Drew's POV

The uber ride to the airport was quiet and the plane ride was basically silent. I kept looking at Cleo but she didn't look back. She had her headphones in, with her head glued to her laptop screen. I was starting to panic. I turned to Alex for advice. "Dude." I whispered.

"Dude." Alex yawned pulling his snapback from over his eyes.

"I need advice." I sighed.

"I told you hooking up with those girls was a bad idea man. There is nothing open about you and Cleo's relationship. Well I mean what was you and Cleo's relationship. After that dude I don't know how you can prove to her you're actually serious about her." Alex laughed as I looked back over at Cleo. She looked distressed, so immediately I jumped into action and walked over to where she was sitting on the private plane.

"Cleo" I said.

"Hmm." she said looking at me.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Migraine...I'm drinking too much." she laughed.

"I'll get you some water...you look like you need a nap or something." I said as I handed her a water bottle.

"Thanks Drew and yeah that actually sounds great...everything is set for the next show. So I think I can at least take a half hour's worth of one." Cleo said as she leaned back in her seat and fell asleep. I put a blanket over her and walked back over to my seat.

"Any luck?" Alex asked.

"No..I figured she would want to nap with me." I sighed. A couple hours later we landed. Cleo was still sleeping so I went to wake her up. "Cleo? You okay babe it's time to get up." I said shaking her, hoping that she didn't realize I slipped and called her babe. When she woke up she looked a little off. I mean she was gorgeous but she looked sick.

"Oh..okay." she stuttered as she got up. We walked off the plane and got into the uber. She was barely talking. She just kept blinking and trying to get water down. I figured she probably was suffering from a delayed hangover. Those are by far the worst. Once we got to the venue I really started to get concerned. Alex was out getting drinks for us when she walked in. She looked completely shot...her complexion was extremely pale. When normally she had this stunning honey golden glow.

"Cleo?" I said getting up and walking over to her. She looked at me for a second trying to focus on my words. But she was struggling. When she finally spoke I was already on her.

"Drew..I think...I think..I'm gonna pass out. I really don't...feel" that was all Cleo could get out before I literally caught her in my arms.

"Cleo! Cleo!" I said frantically as I carried her over to the couch. I screamed for Alex and he immediately went to find our staff medics. When she came to she had no idea what happened. I started force feeding her water. But she was only getting worse by the second.

"Drew..I'm shaking." she said as I put my hand on her forehead.

"You have a fever babe." I said as I wrapped a blanket around her. Dammit I said babe again I thought to myself in the mist of panic. That's when I realized something. Cleo was and will always be my babe. It was finally time for us to both stop fighting it. Alex brought the emt's in to check on her. They were saying it was dehydration and exhaustion. But there was no way. I knew her too well and this was something much different. Then your standard festival dehydration. Once the medics left I knelt down next to her. "Can you stand?" I asked. She tried to get up and collapsed back into my arms.

"I don't know what's going on." she started to cry. The last thing she needed to do was panic right now. So I did the only thing I could do.

"10 minutes till showtime dude...what do you wanna do?" Alex said as he walked into our trailer, fully supporting whatever decision I made.

"Call it..I'm taking her to the emergency room." I said as Cleo continued to shake in my arms.

"No...no you can't Drew. No...I'm fine. You have to go out there. All those people are here for you." Cleo argued back with me.

"As your boyfriend. And Yes Cleo I did say boyfriend..I'm going to take over from here, you have no say in this." I said as I picked her up in my arms. Cleo had to understand there was no me without her. "Clancy!" I yelled as my tour manager ran up to us.

"I've gotta get her to the hospital dude...she has a fever and she's a major fall risk right now. I can't leave her alone. This isn't just dehydration and exhaustion." I said. He nodded completely understanding.

"We'll move your set to tomorrow." he said as hugged me and Cleo who was in my arms.

"We're rooting for you baby. Drew take care of our girl, will ya." he said to me as Alex led the way to the car. Once I got her in the car I wrapped my hoodie around her. When we got to the emergency room she wanted to walk in on her own. But we made it to the waiting room and thank god I was standing there because she collapsed again. This time Alex freaked out. Having seen that the ER nurses took her in immediately. 6 hours and 100 unnecessary tests later, Cleo fell asleep in the outpatient hospital bed. While I waited to hear what was wrong with her. Alex paced the waiting room lobby. While I paced her actual room. Finally at 10:43 p.m. on the dot I didn't have the answer I wanted to hear.

