Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. The pipe incident did happen. Urgh.
Author's Note: As always, thank you to my wonderful beta who is a goddess and a half for putting up with my horrible grammar and stumbling blocks. This chapter is inspired by the combination of many bad days. We've all been there. Flooded Valu-Marts are not good.
Chapter 9
The Murphey's Law Day
Jason could not remember the last time he felt this horrible.
He pulled his car over to the side of the road and brought it to a stop. He closed his eyes, resting his pounding head on the steering wheel.
How could twenty-four, no, less than twenty-four hours be so awful?
Jason bit his lip as he felt his stomach roll. He hardly ever got sick, but this time, the flu that was going around campus had hit him, hard. It had started out as a somewhat minor head cold and escalated from there. People had always told him he made up for never getting sick by getting by getting hammered by a virus when one managed to weasel past his immune system. Normally, he wasn't sure whether or not he got the short end of the deal.
As he opened the door and leaned outside just in time to spill what little he had eaten onto the asphalt, he was sure he had gotten the worst deal.
Leaning against the seat, trying to get enough wits about him to continue driving home, he absently thought over the awful day he had had, trying to distract his stomach and head from their attempts to make him feel even worse.
*****
"…spread these wings and fly. I ain't here to play gonna live my life everyday. Change, everybody's feelin' strange…"
Jason jerked as Bon Jovi's new single blared out at him from his alarm clock. He moaned softly and reached out, batting at the offending noise until he managed to hit the snooze button.
"…tell all the angels. This could take all night…"
Nine minutes later, Jason repeated the process; this time managing to shut off the Foo Fighters, 'Learn to Fly', instead of just hitting the snooze.
He considered burrowing back under the covers and to sleep since he felt about as good as week old road kill. It was raining and he was sick. He normally walked to class because it wasn't that far away, and why use his rapidly aging car more than absolutely necessary, but he could make an exception this once…
"Shit." Jason rolled over and out of bed, nearly tripping as his head decided to swim so much the room went a bit cockeyed.
He could have taken his car to school, except it was currently getting repaired. It was supposed to be finished today, but last month the mechanics shop he preferred had moved to a new location. He would have to take two buses to reach it, now.
"Dammit," Jason muttered as he stumbled towards the bathroom.
He had been feeling a bit under the weather last night and had tried to counter the on-coming illness by going to bed early, right after Tommy had called. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked.
Jason barely managed to get out the door with enough time to get to school. He would have had plenty of time, enough time to grab some breakfast and stop by the drug store to buy some Advil Cold and Sinus, only half-way to the drugs store he realized he had forgotten he was teaching a karate class at five and would not have time between school and picking up his car to make it home before the lesson. He had to go back to grab his equipment.
When he left the house the second time, he knew he could make it just on time, if he hurried and made no extra stops.
Arriving with about a minute to go before his class started was not fun. Arriving with damp clothing because it was raining so hard he had gotten wet through his raincoat was even less.
Arriving and receiving an essay that he had passed by a measly 2% was downright rotten.
To be fair, the essay was not up to the standard work Jason usually turned in. It was lower by a great deal partly because it had been due the day Tommy left for his first circuit tour. And partly because Jason was so frustrated with the whole course he was ready to tear his hair out.
By the end of the three-hour lecture, Jason felt about ready to pass out or throw up, or maybe both. His head *hurt*. Normally he could, stand this course more than his other ones. The lessons could even be considered semi-interesting because of his vibrant, and sometimes border-line insane, professor. The class was tolerable because of Professor Richards most of the time.
Today, Jason didn't think he could have stood the most interesting class in the world. His whole body was starting to ache and Jason knew that the rather nasty bug currently going around campus had found a new victim. In any of his other class, Jason would have been tempted to leave during one of their fifteen minute breaks, or even catch some sleep as the professor droned on, but this class was small and the most important one he had.
His position in the select group of students going for AGU's Co-op Business degree was not a small thing. He had been the last student admitted to the program. His GPA was just high enough to qualify him, and his time in Geneva had ensured him that final spot.
Some of his classes were great; his favourite was, surprisingly, the optional humanities course he had selected; some were okay, like the one with Professor Richards, but the rest were simply horrible. Envisioning three more years of this made him want to throw his all-too-expensive textbooks into a garbage compactor.
And now it seemed he wasn't even doing well in them.
Jason sighed softly and closed his eyes, the lights were too bright. They were making his head hurt even more, and though he tried to concentrate, the lecture was starting to sound more like a continuous, annoying buzz than coherent words...
"Mr. Scott?"
Jason looked up somewhat slowly, feeling like his head would explode if he moved it too quickly, and felt his face redden when he realized Professor Richards was in front of him. The rest of the class was empty.
"Caught the bug, have you?" Richards asked, his tone overlaid with humour. "As at least half of the teaching staff have. I believe my TA is still asleep in my office using a pile of economics papers as a pillow. She has come down with it rather badly, as well."
"I'm sorry, sir," Jason mumbled.
"No harm done. Half the class was looking more than a little glassy-eyed and a few were swaying as if they were about to fall over.
We adjourned early and you were not the only one oblivious to that," Professor Richards told him.
"I do wish to talk to you about your commitment to this program, however. Why are you here, Mr. Scott? This is not the first time you looked as though you wished to be as far away as possible and I doubt illness had anything to do with those times."
"Sir?" Jason asked in confusion and slight apprehension.
"Why are you bothering with this degree? To be quite frank, you look like the sort of person who would get about as much enjoyment out of working in an office as you do attending these classes," Richards asked again.
Jason shrugged. He had no idea what to say. "I want to open a dojo. I want it to be successful so a business degree seemed like the way to go."
"Why do you want to open a dojo?" Richards pressed.
"I..." Jason's mind blanked for a moment. It was hard to think of the last time he hadn't planned to open a dojo after he graduated high school. It just seemed like something he could do. He liked teaching karate, sharing the discipline he loved with other people, and opening a dojo had always seemed like a logical action.
He sighed. He was too achy and tired for this conversation. "I love sharing karate with other people, teaching them to love it like I do."
