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Jake pursed his lips. He slid Dirk's laptop back into its bag and swung it over his shoulder with his own, scooting Dirk's chair back a little bit and shaking his shoulders gently.

"Dirk," he said again, a little louder. "Dirk, come on."

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He scooted closer, shifted to work his way under one of Dirk's arms.

"Dirk," he tried again still, but paused when he noticed how warm the Strider was. Good grief, that was abnormal. He shifted again and pushed at Dirk, hoping to slide him off the desk so he slumped over his shoulder. If the movement didn't wake him, he could just carry him.

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Jake was really starting to get worried. He glanced over to the professor and then back to Dirk, shifting him one more time before he just pulled him out of his chair and hoisted him into his arms like a Princess.

"Sorry, Professor Wolfinger," he said, ducking his head in apology. "I don't think he's well." The professor looked briefly less severe but shrugged and went back to his desk as students for his next lecture filed in. One of them quirked an eyebrow at Jake holding onto the unconscious Dirk, and he quickly strode out of the classroom into the hallway. He made a beeline for the medical wing.

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The first reaction Jake had to Dirk's coming to was a startled gasp, before he actually listened to Dirk's attempted demand, but only once they were inside the medical wing and there was a chair to set him in. He then promptly dropped to his knees in front of the Strider and engulfed him in a hug.

"Crikey, Dirk don't do that," he breathed, pulling away to look at him and paw at his face. "You scared me witless."

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The way he fell against him made Jake's heart leap into his throat and the fear was pretty plain in his expression.

"Hey!" The word was shouted to the side, not at Dirk. "Hey, I need some help over here, can someone help me?" He held Dirk's face with both hands. "Stay awake, okay? Bugger, you're warm. Why didn't you stay home, you great bumbling buffoon, you're not supposed to come to school when you're sick." A student volunteer circled around a desk with a curious expression.

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"I took notes for you, shut up," Jake scolded, shaking him very gently. He turned to the volunteer, who had just raised her eyebrows very slowly. "I'm quite certain he's running a fever," he said, and she quirked a very small smile.

"I'm not even touching him and I can see that," she said lightly. "Can you bring him back? We've got a bed he can be in for now, until he can get home."

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Jesus Christ. Jake shouted, reached out and grabbed Dirk around the middle, and carefully pulled him back into a gentle, frightened hug. The volunteer pursed her lips, trying to decide if this was funny, stupid, or just alarming.

"Dirk, stop, you need to rest, the quiz is next class hour and I took notes for you."

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"You can retake it," Jake said, getting frustrated. "Just tell me what class it is, I'll let your professor know you're sick and we'll figure out when you can make it up." Please just stop squirming and let him let this nice little volunteer girl take care of you, Dirk. You're worrying the fuck out of him.

The girl fiddled with the ends of her hair a bit.

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"Dirk!" He dropped into a crouch to keep from losing his grip on the Strider when he slipped unconscious again, set his jaw and shifted to pick him up again. He turned a stressed, apologetic look to the volunteer. She just smiled and lead him back to a small room with a white curtain drawn back before a sterile-looking twin bed against a wall.

"It's nothing fancy, but we're not a hospital. We're basically a high school nurse's office." She circled to her desk and pulled out a clipboard. "I take it you know him?"

"Yes," Jake answered, laying Dirk down on the bed and taking off his shoes. He gave her his name when she asked for it and she told him he could stay as long as he wanted, and brought him a chair. He thanked her and she scribbled down some information about Dirk that he rattled off-- not much, since he didn't really know much --and took his temperature. She left Jake with two glasses of cool but not cold water and told him to drink one and to give the other to Dirk when he woke up again, as well as a freezer packed pair of blueish pills to reduce his fever. When she left, Jake scrubbed his hand over his face and pulled out his phone to text Jade.

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He'd chatted with the volunteer girl a few times, but mostly spent his time texting his grandmother. She'd instructed him to bring Dirk home with him when he was awake enough, and they'd fix him right up. When Dirk woke and stared, Jake stared back.

"...hi," he said quietly.

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"If you try to get out of that bed I will legitimately sit on you," Jake warned, sitting up straighter between Dirk and the door. "You're not going anywhere, you're drinking this water and taking these pills and I'm taking you home and you're getting better before you go to work or school or anything else."

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And Jake knew he thought he was being reasonable. He sighed, reaching out to smooth Dirk's hair a little, helping him sit up steadily to give him the pills and the water.

"We'll see," he said quietly. "I can't go with you to class, and you sure as hell can't make it there on your own right now." He rubbed his thumb against Dirk's back. "...and to be honest I don't think you'd get good tips at work as you are."

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Jake was a little bit stung by that statement. He frowned, and dropped his gaze to the floor.

"No, I don't figure I would," he offered. "But I can still try to take care of the people I care about when they don't take care of themselves."

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