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A/N: Hello everyone! So there's three reasons for posting this! The first is 50+ followers on Tumblr! Holy blond cheerleader batman! That's incredible! For me anyway so I thought in celebration I'd write and post this, although what was originally meant to be a 1500 word(ish) fic quickly exploded into 4700ish words. Woops O.o People tell me I talk too much, clearly I write too much as well. Never mind!
The second reason was because this was my response to my first ever prompt and it's a sort of celebration now that I've completed Uni, I finished working on this on the plane back to Queenstown so here it is for you. It's also my fic that takes me into the double digits. Fic number 10! Woohoo!
So here is the prompt I was given!
**Due to long hours, not eating due to stress, etc Dean gets very sick during filming, and collapses. His very nice cast mates try to make everything better, even though he eventually ends up in the hospital. When he finally returns to the set, his friends try to look out for him and take care of him in every way possible, and he finds it slightly endearing.**
Kinda played with it a bit, feel free to assume there's more going on between Aidan and Dean than what we see. I couldn't decide if I wanted to so that's why it's written the way it is.
ALSO!! Congratulations to Jared Turner who got married last weekend! So exciting! But what's most exciting/heart breaking is that if the NZ Herald is correct, Dean was there with Sarah Wilson who is now his fiancee. So congrats to the pair of them but at the same time, there goes another one to cross off my list :(
Read the article here and you can find me on Tumblr here
Sadly I don't own any of these men. Would be nice though.
Aidan was the one to notice it first.
He wasn’t sure if it had something to do with the fact that he and Dean were often together, both during and between filming or if it was the fact that he felt slightly protective of the blond after he joined them just two weeks earlier. Whatever the reason he couldn’t help but feel concerned when Dean walked into the makeup trailer one morning looking utterly exhausted; shoulders slumped, eyes half open and what looked to be the beginnings of dark shadows under his eyes, as though he had not slept for the last few days.
“Morning” Dean said as he flopped into the nearest chair, a massive yawn escaping as his eyelids fluttered shut.
“Hey,” Aidan replied, frowning slightly as he looked his screen-brother over. “Late night last night?”
Dean shook his head slightly in response, not even bothering to open his eyes.
“Still trying to catch up on the training,” he mumbled before going still, sleep claiming him quickly.
Aidan watched as Dean’s face smoothed out in sleep and he couldn’t help but feel bad for his friend. He knew how gruelling the dwarf movement training classes could be as he and the rest of the cast had been subjected to it for well over a month and a half, yet Dean was having to try and catch up to their training on top of being on set filming every day. He knew how tiring it could get and here Dean was having to do both at the same time; it was no wonder he was exhausted. After all Aidan tended to find himself falling face first into bed at the end of the filming day and he couldn’t even imagine being able to do what Dean was; he doubted he’d stay sane for very long.
Due to Dean sleeping makeup that morning was a quiet affair, Tammy who was their makeup artist giving the blond a fond look before starting on transforming him into Kíli’s counterpart and Aidan sitting there reading over the scene they were filming that day.
Once both men were finished Aidan shook Dean’s shoulder and grinned when sleepy blue eyes peered up at him.
“Wakey wakey sleeping beauty” Aidan said, chuckling when Dean frowned over at him.
“Oh bite me,” Dean huffed in amusement, hauling himself out of the makeup chair and thanking Tammy as he stretched and followed his friend outside.
“Hey Aid,” Dean said as they headed towards the food tent “thanks for letting me sleep during makeup.”
Aidan couldn’t help but look at his friend with a confused smile so Dean continued on.
“It’s just that this training is kicking my butt and between that and filming finding the time to get a sleep is pretty hard so I’m kind of having to get it where I can find it, and I know you enjoying blasting some music during makeup but the fact you didn’t listen to it today…” Dean trailed off with a shrug but Aidan understood all the same.
