Catching a taxi when the person leaning on you for support is very obviously sick with a deadly illness is even harder than it sounds.

The hospital wasn’t far, but their little wrestling bout had used up the only energy Chanyeol had, and just getting the exhausted man down the stairs had been a challenge. A 10-15 minute walk simply wasn’t going to happen. Anger boiled in Jongin’s core as the fourth cab driver took one glance at Chanyeol, in his winter coat and hat and looked away, hurrying his horses down the street.

“…” Jongin said, biting the inside of his lip as he thought of what to do. Chanyeol’s weight, more and more of which was being put onto him, was starting to take a toll on the weaker man, and even if Chanyeol could make the walk by some miracle, Jongin wasn’t positive that he could support both of them the entire way.

Suddenly, a rather expensive-looking, windowless carriage pulled to the side of the road in front of them. Jongin, already irritated, was about to be even more livid at the driver's rudeness, until Chanyeol spoke up in a weak rasp.

“Yifan… It’s Minseok’s…”

Jongin looked between the carriage and Chanyeol, finally drawing the connection as the feeling in his core turned to relief. The man was stopping to help them.

The driver jumped down from the front of the carriage and moved around surprisingly swiftly to open the door of the carriage while giving an equally quick introduction to Jongin.

“My name’s Yifan, Minseok’s head butler. And you two look like you need to get to the hospital now.”

“Thank you so kindly,” Jongin exhaled while guiding Chanyeol forward up into the carriage. The sickly man tried to fall against the opposite wall of the carriage in his fatigue, but Jongin pulled him back just before he made contact, using the momentum to pull himself in behind him, and Chanyeol’s hat falling off in the process. If they were going to receive a much-needed ride to the hospital, the least they could do was not leave plague all over the inside of the carriage for Minseok or his clients to catch. His energy completely sapped, Chanyeol collapsed onto Jongin instead.

“Mr. Park, don’t…” Jongin began to mutter, but sighed when all he got in response was a drowsy moan. Instead of protesting, he hesitantly hooked his right arm around Chanyeol’s left for safe holding, and allowed him to use his shoulder as a resting place. Chanyeol immediately took advantage of the surrender, snuggling up even more closely and hugging tightly the arm that had been offered.

A stirring, nervous-like feeling Jongin couldn’t quite recognize replaced the relief.

“Ready?” Yifan called from the driver’s seat.

“…Yes.”

Yifan looked over his shoulder before guiding his horses back into the middle of the lane. “You don’t have to worry about… eh, what did he call it…” He tried to think of the word Minseok had shared with him from Chanyeol’s letters.“‘Transmission’, that’s it. This is one of Minseok’s midsummer carriages I’m bringing in for reupholstering.”

Jongin looked down as much as he could at the man resting on his shoulder. A few of Chanyeol’s hairs that weren’t plastered down with sweat had come up in the light warm breeze that came through the windowless carriage and were tickling Jongin's face, so he took his free hand and gently smoothed them down.

“I suppose I don’t mind… Best not to disturb him…” Jongin murmured before changing the subject. “In fact, I’m simply humbled that you would stop to assist us.”

Yifan shrugged. “If Minseok had been here he’d have told me to stop. Any friend of Minseok is a friend of mine.”

As they came across a bridge spanning the canal that ran through town, they encountered the colder air that flew over the river, rushing across the bridge upstream. It came from Jongin’s side, but Chanyeol wasn’t completely shielded, and the meeting of the cool air and his soaked hair was not at all pleasant. In an effort to dodge the cross-stream, Chanyeol immediately lowered himself below window-level, which helped immensely.

It also meant Jongin was now left with a writhing, whimpering ball-o’-Yeol trying his damnedest to absorb whatever heat he could from Jongin’s lap by whatever means necessary.

Jongin’s eyes darted around for help. He couldn’t even feel the wind coming across his due to the sheer amount of heat being radiated from said face. He realized his only help in the immediate vicinity was also their driver. He was on his own, and years of medical education hadn’t prepared him for this sort of situation.

Instinct, however...

“Shhh,” he whispered, hesitating for only a second before moving his right arm protectively over the curled-up form and running the fingers of his left hand soothingly through the other’s wet, cool hair. His face remained red as he felt Chanyeol begin to melt into him once more, and he adjusted the arm he had around him so that this time pulling him in. He watched the face below him as the eyebrows began to un-knit themselves, and Chanyeol’s face softened from one of misery to one of peace.

