadpanned. "Actually, correction. I'M going to make you take them."

"You're cruel."

"I'm only cruel because I care," Kurt drawled, and picked up Sports Illustrated. He was about to bemoan the fact that there was no eye-candy like he hoped when the nurse called Matt's name.

According to the menacing glow of the alarm clock, it was sometime around 3AM when Matt was woken by another coughing fit. His partner had slept fitfully and as a result, Kurt hadn't gotten that much rest either, so he opted to take refuge on the couch they'd rented until their lease was up in a month.

Not even Elizabeth Hummel's Magical Chicken Noodle Soup recipe was working its spell on Matt, and Puck's recommendation of Jack Daniels just made him throw up again.

Even all the advances of technology that had occurred in the last thirty years, there was still no cure for the flu, and although the doctor had prescribed foul-tasting horse pills and codeine, it still didn't do much to curtail the symptoms. His fever came and went. Later, Kurt would blame a combination of the drugs and the fever, but the combination of the two was making Matt downright loopy.

"Kurt," Matt said in a voice that was obvious to anyone who would've heard it that he was trying to whisper, but could no more be called a whisper than Lindsay Lohan could be called sane. "Hey, Kurt?"

"Hrrrrrmmmmm?" Kurt mumbled.

"You've gotta check this out!"

"Matt…it's…" he turned his head to glance at the clock. "Reeeeally late. Can't it wait until morning?"

"But the bunnies are dancing now!"

"The…huh?"

Kurt bolted up and he didn't even have to feel Matt's forehead to know that he had a fever. Judging from the wild look in his eye and the way he was laughing at what Matt thought was apparently dancing bunnies.

Gingerly, he rolled over and turned on the light, turned the thermometer on.

"Open," he commanded. At least Matt was a lot more compliant in this state.

He placed the thermometer under Matt's tongue. "Close. And don't say anything."

He got up and moistened a new washcloth.

104. "Matt, this isn't good. If it's still this high by the morning, we're going to have to go to the ER."

"Will George Clooney be there?" Matt said dreamily. Kurt shook his head and placed the washcloth on his forehead. Matt put his hand up, and Kurt thought he was going to try and take the washcloth off, but Matt just smacked his forehead. "Oh, I am an idiot! George Clooney left years ago!"

"Hey, maybe if we're lucky we'll get Noah Wylie," Kurt said softly, playing along. "Or Shane West."

"Hey Kurt?" Matt asked as Kurt was crawling under the covers again.

"Yeah, Matt?"

"Bunnies. Still dancing. Don't think they're supposed to do that."

"They're not really there. You're just hallucinating."

It had been a good half hour since he'd taken Matt's temperature, and he knew there was only one way to fix it.

He filled a bucket with ice, and came back; Matt was not on the bed wear he left him.

"Matt?"

"Sun lights up the daaaaaaay time," Matt was singing, although that would've been a loose term for it given his laryngitis. "Mooooon lights uuuup the niiiight. I light up when you call my name, and you know I'm gonna treat you riiiight."

"Matt, BELIEVE me, I wish this were for reasons that were a lot more…entertaining," he said as he pulled Matt's favorite old OSU sweatshirt over his head. "But your fever isn't coming down by itself and I do not want to make that call to Leah from the emergency room if I can help it."

"You give me FEVER!" Matt sang. It took every ounce of will-power Kurt had not to laugh.

Matt stopped signing the minute he stepped into the freezing-cold tub.

"Hey Kurt?" Matt asked again. It was obvious to Kurt that Matt was trying to whisper, but he was pretty sure that BJ probably heard it in her room across the hall.

"Wanna move back home?"

"We are home."

"No…Lima."

"Now I KNOW you're hallucinating. BJ would never forgive us."

It was six in the morning when Matt woke up alone.

"Kurt?" He called out.

No answer. There was a soft blue glow under the door from the television in the living room, and he threw on a bathrobe and made his way to the living room, which was more difficult than it should've been. Every muscle in his body was screaming. He was stiff from being in bed all day for all the wrong reasons.

He nearly tripped over the newly-replaced couch, and nearly tripped over Kurt…who was snoring. Loudly.

Kurt rarely snored, and Matt knew his partner would be horrified to learn that he ever did. The real estate section of the daily newspaper was open on top of him and Matt oh-so-carefully placed it on the coffee table and put the newly replaced throw over him, which was proving difficult because Matt was still shaky on his feet.

"Hey," Kurt whispered, sitting up.

"Sorry if I woke you."

"No more dancing bunnies?"

Matt shook his head, sitting next to Kurt on the couch, and his hand automatically touched his partner's forehead. "I think your fever finally broke."

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Matt quipped. "Sorry…the medicine's making me irritable."

"I wouldn't blame it on the medicine, General Sarcasmo" Kurt drawled, raising his eyebrow.

"It's wearing you out to play nurse for me, isn't it?"

"No." Kurt lied.

Matt just raised a questioning eyebrow and rested his head on Kurt's lap.

"But as long as we get to play doctor when you start feeling better, I don't mind," Kurt said, grinning.

Matt sighed. "I've had some time recently to re-evaluate a few things."

"Such as?"

"Your parents are getting older. You don't say anything, but I know you're always worried that you're going to get that call from Carole or Finn saying your dad's had another heart attack. I wouldn't exactly mind being closer to Leah, and I miss our old friends just as much as you do. Lima has a significantly lower crime-rate. The chances that we'd have to move again because of another break-in are fairly slim. Plus, that job-offer with Terry? Did I mention it's an office job? With actual REGULAR HOURS? And I'd finally be doing what I got all my fancy degrees to do."

"Matt," Kurt said. "What are you saying?"

"Remember when I suggested that we move to Lima?"

Kurt nodded.

"What do you think?"

"I think we left Lima for a reason," Kurt found himself saying despite how homesick he got from time to time. "I also think your fever is coming back."

"I know the fact that Karofsky is back in Lima…"

"And apparently breeding."

"And apparently breeding…." Matt amended, "is making this a less-than-appealing option, but we're grown men. Who have enough money to hire good attorneys if a situation gets out of hand."

"What about BJ?"

"She might disown us, but I think she'll forgive us when her cell phone bill's due. So…what do you say?"

"You know our friends will NEVER let us live this one down."

"Like that would be the first time."