What Goes Around

[Bilo0618]

This story is about a polycule, falling ill in early fall. I wrote it kind of impulsively, and I’m not sure if there’ll be another part or not, but I hope you all enjoy it! 
 

“Snfff” Nick rubbed his nose, which was rapidly flushing red as his nose had been dripping all day long, and nothing he did seemed to stem the flow. From the time Nick left for work, he’d been feeling more and more unwell. What had started with a tickle in his throat and a runny nose was escalating, and the headache he’d developed only in the past hour or so was pounding behind his eyes.

Nick couldn’t wait to go home. 2 more hours, and he’d be able to crawl into bed and sleep for the whole weekend. He felt a tickle in his nose, and pulled a tissue from the box to his left.

Nick cupped his nose, the tissue pressing against it. “Ehhhhh- ihhhhhhhh- hngTSCHuuuh” 

“Goddamn it” Nick muttered to himself, tossing the used tissue into the trash. He looked back up at his computer, the words on the screen swimming in front of him. Nick slumped forward, resting his head on his palm. All he wanted was to rest.

‘Ok, I’ll finish this report and then email Jess to see if I can head home early.’ Nick thought, trying to force the screen of his computer into focus.

He was writing a summary of their company’s most recent financial statements, which would be distributed to the managers throughout the company. It was important to get this done so it could be sent out first thing Monday morning. As Nick read over what he’d already written, he groaned, realizing that he had a solid hour of work left to do on it.

“Hehhhh…… uhShuGHHh” Nick was  getting steadily more tired, his energy waning as he tore through the tissues on his desk with sneeze after sneeze. Finally, he decided to just give up on improving the report any more and sent it to Jess, his boss, along with a request to head home early because he was feeling sick. 

A response from Jess popped up a few minutes later, telling him to make sure to get a doctor’s note, but otherwise to feel free to go ahead and head home. 

Nick started to gather his things, wiping his nose with a tissue he kept clutched in his right left hand as he went. He decided that he’d head to an urgent care on his way home, both to get a doctor’s note and to see if whatever he had was actually the flu. His body was aching with every movement, so it didn’t seem too unlikely.

Just as he zipped up his bag, Nick froze and buried his nose in a fresh tissue. “ih- heh- ihhhhhh- TCHiiiiieW!”

“Ughhh,” Nick groaned, shaking his head a bit. His sneezes had always been kind of high-pitched, but the sound of them now was especially ear-piercing, making his head pound even more with each sneeze.

Nick picked up his bag and the box of tissues from his desk before walking out to his car. He tossed his bag into the backseat and put the tissue box in his lap as he leaned back in the driver’s seat.

Nick pulled out his phone and texted his partners in their group chat. “Feeling like shit, so I’m heading to urgent care on the way home to see if I have the flu. Plus, Jess wants a doctor’s note from me in exchange for letting me leave early.”

Slumping forward and resting his head on the steering wheel, Nick pulled another tissue from the box and blew his nose, a gurgling sound filling the car as the tissue in his hands was soaked through with snot. 

Nick tossed the tissue onto the passenger seat, anticipating that there would be a decent pile of them by the time he got home. There was a 24-hour urgent care about halfway between his job and the house he rented with his partners, and in about ten minutes he was pulling into their parking lot.

Nick grabbed his phone, wallet, and keys. Then, after hesitating a moment, he took the box of tissues with him as well. 

Once Nick opened the door to the urgent care, he found that there was a line of three people already waiting to check in at the front desk. Nick joined the queue, already needing to blow his nose again. He tried to make do until he reached the front desk with dabbing at his nose with a tissue, but by the time he was first in line the situation was, frankly, getting out of control so he resigned himself to the indignity of the situation and put the tissue he’d been using so far in his front pocket, grabbing a new tissue and haltingly blowing his nose into it.

The pressure of the air blowing through his nose made it itch, and after a moment he sneezed twice - “uhhhTchuhh…. HehhhtiSHHH” - feeling the spray against his cupped hands as the tissue was insufficient to completely block his sneezes. The sneezes jerked him forward, and when he straightened up he saw that the person in front of him had finished up at the front desk. 

Quickly, Nick wiped off his hands, stashing the used tissues in his pocket, before stepping forward to speak with the nurse doing intake.

“Um, hi.” Nick said, blushing a bit as the nurse, whose androgynous hairstyle and general demeanor defied gender, looked him up and down.

“Flu?” The nurse asked, pulling out a clipboard from beneath the desk.