“Anytime,” Aidan said with a small smile as he guided Dean with a hand on his shoulder towards the coffee stand.
Thinking back on it now he wished he had paid more attention.
Adam was the second one to notice it.
Ever since Dean had joined the cast a month ago the two of them had become good friends, a beer or a joke easily shared between the two. Adam had been fascinated by Deans love for photography and he and Aidan had spent a lot of time between takes in Deans trailer watching the blond work on his photography projects or on a new painting or sketching of his whilst the three of them chatted away.
Yet somehow despite the amount of time Adam had spent with Dean he had missed the rapid change that was occurring. He saw the signs of course, he'd have to be blind to miss them but it never occurred to him what they meant. Perhaps it was the fact that he spent nearly every day both working and socialising with the blond that the changes were not obvious, or perhaps it was the fact that Dean’s makeup on set and sunglasses when finished hid how run down his friend was becoming.
It was a Friday afternoon and Adam had just finished getting changed out of his costume when Aidan and James came bounding through his trailer door.
“Hey Ads!” Aidan said with a massive grin as he threw himself onto the couch, sprawling across the length of it to stop his fellow Irishman sitting down.
“Hey yourself,” Adam replied with a shake of his head at his friends antics. “You couldn’t have waited five minutes for me to finish changing?”
James flapped his hand at the Brit and sat on Aidan’s legs despite the younger man’s protests. “Never mind that, the lads are planning on heading to the bar in about ten minutes, we’ve been sent to fetch you.”
Adam rolled his eyes as he pulled his shoes on. “I would have been more surprised if you had come to say they had no plans for tonight and everyone was going home early.”
Aidan gasped in fake horror, placing a hand over his heart for emphasis. “Are you saying we have a drinking problem?”
“Speak for yourself laddie,” James said with a snicker “we’re not all lightweights like you and Deano.”
Aidan grabbed the pillow from behind him and proceeded to smack the other over the head with it. “S’not our fault the lot if you drink like grandpas! Nursing your drinks like they’re babies, honestly.” He rolled his eyes with a huff. “You shame your fellow countrymen.”
He turned his attention to Adam as he pushed James off the couch. “Speaking of Deano, have you seen him? His trailer’s locked up and I can’t get a hold of him.”
Adam frowned at the brunet in confusion. “Didn’t you know? He’s gone to Auckland for the weekend. Left as soon as he got his makeup off.”
“What? Why is he going to Auckland?” James asked in confusion. “It’s Friday, it’s... It's drinking night!”
“Yeah why do you know this and not me?” Aidan exclaimed in surprise.
“Well I only found out because I bumped into him on his way to the cab. He’s got filming for The Almighty Johnsons to do; I’m surprised he didn’t tell you Aid, he normally does.”
“Huh” Aidan said thoughtfully. “He must have been in a hurry to not leave me a message. Never mind, we’ll see him Monday I guess.”
Dean set his bag on the table and let out a groan. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take of this; he was exhausted, bone tired due to only getting four or five hours of sleep a night, his head was stuffy, he had a cough that made his lungs ache every time he breathed and he had the beginnings of a pounding headache. He knew his training was compulsory, the fact that the previous actor had decided to pull out when they had finished training rather than during had been an inconvenience for everyone involved, but it meant that he had to do everything he could to catch up.
He stumbled to his fridge and looked at it with a sigh, his eyes alighting on the timetable he had been given and he let out a groan as he realised he’d be lucky to get three hours sleep due to the delay at the airport. A 20km bike ride and an hour in the gym with Terry to continue his sword fighting and his dwarf movements all before going onto set at five, and he didn't even want to think about what he had to do after filming. All he really wanted to do was talk to Peter and see if he could get the trainings reduced; he’d been there for a month already, so hopefully he could get them changed to an hour or so every day. He knew he was still far behind his friends who had spent hours training before they began filming but at the rate he was going he knew he was likely to collapse on set.
