Big Time Sick

Kendall coughed into his elbow. He wasn't going to let anything ruin this date. Today was the one year anniversary of when he and Jo got back together after her return from New Zealand. Her birthday had turned out kind of odd with the whole necklace incident and he wanted this to be perfect.

He had it all planned. First was the picnic. Picnics were their thing. After the picnic it would be dark. They could either stay there and do the stargazing they loved or they could go to a secluded area he'd found the other day and do their other thing. It wouldn't technically be a goodbye kiss as they weren't actually saying goodbye, but it would be good.

At that time he would give her her present: a gold ring with a blue topaz in the shape of a heart engraved with "KK heart JT." He made sure to get it engraved in case someone else decided to use it as his gift for his girl. He had also saved his money so he wouldn't have to borrow any from someone else and give them the ability to claim that they half paid for it, too.

His mom had helped him put together the meal of Jo's favorites and packed it in the basket. And now it was time to pick up Jo.

If only he could stop coughing. He didn't know what came over him, but all of a sudden he had a major coughing fit. His mom entered the kitchen, filled a glass with water, and handed it to him.

"Thanks," he said after downing half the glass.

"Are you sure you aren't coming down with something? You look kind of pale."

"I'm fine, Mom. Now, Jo's waiting."

"Have fun." Mrs. Knight kissed her son's forehead and he left apartment 2J for apartment 3I where Jo lived.

"You don't look so good," Jo said upon answering the door.

"That's what every boy wants to hear from his girl," Kendall joked.

"You look like you might be coming down with something." Jo reached to put her hand on Kendall's forehead but he backed away. "We can postpone this if you're sick."

"I'm not sick. I'm fine." Kendall held up the picnic basket. "I've got a great evening planned and it isn't doing us any good to stand here in your doorway talking."

Once they reached the park, set up the blanket, arranged the food, and sat down together as the sun began to set Kendall sneezed, not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times in a row.

"Must be hay fever or something," he said wiping his nose with one of the white cloth napkins he'd provided.

Jo shook her head in disbelief.

"Your health is more important to me than some picnic."

"Are you telling me you're not enjoying this?" Kendall poured some sparkling grape juice into a wine glass and handed to his girl. He did have to admit to himself that his head was starting to hurt a little, but it was probably because he was hungry. He'd been so wrapped up in getting this picnic ready for Jo that he didn't think he'd eaten lunch.

"No, no, this is very nice. Thank you." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before popping a cracker with cheese spread all over it into his mouth.

It tasted so good. But, the feeling it left him with made Kendall wonder if the cheese was bad. He hoped it wasn't. Food poisoning wasn't the gift he wanted to give Jo this anniversary.

"You're burning up!" Jo placed a hand on his forehead. Before anyone could say anything else Kendall leaned over and emptied his stomach onto the grass.

"Oh, Kendall." Jo rubbed his back after handing him his napkin to wipe his mouth. "Let's get you back to your apartment. We can do this picnic some other time."

"But, it's—" he protested.

"I know, it's our anniversary, but the date doesn't matter as long as I'm with you."

Leaning over, he placed his currently pounding head in his hands. He watched as Jo cleaned up the now ruined picnic.

"Let me help you," he offered.

"You're sick."

Kendall scooted onto the grass as Jo folded up the blanket and placed it back in the basket.

"I'm sorry."

"Oh, Kendall, it's not like you planned to get sick." She reached for his hand and helped him to his feet. His head spun a little, but he just held on tighter to her hand to keep his balance. "I wish I had some water to give you or something, but I don't think white grape juice would sit very well with your stomach."

Kendall's stomach churned at the mere mention of grape juice. He stopped and placed his hands on his knees.

"Are you?" Jo began but Kendall very slowly shook his head. "Let's go, you're getting into bed now."

Jo helped Kendall to the Palm Woods, through the lobby, and onto the elevator which they ended up sharing with Logan and Camille. Kendall leaned against Jo as the elevator slowly made its way to the second floor.

"How was your—" before Logan could say date Kendall threw up on his shoes. "Oh, ew, and they were brand new!"

"Ew?" Camille mocked. "Ew? You're the one who wants to be a doctor and you're grossed out by Kendall's vomit?"

"I'm not grossed out, but, dude, you ruined my shoes!" Logan sighed. "I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me."

"Yes, it was, Logan! Here he is sick and all you can think about are your shoes."

"Don't yell at Logan! He didn't know Kendall was sick."

"How could he not know? Kendall threw up on him!"

Kendall groaned loudly and the elevator doors opened bringing Jo and Camille's fight to an end. Logan and Jo each grabbed one of Kendall's hands and pulled him down the hall and into the apartment, leaving the mess in the elevator for someone else, most likely Buddha Bob, to clean up.

"What are you doing back so—oh! Oh!" Mrs. Knight was in the middle of fixing dinner, which was fish sticks and tator tots as today was Friday. She quickly got out of the way as Kendall with his hand over his mouth flew toward the bathroom. Jo and Logan followed him after Jo left the picnic basket on the counter leaving Camille in the kitchen.