"Hmm." Richards looked at Jason for a moment and then nodded. "Jason, this program will get steadily harder over the next three years. It has been nearly a year and already your marks are dropping sharply. Even if I do not take into consideration the last essay you handed in, there is still a steady decline that is much more than any drop the other students have been showing.
Your enthusiasm for the courses that are mandatory for this degree has never been more than a mild interest and that is pushing it. I think you would do well to take a serious look at whether or not it would be in your best interest to continue this course so that if you wish to change your major you do not lose any more time."
Jason was unsure how to react to that.
"You are a bright student; you would not have been accepted to this program if you were not. I would not take the time to advise you if I did not think you had promise in another field. Consider your options and think over what you plan to do when you have finished your degree. You may find you are better suited for something else." Richard looked carefully at his student. "For now I would suggest you go home and get some rest. This virus does not seem easy to get rid of, if you continue going full speed."
Jason exited the classroom feeling more dazed than when he had entered. His mind was a whirl, not a good thing when it hurts to think and he absently remembered to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Maybe if there was something in his stomach his head would stop throbbing a little.
He was still chewing on the sandwich while he waited for the bus, his mind too occupied to notice his rain coat was leaking again because the clouds had decided to release buckets of rain, again.
The bus was crowded, smelly and made his head reel.
The sandwich hadn't helped much; it actually made him feel kind of queasy because the bus driver decided it was a good idea to go really fast and then jerk to a quick stop that made half the people on the vehicle stagger to stay upright. By the time he got off to catch his next bus Jason was convinced everyone would have fallen if it hadn't been so packed there was no room to.
The smells in the repair shop were, thankfully, less of a disturbance and he didn't feel as sick as he had because he had managed to get a seat on his second bus. Plus the driver wasn't insane, even if he did try to start up conversations with the passengers, sing, and make a stop at a donut place to get coffee.
He managed to vaguely concentrate on what he was being told by the mechanic, including that the repair job had cost about $200 more than the original estimate. That was going to put a big dent in his budget. It looked like he'd be eating Kraft Dinner and canned Ravioli for awhile.
Jason tried again to buy Advil on his way to the dojo where he had a part time teaching job. Unfortunately, he decided to go to the Valu-Mart that was in the same plaza as the dojo. A pipe in the deli had burst and the store had been shut down. He could see the frantic employees scrambling around inside and the top of the water spurting to just above the hot case. At least he wasn't the only one having a bad day.
There was, mercifully, Advil in the dojo even though it was just the regular kind. One of the morning instructors took one look at Jason, tossed him the bottle and offered to cover his class. Jason was about to take her up on the offer but a cell phone call from the girl's little sister had ended that. It seemed AGU wasn't the only place that had been hit with the virus.
It was too late to cancel the class, though, Jason was tempted to. He would have had to contact all his students that morning before they left for school and at that point he had thought he would be fine by the class. He was just glad the virus wasn't contagious at the stage he was in. There had been posters up at AGU saying two days before any symptoms showed up and the first day they were noticed it was contagious. For the last two days, if you really felt like crap you weren't, going to give it to anyone else.
Luckily for Jason his class was a group of advanced students, most of them in high school. They were preparing for an up-coming tournament. It was far enough away they weren't worried yet but close enough that they could use the practice time.
It was the first part of the day that ran somewhat smoothly.
It ran smoothly, that is, until the end of the class. As the class was being dismissed a student's mother called saying she would be late picking her daughter up and asked if someone could stay at the dojo with her until she arrived.
The dojo closed early on Thursdays and all the other instructors, except one who was giving private lessons for another twenty minutes, had already left. Jason figured that waiting another few minutes was not going to be a problem.
When the tired green van pulled up forty-five minutes later, the student's father was very sorry. The mother's car had broken down half-way home and no one else in the family had known the student wasn't with her until she got home via a cab after the tow truck had taken her car away. It was slightly comforting to know he wasn't the only one having a bad day.
By the time Jason had closed the dojo for the night the pharmacy nearest him was closed and he really didn't feel like driving to another one. He could go without anything special tonight. He had regular Advil at home and he knew Sarah and Thomas probably had Neocitrin or something if he felt any worse. He would have settled for being able to go home and curling up in bed. He might as well sleep through feeling wretched, if he could.
That wasn't an option either. He made the mistake of grabbing the mail on his way in. Jason wasn't able to simply forget about a letter from his father's lawyer once he saw it in between two envelopes that looked like they contained bills.
The papers inside were not too much of a surprise. Jason had been waiting for them to come ever since the day his father had drove away from him that morning outside what was now his home. That didn't mean they stung any less, though.
Jason doubted he would be able to get much sleep after receiving something like that. Instead, he sat at the table, alternating between trying to balance his budget to accommodate the extra money he needed for his car and going over his essay so he wouldn't make the same mistakes twice.
Jason wasn't having much luck with either when he heard the door open and someone come in, stomping rather loudly. He hadn't even gotten out of his seat when Tommy came storming into the room.
"What are you doing here?" Jason asked, a smile quickly spreading across his face.
Tommy wasn't supposed to be home for another three weeks.
"Well, aren't you glad to see me?" Tommy said sarcastically, a scowl crossing his face. "I've been trying to get in touch with you all day. Where were you?"
Jason's eyebrow rose curiously as the smile faded from his face. Tommy was in a foul mood, just what he needed. "I've been in class and then at work. You know I'm not home during the day most of the time."
"You need to get a cell phone," Tommy muttered.
"You can pay for it then because I can't," Jason replied. "What happened?"
"Nothing," Tommy said as he headed into their bedroom to change.
"Yeah, right, and chickens lay potatoes," Jason muttered.
For a moment he thought about pursuing the matter and finding out what was bugging his lover but he wasn't sure his head, or his rolling stomach, could take the confrontation he knew it would end up being. Dragging things out of Tommy was like talking sense into a cave troll.
Jason was scratching out a whole paragraph in the botched essay when Tommy re-entered the room. He glanced up and nearly smiled. Tommy was pacing and didn't even seem to realize it.
