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The room was still a little dark when Emma woke up. There had been a blizzard that previous night, the skies were still clouded and dark as it continued to fall into the morning hours. She turned to find the other side of the bed empty, though that wasn’t something that was too unusual. She could feel Paul tossing and turning last night, he probably just decided trying to sleep wasn’t worth it.
It was freezing in the house - the winters in Colorado tended to do that. A chill swept through her when she pushed off the blankets, starting to regret her decision of just wearing shorts and a t-shirt to bed last night. She searched the room for a sweatshirt and a thick pair of socks before moving along with her routine.
She groggily made her way out of the bedroom and into the hall. As she walked towards the bathroom she could see the light was on through an open crack in the door. Weird, Paul always turned off the lights when he left a room.
“Hey, Paul? Are you in there?” Emma called out, pushing the door open further. Paul was sitting on the floor next to the toilet, back to the wall and head tipped back with a throw blanket around his shoulders. Blue leaked from his ears, nose, and mouth. He lifted his head to look at her when he heard her come in, when he opened his eyes his eyelids were heavy. “Oh my god, are you okay?”
“Not really. I felt like shit all night, couldn’t sleep so I just decided to get up so I wouldn't wake you.” He was shivering - when Emma crouched down next to him and put her hand on his arm she almost recoiled at the cold.
“Come on, let's get you back in bed.”
“No, I’m just gonna end up throwing up again. I should stay here.”
“Yeah well, we can get you a trash can then at least you can throw up from the comfort and warmth of the bed rather than stay on this cold-ass floor.” Emma hauled him off the floor. God he was fucking freezing, more so than usual. He let her guide him back to the bedroom, his eyes half closed at this point. Once they reached the room, she sat him upright on the bed.
“Okay don’t lie down yet, I’m gonna get a towel to go under your head.”
Putting towels underneath Paul was a fairly normal thing for them. Every now and then he’d just leak so much from his head that they would have to put up a barrier between the sheets so he wouldn’t stain them. Emma grabbed one of their nice softer towels to go under him, and grabbed a hot washcloth to run under hot water to help clear up his face.
She set the towel on his pillow. “Okay lie down.” He did, as she took the wet washcloth to his face to start clearing the slime off. Usually when he got sick like this it would get thicker and clog him up, making him even more uncomfortable. He would also feel pretty embarrassed, especially when Emma had to clean it for him. But when he got like this he couldn’t even be bothered to care.
“It’s c-cold.” He shuddered.
“I know, I’m gonna get you warmed up, okay?” She said as she put two thick blankets on top of him.
He gulped down a slime glob and nodded.
She pulled out his heated blanket from the closet. After a while they realized they needed to get one, either because he felt too cold inside and it was bothering him or because he felt too cold to touch and it was bothering Emma . Either way it was probably the most effective way to get him warmed back up.
“Okay, I wanna take your temp to see how cold you actually are because I can barely touch your skin.” Emma said after plugging in the electric blanket.
“No, Emma, it’ll be okay, I just need to get warmed back up I’ll be fi-” He was cut off by her sticking the thermometer in his mouth.
“Shut up. And make sure it’s under your tongue.” She told him.
Paul didn’t exactly run fevers anymore, kinda the opposite actually. He would get way too cold, and it would only be made worse by weather like this. He was already cold enough as is with the infection technically making him dead. 95 degrees was already hypothermia for a normal person, his regular temp only ran about 70. When he got really sick like this though he could run as low as around 60 (the lowest he ever hit being around 55). While getting colder than that wouldn’t kill him, it still wouldn’t feel good either. The colder he got, the thicker the goo running his body would become, and the thicker it got, the worse he’d feel. It would just begin to clog all his senses and slow everything down with it.
After a few minutes Emma pulled the thermometer back out, the bottom of which was now covered in blue slime. “Shit, Paul, you’re at like 60…”
“Eugh.” He groaned in response, rolling onto his side.
“I can’t go to work today anyways because of the roads, but that also means I can’t go out to pick up anything for you. So I guess you’ll be stuck with me watching you all day.”
“Emma-” He started sitting up, the edge of his mouth leaking blue.
“I know what you’re gonna say.”
“No-”
“You’re gonna say you’ll be fine but-”
“No, Emma, I’m going to throw up.”
“Oh. Oh shit!” She reacted quickly, handing him the bathroom trash bin she had brought with her.
Emma looked away as Paul slowly heaved up a thick clump of blue slime from his stomach. She only turned back once his heaving and choking sounds slowed to a stop. The sides of his mouth dripped with blue again. She reached with her washcloth to wipe off his face.
