Hi I'm starting something new because I've never done a "Whumptober" Thing and I'm actually insane :D

So, this fic requires a rather hefty disclaimer before we continue.

I love L-Unit. SO much. And I love K Unit. SO much. Unfortunately, I can't do everything I want in There's No Place Like Home, simply because I don't have the time or space in the story. So…I figured I'd try a Whumptober for Alex, featuring both K and L Units! Lots of whump to come. I was going to do mostly Alex, but if you'd like to see other characters in the whump role, let me know and I'll plan accordingly XD

I am also more than willing to bring back deceased characters to take care of Alex or to be in the whump roles (i.e. Yassen, Jack, Sabina, Ian, Helen, John, etc.) upon request

They mostly take place while Alex is in the SAS as Jaguar with K and L-units, and I want to say this right now: THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME HAS NO IMPACT ON THIS FIC ASIDE FROM THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. Hope I made that clear enough, haha

*If you've read it, it may help you understand the dynamic between L-Unit and some references too the characters' pasts or personalities, ad their dynamic with K-Unit, but you don't have to have read to enjoy. (I do encourage you to read it just bc I think it's a good story tho lol)*

Also, these are probably going to be pretty short—they'll have to be if I have any chance of keeping up with them, lol. They're just gonna be cute little one-shots (I do have a couple two and three shots planned) but they're probably not gonna be as deep as I get in There's No Place Like Home.

Love you all! Thanks for giving this story a chance, and I hope you enjoy :)

PS: Since several of you have commented you generally don't like 1st person POV, we'll do third for your sakes :D

A: Achoo

Alex knew as soon as he woke up that it was going to be a bad day.

The weather in Wales was notorious for its dreary character, and it was getting colder, but Alex had been trying to take care of himself—he'd actually been sleeping and drinking water lately. Unfortunately, it seemed that wasn't sufficient, because his throat was killing him, and he couldn't really breathe through his nose.

Man. Bear was going to be all over him.

The sounds of a dismal rain pattered on the old window to his left, He listened carefully before sitting up to make sure the rest of his unit was still asleep, shivering as his bare feet touched the cold floor of the hut. If he could get ready and get breakfast before his unit was up, maybe he could hide from them for the remainder of the day, or until he felt better.

He made it two steps towards his duffle before he felt a tickle in his nose that somehow evolved into a volcanic sneeze.

He was surprised the walls didn't rattle.

He sneezed again, quieter this time, and felt like his head was going to burst from the pressure, but he was more concerned with the rustle of blankets behind him.

Alex took a step back just in time to fall on his arse on his bed, the world spinning. Bloody hell, he felt awful.

"Jag?" He heard Bear's thick voice from the bottom bunk opposite him. He waved a hand in his general direction, but Bear didn't see, continuing, "Y'alright?"

"Mm-hm," Alex tried, but it came out more "Buh-huh", since his nasal passageways were well and truly blocked.

"Yikes," Bear said, hissing in sympathy. "You sound awful."

"Shut up," Alex muttered, rubbing his temples.

Alex heard Bear pad quietly in his direction, and gave one last valiant attempt to wave him away. "I'b fide." He scowled. He meant to say he was fine, but it looked like that wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

"And I'm the Queen," Bear argued, crouching in front of him. Alex was sitting on his bed, bent over his knees, trying desperately to ignore the jackhammer in his skull, so that was really the only position in which Bear could see his face. Bear slid a hand onto his forehead, under his bangs, and Alex closed his eyes. "Damn. You've got a fever, mate."

Hm. That explained why he felt so cold.

"S'goin' on?" Lion asked, words slurred with the thick remnants of sleep, peering over the top of his bunk. "Bear?"

"Jaguar's got a fever," Bear said in explanation, pushing lightly at Alex's shoulder. Given that Alex's brain had been replaced with bricks, the action very nearly sent him sprawling, and he glared up at Bear. "Lie back, c'mon. You're not doing anything today."

Alex blinked. "It's the SAS, not school. I can't just skip."

"Oh my God, you sound like a dead frog," Tiger muttered from his bunk. "Just lay down and shut up so the rest can sleep."

In an instance of unfortunate serendipitously, Lion's alarm clock went off.

Tiger sighed, long and loud. "Excellent."

Alex tried to push Bear's hands away and stand, but he was shivering so hard he couldn't seem to summon the coordination necessary for the endeavor.

"Bloody hell, kid, just lie down," Bear said, his voice tight with annoyance. Alex could hear his patience wearing thin. "We won't do anything fun without you, I promise. It's just a regular day."

"The Sergeant—"

"—is a reasonable man," Lion said as he swung down from his bunk, "People get sick. It happens."

"But—"

"If I told you to take a 10-mile run right now, what would you say?" Tiger asked as he descended his ladder, yawning.

Alex's first instinct was to say I'd tell you to take your run and shove it somewhere nice and dark, but unfortunately that would just further reinforce his discomfort. "I'd say fine."

"No you wouldn't," Bear scoffed, giving up on niceties and shoving Alex's chest a little. Alex, without the center of balance or strength to remain upright, fell onto his back, frowning in annoyance. "Even on a good day you'd come up with some stupidly witty way of telling us to piss off."