After a few moments Jason decided being able to see him pacing out of the corner of his eye was more distracting than talking to him. "You want to tell me about it?"
"No," Tommy snapped.
"Fine." Jason only managed to last a few seconds more. The sound of Tommy's feet stomping on the floor continuously was making the ache in his head even worse. "Stop pacing."
"What?" Tommy asked, confused and still angry.
"Stop pacing, please. It's driving me crazy and you don't even know you're doing it. Sit down, lie down, go hit the punching bag on the back porch but stop pacing." Jason rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to relieve some of the pressure that had built up there. "I don't know what the hell the matter with you is and right now I don't care to deal with it if you don't want to talk about it. Just stop pacing!"
Tommy froze for a second and Jason thought maybe he would get a little quiet. Maybe Tommy would even realize something was wrong and leave him be for awhile.
But then Tommy opened his mouth and started ranting. Loudly.
Jason tried to tune him out. Normally if Tommy wanted to rant Jason let him until he ran out of steam. The quickest way to get him to see reason was to not get angry in return. Jason couldn't always remain calm when Tommy's temper snapped, which wasn't very often, but he tried to and doing so worked for the most part. Tommy usually did the same with him.
It did not take long for Jason to reach his limit. His head hurt, he had had a crappy day and his stomach had started to hate him as well. He was trying to just ignore Tommy's words for the most part but what he did manage to catch through the buzz in his ears was rather mean. He was not going to deal with this too. He couldn't take this as well so he just walked away.
Tommy grabbed his arm as he walked past him but Jason shrugged him off and glared at him. "Fuck off!"
Jason managed to get to his newly fixed car and get in. He thought about just sitting there in the driveway but he knew if Tommy really wanted to argue he would do it right on the street. Sighing, he turned on the car and drove off.
*****
Before the door had shut behind his lover Tommy knew he had seriously screwed up. Jason had never just walked away from him like that before. He wasn't like that.
Tommy had followed Jason outside, but not quickly enough. Watching Jason drive away made him feel guilty. He hadn't meant to lash out at Jason like that it was just...well...
Tommy sighed and went back into the house. There was nothing he could do about it until Jason came back. He would have to explain and apologize. Just because he was having a bad day didn't mean he had to take it out on Jason.
Tommy's scheduled vacation time was not for another three weeks but a few things had gone horribly wrong at the latest race, or the test runs for the race. One of his uncle's other drivers was testing his car while he was going over something with the head mechanic. The car had spun out of control and crashed into the wall. No one was hurt, the other driver escaped with little more than a few scratches, but the car was not going to be fixed for a while.
So Uncle John had given Tommy his vacation time early even though it messed up the plans he and Jason had made and would mean he went down a few seats in the standings. He had managed to find an early plane ride home and had snatched the last ticket before realizing he would have to be at the gate in less than two hours. He hadn't been able to get in touch with Jason and, to top it all off, he had been seated between an old man who snored loudly and a small child who cried and tried to climb under the seat repeatedly.
When he arrived home he was in a foul mood and Jason was an easy target for his anger. Tommy knew he was going to have to make it up to his love when he came home. He had been in the wrong and was not going to try to get out of it especially since he had hurt his lover.
That confused him though. Jason was normally much more patient than that. He had to be at the end of his rope to snap so quickly.
Thinking about it, Tommy realized that Jason had seemed off. He knew Jason had been worried about getting sick, he had sounded like he was getting a sore throat on the phone the night before.
Tommy sighed. There was nothing he could do about it until Jason got home. Jason didn't have a cell phone, he was on a limited budget because both boys had insisted they pay the Olivers some kind of rent, even if it was lower than average. He would just have to wait.
His stomach growled and reminded Tommy he hadn't eaten since breakfast since he was not a fan of airline food. On his way into the little kitchen the paper full of red scribbles caught his attention a Tommy paused long enough to see what it was. He had to bite back a sympathetic groan when he saw how scathing the comments Jason had made for himself in the margin were on top of the rather poor mark.
The papers beneath the essay saddened Tommy even more. He sighed as he looked at them. He didn't mean to snoop around like this but when Jason came home he wanted to know what not to say to upset him further. Besides, Jason always shared everything with him.
The letter was from Alan Scott's lawyer informing Jason he had been disinherited and that his father was taking steps to legally disown him. They both knew that Jason's father would be taking steps to distance himself from his, as he thought about it, former son but sending him a letter about it was just cruel and unnecessary. Tommy was fed up with Alan stepping in and out of their lives simply to shake Jason up. It was overkill and the other man knew it. He just wanted to remind Jason of the choice he had made when he refused to deny his feelings.
Tommy gritted his teeth in anger as he put the letter down, resolving to tear it to shreds, or better yet, let Jason tear it to shreds.
'...or better yet, let Jason tear it to shreds.'
If Alan didn't stop playing this silly, hurtful game soon Tommy was going to step in and put an end to it. He didn't know how but he wasn't going to let Jason be hurt by that man any longer.
Chewing on some leftover, microwaved pizza, Tommy sat down to puzzle over what he was going to do when Jason came home. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he nearly missed the sound of the door opening and someone stumbling inside.
*****
Jason stumbled into the bathroom almost as soon as he was through the door. He barely remembered driving home, all he could think about was getting to the toilet before he lost control of his twisting stomach again. The room was spinning so badly he could not keep track of it and he had to shut his eyes to block out the dizzying objects.
He didn't know how long he had been kneeling over the toilet, his stomach heaving, when a pair of strong arms propped him up just as he was in danger of crashing to the ground. He vaguely realized it was Tommy holding him, speaking to him and gently wiping his sweaty face with a cool cloth but his grip on consciousness was slipping. Within a few moments he lost his hold and everything blacked out.
Fuzzy images penetrated his hazy mind as he drifted towards and away from semi-consciousness. He was aware of Tommy holding him while Sarah knelt over him in one moment but in the next he registered being in a car, his head and shoulders in Tommy's lap and the weight of a thin blanket covering him. Then he was somewhere else and the brightness of the room hurt his eyes so much he had to keep them closed.
