Sick

CHAPTER 1
Sophie woke up to the sound of Nate coughing violently. She felt for him on the bed but he wasn't there. Yawning, she looked at the alarm it read, 4:25. Rubbing her eyes, she got up and out of bed headed for the bathroom where she thought the coughing was coming from. "Nate?" She cleared her threat and knocked on the door.

Her eyes hurt too much, she hadn't got much sleep with Nate tossing and turning all night. "Nate!" She shouted, knocking on the door. Nate opened the door, looking paler than she's ever seen him before. "Soph-" She cut him off. "Nate, what happened? are you hurt?" Nate rolled his eyes but stopped, realizing  his head was aching because of it. This was exactly the kind of attention he didn't want. He hated when people obsessed over him and take care of him.

Sure it was nice but he didn't like all the attention focused on himself. He's never admit out loud but he was scared of all that attention. "I'm not hurt, Sophie." He coughed, unable to keep it down. She gave him a look that said, you can't expect me to believe that. Sophie placed her hands at her hips and tried to read him. He was definitely hurting inside and the coughing sounded bad. She was no doctor but Nate did look sick.

She studied his appearance. He was pale, sweaty and he swayed on his feet a little. "Soph-" He began but stopped when he saw that Sophie had brought her hand up to his sweaty forehead. He immediately pushed it down not wanting her to feel his head. That was the first thing he had done when he woke up. There was no doubt he had a fever his forehead was burning and he could hear his heart beat furiously in his head, which annoyed him to no end. Sophie's hand barely brushed his forehead and she could feel the scorching heat.

"Nate, you have a fever! Did you take anything-" Nate didn't want this to happen, he knew enough to know where this would lead. "I'm fine, Soph!" Sophie tried to feel his forehead again. "You need to see a doctor, Nate." A quick flash of his son being treated for a fever in the hospital ran through his mind and he shook his head, no. "No...No...Sophie! I'm not gonna go see a doctor!" He pushed passed Sophie to get to the closet to find some clothes. He's ran out of whiskey during the night and now he was dangerously in need of some.

He pulled a blue button up shirt on and dark jeans before running a hand through his messy curls. "Nate!" She stormed after the Mastermind, who was headed for the door, heading towards the kitchen. "Nate!" Nate opened the door to reveal Hardison, Eliot, and Parker, who had no doubt been listening in on their conversation. "Nate, you're gonna get checked out." Eliot said, his tone indicating his seriousness.

The last thing they needed was for Nate to be slowly dying of some sort of disease. "Guys...I-I'm fine!" He pretended he was clearing his throat but it was a cough. "I don't need to see a doctor, Eliot. Okay, that's my final decision!" He moved towards the cabinets where his liquor was but before he could grab it, Eliot was at his side holding his arm back from reaching into the cabinet. "Eliot." He sounded tired and defeated. Eliot quickly noted.

He was definitely sick, he would have taken the bottle and locked himself inside his room, but he didn't. One look at Nate's blue eyes said it all. He definitely knew he was sick but he didn't want to go see a doctor. Wait a minute, Eliot thought. His hand is hot. "Nate, you have a fever, you cannot drink." He stated matter of factory. Nate weakly tried to shove Eliots hand off but couldn't and it made Eliot feel bad. Nate sighed gathering up the rest of his energy that was slowly leaving him. "Parker."

Parker immediately knew what Eliot wanted her to do and got up from her seat on the stool. This was going to hurt Nate! She thought. I have to get rid of it. Parker quickly grabbed as much liquor as she could carry and brought it outside. "Where's she going?" Nate immediately tried to follow her but Eliot held him back. "Eliot...what...what she doing?" He tried to move away from Eliot but he kept a firm grip on his hands that were behind his back.