Max closed the door behind him, listening to Nova’s coughing behind the door.  His brother’s fever kept on rising.  

Now he wasn’t sure what to do.  

Taking a deep breath he, walked to the kitchen.  He gathered the medicine, a bowl with cold water, an ice pack and a cloth.  

As he walked back to his brother’s room, he took a few deep breaths, wishing that Gale did not need to go out on a mission today.  He had no idea what was wrong with Nova, but it just looked like his brother was getting worse.  

He opened the door and slipped into the room.  

Nova was coughing again.  

“Hey, Nov?” Max said softly as he sat down on the bed.  

Nova’s eyes flickered open and focused on Max.  “Sorry...” he muttered, curling up on his side as coughing ripped through his chest.  

Max sighed, placing the medicine on the bedside table, before talking the icepack, placing it against the back of Nova’s neck.  He could feel the fever running through his brother’s body even without touching him.  

A shiver ran through Nova’s body.  

“Take it easy, Nova” Max said “Do you think you can sit up?”

Nova groaned.  He slowly pushed himself up, groaning as he sat up.  “My head...” he muttered.

“I know” Max said softly and handed his brother a hand full of pills “Swallow this”

Slowly Nova took the water bottle and swallowed the pills, leaned forward and picked up the icepack again, pressing it against his head.  

“It hurt...” he groaned and Max noticed for the first time just how badly Nova’s hands were shaking.  

“Want to try and sleep a bit more?” Max asked.  

Nova shook his head slightly, before groaning and closed his eyes.  

“Do I need to call Gale?” Max asked softly.  

“He’s busy...” Nova muttered “I’m fine, Maxi...”

“You are not fine, Nov”

Nova paled, the icepack falling from his fingers, his arms folded over his middle as he doubled over.  

“NOVA!” Max called out, catching his brother’s shoulders “What’s wrong?”

“It hurts...” Nova gasped, just curling up into himself.

Max just stared at him, unsure of what to do.  

Nova groaned again, before he just scrambled of the bed and stumbled towards bathroom.  He barely reached the toilet before starting to throw up.  Max ran after him brother, he held Nova’s shoulders as he threw up.  

When the nausea finally stopped, Nova just fell limply to the floor, gasping.

“Dammit Nova...” Max said “It’s not your power’s not going out of control again?”

Nova shook his head.  

Max clenched his jaw.  He knew how to handle Nova’s power going out of control, but he had no idea what was wrong now.  Every time Nova’s power went out of control, it happened with him just getting sick.  

Normal sick.

With fever, nausea and coughing.  

Not this.  

Max knelt next to Nova.  “Come on” he said “Let’s get you back to bed”

Nova blinked a few times.  He just stared at Max for a moment, almost like he did not recognized Max.  

“Nova..?” Max said softly.  

His brother eyes flickered closed and he just lay there, struggling to breath.  Even by the sound of his breathing, Max could hear that his brother was still in pain.  

“Nova?” Max asked again as he gently lifted his brother’s shoulders.

For a moment Nova’s eyes flickered open.  “Ricky...” he whispered, confused. 

Max nodded.  “Hey, let’s get you back to bed” he said as he helped Nova to his feet.  He let Nova rinse his mouth before they stumbled to the bed, where his brother just collapsed onto the bed.

With a whimper, Nova curled up on his side.  

“It hurts...” 

Max clenched his jaw.  They were out of morphine.  Gale would have gone to buy some today, but now he’s out on a mission.  

“I’m sorry, Nov” he said softly “I don’t know what to do”

As Nova started coughing again.  His entire body were trembling.

Max placed a hand on Nova’s shoulder as he pulled out his phone.  “Please don’t be mad at me for this, but I don’t know what else to do” he whispered, dialling Amilia’s number.

Nova shivered.  

When Amilia answered her phone, Max almost jumped.  “Amilia?” he said, eyes focused on Nova “Please...  I don’t know what to do...  Nova’s sick...  He just suddenly got worse... and...  and I don’t know what to do”

‘Max’ Amilia’s voice said gently ‘Take a deep breath and calm down.  It’s going to be alright.  I’m on my way.  Have tried to contact Lera?’

“No...  She’s not here this week...  and... and...”