Someone he didn't know but vaguely knew could be trusted was speaking words too fuzzy to understand.
Then he was home again. He knew someone, probably Tommy, was taking care of him while he continued to drift. He realized liquids were being forced into his reluctant body and could vaguely recall a trip or two to the bathroom but everything was murky and blended together. Jason knew the snatches of images he could make out were interlaced with periods of unconsciousness and time was passing but he couldn't grasp how much.
It was early evening the next day before Jason blinked tired eyes open and fully grasped what was going on around him. It was a moment before he could focus but when the room snapped into place he looked for and found Tommy sitting in a nearby chair, thumbing through a magazine.
Jason's throat felt like someone had rubbed sandpaper up and down it but he spoke anyway, his voice a hoarse whisper. "Tommy..."
Tommy glanced up to see weary dark eyes watching him and quickly moved so he was perched beside Jason on the bed. He pushed back Jason's limp hair with a gentle hand. "Hey, welcome back, how are you feeling?"
"Not so great," Jason replied honestly.
Tommy slipped an arm underneath his shoulders, helping Jason sit up, and pressed the mug that had been on the bedside table into his hand. "You need to drink more and there are some pills you're supposed to take."
Jason grimaced slightly when the liquid touched his tongue. "I hate tea."
"I know but you're supposed to drink it," Tommy told him. "My dad is going to buy more Gatorade later."
"Gatorade?" Jason questioned, sipping the weak tea and trying to ignore the taste.
"Yeah. The doctor was worried about you becoming dehydrated so anything with extra electrolytes that you can keep down is good," Tommy told him.
"Doctor?" Jason tried to sort out the fuzzy half memories but his head still hurt too much to really think about it.
"After you passed out in the bathroom last night we took you to the hospital. You were pretty out of it," Tommy explained. "Did you eat anything at AGU yesterday?"
"Lunch." Jason looked dubiously at the pills Tommy was trying to get out of the packet one handed.
"I thought so. You and about seventy other students, not to mention a couple profs, came down with food poisoning.
Something about the cheese, I can't remember what he said, and you're taking the pills. Two are just over the counter sinus medication. You have a sinus infection on top of the food poisoning and the doctor wanted to see if it could be taken care of without prescription drugs.
The other one the doctor prescribed and I can't pronounce," Tommy told him, getting the pills free and putting them in Jason's other hand.
Jason didn't feel up to arguing. He swallowed the pills, aided with another few sips of the tea. He grimaced at the taste but didn't comment on it, instead fixing his gaze on Tommy. "So what's up? Why are you home? I'm glad to see you but you were in one hell of a foul mood earlier or it was yesterday now I guess."
"Car crash." Tommy quickly went on as Jason's eyes widened. "Not me. It was another driver and he wasn't hurt but the car was pretty badly damaged so I got my vacation time early."
"Hell of a way to start it," Jason observed dryly, sipping more tea at Tommy's urging.
"It hadn't been the best day by the time I got home," Tommy admitted, looking sheepish. "I took it out on you just because you were there. I'm sorry."
"S'okay. I might have done the same thing if I hadn't been feeling so shitty," Jason told him.
"Your day looks like it was worse than mine." Tommy found Jason's hand and squeezed it gently. "I saw the papers."
Jason shrugged, his face immediately shuttering. "Yeah."
"Jase..." Tommy wasn't sure where to begin.
"Not now. Please." Jason looked a bit desperate. "I'm not up to talking about it now. Later, I promise. I just...not now."
"Okay," Tommy agreed. Jason was sick he didn't need to deal with that too. "Finish the tea. Mom will have my head if you don't."
Jason sighed and drained the mug, wanting to get it over with. It was a mistake. He drank it too fast and regretted it almost immediately afterwards. His stomach rolled in complaint and his head, determined not to be outdone, decided to start the room spinning again.
"Jase," Tommy helped steady him as he slumped forward a bit, clutching his stomach, "are you going to be sick again?"
"No," Jason moaned softly. His stomach hurt and his head felt worse but he didn't feel like he was going to throw up. "No, I think I'm okay."
Tommy snorted, helping Jason lay back down. "I wouldn't go that far."
Jason curled up on his side, still clutching his stomach. He closed his eyes against the spinning room, hoping it would help his dizziness subside.
"Get some more rest, Jase," Tommy suggested gently, stroking the dark hair gently.
"Mmm," Jason replied with a vague affirmative, his body seeking sleep once more.
Within moments deep, steady breaths told Tommy his lover had drifted off again. He stayed sitting on the edge of the bed but drew back slightly and let out a shaky sigh as he rubbed his hand wearily over his face.
It had been a long night even though his mother had insisted they take shifts watching Jason. They really hadn't needed to do that, Jason would have been fine if they hadn't but Tommy had been too worried not to and Sarah wasn't going to let him exhaust himself by staying up all night worrying over Jason.
It didn't make that much difference anyway. It wasn't like he had gotten much sleep. He kept seeing Jason's ashen face before his body went heavy and limp in his arms. Tommy had been terrified when his lover blacked out on him in the washroom.
It had turned out alright. Jason wasn't really that ill, the combination of ailments was just too much at once. He wouldn't be able to go back to school or work for a few days but since so many other students had come down with food poisoning as well it was not going to be a problem. Tommy was going to fill in the classes that the other instructors at the dojo couldn't swing. It was all worked out already.
Tommy sighed softly and leaned over Jason, letting his fingers drift through Jason's hair. He hated being at odds with him. Normally they tried to make up before they went to bed when they fought but circumstances, mainly Jason being unconscious, had prevented that. Watching over him while he was sick but knowing that Jason could wake up still mad at him grated on his conscious. It was a relief to know things were okay between them again.
Jason made a soft sound, and for a moment, Tommy thought he was going to lose the tea, but instead he uncurled a bit, and moved closer as if he was looking for Tommy in his sleep. Tommy smiled indulgently and settled down beside him, his grin spreading as Jason curled up against him. Having spent the night worrying over Jason was catching up to him and he was happy to close his eyes and join his lover in sleep.
