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Jake's heart sort of stopped. The volunteer girl wandered back into the room, having left early on to let the boys have their tiff, aware that she was overhearing something personal the moment they started to bicker. She paused in the doorway and Jake immediately took to her as a distraction. He smiled.

"I'll be taking him home soon, if that's all right," he said lightly, and she smiled, nodding. "He lives alone." She nodded again.

"Then you're a good friend for not letting him stay that way." Jake's face colored a touch and he chuckled, turning his head sideways and nosing Dirk's hair.

"...he means a great deal to me."

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He chatted with the volunteer for a little longer, and she suggested some things to Jake to help speed Dirk's recovery. She gave him a few more freezer packs of pills, even though she wasn't actually supposed to, and he thanked her and put them in his bag before putting it and Dirk's laptop bags over his shoulders and moving back to hoist Dirk easily into his arms. The volunteer, whose name Jake learned was Alice, made an offhanded comment about how strong and manly Jake must be. He laughed and corrected her; Dirk was just lightweight. They said their goodbyes and Jake carried Dirk back through the hallways (which were thankfully more empty this time around, being in the midst of classes) and out to his Jeep.

He called Jade.

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Tilting his head to press his phone between his ear and his shoulder, Jake reached out to claim Dirk's wallet and nod at him, squinting at the address for a moment. He reached over and smoothed his hand over Dirk's forehead, shushing him gently.

"Let me call you back, I've got his address so we can go by his place and get him some things for staying over," he said to his grandmother, who made an affirmative sound on the other line. Jake hung up and set his phone in his lap, leaning across to give Dirk a once-over, quietly. God, Dirk, you were so sick, you were worrying the fuck out of him. He ran his thumb lightly over Dirk's lower lip and leaned forward to kiss the corner of his mouth. "Rest, okay? I'll let you know when we're at your place."

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Oh my God Jake was so worried about you and your stupid fever-ridden self, Dirk. He watched him with concern for another handful of seconds before he started the car and turned on the heat to warm it, heading for Dirk's apartment. It didn't take them long to get there, under half an hour, and he reached over to gently shake Dirk's shoulder.

"We're here," he said quietly.

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Handing them over easily, Jake opened his door and slid out of the car to circle around to Dirk's side and carefully open his door, ready to help him to his feet. He tried to not be concerned over the neighborhood. It wasn't... necessarily a terrible part of town, but... Gosh. He knew Dirk could take care of himself, and racist as it was to think, he figured Dirk's chances of being all right were probably higher because of his skin color, but he was undeniably glad that he hadn't let Dirk try to come home on his own. In the state he was, who knows what could have happened.

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Jake tried not to inspect Dirk's apartment, he really did. But there was only so much hovering he could do before he took to looking around, because he didn't want to just fixate on staring at Dirk and make him uncomfortable. So he looked at the wires, followed them with his eyes around the apartment until the met their base or went out of view. He approved of the couch. He wasn't surprised by the cleanliness. The entire apartment smelled vaguely of soap and old wires.

It was very Dirk.

"Nice place," he said, and meant it. It was much more personal than his grandmother's house, he felt. Not that Jade's house wasn't personal, or home, this just... felt very intimately and specifically like Dirk's place of residence. Jake had always felt like he belonged more in a tent or a teepee in the back yard of his grandmother's house, really.

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"You've certainly looked better," Jake agreed, wandering into the doorway and watching Dirk splash at his face. He grinned a little, looking the other direction as he brought his hand forward to shamelessly smack Dirk on the ass. "Buuut I get the feeling I've seen a lot of good sides to you that not everyone sees." Wow, Jake, way to be a coy little dickhead.

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He practically leapt at the opportunity to gather the smaller boy in his arms, holding him close and burying his nose against his neck. "Definitely," he muttered into his skin. "There are two people in the world that have seen as much of me as you have, and one of them is my grandmother, because she used to change my diapers as a tot."

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Catching him relatively easily, Jake gasped a bit when Dirk sort of slumped into him. He slipped his arms under the Strider's to hoist him up a bit, ducking his head to speak against his ear. "Have you got everything you need? We should go, you need to be resting." And the chill in this apartment certainly wasn't going to be helping his temperature.

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"Shh, take it easy," Jake soothed, stooping a bit and leaning backward to let Dirk sort of flop onto his shoulder. "Grab onto me, would you?"

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He was completely allowed to be selfish, he was sick. Sick people were meant to be taken care of by their loved ones. And Jake was so beyond happy to take care of him. When Dirk wrapped his arms around him in his fever-addled feeble grip he stood again, actually carrying Dirk like one might a small child, one arm supporting him under his thighs and butt and the other wrapped around his back to keep him against his shoulder. He stooped for the backpack and hooked it on his elbow.

"Keys?" he asked as he headed for the door.

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Jake shimmied around in a sort of comical fashion to get the keys without having to put Dirk down. He somehow managed to swing himself around to get the backpack up onto his shoulder, so he just stooped to lock the door, both locks with the same key. He frowned a little at that, but didn't pause to waste time on it. Instead, he shifted again to gently press the key back into Dirk's pocket, and then descend the stairs with him propped against his shoulder.

Luckily it was Thursday, and Jake was pretty confident he could keep Dirk home from classes tomorrow to give him a good long recovery time. The guy really needed a break, anyway.