And so concludes this particular story arc…thanks for the great reviews so far! Oh, and this plot bunny actually came from a line in my other Losers story. Thanks for sticking with me.

xxxx

Jensen was shivering again, teeth clattering together and body trembling. He was clutching weakly at the sheet he had pulled up to his chin, and his head thrashed back and forth as he slept. The others stared at him for a second before Roque spoke up.

"He was pissing blood?" He asked. Cougar nodded solemnly and ran a hand through his hair. "Shit." They'd all pissed blood at one point or another, usually from a blow to the kidneys that led to bruising and nothing worse. Jensen had received no such blow, which was a dishearteningly worrying fact.

"So something's going on with his kidneys then," Clay muttered, scratching idly at the two-days' growth on his chin.

"Yeah. And something's up with either his spleen or liver too, not sure which," Pooch said in a low tone. "His abdomen's swollen all to hell."

There was a potent silence for a moment, broken only by the small noises Jensen was making every once in a while, a whimper or a groan.

"Is he gonna last until tomorrow?" Roque said finally.

"He's gonna have to," Clay answered. "We'll just have to help him through it."

As it turned out, 'helping him through it' was an exhausting task for Clay's unit, and Clay hated to think how much of a toll this was taking on the hacker. They worked in shifts to keep Jensen's fever down as much as possible with rags dipped in tepid water; ice was a rare commodity and they couldn't risk being seen to go find some. The warehouse was stuffy and hot, and everyone was sweating, and they knew that they were less than ideal conditions for someone as ill as Jensen was. All in all, the situation sucked.

Around 3 in the morning, with Roque on Jensen Duty, everyone else was trying to get a little shut-eye, mostly in vain. Cougar and Pooch had each managed to nod off for a few minutes at a time, but Clay hadn't been able to sleep at all. The responsibility he felt combined with his inability to do anything was grating. Why hadn't he seen to it that Jensen had been vaccinated? He'd known the rest of the team was because they'd run another mission in Africa only six months earlier, but Jensen hadn't been working with them at the time. Was he that negligent? He cared for his team, thought of them as brothers, but he'd let Jensen go to Africa without a damn malaria vaccination. What the hell kind of leader did that make him?

"Shit! I need some help!" Roque barked, and Clay shot bolt upright, noting even as he ran towards Jensen that Pooch and Cougar were following. Roque had his arms on Jensen's shoulders, trying to keep the hacker on the cot as he seized, limbs twitching and eyes rolled back and foamy spit gathering at the corners of his mouth.

"Don't hold him down," Clay said as he reached Roque's side. "We need to get him on the ground." They gently lifted the thrashing body, settling him on the floor with a pillow beneath his head, then Pooch quickly moved anything that was close enough for Jensen's flailing limbs to hit.

"How long?" Clay asked quietly. Roque checked his watch, then looked up, his face grim.

"Going on two and a half minutes."

"Damn it," Clay muttered under his breath, rubbing his eyes wearily. His arm was hurting like a bitch, and he was tired, and he couldn't do a damn thing to help Jensen, and this was all getting really old really quickly.

Abruptly, the hacker stilled, his breathing coming in wheezing gasps, his face dotted with sweat.

"Roll him on his side," Pooch said, and Cougar helped him turn Jensen into the recovery position. A minute later, Jensen was vomiting violently with Cougar holding him up.

"He ain't gonna last another 18 hours, Clay," Roque said quietly, and Clay nodded his agreement.

"Pooch, is there any way we can get that transport sped up?" Clay asked, and Pooch shrugged.

"I'll try," he said, "but I can't guarantee anything. We're kinda in a hot spot as it is."

"Just do what you can," Clay said. "We don't have a lot of choice, here."

Jensen stopped heaving, finally, and Clay cleaned up the vomit as Pooch and Cougar lifted the still tech geek back up onto the cot. Once he was settled, Pooch took over wiping him down with a semi-cool cloth, and Clay turned back to head to his cot. He was surprised to see Roque kneading at his leg, face crinkled in pain, and was abruptly reminded that Jensen wasn't his only team member that was down for the count. All the movement that Jensen's seizure had caused probably hadn't helped Roque's leg.

"You okay?" He asked. Roque nodded brusquely.