Author's Note: As always, thank you to my wonderful beta who is a goddess and a half for putting up with my horrible grammar and stumbling blocks. This chapter is inspired by the combination of many bad days. We've all been there. Flooded Valu-Marts are not good.
Chapter 9
The Murphey's Law Day
Jason could not remember the last time he felt this horrible.
He pulled his car over to the side of the road and brought it to a stop. He closed his eyes, resting his pounding head on the steering wheel.
How could twenty-four, no, less than twenty-four hours be so awful?
Jason bit his lip as he felt his stomach roll. He hardly ever got sick, but this time, the flu that was going around campus had hit him, hard. It had started out as a somewhat minor head cold and escalated from there. People had always told him he made up for never getting sick by getting by getting hammered by a virus when one managed to weasel past his immune system. Normally, he wasn't sure whether or not he got the short end of the deal.
As he opened the door and leaned outside just in time to spill what little he had eaten onto the asphalt, he was sure he had gotten the worst deal.
Leaning against the seat, trying to get enough wits about him to continue driving home, he absently thought over the awful day he had had, trying to distract his stomach and head from their attempts to make him feel even worse.
*****
"…spread these wings and fly. I ain't here to play gonna live my life everyday. Change, everybody's feelin' strange…"
Jason jerked as Bon Jovi's new single blared out at him from his alarm clock. He moaned softly and reached out, batting at the offending noise until he managed to hit the snooze button.
"…tell all the angels. This could take all night…"
Nine minutes later, Jason repeated the process; this time managing to shut off the Foo Fighters, 'Learn to Fly', instead of just hitting the snooze.
He considered burrowing back under the covers and to sleep since he felt about as good as week old road kill. It was raining and he was sick. He normally walked to class because it wasn't that far away, and why use his rapidly aging car more than absolutely necessary, but he could make an exception this once…
"Shit." Jason rolled over and out of bed, nearly tripping as his head decided to swim so much the room went a bit cockeyed.
He could have taken his car to school, except it was currently getting repaired. It was supposed to be finished today, but last month the mechanics shop he preferred had moved to a new location. He would have to take two buses to reach it, now.
"Dammit," Jason muttered as he stumbled towards the bathroom.
He had been feeling a bit under the weather last night and had tried to counter the on-coming illness by going to bed early, right after Tommy had called. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked.
Jason barely managed to get out the door with enough time to get to school. He would have had plenty of time, enough time to grab some breakfast and stop by the drug store to buy some Advil Cold and Sinus, only half-way to the drugs store he realized he had forgotten he was teaching a karate class at five and would not have time between school and picking up his car to make it home before the lesson. He had to go back to grab his equipment.
When he left the house the second time, he knew he could make it just on time, if he hurried and made no extra stops.
Arriving with about a minute to go before his class started was not fun. Arriving with damp clothing because it was raining so hard he had gotten wet through his raincoat was even less.
Arriving and receiving an essay that he had passed by a measly 2% was downright rotten.
To be fair, the essay was not up to the standard work Jason usually turned in. It was lower by a great deal partly because it had been due the day Tommy left for his first circuit tour. And partly because Jason was so frustrated with the whole course he was ready to tear his hair out.
By the end of the three-hour lecture, Jason felt about ready to pass out or throw up, or maybe both. His head *hurt*. Normally he could, stand this course more than his other ones. The lessons could even be considered semi-interesting because of his vibrant, and sometimes border-line insane, professor. The class was tolerable because of Professor Richards most of the time.
Today, Jason didn't think he could have stood the most interesting class in the world. His whole body was starting to ache and Jason knew that the rather nasty bug currently going around campus had found a new victim. In any of his other class, Jason would have been tempted to leave during one of their fifteen minute breaks, or even catch some sleep as the professor droned on, but this class was small and the most important one he had.
His position in the select group of students going for AGU's Co-op Business degree was not a small thing. He had been the last student admitted to the program. His GPA was just high enough to qualify him, and his time in Geneva had ensured him that final spot.
Some of his classes were great; his favourite was, surprisingly, the optional humanities course he had selected; some were okay, like the one with Professor Richards, but the rest were simply horrible. Envisioning three more years of this made him want to throw his all-too-expensive textbooks into a garbage compactor.
And now it seemed he wasn't even doing well in them.
Jason sighed softly and closed his eyes, the lights were too bright. They were making his head hurt even more, and though he tried to concentrate, the lecture was starting to sound more like a continuous, annoying buzz than coherent words...
"Mr. Scott?"
Jason looked up somewhat slowly, feeling like his head would explode if he moved it too quickly, and felt his face redden when he realized Professor Richards was in front of him. The rest of the class was empty.
"Caught the bug, have you?" Richards asked, his tone overlaid with humour. "As at least half of the teaching staff have. I believe my TA is still asleep in my office using a pile of economics papers as a pillow. She has come down with it rather badly, as well."
"I'm sorry, sir," Jason mumbled.
"No harm done. Half the class was looking more than a little glassy-eyed and a few were swaying as if they were about to fall over.
We adjourned early and you were not the only one oblivious to that," Professor Richards told him.
"I do wish to talk to you about your commitment to this program, however. Why are you here, Mr. Scott? This is not the first time you looked as though you wished to be as far away as possible and I doubt illness had anything to do with those times."
"Sir?" Jason asked in confusion and slight apprehension.
"Why are you bothering with this degree? To be quite frank, you look like the sort of person who would get about as much enjoyment out of working in an office as you do attending these classes," Richards asked again.
Jason shrugged. He had no idea what to say. "I want to open a dojo. I want it to be successful so a business degree seemed like the way to go."
"Why do you want to open a dojo?" Richards pressed.
"I..." Jason's mind blanked for a moment. It was hard to think of the last time he hadn't planned to open a dojo after he graduated high school. It just seemed like something he could do. He liked teaching karate, sharing the discipline he loved with other people, and opening a dojo had always seemed like a logical action.
He sighed. He was too achy and tired for this conversation. "I love sharing karate with other people, teaching them to love it like I do."