“Yeah, I think so.” Nick responded, adding in his name as an afterthought. “Nick Hernandez. Nice to meet you.”

“Well, I’m sure you’d wish for better circumstances.” The nurse giggled a bit, handing him the paperwork. “If you don’t mind, could you put on a mask? There’s a box of them on the wall to your right.”

Nick pulled one from the box and spread it across his face, the light yellow paper pressing against his nose an unwelcome irritant. “Sure thing.” Nick said, “Should I just go take a seat?”

“Yep,” the nurse answered, “seating for unwell people is to the left, we’ll call your name when we’re ready for you.”

“Thanks. Snkkkk” Nick sniffed fruitlessly, his nose pretty much useless for anything besides funneling snot to his upper lip. He left the nurse behind, and they called up the next patient to the desk.

Nick sat down in a plastic chair, grumbling a bit before starting to fill out the paperwork. Insurance number, date of birth, sex, all the usual rigmarole for visiting the doctor. Once he had finished it, he pulled out his phone, checking to see if anyone had responded to his text. The group chat had apparently blown up a bit since he’d first texted. 

The first person to text had been Jamie. They were a nurse, working in the recovery room at a local hospital. “I hope you don’t feel too bad! If you need me to grab anything on my way home, send a text. I should be off around 8.”

Then, Sara had chimed in. She worked as a manager at a Starbucks about 15 minutes from their house. “Thanks for letting us know! I’ll make sure to be quiet as I come in tonight.” Sara would be working the closing shift tonight, Nick recalled, so she probably wouldn’t get home until fairly late.

Finally, Lucy chimed in. She was dating Sara and Jamie, but she and Nick were just friends. That didn’t stop her from worrying over all three of them like a mother hen though. Sometimes one of them would have another partner, but it had been several months before they’d even considered adding someone new to the group chat. After all, the group chat was really just for those of them that lived together, and moving in was a big step for any relationship.

“Are you safe to drive yourself home?” Lucy fretted, sending multiple texts in a row. “I get off in an hour, so I can come get you if you need.”

“What are your symptoms so far? Give us the rundown” Lucy continued, and Nick smiled a bit, feeling warm as he thought about how nice it would feel to be taken care of, safe with his partners while he was so sick. When he was younger, his parents had always pushed him away when he was unwell, even leaving him with some neighbors that he barely knew one time in second grade when he was particularly ill.

After a second, Nick started to type of a response to all the texts. 

“Thanks Jamie, Sara! I’ll let you know if there’s anything you can grab. Luce - I think I’m fine to drive myself home, I’ll let you know if the doctor says otherwise. As far as symptoms go, basically I’m a mess. Runny nose, sneezing, headache, fatigue, body aches, probably a fever as well. Honestly, I can’t wait to get to bed at this point. Waiting at the urgent care now, hopefully I’ll be seen soon.”

Nick sent the message and set his phone down before pulling out a tissue to, once again, blow his nose. He unhooked the mask from one ear, leaving it dangling at the side of his face as he blew into the tissue, pressing down first one nostril then the other. His hands felt warm as the snot bubbled into the tissue, and after a minute he sharply pinched his nose, cutting off the stream of mucus and roughly cleaning off the base of his nostrils as he pulled the tissue away. 

After looking around for a moment, Nick noticed a trash can a few feet away, and once he pulled the mask back onto his face he walked over, dropping the warm, snot-filled tissue into the can. Then, he pulled the dirty tissues from earlier out of his pocket, tossing them into the can as well.

A few minutes after he sat down, and several texts between him and Lucy later, someone called his name. There was a man in scrubs standing in a doorway next to the desk, and Nick walked over to him.

“Follow me” the man instructed. Nick complied, and the two of them wound through a maze of hallways within the urgent care. Finally, the man opened the door to an exam room, and Nick entered it. 

The man who had led him to the room gestured to the exam table, and Nick sat on it. After a minute, the man came over to take his vitals, and Nick saw that his name tag identified him as Julian Brown, RN. 

Nick sat in silence as Julian bustled around him, taking his temperature and blood pressure. Measurements taken, Julian told him “The doctor should be in shortly.” Before exiting the exam room. 

Pulling out his phone, Nick slouched forward, resting his hand on his elbow as he scrolled through Twitter while he waited for the doctor. About 15 minutes later, a woman with her hair in a bun and a white coat on came into the room. She introduced herself as Dr. Wilkins, and she and Nick talked for a minute or so about his symptoms.

