Working through the mess. (Secret Santa for sickprincess)

[Captain Carol]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year @sickprincess! Sorry for such a long wait, but I hope it's worth it! ^~^

 

Working through the Mess

By Captain Carol

 

It was just like any other day in the office. People bustling about with their jobs and making sure they would meet their next deadline. The animation studio was jam packed today of all days as the deadline for the final product was only a week away, and that meant head Character designer Sarah Rose was hard at work. Her pen flourished in her hand as it moved across the tablet on her desk, though it was not as clean a drawing as she usually did. Her long dark hair was messy, and unkept, and her usually bright and alert eyes were half shut with dark bags under them. Most noticeable about Sarah was how her workspace had a box of tissues on it, which it never had before, and the waste bin which was usually in the corner of the office cubical was right next to the chair. In the waste bin was an overflowing amount of used tissues, some of which had fallen to the floor because of the overwhelmed capacity of the paper snot rags.

 

Sarah Rose was sick, and it couldn't be more obvious, but she had told herself she was fine. She had told herself that she couldn't afford to take a sick day and that these drawings had to be done today. 

 

"Looks like someone's got a case of the sniffles." 

 

Sarah couldn't help but roll her eyes and turn her head just a little to see the producer for the game standing with his usually smirk on his face.

 

"Whad do you wadt Johd?" Sarah asked and winced over how thick her voice was with congestion from her nose.

 

"I just wanted to see how my little lovebird was doing." He walked over and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead before she could protest to anything. It should also be noted that these two are dating, and were planned to have a wonderful date tonight, but quite obviously, plans had changed.

 

"You're hot."

 

"I'b fide." Sarah stated in defiance followed by a thick sniffle. "It's still odly the begidings of by cold. I'll take toborrow off." 

 

It was at this moment that Sarah's nose decided to rid itself of more viruses that had invaded her sinuses. Her nostrils to her small nose flare wildly as she took in a sharp intake of air so suddenly. Her hands fumbled for a fresh tissue from the box that she quickly lifted up to her sensitive nose just in time. "Hih!-Hit'choo!" Thankfully it was only a single, but it was still a fairly messy sneeze that filled her tissue up. 

 

"You should go home."

 

"You should bind your owd busidess."

 

It was quite obvious to John how ill Sarah was and that she needed to go home, but convincing her this early in the day would be extremely difficult.

 

"I'll check on you later then." He said, as he himself had things to do. 

 

Sarah was left alone to her cubical to get back to work, and work she did.

 

- - -

 

For hours Sarah worked hard at her characters, getting done at least 3 and a half done so far. Each hour though she got progressively worse as worse. Her nose was now an angry pink and her cheeks were red and flushed with fever. A haze had washed over Sarah as she drew up more concepts, her most recent not looking as sharp and defined as her others. Sarah pulled away from her work as the itch that had been growing in her nose exploded. She put her pen down and without thinking brought her hands up to her nose as it violently twitches. "Hih!-Eh!-Eshoo! Hehshoo! Hishoo! Ah...ASHOO!" The last sneeze was definitely louder and wetter than the others. She was getting worse, but of course Sarah felt 'fine.'

 

"Hehshoo!" That last one snuck up on her and had her spraying her hands once again. She quickly pulled some tissues from the box to wipe her hands clean. "I am not sick. I am not sick." She said aloud to herself and gave her warm cheeks a quick slap, wincing at how warm they are. 

 

"Just get this one done, and you can go ho-hih-Hisshh!" She couldn't even finish her sentence. 

 

She looked down at her tablet and slowly picked up her pen once again to start drawing. She lasted all of 3 minutes before she dropped her pen and put a hand up against her hot forehead. 

 

John stepped into the cubical with a cup with steaming tea in it. When he saw Sarah practically passed out he gently put the cup down on the table and gently put his warm hands on her chilled shoulders.

 

"Why don't I take you home hon, you can work from home after your nap." John said in a soft and soothing voice to ease Sarah a little.

 

Sarah was about to protest, giving a quick head shake, but that quickly vanished when the tickle in her nose came back with a fiery vengeance. Her nostrils flared as the itchy organ felt the need to expel the many tiny viruses in her nose. "Heehh!- HESHOOO!" Sarah was afraid to open her eyes, she knew it had been a wet and messy sneeze, and she was afraid of what she had coated in her disgusting snot.

 

When she finally worked up the courage to open, her eyes she saw her tablet on her table splattered with snot. Her character that was almost finished was now covered by thick snot that had smudged the drawing from the splatter that was all

over the screen. Sarah couldn't help but sigh in defeat as she stared at her ruined drawing. She plucked two tissues from the box next to her and managed to wipe her tablet clean with only minimal extra damage to the picture.

 

"Okay..." Sarah agreed while in the midst of a feverish haze almost. "Take me home..." She slowly began to stand from her chair and turned to John, noticing he had already grabbed her purse and other things. Sarah flashed a grateful smile towards him before turning back and pressed the power button to her computer, after triple saving her projects.

 

Sarah didn't remember much of the drive to her apartment. Just a couple different feelings of being dragged about, until finally she was forced to sit down on her soft cozy bed. 

 

"You're really hot hon." John noted as he brushed a small strand of hair in the way of her vision. "Why don't you get into some pjs and I can make you some tea." 

 

Sarah slowly nodded as she reached over and grabbed for the box of tissues on her night stand and brought it over to sit in her lap. After John left Sarah's room she couldn't help it but shut her eyes, and no more than 3 minutes later the world of sleep had taken her.

 

The end...or is it?

 

 

 

Again Merry Christmas! And if you or anyone else want more to be added to this story please feel free to mention it

 

 

[sickprincess]

This is so amazing!!!! Sarah doing her best to power through while John tries to convince her to get some rest... this is absolute perfection! I would absolutely LOVE to read more if you wanted to continue this

Thank you SO much! I have a feeling I’m going to reread this one over and over again... 

[Captain Carol]

34 minutes ago, sickprincess said:

This is so amazing!!!! Sarah doing her best to power through while John tries to convince her to get some rest... this is absolute perfection! I would absolutely LOVE to read more if you wanted to continue this

Thank you SO much! I have a feeling I’m going to reread this one over and over again... 

Awww. Thank you so much. As this is my first Secret Santa for the forum I was pretty nervous to say the least. Thanks for the vote of confidence ^~^

[Usagi]

This was cute and really good. My favorite line would have to be: 

11 hours ago, Captain Carol said:

 

Sarah was about to protest, giving a quick head shake, but that quickly vanished when the tickle in her nose came back with a fiery vengeance. Her nostrils flared as the itchy organ felt the need to expel the many tiny viruses in her nose. "Heehh!- HESHOOO!"

The caretaking bend on it was nice! I like when cute character things are mixed in!