"Don't hurt more than a bee sting," he mumbled. Clay didn't believe him for a minute, but he still felt a rush of relief that his second was joking around. "I fucking hate Africa."

Clay chuckled at that, shaking his head.

"Me too, Roque. Next time we get a mission anywhere on this damn continent, I'm gonna tell 'em where they can shove it."

"We could just shoot them instead," Roque suggested hopefully, and Clay was only mildly surprised to realize that he was serious.

"Yeah, probably not gonna happen," he said with a small laugh, and Roque shrugged.

"Worth a try," he grunted. He played idly with a knife for a few seconds, testing its sharpness and then flipping it around a few times before speaking. "That scared the shit out of me."

Clay was taken aback, and frowned. "What did?"

"Jensen." Roque continued speaking without looking up, staring at first his knife and then the ground. Clay was surprised by his candor; Roque rarely talked about his feelings. Clay remained silent and let him continue.

"He was just, you know, he wasn't okay, because he isn't okay, but he wasn't…he was okay. And then he wasn't and he was just twitching and his eyes…shit, Clay, I couldn't do anything. I mean, I hate the kid! He's annoying and he won't shut up and he's so damn naïve. I've wanted to shoot him before, actually shoot him, pull the trigger and watch him fall. And now, here he is dying and I just...I don't know. He'd just better last until that transport gets here."

Clay was surprised, to say the least, by the other man's words, was caught as off-guard by Roque's unwilling connection to Jensen as Roque himself was. He held out a few pain killers to his second, grinning wryly.

"He'll make it. And once he does, you can beat up on him all you like."

"Oh, I will," Roque said, dry-swallowing the pills. "You can count on that."

xxxx

A few hours later, Jensen was doing relatively well, alternating between being so chilled that his whole body shivered and being hot and sweaty. He'd had one other seizure, but it wasn't as long as the first, and it was starting to look like maybe he would make it until the transport came. Pooch had managed to get it coming a few hours earlier than originally planned, but they still needed it to be dark outside, which meant waiting until 9:30 for pickup.

"Coug?" Jensen moaned suddenly. Cougar looked up and smiled at seeing his friend fairly coherent for the first time in hours.

"How are you?" He asked, kneeling down next to the cot.

"Like shit," Jensen answered with a wan smile. "I, um, I need to take another piss."

Cougar nodded and held up a pan.

"We thought you might."

Jensen wrinkled his nose, frowning at Cougar.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Jensen groaned loudly, rolling his eyes and shaking his head, then wiped a shaking hand across his forehead.

"As if passing out in front of you wasn't bad enough."

"And your seizures."

Jensen groaned again. "You sure know how to make a guy feel better." He shivered suddenly, a tremor passing through his whole body. His eyes rolled for a second before he focused again on Cougar's face, managing to smile slightly before his teeth started clattering together.

"Jensen?"

Jensen groaned.

"Are you okay?"

Jensen groaned again before shrugging. "Getting cold again. Sometimes 'm hot, then 'm cold. Still need to pee, too."

Cougar helped Jensen sit up, trying to ignore the shivering form beneath his hands and the swollen belly that Jensen was curled over. Jensen groaned loudly as he urinated, his trembling increasing, blood dribbling down his chin where he bit through his lip. His pee was, again, bright red.

"You're going to be okay," Cougar said quietly, rubbing a hand on Jensen's back and trying to support his friend through his pain. "It's okay."

"Hurts," Jensen grunted, gripping Cougar's arm tightly. "M' dick hurts." Cougar chuckled quietly, wincing in sympathy.

"I am sorry, amigo," he said.

"Should be," Jensen groaned, head dropping forward. "I've been betrayed by m' own manhood."

Cougar snorted and helped Jensen settle back down before taking the pan out to empty. It was frighteningly red.

"Any better?" Clay asked, falling into step next to him. Cougar shook his head, and Clay sighed.

"He'll be outta here in a few more hours. He's just got to hang on a bit longer."

"He was with me for a few minutes," Cougar said quietly. "He was here."

"That's good," Clay said, nodding. "That's a good sign."

"I hope he will stay aware."