"Cleo...how are we feeling?" The doctor said as she walked in.

"Not much better to be honest." Cleo sighed as I squeezed her hand. She squeezed back as the doctor began to talk.

"Well I wish I had better news but all your symptoms match the immune disease lupus. Have you heard of it?" the doctor asked her. That's when it hit me, when Cleo and I first met she was telling me how she'd been so tired and sick recently and our concert was the first day she actually felt good. Once we started seeing each other she seemed fine though.

"Uh yeah actually I have...um I was tested for that twice. Once in high school and just recently in college. Because I was tired all the time. I also bruised pretty easily and was struggling with constant illness. But I was told it was anemia and stress related. I didn't think to much of it." she said back.

"Well anemia is actually one of the symptoms. I'm not a 100% sure yet we're still waiting on two blood tests to come back to tell us for sure. But I'm going to treat you as if you had it. Because you're officially a fall risk. Normally we wouldn't even let you leave till we knew you could walk on your own. But you're boyfriend here caught you every single time. So I trust him to be able to watch over you till we figure it out." The doctor said looking at me. Cleo turned bright red as she stared at me. "Also the reason you could be exhibiting such bad symptoms right now could be what we consider a flare up. They are random and some are worse than others. But their unpredictable that's the problem. Some days you'll feel like you can climb a mountain. Some days you won't be able to lift a spoon. With your lifestyle it can get difficult but with such an amazing support system like the one you have, you'll be just fine sweetheart. I will call you with the results as soon as we get them and we can move forward in the treatment process." The doctor said.

"So what can we do...to make her more comfortable. Is there medication she can take? Should she be taking naps? What about travel..." I was in the middle of my 20th question at that point so Cleo had to stop me.

"Drew it's okay don't worry." She assured me.

"Very good questions Drew and yes will give it to you and she'll need to stay hydrated around the clock. Make sure your eating enough and try your best not to lose anymore weight honey. Your body is trying to heal. You'll have better days then others, make sure your sleeping. That is really the most important. But don't stop your life. You are going to be okay." The doctor assured Cleo.

"I won't, I have Drew and Alex they always keep me going." she smiled at me. Once the doctor left to go sign Cleo out, I hugged her.  "Drew...thank you. Not just for bringing me but for staying here, for catching me metaphorically and literally today." Cleo cried into my chest.

"You're my world babe. I would never let anything happen to you. I'm so happy we went...I knew those damn emts didn't know shit." I said making her laugh. "Now we can work on fixing you and keeping you healthy. You're going to bed the second we get to that hotel." I said making her laugh.

"Yes sir." she said as I kissed her.

"Yum my favorite hospital jello." I said as she kissed me back.

"Yum my favorite Drew Taggart." Cleo laughed. After another hour of check out Alex and I collectively got our girl back to the hotel. I carried her on my back up the hall to the elevator. And didn't put her down till we reached the bed. If Cleo was a fall risk, I was the airbag. Romantic I know. No but seriously I demanded she kept the fall risk wrist band on so everyone in our crew would know in case I left the room.  "Drew come on! The whole tour though?" Cleo sighed.

"Uh huh...the whole tour. Consider it your permanent accessory." I said as I kissed her.

"Drew" Cleo said as I wrapped my arms around her in bed.

"Cleo" I said back.

"Please never hurt me like that again. I need you. Like I really need you especially now. Stuff is gonna get hard. I hope you need me too." Cleo said as she fell asleep.

"I need you more than I'll ever admit Cleo Patricks. Thank god you're going to be okay. So what if stuff gets hard. Life wouldn't be worth living if everything was easy. Woah that was deep I sound like Rory now." I said making her laugh as I kissed her head and cuddled up next to her. The next day we got the results and it was officially time to move forward in the treatment process. This next month of the tour was going to test me in ways I never imagined but it was also going to make me realize just how in love with this girl I truly was.