#tech time

Jesse ran through the halls, not even bothering to wait for the elevator as he ran up the stairs two at a time. He made it to the infirmiry wing in less than five minutes, bursting through the doors and instantly being stopped by one of the doctors. Jesse nearly collapsed into his arms but still looked up to him and without hesitation asked for Lukas.

"Jesse, you look awful--" the doctor responded to him in a concerned tone, obviously worried, "Have you been eating? Or.. Sleeping, for that matter?... Have you at least been drinking? You're incredibly weak--"

"I need to see Lukas. Now," Jesse avoided the worried comments of the doctor and was still focused only on Lukas.

"He's- He's in the third room, second hall on your right-- but please, as soon as you can, take care of yourself, Jesse," the doctor helped Jesse stand fully again and sent him on his way. Jesse rushed down the hall, stopping by the door and opening it. Inside, a nurse was waiting, and once again Jesse was halted.

"Oh, Jesse-- you're here," she said, almost relieved.

"I came as soon as I heard. Is he okay?"

"He's okay, he's awake now. He asked for you almost minutes after he awoke--"

"Can I see him?"

"Of course, of course--"

The nurse led Jesse to another door, leading to the seperate room with the more advanced means of medical. She opened it, holding it for him as he went inside. Lukas was lying on his back at the far end of the brightly lit room, covered only halfway in the hospital sheets. He was sit up slightly, and had nothing but bandages covering his chest. A couple of doctors were still with him, and Jesse quickly went to the bedside, immediately taking Lukas's hand.

"Lukas?"

Lukas's hand closed around Jesse's as his eyes fluttered open. He looked up to his husband's face, giving him a weak but genuine smile.

"Hey Jesse..." Lukas's voice was raspy from not being used for a while, but still had its usual soft tone to it, "God... You look terrible."

"You're one to talk," Jesse couldn't help but laugh as he nearly laid on top of Lukas in a hug. Lukas squeaked out from the hug in a light bit of pain and Jesse quickly pulled away.

"Still sore, it's okay.." Lukas quickly assured him, "Heh, I missed you.."

"I missed you so much... I couldn't stop worrying... Are you.. Feeling better?" Jesse asked as he laid a hand gently over the bandages on Lukas's chest.

"Well.. 'Bout as good as a guy with a bullet hole next to his heart can feel, yknow?" Lukas chuckled lightly before coughing and quickly putting a hand to his mouth.

"True.. You alright?.." Jesse grew concerned at the coughs, tilting his head slightly.

"Ugh.. Sorry, the doctors said this might happen for a while until my lung actually fixes itself. It was in fact hit by the bullet,, I mean, they did what they could- but.." Lukas wiped his hand on his pants, smearing a small amount of blood off, "I'm still coughing up blood."

"And that's... Okay?" Jesse questioned.

"Uh... More or less?.. I mean, I'm not dying or anything anymore, so that's good... But this might cause a problem for future missions.. They said that the puncture might cause temporary breathing problems. Like... I don't know... Maybe.. Hyperventilating easily and shortage of breath? If I panic? I really don't know a lot about it... Just trying to remember what they said. Or.. At least something along the lines of it," Lukas explained with a sigh, "I do know though that they had to go in and get the plastic shards out... And that might be an issue?.."

"Well... I would guess, right?"

"So.. Did you.. Hold up okay? While I was out... Heard I was out for a while..."

"Two weeks actually.. And yeah- I.. Held up okay."

"Your appearance is saying otherwise, Jess... When's the last time you slept?.."

"I uh..."

Jesse couldn't answer, and he thought about it, but couldn't remember.

"... Eaten?"

Jesse still couldn't answer.

"Do pills count?" he quipped lightly.

"What-? Oh my god Jess--" Lukas sat up, fighting back a violent wince and instead putting both hands on Jesse's cheeks, "Are you alright??.. Do.. Do you need help? From the doctors? Are you feeling okay? Did I.. Make you worry this bad? Oh-- I'm sorry- I should've taken the stupid shot I--"

"No-- Lukas- shut up, it's not your fault, I promise..." Jesse held onto Lukas's wrists lightly as he spoke, his voice somewhat squished, "It's just my fault.. I've been an idiot lately and just... Got stressed.. I'll be fine, I just need to get some sleep.."

"Are.. Are you sure? Don't lie to me, Jess--" Lukas gave him a lightly stern look, earning a quiet whine from him.

"Alright... Okay.... Maybe I did end up making myself a little sick...."

Lukas quirked an eyebrow.

"A lot sick, I feel like shit... I was just so worried, I'm sorry-- I haven't been able to eat or sleep, I keep tossing up everything I put down, I started having nightmares-- I..." Jesse whined and wrinkled his nose, "I didn't wanna lose you and the silence was killing me...."

"Literally killing you- go see the doctors.. I can't exactly leave yet, but you look like you're about to pass out... There's no need to worry anymore, I'm okay now... Go take care of yourself, okay?" Lukas let go of Jesse, who let out a protesting huff but nodded.

