Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to me. just having some fun with them.

By Monday afternoon, Lucas was itching to get out of bed, but Keith was acting like a warden. "I didn't forget that I grounded you," he told Lucas, when he caught Luke trying to get dressed. "You're not going anywhere. Not in your condition. Get back into bed."
"Can't I at least sit in the living room? I feel a lot better Keith."
Friday night, after the game and the emergency room, had not been the worst of the nausea. The nausea and vomiting continued throughout the weekend, enough to make Keith want to drag Lucas to the emergency room again. But Luke had refused, claiming he was too weak to move. By Sunday the fever had broken and Luke was ready to get out of the house, but Keith refused.
As Keith helped his nephew settle onto the couch, Lucas asked, "Don't you have to go to the garage? You can leave me here by myself. I'll be all right. Seriously, Keith this is getting old. You're like a grandma."
So after a Keith playfully slugged Luke in his good arm, he left for work, leaving his nephew alone. Lucas was relieved to have the house to himself. He was surprised when there was a knock at the front door. Haley would be in school and she always just let herself in the back way. Lucas kicked off the covers and headed to the front door.
He tried to hide his surprise when he saw Nathan standing there.
"Is it okay if I come in?"
A queasy feeling returned to Lucas's stomach. He wasn't sure if it was the blood poisoning or if it was the sight of his brother at the door.

"I hope you don't mind. Mom said I didn't have to go to school, but she made me come to the diner with her. I got bored and when Keith mentioned you were home."
"It's okay. Come in."
He led Nathan into the living room, trying to pick up as he went along. Keith was too busy playing nursemaid to bother cleaning up around the house. Lucas tried not to be embarrassed about the shabby furniture. The Sofa was as old as he was and the easy chair once belonged to his grandfather, his mom's dad. It was nothing like the opulence that Nathan lived with.
"How are you feeling?" Nathan asked. He sat down in the easy chair, surveying the room around him. He hid his dismay well, because Lucas didn't see how surprised Nathan was at how his brother lived. It didn't seem fair that he had money and comfort, when Karen and Lucas had to live in poverty.
"Better. Just wish the warden would loosen up."
"Keith?"
Lucas nodded. "He's terrified that my mom is going to kill him."
"You mean, kill you."
"Both of us."
Nathan smiled. It was the first smile since he had started taking the drugs last week. "I called my mom, like you suggested. She kicked out my - Dan." Jeez, he never knew how to refer to Dan around Lucas. If he said my dad, well, that would be doing the same thing Dan had done all those years ago, by abandoning Lucas. But Dan wasn't Lucas's dad. Not in the real sense of the word, only in the biological one.
Lucas whistled softly. "That was brave."
Nathan shrugged. "It just makes things more screwed up. I had to admit to taking the drugs and." his voice trailed off.
"What did Deb say?"
"She flipped and grounded me for life. That's why I had to come to the café with her if I wasn't going to school."
"Well Keith grounded me - I guess indefinitely - for the tattoo and coming home drunk." Lucas laughed. It wasn't a laughing matter, but it seemed ironic that both he Nathan were living out such similar paths. "Then he came home and saw two girls standing in the foyer on Friday night. I thought he would blow a gasket."
Nathan laughed. He envied Lucas's relationship with Keith. Lately, it seemed to him that he had gotten the short end of the stick when Dan had chosen to marry his mother and be a father to him.
"Want to watch some TV?" offered Lucas.
Nathan agreed and a few hours later, when Deb came knocking at the door she found her son and his brother sitting side by side on the worn striped sofa laughing at daytime soap operas.
"I thought you boys might be hungry. I brought some food over," she said.
She went into the kitchen and unpacked the soup and other goodies she brought and placed them on the tray. She stood by the kitchen door, watching over the two boys thinking that their friendship would be a good thing for Nathan. She was scared for her son and what this separation with Dan might do to him.

After she had fed them, Deb insisted that Nathan come back to the café with her so that Lucas could get his rest. He was about to close his eyes to get some sleep, when the bell rang.
"Come in," called Lucas. "What did you forget?" He looked around, but didn't see anything belonging to Nathan or Deb, but thought perhaps there was something in the kitchen. But it wasn't Nathan or his mother. It was Brooke.
"Playing hooky?" she asked.
"Yup," he answered. He was starting to get the hang of answering to Brooke. Everything that came out of her mouth was flirtatious and Lucas was not a flirt. He was too serious and forgot how to answer back most of the time.
"Good," she said, "Then you're not contagious." She dropped her pink backpack on the easy chair and sidled up next Lucas on the couch, forcing him to sit up.
"Here to play nursemaid?" he asked.
"You poor thing. Were you alone all day?"
"For some of the day."
"Well, school was sure boring without you. Between you and your brother being out, there was nothing to do but gossip."
"I'm sure that kept you busy through third period at least."
"It got old halfway through second, but I managed to get by the rest of the day."
"About the other night," Lucas started to say.
Brooke held up a finger to Lucas's lip, getting very close. "Let's not talk about it." She moved in closer to Lucas, moving her head sideways so that she could kiss him, when Keith walked in.