Smog... under quarantine.

[Keppit]

Dan and Jen

Waving a goodbye towards the pair framed in the doorway, Dan pulled open the door of his car and slipped into the seat, turning the key and soon pulling out of the driveway. Really, he felt bad dumping Jim off with Ranald again, especially having met the woman only a couple of days earlier, but.. Well, there wasn't much else for it.

It had been two days since the phone message and a brief conversation with Jen once he had called back. Two full days... Mind, they hadn't been that bad of days. He and Jim had had a lot of fun, in fact, mostly to serve as a distraction, and were on even better terms than before. But always there was the nagging worry, the reason behind why Jim was there in the first place...

One hand on the wheel, Dan reached for his cell phone with the other, dialing the number for the HQ and waiting anxiously for a response.

RIIING...... Jen was near the phone, but he didn't really want to answer it. He knew who would be on the other side of the line... some Sm, Smo, or Sm/Smo family member wanting to know if all the rumours were true, wanting to wish the SkullMonkeys of Gaia well, wanting to help out....

RIIIING.....

"Blah!" He fairly yelled it. Of course the rumours were true... people don't start plague rumours in this day and age... it just wasn't like that. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes.

RIIIIING.... In onw fell swoop Jen leaned over and grabbed the reciever... "Skull Monkey Hq, Jen speaking." ....

Riiiiiiiiing.... One ring, no big deal. No one answered the phone after the first ring. They had to hear it, and get to it, and if everyone were sick that could take a bit, right? Riiiiiiiing... But, of course, someone would have had the foresight to keep the phone close at hand so they wouldn't have to go to the trouble of getting up if it rang? There were sure to be plenty of people calling in to check on the ill, someone had to be there to answer so there wouldn't be a panic.

But... But what if something had happened, and no one was there to answer the phone? Riiiiiiiiing--And someone picked up. "Jen!" he exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear in relief and forcing himself to relax. "It's Dan. You feeling any better? I'm sorry if I woke you up."

Jen smiled through his headache and leaned back into the sofa, phone cradled into his ear. "Hi! ... naw, I wasnae sleeping, just dreading the thought of having to confirm the smog's existance to yet another person." He picked a piece of lint off the sofa... He had a headache, he couldn't feel his tail for some reason, he'd found a section of gray hair on his head this morning, and he got dizzy every time he stood up... but at least his nose hadn't started bleeding again....

"I feel fine." He smiled. "So what's new? How's Jim? How are you?"

"I had a feeling they'd have you on phone duty," he laughed, pausing a moment while he turned a corner. Poor Jen certainly sounded tired, even if he hadn't been sleeping. "You're lying," he replied brightly, "But I'll buy it. Jim's doing just fine. Perfectly healthy despite being in the HQ a few days. We spent most of yesterday afternoon rollerblading at the park. I'm...alright," he decided after a beat. "Getting paranoid. Miss you."

"Rollerblading?" Jen sighed... If it wasn't the plague then it was threat of breaking necks... but that was... that was... whatever. He couldn't be bothered being worried right now...

"better than door duty... that's Luna and Nell right now." He'd rather phone duty than door duty and that was for sure.

"Ugh... I'm tired."

Dan rolled his eyes, anticipating Jen's thoughts. "We were careful. Relatively flat ground, grass on either side of the sidewalk, the whole shebang. Don't worry." Frowning faintly, he passed the phone to his other ear, tucking his head to hold it in place and mving both hands to the wheel. "You should rest. Someone'll be able to watch the phone for you soon, I'll bet."

He laughed. "No, I tried sleeping. I'll get there, but now I'll settle for just sitting still." he wished he could give Dan a hug, and he wished he could give Jim a hug... and he wished.... he wished Luna had never come here in the first place.

"Sounds like you're in the car... What's your plans?" He was just trying to get his mind off the present situation.  

[Keppit]

Dan and Jen

"If you say so," he replied, though he didn't sound entirely convinced. That was fine, he could make Jen take a nap when he arrived. On that note, he should probably mention... "Plans? Well, ah... To be honest, I just dropped Jim off at Ranald's and... Well, I'm on my way to HQ. I'll be there in a few minutes, in fact. Part of the reason I called. Now, before you say anything, you need someone healthy over there, I've never been sick a day in my life, and it's my decision to make either way. So there you go."

Jen jumped up so fast, the dizziness overtook him and he fell into the bookshelf, hitting his head... but he remained conscious and kept his mind on the conversation at hand...

"No Dan! You cannae get sick! I cannae take that..." he used his free hand to steady himself, and make his way back to the sofa... "I just cannae watch you get sick and know that it's all my fault." He thought about Luna downstairs and Nell who was working on isolating the disease at that very moment.... "Nell's here and she doesnae seem to be getting sick..."

