Kelly went to bed that night with his throat still hurting every time he swallowed, though he could admit it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it had been the other day. He fell asleep fairly quickly to his own surprise, and slept off and on through the night, and when he woke up the next morning, he felt a momentary relief when he realized his throat wasn't hurting anymore. But it was short lived when he realized his body had made a trade. His whole nose felt stopped up and he was choking on something in the back of his throat. Apparently whatever was burning his throat for two days was now intent on working its way up and out out of him as he spent the day going through a whole box of Kleenex and coughing crud up practically nonstop. Casey watched this unfold and made another mental note that they were going to need about 10 more boxes of Kleenex just to get through the better part of the week.

Of course, Kelly being Kelly, he tried to downplay it, hard as it was when he couldn't go five minutes without blowing his nose, and each time took four or five tissues, and tried to insist he was okay. Casey knew better, but he also knew better than to try getting Kelly to admit it. After lunch however, Kelly went into a violent coughing fit that lasted for almost two straight minutes, and had him bent over the sink until it passed. And when it finally did, he turned towards Casey, who looked at him with an expression of horror.

"What is it?" Kelly asked.

"Kelly, I heard that," Casey said. Until that point, every time Kelly coughed it sounded annoying, but not concerning, but this time he'd heard the rattling in Kelly's chest, that in an attempt to knock whatever was in there loose, his whole body sounded like it was about to tear in two.

"So you heard it," Kelly replied slightly defensively, "I felt it."

"That's going to be a problem, Kelly," Matt told him, already foreseeing Severide having to go to the hospital for pneumonia if that didn't clear up.

It was obvious that Kelly wanted to argue, but he couldn't and he knew it.

"Are you going to be okay by yourself while I run to the store?" Casey asked, concerned.

Kelly weakly laughed, "I'm a grown man, Casey."

"So's Capp, that's not a good argument," Matt replied.

"Yes," Kelly sighed, "I'll be fine."

"Don't do anything stupid."

"Like what?" Kelly asked. "I can hardly get out of range of a trash can or a sink."

"Just take it easy, and I'll be back in a little while," Casey told him.

"Yes, Mom," Kelly cynically replied.

Even if Kelly wanted to do something that day, he was feeling the effects of coughing and blowing his nose nonstop and could hardly even stand on his feet. He made it over to the couch and sat down to watch TV, and had briefly fallen asleep when he heard the door open and saw Casey come in carrying several grocery bags.

"How're you doing?" Casey asked.

Kelly shrugged, "Okay."

"Come into the kitchen, I got you something."

Somehow, there was something in what Casey said that reminded Kelly of when he was a kid and his mom used to make him take the worst taking medicines imaginable.

And he didn't feel that far off when he saw Casey unloading the groceries, among several 3-packs of Kleenex and several more cans of tomato soup, a few bottles of Gatorade, a bottle of Tylenol, a jar of Vicks vapor rub, and another jug of orange juice, there was a bottle of Mucinex sitting on the table.

"What's that?" he asked.

Casey picked up the bottle and about shoved it into Kelly's chest, "You need to take that to knock that crap loose in your chest, or dry it up, or whatever it does, to get rid of it."

Kelly grumbled, already anticipating he wasn't going to like this. He glanced over the label to make sure he knew what he was doing, poured a tablespoon and took it. The second after it went in his mouth his eyes widened and crossed and he made an incoherent sound and he shook his head from side to side so hard his cheeks made a slapping sound as he made a growling sound of disgust. When he actually swallowed it he squeezed his eyes shut and his tongue stuck out of his mouth as he made several groaning sounds of misery.

"That's the worst tasting stuff I ever took," he said.

"Yeah, and you still have to take another one," Casey told him.

"Bleah! I don't want to."

"Do it anyway!"

Grumbling and grimacing, Kelly poured another spoonful and took it, and had a very similar reaction to the first dose. He got a glass of water and drank part of it and swooshed and spat out the other part, trying to get the taste out of his mouth, to no avail.

Casey suggested, "Let's get lunch and maybe that'll do it."

Kelly was willing to try. He ate another can of tomato soup and even that wasn't able to take the taste of the medicine out of his mouth, in fact it was going on dinner when he finally realized the taste was no longer embedded in his tongue. And as soon as dinner was over, Casey blocked his path, the bottle and a spoon in hand again.

"No way," Kelly shook his head.

"You need to take it," Casey told him.

"Uh uh, not again."

"Kelly, however bad it is, being in the hospital because that crud's storing in your chest is going to be far worse."

"Easy for you to say, you don't have to swallow it," Kelly replied.

"Okay, let me think," Casey held the two items in the crook of his elbow and thought, and he went over to the fridge and came back with a can of Dr. Pepper and suggested, "Maybe something with carbonation can wash it down better."