“Paul.” Emma looked him right in the eye. “You need to go to sleep. Otherwise you’ll just be miserable all day.”
“You know it’s not that easy for me.”
“It’s not gonna happen unless you at least try.”
“I tried most of the night.”
“And you said you got out because you didn’t want to wake me up. Well, guess what? I’m awake now. So there's no excuse.”
Paul sighed in defeat. “Okay, but you move along with your day. I don’t want you worrying about me since I’ll literally just be laying here.”
“Okay.” She smiled before pressing a kiss to his (very cold) forehead, pushing him to lie back down. He gave a content hum. She quickly put on a pair of sweatpants to finish getting dressed and was about to walk out of the bedroom and shut the door behind her before-
“Emma?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you, I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She smiled, even though she knew he couldn’t see.
Paul gave another hum before she shut the door, lingering longer on the note this time.
Emma went about her day, making her own coffee (Paul usually made it for her, something about how she should never have to make coffee again after being a barista), and sitting down to eat breakfast as she turned on the news to see just how bad it was out there. There was no way she could have gone into the shop today even if the main road had been plowed - their house is further into the country area and the road in front of it is one of the last to be cleared. That and the fact that the snow continued to fall would have given her no visibility.
A few hours ticked by before Emma checked in on Paul again. She had been in what she called the “ Green room” checking on the plants when she heard movement upstairs. She hadn’t wanted to check too often just in case he was lying there awake the entire time and she came off as overbearing. Or if he was asleep and she risked waking him up. If he had really needed her he would have called for her, surely he was doing fine. But still, that had meant he was awake so it didn’t hurt to see how he was doing.
She was not, however, expecting to see him watching TV.
“Paul?”
“Oh.” He turned to face her, his face dripped with blue again. “Hey Emma.”
He was sitting up on the bed, back resting against the headboard, two blankets over his legs and one wrapped around his shoulders. The towel his head had been laying on was wrapped around his neck to catch any drips. He had a box of tissues sitting on his lap and a garbage bag just off the side of the bed that evidently was filling up fast with blue soaked tissues.
“You were supposed to be trying to sleep.”
“I was trying. Wasn’t working. So I thought I might as well turn something on to distract me from how miserable I am.” His voice sounded tired and rough, blue eyes dully glowing under half closed lids.
“Really? Because you seem tired to me.”
“I am tired. Doesn’t mean I can sleep though, infection rewired my body to not need that, remember?” Paul’s words slightly slurred together, his head was too full of slime to let him think them through properly.
Emma climbed onto the bed with him. He put an arm around her shoulder, draping the blanket over her as well. She wrapped her arms around his middle, curling into his side and placing her head just right next to the towel on his shoulders. She didn’t care too much if he dripped onto her, it wasn’t like he could infect her anymore. It would just be a little gross but it didn’t matter too much.
They sat there like that for a while and just watched the TV in silence until Emma could feel herself starting to doze off a bit. She could feel Paul had started to relax a bit too, hopefully signaling that he was ready to try to sleep again.
“Any better?”
“Yeah, a bit. It’s a little warmer. I mean I still feel like I have molasses running through my veins but at least I don’t think frost could grow off my skin anymore.”
“That’s good.”
“I know I told you to not worry about me, but could you… um… would you stay here with me to see if I can actually sleep? I just feel like if I ever sleep it’s always easier with you here.”
“Of course.” She gave him a little kiss. “I was starting to nod off a bit too so I could use a nap. Let’s get you a little more cleaned up first though. Otherwise you’re gonna be glued to that towel when you wake up.”
He chuckled a bit and let her out of the blanket so she could get to the bathroom. She wet two washcloths in the hottest water possible, and grabbed another clean towel to go under his head. When she got back Paul was fixing the blankets so that the one that had been wrapped around their shoulders now lay on the bed again. He got back under and Emma replaced the towel and wiped his face clean with one and folded the other to lay on his forehead. She tossed the used towel and washcloth into the laundry bin and changed from a sweatshirt to a t-shirt beforing climbing in with him. It would have been a little too toasty for her under all those blankets and the heated blanket with that thick top on.
She let him wrap himself around her, her back to his chest, shivering a bit at his cold touch when his arm touched hers. The warmth from the blankets provided a good equilibrium though. At least now she wouldn’t overheat. Paul completely swallowed her figure, clinging onto her and absorbing her heat as if she was a space heater. He sighed in content and Emma felt him and herself settle a little bit more. His hand found hers and held it, rhythmically rubbing his thumb on the back of her hand as he focused on trying to sleep.
