Archive of Our Own ^beta

Malcolm dragged himself to sit on the edge of the bed, every muscle screaming in protest and taking much more effort than it should. He attempted to swallow the saliva that pooled in his mouth and it felt like someone had lined his throat with razor blades and turned his saliva into acid.

“Crap,” he croaked out, his voice a barely there whisper.

He sighed and instantly regretted it, his muscle protesting even that pathetic movement.

‘How the hell was he going to keep this under wraps’ he thought as he pulled at his sweat drenched sleep clothes and shivering at the feel of his clothes rasping against his over sensitive skin.

It had been hard enough the last few days with his sore throat and nausea, add a fever and his voice sounding like he’d been screaming for days on end. Gil was going to call him out within seconds of showing his face at the precinct.

He frantically tried to think of how he could avoid being pulled off the case. They were so close to solving this, he couldn’t let this get in the way, people’s lives were at stake here.

He slowly pushed himself to stand, almost dropping straight to the floor as his legs tried to buckle under him. He managed to lock his knees and keep himself upright, but only just. He had to blink hard to clear the black spots that threatened to take over his vision and he stood swaying slightly on the spot.

A shower, He always felt better after a good, long, hot shower. Mind set, he dragged himself into the bathroom and stripped off to stand under the hot steady spray of the shower. The individual droplet almost felt like needles on his over sensitive skin. He didn’t bother washing his hair as the effort to lift his arms above his head was just too much for his aching muscles. Feeling marginally better, he got out and dried himself off, wincing at the scrape of the towel against his still feverish skin. This was going to be the world’s best con to pull this off.

By the time he was dressed and he’d managed to down a cup of honey and lemon tea, he needed to leave or he would be late. He quickly called an uber and made it to the precinct with barely five minutes to spare. He must still look pretty rough as the uber driver gave him a sympathetic smile when he groaned as he shuffled his way across the back seat to get out.

Once he was out of the vehicle, he got himself as presentable as he could in his pathetic state and shoved all of his hurts down deep, putting on his best fake it until you make it smile and made his way into the precinct. Rather than giving his usual good mornings, he nodded and flapped a hand in greeting to all the officers he knew as he passed them. He figured he needed to save his voice for talking to the team and Gil. If he sounds anything like he did this morning, Gil would be sending him home in five minutes flat.

Thankfully he made it to his desk without meeting any of the team on his way in and was actually able to get started on writing up his profile before any of them found him. Of course it was Gil who saw him first and he was instantly frowning at him in suspicion as he walked over to his desk. Before Gil could ask him if he was alright, he risked it all and attempted a cheery good morning before Gil could even open his mouth. Much to his surprise he came out relatively normally, with just a slight rasp that was barely noticeable. Gil’s face twitched slightly, but quickly smoothed over and he gave him a greeting back.

“Conference room in ten, Bright,” Gil directed as he gave him another long look, before turning to walk back to his office.

Malcolm huffed out a relieved sigh, instantly regretting it as his throat flared back to its burning inferno and sent shards of pain digging into it.

“Fuck,” Malcolm muttered, rubbing at his aching throat, willing it to dull back down before he had to go and present to his team. Making the most of his ten minutes, he slipped into the tea room and made himself another honey drowned cup of tea. He’d only managed to choke down half of it, before Gil was standing at the doorway to the conference room frowning at him as he walked over as quickly as his aching limbs would let him, suppressing the shivers that were threatening to reveal him.

He put on his brightest smile as he stepped into the room, taking in JT and Dani staring back at him with open concern as they watched him walk to the white board. He took a breath and launched into his profile. Thankfully his voice was still holding with that very slight rasp that broke in whenever he talked for too long. To compensate he kept his responses short and clipped to facts with none of his usual anecdotal information to go with them. When he took a moment to read the team, they were all watching him like a hawk and the concern that he’d seen in their expressions when he came in was only more pronounced now, with Gil’s frown craving a furrow in his brow.

Just as the room was starting to feel like a furnace, the briefing was done and Gil was directing Dani and JT off to question suspects. He opened his mouth to protest being excluded and all that came out as a pathetic squeak. He clamped his mouth shut and looked at Gil with pleading eyes, that usually could persuade him to get his way.

“Oh no, don’t even try Bright. I can feel your fever from here dammit. Why the hell did you even come in today?” Gil admonished him with a wagging finger in front of his face.

Malcolm sighed heavily and grimaced as his throat screamed at him that it really wasn’t happy with him. He looked back at Gil whose face was twitching as it flittered between furious and sympathetic. Unfortunately it settled on furious and Malcolm braced himself for the lecture of the century. That of course was when his knees thought it was a perfectly good time to give up on him and he would have fallen to the floor if not for Gil’s bracing arms gripping his shoulders tight.

“That’s it, I’m taking you in. If you won’t look after yourself I’ll have to do it for you,” Gil growled at him, as he guided him to a chair and pushed him into it. Malcolm couldn’t help the groan as his aching muscles pained as he dropped into it.

“S..ry, G..l,” Malcolm croaked out, his voice almost gone. He slumped in the chair, the effort to hold himself up too much now he was caught out and the nausea in his belly ramping up in protest of all the tea he’s choked down.

“Don’t move. I’m just going to bring the car up and then we are going to urgent care. No arguments, got it?” Gil directed, his face stern, his anger clearly simmering under the surface.

Malcolm nodded his head cautiously, not trusting his voice to let him answer any other way right now, but also wary of his upset stomach. He closed his eyes in resignation as he heard Gil’s footsteps fade away as he went to retrieve his car.

There was no way he was getting out of this now. He should have known he would never be able to fool Gil. The man hadn’t made it to Lieutenant for no reason. As much as he really didn’t want to go to the clinic, he knew he probably needed to and even though he would never admit it out loud it felt good that he wasn’t able to fool him. It told him that he was really seen and even though Gil was angry with him right now, he knew it was because he was worried about him and hated to see him not taking care of himself.

He never meant to let it get this bad. The need to catch the killer always won out over his needs. Everyone else's needs always came before his. Maybe one day he would learn how to put his first. In the meantime, at least he had Gil and his team to catch him before he fell too far.