Chapter Text
Ava woke up at around 11 o’clock – incredibly late for her, and she was stuck between wondering why she hadn’t woken up earlier on her own, and why Beatrice hadn’t woken her up either. She was used to waking up early in the morning with Beatrice, around six. She was used to being coaxed out of her sleep state by Beatrice’s gentle hands and even gentler murmurings, by curling the blanket around herself and then getting pulled off the bed by Beatrice. She was used to following her wife outside onto their porch with said blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and sitting down on one of their rocking chairs with a mug of hot chocolate in hand.
None of that happened this morning, and Ava sat up with a frown as she tried to figure out why. She rubbed sleep away from her eyes and ran a hand through her mussed hair, wincing slightly when her hand got caught on a knot, before her eyes landed on Beatrice. She was sitting on the other side of their bedroom, near the bookcase they were steadily filling up.
“Good morning,” Ava said, or tried to say. Her voice came out much hoarser than usual, and barely carried across the room. She coughed straight after, a fit that cracked against her back and left her needing some water. Her coughing fit brought to attention everything else she was feeling – achy, fatigued, she had a headache brewing behind her eyes and her nose was blocked. Her throat hurt and her chest felt heavy, like there was a weight on it.
“Ooh, that doesn’t sound good,” Beatrice said as she stood up and made her way over to Ava.
“I’m sick,” Ava groaned, tilting her head back and pouting at Beatrice before allowing herself to fall back against the mattress again, a decision she regretted almost immediately as it sent a sudden, dull pain to her brow area.
“I see that,” Beatrice said, laughing just a little. “I didn’t want to wake you up this morning, you were running a fever and still very deeply asleep when I woke up.”
“That’s okay,” Ava said quietly, shaking her head and waving her arm around aimlessly in search of Beatrice’s hand.
Beatrice took hold of her hand and squeezed it gently as she sat down next to Ava on the bed. “How are you feeling? What hurts?”
“I feel like shit,” Ava said, laughing self-deprecatingly. “I also can’t breathe that well when I’m laying down, I need to get up.”
Beatrice helped Ava sit up again so that she could lean against the headboard.
“My throat hurts,” Ava sighed, pulling Beatrice’s hand into her lap so she could play with her fingers.
“There’s a glass of water on your nightstand if you’d like,” Beatrice said softly, nodding to Ava’s other side.
Ava turned with a gasp, and leaned to the side to grab the glass. “When did you get this?” Ava asked once she had taken a sip.
“Around an hour ago. I wasn’t sure when you would wake up.”
“Thank you,” Ava said thankfully, taking a few more sips of water before handing it to Beatrice so that Beatrice could put it on her own nightstand, which was closer to both her and Ava.
“It was nothing,” Beatrice brushed off quickly before continuing. “You said your throat hurts, what else?”
Ava took a minute to think about it, and tried not to get distracted by Beatrice’s hand running up and down her thigh soothingly. “My throat hurts, but it’s not that bad, just sore. You heard my cough. Umm, my nose is blocked. I don’t really have a headache yet but I know I will probably in a couple hours, I can feel it starting.”
“I can get you some medicine to prevent it, if you want,” Beatrice interrupted quietly.
“That would be good, yeah. I think it’s a sinus headache, there’s pressure behind my eyes and my forehead feels… funny,” Ava continued, watching Beatrice smile briefly at Ava’s choice of descriptive words. “My chest feels heavy and I’m also just really tired. Fatigued. And everything hurts. I’m not really sleep tired but physically, it feels like when you were training me to phase through the stone at Jillian’s, everything feels slower and heavier. And I’m cold. Kind of. I don’t know.”
Beatrice listened attentively the whole time and nodded when due, but frowned when Ava said she felt cold. “You’re cold?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Ava answered, nodding briefly. She shivered when Beatrice placed a (cold) hand on her forehead, but it also felt nice.
“You’re still running a fever, you’re quite hot,” Beatrice mumbled, standing up and still frowning as she dropped her hand.
“Why, thank you,” Ava said happily, her eyes closed as she smiled, her lips pressed together.
“Not what I meant, darling,” Beatrice laughed. “It applies all the same, you’re right, but it’s a bit concerning that you feel cold. I took your temperature this morning, 38.2 degrees. Do you mind if I take it again?”
Ava shook her head and winced when it jostled her head a little and made her oncoming headache worse.
“I’ll bring you some medicine as well,” Beatrice said as she stood up, apparently having seen Ava’s wince.
