The One Where The Lines Get Kinda Blurry

The One With F*** You Covid

David rarely cried. Sure he had the odd moment where he had to fight back tears or he was overcome for a few seconds, but rarely actual, full on crying. In fact, he could only remember sitting and sobbing uncontrollably three times in his adult life. The most recent time being the day Zoe had moved out and taken Cleo with her. Then there was the time approximately thirty seconds after Jen had ended the phone call which smashed his heart and dreams into a million excruciatingly painful pieces after Friends wrapped. And the other time was at her wedding to Brad, when he'd locked himself in a toilet cubicle and lost it completely after watching her commit her life to someone other than himself. Today had just become the fourth time. His daughter. His beautifully creative, clever, funny, uncomplicated daughter was currently shivering beneath her bedcovers with a raging temperature, complete lethargy, nausea and a hacking cough. He was so worried about her and her well being, but at the same time, he was selfishly devastated that this was going to put a halt to all his own very special Christmas plans. He looked at his watch. He had to ring Jen. He had to stop her before she caught the flight.

"Hey honey, perfect timing, I was just...." Jen stopped mid sentence as she saw the tears streaming down his cheeks, a look of absolute abject misery in his weeping eyes. "Fuck, are you ill?" she asked in a panic. "Oh God, please tell me you're ok?"

"Sweetie I'm ok, well at least I am at the minute, but..." his voice was cracking and breaking as he tried to choke back his seemingly endless emotions. "Cleo's really sick. She's tested positive for Covid this morning and so's Zoe." There was a silence, broken only by the sound of David trying, and failing, to prevent another heaving burst of tears from escaping. "I'm so sorry" he whispered, his face reflecting the total despair in his heart, "this is just the worst timing ever."

Jen was still fighting to process everything she'd just been told, her heart beating so fiercely she thought it might leap through her rib cage at any second. "Is Cleo going to be ok?" she asked, her immediate thoughts turning to the girl who she couldn't bear to think of suffering. "Is Zoe well enough to look after her or is she coming to stay with you? Do you want me to come and help you with her?"

David couldn't help shaking his head, a wry smile touching his lips for a few seconds. "You really never put yourself first do you?" he said, "there's no way I'd let you do that, you could get really sick."

"So could you" she replied in a heartbeat, tears brimming in her eyes now too, "I can't bear the thought of you and Cleo both being ill and me not being there to look after you."

"Hey, she's a resilient little thing, I'm sure she'll bounce back in no time. And Zoe's had her jabs so she hopefully won't get too sick either. Same for me, I'm fully vaccinated so maybe I'll not even catch it." David wiped some more tears that had escaped from his eyes, "Urgh, I'm so upset about all of this. I wanted this to be our first, perfect Christmas together and now it's completely ruined." He stopped again, desperately trying to control his emotion and the hit of anger at the total unfairness of their situation. "I hate to think of you on your own now tomorrow. Please tell me you'll find someone else to spend it with instead."

The tears were falling freely from Jen's eyes now too as she slowly came to terms with the blow that they'd been dealt yet again. "I don't want to spend it with anyone else, I just want to be with you" she cried with absolute anguish in her voice.

David's cheeks were splashed with another load of tears as he watched the love of his life fighting the same demons as he was. They both knew there was no way now of spending the holiday together and they each felt the same stabbing pain in their hearts at the cruel blow they'd been dealt once again. "I'm so sorry" he said, his voice breaking from the emotions he was still battling to control. "I wish there was something I could do to change this, all of this. I wish Cleo wasn't sick. I wish we could be together. I wish Covid would just fuck right off and life could go back to normal."