Alex scowled.

"I'll talk to the Sergeant, so just take it easy today, yeah?" Lion said, tousling his hair when Alex remained flat on the bed, feeling acquiescence creep into his dwindling will. "We're not doing anything special today. Go back to sleep."

Alex hummed (or tried to) as he readjusted, sighing in failure. "Fine, but I'm getting up after lunch."

"No, you're not."

Alex didn't correct him. It wasn't worth it, anyways.

Lion was telling the truth—from what Eagle said at lunch, it was a stupidly normal day. A couple runs of the assault course, a small competition between a few units (in which L-Unit didn't even participate), and a five-mile run. The Sergeant must've been in a particularly good mood, or something.

"Snake said he'd stop by later and check on you," Eagle said, lounging in one of L-Unit's wooden chairs with his feet on Alex's bed. "And that means Wolf and Fox will probably be by as well."

Alex scowled again, tossing a used tissue in the rubbish bin. "I don't need seven nursemaids, you know. Three is plenty."

Eagle smirked, looking unapologetic. "Get used to it. It's called having friends."

Alex dismissed the warmth in his chest as the heat of the fever that was remaining stubbornly high, and flipped him off. It was, unfortunately, interrupted by a rather powerful sneeze, at which Eagle laughed.

Despite the fact that he was loathe to wasting the day when he really would've been perfectly fine (perhaps that was an overstatement, but no one else needed to know), he had to admit the downtime was somewhat nice, even if he felt like Death's doorbell for most of the day.

He dozed most of the day, and he knew his fever was oscillating because the higher it was, the odder his dreams. During moments of wakefulness, there was usually someone from L or K-Units plying him with water and Powerade, which was nice because he honestly didn't know if he'd have the strength to make multiple trips to the cafeteria.

He woke up for longer than five minutes for the first time that evening. He blinked at the bottom of Lion's bunk and sniffled; he didn't feel as dead. Perhaps his fever had gone down a little.

"Feeling any better?" Wolf asked. Alex started a bit; he hadn't realized Wolf was there. He was sitting in a chair by Alex's bed, reading a Russian book.

Alex nodded, pleased that his headache wasn't nearly as bad. "A little, yeah. What time is it?"

"Almost five," Wolf responded, reaching into a bag at his feet and emerging with a thermometer. "Take your temperature."

Alex was glad it was Wolf and not Snake or Bear; had it been one of them, they'd've probably tried to take it themselves, which would've made Alex feel even more like a child than he already did.

It was an older model, so it took well over a minute before it finally went off. Alex frowned. "38.2 degrees." (A/N: This is England so that's the degrees in Celsius; in Fahrenheit it's about 100.8).

Wolf sighed and muttered something under his breath. "It was 38.9 degrees earlier, so I suppose that's a little better, but it's still not great. I'll tell Sergeant you'll probably be out tomorrow, too."

"No, I'll be fine tomorrow," Alex defended weakly, tossing the thermometer in the bag when prompted. "Seriously, I'm not a little kid. I can work through a fever—"

"Zip it, stubborn arse," Wolf grumbled, rolling his eyes. "I don't care how old you get, you'll always be a kid to us. Sergeant already said to rest up, so shut up and follow orders."

Alex opened his mouth to argue, closed it, and opened it again. "I don't—"

"God, you're giving me a headache," Wolf said, rubbing his forehead. "Just go to sleep."

Alex debated trying to argue again, but he was still tired, and the thought of trying to get up and do anything was exhausting just to think about. He obliged, sleeping until L-Unit got back that night.

The next day was spent much the same, and Alex had a feeling the Sergeant was letting his unit mares sit with him on rotation, because he was never alone when he woke up. His fever broke sometime overnight, but he still felt poorly, so he rested all the next day, as well. Bear yelled at him when he tried to join them in the cafeteria for dinner.

It was somewhat annoying to be consistently fussed over—Alex wasn't used to it, and hadn't been since Jack had died—but it was (he had to reluctantly admit) a little nice, too. It was nice to know he had people to rely on now.

He smiled a little where he dozed, content to sleep in relative safety.

The next week, Alex felt healthy as a horse, refreshed and quite energetic.

Unfortunately, five of his seven unit mates were unconscious for the better part of three days, during which Alex and Fox and Tiger rotated nursemaid duty.

The Sergeant muttered something about him never doing anything halfway and gave him the day to look after his sick unit-mates, which Alex did to the best of his limited ability.

Wolf commented on his lack of bedside manner more than once, but Alex felt a little bad that he'd given them all the virus.

He smiled to himself as he carted an armful of water bottles back to the huts.

Well, he couldn't complain much, anyhow. He supposed this was what family did.

A/N: Hehehehe hi I wanted to try this! So obviously we're dealing with a little bit better-adjusted version of Alex here, but I thought it would be a nice change of pace from the angst-ridden atmosphere of "There's No Place Like Home."

I know I'm a day late, but I have some fun one-shots planned for every day of October! As I said up top, you can request things, and I long as I don't have a stupidly strong moral or ethical objection or anything, I'll try to wiggle it in.

As always, thanks so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Go check out There's No Place Like Home if you have a minute (or several because it's like 130k words now) and are interested. Happy SPOOKY SEASON!