Joint Case

Chapter 20: Taking Care of Him

Everyone's things are packed and ready to go. The Ancient Oldies were sitting in the lounge room and still some of them fast asleep on the couch. 

Eruhaben nervously taps his foot in a rhythmic pattern. His eyes darted on the entrance of the door every minute passing by. 

He could not help but pace around, back and forth making the people who were watching him frown in confusion. 

"Old man, can you stop pacing around? It's making me dizzy." Choi Han states, eyes on Eruhaben waiting for an answer. 

"Yes. Right. Why do you seem so nervous?" Bud chimes in as well, agreeing with what Choi Han had said. 

"You damn brats. I'm not that old." Eruhaben glares at them, earning chuckles around. He stopped, and stood rigid in place before sighing. 

He says, "I'm just worried." 

Everyone's faces contorted into more confusion. Cheapskate, whose head on Crazy Kid's shoulder sat up straighter and yawned. His hand rubbing his eyes to wake himself up.

Crazy Kid grumbles about how heavy Cheapskate's head is while rubbing his aching shoulder. As always,Cheapskate ignored him. The rest sitting and standing on every side of them looks amused hearing their interaction. 

Toonka hit Clopeh's head with a roll of newspapers to wake him up which by the way got a punch in the gut in return. Toonka can only groan silently in pain. 

Hannah jabs Jack on his side but Hannah did not get the response she had wanted. Jack easily dodge her assault to her dismay. 

Mary and Witira are drinking their morning coffee. A way for them to start the day. Without the coffee in their bloodstream, they won't function today well. Which the members might add, a lot of coffee. 

The rest, their ears perked up, biding what Eruhaben is about to tell. 

Eruhaben looks at them. Everyone almost had identical expressions painted on their faces. The hostile air surrounding them before is not in sight anymore. 

He chuckles a bit.

Before he could open his mouth to speak, their two leaders came. 

One having much paler lips and skin, a swollen face, eyelids hanging, redder eyes appearing to be tired. He kept on coughing and sniffing. The other had a troubled expression on his face. Concern written all over his well being. Time to time, he looks over beside him, checking if he is okay; clearly he is not.

"Captain? You got sick?" One of them asks carefully. 

Cale hearing it, something snapped inside of him. He wanted to comment a snarky remark along the lines, 'Is it obvious?' but stopped when he felt a tug from his clothes. 

He could only swallow the displeasure he felt. However, his whole being emits a gloomy atmosphere coupled with his stoic face accompanied by a tinge of displeasure, the others can feel the pressure from their commander. 

Everybody looked at each other and tactically did not say any more words lest they might step on Cale's bad side. They won't like that. 

Alberu coughs a bit and opens his mouth to speak, "I'm okay. Are you guys ready?"

"Yes, we are."

"Since everybody is ready. Let's go home. And no, you won't drive Alberu. You're sick." Cale sternly says to which Alberu nodded weakly in reply. 

On the ride back home, everyone sees their commander being fussy to their captain. They could only sigh. It really was the wrong time for their captain to get sick.