Just To Have You Back Again

Illness and Illusion, Delirium and Delusion

It was the evening of Jake and Beth's sixth month anniversary. Beth had not been feeling well, she had a cold and cough and a slight fever. Jake scrapped his original plan of going out to dinner. He wanted her to rest, but she said she wouldn't miss their monthsary for anything in the world. Instead he picked her up and just drove back to his place. He picked up some egg drop soup from the Chinese restaurant as well as medicine from the pharmacy on the way home. As he helped her out of the car, he felt Beth's skin burning up. She was bundled up in a sweater even though it was sweltering heat. He quickly deposited the food on the kitchen island and helped Beth sit on the couch in the entertainment room. He grabbed a fleece blanket from the linen closet and wrapped it around her. He fetched the soup from the kitchen and started to feed her.

"Love, here, eat something."

"Babe, I'm not really hungry. I just wanna sleep."

"And you will. After you eat and take your medication."

"I'm sorry, babe. I thought I was feeling better than this. Now you have to go take care of me on our anniversary."

"There's nothing else I would rather do. So please, try. At least just a little bit."

Beth sat up and sipped some of the soup Jake spoonfed her. She only finished a quarter of the bowl before taking some medicine from Jake. He propped up some pillows for her to lay on and put in The Avengers for the nth time for them to watch.

She reached for him as he was coming back towards the couch. She scooted over so that he could lie next to her. He gathered her in his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Love, you won't be able to watch the movie if I'm blocking your view."

"I can hear it," she mumbled into his chest.

"You must really be sick if you don't want to see and drool over Captain America," he teased.

"Just hold me, please?"

"Love, you're not going home until you are better, okay? No one will take care of you at the boarding house. You're staying here with me this weekend."

"Okay, babe."

Jake smiled. Maybe her flu was a blessing in disguise. He would get to spend the whole weekend with her and take care of her. It wasn't the way he planned to spend their anniversary, but he was content just holding her like this. He felt her drifting off to sleep, her mouth wide open because she couldn't breathe through her nose.

"My poor baby girl. Don't worry, I'll take care of you. I love you."

And soon he was drifting off to sleep as well. He woke up when he heard the closing credits shawarma scene playing on the tv. He shut off the tv and DVD player and brought the dirty dishes into the kitchen. He gently picked up his girlfriend and carried her up to his bedroom. He helped her out of her clothes and put his pajamas on her. She was swimming in it, he had to roll the waistband of the bottoms multiple times to keep it in place, but at least it would keep her warm and comfortable. He put another pair of socks over the ones she already had on her feet, replaced the fleece blanket back on her and put on the heavy comforter on top of that to keep her warm. He took a quick shower and changed into pajamas before crawling into bed with her.

***

He set his alarm to wake him up to give her some medicine. He went down to the kitchen to grab a fresh glass of water and her medicine. He gently nudged her awake.

"Love, wake up. You need to take your medicine."

Beth sat up and took the medicine from him. As soon as he put the glass on the bedside table, she wrapped her arms around him.