He didn't.

xxxx

Jensen was delirious. He was in full-blown, hands-down delirium, thrashing and shouting, limbs flying as he screamed. He was pale and drawn, purple-black bags under his eyes, eyes bloodshot and out of focus.

"Jensen, you are safe," Cougar whispered, holding Jensen's thrashing form as well as he could.

"The transport will be here in an hour," Pooch said finally, looking at Jensen with concern.

"Let's load up," Clay said. He and Pooch began loading things up, Clay hindered by his hurt arm.

"We can do this," Cougar said quietly, rubbing Jensen's back soothingly. "We can do this."

"Can't do this," Jensen mumbled. "Zombies everywhere. We're all dead." Cougar smiled slightly.

"The zombies cannot get you here," he whispered quietly. "You are okay."

"No," Jensen insisted, shaking his head. His voice started to raise. "They're coming. They're gonna get in! It's a zombieapocalypse!"

"Jensen, you've got to calm down," Cougar said, feeling Jensen's breathing and heart rate speed up. "I won't let them get you."

"Got to snipe their heads," Jensen whispered. "Hit 'em in the brains."

"I can hit their heads," Cougar answered. "I am the best."

"Yeah," Jensen agreed. "The best. You can take 'em all."

"Hell yes I can."

"Cougar," Pooch whispered. "We've got to get out to the landing pad."

"Okay," Cougar said. He turned to Jensen, helping leverage the hacker up. "We are going home, Jensen."

"Home," Jensen said. "No zombies at home."

"Nope. No zombies there. Come on, kid," Pooch said, helping Cougar get Jensen on his feet. Jensen grinned loopily.

"'Kay."

Duffles slung over their shoulder, Clay helped Roque out while Pooch and Cougar held Jensen up between them.

"Almost there, kid," Pooch whispered. Jensen's head hung down, his chin touching his chest, but he managed to nod weakly.

The sound of a helicopter was a welcome noise and everyone let out a sigh of relief. Jensen looked up.

"'S like a dragon," he slurred, eyes crossing slightly.

"Yep, exactly like a dragon," Pooch agreed. "Shoots fire and everything."

"Cool," Jensen said, grinning lopsidedly.

xxxx

The next day found Jensen settled comfortably in a British hospital, IVs in both arms, monitors hooked up to him, tubes running everywhere, and dialysis running to take the strain off his kidneys. His spleen was still enlarged but was starting to come down thanks to one of the many drugs flooding his system, and though he was getting better, he seemed as out of it as he had been when he'd been gripped in delirium.

"Good to see you doing better," Clay said, stepping into Jensen's room. He had a bandage on his arm, but he was grinning.

"Thanks, Clay," he slurred, raising a heavily tubed hand. "Feel better than I did. Still feel funny, though. Like I'm floating."

"Floating, huh? Well, you did some good work back there, kid."

"Thanks. 'M a badass," Jensen muttered, grinning crookedly.

"That you are," Clay laughed, nodding. "We're going to head back to the States tonight, got a bunch of paperwork and all of that shit. Soon as you get stable enough to get out of here, they'll ship you back home."

Jensen nodded hesitantly, smiling in an effort to hide his disappointment. Clay finally grinned, patting Jensen's shoulder.

"Of course, we don't all have to go stateside right away. Coug's gonna hang out with you if that's okay."

Jensen looked up suddenly, grinning widely.

"Really?" He said, eyebrows raised.

"Really," Cougar said, walking into the room.

"He doesn't talk much, but he's better than nothing," Clay said, punching Cougar lightly in the shoulder. "I'll see you guys on the other side."

Cougar settled into the chair at Jensen's bedside and picked up the remote, turning the TV on and flipping through the channels.

"Daytime," Jensen muttered. "Nothing good on."

Cougar continued flipping until he stopped on a telenovela, and grinned at Jensen.

"Soap opera?" Jensen asked, frowning.

"This is a good one," Cougar said, leaning back and crossing his ankles on Jensen's bed.

"I don't speak Spanish," Jensen protested. Cougar shrugged.

"I will translate. Diego has just walked in on Analucia getting it on with Juan…"

Jensen smiled and settled deeper into the bed. This was the most he'd ever heard Cougar talk at once, and despite how hazy everything felt, he was sure that he would remember this and rub it in later.