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i'll be there in a few. think about coming and staying with me for a while. we have room and i promise loki won't try to kill you in your sleep.

[Half dead as he is, squinting against the bright light of the tiny cell phone screen, Tim knows he's not far gone enough. It's consolation.]

No.

[Now he'll just curl up and keep from screaming.]

[ Well, he might reconsider. In the mean time she's getting some basic sick stuff ready and heading out on her rad purple motorcycle. Her backpack is badly overstuffed when she knocks on his door at last. ]

[If she thinks he's going to get the door, she's got another thing coming.]

everythings open but watch out for barricades
turn downt he 2nd hall past bball court

[The Rec Center is a funny little maze. Not impossible to navigate if anyone ever stepped into a Boys and Girls Club in any point of their life, with some more rooms, some more emergency exits, and hell of a lot more mess.

Some of it intentional. Enjoy.]

[ Well, it is what it is. And Steph has spent a lot of time in rec centers and a lot of time in Tim's man-cave, so it's not too hard for her to navigate. Finally she reaches his newest man-cave and sticks her head in. ]

See, this is why I worry about you being sick.

[ When was the last time he left this room? ]

[Man-cave, seriously?

He's got no blankets, possibly more to Steph's displeasure, just a nest of wide shirts piled over a mattress he'd managed to fit in a corner of the room. There's a trashcan in the opposite corner- want to guess what's sitting in it? And for his part, it couldn't be more obvious that he was feverish. At the least. Tim sits up and seems like he might pass for being hungover.]

Alfred's just a call away, so's everybody else. I'm not... dying, I think.

[A beat. Should he stand? Ha ha good try, no.] It's been about a week. No cough or anything, just a fever and a rash. There's joint pain. That's grown. That just really hurts now.

It was mosquito, Steph. I was bitten by a mosquito.

I'm a goner when the flu hits.

[Considering Steph only just rejoined the living, he should probably can the whining.] Did you pack an entire lab in your backpack or what?

[ True. "Boy-cave" is probably more accurate. She picks her way across the room, grabbing any clothes that look both clean and wearable. No way she's leaving him in this mess. ]

You weren't here when there were giant mosquitoes, all carrying awful diseases. Whatever's wrong with you, it's the techs' doing.

[ She finally reaches him and offers a half-frozen water bottle and a few Tylenol. A thermos of hot soup makes enough room for a couple of clothing items in her bag. ]

I only brought half a hospital, so you're going to have to come with me if you want the whole thing.

[Wow, rude.

And it wasn't that it wasn't embarrassing having her see him like this- Tim hasn't found anything pointing to his illness being actually contagious- but she had insisted. And Tim kind of figured she just wouldn't have taken 'no' for an answer anyway.

-about coming to visit, of course, not about being dragged to her--]

I'm sick of the Techs, too.

[He takes the water, his eyes go wide when it dawns that, yes, it's chilled. He swallows the pill. Living like starved dogs, she had said. It was accurate. Sip by sip, he downs maybe half the bottle before he feels lightheaded and has to stop.] That's fine. I don't like hospitals anyway. It's too cold for hospitals. Thanks for the- water.

[ She wouldn't have, and now she won't take no as an answer to her taking him away, either. She lets him hold on to the bottle while she takes out a few other things. ]

You need to stay hydrated.

[ Any real concern in her voice is hidden, because Steph has gone into full on triage mode. She gives him a thermometer to stick under his tongue, takes out a stopwatch and gets his pulse from his wrist, writes both numbers down on a notepad. She checks his lymph nodes, holds his chin up to point a flashlight down his throat - ]

Say "ah".

[ And when all that is done, she gets out the stethoscope and pulls his shirt up, no hesitation or consideration for shyness. You're getting doctored, Tim, whether you like it or not. ]

[Nothing in the Box is easy- Tim knew to keep his temperature down when he'd feel too woozy. It fluctuated- a flat hundred reading now, spiking whenever it felt like spiking. He would sit under the showers then and shiver until he was disgusted. He lets out an affirmative but miffed little hum at Steph's words. Of course he knew that and had drank plenty of liquids already. Not eaten, not much, but he'd drank.

Tim sits still through most of Steph's fussing. Occasionally he'd tense. Mostly he'd do that periodic shiver. He drew away from her touch, just a fraction, when she gets to his neck. The rash begins behind his left ear, spreads down his back. Small reddish specks of irritation. His eyes water-- it's a whole lot of normal for someone feeling so horrid. But Tim feels like his body's not his, though it still was on his last inspection. There was the telltale reluctance to move.

