"Here he is! Hi Way!" Charlie exclaimed cheerfully, he stood up and waved at the second racer of the team. Way just smiled and greeted him, then the rest of the team, who were sitting on the comfortable sofas of the garage, turned to him and greeted him too. Alan stood up and took some of the bags from Way's hands, then he pointed at the small kitchen area and kindly asked him to get something to drink from the fridge. Way nodded and headed to the kitchen.
"So, I know that this doesn't really concern our team, not in terms of work at least, but since we are a family..." Alan started trying to use a somehow solemn tone. Sonic and North did their best, but after the very first few words, they couldn't hold back their laughter and Sonic interrupted him:
"Come on, Alan, speeches aren't really your thing. Why don't you just tell us what's the reason for all this? You really need to be more straightforward"
"Fine, fine..." Alan added with a smile, then he pulled Jeff closer to him, grabbing him by his shoulder. Jeff almost looked surprised, he knew what was going on of course, but the movement was so rapid that he almost dropped the bag of chips he was holding. Then Alan kissed him on the head and finished "Jeff agreed to date me!"
"That's great! Let's cheer! Wait... Way?" Babe exclaimed with genuine happiness in his voice, then as he realized that there was still nothing to drink, he turned to look at the large window of the kitchen, wondering why Way was taking so long to come back with just a few bottles. He saw him standing with his hands firmly placed on the surface of the counter.
What Babe couldn't see from that distance, was the clear discomfort Way was feeling. His head was aching more and more, he had to put his hands on the counter to regain some stability, hearing someone call his name, Way looked up, soon after that movement his vision became blurry and soon everything went black. Everyone turned as they heard the noise of a bottle smashing onto the floor. When they looked more carefully, they found Way laying on the floor.
"Way!" everyone shouted. They rushed to him, Babe tried to wake him up while Jeff made sure that he didn't get cut with the shards of the bottle. Babe soon noticed that Way was feverish, his forehead was dangerously hot and right when he thought that his friend was regaining consciousness, he realized that Way was just murmuring something in a moment of delirium.
"Jeff, can you help me carry him to the sofa?" Babe asked, Jeff nodded and easily raised Way grabbing his legs, while Babe did the same with his shoulders. Way moaned in pain and moved a little after they laid him onto the sofa. Thankfully Jeff didn't accidentally drop him after seeing something terrible in Way's future.
"I called an ambulance, they will be here shortly" Charlie said, then he moved away from Way as something on the floor of the kitchen caught his attention. He went closer and picked it up, a small orange box, he turned it and found the label of a famous brand of anxiolytics. His eyes widened in fear, he quickly hid it into one of his pocket with the intention of giving it to the personnel of the ambulance only.