Ava watched as Beatrice left their bedroom, and closed her eyes once Beatrice closed the door over.
Everything hurt. She downplayed it a little for Bea, which she knew she shouldn’t have, but she didn’t want her to worry more than she already was. She coughed again, and it made a loud cracking noise that had her whimpering and squeezing her eyes shut as her whole upper back and chest reverberated with pain. It took her a minute to steady her breathing again, and she stood up from the bed as quickly as she could. She knew Beatrice would want her to rest, but she had to pee.
She could hear Beatrice walking back upstairs as she washed her hands. She left the water running once she was done so that when she coughed she could spit the phlegm out. Of course, she didn’t want Beatrice, her love and her wife, to see her spit phlegm into their sink – it was gross – so she did it as quickly as possible before straightening up to wash her hands again.
Beatrice knocked on the ajar bathroom door lightly before making her way inside and standing next to Ava at the sink.
“Medicine,” Beatrice said as she put down a box of panadol on their counter. “And thermometer,” she said as she put the thermometer down on top of the box. “Sorry it took me so long, I couldn’t remember where we kept the panadol.”
Ava waved her off. “You’re fine, Bea. It gave me time to get up and move around a little. I hate lying in bed doing nothing– actually, I only hate it when you’re not there. I love cuddling with you, y’know that Bea?”
Beatrice chuckled. “I do. Now, sit down.”
Ava sat down on the counter, much to Beatrice’s fond exasperation, but was still and patient as she let Beatrice take her temperature.
“38,” Beatrice said as she took the thermometer out of Ava’s mouth, immediately turning to rinse it at the sink. “It’s gone down, which is good, but it’s definitely still a fever.”
Ava hummed in response, not really sure what to say. “I’ll take the panadol now, maybe that will help it go down.”
“It should, yes,” Beatrice agreed, moving back into action suddenly as she got out the medicine for Ava and handed her a glass of water that Ava swore appeared out of thin air. “It’s specifically for flu symptoms, so it will help with fevers.”
“Flu symptoms?” Ava asked, scrunching up her nose. She put the first tablet on the tip of her tongue, so her next words were slightly muffled, “It’s probably just a cold, right?”
Beatrice shook her head. “The symptoms you described, they sound like the flu. Plus, you have a fever. Colds don’t cause fevers, my love. Well, not typically. Plus, if it was a cold, your symptoms would’ve been much more onset, rather than appearing as suddenly as they did this morning. This is probably going to leave you sick for at least a week.”
“You’re kidding,” Ava said in disbelief, not wanting to believe that this could be her best day in terms of how she was feeling, for a whole week.
“I wish I was,” Beatrice said sympathetically as Ava swallowed the second tablet. “People usually overcome the flu on their own within 4-10 days, but even then, you could still be tired or coughing for much longer.”
Ava pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows, impressed by Beatrice’s instant, almost encyclopedic knowledge on just about any topic. “Well, I’ll beat it in 4,” she said defiantly.
Beatrice smiled, biting down on her bottom lip slightly. “Well, you better let me take care of you then.”
“Mmmmm, I’m looking forward to it.”
—
Ava got worse as the day went on. By lunch her fever had cooled even more, and she stopped feeling so cold. After dinner the heaviness and discomfort in her chest was gone, but her headache was worse, her congestion was worse, she was coughing more and the body aches and general fatigue were worse. She barely wanted to stand up from the dining room chair after they ate, Beatrice had to coax her up with the promise of a movie, or a shower, or sleep, whatever she wanted.
“I want to wash my face,” Ava groaned, allowing her head to tip back freely, trusting that Beatrice wouldn’t let her start to fall backwards. “I feel all gross.”
Beatrice hummed empathetically and reached up to cradle the back of Ava’s head as her other hand stayed stationed on Ava’s hip. “Do you want to have a shower?” She asked as she rubbed soothing patterns on the nape of Ava’s neck. “It’ll make you feel better, and I can set up a humidifier for you to help with any congestion.”
“Yeah, okay,” Ava said as she brought her head forward again, slowly and sighing a little as she did so. “A shower would be good.”
Beatrice nodded and smiled briefly at her. “Alright. I’ll get it running for you and then I’ll wait for you out in the living room, alright? You can call me in if you want.”
“What, not gonna join me?” Ava drawled slowly, teasingly, as she walked backwards out of the kitchen and then turned around and smirked at Beatrice over her shoulder as she rounded the corner into the hallway. The usual effect of the words was diminished by the congestion making her voice sound funny and the fact that standing up straight hurt her right now.