Following the conversation, in which Nick found out that he was running a fever, his temperature at 101.3, Dr. Wilkins had him take off the mask so she could take a sample for a flu test. There was snot dripping down from Nick’s nose, gathering on his upper lip. Nick wiped at the mess on his face, cleaning it up somewhat before Dr. Wilkins deftly swabbed his nose. 

“Ok, I’m gonna run a rapid flu test on this. I’ll be back in about 20 minutes with the results. Go ahead and wait here, Mr. Hernandez.”

“Thanks. See you then.” Nick said, exhaustion evident in his voice. Once the door closed behind Dr. Wilkins, Nick took a minute to text his partners again. 

“Waiting on the results of a flu test. Should know in about 20 minutes. Apparently I’m running a fever, which makes sense with the aching and all that.”

Lucy texted back almost immediately - she was probably off work by now. Nick didn’t read her text, though. Instead, he curled up on the exam table, wrapping his arms around his stomach and letting his eyes close. He didn’t manage to fall asleep, too distracted by his aching body and the snot collecting on his face beneath the mask he was wearing. The time until Dr. Wilkins came back with the test results crept by, and he sat up when she opened the door.

“So, what’s the result?” Nick asked, his voice a bit on the hoarse side already. He wasn’t sure what he wanted the results to be, either way he would still feel awful.

Dr. Wilkins sat down and pulled up a file on the computer.

“So,” she began, “you didn’t test positive on the rapid test, but I’d like to take a sample to send to the lab to confirm, since it could’ve been a false negative.”

Nick was honestly unsure how to feel about that. Relieved, maybe? 

“Ok. So what’s next?” Nick asked, looking at Dr. Wilkins.

“Well, you probably just have a viral infection, and it doesn’t seem severe enough to warrant antivirals, so you just need to rest. Make sure you stay hydrated, and take over the counter medicine to control your symptoms as necessary.”

“Gotcha.” Nick replied, fiddling with his phone. 

The rest of the appointment went by quickly, Nick asking for advice about how to avoid spreading this to his partners, and Dr. Wilkins taking another sample, this time from the back of the throat, to confirm that he didn’t have the flu.

Eventually, Nick made it to his car. He turned the heat onto high, feeling chilly despite the fact that it was a relatively warm late-September day. 

Nick pulled off the mask he’d been wearing, and was suddenly overcome by the urge to sneeze. “uhRSCHIEW!” Nick sneezed into his cupped hands, not having enough time to grab a tissue from the box that he’d set in the passenger seat. His hands were filled with thick, yellow mucus - already starkly different from the clear, watery snot he’d been sniffling up that morning.

Nick wiped his hands with a couple of tissues from the box, noticing that it was already running low. Then, mess cleaned up, he pulled out his phone to text Lucy, Jamie, and Sara. Jamie was apparently on a short break, as they and Lucy were texting back and forth about an upcoming movie they wanted to go see. 

“Sorry to interject, but wanted to let you all know that the test came back negative. Dr. took another sample to send to the lab for confirmation. I’m on my way home, no prescription to pick up since it’s prolly viral, even if it’s not the flu. @Jamie, any chance you could grab some multi-symptom cold meds and some extra tissues on your way home? Maybe also some kind of decongestant - mostly my nose has been running like a leaky faucet so far, but I have the feeling it’s gonna be pretty stopped up here in a day or so. Should be home in about 15 minutes. See you then, Lucy. <3”

Once he pressed send, Nick shifted into drive and started to make the journey the rest of the way home. He relished the thought of finally getting to sink into a nice, warm bed. As he drove, Nick pondered how best he could keep everyone else from catching whatever it was that he had. By the time he made it home, Nick had decided that the best solution was almost certainly for him to sleep in the guest bedroom until he got over whatever this was. It wouldn’t be as nice as sleeping in the room he shared with Jamie, Sara, and Lucy. He was somewhat disappointed at the loss of sleeping in his partners’ warm embrace, in fact. However, it would be worth it. Sara worked in food service, after all, and Jamie was a nurse! It would be no good at all for either of them to fall ill.

Nick finally pulled into the garage, parking next to Lucy’s Prius. Lucy was standing just inside the garage, on the step into the house. Nick blew his nose again before stepping out of the car. As soon as he had pulled himself upright, Lucy was there, practically buzzing as she worried over him. Her hand was pressed to his forehead, feather light and cool, for just a moment before she was wrapping her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. 

