##### Greg's apartment, 0345 hrs #####

Greg started awake when his alarm went off. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Meds, get Sam his meds, he thought. He stood up from the mattress and walked to the kitchen. He grabbed both prescriptions, a glass of water and the flashlight. He walked into Sam's room, pushing the door open and turned on the flashlight. He put the pills down on the bedside table and then the flashlight, pointing away from Sam. He opened each one and took a pill from each. He turned the flashlight towards Sam, put a hand on his shoulder and shook it gently. Sam was on his back, but he rolled to his side when Greg shook him.

"Mmph." Sam grumbled. Who was waking him up and why?

"Sam? Time for your meds." Greg whispered.

Sam took a breath in and forced his eyes open, but they closed half way. He went up on his elbow, took the pills in his free hand and the glass in the one he was leaning on. He willed his eyes to open. It wasn't too light in the room so it was easier for him to open them and keep them open after a moment. He popped the pills into his mouth and took a long drink of the water. He handed the water back to Greg and laid back on his side. "Thanks Boss."

"You're welcome." Greg smiled. He took the pills, empty glass and flashlight and left the room. He put them back in the kitchen and returned to his bed. Before he fell asleep he reset his watch for another seven and a half hours. Although he was usually getting up right now for workout, it had been an exhausting couple of days. He allowed himself to go back to sleep.

He woke up again four hours later. He yawned and stretched in the bed. He actually felt pretty rested. He'd slept like ten hours total. That was more than he usually got. After a tough day, he was often still up at 2100 or 2200 hours which is late when you have to get up at 0300 to make 0400 workout. He yawned again and got up off the bed. He pulled it into his room and closed the door. He grabbed his clothes for the day and went into the bathroom to shower and change.

Sam opened his eyes. The one window in the room had a dark blanket thrown over the curtain rod. He let a small smile play on his lips. He was grateful for everything that Greg and the others did to help him. He could still feel the headache, but it was 75% better than it was. He sat up slowly and tested his head. Not bad. I can still feel it twinge sometimes. Suddenly his eyes got wide. Oh god, he thought. I got the good stuff. What did I say? What did I do? He had a hard time remembering after and he wracked his brain.

He remembered holding Jules hand. Intertwined fingers. Oh god, did he- did he lick them? He remembered something about snozberries. Wordy. He'd been horrified that he wasn't dressed right. But dressed right for what? Oh god, their date? He could feel his face getting red, his ears felt hot. He put a hand to his head and ran it through his hair.

Greg walked to the door in time to see the gesture and Sam's red face. He was really glad to see Sam sitting up. He must be feeling better, he thought. He stepped into the room. "Hi Sam. Good to see you sitting up. How you feeling?"

Sam looked at him and his face got redder, if it was possible. He was now the color of a tomato.

"Don't worry, we won't pick on you for too long." Greg smiled, but he could see Sam was worried. "You didn't do anything horribly embarrassing. Honest."

"What did I do?" Sam asked wearily. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Well, you'll have to ask Jules what you said or did in the exam room. She only said that you were out of it, but pretty funny."

She hadn't told them, he thought. That's interesting. Unless he did something horribly embarrassing and she was too embarrassed to tell them. Crap. "What about Wordy? I remember something about not being dressed for our, uh, date?"

"Yeah." Greg laughed. "Apparently while I went to get the car, Wordy was keeping you steady with an arm around your waist, and you asked if you were on a date. Then you were horrified because you realized you weren't dressed right."

"Oh man." Sam pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Well Ed and I got you here and you were so funny. I imagine that's probably what you're like drunk and I have to say you are a happy drunk. While Ed and I were engrossed in our chess game, you army crawled to the bathroom and fell asleep in the tub." At Sam's furrowed brows, Greg continued, "apparently you had to go the bathroom and couldn't sit on the toilet by yourself. That was true. Ed had to keep a hand on you to keep you steady.

On the way back from the bathroom, Ed asked if you wanted to watch TV or go to bed and you thought about it." They both laughed. "Then you said, 'sorry Ed, but I'm not your type'." They laughed harder. "Then he said 'well I'm sure Soph will be glad to hear that. Do you want to watch TV or go to sleep?' You said. 'TV! Couch ho!'.

Sam wiped tears from his eyes. He laid back on the bed crossways and was laughing harder than he ever had.

"Ed thought you called him a ho." Greg wiped tears from his eyes too. "Then when we asked you what you wanted for supper you said, 'Timmy Timmah.' We had no clue what that meant."

Sam stopped laughing long enough to say, "it's from a TV show called South Park."

"Oh!" Greg wiped more tears from his face and tried to catch his breath. "Man!" He said finally. He went to the bathroom and blew his nose. He brought back some tissue for Sam.

Sam blew his nose and winced. That hurt his head.

Greg saw it and asked, "what's your pain level Sam?"

Sam looked at him. "4." He answered honestly.

Greg could see in his eyes that he was telling the truth. "Not too bad then."

"No. It's still there, but better than when I woke up last night." Sam gave him a serious look. "I'm sorry. I should've told you, especially when it started getting really bad."

"Yes you should've. Why did you hide it?" Greg went and sat next to him on the bed.

"I don't know. I thought it would go away I guess. I was tired anyway so I figured maybe it would go away if I slept. But it got to be more than I could handle." Sam shrugged and looked at the floor.

"Don't you- I mean, do you trust me?" Greg asked, hurt that Sam hadn't trusted him to try to fix it.

Sam looked at Greg and felt terrible about the hurt he saw there. "Boss. Of course I trust you. That wasn't it at all." Sam stopped. Damn you General, he thought. "Part of it was because I was angry at my father." He started. "The General is my father, and it pissed me off that he called Halloren and not me. I'm in deep trouble here and he couldn't bother to come help himself? Although part of me wished he wouldn't come."