And there it was. He had expected a reaction similar to that, which was why he had waited until Jim was already at Ranald's and he was half way to the HQ to tell Jen of his intention. Sighing, he transferred the phone back to his hand, shaking his head even though Jen couldn't see. "I won't get sick, and even if I do, it wouldn't be your fault. Calm down, alright? One healthy person to take care of how many now, Jen? This isn't up for debate."

"Well" He paused.... God, he really did want to see Dan... and Nell really wasn't here to take care of people, she was here to find a cure. He sighed... no.. it wasn't right.

"It's not that I dinnae want you here... it's just... You'd be putting yourself in danger, Dan!"

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," he replied immediately. He sighed once more, then cracked a smile. "Relax, okay? I know we don't know exactly what this 'Smog' is, but I doubt it can do much to me, as full of metal as I am. And it's still early. If this is going to get worse... You'll all need someone there."

Jen sighed as he realized he wasn't feeling well enought to argue this point further. He reached up to rub his head on the spot where he had fallen into the bookshelf, and when he pulled his hand down there was blood on it... not a lot, but blood all the same. He groaned. "Ok.... how far away are you?" God, Nell was going to kill Jen for letting an unsick Sm into the building.  

[Keppit]

Dan and Jen

"I'll be there in a couple of minutes." Success! Mind, Jen still didn't sound happy, though that wasn't particularly surprising. He couldn't blame him. But it was one thing to know Jen was sick, it was another entirely when the severity of the illness was enough that Jen couldn't be around his child. It was terrifying not knowing the full extent of what might be going on. At least this way he would see for himself what was happening and, hopefully, wouldn't have to worry so much. "Don't worry, alright? I'm going to hang up. See you in a few."

Jen nodded and hung up the phone... it wasn't until after he'd set the phone down that he realized Dan couldn't see a nod over the phone... without thinking he picked the phone back up as if Dan was still on the other end... Damn... He flicked his tail irritation, and only became more irritated as he remembered he couldn't feel his tail....

"LUNA!"

"Whhaaat?"

"Dan's comming over. Please let him in when he gets here..."

"You do it."

Jen wasn't sure he could make it down the stairs without falling down them, so he simply lay back on the sofa with a groan.

The line went dead and Dan blinked, glancing down at his phone in confusion before simply sighing and tucking it in his pocket. Great, Jen was mad at him... A few minutes later he pulled up at the HQ, parking outside and heading for the door. He knocked once and, when no one answered, tried the knob, surprising himself when it was unlocked. That went against the quarantine a bite, but maybe Jen had already unlocked it for him... He peeked inside, then stepped in, closing the door behind himself and hovering in the hallway. "Jen?"

Luna heard the door open. "If you're Dan then Jen's upstairs... If you're not Dan then go away before you die." and then she kicked the den door shut from her place on the sofa.

Jen heard Luna yelling and relized Dan must be there... "I'm uptairs... in the study..."

Well, that was a...pleasant greeting. Dan grimaced, tossing a rude hand gesture Luna's way, and started up the stairs, quickening his pace when he heard Jen call. Only a short while later he peeked into the study, offering a weak smile in greeting and slipping in to head over to the couch. "Nice friend you've got down there."

"Eh..." Jen shrugged. "She's young and she's a screw up... currently screwing up big time." He waved his hand in Luna's direction. "She's also not got any friends here and everyone who sees her yells at her for giving them the Smog." He shrugged again. "You look nice, though."

"Yelling back at them isn't going to win anyone to her side," he countered dryly, taking a seat in a chair a short distance from Jen's couch. He forced a grin at the compliment, sinking back in his seat. "I could say the same, but I'd be lying. 'Course, by the looks of it, you lied when you said you were fine. So you look great. And now we're even."

"ehh." Jen shrugged again. "I've been better... cannae really stand up right now without loosing my balance and falling over, but that's alright." He was sure that he'd been worse at one point or another... must have been...

"I'm really glad you came over... well... glad and mad, but I'm more the first than the later..... and now I'm just confusing myself." He laughed and rubbed tiredly at his eyes. "Didnae see this coming, did we?"  

[Keppit]

Dan and Jen

"No, I guess we didn't..." He let his smile fade into a worried frown and, finding no suitable reply, he simply clibed to his feet and stepped over to the couch, sinking down beside Jen despite the heightened risk of catching the Smog. "Lie down," he ordered, patting his lap. "You need to rest. I'll guard the phone."

"But" ... Jen started to protest... "this isn't fair to you, Dan..." But Jen did feel like he needed a little bit of comforting... he smiled sadly over at Dan and lowered himself down gently. His head pounded suddenly from the change in position and he grimmaced.