Until Steph decided to ninja that frozen circle of hell up his shirt, and Tim belatedly catches wind of it.] --Upp- nononowhat are you

[He tries to cover up before recognizing it'd do nothing. There's the light and somewhat faded surgical scar (the new one), and nothing too out of place. Thinness. No gaping hole where Jasper's spear had pierced his chest.]

Steph. [A blush that brings a headache. It's automatic.] Steph, get off. I'm fine. Get off. Out.

[ She'd like to say she's gotten worse reactions to a stethoscope, but most of her patients understand when she needs to listen to their lungs. Of course Tim wouldn't. She rolls her eyes and pulls the stethoscope down to hang around her neck. ]

You have a fever over a hundred degrees, a new scar [ she knows what those look like ], no access to medicine or proper food, and a room that's as likely to give you pneumonia as the children's ward. You're not fine, and you're coming home with me. You can either drink your soup and I'll be your crutch or I will physically pick you up and carry you the whole way and you can have the soup when we get there. Your choice.

[Are you kidding, that thing came out of nowhere.

She didn't even try to warm it first. And Tim's about to whine about what a botched job the Techs did on his new spleen before it catches up to him that, hey, Steph might not know he was ever missing one in the first place. Unless she had taken to reading medical files, and if that's the case

then he really didn't know her well, did he? At all? After all, he worse than dirt at anything having to do with her, or so she'd said. And it was true. And that's a circle of thought he visited like, what, twice a day?]

I don't have a fever.

[-is not what he meant to say, wow. He's preoccupied trying to tuck his shirt back in- yes, tucked in all neat like the rest of him isn't.] I mean, I don't need the- I'm not gonna catch pneumonia, Steph, I'll call someone when I feel bad. [Which he had.] Steph, I seriously don't want to walk. I feel as old as Ra's should be. And you can't carry me.

[ Steph had not taken to reading medical files. In fact, she wasn't in the habit of reading any sort of files on any of her friends. She knows what it's like to have someone know things about you that you didn't tell then, and she isn't fond of the feeling.

When he says he doesn't have a fever all of the concern hidden beneath professionalism bubbles to the surface and is clear on her face. He's not well, and she can't imagine him getting better in this place. He would hide out here until the fever cooks his brain, and he might not come back this time. She has been by Loki's side when it happened to him. She had burned the body because he had asked her to.

It was one of the longest nights of her life. ]

Can't I? Never stopped me before.

[ She sends out a quick text to Loki, because Tim is probably right. But she's damned if she isn't going to try. The supplies are stuffed back in her backpack along with the few clothes, and though it won't zip up all the way she swings it over her back and secures the shoulder straps.

Then she walks around to pick Tim up bridal style, bracing herself to take more weight than her muscles are really okay with. Lift with your legs, Steph! ]

[To be honest, it felt like Steph had been in this room for a lifetime now. When her expression shifts, Tim can't remember if it was recent because of something he'd done or said or if she had marched in with it. It makes him whine- actually whine, kind of hum out a dry little noise from the back of his throat like a pouting kid does. He quits his fidgeting and reclines against the wall and lets his head hang as she texts. And then he thinks oh my god she's going to drop me before she even finishes packing up the untouched soup and all those medical supplies that should

-probably-

be in the clinic. But didn't she say something about working with them or something? So Tim thinks he can give her a pass. Tim mumbles something not even he can make out when Steph slips over to him, but he figures it's a "seriously, don't-". There was no way to sway her from her resolve, so all Tim can think to do is to quit freaking when she gets her arm under his legs. Deadweight and the occasional flinch- and oh my god, Steph, please don't drop the boy.]

[ It's all for a good cause.

He weighs less than he should but more than she can really carry. Her breathing is strained and her steps slow, but she manages to get to the doorway before stopping to lean against the frame. She figures if she leans back slightly then even if she drops him he'll just fall on her. The whole time she texts with one hand, and she has to make sure she doesn't drop that either. Loki should be coming to help. It'll all be okay. They'll get through this and live to fight another day. ]

[He's surprised the effort doesn't fall through in the first three steps. The more he worries about how much that potential drop to the hardwood floor will feel against his sore bones, the more tense he gets and so it isn't long before Tim has his eyes closed just to relax. Keeping his head up in this position is near impossible too, and Tim is soon resting it on whatever part of Steph's shoulder or chest he can find to be less intrusive. And then he opens his eyes again.

It's slow going. He's feeling sick from the movement. So thank god Steph doesn't have the mind to haul him through the hall and out the building, but-]

're you texting? Why not speaker? Put me down before you hurt yourself. [Because he's bracing himself again despite his best efforts not to, because he knows this wasn't going to work out as well as they both had hoped-] I owe you for this only if I don't get a concussion out of it.

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