drowning

35

Ashton.

"How is she?"  Calum asked me as the guys entered quietly, aware that she was beyond sick and consistently sleeping.

"Still doesn't have much energy, but her fever is staying down, thank God" I told them, seeing Calum nod slowly, not seeming happy about the small accomplishment.

We all did paperwork together, chatting as we did, ordering pizza knowing we were probably going to have a long night.

Before we knew it, it was soon one am, and we were all still deep into paperwork, knowing our deadlines for these were much sooner than needed.

Just before I was about to get up and brew a coffee, I saw Ava appear from around the corner.

"Hi lovebug" I spoke calmly, seeing her give me the smallest smile, catching all of the guys attention.

"Hey" she smiled towards everyone, clearing her throat as she did, her voice sounding hoarse.

"Feeling okay?" Calum was the first to ask as I took her hand gently, stopping her from walking past me.

"Yeah, I'm okay" she lied to us, giving the softest smile.

She then let go of my hand, going into the kitchen, telling me she was probably hungry.

I followed her, seeing her glancing to our food boxes, making me immediately list options for her

"So we have three different pizzas, or we have your favorite soup from Jason's, or I can even go pick you up something from-" "it's okay Ash, you can go do your paperwork." She spoke calmly, her eyes showing me that she was still quite sleepy.

"No, I want to take care of you." I told her.

She didn't argue.

She sat on the counter as I heated her pizza, giving her a ginger juice that was supposed to improve her immune system, but actually did nothing but make her gag.

"That's disgusting." She told me firmly as she spit in the sink, Luke coming in with a smile on his face.

"Yeah- It's an overwhelming amount of ginger."

I talked to her quietly, Luke chiming in as he made coffee as she slowly ate, clearly becoming less and less interested in the pizza.

"I want to take a bath" she told me after a few minutes of just looking at her slice of pizza.

"Okay, I'll go get it ready for you- finish your pizza" I told her calmly.

"No- you don't have to get it ready for me, that's not why I was telling you that." She spoke rapidly, catching my hand to where I couldn't walk away.

"I know you weren't, but I want to take care of you, let me." I told her firmly, kissing her temple as I did, seeing her look to me.

"You're going to end up sick" she told me as I leaned in to kiss her lips, smiling right before I did it

"I have an immune system of steel."

I ran her a bath, putting in some Epsom salts and such, making sure it was a comfortable temperature before Calum walked in, exhaling.

"She's running fever again, I made her take a fever reducer, which will probably make her drowsy." He informed me, making me nod slowly, feeling defeated that her fever was back, we just got to where that wasn't a problem anymore.

I brought her in the bathroom, knowing she was tired.

"Are you sure you want a bath? You seem really sleepy, baby" I asked her calmly, wishing she would just go to bed and lay down.

"I want to bathe." She told me slowly.

Okay.

"If you get sleepy, you have to get out, okay?" I told her calmly, seeing her nod as she pulled her hair into a messy bun, glancing to me as she did.

"I'm not going to fall asleep in the bath." She told me calmly.

"I'm worried that you will, because you were already tired and then Calum gave you a medicine that causes drowsiness-" "I'll be ten minutes at max and you can leave the door open if you want, just tell the guys" she spoke calmly, making me feel better about the situation.

"Okay, call me if you need anything"

And I left her, leaving the door cracked open as well

Ava.

He always used the perfect mixtures of Epsom salts and oils, I don't know how he did it.

I let my body sink into the water, finding immediate relief.

This was by far the sickest I had ever felt, but Ashton was doing absolutely anything he felt necessary to try to make it better for me.

I appreciated him more than anything in this world.

I closed my eyes as I relaxed, thinking about how much college work I needed to catch up on because I hadn't touched anything in the past four days, I was going to be flooded with work.

I immediately let my brain wander off into my previous assignments and how I scored on those, trying to piece together what this weeks assignments might be.

And then suddenly I heard a voice- which almost scared me

"Ava- I told you not to fall asleep!" Ashton's voice was panicked.

"I wasn't- I wasn't" he made me panic with how fast he grabbed me and how panicked he sounded.

"I was just closing my eyes, I was thinking." I told him, seeing that his arms were fully holding my body, making me quickly cover myself- but also noticing that he had completely soaked his upper body when he grabbed me.

"Oh my god." He exhaled, his head hitting the tub, and I couldn't help but let out a laugh

Ashton.

My heart was literally palpitating and pounding.

It takes one slip underwater with someone sleeping for them to drown and that's all I could think about when I saw her with her eyes closed.

So I immediately tried to get her out of the water without even saying five words to her.

Just as I was able to relax- realizing that she was awake and okay- I heard her laugh.

I looked to her, seeing the smallest smile on her face

"I'm sorry- I just- panicked" I laughed out to her.

"I can tell" she smiled lightly

She was so fucking cute.
Those little dimples would be the death of me.

Once I finished staring at her dimples, I realized she was still laughing lightly- covering her body as she did- making me realize, I completely invaded her space.

"Oh shit- I'm sorry" I panicked, immediately standing and turning away from her, my sleeves dripping water as I did.

"You're fine Ash" I heard her voice speak, the sound of amusement laced within it.

"I'll leave you to finish up-" I spoke, but I heard her laugh again.

"Ashton, stop panicking and grab me a towel please"