Jeff couldn't sleep at all. He was too worried about Randy. Even with the anecdote working, Randy's fever was still high. "Come on baby," he whispered. He was trying to not wake up the others. "Come back to me."

Randy didn't open his eyes though. He was out cold. Jeff blinked back tears. He hated seeing his baby like this. He carefully climbed on to the bed and curled up next to Randy. "Why is this crap always happening to us?" he asked quietly. "Why can't everyone just leave us alone?"

His cell phone rang, startling him. Who was calling him at three in the morning? "Hello?"

"Jeff it's me," Mark said. His voice was barely above a whisper.

Jeff's eyes widened. "Poppa Mark? What's wrong?"

"It's the chemo. I can't take this anymore. I know it's supposed to make me better but I just feel worse. I can't take it."

Jeff bit his lip. He had never heard Mark talk this way before. It was like the big man was breaking. "I'm sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"Make me think of something else for awhile," Mark replied. "Talk to me, take my mind off this shit before I go completely insane."

So Jeff did just that. He told Mark everything about Tomko, X and Randy getting poisoned. He knew there wasn't anything Mark could do, but he talked about it anyway.

Mark sighed as soon as he was done. "Jesus Christ Jeff. I think you need to schedule a surgery to get that psycho magnet of yours removed. This is starting to get ridiculous."

Jeff somehow managed to chuckle bitterly. "Believe me, I would if I could. First it was Russ, Christian and Adam; now it's X and Tomko. I don't know what to do anymore. It seems like every time things start to get better, somebody comes along and tries to ruin it. And not only that, but Randy always gets hurt too." He glanced at his sleeping lover. "Maybe he would be better off without me."

"Don't you say that!" Mark scolded him. "Don't you even think that! Randy can't live without you and you can't live without him. We all know that. Look Jeff, shit is always going to happen. The only thing we can do is hang on to the people we love and endure it."

"But what if he dies because of me?" Jeff asked. His lip was starting to tremble. "I won't be able to live with myself if that happened."

"Jeff please don't do anything you're going to regret," Mark begged. "I know you want to protect Randy, but thinking he's better off without you is just stupid."

Jeff nodded. He knew that already. "You're right."

"Like usual," Mark added with a chuckle. "Crap, Glenn's up. I've got to talk to him. He's been such a worrier lately."

"Bye Mark," Jeff said. He hung up the phone and was startled to see that not only were Randy's eyes were opened, but the breathing tube had been pulled out.

"Don't leave me," Randy said hoarsely. It sounded like it was taking a large effort just to get the words out. "Don't let X scare you away from me. Don't let him win."

Jeff smiled and snuggled up closer to Randy. "I won't," he assured him. "I'm not going to let you go anywhere. Nobody's taking you without a hell of a fight."

Randy managed a small smile. "That's good." He closed his eyes. "I feel like shit."

"You got poisoned honey. You're not going to be feeling okay for awhile." Jeff gave Randy a serious look. "Just promise me that you'll never drink something you've left unattended to for any amount of time ever again."

"I promise. Having seizures and spitting up blood and almost dying is not as fun as some people make it out to be."

Jeff smiled and kissed Randy softly. "Watching it wasn't much fun either." He rested his head on Randy's shoulder. Now that he was sure that his baby was at least somewhat okay, he wouldn't feel as bad about going to sleep. It had been one long day.

Little did he know that one of the longest days in his life was coming up very, very soon.