“Darling, you’re sick,” Beatrice laughed as she jogged slightly to catch up to Ava and follow her down the hallway, placing her hands on Ava’s hips and guiding her towards the bathroom, kissing her shoulder.
“I hate being sick,” Ava pouted as they reached the bathroom, turning on the light while Beatrice got out a towel for her.
“I know, Ava,” Beatrice said sympathetically. “But we can do our best to make sure you get better as quickly as possible, and taking a shower will help that.”
Ava grumbled at Beatrice’s gentle encouragement to get in the shower. “Just tell me to get in the shower, Bea,” she said lightly. “I won’t be long, I don’t think,” she added after, more seriously.
“Take your time,” Beatrice said, smiling. “The humidifiers on the counter, and I can get the nightlight from the guest bedroom if the bathroom light is too bright and is making your headache worse.”
Ava pouted, her chest warm – from Beatrice’s love, not the fever. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you too. Would you like me to get the nightlight?”
“Please,” Ava nodded as she started to take her clothes off.
“I’ll bring the nightlight and then wait outside, alright? Just knock on the door or stick your head out or something if you need me,” Beatrice said as she started to make her way out of the bathroom.
“Thank you,” Ava whispered gratefully, her lips upturned in a slight smile.
—
Ava had a nice, long, warm shower. She took off all her clothes before Beatrice came back with the nightlight, and, as a nice surprise and act of kindness Ava wasn’t expecting, she brought her a glass of water too, in case she, in Beatrice’s words, “ran the water too hot again and make yourself faint from the heat.” Beatrice practically begged her not to take a hot shower, she told her that it would worsen her fever, and Ava listened. It was still warm, just not as hot as usual, but still enjoyable. She took her time, allowed herself to just stand under the stream for a couple minutes as the eucalyptus smell coming from the humidifier started to fill the dimly lit room and unclog her nostrils. She washed her hair, something she didn’t originally plan to do, but when she realised she had the energy for it she thought why not. Her hair was the longest it had been since she had known Beatrice, she had been letting it grow out after the last Holy War – an injury to the back of her head had resulted in Jillian’s medical team shaving a third of her hair away, and despite Beatrice’s gentle love and constant reassurance that she was still very pretty, Ava hated it. She made the hasty decision the first day out of the infirmary to just shave the rest of her head, something she regretted immediately and cried in the bathroom about until Beatrice found her. Beatrice had run her hands over Ava’s shorn hair, asked her if she was okay and consoled her, which did make her feel a bit better, but she hadn’t cut her hair since. Beatrice loved playing with it, when they were laying in bed, or when she stood behind her at the dinner table, or after they got out of the shower… and, you know what, Ava might get Beatrice to help her with her hair now.
Once Ava had gotten changed into the pajamas she brought into the bathroom with her, she opened the bathroom door and stuck her head out, just like Beatrice said to. She watched Beatrice stand up quickly, before she even said anything, as steam poured out of the bathroom (even though her shower wasn’t that hot).
“Hi,” Ava giggled, taking Beatrice’s hand and pulling her inside before shutting the door again.
“Hello,” Beatrice said happily, a little confused on why she had been pulled inside but happy to be there nonetheless, and even happier to see Ava looking better than she had before she had a shower. “Feeling better?”
“Yeah,” Ava sighed happily. “You were right. Again.”
Beatrice merely smiled as she sat down on the toilet lid and watched Ava brush her teeth.
“Can you help me wash my face?” Ava asked once she was done a few minutes later. Her voice already sounded more tired than it did when she brought Beatrice into the bathroom.
Beatrice nodded. “Yeah. Just tell me what to do.”
Ava smiled gratefully at her through the mirror before turning around. “Can you also help me with my hair? I don’t want to blowdry it, it’s too loud and overstimulating right now, but could you braid it?”
Beatrice smiled and nodded happily again. “Yes, of course. You’ll sit down on the stool, I assume?”
Ava nodded as she pulled out the stool they kept in their bathroom out into the floor space and sat down on it, facing the mirror. They first bought a stool when they kept getting injured, Ava from training and Beatrice from her aikido practice, and needed to sit down when they showered; it progressed over the years to just keeping a small wooden stool in the bathroom as occasionally they just liked to sit down on something other than the toilet seat lid while they did things.