Dragging himself to his room he set an alarm on his phone before he fell face first onto his bed and knew no more.
The Monday morning after Dean had flown to Auckland Aidan stepped outside of his trailer, greeting his cast mates as he passed them on the way to the makeup trailer and couldn't contain his excitement about seeing Dean after not hearing much from him over the weekend. Being far from home and away from his family and friends was hard but having a buddy like Dean had been a blessing in disguise.
He clambered into the makeup trailer with a grin on his face, only to have it falter when he realised his blond companion was missing.
“Morning Aidan!” Tammy greeted him with a smile, “how was your weekend?”
“Uh... Good, it was... good” Aidan said distractedly as he looked around the trailer. When he had confirmed his friend wasn't hiding anywhere he looked at Tammy in confusion.
“Has Dean been through already?” He asked.
Tammy shook her head as she prepared his prosthetics. “No he hasn’t, isn’t with you?”
“No he’s not.” Aidan said with a frown. “Deano’s not normally late; I wonder if he even managed to get to set this morning after working all weekend.”
“He is here, I saw him this morning on my way in,” she told Aidan. “But that boy needs a break before something happens to him.” She finished offhandedly, more to herself then him as she mixed up the colours she needed.
“What do you mean?” Aidan asked. He couldn't help the prickle of concern he felt when she implied something happening to his friend. “Do you know something?”
“It's not what I know Aidan, but what I've seen. What a lot of us have seen. Dean's working himself to the bone; on top of his filming he has three or four hours of training every day before and after filming just to catch up with what he missed out on. He's lost a lot of weight since he started and not in the good way, yet the prosthetics and fat suits cover it up.”
Aidan lowered himself into his chair stunned as the information sunk in and he mentally berated himself for his negligence towards his friend. How could he have missed something that was clearly so obvious to others? He was the one who spent the most time with Dean yet he had failed to notice something as big as this. He had known Dean was tired after the first couple of weeks when he started his training but he hadn't thought anymore on it and now, well now he wished he had.
Aidan sat quietly through the makeup procedure, thinking over Tammy's words and hoping that Dean would appear so he could talk to his friend about everything that he had been told and they could try and come up with a way that didn't end up with Dean half dead.
However when Dean didn't arrive to get his makeup done Aidan became concerned. If the blond was unwell one of the PA’s would have come in and informed Tammy that he wouldn’t be coming in, but the lack of word worried him. After bidding the artist farewell with the promise to send Dean along the moment he found him he made his way to the trailers, hoping that it was a simple matter of Dean falling asleep to miss the makeup slot and not something more dire.
As he arrived he saw Richard, Graham and Luke standing around the stairs to Richards trailer, the three of them chatting away and laughing at something Luke was saying. He waved to his friends before climbing up the stairs and knocking on Dean's door.
“Everything alright Aid?” Luke called.
“Didn't lose your brother did you?” Richard asked jokingly.
“Temporarily misplaced him” Aidan replied with a laugh. He looked back to the door with a frown when Dean failed to answer and tried the handle, deciding that if it was locked he'd enlist the help of his friends to try and find the wayward blond.
To his surprise the door was unlocked so with a shrug of his shoulders he opened the door and went inside, expecting to see Dean tapping away on his laptop or working on a painting.
“Dean?” Aidan called when he discovered the main area of the trailer to be empty. When he received no response he moved further indoors, eyes roaming carefully over the trailer for any sign of his friend.
When he couldn't spot the kiwi he turned to leave thinking he must be elsewhere on the set and that was when he saw it.
Blond hair just peeking out from the side of the kitchen bench.
Heart in his mouth he moved towards it and choked on a sob when he saw him.
“Dean!”
Aidan fell to his knees in shock and it was the trickle of blood on his friend’s forehead that spurred him into movement.
