Flu Season
“There you are!”
Tom dragged Leslie by the arm into the hospital ward and was greeted by an incredibly exasperated Ann Perkins. Tom put on his best smile.
“Aw! Were you waiting for me, Ann?”
It only hurt a little when she totally ignored him and put all her focus into Leslie, who was currently trying to catch “thousands of tiny fireflies in the air.”
“Yeah,” Tom continued. “I think her brain is melted. She took all the medication.”
“I know,” Ann said, shining a light into Leslie’s eyes and making her groan. “She stole it from April and Chris to go to that stupid meeting.”
“What time is the meeting?” Leslie asked, pushing away from Ann to turn to look at Tom. “Do we have time to get some fresh socks from my house first?”
Tom followed behind Ann as she took Leslie’s arm, leading her back into the hospital room. Leslie sat on the bed and Ann took her temperature. She looked like she was about to snap in half from the stress.
“Err… boo-boo? You actually did the meeting already,” Tom reminded Leslie.
“I did?”
“Yeah and you actually crushed it.”
Ann froze, before looking at Tom in confusion. “She did?”
“Yeah! I don’t know what to tell you, but she did. Ben was really impressed.”
Leslie promptly bent over to vomit on the floor, so that was when Tom dashed off.
***
The vomit was cleaned up. Leslie apologised multiple times, and it actually made Ann a little irritated.
"I'm not annoyed about the vomit."
"What then? You're all..." Leslie gestured wildly with her hand, giggling a little.
Ann frowned. “Okay, you do realise that if you try and escape again this time it’ll genuinely hurt my feelings? And you stole poor Chris’ medicine! And April’s! Who I don’t like at the moment but still, she’s very sick and you took her medicine away. Do you understand how bad that is?”
Leslie blinked up groggily at Ann as she tucked her into the bed. “Yes. I think I understand.”
Ann chuckled. “How many heads do I have?”
“Four.”
Leslie was now back in hospital scrubs and actually getting rehydrated with fluids. Ann had no idea how she managed to keep it together for that meeting but honestly, sometimes she thought that Leslie was some kind of magical creature. Any normal person would have collapsed, or just melted.
“I’m sorry I ran away,” Leslie said, catching Ann’s expression. “I just needed to.”
“You didn’t need to,” Ann replied, feeling her forehead. “You put yourself at risk.”
Leslie sat back, suddenly feeling very tired. Ann caught that, so she went and turned off the light.
“Love you Ann,” came the quiet, sad voice from the bed.
Ann rolled her eyes. “Love you too. But you’re a pain in the ass.”
***
The next time Ann went to check up on Leslie, that lanky Ben was just leaving.
“Oh, hi!” he said, smiling. Ann smiled back.
“Hey! What’s got you in such a good mood?”
Ben squirmed. “Oh! Well, Leslie did a great job at the meeting. I did try and get her to go back to hospital but-”
“-but she openly refused and sometimes it’s easier to just go along with it? I feel that.”
The two of them smiled at each other.
“I brought her some soup. She preferred the waffles, but hopefully she’s going to eat it at some point.”
“That’s really nice of you,” Ann said. “I’d better check on her, although she isn’t my favourite patient at the minute. Granted, she isn’t my least favourite either.”
“She’s a comfy middle,” Ben said with a laugh. “Anyway, I’d better run. See you later!”
“Bye!” Ann watched him leave, a confused smile on her face. This guy was nice, if a little awkward.
She entered the room to see Leslie just finishing off the waffles. Ann laughed inwardly at the fact that the soup was practically untouched. Leslie perked up at the sight of her.
“Hi!”
“Hey.”
“Listen, I know you’re annoyed at me for not doing what you said. I’m sorry.”
“I’m annoyed at you because you put yourself in danger,” Ann replied, a stern look on her face.
“I don’t really care about stuff that though, to be honest,” Leslie told her. "Danger... stuff."
“It’s not like you ever do what I say anyway,” Ann spat, and instantly regretted it, partially because Leslie was her best friend, but also because she was on duty, and if she could keep it together for April, she should really be keeping it together for Leslie. But it was sort of different with her.
Leslie didn’t reply right away. She moved position in the bed so she was sitting up totally and fixed her with a sad look.
“Ann, you should know that I take your advice totally to heart. I would only not do it if I totally disagreed. You should also know three other things. One- I love you more than anyone, ever. Two-work comes before my own happiness but should never come above yours. So I’m sorry.”
Ann grimaced. “It comes above your happiness? That’s a terrible rule.”
“But work makes me happy, so it all evens out in the end!”
“And what was the third thing?” Ann asked. Leslie frowned.
“What?”
“You said I needed to know three things.”
“Oh…” Leslie frowned. “Maybe it was that the room is twisting into many different shapes. But it’s actually sort of pretty, so I don’t mind.”
“Leslie,” Ann said as she checked her temperature. It had gone down, that was good. She was probably still dealing with the after-effects of the medicine overdose. “You legitimately scared me before.”
Leslie sighed. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“Is that so you won’t scare me or because you realise you need to take care of yourself?”
“I don’t need to answer that question, I’m sick.”
Ann rolled her eyes for what felt like the thousandth time that day. “Well, you’re doing better. Do not take that as a reason to leave.”
“I won’t! I have work here.”
“You actually don’t. I found it under the bed and hid it.”
Leslie grinned for the first time the whole conversation. “Ann! You devious bastard!”
“Will you just do as I say?”
“I will.”
The two women smiled at each other. Ann reached over to pat Leslie’s arm.
“Hey. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
“Thanks, Ann," Leslie said with a yawn.
Ann moved to shut the curtains. "So what's the deal with you and Ben?"
She turned around, but Leslie was already asleep. Ann sighed slighty, a soft smile on her face.