Kelly felt like a little kid getting punished for something, but he knew Casey wouldn't get off his back until he did it. He took the can, the bottle and the spoon over to the sink, popped the can open, poured another dose and swallowed it, and went through the same reaction he did earlier. As soon as he swallowed the second tablespoon he knocked back some of the soda and immediately spat it out, Casey could see a mixture of cola brown and medicine bluish green trailing down the drain. Kelly knocked back another mouthful, swooshed it around in his mouth and spat it out too. Then he drank another mouthful and actually swallowed it that time, all the while making the same disgusted noises he had earlier. As bad as Matt felt for his friend, he couldn't help feeling a little amused by it either. It was a couple minutes before Kelly finally stopped sputtering and spitting and by that time the soda can was empty.

"Better now?" Casey inquired, a bit sarcastically.

Kelly groaned, "I can't taste it now, but it's making my stomach cramp up, that is some nasty stuff."

"So's pneumonia," Casey replied, "you'll feel better soon."

Kelly groaned again and remarked, "I hope so." He picked up the bottle and examined the label very closely in front of his face, and his eyebrows knotted together as he said, "Hey Casey...it says this stuff's supposed to help you stop coughing, but also says it's got stuff in it to make you cough."

"What? Give me that," Casey took the bottle, looked it over and saw Severide was right, it had one medicine to control cough, then another medicine in it to work as an expectorant. He shrugged and replied, "Controls regular coughing, loosens the crud so you can cough it up."

"It still sounds weird to me," Kelly said.

"Well hopefully it'll work and you won't have to take it again tomorrow," Casey told him.

Kelly groaned and grimaced and remarked, "I hope not."

Casey had thought once Kelly stopped throwing up that he'd be able to sleep through the night, he hadn't counted on just how loud it would be to hear Severide coughing and blowing his nose all night. By morning Casey felt like a zombie, he could feel his hair sticking up in places, his eyes felt heavy, his lower lids felt like huge bags. He sure as hell hoped Kelly got over this flu quick, if he didn't start getting some sleep he might have to hurt somebody.

Morning came too soon and Matt found himself seated at the kitchen table, wishing he could go back to sleep, his nerves getting slightly more frazzled every time Kelly sounded like he was trying to blow a lung up through his nose. His whole body actually jerked at one particularly loud instance, which was promptly cut-off halfway through and replaced with a sudden noise that sounded like a yelp. Casey turned in his seat and saw Kelly was halfway to falling on his knees on the floor, just barely grabbing the countertop for support.

"Whoa!" Casey moved out of his chair and crouched down beside Kelly in one swift movement and tried to get him steady, but decided it'd be easier to work from the floor up and helped Kelly sit down before he fell down.

Kelly looked like his head was swimming, with a mild touch of panic added to it as he told the blonde man, "Everything's spinning."

"It's alright, you just made yourself dizzy, take it easy, it'll pass," Casey told him.

Kelly's eyes fluttered as he weakly rolled his neck, "Feel like I'm gonna..."

"Easy, easy, Kelly," Casey put his hands on Severide's shoulders, gripping them firmly, "it's alright, just calm down."

Kelly closed his eyes and pressed his back against the cupboard doors as he waited for the feeling to pass. He started breathing hard as he tried to talk, "I d'nno what happened..."

"I do," Casey replied, "you've been blowing your brains out all morning and you've hardly eaten for three days."

"I ate," Kelly responded, both defensively and weakly at the same time.

"I know," Casey said as he slowly helped Kelly up to his feet, "but you need something to run on besides soup, you need to actually eat."

Kelly made a small whining sound in response. Then he pointed an accusing finger at Casey and told him, "No more medicine."

"As long as nothing rattles."

"It won't, it can't," Kelly replied as he pulled out a chair at the table and sat down, "not after everything I've coughed up."

"Then you should have nothing to worry about," Casey replied as he patted Severide on the back a couple times. "So what sounds good for breakfast?"

"Nothing," Kelly answered.

"You have to eat."

"I know, it still doesn't," Kelly responded.

Casey sighed as he sat down across from him. "It's going to be one of those days, isn't it?"

Kelly sheepishly looked at Casey just through the corners of his eyes as he murmured, "Sorry."

Casey sighed tiredly as he replied, "It's okay...did you get much sleep last night?"

Kelly shook his head. "No."

"Me either...what do you say we go back to bed and see if anything sounds good for lunch?"

Kelly nodded, "Sounds like a plan to me."

Kelly had to sleep with his head propped up on three pillows to be able to breathe for the time being. It wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, but it took some getting used to. He'd gone in and out of sleep for a while, hearing the birds outside chirping, hearing traffic go by, he wasn't sure when he actually fell asleep, but when he woke up the sun was practically blinding him, rolling over he saw the time was 11:45. He rolled over again and about fell out of bed entirely, he wearily pulled himself to his feet, and still feeling dizzy and everything looking like it had a slight spin to it, he made his way over to the door and headed out into the hall, and about collided with Casey who was just coming out of his room.

"How're you feeling?" Casey asked.

"Weak," Kelly answered, "you?"

"I slept for a while," Casey said as they moved to the kitchen. "Anything sound good?"

"I'll just have a sandwich."

"What kind?"

"Ham."

"We don't have any," Casey said, "I'll head down to the store. You need anything else?"

The loud sound of Kelly blowing his nose was an unexpected response and made Casey's eyes widen to their full capacity.

"More Kleenex," he guessed as he gathered up his keys and his wallet.