“HELP! RICHARD HELP!” He screamed as he scooped Dean up into his arms, cradling the blond against his chest. He didn't know what to do; there was a large lump forming where Dean must have hit his head on the counter which also explained the blood, but what was most concerning was that Dean was still unconscious despite his cries and the heat he could feel radiating from his friends’ forehead when he brushed the curls off his face made him panic even more.
He looked up with wide eyes which glistened with tears when he heard footsteps thunder up the stairs and watched as Richard, Graham and Luke burst through the door with terrified expressions on their face from Aidan's screams.
“Shit!” Graham swore when they saw Aidan holding the unconscious blond “I’m going for help!” he yelled as he turned on his heel and leapt out the door.
Richard fell to his knees besides the pair whilst Luke hovered in the background.
“What happened Aid?” Richard asked, eyes widening at the blood on Deans forehead.
“I don't know!” Aidan said with a sob “I just found him like this Rich.”
Richard eyed the flushed cheeks and pale complexion with concern before placing a hand against Dean’s forehead only to pull away quickly. “He's burning up. Whatever is causing this has given him a fever, and a bad one at that.”
“Aid,” Luke said gently to get the Irishman's attention without stressing him even more. “Help Richard bring him out here where it's more open and the medics can get to him better ok?” At Aidan's nod Luke hopped onto the counter and spun around before dropping to the floor on the other side, minding Dean's legs as he did so where he could access the freezer and get a handful of ice cubes which he dropped into a tea-towel and carried to the three who were now kneeling in the middle of the trailer.
He crouched down by Dean's head and placed the ice-wrap on his forehead, wincing as he realised that the size of the cut and bruise could only have formed from hitting the counter with force. He could only hope that the ice would help reduce the swelling that would occur from the impact as well as help with the fever Richard had guessed at.
The three men waited anxiously with the fourth until yelling could be heard as it made its way towards them, Graham's booming voice easily heard above the others. Moments later the trailer door crashed open with a frantic looking Graham hurrying inside to get out of the way of Daniel and Kieran, two of the set medics who were directly behind him.
The four men moved to the sides to allow the two men to assess Dean without disruption, Aidan only moving back far enough to give them room without letting go of the Kiwi’s hand. They watched without understanding what was going on, but the expressions on Daniels and Kieran's faces didn't offer any reassurance, in fact it only made them more nervous.
Aidan watched everything that happened as though he was floating above his body; as though what he was seeing wasn't really happening. One minute the two medics were there, Dan on the phone and Kieran talking to him and the next two ambulance officers appeared with a stretcher in tow, and before he could even blink Dean had been placed onto the stretcher and taken towards an ambulance. He barely registered anything that was happening around him nor the fact that Richard was trying to get his attention until the Brit slapped his face lightly yet hard enough to get his attention.
Aidan looked at his co-star in shock, his cheek stinging slightly from the strike.
“You with me?” Richard asked in concern, a hand running soothingly over the Irishman’s curls.
“Yeah,” Aidan breathed before rubbing at his eyes briefly. “Sorry what did you ask?”
“The ambos said one of us can go to the hospital with him. Do you want to go or would you rather it was me?”
Aidan blinked in surprise at the question, he'd never expected to be offered the place in the ambulance yet as he thought about whether he could handle it the stronger the urge to have no one else in there but himself grew.
Slowly he managed to push himself to his feet and stumbled toward the door, noticing with relief that neither Kiwi nor ambulance had disappeared from sight. He quickly turned back to his friends and asked them to make sure that Peter knew what had happened before he raced over to the ambulance and climbed in just after the blonde and the medical officer, the door slamming shut behind him.
The next few hours passed by in a blur; Aidan had been shown to the waiting room whilst they wheeled Dean away to carry out an assessment and before he knew it the rest of the cast along with Peter had turned up, everyone talking over the top of each other in an effort to get answers.
“ENOUGH!” Richards’ baritone voice roared out over the din when he noticed the overwhelmed look on the Irishman's face, silencing his companions immediately.
