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It begins with an irritating headache that won't leave him alone, no matter how much Jean tries to power through it. The ache in his forehead soon encircles his entire head, and dizziness comes along, making him unsteady on his feet.
"You good?" Desmond asks, when Jean nearly falls over getting out of bed.
"I'm coming down with something. You'd better not get too close to me." Jean smiles, downplaying the sore ache in his head.
If there's anywhere he couldn't afford to be sick, it was a killing game, so he continued hiding his symptoms. But dizziness led to confusion, which led to weakness, and despite his attempts of hiding it, his condition deteriorates, and he found himself having fits of fainting spells. He finds himself lying on the wooden floor of his dorm room, not knowing how long he was there, yet too tired to get up.
When he comes to, he's in his bed. And when he tries to stand, Jean finds he is too weak to even sit upright for too long - Desmond, who's next to him, insists that he should lie back down, and he complies without a second thought, mind too clouded to protest.
"Does this help you, Desmond?" Cassidy bursts into the room carrying a first aid box, with a handful of random painkillers in her pockets. "I don't know what would help - did you say he had food poisoning?"
"It's some kind of flu." He feels the back of a hand on his burning forehead. "He's been sick for a few days, I didn't think it would get so bad-"
His voice fades away, and Jean finds himself drifting into unconsciousness. The next time he wakes up, it's dark. And his head's not pounding as much as it was before. On the table next to him, there's food and a written note from Desmond, instructing him to stay in his bed and not get up.
Jean thinks back, but he doesn't know how he became sick. It didn't feel like the flu - not with the absence of a sore throat or a runny nose, yet food poisoning was also unlikely...he hoped. Jean remembers Desmond offering to make breakfast for the two of them, Ingrid making a big batch of food for those who couldn't cook well, Diana's birthday cake that...but why was it only him who was affected? Why not anybody else?
Would Desmond poison him? Jean wonders this, as the marksman enters the room, looking relieved that Jean was conscious. He tells Jean Ingrid's going to be looking after him - her and Toshiko, but that Desmond will be helping, too. Everyone will be. Jean agrees, because there isn't much more he can do in this state. It's unnerving, being this...helpless. Confined to his bed. Defenceless, if someone came to murder him in his sleep.
Jean needed to find a way out of this situation.