When they arrived at his quarters, Klinger immediately collapsed onto his bed. He hadn't even bothered to pull the covers over himself, so Potter did it for him.
Then he heard a loud rapping on the door. "It's Houlihan, sir." The voice on the other side of the door announced. "I have the supplies you asked for."
"Come in." Potter instructed.
Houlihan entered, nurses scrubs and mask already on. She made a beeline to Klinger. "Are you sure it's measles?" She asked Potter.
"Well, he started growing polka dots on his chest and he's got a high fever. It could be something else, but I wanted to get a message out about disinfection sooner rather than later."
Houlihan took out a wooden tongue depressor and examined the inside of Klinger's mouth. "It's measles all right." She confirmed. "He's got Koplik spots." Houlihan turned to address her commanding officer. "You go get your scrubs on, I'll set up an I.V." Potter agreed and headed out.
Klinger hadn't reacted to the tongue depressor, but as soon as Houlihan stuck the IV needle in, he started to panic. "Get this thing out of me!" Klinger yelled, yanking out the IV in one harsh tug. "Do you want the werewolves to find out I'm here!?" Houlihan grabbed his arm and tried to re-insert the needle, but Klinger continued his attempts to fight her off.
"Klinger, you listen to me!" She shouted, grabbing his shoulders for emphasis. "This IV is important. You need to take it or you'll never get better!" That stopped Klinger in his tracks. He looked at Houlihan, his eyes glassy and pitch-black. "Oh gosh…I'm gonna die from this."
The comment caught Houlihan off guard, as she honestly didn't know if Klinger was talking about another hallucinated fantasy creature, or the very real threat of being killed by a virus. Either way, the distress he was feeling was real.
"You're not going to die, Klinger." Houlihan assured him. "Just lie down. I'm going to give you something that will help you." Klinger did as he was told and Houlihan was able to insert the IV needle. He grimaced as the needle pricked through his skin, but didn't attempt to take it out.
"There, it's in. That wasn't so bad, right." Houlihan stated. Klinger gave a half-shrug in response. Houlihan got up from her spot beside Klinger's bed, but as soon as she did Klinger started to panic again.
"Wait wait, no please don't go." Klinger grabbed onto the sleeve of Houlihan's scrubs. "Please I don't - I don't want to be left alone." Houlihan felt a pang of sadness hitting her chest. Klinger was the most upbeat person at the 4077, it didn't feel right to watch him suffer like this.
Houlihan sat back down and took Klinger's hand into her own. "I won't leave." She stated. "Just try to get some sleep. I'll make sure someone is here when you wake up."