Drew is Sick

(Very creative title, I know.)

Summary: After a long shift at the ER, Drew seems to be under the weather and Rick isn't exactly sure what to do about it.

Warnings: None

Disclaimer: I own no rights to anything.

Timeline: set before "The Lincolns Come to Town" and during "This Time Around".

-line-

Rick ran his hand in light circles over Drew's freshly shaved head, absentmindedly enjoying the tickling sensation as he read his book. His boyfriend was turned towards him, stretched out on his side in their bed, still asleep. It was unusual for Drew to be asleep past fifteen hundred and it was now almost eighteen hundred, but last night had been rough. A structure collapsed with an entrapment and several patients with crush injuries had kept the young doctor, and his his coworkers, extremely busy. But since Drew was the closest person that SAM had to an expert on crush injuries, he had the added stress of being in charge of the incident. He had come home and just barley managed a shower and to eat something before collapsing on the bed. It was a good thing he wasn't working tonight.

Rick had left him alone most of the day, running errands and stopping in at work for a bit. He had even taken Scout with him, so that the pup wouldn't bother Drew. In fact, he and Scout had only been back for about an hour and Rick was surprised that Drew was still asleep. But it was probably a much needed thing, given how crazy Drew's schedule had been lately.

"That tickles," Drew mumbled sleepily before yawning. He shifted, squirming as he started waking up and managed to turn over onto his back.

Rick stopped petting him and set his book down on the nightstand, clearly amused. "Good morning sunshine," he said in a gentle teasing tone.

Drew made a sort of groan-grunt sound and rubbed the heel of his hands into his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Almost eighteen hundred," Rick answered, stretching. "You've been asleep for about nine hours."

"Not long enough. Going back to sleep," Drew mumbled and Rick laughed.

"Oh no you're not. At least not yet. You barely ate anything this morning and you most definitely need water," Rick said as he tugged on Drew's shirt.

Again, Drew groaned, trying to pull away and failing, "too tired. Try again in eight hours."

Rick laughed harder, "no sir. Food. Water. Then we'll talk about more sleep."

"Doctor's orders," Drew mumbled, and Rick could tell he was starting to come around fully, even if he was resisting.

"Boyfriend overrides doctor."

Drew looked up at him with a pouting glare, "make me."

Rick, completely unimpressed with his lover's grumpiness, smiled and winked at him, "I mean if you want. I'm sure I can find something to push into your mouth."

And just like that, Drew's grumpiness faded as he blushed and had to turn away to hide his laughter. "You're a jerk," he said after composing himself.

"And you're cute when you blush. What do you want to eat?" Rick replied, as he climbed out of bed.

"I don't want to eat. I'm sore and I'm tired. I want to go back to bed," Drew grumbled.

Rick rolled his eyes. "Food will help. You know it will help. You tell me that all the time. What do you want to eat?"

Drew sighed, propping himself up as he thought about his answer for a moment. "I don't know… What do we have?"

"We haven't gone to the store in a minute so not much. Do you want to go out, or do you want to order?"

Drew shook his head, "I can't deal with people tonight."

"Right… delivery. How about CJ's? You want your usual brisket?" Rick asked.

"CJ's is fine but I can't do brisket. I'm really not feeling hungry. Isn't there, like, smoked chicken?" Drew asked and for a moment Rick questioned everything he knew in the world. One, Drew was a creature of habit who rarely, if ever, diverted from tried and true. Two, the brisket was amazing and Rick couldn't understand getting anything else.

"Are you a pod person?" He teased.

"I'm a sleep deprived person. But there's like a smoked chicken plate. I think that would be better."

Rick laughed, "alright. Do you at least want your normal sides?"

"Mmmhmmm," Drew nodded and he had sort of flopped back down in the bed. He was already starting to drift off.

Coming over to stand next to him, Rick bent down and kissed Drew's forehead, "I'll wake you when the food's here. I'm gonna walk Scout."

Drew mumbled something that sounded like "thank you" but he was already asleep.

-line-

It was roughly forty-five minutes later when Rick returned to the bedroom. He paused in the doorway a moment to admire the man asleep in the bed who managed to look adorable and sexy at the same time. Drew was sort of sprawled out on his back, one arm resting over his head, the other draped across his abdomen. His shirt had ridden up slightly, exposing his lower abs and the blanket was sort tangled around his legs. His head was turned slightly away from Rick, completely relaxed even though he sometimes wiggled his nose in his sleep. Shaking his head at the oxymoron that was his partner, he made his way over to him.

"Drew," he called softly as he stood next to him, "hey brown eyes, time to wake up." He waited for Drew to stir before reaching out and gently stroking his cheek, not wanting to startle him. "Come on handsome, food's here." Drew gave a series of long blinks while turning into Rick's touch. He started up at the other almost completely blankly, eyes glossy and unfocus. It was odd, and a little unsettling. "Drew?" Rick said, frowning slightly.

"Rick?" He mumbled in reply, seemingly confused.

