Worth It. (female, cold, F/F) *oneshot*

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

Obviously, I would end up getting my poor main character of my NaNo-fic sick for Christmas. It was inevitable, really.   So here’s the part of her starting to get sick. Names changed from the original fic. Some things edited. Some implied mess and contagion. 

 

***

On Christmas Eve, they made one final shopping trip for the holidays. Savannah was grumpy and tired, complaining about a headache all day, and Linda had to bite her tongue over and over to avoid saying anything to spark a fight like the one they’d had a few weeks prior.

But when they were in the car on their way back home, she couldn’t help giving a little bit of a snide remark.

“Do I need to make one more stop and get you some green face paint?”

Savannah glared at her, but couldn’t immediately figure out what she meant, so she had to ask.

“What?” she snapped.

“Yeah, so you can be visually accurate in playing the part of the Grinch.”

Savannah sighed.

“I’m sorry, I know I’ve been a bit irritable today.”

“And then some,” Linda said. “I know for a fact it’s not that time of the month for you, so what’s going on? Work still got its hooks in you? I thought we agreed you’d leave it be over Christmas.”

“It’s not that, really. I just have a headache. And I’m very tired. The last thing I wanted today was to be walking around in a loud, stressed-out crowd, hearing the same half-dozen Christmas songs playing on repeat.”

“Imagine working retail this time of year, then,” Linda said. Savannah just looked at her with wide eyes and slowly shook her head.

“No thanks. I would go insane. Could you turn up the heat? I’m freezing!”

Linda sighed and turned the heat up to max to accommodate her partner and avoid stoking further irritation, all the while feeling sweat streaming down her back. If Savannah was freezing now, she was just being obnoxious for the heck of it.

***

“Jesus, I’m freezing,” Savannah complained as they were home and had put away the groceries and hid away the gifts they had snuck off to buy for each other.

“Knock it off,” Linda chuckled, “you can’t be serious. It’s warm in here.”

“I am serious! You’re not cold?”

“Honey, I’m sweating!”

“Okay, you know what, I’m gonna take a hot shower, maybe I’ll thaw then.” She gave Linda a sheepish smile. “And stop whining.”

“Yes please,” Linda said, but she grinned. “I’ll make some eggnog. That should warm you up.”

“Oh great idea, that sounds lovely,” Savannah said and headed for the bedroom to pick out a change of clothes.

Something very soft and cosy, Linda assumed, making a mental note to put on her own sweats before setting up the movie.

Two loud, wet-sounding back-to-back sneezes rang out, followed by a momentary pause and then another.

“Bless you!” Linda called out.

“Thank you!” Savannah replied and vanished into the bathroom. Soon the water was running. Linda got the eggnog ready, but she was starting to wonder what was going on with her partner. Savannah had bad hayfever in spring and summer, but otherwise she usually wasn’t very sneezy. Three times in a row? That was a lot. And if she wasn’t mistaken, Savannah had sneezed a couple of times when they were out shopping, but she wasn’t entirely sure. Savannah usually sneezed in very polite and discreet stifles when she was around others, so it was often hard to tell if it had been a sneeze or a hiccup or throat-clearing or just a shudder.

“I think you’re getting sick, doctor,” Linda mumbled to herself and poured some extra rum in the eggnog. But she knew from experience that Savannah wasn’t one to admit to something like that easily, and pushing the issue would only make her even less inclined to admit it. So Linda would simply have to sit back and rein in her raging urge to smother her partner with coddles and fuss.

“AaaEESCHHeh-EESCCHHooo! AhhEERSSSHHoo! HahISSSHHH!”

Probably under the false assumption that the running water concealed the sound, Savannah really put her back into these sneezes. There was nothing but the sound of running water for several seconds, and then the sound of someone forcefully blowing their nose. Linda didn’t believe for a second that Savannah had gotten out of the shower and taken some paper to blow her nose into. If she was freezing, she wouldn’t leave the hot water and step out naked to reach the toilet paper. No way.