Lucy was a fountain of questions, asking after every aspect of Nick’s health. She had clearly been working herself up worrying over him, and was glad to have him home and under her watchful eyes. 

Lucy had shepherded Nick all the way to their bedroom before he finally put together what was happening enough to protest.

“Ndo, I’ll get you sick.” Nick argued, wincing a bit at the sound of congestion creeping into his voice. “I should sleep in the guest bedroom, that way you all can limit your exposure.”

Lucy fixed her eyes on Nick, studying him carefully with warm brown eyes.

“Yeah, no.” Lucy refused Nick’s honestly weak argument. “We’re all exposed to you regardless, you were the one to cook dinner last night after all. Besides, you’ll feel much better sleeping in your normal bed. And this way, we can all keep an eye on you in case your fever spikes.”

Nick still felt guilty and ashamed for bringing home this illness, but he was too tired to keep pushing for separation. And besides, Lucy was right. Sleeping in their room, Sara and Jamie’s arms wrapped around him, sounded like heaven to him. Nick nodded, acquiescing to Lucy, and she shuffled him inside and into bed. 

Lucy was hustling around the room, grabbing a thermometer and the random medicine they had left from the last time one of them had been sick. She also grabbed some extra pillows and a tissue box, hoping to help Nick feel more comfortable. Lucy knew that Nick was always off balance when he was under the weather, relating to some trauma that she had yet to hear the whole story of. She was determined to make sure he felt supported and loved. They were best friends - they had to be, since they were both dating Sara and Jamie - and had been ever since they met at a trivia night a few years back. 

“Can you go ahead and take your temperature?” Lucy asked, passing Nick the thermometer. His face and neck were flushed, and heat had emanated from his forehead when she touched her hand to it earlier, so she was worried that his fever might already be higher than it was when he was at the urgent care.

He put it under his tongue without a word, which only furthered Lucy’s worries. Normally, he could match her word for word as the two chattiest people in the house.

While they waited for the thermometer to beep, Lucy gathered up the pills she thought might help with Nick’s symptoms. Definitely something to bring down the fever, probably Advil. A multi-symptom pill could be good, but he didn’t have a cough so it would be best to stay away from anything that would address that - taking medicine that wasn’t needed could create symptoms on its own, after all.

Lucy was dragged from her musings by the beeping of the thermometer, and after he looked at it himself Nick passed it to her. The screen showed a temperature of 101.6 - Nick’s fever had indeed gone up since his temperature was taken at the urgent care. A couple seconds later, Lucy gave Nick a handful of pills and a cup of water, and he obligingly took the medicine.

“Umm, do you mind staying with me for a bit, Luce? Just until I fall asleep.” Nick asked hesitantly, unsure if he was asking too much. 

Lucy, smiling, answered, “Of course!” and climbed into their massive bed next to him. Nick curled up on his side, letting his head rest in her lap. Lucy carded her fingers through his short, wavy red hair, and Nick relaxed into the touch.

Lucy watched as Nick fell asleep, and kept her hands running through his hair for several minutes after his face relaxed and his breathing evened out. There was mucus dripping down his face from his nose, which was flushed red at the rims of his nostrils. Nick’s face was paler than usual, accentuating both his nose and the feverish flush across his cheeks.

Finally, once Lucy was sure that Nick was well and truly under, she shifted his head onto a pillow and pulled a blanket over him before tiptoeing out of the room. She wanted to coordinate a bit with Jamie on what they should get at the pharmacy on their way home, as well as get started on making some sort of dinner. 

It was actually Nick’s turn to cook dinner that night, but there was no way any of them would feel comfortable letting him out of bed long enough to complete the task, not while he was running a fever. According to the meal plan, Nick was going to make curried cauliflower that night, so Lucy pulled out the recipe and got to work. Right as she set the meal to simmer until they were ready to eat, her phone buzzed, a call coming through from Jamie.

“Hi, Love,” Lucy smiled as she answered the phone. “How was work?”

“Oh, like either of us care about that right now. How’s Nick doing?”

Jamie was right, of course. Both of them were far more worried about him than anything else. 

“He’s running a decent fever. I managed to get some medicine into him when he got home, and then he fell pretty much right to sleep. At first when he got back he was insisting he should sleep in a different room from the rest of us when he was ill, can you believe that?” Lucy tended to ramble on a bit, especially when she was emotional, and the rest of them were well used to that particular trait.

Jamie and Nick had been together for almost three years now, so they were unfortunately familiar with how Nick could be when he was sick. “Yeah, he tried that last time he was under the weather too. Did he put up much of a fight before you managed to get him into our room?”