“Let’s wash your face first, hmm?” Beatrice half asked, half said, as she ran a towel through Ava’s hair a few more times so it wasn’t dripping water onto the floor.
“Okay,” Ava sighed happily, before seemingly snapping out of whatever haze she was in and sitting up straight. “Okay, um. I have this headband I use to keep my hair back, it’s in the second drawer.”
Beatrice moved around Ava to get to the drawer and find the headband she was talking about. She couldn’t help but laugh when she pulled out the cloth makeup headband with bunny ears at the front.
“Don’t laugh at it,” Ava whined as she held her face in her hands, trying to hide her blush and stop herself from laughing also.
“No, no, I’m not, I just,” Beatrice tried to explain as she continued to laugh lightly. “Why have I never seen this before? It’s so cute!”
Ava glared at her lightheartedly as she finally looked up. “Because I look stupid when I wear it, Bea, not cute.”
“No, you couldn’t,” Beatrice disagreed, finally calming down as she put the headband on Ava, tugging her hair out from underneath and taking the time to adjust it perfectly along her hairline so her hair was covered and out of the way. “You always look cute. And, it’s a bunny headband. It’s kind of funny looking, so it’s cute.”
Ava tried her best not to smile at Beatrice, but failed miserably.
“And I was right,” Beatrice said happily as she stepped beside Ava, “You do look cute.”
Ava shook her head fondly, allowing Beatrice to believe she’d won, before telling her what she does next. “Okay, see that cleaner, the white bottle with the light blue pump?”
“...Yes.”
“I wash my face with that twice before I do anything else.”
“And your washcloth is warm when you wash it off, right?” Beatrice asked as she pumped out the cleanser onto her hands and moved to stand in front of Ava before starting to spread it around her face.
Ava nodded, her eyes closed as she savoured the feeling of Beatrice gently cleansing her face, her fingertips rubbing circles to spread the cleanser out. Beatrice was gentle when she rinsed her face too, rinsing her hands of the cleanser first before wetting her washcloth and allowing it to heat up. She wrung it out before cupping Ava’s face with one hand and washing off the cleanser with the other, rinsing the washcloth once she was done before doing it all again.
“Okay, what next?” Beatrice asked as she hung the washcloth up to dry on their towel rack.
“I have this serum I put under my eyes to help with dark circles. It’s the brown bottle over there,” Ava said, nodding her head in the direction of said bottle. “After that I put this mask on, it’s in the mint green bottle in the mirror cabinet. It’s a leave-on mask, but it needs a few minutes to dry before I put on moisturiser, the same one that you use, so maybe you could braid my hair while we wait for it to dry?” Ava asked, tilting her head back to look up at Beatrice.
“Sounds good,” she said, smiling, unable to resist leaning down to kiss the top of Ava’s head before continuing on with her skincare for her.
Ava kept her eyes open while Beatrice rubbed the serum in under her eyes, gentle and considerate of the fact that Ava had a bit of a headache around there. They kept smiling at each other and giggling about nothing as Beatrice applied the mask for her as well, taking her time to massage it in like it said to on the bottle before finishing it up by tapping Ava lightly on the tip of her nose to get her to open her eyes again.
“I’ll just plait it, if that’s okay?” Beatrice asked in reference to Ava’s hair as she washed her hands.
“Yeah, of course. Thank you,” Ava said, watching Beatrice pick up her hairbrush before moving behind Ava again.
It didn’t take Beatrice long to brush through Ava’s curls and to pull them into a braid that hung loosely down her back, but she was gentle all the same. She took her time to make sure there were no knots in Ava’s hair, and sprayed leave-in conditioner onto her hair before braiding it, making sure it was worked in by running her hands through Ava’s hair. She didn’t tug on any of Ava’s hair when she braided it, and the plait was neat. When Ava absentmindedly remarked how this after shower treatment was so much better than anything she ever received at St Michael’s or anything she could have imagined receiving while she was in there, Beatrice paused in her braiding so that she could lean down and kiss Ava’s forehead many times.
“I like how your hair curls out of the plait almost straight away,” Beatrice commented quietly when she was done, dropping Ava’s hair to fall back against her back as she walked around her again to get the moisturiser and apply that for Ava too. “It’s cute.”
Ava blushed slightly. “It used to really annoy the nuns.”
