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Julie had a love/hate relationship with the holidays. She loved Christmas and the Christmas season, but after losing her mom, last year had been a hard year for the Molina family. This year wasn’t her first Christmas without her mom, but she still didn’t know if she was entirely feeling the Christmas cheer. And LA didn’t necessarily make it easy, since they didn’t have a winter season like other parts of the world. But she was going to try, if not for herself then for her family.
Plus, this year was her first Christmas with her phantoms, and she was excited about that. She knew Luke also had a complicated relationship with the holidays but she was excited to make new memories with him, them, to replace the old not so good ones.
So she’s really not expecting to catch the flu at the beginning of December, right when the season starts to change and the air starts getting a little cooler.
Ray shakes his head while he takes her temperature that morning, Reggie hovering over his shoulder with wide eyes.
“It’s the temperature drop this time of year,” he tsks. “Gets you every time. You’re not going to school, mija , go back to sleep. I’ll take Carlos and come check on you soon.”
He gets up to leave, and Reggie poofs out, presumably to tell the other guys that she’s sick. The temperature has only dropped around ten degrees, nothing really, but Julie’s body is feeling it like it was fifty. She nods weakly at her dad from under her pile of blankets and closes her eyes to go back to sleep.
The rest of the day is a blur, with Ray coming in every so often to check on her and give her medicine or try to get her to eat something or drink some water. The guys come visit her once or twice, too.
Julie thinks it’s late, around dinner time, when she’s roused from a light sleep by the sound of a ghost poofing in. She looks up to see Luke hovering by her bed, looking uncertain. Smiling, she scoots over and pats the space next to her in invitation.
“Hi,” she says once he’s under the covers next to her. He props himself up on her headboard.
“Hey,” he says. “How’re you feeling, boss?”
Julie snuggles into his side, burrowing her head into the crook of his shoulder. Their relationship has been getting progressively less platonic over the last year that they’ve known each other. They still aren’t anything more than friends, officially. But unofficially they’re… something.
Luke lifts his arm for her to cuddle up to his side as she says, “Okay, I guess. Better than this morning, and I just had some dinner and medicine, so I’ll probably fall asleep on you.”
He gives her a soft smile. “That’s alright, Jules. I just wanted to come see you for a bit before you knock out.”
The smile on her face is definitely dopey, but Julie, in her drug and flu induced haze, can’t bring herself to care. Luke continues talking for a bit about his day, some song writing he was doing in between checking on her, and Julie feels her eyes start to get heavy.
“Already, boss?” Luke teases her. She just grumbles and burrows further into his side. His hand comes up and buries itself in her hair, rubbing soothingly at her scalp.
“I warned you,” she said, her words coming out slightly slurred. She throws an arm over his chest to hug herself even closer. “Sing to me?”
“What do you want to hear?” His voice is quiet, and Julie can feel his life’s brushing against her forehead as he speaks.
“Hmmm, anything,” she says. “I just want to hear your voice.”
And it’s not anything she hasn’t said to him before, but she still feels a huge smile break out on his face at the sentiment. Luke is quiet for a moment as he thinks, his fingers still massaging her scalp and his mouth resting against her hairline.
Then he opens his mouth and begins to softly sing,
Close your eyes and I'll kiss you
Tomorrow I'll miss you
Remember I'll always be true
And then while I'm away, I'll write home everyday
And I'll send all my loving to you
Julie falls asleep like that, a smile on her face and wrapped up in Luke’s arms while he softly sings The Beatles to her. And she forgets that she’s sick and miserable for just a little while.