The world was a hurricane and all Henrik could do was race to catch up. It felt like there were barbs in the soles of his sore feet as he made his way from one station to the other, hoarsely barking orders, scribbling shakily on forms, choking down his ninth sludgy coffee and -- were the halls always spinning and blurring like that? Heaving a nauseated breath, he turned his attention to the headache storming behind his dry, aching eyes. How much longer would he have to soldier through it? What was left of his shift?

Five hours more for going, he mused dazedly as the clock swam before him, only vaguely aware that the thought didn’t form in proper English. Five hours more and he would collapse into his warm bed for a weekend’s sleep. 

Janson had warned him. “If ̀you̡ ̵don͏’t̢ take ́aǹy ̨t͠įme̶ ̵f̀o͞r̷ ͢yo̧ur̡sel͝f͠, ̵y͏ou͏'̸r̵e̴ go̸i͝ng̕ t̨o҉ sn͜ap.” Marvin had said “Okay” to appease him, but internally he’d dismissed the words as soon as they were spoken. He was strong, he told himself. He could shoulder however much responsibility he needed to for the good of his brothers, for the good of his patients.

Now, having punched half a dozen dents into his filing cabinet, he was sobbing hoarsely into his bruised, throbbing hands. One of his long-term patients had died. It was peaceful and it was no one’s fault, but it had been the last straw. Marvin was running on three hours of sleep and so much coffee that he wanted to throw up. He couldn’t do this anymore. He was just...so tired.

“Henrik, you need to stop,” Marvin protested worriedly as he watched Splendor tear through the books on his shelf. “Take a break! You need to get some fresh air, some food – I can’t remember the last time I saw you eat –”

“No, no, no, no, I need this!” he cut him off frenetically as he struggled to pry one tome free from where it was wedged against the bookend. “There’s a spell to combine with my new potion. I will get it right for certain this time, just you see!” 

With a sharp grunt he managed to yank it out, but that was where it went wrong. The book hooked on the edge of the lights strung and situated on the shelf just above, sweeping them and whatever contents they were tangled around right off – one of which happened to be a rather delicate glowing glass. Crash!

Marvin gasped. Splendor froze. It only took a few seconds of stunned silence for the shards to dim and the exhausted magician to burst into tears.

Trying to suppress his coughs made Henrik feel like there was a vice squeezing his lungs. He labored on regardless. His thoughts felt soupy and his joints burned and he wanted to crawl onto the nearest soft surface and sleep for a thousand years...but Jack was here for his exam. Jack always comes first. 

“...take your blood pressure.” A moment later he blinked, a little dazed. His mouth was running faster than his mind, apparently; he hadn’t realized he was speaking. Biting his tongue against another prickly cough, he shifted to grab the cuff, only to end up falling against the exam table for balance.

Now Jack’s eyes were on him, wide, confused, and his mouth was moving but Henrik couldn’t hear him. A sudden, sharp ringing clung to his ears, the cuff seemed miles away and the floor was rising faster than he could escape it.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

“My good man, you’ve been slaving over too many burdens!” Charles protested, rubbing circles into Marvin’s back in a vie for his attention. He could feel the tension and the knots and the sickly heat under his palm all too easily. “Take a break. Put your head down, take a moment to breathe.”

“I can’t...I can’t, Charlie, s’too much to do,” he murmured forlornly, his voice hitching thickly as he leaned his aching head into one hand and shuffled through the papers before him. “There’s...All these files, I need to get ’em all put together, alphabetize...Ran out of staples...Need some dinner. An’ still all that inventory to be unpacked an’ organized...” There he trailed off, awkwardly stifling a few coughs before slowly falling silent. 

“...Marvin?” Uncertainly Charles bent to look him in the face, sympathy curling in his chest. “Dear me, you’re already asleep. You need it.” After another beat, he reached, carefully easing the stack of files out from under Marvin’s hand. “Well, I know my letters just as well as you do. I can get these files fit and sorted. Janson is sure to have some staples, what with all those photographs he pins up -- and Splendor’s sure to have a hearty dinner planned for us. We’ll save you a plate.”