"Hmm." Richards looked at Jason for a moment and then nodded. "Jason, this program will get steadily harder over the next three years. It has been nearly a year and already your marks are dropping sharply. Even if I do not take into consideration the last essay you handed in, there is still a steady decline that is much more than any drop the other students have been showing.
Your enthusiasm for the courses that are mandatory for this degree has never been more than a mild interest and that is pushing it. I think you would do well to take a serious look at whether or not it would be in your best interest to continue this course so that if you wish to change your major you do not lose any more time."
Jason was unsure how to react to that.
"You are a bright student; you would not have been accepted to this program if you were not. I would not take the time to advise you if I did not think you had promise in another field. Consider your options and think over what you plan to do when you have finished your degree. You may find you are better suited for something else." Richard looked carefully at his student. "For now I would suggest you go home and get some rest. This virus does not seem easy to get rid of, if you continue going full speed."
Jason exited the classroom feeling more dazed than when he had entered. His mind was a whirl, not a good thing when it hurts to think and he absently remembered to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Maybe if there was something in his stomach his head would stop throbbing a little.
He was still chewing on the sandwich while he waited for the bus, his mind too occupied to notice his rain coat was leaking again because the clouds had decided to release buckets of rain, again.
The bus was crowded, smelly and made his head reel.
The sandwich hadn't helped much; it actually made him feel kind of queasy because the bus driver decided it was a good idea to go really fast and then jerk to a quick stop that made half the people on the vehicle stagger to stay upright. By the time he got off to catch his next bus Jason was convinced everyone would have fallen if it hadn't been so packed there was no room to.
The smells in the repair shop were, thankfully, less of a disturbance and he didn't feel as sick as he had because he had managed to get a seat on his second bus. Plus the driver wasn't insane, even if he did try to start up conversations with the passengers, sing, and make a stop at a donut place to get coffee.
He managed to vaguely concentrate on what he was being told by the mechanic, including that the repair job had cost about $200 more than the original estimate. That was going to put a big dent in his budget. It looked like he'd be eating Kraft Dinner and canned Ravioli for awhile.
Jason tried again to buy Advil on his way to the dojo where he had a part time teaching job. Unfortunately, he decided to go to the Valu-Mart that was in the same plaza as the dojo. A pipe in the deli had burst and the store had been shut down. He could see the frantic employees scrambling around inside and the top of the water spurting to just above the hot case. At least he wasn't the only one having a bad day.
There was, mercifully, Advil in the dojo even though it was just the regular kind. One of the morning instructors took one look at Jason, tossed him the bottle and offered to cover his class. Jason was about to take her up on the offer but a cell phone call from the girl's little sister had ended that. It seemed AGU wasn't the only place that had been hit with the virus.
It was too late to cancel the class, though, Jason was tempted to. He would have had to contact all his students that morning before they left for school and at that point he had thought he would be fine by the class. He was just glad the virus wasn't contagious at the stage he was in. There had been posters up at AGU saying two days before any symptoms showed up and the first day they were noticed it was contagious. For the last two days, if you really felt like crap you weren't, going to give it to anyone else.
Luckily for Jason his class was a group of advanced students, most of them in high school. They were preparing for an up-coming tournament. It was far enough away they weren't worried yet but close enough that they could use the practice time.
It was the first part of the day that ran somewhat smoothly.
It ran smoothly, that is, until the end of the class. As the class was being dismissed a student's mother called saying she would be late picking her daughter up and asked if someone could stay at the dojo with her until she arrived.
The dojo closed early on Thursdays and all the other instructors, except one who was giving private lessons for another twenty minutes, had already left. Jason figured that waiting another few minutes was not going to be a problem.
When the tired green van pulled up forty-five minutes later, the student's father was very sorry. The mother's car had broken down half-way home and no one else in the family had known the student wasn't with her until she got home via a cab after the tow truck had taken her car away. It was slightly comforting to know he wasn't the only one having a bad day.
By the time Jason had closed the dojo for the night the pharmacy nearest him was closed and he really didn't feel like driving to another one. He could go without anything special tonight. He had regular Advil at home and he knew Sarah and Thomas probably had Neocitrin or something if he felt any worse. He would have settled for being able to go home and curling up in bed. He might as well sleep through feeling wretched, if he could.
That wasn't an option either. He made the mistake of grabbing the mail on his way in. Jason wasn't able to simply forget about a letter from his father's lawyer once he saw it in between two envelopes that looked like they contained bills.
The papers inside were not too much of a surprise. Jason had been waiting for them to come ever since the day his father had drove away from him that morning outside what was now his home. That didn't mean they stung any less, though.
Jason doubted he would be able to get much sleep after receiving something like that. Instead, he sat at the table, alternating between trying to balance his budget to accommodate the extra money he needed for his car and going over his essay so he wouldn't make the same mistakes twice.
Jason wasn't having much luck with either when he heard the door open and someone come in, stomping rather loudly. He hadn't even gotten out of his seat when Tommy came storming into the room.
"What are you doing here?" Jason asked, a smile quickly spreading across his face.
Tommy wasn't supposed to be home for another three weeks.
"Well, aren't you glad to see me?" Tommy said sarcastically, a scowl crossing his face. "I've been trying to get in touch with you all day. Where were you?"
Jason's eyebrow rose curiously as the smile faded from his face. Tommy was in a foul mood, just what he needed. "I've been in class and then at work. You know I'm not home during the day most of the time."
"You need to get a cell phone," Tommy muttered.
"You can pay for it then because I can't," Jason replied. "What happened?"
"Nothing," Tommy said as he headed into their bedroom to change.
"Yeah, right, and chickens lay potatoes," Jason muttered.
For a moment he thought about pursuing the matter and finding out what was bugging his lover but he wasn't sure his head, or his rolling stomach, could take the confrontation he knew it would end up being. Dragging things out of Tommy was like talking sense into a cave troll.
Jason was scratching out a whole paragraph in the botched essay when Tommy re-entered the room. He glanced up and nearly smiled. Tommy was pacing and didn't even seem to realize it.