"Hey, you recognize me," Rick teased.

"What's going on?" Drew asked, and then he had a moment of panic as he looked around him and noticed it was dark. "Shit. What time is it? Am I late for work?"

Rick shook his head, chuckling softly, "no. No, you don't work today. You really crashed hard, huh?"

Drew groaned, rubbing his eyes, "my head hurts."

"Food is here, eating might help with that," Rick said sympathetically. He stepped back towards the door, allowing Drew space to move.

Drew nodded and slowly began getting himself out of bed. "What are we having for dinner?" He asked, yawning.

Rick paused, looking over at him both confused and concerned. "We ordered CJ's, remember?"

Drew shook his head, "I don't but I don't think I can handle brisket my stomach's not great."

His concern growing, Rick came back over to him and placed his hand on Drew's forehead, checking for a fever. "You didn't get brisket. Are you getting sick?" He asked, "cause not even an hour ago, we had the dinner conversation."

Drew shook his head and sighed. "I don't know. Maybe. I'm just tired and my head hurts. Maybe you're right, and I just need to eat," he said.

"Well, you don't feel like you have a fever. So there's that," Rick said, dropping his hand.

"Don't start worrying about me. I probably just got something from work. I'll be fine by tomorrow. I gonna wash up, I'll be out in a second," Drew said, tugging on Rick's hand.

Not exactly placated, Rick decided not to push the matter. "Well, keep it to yourself. I don't want it," he teased. Drew chuckled softly and stood up with a stretch. Rick, playfully, lifted up the hem of Drew's shirt while the other had his arms above his head.

Drew laughed and batted at his hand. "What are you doing?" He asked.

"I'm helping...you said you wanted to wash up."

"I'm not going to shower, just wash up," Drew said shaking his head.

Rick shrugged, "then I'm helping myself, just taking a look…"

Drew laughed again, "you're a brat."

Rick just batted his eyes at his boyfriend as he made his way out their bedroom. "I'll save you some hush puppies," he called as he walked to the dinning room, Drew's grumbled "you better" following him. Halfway to the table, however, Rick suddenly felt a kilter, like the world was spinning in the opposite direction he was.

Reaching his hand out, he touched the wall, trying to steady himself. The vertigo only lasted for a couple seconds, but it left him slightly neasuses. Shaking it off, he decided that it was just because he too needed to eat. Luckily he had brisket.

-line-

It was a little while later, and he was finishing up his food while Drew picked at his. The other looked miserable, head propped up on his arm, eyes half mast, and pale. He had eaten about one forth of his food, and just seemed to have run out of energy. Rick was now officially worried.

"Drew? You know better then to play with your food," he tried to tease, but the dull brown eyes that met him killed the joke.

"I just can't eat. I'm sorry. I'm just so tired and my head is really starting to hurt," he said.

"It's okay. The food will save. I'll clean it up, why don't you go back to bed?" Rick said as he stood up. Once again, he had a sudden wave of vertigo and he sort of stumbled into the table. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Drew.

"Rick? You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine. This damn seal is lose," he lied, not wanting to worry the other. It seemed to work, and Rick continued to clean up. Putting away Drew's uneaten food, he again had a moment of dizziness, but this time it was followed by full on nausea and his stomach rolled. In the doorway, Scout whined, watching him. "I'm okay buddy. Promise," he said, scratching behind his ears. Scout yawned loudly and then trotted back out to the dining room. Rick sighed as he started on the dishes.

A few minutes later, he came back to the dinning room and found Drew slumped over the table, head resting on one arm while he pet Scout. "Drew?" He called, frowning.

"I'm okay," he mumbled, "I'm just dizzy."

Rick shook his head. "Okay. This is getting ridiculous. You went from being fine to having full on flu symptoms in a matter of hours."

"Probably just a bug," he mumbled, still hunched over.

"Yeah, well, let's go to Patient First," Rick said.

"No. I just need sleep," Drew said, straightening up some.

"Andrew," Rick said in a zero nonsense voice, "your choice is Patient First or SAM."

"Fine," Drew snapped. He pushed himself up on unsteady legs, "let me change at least?" And he took a couple shaky steps, then suddenly, he collapsed to his knees.

"Drew," Rick called, all but rushing over to him. He crouched down next to his lover, face distorted by his fear. "Drew talk to me."

"Give me. A second," he panted, eyes clenched shut. He was extremely pale now and clammy, swallowing compulsively as if he were trying not to vomit.

"What's going on?" Rick asked, trying very hard to fight through his fear. He had just gotten Drew back from Afghanistan. They had just found a rhythm with everything, and now here he was looking like he could keel over. It was really hard for Rick not to think "worse case scenario" despite his natural optimism.

"I'm too dizzy," Drew said as Scout sniffed and pawed him. He was trying to make his daddy feel better the only way he knew how.

"Okay. I'm calling for paramedics," Rick said and it was a bad sign that Dew didn't argue.