“Nice,” Linda muttered, but she wasn’t repulsed, not really. Better she did it in the shower than elsewhere, she thought and chuckled. Shaking her head, she placed a tissue box inconspicuously on the kitchen counter, then she brought the hot eggnog into the living room and got a movie reay, then went to change to sweatpants and hoodie. She listened outside the bathroom door for a few seconds, and was pretty sure she could hear sniffling. No more sneezing or noseblowing though. She thought it was possible her partner had just gotten something in her nose. Unlikely, but possible.  

Savannah came out a few minutes later, wearing a pair of black tights, fuzzy socks and a soft knitted cashmere sweater. She had pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail and hadn’t bothered with makeup. She was flushed from the hot water – and maybe a low-grade fever too – and the band of freckles across her face was very prominent against her flushed skin. Her nose was pink, and her lips ever so slightly parted as if she was congested but didn’t want to broadcast it too obviously. She wore her glasses, and they were a bit fogged up from the steam in the bathroom.

Linda had already taken her seat on the couch, had the eggnog ready, and a warm blanket prepared.

“Come here, baby.”

She held the blanket open and Savannah crawled in underneath, leaning her head against Linda’s shoulder and took the offered drink.

She sipped it and winced.

“Oh God,” she coughed, “you didn’t hold back on the rum.”

“Nope.”

“You’re gonna get me drunk.”

“Exactly my plan.”

Savannah laughed softly and took another sip before putting the mug down on the couch table and curling up as close as she could get.

“What are we watching?”

“Sleeping With The Enemy.”

“How Christmas-y.” Savannah sniffled. Well. Actually, it was more like a snort.

“How sarcastic. What do you want to watch, then?”

“No, no, I’m fine with this one.”

Then she turned her head away from her partner and sneezed.

“Bless you,” Linda said.

“Ugh, thanks.”

The movie began, and Linda paid a bit more attention to the movie than her partner, who was sniffling with increasing frequency and kept rubbing her nose.

Every few minutes, she would lean away from Linda and sneeze again. Linda ignored it for a while, knowing that too early recognition would make her partner shy away.

And then Savannah turned to the side for the umpteenth time and snapped forward with a forceful sneeze, one that knocked her glasses right off and also showered them in spray.

“Hehh-EEhSSSSHoo! Oh, disgusting.”

“Bless y- how many times have you sneezed now, anyway?” Linda said, frowning.

“Too many,” Savannah replied and got up.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m just gonna go blow my nose… and wipe off my glasses.” The second part of the sentence was spoken under her breath, as if she was scolding herself about it.

Linda assumed her partner would bring the entire tissue box back, but she didn’t; she had two or three tissues with her, but given how intensely she was sniffling, that wouldn’t last her throughout the movie.

There was another thing, too. Savannah, either self-conscious about it and not wanting Linda to be tipped off that she wasn’t feeling well, or simply not wanting to disrupt the movie, started stifling instead. While she was quiet, and pinched her nose into a tissue to avoid getting mess everywhere, every stifled sneeze was contained with a great deal of effort, and her body convulsed each time. Which, since she was leaning against Linda, was very obvious to the other woman.

“Baby,” Linda began.

“Yeah, sorry, I’m done now,” Savannah said, took a deep sniffly breath, and wiped her irritated nostrils.

Linda had her doubts, but Savannah snuggled up as close as she could get and fell asleep. Which was very much in character; Savannah could be very sharp and attentive most of the time – but had they ever watched a movie in its entirety without Savannah falling asleep at least for five or ten minutes or something? In the cinema, yes, at home, no, she didn’t think so. Linda never made a big deal about it; she correctly read it as her partner feeling safe and secure enough to let her guard down and get the rest that she often denied herself.

Linda reached out and took the glasses off her. They were already dangling dangerously skewed on her face, the slightest movement could have knocked them off.

Savannah slept leaning against her partner for almost half an hour before she slowly awoke. When she did, she felt feverish and disoriented and didn’t know where she was. What she did know was that her nose was tickling and she had to sneeze. She wasn’t even fully awake when the sheer physical need overtook her and her head bobbed forward with a sudden, desperate, and very, very juicy sneeze.

One that hit Linda right in the face.