After a few moments Jason decided being able to see him pacing out of the corner of his eye was more distracting than talking to him. "You want to tell me about it?"
"No," Tommy snapped.
"Fine." Jason only managed to last a few seconds more. The sound of Tommy's feet stomping on the floor continuously was making the ache in his head even worse. "Stop pacing."
"What?" Tommy asked, confused and still angry.
"Stop pacing, please. It's driving me crazy and you don't even know you're doing it. Sit down, lie down, go hit the punching bag on the back porch but stop pacing." Jason rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to relieve some of the pressure that had built up there. "I don't know what the hell the matter with you is and right now I don't care to deal with it if you don't want to talk about it. Just stop pacing!"
Tommy froze for a second and Jason thought maybe he would get a little quiet. Maybe Tommy would even realize something was wrong and leave him be for awhile.
But then Tommy opened his mouth and started ranting. Loudly.
Jason tried to tune him out. Normally if Tommy wanted to rant Jason let him until he ran out of steam. The quickest way to get him to see reason was to not get angry in return. Jason couldn't always remain calm when Tommy's temper snapped, which wasn't very often, but he tried to and doing so worked for the most part. Tommy usually did the same with him.
It did not take long for Jason to reach his limit. His head hurt, he had had a crappy day and his stomach had started to hate him as well. He was trying to just ignore Tommy's words for the most part but what he did manage to catch through the buzz in his ears was rather mean. He was not going to deal with this too. He couldn't take this as well so he just walked away.
Tommy grabbed his arm as he walked past him but Jason shrugged him off and glared at him. "Fuck off!"
Jason managed to get to his newly fixed car and get in. He thought about just sitting there in the driveway but he knew if Tommy really wanted to argue he would do it right on the street. Sighing, he turned on the car and drove off.
*****
Before the door had shut behind his lover Tommy knew he had seriously screwed up. Jason had never just walked away from him like that before. He wasn't like that.
Tommy had followed Jason outside, but not quickly enough. Watching Jason drive away made him feel guilty. He hadn't meant to lash out at Jason like that it was just...well...
Tommy sighed and went back into the house. There was nothing he could do about it until Jason came back. He would have to explain and apologize. Just because he was having a bad day didn't mean he had to take it out on Jason.
Tommy's scheduled vacation time was not for another three weeks but a few things had gone horribly wrong at the latest race, or the test runs for the race. One of his uncle's other drivers was testing his car while he was going over something with the head mechanic. The car had spun out of control and crashed into the wall. No one was hurt, the other driver escaped with little more than a few scratches, but the car was not going to be fixed for a while.
So Uncle John had given Tommy his vacation time early even though it messed up the plans he and Jason had made and would mean he went down a few seats in the standings. He had managed to find an early plane ride home and had snatched the last ticket before realizing he would have to be at the gate in less than two hours. He hadn't been able to get in touch with Jason and, to top it all off, he had been seated between an old man who snored loudly and a small child who cried and tried to climb under the seat repeatedly.
When he arrived home he was in a foul mood and Jason was an easy target for his anger. Tommy knew he was going to have to make it up to his love when he came home. He had been in the wrong and was not going to try to get out of it especially since he had hurt his lover.
That confused him though. Jason was normally much more patient than that. He had to be at the end of his rope to snap so quickly.
Thinking about it, Tommy realized that Jason had seemed off. He knew Jason had been worried about getting sick, he had sounded like he was getting a sore throat on the phone the night before.
Tommy sighed. There was nothing he could do about it until Jason got home. Jason didn't have a cell phone, he was on a limited budget because both boys had insisted they pay the Olivers some kind of rent, even if it was lower than average. He would just have to wait.
His stomach growled and reminded Tommy he hadn't eaten since breakfast since he was not a fan of airline food. On his way into the little kitchen the paper full of red scribbles caught his attention a Tommy paused long enough to see what it was. He had to bite back a sympathetic groan when he saw how scathing the comments Jason had made for himself in the margin were on top of the rather poor mark.
The papers beneath the essay saddened Tommy even more. He sighed as he looked at them. He didn't mean to snoop around like this but when Jason came home he wanted to know what not to say to upset him further. Besides, Jason always shared everything with him.
The letter was from Alan Scott's lawyer informing Jason he had been disinherited and that his father was taking steps to legally disown him. They both knew that Jason's father would be taking steps to distance himself from his, as he thought about it, former son but sending him a letter about it was just cruel and unnecessary. Tommy was fed up with Alan stepping in and out of their lives simply to shake Jason up. It was overkill and the other man knew it. He just wanted to remind Jason of the choice he had made when he refused to deny his feelings.
Tommy gritted his teeth in anger as he put the letter down, resolving to tear it to shreds, or better yet, let Jason tear it to shreds.
'...or better yet, let Jason tear it to shreds.'
If Alan didn't stop playing this silly, hurtful game soon Tommy was going to step in and put an end to it. He didn't know how but he wasn't going to let Jason be hurt by that man any longer.
Chewing on some leftover, microwaved pizza, Tommy sat down to puzzle over what he was going to do when Jason came home. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he nearly missed the sound of the door opening and someone stumbling inside.
*****
Jason stumbled into the bathroom almost as soon as he was through the door. He barely remembered driving home, all he could think about was getting to the toilet before he lost control of his twisting stomach again. The room was spinning so badly he could not keep track of it and he had to shut his eyes to block out the dizzying objects.
He didn't know how long he had been kneeling over the toilet, his stomach heaving, when a pair of strong arms propped him up just as he was in danger of crashing to the ground. He vaguely realized it was Tommy holding him, speaking to him and gently wiping his sweaty face with a cool cloth but his grip on consciousness was slipping. Within a few moments he lost his hold and everything blacked out.
Fuzzy images penetrated his hazy mind as he drifted towards and away from semi-consciousness. He was aware of Tommy holding him while Sarah knelt over him in one moment but in the next he registered being in a car, his head and shoulders in Tommy's lap and the weight of a thin blanket covering him. Then he was somewhere else and the brightness of the room hurt his eyes so much he had to keep them closed.