"I'll, um, I'll go get his bed ready, yeah," she said.

"I'm so sorry," Kendall said later after he had changed into his pajamas, taken the medicine administered by Dr. Logan, and climbed into his bed.

"You didn't choose to get sick." Jo sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed Kendall's hand.

"Hope this helps you feel better." Mrs. Knight brought her son a glass of bubbly ginger ale. "I'll go see what I can do about Logan's shoes." She kissed Kendall on the forehead. "My, you are burning up. Have you taken your temperature?"

"On it." Logan appeared with a thermometer in his hands. "102.1," he read after sticking it under Kendall's tongue for the required fifteen seconds. "No wonder you're sick. Well, the medicine I gave you should work as a fever reducer. If you don't mind I'm going to go eat dinner. Would you like to join us, Jo? I know your date got cut short and you probably haven't eaten. I'm sure we have plenty of fish sticks."

"No, thanks."

"Go on, Jo. I'm not going anywhere," Kendall urged. "I know you didn't plan on having fish sticks and tator tots tonight, I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing, Kendall!"

"I'll stop if you go eat."

"Fine!" She followed Logan out the door but stopped when Kendall started coughing. He gave her a look indicating she should go on. After eating with Katie, Logan, James, Carlos, and Camille while Mrs. Knight worked on cleaning Logan's shoes, Jo came back to Kendall's room to find he had drunk all of the ginger ale and was asleep. She kneeled against his bed, rubbed his cheek which was still warm, and let him sleep. He had tried to deny it, but he was sick with a stomach bug or flu or something. This wasn't how she planned to spend their anniversary, but she would rather spend the day with sick Kendall than no Kendall at all.

Jo spent most of her free time in apartment 2J for the next two days. Kendall was really sick. He couldn't hold anything down. His fever kept rising and falling. Logan and Mrs. Knight assured her they could take care of everything, but she was worried. This was the sickest she'd seen her boyfriend.

"I'm sorry, honey." Mrs. Knight handed Logan, who was sitting on his bed pretending to read but really watching Kendall, his tennis shoes. "I did the best I could."

The shoes were relatively clean. Just by looking at them one could not tell anyone had vomited on them. But, the stench. That was something else.

"I can smell them from here," Kendall croaked and reached for the bucket someone had provided by his bed. After losing what little he had in his stomach which was mainly bile he added, "I'll buy you a new pair."

"You don't have to do that."

"I want to. I ruined them, so I'll get a new pair."

"Thanks, man."

Monday morning, Jo walked into 2J without knocking. She'd pretty much been going in and out taking care of Kendall so she didn't even bother. She was glad she wasn't scheduled to film any New Town High scenes that day.

"You must be feeling better." She spotted Kendall sitting on the orange couch wrapped in a blanket and eating dry toast.

"Lots," he replied his mouth full of toast. "Thank you for taking care of me. I know I must have been a pain in the neck."

"You're worth it." She patted his knee as she sat down next to him. "Where are the guys?"

"James and Logan are working on vocals with Gustavo and Carlos is still asleep." He finished his toast and wiped his crumby hands on his blanket causing Jo to roll her eyes at him. He gave her a sheepish "I'm a teenage boy" smile.

"I never gave you your anniversary gift. I think mom cleaned out the basket and it was at the bottom of that so…Hey, mom!" He called out. She appeared from the hall. "There was a package at the bottom of the picnic basket. Where did you put it?"

"On the desk in your room."

"I'll go get it," Jo offered. She returned about a minute later with a small present in her hands which she carefully tore into to reveal the ring. "This—it's—beautiful."

"Look inside."

Jo took the ring out of the box and examined the inner part.

"KK heart JT. I heart you, too." She slipped the ring on her left ring finger. "Perfect."

"I thought a small jewel would look good on your hand rather than some big gawdy thing."

"Thank you. I love it." She leaned over and kissed Kendall on the cheek. "I'm sorry, I left your present upstairs." She pointed up indicating her apartment when her eyes widened. "But, you'll have to wait a bit for it." Covering her mouth with her hand, Jo ran to the bathroom.

"Now, it's my turn to take care of you!" Kendall declared.

I don't know if the one year anniversary would come before or after Jo's birthday, but in this story it comes after. When I was little little my mom would give me ginger ale when I had an upset stomach so that's where I got that idea for Kendall (and why I can't stand ginger ale now). Also, the ring is engraved with an actual heart not the word, it's just that I can't get the ASCII code heart to show up on here. Jo, however, does actually say the word.

This story took a little longer than a day and I actually debated making it a two shot, but I didn't know if I had enough for a complete second chapter so I just let this be a really-long one-shot that took me two days to write.

There's probably more than one fanfic out there with this title and I really don't like using titles other people have used as I feel it is theirs (it probably does happen, though), but what else am I going to name this?