Hey guys, Chanté here. I had a few requests for this chapter, so I hope I did it justice. Enjoy and all that stuff.
Day thirty-nine of the Nate and Sully friendship
Nate gasped back sweet oxygen, trying to stop his body from shuddering. His stomach turned, causing Nate to fight back the bile rising in his throat. He could feel sweat dripping his hair matting his hair, but he couldn't get warm. He groaned, pulling the blanket up over his face, instantly regretting it once his oxygen supply had lowered. He stuck his face out, sucking down air. "Nate! C'mon, we have to go." Nate heard Sully call for him, and feebly tried to roll out of the bed. Sully heard a soft 'ahh!' and a thud; causing him to run across the motel, gun on the inside of his pants feeling like a huge weight. He ran into Nate's room, hand on his gun. He looked around, confused, until he saw Nate on the floor, in a fetal position. The kid had enough sense, if that's what you could call it, to land on his good arm. Sully knew the impact must have been rough on his ribs, since Nate was wheezing. Plus, he was going to have a problems getting up with his knee, although it was healing quite nicely. "Jesus, kid. C'mon, give me your hand." Sully stuck a hand out, and Nate grabbed it. The ice cold grasp Sully felt shocked him. "Whoa, kid, what's wrong? You're like ice!" Nate wheezed a chuckle at that. Sully pulled him up.
"I feel like crap!" He announced, a smile on his lips. The declarative statement was not a surprise to Sully. While peering at Nate, he could see that Nate was, in fact, looking like crap too. Sully started to help him to the bed, but Nate stopped him. "Wh- wh- where you taking me? The TV is in the other room!" Nate sputtered, questioning Sully. Sully outright laughed, something that seemed to happen more and more frequently with Nate around.
"Sorry kid. What was I thinking?" Sully regarded Nate, and Nate shook his head.
"You weren't thinking." Nate added, causing Sully to laugh again. Sully felt Nate relax against him, making Sully smile. Nate was becoming more and more comfortable in the company of Sully, and since when they met Nate barely touched him, Sully felt like he had achieved something great. Sully regarded trust as something valuable, because there were so few people who he trusted and who trusted him. Nate leant on Sully and they hobbled to the couch in the main room. Nate collapsed onto the couch, sniffling. "Tissue?" Nate asked, smiling up at Sully in hope. Sully rolled his eyes and went into the bathroom, retrieved the tissues and passed them to Nate. The kid looked like death. Sully momentarily moved back, scared of catching this sickness. Sully hadn't been ill for years; he couldn't even remember what it was like. Now he had a companion, he was at risk of more that he cared to think about. Sully took a moment to think about it, but then Nate coughed. He kept coughing, looking up at Sully first to reassure Sully it was just a cough and then desperately to ask for help. Nate was literally choking on air. Sully patted Nate on the back to help, but he apparently hit a rib because Nate suddenly juddered away. "Damn, sorry kid!" Sully apologised, but Nate just spared him a glance over his coughing. Sully went into the motel kitchen, filled up a glass of water, and then gave it to Nate. Nate took a huge gulp and then rasped a thank you.
"Kid, sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but you're sick." Sully announced. Nate just threw a look at Sully.
"Oh, that's what it is? Thought I was the picture of health." Nate retorted, sarcasm coating his words. Sully smirked at Nate after he sneezed.
"That's karma." Sully grinned. Nate just ignored him, attempting to find the TV remote. His cased arm was preventing him from being able to search the couch fully, and Sully could see Nate frowning in anger. "Kid, let me look." Sully suggested, but Nate shook him off.
"Look, I don't want you to miss out on whatever the hell it was you were going to make me do this morning. Go and do that. I'll still be ill when you come back." Nate replied, not wanting to be a burden. "And bring me back medicine. I want to live to see my fifteenth."
Sully chuckled, but shook his head. "I'll take you up on the medicine, but if you think I'm going to leave you hear to suffer, you've got another think coming." Nate began to argue, but when Sully motioned for Nate to move along the couch, Nate did as he was told. Sully found the remote, causing Nate to smile and settle down into a more comfortable position. Sully turned the TV on and flicked through the few channels it had, before settling for some sort of made for TV movie. Nate sniffled occasionally, but the two of them fell into a comfortable silence accented with infrequent banter. By the end of the film Nate had his head against Sully's arm, gently snoring. Sully thought about waking him and sending him to bed, but he didn't have the heart to wake up the tired kid. Sully pulled a jacket off the arm of the couch and laid it on Nate. Sully wriggled to get into a more comfortable position and tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling. He wondered how he'd gotten himself into this new lifestyle, but he didn't regret it. Meeting Nate was a turning point for Sully. He wanted to be a better person, to attempt a better, honest lifestyle, just because of this boy. Sully smiled up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. All this thinking had him beat. If the kid could sleep, so could he. So he did.