"Okay... But--"

"You can come and visit me now any time you want to, no matter what. If I'm asleep, you can visit, if they're working on me or something, you can visit. Even if they say you can't, you can visit. I'll let you in myself if I have to.."

Jesse sighed and gave him a slight pouty face.

"Okay.. Okay... I'll go... And I'll visit as much as I can-.."

"Don't wear yourself out too bad, OK? You're... You're shaking-"

"Oh- yeah-- haha... I've been doing that for a week..."

"Baby- no- go now- get help for yourself,, right now--"

With that Jesse nodded, turning to leave before just stopping again. He quickly turned around and gave Lukas a quick kiss before really heading out.

Lukas smiled to himself as he watched Jesse go, laying back down and letting out a heavy sigh. Outside, Jesse barely got a few feet before suddenly getting hit with a panging headache, immediately growing lightheaded and stumbling. A nurse noticed and quickly helped him, leading him to a seperate room where he fell unconscious on the infirmiry bed, incredibly weak and his body strained to its last straw.

~~Tech Time continues~~

Jesse was out and about in the halls, feeling much better and nearly back to his old self. He was still sick, stuck with a fever and constant headache that reminded him to stay hydrated, yet he was still back to work. He was trying to check up on everything he may have missed while he was unconscious in the infirmiry wing, all while going to visit Lukas any chance he could.

He was currently in Control, where Olivia, Ivor and Radar were all together in front of one monitor. The sight of them all crowded made him curious, and he started heading over to check on them. He glanced over Radar's shoulder, still unnoticed by the group, and looked over all of the groups' excited, interested faces. Though when he looked to the screen he figured out very quickly was his nerd friends were doing.

Minesweeper, and Olivia had cleared half the board.

"You've gotta be kidding."

At Jesse's voice, Olivia hit a bomb and the game ended, the red Xs instantly met with a collective groan from the group.

"Minesweeper? Guys, it could've at least been Galaga. I purposely downloaded Galaga on a government computer just so I didn't have to watch you guys drooling over Minesweeper anymore--"

"Jesse!" it quickly clicked with Radar that Jesse was finally up and moving as he gave him a large hug. Jesse chuckled and hugged the little tech guru back.

"Hey guys, what's up? Besides Minesweeper."

"It's really nice to see you're alright, Jess--" Olivia started, but was interrupted by Ivor.

"Never do that again, Jesse-- when I heard you had me worried sick! You'd better be taking great care of yourself from now on."

"Don't worry, Dad. I promise I'm taking fantastic care. Trust me, being genuinely worried sick is no picnic and I never want to go through it again--"

"Good, that means you learned."

"Anyway, what'd I miss? I can't stay long, you know I need to check up on Lukas whenever I can- he should be able to leave the infirmiry wing soon, and I gotta be there when he's cleared," Jesse changed the subject, obviously in a light rush, "Anything on Romeo?"

"Actually, yeah. We got a hit a couple weeks ago. Check it out," Olivia said, closing Minesweeper and pulling up a seperate tab. She opened a folder, and a bunch of images popped up on the screen, all of Romeo.

"That says he was seen in the Miami docks. How'd he get down there?" Jesse quirked an eyebrow, letting go of Radar to lean closer to the screen. He squinted at the blurry camera images, but the bright red hair gave Romeo dead away.

"We don't know. But we do know what he was doing."

Jesse read further in the file.

"What the hell?-- No way. No way in the pits of hell."

Written on the screen, beside detailed blueprints, was a caption labeled as "atom bomb".

"This was stolen from the largest military facility in America. We don't know how, we don't know when, but Romeo managed to steal it and sell it off for billions of dollars. There's a rogue atom bomb on the run and we have no idea who the buyer was. A terrorist group most likely. Romeo managed to get himself internationally wanted, a government threat and everything. The two agents that went to stop him in Miami from the Florida base were found dead at the bottom of the docks two days later," Olivia explained more in depth, "Romeo's not messing around anymore. He's serious."

"He killed two agents? He- he's never even tried to kill us until the last encounter with him, and we're like his rivals. Oh man.. This entire case just got 100% worse."

"Yeah, and after the trade went down at the docks, both the buyer and Romeo disappeared without a trace. The atom bomb can't even be tracked from wherever its being kept. It's probably stuck in a seriously dense area, most likely far underground," Radar added, "I don't know what our priority is anymore. Romeo, as agents, or the bomb, as undercover soldiers. Like.. Our main target has always been Romeo. But now? Billions of lives are at risk. Even our officials don't know what to do. They're worried about us now after the two deaths in Miami, too."

"This got serious really quickly... And I know who's got the strategy to figure this out. I'll be right back, I'm getting Lukas. He can help-"

"Jesse, are you sure? I mean, are you sure it's okay to toss him back into agent business so quickly?" Ivor asked quickly.

"Not any of the action. Just the strategy. Action comes later, when he's healed. Neither of us are going on another mission until he's healed up and he says he's ready. But this is a serious problem and you can try and tell me otherwise but the person who's had the most soldier experience is Lukas and he's the one that can help us."

~~Tech Time~~