---
Emma awoke not too long after falling asleep, reaching for her phone on the bedside table she saw that only an hour and a half had passed. She could hear Paul behind her, his snores were louder than they would usually be with his head clogged up. His arms were still wrapped around her, but it sounded like he might have actually fallen asleep.
“Paul?” She barely whispered as she turned just her head to look at him. “You asleep?”
When he didn’t respond Emma took that as a yes. Still, careful not to wake him after all that trouble, she very slowly and carefully moved herself out of his arms. She put her pillow in her place so he’d still have something to hold on to, he snuggled into it as he made a tired sound. Emma felt the washcloth on his head, it had now cooled down significantly. She grabbed it and quickly went to the bathroom to run it under hot water again to replace it before heading downstairs. Hopefully Paul wouldn’t wake up in the meantime.
She began to prepare some hot tea and unplugged her laptop so she could quietly do some work in bed sitting next to Paul. He had said he slept better with her there, she didn’t know if he would be able to sense the weight change from her leaving the bed but she wanted to get back up there as soon as she could to make sure he stayed asleep.
While waiting for the water to finish boiling, Emma took a look outside. It seemed the snow had stopped falling, but standing next to the sliding glass door she could see it came up to be over her knees. They would be stuck inside for at least another day or so. Hopefully Paul would feel better by then, if he was still congested then they would surely run out of things to clean his face off with.
The kettle whistled and Emma poured her drink into a travel mug, grabbed her laptop, and headed back upstairs. When she got back into their room she could see Paul had moved a bit. He had rolled to face the other way, still holding on to her pillow, the washcloth and blankets had fallen off him a bit from the movement and his brow was knitted like he was uncomfortable. She set her drink and computer on her bedside table before pulling the blankets back onto him and repositioning the washcloth. She knelt down to be level with his face, lightly pushing his hair out of it.
“Come on bud, hang in there.” She quietly said, placing her hand on his arm with just a feather light touch. He took a deep breath and for a moment Emma was afraid she had woken him up, but he just nuzzled his face deeper into the pillow, seeming more content. Huh. He really did sleep better with her around. She noted that.
She sat down on her side of the bed next to him, setting herself up slowly so Paul wouldn’t wake up. Her back was sat up against the headboard, her other pillow under the small of her back and knees bent to prop up her laptop. She glanced over to Paul and lightly rubbed her hand on his back to let him know she was there.
A few more hours passed. The sun had started to go down and Emma had turned on her lamp to get some more light while she worked on a paper. Paul had eventually moved to be closer to her, now his forehead laid against her hip. He would wake up eventually though, and she could feel as he stirred next to her, a whine escaping his lips confirmed it.
“You awake?” She whispered, just in case he wasn’t. He nodded in response. “How you feeling?” He only groaned louder and pulled up the blankets further to his face. “Let’s take your temp again.”
She closed her laptop and got up to stick the thermometer in his mouth again, he took it without argument this time. She wiped off his face with the washcloth that had been sitting on his head a bit while waiting to take it back out, but he had been dripping so much in his sleep that it had formed a puddle on the towel and it was in his hair now. There was so much coming from his ears that the whole side of his head was just sticky, it couldn’t have felt good, it was a wonder how he was able to even hear her really.
“You’re at 65 ish,” Emma pulled it back out, this time a sting of slime came out sticking to it. “So you’re climbing back up there a bit. Do you feel any better?”
“Maybe warmer, and less tired, but everything feels gross. It’s just so sticky and won’t stop coming out even though it feels like it’s clogged.” The congestion was evident in his voice.
“Yeah, man, you’re pretty nasty, I’m not gonna lie.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be helping me?”
“I am helping you. Doesn’t mean I’m going to lie to you.”
“Some bedside manner you have.”
“I’m sorry, who just wiped slime off your face for like the third fucking time today? Yeah that’s right. Me. And I don’t see any other nurses around here so I wouldn’t go picking and choosing if I were you.” Emma teased and he managed a tired laugh, but it was genuine, which meant he had to be doing a little better. “I think you should take a bath instead of a shower, that way you can soak all the hot water and get everything circulating again. It’ll help clear your head out too.”
“Wait I’m sorry, are you a nurse?”
“I mean, bio student, kinda the same thing.”
“I think we both know it’s not.”
“Well then maybe I’m a nurse for half dead aliens, I don’t see anyone else more qualified to have that title than me.”
“You got me there.”
“So, what’s it gonna be blob-from-outer-space, do you want to take a bath?”