Yifan looked over his shoulder again and smiled knowingly.

Junmyeon hadn’t said exactly where Baekhyun was being kept, but Jongin could easily assume he had cordoned off one of the research test rooms. Figuring out which one was another matter entirely. The nurses didn’t keep record of who was in those rooms, making Junmyeon and Baekhyun unhelpfully the only ones who knew where they were. Jongin eyed a bench at the beginning of the hallway, and ordered the sick man, who was again shivering despite being bundled for the dead of winter in early September, to sit down.

“Stay here, and don’t so much as think about moving.”

Chanyeol nodded at the order, but because he seemed to be avoiding medical treatment, Jongin thought it best if he ask one of the nurses under him to keep a watchful eye over him. The nurses’ station nearby usually had one or two nurses floating around who would take direct orders from him, and while keeping one eye on his charge, Jongin took the few brief steps to the corner of the corridor.

“…ney sweep came down with it.”

“D.O.? Oh no…”

If Jongin didn’t think this day could get worse, he was sorely mistaken.

“D.O.?” Jongin said, imploring more information from the nurses gossiping at the station. “As in Kyungsoo Do?”

“The hospital chimney sweep,” one of the nurses said in a soft voice, nodding cautiously as she didn’t know D.O.’s real name but assumed that was it. Her look became even more apprehensive as Jongin’s gaze grew darker and darker.

“…I want him brought here and sat with Mr. Park over there within five minutes.”

The nurse, a younger, mousy girl who wasn’t under Jongin’s authority, looked up to her senior for approval.

“Now!”

She gave a rather pathetic “Yessir!” at Jongin’s sudden shout, forgetting about the other nurse’s approval, and ran off to find the man.

“And you, keep an eye on Mr. Park for a moment, if you would. I’ll send someone for both of them in five minutes, and if either of them are not present you two are both out of here.”

“Yes, Doctor…” the remaining nurse muttered, making little effort to hide her contempt.

With that, Jongin took off at a very brisk walk down the hall, climbing floor-by-floor to search the rooms for any sign of Baekhyun. He finally managed to find him, along with Junmyeon and a third slightly nervous-looking nurse, in a room about halfway down the hall on the third floor.

Jongin skipped any formalities and barged right into the room.

“You,” he said, looking at the nurse. “First floor. Across from the nurses’ station, there are two men sitting on a bench. I want you to take them and set up a three-person room. I want it ready, those two in bed, and you back here with a team ready to transport Mr. Byun in ten minutes.”

“Right away, Doctor,” she said with a stern nod, leaving immediately. Unlike the other two nurses, this was one who was under Junmyeon’s—and by extension Jongin’s—direct authority, and she’d had more than her share of experiences with the more demanding of the two doctors. She’d been given ten minutes, and Jongin knew she’d be back in six.

“The hell was that?” Junmyeon asked, completely unaware of the situation brewing two floors below them. “Two men?”

“Chanyeol and a childhood friend of mine,” Jongin explained, not wanting to dote on details.

“Chanyeol…?” the sickly voice came from the bed in front of them, followed by a cough. Jongin finally turned to look at the man in front of him. If the rash that had begun to spread to his face was any indication, he wasn’t doing well.

Junmyeon looked from Baekhyun to Jongin, before nodding his head toward the doorway and following Jongin out.

“Relative to other cases at this point in time, he actually is doing well,” he explained in a low voice after shutting the door behind him. “Something we’re doing is slowing this illness down, but frankly, I doubt it will stop it.”

“Have you gone to L2?” Jongin said, asking about cures that might have deleterious side effects.

Junmyeon seemed hesitant to answer the question, but he finally responded. “I’ve authorized testing of L2 cures on a small selection of the general hospital populace.” His eyes remained averted after speaking.

“And?” Jongin finally asked after a brief period of silence. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I was considering authorizing the L3 cures, too.”

This news would have come as a shock to some, but Jongin knew Junmyeon.

“You would never authorize testing on a cure with potentially lethal side effects unless you deemed it absolutely necessary,” Jongin said, stating the fact in an effort to console a now obviously distraught Junmyeon. “Do what you must.”

