Disclaimer: I don't own Glee, nor do I completely own Nick and Jeff (although I'm pretty much creating their personalities myself since we haven't gotten to know them too well on the show).

A/n: So yeah… not really sure where this one came from. And there isn't a whole lot of backstory in my head for this one, so I don't even know how this got started. But yeah, I hope you enjoy this one!

Fire

It was unbearably hot, and to be honest Nick wasn't sure that he could make it much further. The heat and smoke and flames were too much to handle, and Nick just wanted to stop and give up and let the smoke take him.

"You can't stop on me, Nick…" Nick felt a strong arm tugging him along, trying to figure out where the closest fire escape was so they could get out of the burning building. But he couldn't make himself open his eyes. He couldn't breathe, couldn't get enough oxygen into his system to keep going any further. Somehow Jeff seemed to be in better shape than he was, because the blonde kept pulling him along, forcing him to keep moving away from the flames that were threatening to engulf them at any moment.

Nick could hear the way the beams of the ceiling were groaning under the weight of the next floor's furniture, feel the ashes from burning drywall and wood falling down on them, coating his sweating body with a thick layer of black soot. "Just leave me," Nick coughed, fighting too hard for the oxygen his body so desperately needed. He couldn't think straight.

"I'm not leaving you here to die, Nick!" Jeff's arms were around his body before Nick even really knew what was going on, lifting him up and starting to physically carry him towards the windows that had already blown out from the heat of the fire. Nick was too weak to protest, and all he could do was keep trying to breathe. Eventually he lost the fight to keep himself awake, collapsing against Jeff's body.

Nick heard Jeff's talking to a doctor long before he actually had the strength to open his eyes. "He's going to be okay, right?"

"You got him out of there as quickly as you could. The biggest concern is smoke inhalation… which you should be in bed, receiving treatment for yourself…"

"I'll go back to bed as soon as I know he's okay…"

"He has second-degree partial thickness burns over about five percent of his body… mostly on his back, from falling debris. We're going to keep him intubated for a few days, make sure he's getting enough oxygen while he's trying to heal. There is some respiratory damage, more significant than your own. But given time, he should heal. Just like you need to do, so I want you to go back to bed now."

It was another two days before Nick was really coherent enough to do more than overhear bits and pieces of conversations, primarily between Jeff and the doctors and nurses assigned to take care of him. So he honestly wasn't all that surprised when he finally managed to open his eyes to find Jeff seated in a chair near the bed. He was a little surprised at the bright red mark on the boy's face.

"Trust me, it looks a lot better than it did at first. And your back looks a lot worse, though everyone tells me it's healing. I haven't seen it since the night of the fire… I'm not allowed to follow you when they take you to check on your burns."

"How bad is it?" Nick managed to croak out, despite his sore throat and the hoarseness of his voice. It sort of hurt, but he wanted to know what was going on.

"You're doing fine… all things considered. But you're going to have to take it easy for a while, take care of yourself."

"And you?" Nick asked.

"First degree burn on my face and minor smoke inhalation… nothing to really worry about, and I'm already doing a lot better," Jeff replied. "You should get some more rest… especially your voice. You don't want to mess it up by talking too much now, while you're still healing."

"You're talking…" Nick replied.

"I didn't have it nearly as bad as you do… and I didn't do much talking the first couple of days, because I didn't want to risk doing any more damage than what the smoke had already done." Nick closed his eyes as Jeff took his hand. "Go to sleep… we can talk more later, when you've had a chance to heal some more."