Eliot walked into Abby's room, tapping on the door.

"Abby it's quarter to; you gotta be at school in half an hour."

There was a quiet moan in response.

"Get up, I ain't tellin' you again."

She was silent so, slightly frustrated, Eliot walked further into her room and pulled the covers off; she was curled up in a ball, shivering and clearly ill.

"You okay darlin?" he asked, pulling the blankets back over her.

"I feel sick," she mumbled and rolled over to face him. He laid the back of his hand on her forehead; it was burning up.

"How are you sick darlin'?"

"My muscles hurt, my throat hurts, my chest hurts, I have stomach cramps."

"Yeah, you got the flu," he stated. "And stomach cramps as in.." he asked awkwardly.

"I don't wanna have the flu and yes, stomach cramps as in womanly stomach cramps."

"Look on the bright side, you don't have to go to school," he suggested.

"Woop de doo," she moaned sarcastically and pulled the covers back over her face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

An hour later they entered Nate's apartment. Eliot walked into the kitchen, carrying a bag of groceries and Abby still dressed in her PJ's and carrying a back pack, headed straight for the couch and curled up in a ball. Parker, slightly confused, stared intently at the girl, walked up to her and poked her repeatedly on the shoulder.

"Eliot!" Abby yelled out.

"Parker!" the hitter yelled back. "She's sick, leave her alone."

"But..." Parker began to complain as she stood up.

"No buts Parker; leave her alone."

"She should be at home in bed," Sophie said, walking down from the loft.

"Her temperature was 102. I didn't want to leave her in case it got worse," he said unpacking the bags; homemade chicken soup, crackers, juice and other sick people food.

"So you brought her here to infect us all?" Hardison complained sitting at the dining room table on his computer. "No offence Abby," he added as an afterthought.

"Thanks Alec," she replied, somewhat sarcastically; Eliot ignored the comment.

"How are you feeling angel?" Sophie asked as she sat down next to Abby, stroking her hair.

"Horrible," she said before she began a coughing fit.

"Would you like a blanket?" She asked when the girl had finally finished coughing.

"Yes please," Abby replied and the grifter nodded at Parker to go fetch one.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

She woke up several hours later, dazed and feeling just as ill as before. She painfully sat up and looked about the room.
"Where is everyone?" she asked Parker, sitting at the bench behind her, going over what appeared to be plans for some sort of safe.

"Out on the job. They left me in charge," the thief said, matter-of-factly and somewhat proudly.

"Cool," Abby replied somewhat unenthusiastically.

"Parker ask her if she needs anything," Sophie hinted, not so subtly through the comms.

"Oh, yeah," the thief responded. "Do you want anything?" she asked, quite robotically.

"Soup?"

"Cool. Eliot left some in the fridge," she replied, then continued to study the blueprints in front of her.

"Go make it for her Parker," Eliot said frustratedly.

"I was going to do that," she replied. "Totally."

"Get Abby to put her comms in as well."

"Eliot wants you on comms," the thief yelled out as she walked into the kitchen. The teenager did as she was told and grabbed her comm from the coffee table.

"Hey," she mumbled.

"How you feeling?" her uncle asked.

"Still the same," she replied. "How's work?"

"Good. Sorry I couldn't be there though darlin'"

"'T's not your fault. Not much you can do anyway. You're probably being a lot more productive out there."

"Suppose," he replied.

"I got Parker anyway,"

"Parker doesn't know what she's doing."

"But she tries," she said as she picked up the remote, attempting to turn the TV on. "Alec, how do you work this stupid thing?"

"It ain't that complicated," the hacker replied exasperated, from his van.

"You keep..."

"Yeah, you keep changing it," Sophie chimed in; Hardison sighed then walked her through the new programming for the remote.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What's this?" Parker asked, delivering Abby's soup and toast on a tray; Abby gave her a questioning look.

"This is Friends," she said, utterly bewildered that the thief didn't know what it was. Parker still looked confused. "It's a TV show."

"What's it about?"

"Friends. In New York. It's a sitcom."

"A what con?"

"A comedy," she said, then began another coughing fit.

"Don't die there kiddo," Parker said, slapping Abby hard on the back, trying to be helpful.

"I'll try," she said, shuffling up along the couch just far enough so Parker couldn't slap her on the back again.

"Your phone kept buzzing while you were asleep by the way," Parker added, staring intently at the television, while she passed the device to Abby.

Abby looked at it and smiled before texting her friend back.

"Is that your boyfriend?"

"Kyle's not my boyfriend," Abby replied as she began another coughing fit.

"Yeah he is," she insisted.

"Why?"

"Because you like him, he likes you and you do things together."

"Parker we don't do things together," Abby said quickly as she coughed. "And we don't like each other."

"Sophie said you did," she replied. "And if of course you do things; you went to the movies and lunch and stuff."

"Well by that definition, you and Alec should be a couple," Abby retorted; Parker was quiet on the subject after that and continued watching the show as Abby laid on the couch, drifting in and out of sleep, awoken only by her sporadic coughing fits, the occasional message from Kyle. and Parker's enthusiastic laughs at all of the wrong cues.

"When's Eliot getting back?" she asked as she coughed.

"'round an hour darlin'" he replied. "We're just about to wrap things up. Everything okay?"

"Mhmm," she muttered, coughing again. Then, before she even realised it, she was running towards the bathroom, the excessive coughing combined with the agonising stomach cramps causing her to throw up into the toilet bowl.

Parker ran in after her.

"She's throwing up. What do I do?" she asked.

"Hold her hair back," Sophie replied. "And then get her a face washer and a towel for her to clean up with."

"I'm coming back," Eliot stated.

"No," Abby replied before she threw up again.

"What?" he asked confused.

"You have to finish helping those people."

On the other side of the comms Eliot paused. "You're sure?"

"Mhmm," she said, sitting down on the bathroom floor, exhausted.

"Okay well, I'll be home in an hour," he replied. "Parker make sure she has some gatorade or something with electrolytes and keep an eye on her."

"Roger that Sparky," Parker replied, saluting her hand to no one.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"You know she's sixteen right?" Hardison said to the hitter.

"And?"

"She's sixteen; you don't have to be there for her every second while she's sick."

"You're kidding me right?" Eliot stated.

"Kidding?"

"Last time you were sick you stayed in bed for like three days!"

"Your point being?"

"You weren't sick!" the hitter yelled frustratedly. " You had allergies!"

"Yeah, well, uh," the hacker blabbered. "Dammit Eliot!"

XXXXXXXXXXX

The team piled into Nate's apartment just as Abby was pressing play on a movie; her face looked drained, pale and exhausted.

"How you doing sweetie?" Sophie asked with a concerned look on her face.

"She stopped throwing up!" Parker stated as she stood up from the couch and went to fetch a drink from the fridge.

"Ain't nothing to throw up," Abby said.

"How's your temperature?" Eliot asked, sitting down on the other end of the couch beside Abby.

"100 last time I checked. Still coughing a lot and feel like sh... and feel horrible though," the teenager stated as she readjusted her position on the couch, allowing for more room.

"What are we watching?" Hardison asked as he placed a bag of popcorn into the microwave.

"The Court Jester," she stated.

"Ah, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury; good flick," Nate commented.

"I thought so."

Thanks for reading guys and don't forget to drop a review... you know you want to =P

Side note, the court jester is one of my favourite movies ever.