Whoot. Just a little something written partly for the outsider POV prompt at Flash Rider and partly for the minor illness square on my h/c bingo card. Um, fair warning, I'm off on holiday starting this Thursday, so there's not likely to be updates for a few weeks after that. But, I'm bringing my notebook, so I guess we'll just see what happens.

Two days before K-Unit was to appear at Brecon Beacons for a touch up on their training, Neal came down with the lurgy. It could have been much worse, all things considered, but Micheal took one look at him shuffling around his flat pathetically and informed the government that their unit would be short one member for at least a week.

About the same time, an unpleasant agent named Crawley appeared at James' flat to whisk Kit off, which had the unit leader prowling around in a bad temper for the rest of his few hours before they were off. Somehow – Neal suspected it might have happened when he was asleep – it was agreed that Neal would camp out at James' flat in case she came back while the rest were off at Brecon. Since he found he didn't have the energy to argue and, anyway, Kit probably did deserve not to come back to an empty home, he agreed.

The fifth day in, he'd more or less managed to turn James' sofa into a temporary medical station, stocked complete with tissues, water bottles, cold medicines, blankets, pillows, and the television remote. He had just settled in for the afternoon with soup and some ancient recording of Doctor Who that he'd managed to unearth from James' video collection when he realized he wasn't alone in the flat anymore.

Alex leaned against the wall just inside the door, looking half-dead on her feet. Her jeans sported a long gash all down one leg, and every part of her, from foot to forehead, was liberally covered in smudges of dirt and what he fervently hoped wasn't blood. Her eyes, which had shut for a moment while he was looking at her, fluttered open, taking him in for the first time. "Eagle?" she said, uncertainly. Her voice had a distinct rasp to it.

"Christ, Kit." With a bit of effort, he pulled himself off the couch and made his way toward her. "You look worse than me." She huffed out a laugh, which turned into a painful-sounding cough. He felt a pang of sympathy that quickly turned to alarm when she actually swayed on her feet. "Come on," he said, and somehow managed to put an arm around her with his face averted so he wouldn't have to worry about breathing his germs on her. Christ knew she didn't need his cold on top of whatever else had happened to her. "You can tell me about it once you're settled in bed."

She made an abortive gesture to shrug him off, but even with his head pounding, he maintained a strong enough grasp to keep hold of her and steer her towards her bedroom. He could feel her slumping in defeat – or maybe just exhaustion, he wasn't sure. "Where's Wolf?" she asked.

"Brecon Beacons. Probably sipping daiquiris and playing cricket compared to the two of us right now," Neal said tiredly. Alex stumbled, and in his still-weakened state, he nearly went down with her. "All right?"

She nodded. The gesture came with a wince that just made her look even more pathetic. "Just tired. And... dizzy."

"Did you hit your head?" He observed with relief that somehow they'd made it to her room without collapsing, and he could drop her off. She shrugged in reply, which he took to mean yes. "Did you have it seen to?"

"I'm all right," she said, vaguely, before burrowing into her pillow. He sat on the edge of her bed for a minute, just considering his options, before he came to a decision.

"Right," he said, "I'll ring James and them. When they're about, Micheal can interrogate you about how you feel and tell me what to do." He patted her shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, though he wasn't entirely certain if she was still conscious enough to make the distinction. "He's been doing it to me every day, anyway, so he might as well have something worthwhile to do."

"Mm," Alex mumbled into her pillow.

He got his ring back a few hours later, when he'd finally managed to doze off. He groaned at his mobile for a few seconds before picking up, just in time to hear James' dulcet tones snapping at someone to shut up. "Nice to hear you, too," he said.

"Put Alex on."

Neal tried in vain to rub the sleep from his eyes as he worked his way to Alex's room. "Just a minute, I'll probably have to wake her up first. She showed in the middle of the afternoon, completely knackered."

"How are you feeling?" Micheal's voice cut in, softly.

He paused for a moment to catch his breath and his bearings before pushing open Alex's door. "About the same." Alex had curled in on herself in her sleep, dead to the world. He felt bad about waking her up, but it was better than letting her go into a coma or something because he didn't know what he was doing. "Kit. Time to talk to the nice man in Wales."

She groaned, but pulled her head out of her pillow. He switched the mobile to speaker rather than play the what'd he say/what'd she say game. "Hello, nice man in Wales," Alex muttered.

Eagle grinned sideways at her and sat down on her bed rather heavily to compensate for the rush of dizziness he was getting from standing so long. He chose to blame it on the cold meds. "Team Pathetic, checking in."

"What the hell did they have you doing?" Neal winced a little, suddenly glad he wasn't in any way affiliated with MI6. James sounded pissed.

Apparently Alex thought so, too, because she muttered something unintelligible but quite likely inappropriate in all audiences before she answered. "I'm not actually allowed to tell you that."

"Bullshit," Wolf said promptly but less menacingly, and Alex muffled a laugh into her pillow. "All right, Kit?"

"Mostly tired," she said. Neal raised his eyebrows at her in a pointed sort of oh, is that what the kids are calling it these days look, and she nudged him in the leg with a foot. "A little banged up," she admitted. "Nothing I haven't seen before."

Neal could almost imagine the look of pain that would be on James' face at the reminder that the girl who had rapidly become his kid could so easily say that of showing up at his doorstep beaten and bloodied. He thought it was probably much like the look he had on his face now.

"Anything serious?" In sharp contrast, Micheal's voice was brisk and businesslike.

"Don't think so." She stretched and sat up against her pillow. "And thanks for leaving Eagle with me. I've always wanted to run a hospital ward."

Micheal snorted while Neal let out an indignant noise. "That's my line. Honestly, you feed them and give them presents and next you know they're walking all over you – "

"Neal," James said kindly, "shut up."

Alex laughed, then winced. "Look, I'm honestly just tired. Could we talk later?"

"If you'd like," Micheal said. James started to say something, but someone quickly hushed him. "Just be sure to tell Eagle if you think you might need to go to the hospital."

"Course," Alex said. "But who do I tell if I think he needs to go?"

"Cruel," Neal said, with a sad little shake of his head. "I'm the adult here, Kit, it's my duty to suffer in silence if necessary – "

"As if you've ever suffered in silence," he heard James say, snidely, but kindly chose to ignore it. Alex was starting to look distinctly knackered again, and, to tell the truth, he could hear the siren song of the sofa calling to him.

"I think that's it for Team Pathetic," he said. "We'll have to check in later. Give the Sergeant our best."

"Will do," Micheal said, with a distinct and worrying grin in his voice. "Do you two need a bedtime story, or do you think you'll manage naptime on your own?"

Alex threw a pillow at the mobile. Neal offered her a grin for the effort. "Tell you what, do a few extra runs of the assault course for me, and we'll call it even."

"Insubordination," James muttered.

He grinned cheekily at Alex. "And you're miles and miles away; that's why it's so much fun. Say good night, Kit."

"Good night," she muttered.

"Get some sleep, Kit," James said, with a distinct tone of affection. "And if anyone from MI6 shows up again to drag you off, tell them I'm armed and willing to go AWOL."

"Such a nice family moment," Neal said. "I just wish I could record it, for posterity. James, maybe if you said it again, but with some sort of background music – James?" The phone emitted a dial tone. "No matter, we can recreate it here with – Alex?"

Alex snored.

"No one appreciates my input anymore," Neal muttered and picked his way back downstairs for that nap.