“Has anyone spoken to you yet Aidan?” Richard asked gently as he crouched down next to his friend.
“No,” Aidan said in voice barely above a whisper. Since the others had joined him his gaze had yet to leave the double doors Dean had disappeared behind and his only hope was that Dean would come waltzing back out, healthy and laughing at the worry he caused.
But it didn't happen.
Another half an hour passed before a doctor eventually found them, a clipboard in his hand and a sombre expression on his face. The moment he appeared everyone leapt to their feet, the room silent with a nervous vibe in the air.
“Mr Turner?” The doctor asked looking around the room.
Aidan stepped forwards, his body thrumming with fear at the look on the doctors’ face, but the tension lessened slightly when the man gave him a smile and motioned for him to take a seat beside him.
“How is he?” Aidan asked the moment he sat down; desperate for the confirmation his friend would be ok.
“He’s resting,” the Doctor said with a smile. “I’m Doctor Roberts and I’ll be overseeing his case whilst he’s here.”
“Can you tell us what’s wrong?” Peter asked stepping forward, concern on his face.
“Well luckily for us he woke just after I began my examination so I was able to ask him some questions Mr…?”
“Jackson. Dean is one of the actors in my movie so his health is of great concern to me,” Peter said sincerely.
“Ah well that would explain a lot,” Dr Roberts said with a nod. “From what Dean has told me and from my observations what originally started off as a simple cold has developed into something more. Dean informed me that he’s had quite a rigorous training schedule for the last month and I believe the lack of sleep and overdoing the physical activity is what has made him this sick.”
“What do you mean?” Aidan asked in alarm. “How sick is he?”
“Pretty bad I’m afraid. From what I could see Dean is suffering from pneumonia, he has a fever and what I believe is the flu however we’re waiting on test results to confirm it.” Doctor Roberts informed the room.
“What concerns me most is that Dean appears utterly exhausted, as though he isn’t getting a decent sleep that allows him to recover and hasn’t been getting one for some time. I’ve informed him I’ll be giving him a sedative to help him get the rest he needs and that we’ll be pumping him full of antibiotics to help him recover but he’s insisted on speaking to you first before we do that. So…” Doctor Roberts stood and motioned to the door “If you’ll follow me I’ll take you to him. Just two or three of you at a time however, I don’t want to overcrowd him.”
Aidan, Richard and Peter stepped forwards and followed the Doctor to their friend. Peter asked the Doctor a few more questions as they made their way to Dean’s room and they discovered that he would be kept there for a week in order to keep up the antibiotics and ensure he was well rested before releasing him, as well as the fact that he’d be kept in his own room to stop any other patients from catching whatever it was that was making him sick.
Doctor Roberts knocked on a door before entering and Aidan felt his heart soar when he saw tired blue eyes peering back at them. He hurried over to the bed with a worried smile on his face, his hand grasping Dean’s lightly.
“Hey,” Aidan said in a whisper, his heart clenching as his eyes took in the weakened state of his friend. Truly, he had no idea how he’d missed this.
Dean gave Aidan a weak smile before his gaze found Peter and he tried to push himself upright quickly.
“I’m so sorry about this Peter,” Dean said in a weakened semi-hysterical voice. “I didn’t mean to be an inconvenience; I’ll be out of here and back on set tomorrow, promise!”
“You will not!” Four voices yelled simultaneously, startling the blond.
“Deano you are in no state to be getting out of bed let alone going on set,” Richard scolded gently as he ran a hand through Dean’s hair. “You need to be resting; you’re in no condition to be wandering around.”
“But I need to be there!” Dean said with a pitiful whine “I can’t let you down Peter; you’ve already been let down once before!” He begged, turning desperate eyes on the director.
“Oh Dean,” Peter said sadly as he stepped forwards “you’re not letting anyone down, let alone me. If anyone has let somebody down, I’m the one who let you down.”
“I don’t understand.” Dean said in confusion.
