the sick day
“You can’t come to work today.”
“No, I’m fine-- I’m fine,” Dani tried to argue, but the fact that she had coughed half way through didn’t make the argument any stronger.
Jamie took a moment and pressed the back of her hand to Dani’s head. Dani leaned into the feeling of Jamie’s cold hand on her forehead. She knew that she was warm, but to feel Jamie’s cool hand made her ache for more contact between the two of them. Because she was so warm and maybe a bit sweaty that it was a nice sensation. “Nah, Poppins. You’re hot.”
“You’re hot.” Dani replied back hoping to make Jamie laugh, but it didn’t have the effect she desired it to have.
She didn’t do well being sick. Well, nobody being sick did it well, just Dani didn’t like the idea of being alone all day. She knew that Jamie would just be a floor underneath her, but she didn’t want that. She wanted Jamie in bed with her. When she was a kid, her mother was never home for her being sick. Other than letting her stay at home, she was more or less left to take care of herself. It had been Judy who had started watching over her when she got sick as a teen. Through college, it was Judy she’d call when she didn’t feel well.
“I’ll get you some meds and be right back.”
Dani could have sworn it was an hour before Jamie was back with medicine in hand. By the time she was back, Dani had just coughed up an entire lung. “Geez, Poppins, you’re worse off than I thought.”
And she was probably right. Dani knew that if Jamie was doing the things she was, Dani would have her quarantined off into bed and not allow her out. Yet, Dani couldn’t possibly think of a reason she needed to stay in bed if Jamie would be off at work.
She took the meds without complaining, only managing to cough a few more times miserably into her elbow.
It was only when Jamie turned away from the bed that Dani reached out to grab her arm. The grab was light, possible for Jamie to walk through it if she wanted.
“I’ll just be downstairs.”
Dani didn’t quite know what she was searching for, but she knew that Jamie being downstairs working didn’t make her feel any better.
“If I hear of you being out of bed, I’ll be very cross and there will be serious consequences.”
Dani laughed just enough to feel the urge to cough arise back in her chest.
It took only a half hour for Jamie to determine that she’d rather be upstairs looking after Dani than sitting in the shop. Sure, they may lose a bit of business for the day, but it didn’t really matter in the long run. Dani was the most important thing.
So, Jamie closed up shop. She made sure everything was in order for the next day and all the flowers were taken care of before swinging the sign back to closed. She locked up before heading back upstairs to their apartment.
“Excuse me,” she said as she walked into the apartment to find a red nosed and flushed Dani. She hadn’t known that she could adore Dani anymore, but walking back into their apartment to see Dani snuggled into the couch in her sweater made her heart do all sorts of things. “I thought I said stay in bed.”
“Why are you back?” Dani asked, her nose scrunched up.
Jamie shrugged in response as she slipped off her shoes and went to the couch. “Seems like being up here is properly boring.”
Dani laughed softly, followed by a hack of a cough and Jamie moved to sit next to her on the couch and rub at her back. “You’ll get sick,” Dani’s voice was small and cracked in the middle of the words.
Before, there wasn’t a chance that Jamie would take care of anyone while they were gross sick. But with Dani, Jamie would get sick a thousand times to take care of her.
Being around sick people had reminded her of the times she was sick during foster care. There was one time where Jamie had thought she was going to die. She had been banished to the foster kids’ room where she had been throwing up almost constantly. It took her almost a week to feel well enough to go back to school. Nobody had been there to comfort her. She had ached for someone to rub her back as she cried and vomited. She didn’t want Dani to have to go through this alone.
She wanted to make a joke, but didn’t want to hear Dani cough again because of it. So instead, she wrapped her arm around Dani’s back and helped her back to standing up. “Back to bed,” she settled on saying instead.
Dani may not have needed the support, but Jamie was there to give it to her. She helped Dani back into the bed before pulling the covers up over her. “Are you hungry?” She asked as she tucked a piece of hair back from Dani’s sweaty forehead.
“No,” Dani said in such a soft voice that Jamie’s heart ached.
“TV on or off?” The few times Dani had stayed in bed had always meant movie days.
“On, please.”
Jamie walked around the room getting everything sorted. The TV’s volume was soft, but Dani didn’t seem to notice. Her eyes were a bit glassy and her cough was slowing down. The last thing she did was tug down at her pants, pulling them off and kicking them away with her foot. “Move over,” Jamie commanded, as she crawled back into bed.
“Jamie, you’ll get sick.”
“Oh, just hush and come here.” It didn’t take much more argument for Dani to shift in the bed so that she was pressed against Jamie’s side.
“I don’t feel good,” Dani said and Jamie’s heart broke because Dani sounded so sad and hurt. “I don’t feel good.” And Jamie knew the feeling of being sick and just wanting someone there to take care of you.
Jamie’s hand rubbed circles on Dani’s back. Dani was still hot to the touch, but Dani was almost shivering next to her. “Shh,” Jamie hushed, putting her other hand against Dani’s forehead. It was still warm, so she brushed back any lingering hair behind Dani’s ears.
And hearing Dani cry softly absolutely wrecked her. “It’s okay, love,” Jamie whispered, whipping at some tears that had fallen from her eyes. The cries were enough that made Jamie wish it was her that was sick instead of Dani. Because Dani didn’t deserve being sick and crying. It hurt Jamie to the core to hear her like this. It was a horrible few minutes before Dani’s sniffling had gone down and Jamie felt Dani go back to breathing more normally next to her.
“There we are,” Jamie breathed after the worst of it seemed to be over. “Just rest now.”
She tried to move slowly getting adjusted into sitting up in bed with Dani pressed along her side. Dani’s head was laid against her stomach.
The coughing had gone down with the help of the medicine and being back in bed. Jamie liked to think her being there with Dani had helped too. At the least of her insistence of Dani getting back into bed. A heavy breath would happen with some rattling in the air and Jamie would just hush and rub circles down Dani’s back.
Her own eyes started to haze over after so long of rubbing Dani’s back and half watching whatever was on the television in front of her. She’d stay awake, just to make sure Dani wasn’t coughing and was what seemed like being asleep.
So, she just relaxed against the bed and moved her hand up and down Dani’s back. She thought she might be able to feel some of the fever leaving Dani’s skin.
“Thank you,” Dani said after Jamie was sure she was already asleep. “For staying.” She clarified, but she hadn’t needed to.
“Anytime, Poppins.”