Jensen woke abruptly. One second he was somewhere dark, unaware of his surroundings and the next, he was blinking up at a painfully bright light, the smell and sounds of medical crap assaulting his senses. He blinked a few times, trying to decide where, exactly, he was, and how he'd gotten there, and also why.

The why part came back pretty quickly.

"Holy hell," he gasped, eyes watering as the full pain of his injuries hit him in a rush. His shoulder hurt, his head hurt, his hands hurt, his stomach hurt like a bitch. He thought it might be quicker to list off places he didn't hurt.

"Jensen," a familiar voice said, the relief evident.

"Coug?" Jensen was surprised at how raspy his voice sounded, cleared his throat and winced when it hurt. "What the hell is going on?"

Cougar leaned back in his chair, hat tipped back on his head.

"You're in a clinic, one of Clay's old friends helped us out. You've been out for a day and a half… You uh, ran into Max," he answered simply.

Ah. Right. Max.

"You get him?" Jensen rasped. Cougar's face fell slightly.

"Not yet. Got the other two, though. The ones that…"

"Beat the shit out of me?" Jensen supplied, and Cougar nodded. "Good."

"How do you feel?"

Jensen thought about it a minute, shrugging with a slight wince.

"Achy, but it kinda feels far away. They must have me on the good stuff," he said finally.

"They do," Cougar said. "It's, uh, it is good to see you awake, Jensen. We weren't certain for a little while…"

Shit. He must have gotten hurt worse than he thought. Then again…Jensen flinched as flashes of memories assaulted him, a gunshot and being beaten and fingers snapping and water flooding his mouth and nose and eyes. So maybe it was pretty bad after all.

"Sorry," Jensen muttered. Cougar looked up, clearly angry.

"Don't apologize," he snapped. "That wasn't your fault. None of this was your fault. Hell, if I had had your back, you wouldn't be in that bed right now."

"Guess you're right," Jensen murmured sleepily, bringing a hand up to rub at his face. His hands widened.

"What the hell?" He gasped, his voice rising. "What the hell?"

"Jensen, it's okay, you're going to be fine-"

"Fine? This isn't fine! What the hell? I can't do anything without my hands, I don't- Aw, shit," Jensen yelled, his breaths coming in harsh gasps.

"Jensen, calm down, por favor, calm down," Cougar said frantically, calling over his shoulder for Diane and Clay even as he tried to placate the thrashing hacker.

"What's going on?" Clay demanded as he hurried into the room followed closely by the other members of his team.

"He saw his hands," Cougar replied. Pooch swore under his breath and Clay and Aisha helped Cougar hold Jensen down.

"He's burning up," Aisha said, the concern evident in her voice.

"I'm not surprised," Diane said, pressing a hand to Jensen's forehead and slipping an oxygen mask back over his nose and mouth. "Damn it, I was hoping the antibiotics would have had more effect than this."

"What does that mean?" Clay asked, looking up in concern. Jensen was finally starting to calm down, his unfocused eyes drifting shut.

"It means we start him on some more medication and hope that one works. Clay, if he doesn't show some marked improvement soon, you should consider transferring him to a hospital. He needs to be in an ICU and I don't have the time or the resources to provide him that type of care."

"Shit," Clay said. He rubbed a hand through his hair, shooting a glance at Cougar. The sniper was perched awkwardly on the bed, one hand resting on Jensen's knee, the other running absently through the tech's hair.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," he said quietly. There was a moment of heavy silence before Aisha cocked her head to one side, a smile starting to spread over her face.

"What the hell happened to Jensen's cast?"

xxxx

Jensen's fever stopped rising overnight but stubbornly refused to drop. Cougar's desperation was increasing and Aisha was growing increasingly restless. Pooch had gone home to be with Jolene and the baby. Diane continued to work around the clinic, directing the other nurses and doctors away from Jensen's room and the small waiting room just adjacent to it, coming around often to check on Jensen. Clay wasn't sure what she had said to the other doctors at the clinic, but whatever it was had been effective, and Clay and his team was able to sit in the waiting room alone, and unbothered.

It was good, he supposed, that they could think without being disturbed, but they also spent a lot of time doing nothing, with nothing to distract them from Jensen's unstable condition.

It was Cougar who provided the answer, pulling a deck of cards out from somewhere, shuffling them and holding one up to his head with a small grin. Clay grinned in response and put one to his own forehead. Aisha looked at them quizzically for a minute before smiling slightly and putting up a card of her own.

They'd been playing game after game until they'd lost count, when Pooch showed back up, a vase full of flowers in one hand. Clay had raised an eyebrow.

"Jolene," Pooch had said by way of explanation, then smiled when he saw what they were doing. "Cool! I'm in."

"You cheat," Clay protested, and Pooch snorted as he sat down, setting the vase of flowers in the center of the table they were gathered around.

"How can you cheat at Blindman's Bluff?" He asked, popping his knuckles and grabbing a card.

xxxx

Four hours and countless card games later, Diane stepped into the room, grinning.

"His fever's broken," she said. "Jensen's got a ways to go, and he's definitely going to need physical therapy on his shoulder and probably on his hand, but I think he's going to pull through."

The room cleared out in record time, leaving Diane alone in a room with a vase full of flowers and a scattered deck of cards.

xxxx

"Jensen?" Aisha said as they walked into his room. Jensen looked up, his eyes clear though he was clearly tired.

"Hey guys," he croaked, managing a wan smile at them.

"How are you feeling?" Clay asked.

"Better. Tired, but better," Jensen replied, then frowned as he looked at the cast on his right arm. "Really? Petunias? Was that you, Pooch? They're all over the damn thing! As soon as I get out of this bed, someone had better run because I am gonna kick the ass of whoever is responsible for this…"

Cougar tipped his head back and let out a laugh.

Finally, things were back to normal, and it felt damn good.

xxxx

A/N: So it's done! Thanks for all of the awesome reviews and for sticking with me for so long. There might be a sequel at some point, and I've got some ideas for other Losers stories…I'm excited to be part of such a promising fandom, and thanks to all of the readers and fellow authors who are helping it grow!