“No, he seemed too tired to argue much.” Lucy answered. 

Jamie frowned, although Lucy couldn’t see it. “Okay, he’ll probably kick up a fuss about it at some point later, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Also, what do we need from the pharmacy? I’m about two minutes out from it now.”

Lucy thought back to what she’d found in the bathroom earlier. “We definitely are gonna need some more tissues. Some face masks would be good - maybe wearing one would help calm Nick down since he’s worrying about giving anything to us. Decongestants for sure, we don’t have any of those. He doesn’t have a cough, so we don’t need any cough syrup or cough drops. If you can find a multi-symptom flu medication of some sort that doesn’t have cough meds in it, that’d be great. I think we’re set otherwise though. Ibuprofen should be good for getting his fever down, after all.”

Jamie thought for a moment, trying to remember the list, before responding, “Gotcha. Decongestants, tissues, medical masks, a good multi-symptom if I can find one. Should I also grab some Clorox wipes?”

“Yeah, sure. That’s probably smart.”

Jamie pulled into a parking spot, and said, “I’m here, gonna go ahead and head in. Let me know if you think of anything else in the next few minutes, ok? Love you, Lucy.”

“I love you too.” Lucy smiled, thinking of how lucky she was to have such an amazing partner, before putting down the phone. She started cleaning up the kitchen, killing time until Jamie got home. They typically took point whenever one of them was sick, experience in nursing school as well as a natural propensity for caretaking coming together to make them incredibly efficient at taking care of ill people.

Meanwhile, Jamie paced the aisles of their local Walgreens. They’d gotten everything but the Clorox wipes, but for the life of them they couldn’t remember where those were stored. Finally, they came across the cleaning supplies, and tossed a couple containers of the sanitizing wiped into the basket they were carting around the store to carry all the supplies they needed to get.

“Ok.” Jamie said to themself, “that’s everything.”

They headed to the register at the front of the store, basket in hand, ready to go home to their partners. Jamie stood in line, still dressed in dark blue scrubs from work, their long hair pulled into a ponytail, revealing the shaved sides of their head. 

Jamie watched as the woman in front of them pitched forward in a forceful sneeze, burying her nose in a large cotton handkerchief. “ehTSCHUHghhhh!” Her sneeze was loud and messy, the sound echoing a bit in the small pharmacy. When she pulled the handkerchief away from her face, Jamie saw that she had dark circles under her eyes, and her nose was a bright red. Even the skin between her nose and lip was red and chapped - clearly she’d had whatever plagued her for quite a while. The woman rubbed at her nose with one of her hands, a trail of snot glistening against her skin. She hurried forward to the register, and Jamie was startled out of their reverie.

They shuffled forward, wondering if Nick would be as tormented by his illness in the coming days. Heck, maybe he already was. No telling until they got home.

Once Jamie checked out, they sent a quick text to Lucy, letting her know that they would be home in a few minutes.

When Lucy got the text from Jamie saying they were almost home, she went upstairs and shook Nick awake. He looked disoriented, and mumbled something, but he didn’t manage to form a question, still half asleep.

“Hey hun,” Lucy murmured softly, “Do you wanna come downstairs for dinner or eat it up here?”

“M’not hungry…” Nick grumbled, voice distorted by illness. 

“Well, not eating isn’t an option. Here or downstairs?” Lucy inquired again.

“Here.” Nick answered, too tired to consider moving from the warm bed. 

“Okay, I’ll bring it up in a minute when Jamie gets home.” Lucy replied, running her hand through Nick’s hair. It was damp and sweaty, but the feeling relaxed him, and he leaned into the touch. 

“M’Kay…” Nick mumbled, rubbing at his nose with his fist. He was already struggling to stay awake, but he pushed himself up into a sitting position. The motion made something shift in his sinuses, and he turned his head away from Lucy just before - “ihIHHHTSCHU! Heh- chIEW! uhSHew!” - he was overcome by sneezes, spray misting out across the bed to his right.

“Bless you,” Lucy said, wrapping an arm around Nick’s shoulders. She pulled a few extra pillows from beside the bed, where she had left them in her frenzied gathering of supplies earlier, fluffing them before sliding them behind his back for support.

“Thanks.” Nick smiled weakly before grabbing a tissue and pressing it up against his nose, trying to clean up the mess left from his fierce sneezes. He relished the feeling of Lucy’s arm around him, drawing comfort from the simple touch.