"You can make it up to me later," he assured Jen, chuckling softly. There wasn't much more to be said, and he really did want Jen to rest. He wasn't going to get any better if he didn't rest. Dan rested an elbow on the arm of the couch, propping his head on his hand while the other hand played lightly through Jen's hair, fingers tracing over his neck and shoulders. He noticed the splash of gray, but decided against pointing it out. Jen had probably already seen and, if he hadn't, he didn't need something else to worry about.

Even though Jen felt worse than he had ever felt before, he now felt better with Dan tracing his fingers through his hair...

"Mmm." he sighed happily and grinned with his eyes closed. "that feels nice... makes the headache better." He reached up over his head and tucked his hand under Dan's arm... just to make Dan all the more real.

"There now, aren't you glad I came?" He chuckled softly, smiling fondly down at the other man while his hand continued it's light attentions. "Sleep."

Dan didn't really need to prompt Jen to sleep... truth was, now that he was relaxing, Jen was already fading down into the sleep that he'd been deprived of... "Dan... I.... " But the thought was lost as Jen faded fully into a dream... leaving Dan trapped there on the sofa as a Skull Monkey Pillow.

Jen was asleep and, though he had promised to listen for the phone, Dan wasn't long in following. The couch was comfortable, his paranoia was eased, even if Jen was sick and he potentially was as well. He was within easy reach if Jen needed him for anything, and he wasn't about to go help anyone else in the HQ until Jen had had a good long nap. He could sleep if he wanted to. And he did.  

[Keppit]

Mina

Mina walked out of her room with a headache so she went to her mother to get something for it, she took 2 pills like it said to on the bottle “hopefully it works so I can go back to listening to music without hearing a loud ringing “ Mina then crawled onto the sofa and laid down waiting for the pills to take affect. It was hard to find a quiet room in the house because of the new monkey that cried a lot, after a while of noise Mina began to cry as well. “Why aren’t the pills working?”

Mina passed out from the pain of the headache, she felt like she was hit in the back of the head with a hammer. Kagura walked in noticing Mina passed out on the sofa with tears still pouring out of her eyes and slowly streaming down her skull. Kagura lifted Mina’s limp head and sat down on the sofa and laid Mina’s head onto her lap and slowly stroking Mina’s skull. Kagura looked down to Mina’s face and noticed that she started crying blood. Her first instinct was to call a doctor, Kagura picked up the phone book and looked up a doctors phone number she grabbed the phone and dialed the number “Hello? My name is Kagura and my daughter is getting really sick, it first started out as cold symptoms then it started to get worse , now she has really bad headaches and she has began to cry blood” The doctor quickly recognized the symptoms and realized that she suffers from the Smog like most of the other Skull Monkeys .

“I’m sorry Ma’am I am not able to help you, It does sound like the Smog and we cannot risk bringing her here” Kagura got angry and began screaming at the doctor “What do you mean you “Cannot risk bringing her there” She is sick and you’re supposed to help people when they are sick!!!” The doctor hung up not wanting to keep the conversation going. Kagura stormed outside hoping to get some air to cool her head.

Mina woke up with her eyes burning and her head still pounding “Why aren’t the pills working for me?”
She rubbed her eyes and looked down to her paws and noticed blood on her paws when she seen that she ran to the bathroom. While in the bathroom Mina washed her face and paws trying to get the blood off.
An hour later the bleeding stopped and Mina’s headache calmed down, it wasn’t gone but it wasn’t as bad as it was. “What is happening to me?” She said with fear in her voice. Mina walked into her bedroom and turned the lights off ,closed the blinds, and crawled into bed just laying there with her eyes open.

Kagura walked into Mina’s bed room seeing Mina laying on her bed. “How are you? Does your head still hurt?” Mina sat up in bed and looked at her mom. “I’m better now and yeah, my head still hurts not as bad as it did though.” Kagura walked up and sat on Mina’s bed “Sage is getting sick too, and poor Sam was born sick.” Mina looked down to the ground “Did we get it from Sam?” Kagura took a deep breath of air preparing to say something she dreaded saying. “I think so Mina, but it wasn’t Sam’s fault, she didn’t chose to be born with it.” Mina shook her head in anger. “Why did she have to come here? I don’t like being sick at all.”

Kagura put her hand on Mina’s back. “Calm down Mina if you get too upset you could make your headache worse” Mina looked at her mom. “How can I calm down knowing that my sister is the reason that I’m THIS sick?” Kagura raised her voice at Mina “I told you that it isn’t her fault, she is just a baby, and I know she didn’t mean it” Mina grunted “It’s still her fault”

Kagura got up and left Mina’s room “Goodnight Mina, I hope you forgive your sister soon” Mina flopped back down on the bed “What ever, I’m an adult now, you can’t tell me what to do” Kagura looked back. “But you still live in my house” Kagura then closed the door and Left to go to her room. Mina mumbled “Not for long”. Mina then closed her eyes and dozed off to sleep.