Hal shuddered, folded over the toilet like the world's grossest origami, shoulders spasming as he seized, emptying his stomach all over again.
Hal gasped, bone deep exhaustion pulling him to the floor, head propped up by the cool tile of the wall. His neck twinged in pain, but he hardly noticed it.
Everything burned.
It was so hot, but every now and again ice would flood his veins and leave him shaking on the ground, even weaker than before.
He'd taken his temperature, he remembered… with effort, Hal tossed his head to look at the thermometer, squinting as the numbers blurred and danced together. He couldn't make it out, quite, the three digit number waving like a heat mirage.
Hal bit his lip, chest twisting painfully as he fingered his signal device. He couldn't quite remember why, but he knew that if he hit the button there would be no relief, no red blur to make him feel better, and that thought was connected to a deep wrenching pain that burned his eyes with tears when he thought about it and drew shuddering sobs from his very core over the nameless void in his chest.
Hal gasped again, vision blurring out of focus, sweaty hair dragging across his eyes as he turned to retch again, too weak to lift himself to the toilet.
Hal shuddered, but light flooded the room, and strong hands turned him over onto his back.
The sputtering sound of his bathroom fan faded away into silence as golden light bathed him and his stained, moldy ceiling was wiped away by warm wooden ceiling boards.
Barry smiled down at him, and Hal tried to smile back, but couldn't work out much of anything, body heavy and unresponsive on Barry's couch.
"You're pretty sick, huh bud?" Barry's voice has a strange echo to it, but it's terribly comforting, and Hal finds himself crying from the sheer relief of it.
What exactly is so relieving, he doesn't know, but it has something to do with Barry brushing his bangs out of his eyes and running a cold cloth over his face to wipe away the vomit around his lips.
Barry rests a single hand on his forehead and hums, brows tightening at whatever he feels, but Hal is just reaching up to tangle his hands in Barry's sleeve.
A flash of humor overtakes him at how stupid Barry's dumb sweater-vest-thing looks, and he can almost feel the soft weave under his fingers, and isn't that odd to only almost be able to feel something and suddenly sweat is streaming down his face and the grit of dirty tile seems to be pressing into his cheek and he trembles so hard that it hurts because he's so weak and he can't even move and barry leans forward, concerned eyes so blue hal gets lost in them as he gasps and barry's mouth opens and he says
'LIFE SYSTEMS CRITICAL, INITIATING EMERGENCY LIFE SUPPORT'
which is an odd thing for barry to say and also odd that he sounded so much like… something important green and glowing but barry's hand cups the side of his face and wipes away the streaming sweat and makes things okay everything's okay with barry and hal just lets go and lets barry take care of him in golden light in golden silence and everything is so good.
...
Hal's eyes peel themselves open, crusty and tear streaked and awful, and his neck is stabbing with pain from where it's propped against the wall.
Hal moves, and every muscle screams at him as he fumbles to sit up straight. He runs a hand over his face, feeling crusted snot and dried sweat and basically he's a wreck who fumbles to the sink and splashes cold water on his face because the hot water has been shut off and this is what he has to work with.
Hal groans and slides down the sink to sit on the floor again, consumed in the lightness of a broken fever, hands trembling in his lap. Hal picks up his ring hand and inspects the circlet around his finger.
'POWER LEVELS: 5%'
Hal let his head thump against the wooden cabinet under the sink. He'd gone critical. He'd been delirious and dying and helpless and his ring had been forced to put him in a healing coma because there hadn't been anything else to do or anyone else to go to.
Hal drew his knees up to his chest and buried his face in his arms.