Around eight in the morning Luke came back into Jess' room from the hospital cafeteria with a cup of coffee in hand. Normally he wouldn't touch the stuff, but four or five hours of very interrupted sleep in a chair wasn't going to get him through the day.

Jess was awake and scowling at a plate of scrambled eggs and glass of orange juice. Luke never thought he'd be so happy to see his nephew's scowl. "What did those eggs ever do to you?"

"They smell gross, I don't want them."

"So don't eat them, it's not like you need your strength for anything."

Jess rolled his eyes and took a tiny bite of the eggs. He still felt like absolute dogshit, but at least he felt like his brain was working again. He could barely remember the past twenty-four hours. He would eat these eggs because the nurse had promised more pain medication after he ate his breakfast and his side was burning with pain.

Luke looked at the monitor. He was happy to see Jess' fever was down to 101.6 degrees and his pulse ox was up to 94%, even though Luke knew that was probably due to the oxygen tubes up his nose.

Luke took a deep breath, inhaling the steam from his coffee.

"You don't have to stay" Jess's voice was hoarse, barely louder than a whisper.

"I'm staying."

"I know you need to get back to the diner." Jess stabbed grumpily at another bite of eggs.

"Diner's closed, I'm staying. End of discussion."

"Fine, I'm going back to sleep," Jess gave the rolling table with his breakfast on it a push away from him. He coughed and pulled the blankets up to his chin.

Luke leaned back in the chair and sipped his coffee, it was as gross as Jess' eggs, but at least it was warm.

Doctor Liu came into the room with Carletta, the day shift nurse.

"Good morning, Jess!"

Jess opened his eyes and looked at her blankly.

"Glad to see you looking alive, awake, alert, and enthusiastic this morning. I just wanted to check in before I leave for the day. We got your test results back and it looks like you do in fact have the flu, Influenza B to be exact, but your pneumonia is most likely bacterial, not viral based on your white cell count."

"Huh," Jess shrugged.

"What does that mean?" Luke asked.

"That we're on the right course of treatment and we just need to keep going. I'm going to have a respiratory therapist come in and give you a breathing treatment but other than that we'll just keep going with the meds and fluids and hopefully have you on the mend soon."

"Thanks," Luke said.

"No problem. Doctor Parker will be taking care of all my patients today, so he may be in to see you at some point."

She left, and the nurse changed the IV bags and gave Jess another dose of pain meds. Jess fell asleep with a scowl still on his face and Luke sat back, half dozing and occasionally sipping his coffee. Nothing to do but be right here.

He watched Jess' flushed face as he shifted uncomfortably in his sleep. He thought about Liz saying "He's just like you, big brother, always trying to take care of me." He had never thought about Jess trying to take care of Liz. No wonder Jess was so angry. He knew what it felt like to try and take care of Liz only to have her do whatever the hell she wanted, consequences be damned. Liz wasn't malicious, but she couldn't see past the end of her own nose to see how her actions affected other people.

Jess frowned and moaned a little in his sleep. Luke took Jess' hand and watched his nephew's brow unknit and his face relax. He ran his thumb back and forth across Jess' knuckles until he seemed to be sleeping more peacefully.

A couple of hours later the respiratory therapist came in and they set Jess up with a nebulizer mask so he could breathe in medication. "It's going to help loosen up the mucus in your lungs and help you breathe more easily," the therapist had said. More like it's going to make you cough until you break another rib, Jess thought. He had been coughing steadily since he had started the treatment, and coughing up unspeakably unpleasant gobs of stuff into the dumb little pink basin they gave him. His heart was racing and the medicine made him feel so shaky and weird. He coughed again, holding his side, hoping Luke couldn't see the tears that sprang to his eyes with each cough.

Luke had turned on a college football game and was pretending to be very interested in it to give Jess some space. He didn't want to leave Jess' side but he knew Jess was miserable and embarrassed and that he wouldn't want anyone watching him cough up a John Carpenter movie worth of goo.

Jess lay back, exhausted, and rubbed his eyes with shaky hands. He could feel his fever coming back as the medication started to wear off. He tried to take a deep breath and was rewarded with another round of thick, harsh coughs. He moved the mask to spit into the basin again. He saw Luke shoot a furtive glance in his direction and then turn back to the game. He shifted in bed and turned his weight onto his left side to give his painful ribs a break. He studied Luke's face as he watched the game. His uncle looked exhausted. He felt like such a burden. He knew Luke was losing business this weekend and that his being in the hospital was going to cost so much money. I'm just a drain on everyone, he thought, it would be better if I just died.

As if reading his mind, Luke turned to him, studying his face. "You okay?"

Jess nodded.

Luke frowned up at the monitor and laid a hand on Jess' sweaty forehead. "Your fever's up."

Jess nodded.

"You need anything?" Luke's hand was still there, his thumb absently stroking Jess' forehead.

Jess shook his head. He felt ashamed for causing Luke so much worry. He wished he could just disappear.

The nurse bustled into the room, "How are we doing, gentlemen?" She said in a lilting Trinidadian accent.

"His fever's going back up," Luke said.

Jess realized Luke must have hit the call button.

"That's to be expected, he can have some more ibuprofen at noon." She took the basin he had been spitting in and brought him back a clean, empty one. She removed the nebulizer now that the medication was done filtering through and brought a wet washcloth and cleaned his face. "There now, you just rest," she instructed.

Jess nodded. Luke's concern over him was both mortifying and incredibly touching. Jess closed his eyes, willing the coughing to calm so that he could sleep again.

He dozed in and out and the next couple of hours were a haze of football, coughing, and dreams about New York. He heard Liz's voice in his dreams and imagined she was there, that she was worried about him.