Space Cold
“This is dumb, can we go?” His other complained for about the twentieth time.
“Not yet, I need my boss to see me here so it looks like I'm making an effort.” Eddie replied.
He realized he really wasn't making much of an effort at all as he hovered next to the wall, he always hated work functions and Venom's boredom wasn't helping. He diligently scanned the large room for his office superior, the sooner he found her the sooner they could leave.
“There! There she is! The skinny lady!” Venom pointed out eagerly.
There she was, talking with a small group of his other coworkers, he crossed the room to her.
“Eddie, there you are. Glad you could make it.” She greeted him.
“Hey, happy New Year.” He smiled.
“Are you here by yourself? Where's your wife?”
He didn't share much with his job about his personal life, it made sense that she'd think he had a wife instead of a husband. An alien husband.
“Oh, um, my spouse is here somewhere.”
"How's the new baby? Which one of you does he look like?" Another one of his coworkers asked.
"Uh, my spouse. He definitely looks more like my spouse."
She nodded and thankfully let it go.
They chatted for awhile about work and New Year's resolutions when they were interrupted by his phone ringing and he excused himself to take the call.
“Hello?”
“Hey guys, sorry to call in the middle of your thing but you need to come home.” Flash, who was babysitting, said.
“What? What's wrong? Is everybody okay?”
“Uh, sort of? I may have possibly, kind of, broughthomeanextraterrestrialspacecold.” He rushed through the last part.
“Flash!” The soldier had been in space recently.
“I know, I'm sorry! I thought the Anti-Venom would take care of it! S-should I try to purge it from them?”
“No! No. It might hurt ‘em. We're on our way home right now.”
“I am so sorry!”
“They're sick? They can't get sick.” Venom stated.
“They can't get human sicknesses, we've never encountered space colds before.”
At home, after Flash left incredibly embarrassed and apologetic, they checked their children over. Carnage, Agony, Scream and Sleeper were all sick with symptoms of a common cold or the flu. Dan was their go to doctor for the human side of things while Dr. Steve was their doctor for the symbiote side so they called Dr. Steve right away. The doctor asked that Flash come by to give a sample since he's the carrier and that he'd formulate a treatment from there, Flash of course agreed to help to make up for bringing an alien cold into their home. Dr. Steve told them it would take at least until tomorrow so they'd just have to stick it out in the meantime. Eddie felt their little foreheads and they felt feverish, he didn't know they could get fevers until now but at least there was some sort of human immune system working for them. Eddie called his sister, she always took care of him when he was sick as a kid, she still lived back in San Fransisco but she'd know what to do.
“Eddie! Nice of you to call for once.” Mary answered.
“I'm sorry, I know I should call more. I'm having a bit of an issue. The kids are sick and I was wondering if you still had grandma's chicken soup recipe?”
“Yeah, I can text it to you. Make sure to bundle them up and give them lots of fluids. Oh! And a humidifier if you have one.”
“Okay, yeah I have one. Thank you, Mary. I'll call you if I need more help.”
“You better, I love you Eddie.”
It was hard to admit but he didn't call very often because as much as he loved his sister she still reminded him so much of their childhood and their father and the abandonment and that was something he has spent his whole life trying to forget. It wasn't her fault but when he spoke to her it was all he could think about. But he needed to be better, he needed to make an effort. She deserved to know as much as possible about her nieces and nephews and keeping that from her just to avoid some pain was selfish.
“I love you too.” He finally squeaked out.
He hung up the phone and turned his attention back to the kids.
“Daddy, my head hurts.” Agony looked up at them.
“Dad, Agony is making my head hurt.” Carnage added.
“Not helping, Car.” Venom chastised.
“I'll make you guys some soup, it'll help I think.” Eddie hoped.
He checked his text messages and found the recipe Mary sent, luckily they actually had all the ingredients. It didn't take long to make and Venom snaked out to look over his shoulder.
“Smells good, Eddie.”
“Yeah, it really helps too.”
They could hear Sleeper and Scream coughing miserably in the living room as they poured soup into bowls.
“I wanna help!” Phage ran into the kitchen followed by Lasher, the only two unaffected by the cold.
“Me too! Me too!” Lasher pulled on Eddie's leg.
“Bad idea, its going to take forever.” Venom replied.
“Come on, they wanna help. It's fine.” Eddie retorted to his pessimistic husband.
Eddie handed them each a bowl telling them to use both hands. They then proceeded to head to the living room at a painfully slow pace of one step per minute with their little pointed tongues stuck out in concentration to not spill the soup.
“Told you.” Venom pointed out after about three long minutes of very slow walking.
They appreciated the effort but the short trip did take a very long time. They then found the kids huddled together in their goo forms on the couch with Sleeper in the middle. After being bundled up with blankets Carnage stared into the hot bowl of broth, chicken and vegetables as Scream and Agony sipped at theirs and Eddie tried to feed Sleeper.
“Carnage, eat the soup it'll help.”
“What's the point, I'm dying anyways.” The child replied dramatically.
Carnage eventually budged and ate the meal and they got through the night mostly thanks to the humidifier working overtime. But when they woke up Eddie knew something was wrong as Venom felt heavy within him, they were sick now too.
“Eddie, I'm dying. This is it for me. Marry Flash, he'll take care of you.” Venom lamented.
Eddie rolled his eyes, so this is where Carnage gets it from.
“You're not dying, dear. Someone from Alchemax should be by soon with the medicine.”
Just like Eddie predicted there was eventually a knock at the door and he'd never been so relieved. Someone he recognized as an intern greeted him and handed over a paper bag filled with bottles of what looked like cough-syrup. Eddie gave Venom, Sleeper, Scream and Agony the instructed doses and despite their loud complaints about the medicine tasting nasty it was clear they were starting to feel better. Carnage on the other hand took their complaints to heart and escaped into one of the heating vents, refusing to ingest the vile syrup.
“Car, get down here. Do you want to be sick?” Eddie looked up at the vent in the ceiling.
“I will not let you poison me, father!”
Unfortunately for the kid they were betrayed by a violent coughing fit that sent them slipping back through the slits of the vent and Venom quickly caught them. After much coaxing they eventually took the medicine and reluctantly gave into feeling better. The next day Eddie called his sister to catch her up on the last few months of his life.