-line-

This was certainly not the way he had expected his day off to go. He had hoped that since both he and his boyfriend had the same day off for the first time in weeks, they would be able to spend some quality time together. To be fair, they were spending time together currently, but it was not of any quality.

The two of them were both in an ER room at San Antonio Memorial, and, much to his annoyance, they were both patients. When the paramedics had arrived for Drew, their CO detectors had sounded, alerting everyone to the presence of the silent killer. It was then that all the symptoms Drew had showed and the ones he had started to feel made complete sense to Rick. They both had CO poisoning.

The paramedics had called for the fire department and Rick had called someone to come get Scout. And after the fire department showed up to deal with the CO, the paramedics took him and Drew to the hospital where their very amused extended family were waiting. Both men had immediately been put on O2 and had blood work done along with some good natured teasing from everyone. Well, at least they were teasing Rick; it was hard to make light of Drew's condition. The young doctor was miserable.

Being exposed the longest, he was suffering from a moderate case. His carboxyhemoglobin to hemoglobin molecules measured twenty five percent, five times higher than what they should be. Rick was lucky, he was at nine percent. Drew was laying on the hospital bed, on high flow non-rebreather mask, heart monitor, and IV. Again, Rick was lucky and he was on a simple nasal cannula. They were both extremely lucky, however, that the leek had been a small one and it was simply just the amount of time they had been exposed that made them sick. Especially since their CO detector had failed to go off.

"How are you feeling?" Rick asked Drew as he stirred. He had been dozing off and on for the past couple hours as the oxygen worked its magic on him. And what magic; Drew was no longer pale and his eyes were no longer dull. He wasn't confused anymore either, but he was still lethargic and dizzy.

"Fantastic," Drew responded, looking over to him. "My head is having a party."

Rick laughed, "yeah. Mine too."

"Who has Scout?" Drew asked, pushing himself up into a seated position.

"Kelly. The one from the dog park and not the one upstairs," Rick answered referring to a lady who lived in their apartment complex they had become friends with.

"The one with the poodle?" Drew asked.

"Yup. He's got a sleep over with his girlfriend," Rick confirmed.

"We're lucky he's neutered." That made Rick laugh.

"What? Not ready to be a grandpa?" Rick joked.

"No. Not at all," Drew sighed. "We're going to have to set up a vet appointment."

"I'll call in the morning. Jordan says they're going to keep you until tomorrow night."

"Joy…" Drew groaned, "So, do we know why the CO detectors failed?

"Nope. That's something else I'll take care of in the morning. But the furnace was where the leek was. A valve had come lose," Rick said.

"You're okay? Right?" Drew asked, studying the other.

Rick smiled, "despite you scaring me half to death, I'm fine."

"I'm sorry… I promise it wasn't on purpose," Drew said.

"Yeah, well, don't do it again," Rick scolded mockingly.

Drew laughed and said, "yes sir."

-line-

Just over forty eight hours later, Rick was once again running his fingertips through Drew's hair while his boyfriend was curled into his side, sleeping. Scout was stretched out at the foot of the bed, head resting on Rick's ankle and also sound asleep. Drew had been home from the hospital for the last day, and while his carboxyhemoglobin was back to normal, he was still tired. Rick didn't mind, because a tired Drew currently meant a cuddly Drew and he didn't often get a cuddly Drew.

Rick paused as he felt Drew shift, the other man turning his head to look up at him. "Hi," Rick said with a smile.

Drew smiled back up at him, very much not awake, "hi".

"You planning to stay awake this time?" Rick asked, teasing. Drew had woken up a couple times and managed to drink water, eat a little bit, and use the bathroom before going back to sleep. Jordan had told Rick he was probably going to sleep most of the next three days and still have some dizziness and confusion. It wasn't too worrisome so long as it wasn't persistent.

"Maybe," he said, "convince me?"

Rick laughed. "Convince you? To stay awake? How?"

"I dunno, you're smart. You'll think of something," Drew replied cheekily making Rick laugh hard enough to wake Scout. The dog made a humph sound and hopped off the bed, disgruntled as he left the room.

"Uhoh, now you've done it," Rick said, "he's mad."

"He'll forgive us as so as he gets a walk," Drew said, shifting so he was on his back. "But you still have to convince me to stay awake."

"I mean, I could feed you again," Rick said and laughed when Drew made a face. "Still not hungry I take it?"

"Nope."

"Alright," Rick said, sliding his hand under Drew's shirt and up his chest. He felt a wave of satisfaction when the other squirmed. "So… what about a shower? Nice hot water?"

Drew made a mmmhmm sound and did an exaggerated stretch, which allowed Rick to push his shirt up. "A shower would be nice… but I don't think it's enough."

Rick smirked down at him, locking eyes, "the shower's not for you. It's for me. I just need help with the balancing bit."

Drew laughed at that for a good minute before he was able to say, "watching you shower is worth waking up for."

Rick laughed before he leaned in and kissed him.