“Okay,” Linda said, wiping the spray off with a corner of the blanket, “I had no illusions of escaping your cold anyway, but I didn’t think you’d be that straightforward in passing it on to me.”

“I’m so sorry,” Savannah whimpered and put her arms around Linda, hugging her tight. “It took me by surprise!”

Linda laughed and pulled her even closer.

“Don’t worry, I was kidding! It’s alright! But I think you need to go to bed. I think you have a fever.”

“Baby, if you wash your face and rinse your sinuses and gargle with saltwater right now you might have a chance of escaping it still.”

“I’m gonna get it anyway, because I intend to kiss you. A lot. So I could just as well get it quick, so we can be sick together.”

“So, I ruined Christmas,” Savannah said with a congested sigh, ignoring Linda. “Way to go, doctor, do ignore your education, just spread your germs everywhere.”

“Oooh, somebody is throwing a pity party, am I invited?” Linda teased. “Come on, let’s go to bed instead. You look like crap, and you also look like you’re about to cry.”

That was another thing about the usually so stoic and steadfast doctor – when she got a fever, she turned into a self-deprecating mush. If she was in a public situation, she would cling to her professionalism as long as possible, but the moment she could get away she just melted.

Linda couldn’t deny that she found it adorable.

“I’m so sorry,” Savannah said, and now she did have tears in her eyes, just according to schedule.

“Honey, you can’t apologise for getting sick. It’s not like that’s something you can control.”

“But I’m a doctor.”

“Newsflash,” Linda said and kissed her, despite Savannah’s first attempt at recoiling, “doctors are humans. And humans get sick. Even you.” She kissed Savannah again, on the tip of her reddish nose this time. “Let’s go to bed.”

Savannah nodded. And sneezed again. This time Linda had time to move out of the spray zone, which she did. Not so much for her own sake, but for her partner’s peace of mind.

Despite what Savannah thought, Linda did not consider this Christmas ruined. On the contrary, in fact. If they called from the hospital, Savannah wouldn’t want to go in and risk infecting the vulnerable patients she was treating. Which meant several days, the number depending on how drawn-out and symptomatic this cold was, when there was no way Savannah would be summoned to work, meaning she would be right there, at home, with her wife. 

If the price was a sore throat and runny nose, well, that was a small price in Linda’s eyes. 

Definitely worth it.

 

[jke1995]

An absolutely perfect story. Watching savannah stubbornly go from bad to worse and seeing Linda handle the situation with nothing but love was amazing. Nice work!

[Waters]

God that was so adorable, I melted into a puddle reading it. I hope you continue 😊

[poiub]

Loved this

[Cici]

Yay, a Christmas story!

[drsn]

Great job!

[Leshrack]

Pls continue love contagion stories :)

[Chanel_no5]

Oh man, I'm sorry to reply so late, I've been meaning to but never gotten around to it.   

On 11/15/2022 at 6:55 PM, jke1995 said:

An absolutely perfect story. Watching savannah stubbornly go from bad to worse and seeing Linda handle the situation with nothing but love was amazing. Nice work!

Thank you so much! It's funny you put it that way, because the idea for the "real story" from the start was to have them drift apart and fall out of love, but as I was writing, I realised that whatever came at them, there was never a lack of love. 

On 11/17/2022 at 4:40 AM, Waters said:

God that was so adorable, I melted into a puddle reading it. I hope you continue 😊

Thank you! I don't have any particular plans to continue, but if I get the time and energy I might write the actual Christmas Day too. No promises though.  

On 11/18/2022 at 8:03 AM, poiub said:

Loved this

Thank you!

On 11/19/2022 at 5:53 PM, Cici said:

Yay, a Christmas story!

 Yup, a little bit ahead of schedule, but still. 

On 11/21/2022 at 7:19 PM, drsn23 said:

Great job!

Thank you! 

2 hours ago, Leshrack said:

Pls continue love contagion stories

Unfortunately, I don't.  Jokes aside, I'm afraid implied contagion is as far as I go in that aspect, unless it's for trades. But I hope you liked this nevertheless.