Once again I don't own static shock.

He's not dead yet

It was late in the evening. Rain still continued to fall into the open stairwell as Francis tried to sit up. Since he and Shiv had been dubbed ill, it seemed that he was the only one who showed any sign of it. Usually he slept with one blanket and a black jacket he "happened" to find when terrorizing the downtown area. Today was different. He had been wrapped in as many blankets that Theresa and Shiv could possibly spare, a total of four.

Theresa was half awake against the wall near him. While it did suck to be sick, at least he had someone like her to take care of him. "Theresa you awake?" His voice was very dry and quiet. He hated how pathetic he sounded. She looked up at him. "Yeah what's up?" She looked over to see him trying to get out of the pile of blankets.

"I'm sorry I swatted you away yesterday. You were only trying to help me." He stopped for a moment after hearing Shiv mutter in his sleep before burying his face further into his blanket. "God I've never felt this shitty before," he moaned

Theresa gave a weird expression at the apology. "Hot streak you didn't do anything like that to me yesterday." Francis rolled his eyes, "yes I did. I told you I didn't need help remember now." She sat up pondering the statement. "I do remember that but you didn't do that yesterday. You did that three days ago when you two came back without Ebon."

She walked over to Francis and forced her hand onto his head. "Jesus you're on fire. " Francis glared at her for a moment. "Well you're hotter than usual, better?" He curled back into the blankets as she walked over to shiv. "Hey wake up!" She shouted, "Come on I need help. I think hot streak needs to go to the hospital." Her words made Francis sick to the stomach. The hospital was worse than prison for him. He felt his vision get blurry for a moment. He felt dizzy as he stood up and then fell to the ground. He could barely figure out what was going on. Shivs held Francis up and lead him to a trashcan. "And now he throws up," the teen stated as if on cue. Talon looked over at Shiv for a moment.

"What he looked like he was gonna hurl. I was right wasn't I?"

She paced back and forth in front of them for a moment. "If we take him to the hospital, they'll turn him into Static." She looked at the now unconscious Hot Streak. "But we can't keep him here he'll die."

Shiv looked up for moment. "Do we still have that cell phone Ebon jacked last week?" Talon haphazardly tossed the stolen phone to Shiv. Immediately he began dialing. Talon tried to listen in on the situation but he walked into the stair well. She refused to leave Francis alone.

He came back moments later. "Grab Hot Streak and let's go" he ordered. Startled by the sudden surge in leadership, she followed the orders.

"Where are we going?" She questioned.

"We're going to my sister's apartment. She can help us take better care of him."

Both of them struggled to get up the steps with Francis leaning against them. The roads above were empty. Few people would brave the early morning chill and drizzle, preferring instead to sleep in on a grey Saturday morning. Here and there Talon saw homeless beggars and lazy drunks taking shelter under awnings of closed store fronts.

"Do you have any idea where you're going?" The teen turned to her. "Its three blocks away from here." He pointed to a large apartment off in the distance.

They finally made their way to the apartment on the top floor of building. The door swung open and out popped a fairly small girl, a fairly small gothy looking girl fresh from the graveyard

"Sammy!" She screamed as she embraced the purple haired teen with a squeezing hug. He let go of Francis as he did, sending Talon and her comrade to the floor. A grunt was heard from Francis and then silence.

"Where are my manners," she started, "I'm Gabrielle, Ellie for short. Please come in make yourselves at home."

Talon and Shiv helped Francis into the room and onto a couch. Ellie came in with a first aid kit and a few blankets. "What exactly is wrong with him?" She placed a blanket around him and felt his forehead. "He feels pretty warm but he's always like that right?" Both of them nodded and she continued. "It seems only four or five degrees hotter than it usually is. Anything else you can tell me."

Talon edged closer. "He hasn't really been doing anything. He's mostly slept the past three days. Him and Shi- erm I mean Sam came back to the hideout sick. Ellie glared at her brother for a moment. "You didn't tell me you were sick too." He looked away as she scolded him. "How is it that you look fine and he looks like a train hit him?" All three were at a loss for words.

"I'll go downstairs and get Keith he can help me with this one. Feel free to raid my fridge for food." With that she left the room and headed to elevator.

"Who's Keith?" questioned Talon.

"The hell if I know."

"Maybe he's her boyfriend."

"Nah she hasn't dated since the bang. Her boy friend was killed in the cross fire between his gang and Wade's gang."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Was she there?"She began to thumb through books on the bookshelf. It seemed quite typical for your average goth. Dracula, Anne Rice, and the like took up many of the shelves. All except for the last shelf on top, it was a collection of comic books. One was sticking out of the line as if someone had reached for it and second guessed themselves. The door swung back open moments later as Ellie scampered back in followed by a young man wearing a pink polo and black pants. He carried a small medical bag and a laptop with him.

"This is Keith, my doctor friend from downstairs. He wants to take a look at both of you to see what's wrong."

Keith walked over to Francis and Sam. His Eyes concentrated on Talon standing behind them. "Is this lovely young lady sick too?" She smiled at him while he pulled a thermometer out of his bag.

"Here stick this under your tongue," he handed Sam the thermometer as both he and Ellie shouted that's what she said in unison. He proceeded to pull his laptop out and open several files. "I work for the city hospital so I get to look at all of the medical files. I can even access them from my laptop."

He flipped through files until he reached Francis Stone's file. "You said he had a fever and all he did was sleep correct?" All three shook their heads. "He also vomited once this morning," \Sam added to the list. Keith frowned as he pulled down the file. "I need to get a second opinion on it so I can't tell you what's wrong for certain. As for Sam, you don't have a fever. All I'm noticing is a runny nose and a bit of drowsiness. My guess is you two caught a cold out in that rain. Francis' is being irritated by something else but like I said I'm not definite on the diagnosis."

He packed up his supplies and stood up. "I'll come back later after my shift with an answer. Till then, relax. I won't mention that you're harboring criminals because they need help."

He kissed Ellie on the hand and left. "Who wants breakfast?" Ellie broke in after moments of silence. Theresa and Sam agreed to their host's offer. The three sat down at the table to count Chocula cereal. "You do realize you've created a monster giving that to him." Theresa watched as Sam silently scarfed the sugary cereal down. Ellie smiled a devilish smile. "It's only creating a monster when you don't need you big bro awake to challenge him in Mario Kart on Nintendo 64."

Theresa Rolled her eyes as the siblings raced from the table and over to the TV. "Talon you look tired. If you don't want to watch us play video games you can either use my guest room or my room to take a nap."

She smiled at the gesture. "Thanks and call me Theresa. Talon is my work name." She walked into the guest room, crawled in the covers and fell asleep.

Message from the Author:

So I put the second chapter out. I would've had it out soon but I blame that on the St. Patty's Day B building Piñata massacre. That actually inspired another fanfic I'm currently working on. It's shorter so it may be out later today or tomorrow. Now that you've read it, review it.