‘Max.  Max.  Listen to me.  I’m coming over.  I cannot promise anything.  But you need to stay calm’

“Okay” Max said before hanging up. 

***

Max opened the door for Amilia and stepped back. 

She gave him a slightly smile.  “What happened?” she asked and he just shook his head.  

“I don’t know” Max said “He was still fine this morning and then he just...”

Amilia bit her lip.  “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to help” she said gently “But I will do what I can”

Max just nodded and quickly lead her up the stair to Nova’s room.  He took a deep breath as he opened the door.

“Nova...” Max said as he stepped into the room “How are you feeling?”

All Amilia could hear was a soft muttering, followed by a pain groan and coughing.  She bit her lip again, that did not sound good.  

“Come on in” Max said as he walked over to the bed.  

All that was visible on the bed was a mess of sweaty dark blond hair.  

Nova coughed again.  It tore painfully through his chest and he shivered, feeling like the cold had seeped into his bones and refused to let go.  

He could hear two sets of voice softly talking around him.  

A warm hand touch his face and he almost wanted to lean into it, but it hurt to much.  Everything hurt.  It felt like his body was on fire while freezing.  

Amilia placed her palm on Nova’s cheek.  

His skin was cold, face pale.  He did not open his eyes, but turned his face slightly into her touch.  

“He’s ice cold...” she said softly, glancing towards Max.

“I’ve tried warming the room” Max said, wringing his hands together ‘But it didn’t work.  All it did was make his pain worse”

“Anything else?” Amilia asked, keeping her attention on Nova.  

“He threw up a few times.  And he barely knows that I’m here.  Most of the time he’s just out cold, coughing every now and then, shivering and moaning.  I wanted to give him some morphine, but Gale haven’t gotten the new supplies yet.  So there’s nothing...” Max just shut his mouth tightly and looked away.  

“Nova” Amilia said softly “I’m going to see if there’s anything I can do to help”

She took a deep breath and reached towards him with her healing.  

Nova gasped and for a moment his eyes flickered open.  They were fevered and confused, unaware of what was going on around him.  

Amilia flinched and pulled back her hand.  “I can’t find anything” she said and looked over at Max “I can’t find anything wrong with him.  It’s like his body’s just decided that it’s going to...  I don’t know”

Both of them jumped when a smothered scream sounded from Nova as he started thrashing around on the bed.  

His expression was pain and confused.  

Max just stared at his brother for a moment before he quickly stepped closer and caught Nova’s shoulders, holding him still.  At Max’s touch it looked like Nova calmed slightly and all they heard was a soft whimper.  

Amilia blinked a few times.  

“Max” she said, looking at the boy’s worried expression “Just hold his hand for a while.  Everything will be fine”

“How do you know that?” Max asked as he took his brother’s hand, holding it tightly between both of his “It looks like he’s dying”

“He’s not” 

“But what if....”

“Max” Amilia said sternly “Nova’s not that weak.  Do you really think he’d just die without a fight”

Even with those words, she still felt worried about him.  This was the first time she’d ever seen something like this.  

Nova moved restlessly on the bed.  He was breathing through his mouth, each breath sounding hoarse and painful.  His free hand clenched into a fist for a moment before relaxing and clenching again.  

***

Gale frowned down at his phone as he landed at the front door.  He had more than ten missed calls from Max.

Slowly he opened the door and stepped inside.  

The house was quiet.

Without a sound he made his way up stairs, fist checking Max’s room.  It was empty.  Next was Nova’s room.  

Slowly the door swung open and Gale froze.  

Nova was laying on his bed, face pale, under a bunch of blankets, while Max was sitting on a chair next to the bed.  One hand hold Nova’s, the other held gripped the sleeve of Nova’s shirt.  

Fast asleep with his head on the bed.  

On the other side was Amilia.  She was curled up on a chair, a blanket pulled over her, one hand holding Nova’s sleeve as well.

Gale just blinked at them, not sure what was going on until Nova let out a pained moan.  

His brother got sick again, he realized.

He should have known.  With the headache, Nova told him about, it should not have been such a difficult guess as to what was wrong.  

A power release.  

Smiling slightly, Gale closed the door again.  There was nothing that he could do about the power release.  It was something he went through as well, not dangerous, but really painful.

And by the looks of things, all three of them needed some sleep.  They must have had a rough day.