“Yep.” Paul sat up from the bed, but there was so much slime that had gathered next to it when he was laying down that the towel came up with him, essentially glued to his head. His face had already been flushed fairly blue but it deepened with his embarrassment. “Oh god damn it.” He hurriedly removed it from his head to toss in the hamper but Emma had already seen it all. “Don’t you laugh!”
“I’m not! ” She said, the snicker barely hidden in her voice.
“Yes, you are!” He called her out before leaving the room.
“I love you, slime man!” She called out, only acknowledged by the sound of Paul groaning from the hallway.
Once Emma heard the water running she got out of bed and headed downstairs to make dinner. She didn’t know if Paul would be in the mood to eat but she absolutely was. She also really wanted to make something warm so she decided to make soup. It had been on their meal list for the week so they had enough ingredients for it without needing to go out, and if Paul was feeling up to eat then this would be good for him too.
After she got everything prepped and in the pot to cook she crossed over to the living room to turn the fireplace on. It really was a nice house they had been given, nicer than Emma would have ever been able to afford on her own, potentially nicer than what Paul could have gotten as well. Guess she had to thank the singing zombie apocalypse for never having to pay a mortgage on this place. It was good enough compensation for almost taking both their lives and turning Paul into a half alien hybrid.
She knew Paul would probably follow her downstairs once he was done so she pulled a few throw blankets and pillows from the closet to put on the couch so he could still warm up a bit more there next to the fire. He wasn’t dangerously cold anymore but he’d still probably feel it enough to want some cover.
About fifthteen minutes later he came downstairs, dressed in his thick flannel pajamas Emma had bought him for the nights she was too cold to touch him. That way when they slept she could feel the weight of his body around her without needing to move away because she’d freeze. They would work well for this occasion too.
“Need any help?”
“Oh I see. You’re too sick to even get out of bed the entire day but now suddenly you want to cook? This whole dripping sick thing has been a ruse so you could secretly drop a little blue in my food when I’m not looking and infect me?”
“I-! You know that’s not how it works!” The color that had been drained from his face all day suddenly came back as his face blushed blue at the implication he would (or even could anymore).
“Uh huh. Sure.” Emma smiled and turned back to the pot. “Nah, it’s basically done. Are you feeling up to eat?”
“Could go either way. Eating something warm and having it inside could help but it could backfire if my already fucked up body doesn’t register that I’m putting food in it.”
“Sooooo..?”
“Yes, I’ll eat. Give myself one moment of peace before everything turns around again.”
“Go sit down then, I’ll bring you a bowl.”
“Emma, I think I’m capable of-”
“Nope. With your shivering and shaking? I don’t know if I’d even trust you to pour a glass of water right now let alone a bowl of soup. Just sit down on the couch and get comfortable. Feel free to turn on a movie or something.”
“Okay.” He kissed her on the cheek, leaving a small blue mark. “Thank you.”
“Gross, don’t get your germs on me.” She shrugged him off.
“You know that’s not how it works!” Paul called to her as he went to the living room.
Paul got ready on the couch as Emma poured their bowls. He was still colder and leaking more than normal, but it had leveled out to where he was able to comfortably sit and not feel like he was dying… again. Emma came with their bowls and set them on the coffee table while he scrolled through options.
“Anything good?” She checked while setting their bowls down on the coffee table.
“Yeah, I’m thinking The Apartment, if that’s okay with you.”
“Your choice, man.”
“Have you seen it before?”
“No, but I know it’s one of those ‘What do you mean you haven’t seen it yet!?’ movies.”
“It’s good! I really liked it after I had to watch it for a class in college. It's been a while since I’ve seen it. I was also thinking it might be nice to watch two other people stuck inside who aren’t us.”
“Were they snowed in?”
“No, actually they- you know what you’ll figure it out.” Paul stopped himself from rambling on about it and hit play.
Time passed, Paul and Emma had finished their dinner and were now curled in on the couch. Paul kept having to blow his nose and cough so often that Emma had to bring over a trash can for him.
“I’m surprised my brain hasn’t come out at this point.” Paul whined, tossing yet another tissue into the bin.
“I know, bud.”
“It’s so gross I hate it.”
“Did eating help?”
“Yeah, I think a little bit, I’m at least warmer now.”
“Good.” She pressed a small kiss to his head.
“Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Of course.”
The crackling of the fireplace and the movie in the background really helped put a serene feeling over the house. As the movie ended Emma turned to Paul, who at some point must have dozed back off again because his eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly hanging open. She just laughed through her nose and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Emma changed the channel to some mindless show so that she could stay in their current position. She didn’t want to wake him quite yet.