Hee hee. I wrote this after I got better from a bout with the flu, and I thought it'd be funnier if Rose was the one who got sick, instead of Missie or someone. So I had her get sick. Sorry Rose. ;) Inspired also by a great story I read called 'Sick as a Wolverine'.

Rose groaned when she woke up in the morning. Her head rang, and her stomach felt distinctly queasy. The feeling was rather odd. She sat up, meaning to go ask Tanya if she knew what was wrong, but when the room began to reel around her, she decided that was definently a mistake. She was about to lower herself back onto her bed when an abrupt sensation in her gut told her instead to run for the bathroom. A few moments later, having emptied the scant contents of her stomach, she weakly emerged from the bathroom. She definently wasn't liking this.

She dragged herself to her bed, and crawled under her blankets. She leaned over, and slapped at the communicator on her night table that she'd never used. "Tanya," she whimpered. "I need you in my quarters, now."

Tanya's image looked up at the ceiling. "Uh, Rose? What's going on?"

Rose groaned. "I don't know,"

Tanya recognised something from her tone of voice. "Be right there."

There was a beep as the communication ended, and Rose rolled over. Then she shivered, suddenly cold, and yanked her blanket over her head and curled into a fetal position.

When her door slid open several minutes later, Tanya found herself looking at only a large lump in the middle of Rose's bed. "Rose?"

The lump shifted slightly, and Rose's bleary eyed face emerged from the covers. "Tanya, what's wrong with me?" she moaned.

Tanya suppressed the urge to laugh. "Well, Rose, I think it may be too early to tell you exactly, but I'd say you've got the flu."

Rose's expression looked confused. "What's that?"

Tanya had to bite the inside of her cheeks to keep from grinning. "It's a human illness, Rose. It doesn't usually last that long, but it's highly contagious, so I'd better move you to the infirmary." She attempted to help Rose stand, but Rose suddenly let out a little moan, and slid back. "My head hurts," she whimpered.

Tanya frowned. Then she hit her communicator, and said, "Grin, could you meet me at Rose's quarters?"

The huge duck's face in the communicator nodded. "Of course."

Tanya turned back to the sick duck beside her. "Grin'll be here in a minute. He'll get you to the infirmary."

The door slid open, and the massive grey duck stood there. "You called?" he intoned.

"Yeah," Tanya stood up. "I need to get Rose to the infirmary, but she's too sick to walk. Can you help me get her there?"

"Of course." In a single motion, he swooped Rose up in his arms.

"Hey!" Rose cried weakly. "Watch it!"

Grin ignored her protests, and strode down the streets. The door to the infirmary slid open, and he calmly walked in and deposited her on one of the beds. Tanya pulled a blanket over the young woman, and Rose leaned back weakly.

"Thanks, Grin," Tanya said as the duck bowed. She got a couple pills from the medicine cabinet, and handed them and a glass of water to Rose. "Here, take these. You'll find it easier to get to sleep."

Rose complied, then leaned back and closed her eyes. "Sleep well, Rose," Tanya said softly, and tiptoed out of the infirmary, pausing only to dim the lights. "Hope you feel better later."

***

A loud bellow rang through the Pond, and every duck and human was aroused from their activities. Recognising the source of the bellow, Missie, Tanya, and Wildwing sprinted for the infirmary. When they reached it, Missie held up an hand. "You'd better let me go first. You never know what state she'll be in."

The door slid open, and Missie darted in, followed closely behind by her mother and team captain. Rose stood on the opposite side of the room, her titanium claws out as she slashed at the wall. Tanya's jaw dropped as she saw the mess she'd made of the wall, but moved quickly. "Here, Wildwing, you'd better use this." She handed him a hypodermic needle, filled with a clear liquid.

"Me?" Wildwing said in surprise. "Why me?"

Missie rapped her knuckles on the hard surface of his armour. "'Cause you're the most heavily armoured one of us."

"The trick," Tanya said calmly, quietly, "Is to get enough in her to knock her out, no mean feat in itself, but not enough to send her into a coma. That's powerful stuff."

Wildwing glanced at the needle nervously. "Right," he said hesitantly. "Wish me luck." Then he headed towards the duck who was still tearing up the wall.

As he neared her, Rose spun, and looked at him with glazed, feverish eyes. She had her fists clenched, making all her muscles stand out, pronounced. In that moment, Wildwing remembered just how strong Rose really was.

"Rose," he said slowly, trying not to startle her.

"Let me out," Rose said through clenched teeth. More from her tone of voice than her glazed eyes, and her red face, Wildwing deduced that Rose was extremely delirious.

He edged towards her. "We're just trying to help," he said softly, unthreateningly. He tried to keep the needle hidden in his hand, being very careful not to get himself with it. He had no desire to be laying here unconscious while this raging duck destroyed the Pond.

Rose's eyes swung to look at his hand. Apparently her telepathic abilities weren't completely hampered by her illness. "Get away from me!" she snarled, and swung her claws at him. The gleaming claws caught him directly on the chest, and dug into his armour, leaving three, long grooves. But yet again, his armour saved his life. Then, quickly, before she could regain her balance to strike again, Wildwing darted under her hands and slammed the needle into her side.

It worked immediately. Rose slumped to the floor, and her claws were sucked back into her fists.

The other two ducks ran forward, and Missie whistled when she saw the damage to Wildwing's chest plate. "Ouch," she winced. "Thank your tailfeathers you were wearing that thing."

Tanya sighed, and looked at the needle. "That stuff is really expensive," she said to no one in particular, throwing the now empty needle into the trash can. "Just think, if I had to sedate her on a regular basis, we'd go broke."