Greg looked at him a little confused.

"Our relationship is, strained at best. We butt heads a lot, especially about the fact that I'm with the SRU now and not in the Army. If he had his way I'd still be in the Army and would end up a General like him. But I will never be like him, ever." Sam said the last part with all of the conviction he felt.

"I can understand the mixed feelings. He's your dad so you want him to come to your rescue, but it would be very, complicated if he came."

"Right." Sam turned to face him, his right leg bent and up on the bed. "But that's no excuse for not telling you about my headache and other symptoms." He was sure the doc had told him about those too. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"Good." Greg nodded. "So from now on I want you to be completely honest with me. It's my job to make sure you don't get any worse, so I'm going to be annoying and ask you how you're feeling and your pain level. We can increase or decrease your dosage based on how you feel so no more mr. tough guy. Honest answers only, capiche?"

Sam nodded, a small one so as not to hurt his head. "Capiche."

"That must be hard during the holidays." Greg stood and Sam followed.

"Ugh. You have no idea!" Sam said as they walked to the living room.

"So, the doctor said no stress and for you to just rest. So please sit." Greg motioned to the couch. "I will make breakfast. Is eggs and bacon ok?"

Sam looked at him. "Ok, new rule. If I have to be honest about how I'm feeling, then you have to let me help around the house. No waiting on me. I'm assuming the doc wants me to stay with you for a while." He stopped.

"Yes. At least a week." Greg explained what the doctor had told them and how they were hoping to make him better to return to work.

Sam was less than pleased when he heard he had to take at least a week, maybe two off from work. Good thing he had some vacation time to use.

Greg could see that missing work was stressing Sam out so he went to his bedroom and grabbed his stress ball off of the bookcase. He tossed it to Sam when he got back to the living room. "You are to use that as a stress reliever."

Sam started squeezing the ball hard and fast. After a minute he slowed down then finally stopped.

"Good. Although I may have to buy a new stress ball after this week." Greg smiled and moved towards the kitchen. "You have a deal, but this is mine. So, eggs and bacon?"

Sam smiled. "And toast?"

"You got it." Greg smiled and stepped into the kitchen.

An hour later, the dishes were done from breakfast and they were hanging out on the couch. Sam looked up at the clock, 0900. He'd never gone this long without being dressed for the day. He stood and walked to his room. He came back out with clothes and bathroom bag. "Hey Sarge, how do I run the shower and where are the towels?"

Greg stood and showed Sam the shower and the closet next to the bathroom with the towels. Sam thanked him, closed the door, stripped and climbed in the shower, letting the hot water run over his head. It actually feel good, like a warm massage. He hoped it would help to alleviate the headache more.

About twenty minutes later, Sam emerged from the bathroom looking more relaxed. He put his things away in his room and made the bed. He felt like the room was too messy with his bags on the floor, clothes hanging out. "Hey Sarge?"

Greg jumped up from the couch and ran into the bedroom.

Sam looked up from the bags on the floor. His frown changed to surprise. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you run. I was just wondering if I could use the dresser. It's a mess in here with my bags all over the floor."

Greg looked around the room. The bed was neatly made, the pillows tucked neatly under the covers. His bags were piled neatly in the corner with his bathroom bag on top. He could see the sleeve of a t-shirt hanging out of one of the bags. It looked fine to him, although he could see how it may not meet Army neatness standards. "Yeah sure. Help yourself." He smiled.

"Thanks." Sam smiled back. "This is, thanks won't be enough for everything you're doing." He pulled Greg into a hug. "It really means a lot."

"I know." Greg hugged him back solidly. He pulled back and put a hand on his shoulder. He turned and left, letting Sam get his things put away.

Sam finally got his clothes in the dresser and closet. He looked around the room. His bathroom bag was on the dresser and his bags were stored, folded neatly and stacked, on the shelf in the closet. Better. That is much better, he thought. His head was starting to pound again so he went back to the living room and sat on the couch. The alarm went off on Greg's watch and Sam flinched.

"Pain level?" Greg asked.

"Moving to a six, maybe seven." Sam answered.

"It wore off a little sooner." Greg said surprised. "Maybe we'll have to up the dose."

"Not yet." Sam looked at him with a pleading look. "I don't want to have to be dependant on it."

"I know. We'll wait and see, but remember the doc said it'll get worse before it gets better." Greg reminded him.

"I know. So you have to promise me, if we have to up it and it makes me like I was yesterday that you won't let anyone visit." When Greg opened his mouth to protest. Sam put up a hand. "I know, it was funny, but I don't have control of myself and I may say or do something to make someone mad and I don't want that."

Greg thought about that for a minute. "Ok Sam. I promise." Anything that would give him less stress was a good idea.

Sam let the breath out he was holding. "Good." He looked at Greg with an amused expression. "Meds please?"

"Oh yeah." Greg smiled. He stood, went to the kitchen, got the pills and brought them to Sam with a glass of water.

Sam took them and drank the whole glass of water. He stood to get another glass of water, but Greg stood and took the glass from him. He went to the kitchen, open and closed a few cabinets and filled Sam's cup.

When Greg brought the full glass back, Sam took a sip and put it on the table, spearing Greg with a hard look. "I thought you promised no babying me?"

"Sorry. I had to put the prescriptions away anyway." Greg shrugged. He was still cautious about letting Sam have free access to the pills. He seemed to be in good spirits now, but if the headaches got worse, he didn't know what that would do to his mood.

Sam looked at Greg. He's keeping the prescriptions from me, he thought. I must've scared him last night. I was in a lot of pain, he reasoned. I guess I can see how he might worry about how that would affect my mental state. If he only knew what my mental state had been the past year. He'd be right to be scared.