“That’s such a silly thing to get annoyed about,” Beatrice said, slightly frustratedly. Ava couldn’t help but smile everytime Beatrice released frustration towards the nuns she was in the care of at St Michael’s, particularly Sister Frances. At risk of sounding selfish, she liked knowing that she had people who would protect her now – she liked knowing that she had Beatrice, who would protect her on a whim, even if she put herself in danger by doing so. (Ava didn’t like that part as much, and when they were still fighting in the Holy Wars there were countless arguments about how keeping each other safe meant keeping themselves safe too, but considering they were now past that Ava allowed herself to very occasionally romanticise it).
“Ready for bed?” Beatrice asked a couple minutes later, once the moisturiser was dry. Gentle fingers worked their way under the headband to take if off of Ava’s head, and Ava couldn’t help but sigh in relief at the subsequent feeling of a loss of pressure, even though the headband wasn’t that tight.
Of course, Beatrice caught on to it. “Headache?”
Ava nodded sadly, making Beatrice coo softly, cradle her face and smile at her. “If you head to bed I’ll get you some more medicine to take before you fall asleep, and a glass of water.”
“Okay,” Ava whispered, closing her eyes until Beatrice patted her cheeks.
“Come on,” she whispered, helping Ava up.
“Everything hurts, Bea,” Ava whimpered as they left the bathroom, suddenly feeling much more worse than previously.
Beatrice looked at her in concern and decided that she would help Ava into bed and then go get the medicine, rather than have Ava do it herself. “Anything in particular?”
“My head,” Ava whispered. “My back, and chest. Everything just aches.”
“I know, I know,” Beatrice reassured, whispering as she pushed their bedroom door open and threw her arm out quickly to turn on the overhead light. She winced at her own mistake of not thinking ahead when she saw Ava shut her eyes closed quickly and inhale sharply.
“Oh no, sorry, I’m sorry,” Beatrice said quickly, turning the lamp on and overhead light off as soon as she could.
“It’s okay,” Ava shook her head, reassuring her, as she sat down on the edge of the bed. “Bea, I’m so tired. You better be quick with getting the medicine, or I’m gonna pass out. It just hit me.”
Beatrice was still for a brief moment before startling into action. “Right. Yes. I’ll go get everything.”
Ava watched as Beatrice walked out of the room briskly, and heard her run down the hallway and downstairs. She could very faintly hear the tap running as she swayed in place, suddenly deliriously tired all of a sudden. It almost felt like a sugar crash.
“Here,” Beatrice said when she got back within a couple minutes. “Water, and these pills. There’s 3, is that okay?”
Ava groaned at the sight of them, all of a sudden she could think of nothing she wanted to do less than attempt to swallow the pills, which had always been harder for her, but she knew that Beatrice would help her get better as quickly as possible and these would help her get better.
“I’m sorry,” Beatrice whispered as Ava took one of the pills and the glass of water from her hands.
“Not your fault, Bea,” Ava said, her words slurring together slightly as she looked up at Beatrice to make sure that she knew it wasn’t her fault Ava never really got the hang of swallowing pills easily.
Beatrice took a deep breath and then started telling Ava what each pill was – it was something that both gave her something to do and also something that Ava liked, as even though she trusted Beatrice, so often at St Michael’s Sister Frances would shove pills down her throat without telling her what they were doing to or for her. It was something that comforted Ava, and so Beatrice was always happy to do it.
“The one you just took is panadol. There’s another panadol there and the other one that’s cut in half is magnesium, to help you get through the night,” she said as Ava swallowed the first pill.
Ava felt tears come to her eyes when she realised Beatrice cut the magnesium pill in half because she knew it would be too big for Ava to swallow easily. “Argh, Beatrice, you’re too good for me,” she said as she picked up one half and downed it easily, surprising even herself.
Beatrice sat there, a little confused, but watched Ava take the rest of the pills.
“Okay,” Ava said eventually, once she was done. “I’m tired. I can sleep now, right?”
“Yeah, darling,” Beatrice said lovingly, putting down the glass of water on the nightstand for her as Ava slid down so she was lying down.
“Okay,” Ava sighed, wiggling around under the blanket to get comfortable. “Goodnight, Bea,”
“Goodnight, Ava,” Beatrice said, watching in astonishment as Ava fell asleep practically as soon as she got comfortable. She continued, despite knowing Ava was asleep, “Sleep well. I hope you feel better in the morning.”
She stood up and kissed the side of Ava’s head gently, hoping for Ava’s sake that she actually would feel better tomorrow, despite her own knowledge of illness and the flu telling her that it would be a fruitless attempt.