The sound of a door opening downstairs rang though the house, and Lucy pulled away, heading downstairs to greet Jamie.

Jamie smiled when they saw her, and after a brief greeting Lucy leaned in to kiss them, relishing the warmth of their body pressing against hers.

After a minute, she pulled away, a smile on her lips.

“Nick’s upstairs in bed, go ahead and head up there with the bags from the pharmacy, I’ll be up in a minute with dinner.” Lucy instructed, straight to business after the moment of comfort.

Jamie pulled her into a quick hug before starting up the stairs, eager to change out of their scrubs and check in with their sick partner.

“Hey Nick, how you holding up?” They inquired as they went into their room, dropping the shopping bags full of medicine and tissues into the corner by the door.

“I feel like the meds are doing basically nothing, and I’m exhausted, but I’m glad to be in bed.” Nick answered, reaching his arms out for a hug from Jamie. 

They leaned down, wrapping their arms tight around Nick, feeling a bit of concern at the unnatural heat he gave off in their arms. Nick rubbed his nose against the shoulder of their scrubs as a scratch arose within it, leaving a slimy trail streaking across the navy fabric. 

The two of them relished the embrace, a welcome comfort after the long days they’d both had.

“Love you.” Nick said, finally extracting himself from Jamie’s arms as he decided he needed to give in to the urge to blow his nose and relieve the pressure within it.

“I love you too,” Jamie smiled, pressing a kiss to Nick’s forehead before they went to the dresser to change into pajamas.

They efficiently stripped, tossing their scrubs into the laundry basket before pulling on the comfortable flannel PJs they favored during the fall and winter. Behind them, Nick blew his nose loudly into a handful of tissues, thick snot barely shifting regardless of how hard he blew.

Nick groaned and buried his head in his hands - it was pounding despite the time that had passed since he’d taken whatever concoction of medications Lucy had pulled together for him.

Lucy swept into the room, three bowls of curry in her arms, and she and Jamie both sat on the bed with Nick to eat.

Nick scooted into the middle of the bed, and Jamie and Lucy supported him from either side as they ate. Throughout the meal, Nick’s nose ran, despite the fact that it felt like it was filled with concrete. 

When Nick’s breath began to hitch, Jamie rubbed his back as he leaned forward, pinching his nose with a tissue until - “hhhhNGTXx” - he finally sneezed, stifling as he worried over the proximity of Jamie and Lucy to him.

“Hey, no stifling.” Jamie fussed. They had long disliked Nick’s habit of trying to minimize his illness when people were near, and he was mostly broken of it, but often when he was running a fever he would forget that being sick wasn’t bad, it just was.

“Right. Snff Sorry, forgot.” Nick mumbled, head feeling both heavy and light at the same time.

“It’s ok, I know it’s hard for you when you’re sick. I just want you to treat yourself nicely.” Jamie reassured him, exchanging a knowing look with Lucy.

Lucy spoke up, her voice soft as well, intentionally trying to be soothing for Nick. “We’ve got some masks if you think that’d help you be more comfortable with being around us. All of us are fine either way, but I want you to know the option is there.”

Nick nodded, exhaustion starting to overtake him again. “After dinner, maybe? I know I don’t have to wear it, but I think I’d rather, just in case it’ll help protect you all.”

Jamie took a bite of their curry before reminding their partner, “You don’t need to protect us. We love you, and we are happy to be here whether you’re sick or healthy.” 

With that, the conversation moved on to less serious topics, Jamie and Lucy doing most of the talking, while Nick slowly ate his way through the bowl that Lucy had brought for him.

Finally, Lucy took their empty bowls downstairs and Jamie helped Nick change into a light pair of pajamas before he drifted back to sleep. Nick pulled a mask on from the box that Jamie had gotten, despite being reassured that he didn’t need to wear one. The two of them were curled up in bed by the time Lucy came back, and Nick had already fallen fast asleep in Jamie’s arms. Lucy wrapped her arms around Jamie from behind, and they chatted quietly, finally sharing their days with each other now that Nick was taken care of.

All three of them were fast asleep by the time that Sara crept into the room, exhausted from work. She slipped into bed next to Nick, and he nuzzled his head into the nape of her neck in his sleep. She quickly fell asleep, glad that she didn’t need to head to work until nearly 11 the next morning.

[NickG1998]

I already love this story please update this soon and keep up the amazing work 

[ID2006]

This sounds right up my alley. Can't wait to see it continued

[Kolen]

This is amazing I would love to see more~😁