Junmyeon ran a hand through his hair, so lost in thought that he didn’t think to make eye contact with Jongin.  “For one man, though?”

“It’s not for one man. It’s for the whole bloody population of Europe. Do what you must,” he said again.

Junmyeon nodded, but still didn’t seem entirely convinced.

“I want to talk to Mr. Byun for a bit,” Jongin said. “Let’s go back inside."

Baekhyun was slightly more awake when they returned, and he turned his head toward where the two men were entering the room, smiling weakly.

“Hey, Doctor.”

“Mr Byun,” Jongin greeted. “How are you feeling?”

“I could be worse…” he answered with a slight nod as he considered his own statement. “Could be worse. Chanyeol’s sick as well?”

“Not only that, but I had to drag him to the hospital myself. His rash has already begun to blister.”

Baekhyun’s heart thudded nervously. Although his own rash had made significant process since its early stages, he had yet to see a single blister develop underneath the irritated skin. Blistering was not a good sign in the course of the disease, but it wasn’t a death sentence either. The more worrying fact was that the disease had been allowed to get to that point, which took at least two days, without Chanyeol seeking medical care. At the very first sign of Baekhyun’s illness, the taller had immediately accompanied him to the hospital and not left until Junmyeon arrived.

‘Why didn’t he do the same for himself?’

Two nurses with a stretcher arrived for Baekhyun soon after, but he insisted he could make the walk. Junmyeon took up Baekhyun’s few personal effects and Jongin carried a lovely vase of flowers that had likely been sent by Taeyeon. Knowing he would have to soon give an introduction, Jongin walked behind the nurses but ahead of Baekhyun and Junmyeon as the two accompanied their assistant to the new room.

In the bed by the windows, Chanyeol was already either asleep or too tired to act like he wasn’t, but in the bed closest to the wall by the door, a man with childishly large eyes set on a stern face befitting of a friend of Dr. Jongin Kim’s sat observantly. His judging look quickly dissolved into a happy one with a wide, heart-shaped smile upon seeing Jongin, and his appearance was almost that of a completely different person.

“So that’s what this was about. Long time no talk, Kai.”

“Kyungsoo,” Jongin said, not smiling himself but going to greet his friend with a lighthearted look on his face. “I asked them to move you into this room with two of my research assistants, Mr. Park and Mr. Byun,” he said, indicating each person respectively. Both being sick anyway, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo shook hands before Baekhyun collapsed into his bed, also by the window and across from Chanyeol’s.

In the space where the room’s fourth bed had been, a table suitably large for research had been set up in its place. As opposed to the tiny single-person research room, the setup was highly preferable. Junmyeon went to place Baekhyun’s personal effects by him while Jongin and Kyungsoo continued to catch up. The nurses left, leaving Baekhyun and Junmyeon to observe Jongin in a never-before-seen element. They hadn’t even known he had friends.

“I’m alright; just a rash so far,” Kyungsoo said in response to Kai asking how he was doing. “One of the nurses saw me and demanded I get into bed.”

“She was right. You’ll never get well otherwise.”

“I likely won’t get well either way, but at least this way no one else will catch sick from me. But what about you doctors?”

“Junmyeon’s already had it, and, well…” Jongin trailed off. “We’re both doctors. We’re not at liberty to make that decision.”

The two talked for a bit more before Jongin, noticing that Kyungsoo looked fatigued, pulled Junmyeon away from his conversation with a once again sleepy-looking Baekhyun, and the two let the sick men drift off to sleep while they themselves moved to the table where they could discuss the various results of the L2 courses of treatment, and get together the best course of action for treating the three men in their various stages of the disease.

There was a lot to try, even more to discuss, and not likely enough time to do either.

Little warning for next chapter: They'll be talking about Jongin's not-so-ideal childhood. I don't feel it'll be worth a trigger warning, but I don't want any of you lovelies to read something that might bring up bad memories without warning <3

This story had 11 planned chapters, and this chapter covers the material that was supposed to be covered by chapter 7. So I guess we're looking at 15 (+/-1) chapters in the end.

The most ironic part is that I probably would not have read this story if I didn't write it. I don't usually like committing to stories with this many chapters.