Noticing the confusion of his actors Peter elaborated. “When one of the PA’s told me that you had been taken to hospital after collapsing I overheard Tammy saying something about not being surprised that it hadn’t happened earlier. As you can imagine that got me suspicious so I looked into a few things; your timetable, training roster, basically everything and anything that could have contributed to someone saying that you should have collapsed earlier. God I am so sorry Dean.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have to understand that being a director means that you hit the ground running from day one and don’t stop until the movie is released and generally not even then. The request I made to Terry and the other trainers in regards to your training must have gotten mixed up somewhere along the line. You were never meant to be doing the amount of training you were doing every day, it was meant to be spread out over the weeks to ensure that you got the same quality and amount of training but not so that you were working yourself to the bone.”
Aidan looked at Peter curiously, his hand holding his friends gently as he rubbed a reassuring thumb across the back as the conversation went on. “So how was it missed? How did the excessive training occur without anyone realising it?”
“Well simply put if I don’t know about problems then I can’t fix them. Because no-one said anything I just assumed everything was ok, something I realise now I shouldn’t have done but as you can imagine things are likely to be forgotten if they’re not spoken about. Again Dean, I am so sorry for what you’ve been put through, it should never have happened the way it did.”
Dean gave a small laugh which quickly dissolved into a coughing fit, Doctor Roberts moving forwards with a cup of water and Aidan rubbing a soothing hand over Dean’s back.
“Jesus,” Dean gasped as he struggled to get his breath back. Once he was able to breathe properly he looked back at Peter. “So what now?” he asked in a scratchy voice, wishing that his chest and throat didn't feel as though they were on fire every time he breathed.
“Now? Well now you rest, do what the Doctor’s tell you, get better and join us when you’re healed. Things will change now I promise; I’ve arranged a meeting to discuss what’s happened and what will be happening in the near future. You just focus on getting better.”
“Yes sir,” Dean rasped with a grin, throwing the director a sloppy salute which had Aidan and Richard grinning, both men happy to see Dean’s cheeky attitude once more.
Peter shook his head fondly before leaving the room, Richard following behind after ruffling Dean’s hair. Aidan watched as Doctor Roberts fiddled with some of the dials on the machines monitoring his friend and listening as he informed Dean that he had increased the antibiotics and administered the sedative.
“Thanks Doc,” Dean said with a small smile.
“No problem Dean. A nurse will come by to check on you in an hour or so.” He told the blond before exiting the room, leaving the two friends by themselves.
“Everything ok Aid?” Dean asked as he studied the Irishman curiously.
“Please don't ever do that again.” Aidan begged his friend as he turned pained eyes on him.
“What do you mean?”
“Allow yourself to get so sick that you collapse! I just -” Aidan let out a shaky sigh as he raked a hand through his curls. “You’re my best mate here Dean and seeing you unconscious terrified me. I don't think I've ever been as scared as I was when I found you lying there.” Aidan confessed.
“I'm sorry Aidan,” Dean said in a small voice. “I really am. I just didn't want to let anyone down by complaining. Peter was left in the lurch when Rob left and you and Richard were left without a Fíli and I didn't want you to have to go through that again, even for a couple of days. I suppose it worked out being counterproductive in the end.”
Despite himself Aidan let out a chuckle. “Yes I suppose it did.”
“Well, thanks for looking after me Aid, it means a lot.” Dean said quietly and giving him one of his rare soft smiles.
“Anytime Deano.” Aidan replied in a whisper. He stood, wanting Dean to have some quiet so he could get some much needed sleep when Dean weakly grasped his hand. Aidan cocked his head looking at his friend in confusion.
“Would you stay with me?” Dean asked quietly. “At least until I fall asleep?”
Aidan gave him a soft smile and pulled the chair in the room as close to the bed as he could before climbing into it and curling up.
“Yeah Dean,” he responded gently.
“I'll stay with you.”