Someone he didn't know but vaguely knew could be trusted was speaking words too fuzzy to understand.
Then he was home again. He knew someone, probably Tommy, was taking care of him while he continued to drift. He realized liquids were being forced into his reluctant body and could vaguely recall a trip or two to the bathroom but everything was murky and blended together. Jason knew the snatches of images he could make out were interlaced with periods of unconsciousness and time was passing but he couldn't grasp how much.
It was early evening the next day before Jason blinked tired eyes open and fully grasped what was going on around him. It was a moment before he could focus but when the room snapped into place he looked for and found Tommy sitting in a nearby chair, thumbing through a magazine.
Jason's throat felt like someone had rubbed sandpaper up and down it but he spoke anyway, his voice a hoarse whisper. "Tommy..."
Tommy glanced up to see weary dark eyes watching him and quickly moved so he was perched beside Jason on the bed. He pushed back Jason's limp hair with a gentle hand. "Hey, welcome back, how are you feeling?"
"Not so great," Jason replied honestly.
Tommy slipped an arm underneath his shoulders, helping Jason sit up, and pressed the mug that had been on the bedside table into his hand. "You need to drink more and there are some pills you're supposed to take."
Jason grimaced slightly when the liquid touched his tongue. "I hate tea."
"I know but you're supposed to drink it," Tommy told him. "My dad is going to buy more Gatorade later."
"Gatorade?" Jason questioned, sipping the weak tea and trying to ignore the taste.
"Yeah. The doctor was worried about you becoming dehydrated so anything with extra electrolytes that you can keep down is good," Tommy told him.
"Doctor?" Jason tried to sort out the fuzzy half memories but his head still hurt too much to really think about it.
"After you passed out in the bathroom last night we took you to the hospital. You were pretty out of it," Tommy explained. "Did you eat anything at AGU yesterday?"
"Lunch." Jason looked dubiously at the pills Tommy was trying to get out of the packet one handed.
"I thought so. You and about seventy other students, not to mention a couple profs, came down with food poisoning.
Something about the cheese, I can't remember what he said, and you're taking the pills. Two are just over the counter sinus medication. You have a sinus infection on top of the food poisoning and the doctor wanted to see if it could be taken care of without prescription drugs.
The other one the doctor prescribed and I can't pronounce," Tommy told him, getting the pills free and putting them in Jason's other hand.
Jason didn't feel up to arguing. He swallowed the pills, aided with another few sips of the tea. He grimaced at the taste but didn't comment on it, instead fixing his gaze on Tommy. "So what's up? Why are you home? I'm glad to see you but you were in one hell of a foul mood earlier or it was yesterday now I guess."
"Car crash." Tommy quickly went on as Jason's eyes widened. "Not me. It was another driver and he wasn't hurt but the car was pretty badly damaged so I got my vacation time early."
"Hell of a way to start it," Jason observed dryly, sipping more tea at Tommy's urging.
"It hadn't been the best day by the time I got home," Tommy admitted, looking sheepish. "I took it out on you just because you were there. I'm sorry."
"S'okay. I might have done the same thing if I hadn't been feeling so shitty," Jason told him.
"Your day looks like it was worse than mine." Tommy found Jason's hand and squeezed it gently. "I saw the papers."
Jason shrugged, his face immediately shuttering. "Yeah."
"Jase..." Tommy wasn't sure where to begin.
"Not now. Please." Jason looked a bit desperate. "I'm not up to talking about it now. Later, I promise. I just...not now."
"Okay," Tommy agreed. Jason was sick he didn't need to deal with that too. "Finish the tea. Mom will have my head if you don't."
Jason sighed and drained the mug, wanting to get it over with. It was a mistake. He drank it too fast and regretted it almost immediately afterwards. His stomach rolled in complaint and his head, determined not to be outdone, decided to start the room spinning again.
"Jase," Tommy helped steady him as he slumped forward a bit, clutching his stomach, "are you going to be sick again?"
"No," Jason moaned softly. His stomach hurt and his head felt worse but he didn't feel like he was going to throw up. "No, I think I'm okay."
Tommy snorted, helping Jason lay back down. "I wouldn't go that far."
Jason curled up on his side, still clutching his stomach. He closed his eyes against the spinning room, hoping it would help his dizziness subside.
"Get some more rest, Jase," Tommy suggested gently, stroking the dark hair gently.
"Mmm," Jason replied with a vague affirmative, his body seeking sleep once more.
Within moments deep, steady breaths told Tommy his lover had drifted off again. He stayed sitting on the edge of the bed but drew back slightly and let out a shaky sigh as he rubbed his hand wearily over his face.
It had been a long night even though his mother had insisted they take shifts watching Jason. They really hadn't needed to do that, Jason would have been fine if they hadn't but Tommy had been too worried not to and Sarah wasn't going to let him exhaust himself by staying up all night worrying over Jason.
It didn't make that much difference anyway. It wasn't like he had gotten much sleep. He kept seeing Jason's ashen face before his body went heavy and limp in his arms. Tommy had been terrified when his lover blacked out on him in the washroom.
It had turned out alright. Jason wasn't really that ill, the combination of ailments was just too much at once. He wouldn't be able to go back to school or work for a few days but since so many other students had come down with food poisoning as well it was not going to be a problem. Tommy was going to fill in the classes that the other instructors at the dojo couldn't swing. It was all worked out already.
Tommy sighed softly and leaned over Jason, letting his fingers drift through Jason's hair. He hated being at odds with him. Normally they tried to make up before they went to bed when they fought but circumstances, mainly Jason being unconscious, had prevented that. Watching over him while he was sick but knowing that Jason could wake up still mad at him grated on his conscious. It was a relief to know things were okay between them again.
Jason made a soft sound, and for a moment, Tommy thought he was going to lose the tea, but instead he uncurled a bit, and moved closer as if he was looking for Tommy in his sleep. Tommy smiled indulgently and settled down beside him, his grin spreading as Jason curled up against him. Having spent the night worrying over Jason was catching up to him and he was happy to close his eyes and join his lover in sleep.