He might not notice at first, but he would feel a little guilt start creeping in once he realizes that he’s rarely seeing him out of the lab.

“Marvel,” Henrik sighed as he draped himself over his friend’s back, tucking his chin against his shoulder. “Wunder, you have the rather bad posture. You should be flat out on the back, counting the lambs by now.”

“Just get off my back,” he muttered tersely, both figuratively and literally, blinking hard as he tried to refocus his eyes on the text. His head felt like it was buzzing. “M’fine. Gotta get this done.”

“You are getting nothing done. You’ve been rereading this page for ten minutes.”

“Shut up!”

“No. At least take a break.”

Check on Marvin. That was what he was meant to do. His...mission. Jackie felt like the world around him was a murky ocean; sounds were muffled one moment and then sharp and close then next. What...What was he doing? Oh, yeah. Right. Check on Marvin. 

His vision smeared into blurry black and white as he neared the magician’s door, allowing him to look through. Marvin was curled up in a protection bubble hovering a few feet off the ground. There was still blood crusted under his nose, but he was sleeping soundly. 

Jackie released a breath at the sight, his head dipping forward. Before his body could follow, one hand shot out for balance. Marvin’s doorframe cracked.

“You can’t keep doing this to yourself,” Marvin murmured as he looped Schneep’s arm around his neck for support. Any other time he would have said it much more forcefully, in an attempt to finally get through to him, but Schneep wasn’t in a mindset to handle that. He was quite literally falling asleep on his feet and yet he still flinched at Marvin’s touch against his back as he helped him stumble toward his cot. 

“Have to...” he mumbled faintly, his head dipping low. “Jack...he needs...”

“He needs us to take care of ourselves and stay safe until he wakes up. That includes you.”

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“Jackie,” Henrik called softly, patting the hero’s knee as he dozed on the exam table. “Jackie, you need to wake up, move to your bed.” He had already given him a mild anesthetic before setting his shoulder and maneuvering it into a sling, but clearly Jackie hadn’t even really needed the medicine to relax. When he didn’t stir, Henrik suppressed a sigh, leaning to slip his arms around him. “You shouldn’t be able to sleep here, Bruder. You shouldn’t be this tired.” 

“I think you’re getting low on power,” Edward pointed out, eyeing Google as his movements grew more and more sluggish. He didn’t stop altogether, however; he kept reaching, mechanically stacking the files.

“On the contrary...” Google trailed off for a moment, optics flashing blue for a moment before fading back to brown. “I know my limits well. My backup reserve of battery life is more than efficient-t-t-t-t-t-t -- ” He locked up, tongue clicking incessantly until Edward tossed down his pen. 

“Okay,” he concluded, rising from his chair and prying the files from his fingers. “You’re done, you need to recharge.”

“It’s not working! It’s just not working, I don’t know what to do anymore!” Marvin snapped at no one in particular, slamming his tome shut with a thud and shoving away his potion bottles. “I’m done!” Exhaustion tore through him then in a thunderous wave, seeping into his bones and weighing his head down into his hands. His eyes were burning from being open too long. “Hh...I’m done...”

“No...Just a few more minutes, I need to get this finished. M’almost done,” Edward was insisting, weakly trying to resist as Google pulled on his arm. Google only gave him a few more seconds to comply willingly before he used full strength, hauling him up out of the chair. “A-Ahh! What -- What are you doing?”

“You haven’t slept for thirty-six hours. You haven’t eaten for six. You haven’t hydrated for three. You are in no condition to continue working,” Google informed him sharply, slipping an arm around his back as he swayed unsteadily. “You obviously cannot be trusted to take care of yourself, doctor, so let me do it for you. I am putting you to bed.”

It didn’t escape him how much Edward’s pale face dimmed at the words. “The others’re...gonna get angry,” he mumbled. “That I haven’t...done enough. Dark...”

Google’s grip on him tightened at that, his voice softening just a fraction. “I will inform him in your stead.”