Missie and Wildwing helped Tanya lift Rose off the floor and returned her to her bed. Tanya sighed, "I don't really want to sit here watching her. Maybe Candis would agree to watch her for awhile. I'll ask her."

***

Rose opened her eyes slowly, and immediately wished she hadn't. The lights were far too bright. She turned her head, and noticed with surprise that the far wall had been practically ripped to shreds. The only thing she knew of that could inflict that kind of damage was her claws, and she did not remember doing that. Her head still rang, and her stomach gave her the distinct feeling it didn't like being woke up. Sure enough, it gave a sudden lurch, and she threw of the covers and raced to the bathroom.

She emerged out of the bathroom several minutes later, weak, but somehow, she actually felt a little better. She crossed the room and climbed into her bed. She lay on her back, and tried to get to sleep. But this bed just wasn't as comfortable as her own bed. She rolled over. That didn't work either. So she shifted position again. And again. And again. At last, she got sort of comfortable, just as the door to the infirmary slid open.

"Rose! It's me!" Candis walked in, her perpetually bubbly attitude not failing her now. "I brought you some popsicles! Are you feeling any better?"

She spotted the lump on the bed, and patted what looked it should be Rose's shoulder comfortably. "Don't worry, Rose, I've had the flu before. It's not so bad."

"Candis, that's my rear end." Rose's muffled, still sick voice emerged from under the blankets, and Rose's head stuck out at the end of the bed, like a snail emerging from it's shell. "Did you say popsicles?"

Candis jerked her hand away from her Guardian mentor, and held a couple orange popsicles forward sheepishly. "I, uh, I knew orange was your favourite flavour, so..."

Rose didn't wait for her to finish. She snatched the popsicles away from her pupil, tore off the paper, and ravenously ate them. Just as she licked the last traces of orange syrup off her sticky fingers, that peculiar feeling came over her stomach again, and Rose realised her stomach didn't want them as much as she did. "'Scuse me," she said quickly, lept up, and raced for the bathroom. Candis turned distinctly green at the sounds emerging from the bathroom, and when Rose emerged, looking very pale, she wisely chose not to mention it.

"Y'know, maybe I should let you get some sleep," Candis said hesitantly as Rose miserably crawled back under her covers. "I'll be back later, okay?"

An indistinct moan was Rose's only response, and Candis chose to take that as a yes. "See ya then," she said quickly, and beat a hasty retreat.

***

The first thing Rose felt when she woke up was that she was incredibly hungry. Her stomach rumbled angrily, and with a great sigh, she dragged herself out of bed. Realising she was still only wearing her flimsy night-gown, she grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around herself. She then stepped out into the hall, and headed towards the kitchen.

The hall lights were all dimmed, and as she entered the kitchen, she realised why. Glowing on the stove clock were the numbers '1:03'. "Fine with me," she grunted. "No one to disturb me."

Then she set to rooting through the frige. Finding a Tupperware container of something, she pried to open, and sniffed it, expecting her advanced Saurian sense of smell to be able to identify it as usual. But then she discovered something she hadn't before. Her beak felt distinctly stuffed up, and she couldn't smell a thing. "Great," she muttered, realising with a start that her voice sounded like Tanya's.

Discarding the Tupperware, she then searched for something she could recognise, hopefully something that her stomach wouldn't react to. She finally settled on apple juice, plain bread, and a couple more popsicles. Despite her stomach's reaction to them last time, the popsicles had tasted good.

She decided, however, that she didn't really like the idea of getting caught here in the kitchen, after all, she was sick, so she headed back to the infirmary. Settling herself on the floor on her blanket, she ravenously ate the entire load, including the entire loaf of bread. Once she was done, she realised her stomach felt like it wanted to remove the entire load, but couldn't quite make up its mind. She finally decided to tide it over and climbed back into her bed.

***

Rose was awake when Tanya came into the room the next morning. Tanya just smiled, and went about the perfunctionary job of checking Rose's temperature, asking how she was feeling, the like.

Rose had a question that she wanted answered, however. "Tanya, you said the flu was a highly contagious disease," Rose said, through sneezes. "How come your not afraid of getting it?"

Tanya grinned. "The entire team had the flu shot when we arrived on Earth. The only ones that didn't was you Guardians."

"Oh." Rose sighed, then suddenly lept out of bed.

"What..." Tanya began, but Rose merely slammed past her and raced to the bathroom. Tanya winced, and turned away as the door to the bathroom slammed shut.

***

Two days after Rose had first fallen ill, she woke up feeling a whole lot better. She sniffed the air, and actually laughed. "I can breathe again!" She crowed.

She lept out of bed, and did a little dance on the spot. "And I can stand up without falling over! Yes!"

She raced out the door, and skidded down the slick hall in her bare feet. "I'm not sick anymore!"

"Good," Missie's voice came from down the hall. "Then that makes six of us. Enough to fill in for the sick team members."

Rose spun to look at Missie, Duke, Christé, Nosedive and Candis, who stood in the hall behind her. "What do you mean by that?"

Missie grinned. "See for yourself." She motioned towards the Ready Room, and Rose cautiously entered.

The entire team, Phil included, were all there, wrapped up in blankets and drinking lemon tea, sniffing, coughing, and snivelling.

"We didn't want to stick them in the infirmary," Candis explained with a shrug. "Since your case of the flu seemed so extremely bad. Guess we don't have to worry about that anymore, do we?"

Rose just grinned as Tanya looked at her, and nodded in acknowledgement of her recovery. "So much for flu shots, eh Tany?" And unlike she'd felt in a very long time, Rose found she simply couldn't stop grinning.