Chapter Text
Autumn's eyes were heavy with exhaustion, even with Marjorie talking nonstop about whatever thought popped into her brain, her eyes kept falling closed. She didn't get sick often, in fact she could probably count on one hand the amount of times she had gotten sick in the past year, but when she did it was like her body forced her to feel months of possible illnesses all at once.
When she was younger, no matter how sick she was, she had to go to school. Her father had a zero tolerance policy for skipping school, no matter the reason. And unfortunately for her, she had carried that into adulthood. Truthfully, Autumn only stayed home if Winter was sick as well or he forced her to.
Her whole body ached, making walking sound like a near impossible task. Her head pounded, and marjoire's constant talking was helping much with that.
"Autumn?" The change in Marjorie's tone of voice jarred her out of the haze of pain and exhaustion her brain had gotten stuck in. "Are you feeling alright, my love? You look quite flushed."
Autumn hummed slightly, knowing damn well that Marjorie couldn't decode what it meant. She countined on with her work, fully intending to ignore her symptoms by burying herself in work.
It didn't work.
Not even close. The relatively minor symptoms only got worse as the day progressed. The headache she had earlier was now boarding on being a migraine, the body aches had gotten worse too, she had also managed to develop a cough within the last six hours, and to top it all off her stomach had decided to begin to ache making her feel constantly nauseous.
"Autumn, you really should go home. You are definitely sick, " Marjorie said, leaning closer to Autumn, clearly trying to feel her forehead. Luckily for Autumn, her glare was enough to get her to back off. "You've been unnaturally quiet even for you, that cough is steadily getting worse, and you keep shivering even though I turned up the heat already."
"Marjorie. I'm not going home forty-five minutes before my shift ends." Autumn said, her voice somehow even softer than normal. "and furthermore, I am not sick -"
The cough that ripped itself from her chest seemed dead set on proving her wrong. She sucked in a deep breath, placing a hand on her chest.
"You were saying?" Marjorie asked, raising an eyebrow at her before reaching back over to feel her forehead. Autumn barely dodged her. She only succeeded because she pushed her chair back out of Marjorie's reach.
"My shifts over." Autumn said, muffling another cough in her shoulder as she quickly packed her bag. "I will see you tomorrow."
Autumn made her way down the hallway, slower than normal due to the constant aches throughout her entire body, but she eventually made it to Winter. He was shutting down the toddler room when she came in. A smile broke out on his face when he saw her, but it quickly faded when he saw how she was carrying herself.
"My love?" He questioned briefly, but he quickly stopped as Autumn reached for him. Winter's arms came up to hold in a hug, swaying slightly side from side to soothe her. "Easy.. you're okay."
Autumn hummed slightly at his soothing words. His warmth was infecting, relaxing her tense body. her eyes started to drift close again as she nuzzled into his neck. Her legs shook ever so slightly, causing her to put more weight on him
"Oh, okay, I've got you." Winter said, his voice softening as he figured out what was going on. He quickly scanned the hallway, making sure it was empty, not wanting to damage her pride or her reputation before picking her up.
Autumn made a soft noise of surprise at the change in position before settling against Winter’s chest. Her face was pressed deeply into his neck as her hands clutched the fabric of his jumper. Winter chuckled softly, making sure one more time that they wouldn't run into anyone before ducking out of the toddler room and heading for the car park.
Winter carefully placed his girlfriend in the car. Confusion tugged at her features as she could no longer feel his warmth. He leaned in placing a soft kiss to her forehead, both to gauge her temperature and to hopefully soothe her a little. He frowned at the near suffocating warmth he felt radiating from her feverish body, and he quickly strapped her in before driving away.
Autumn was fast asleep by the time Winter made it home. Her head was leaning against the window, but her hand was wrapped tightly around Winter's.
"My love, we're home." He said, his voice as soft as possible to avoid startling her, but she still jumped slightly. Her hands were coming up to rub her eyes as she yawned. He watched as confusion pulled at her face again as she processed what he said.
"How did i get in the car?" She asked. Winter winced at how raw her voice was. He reached over, brushing her hair out of her face.
"I carried you." Winter said simply as he helped her out of the car. Her face went white with either pain or panic. Either way, Winter did his best to soothe it. "Easy, no one saw. I made sure of it."
Winter's arm wrapped around her waist, encouraging her to put some weight of him. Her body gladly took advantage of even if her brain wanted to hold on to the remaining sliver of her walls.
Autumn dropped onto the sofa, tugging a blanket over herself. She rubbed at her temples before nuzzling into the pillows. Her eyes drifted shut again, even though she insisted she was still awake. Winter leaned down, pressing a kiss to her forehead before pulling off her glasses and placing them on the table next to her.
Winter went into the kitchen to find something that he could make for dinner. He knew that it had to be easy on her stomach so that she hopefully wouldn't get sick later that night. He settled on plain pasta for autumn and pasta with sauce for him.
He got absorbed in the cooking and didn't hear Autumn's softly walking into the kitchen. He did feel when her arms wrapped around his waist. He smiled softly as Autumn nuzzled into the back of his neck. They stayed like that for a brief moment until Autumn pulled her face away from him as she coughed forcefully into her arm.
"Judging by that cough I'm taking that you aren't feeling any better?" Winter asked, turning the heat down on the stove to let the sauce simmer. He turned, rubbing her back, and she coughed.
"Im fine -" She started but stopped when she saw the look of disbelief on Winter's face. "It's just my head and throat bothering me now."
She wasn't totally lying. Her stomach had mostly calmed down, though she wasn't sure if eating was a good idea, She still had a fever that would rack her body with chills ever once and awhile, and she her body still aches with ever movement.But she did feel slightly better after the nap she'd had on the sofa and in the car.
"Sure." Winter said, still not totally believing her. He ushered her over to the table, having her sit down before sliding a plate of plain pasta in front of her. "Here you go. Pasta, just the way you like it. I would've added sauce, but I didn't know if your stomach could handle it."
Autumn could feel as the tears welled up in her eyes at Winter's thoughtful meal. She couldn't remember the last time someone had taken care of her like he was doing. She would never understand how loving her seemed like the easiest thing in the world to him, when she had been told her whole life she was difficult to love. She quickly wiped the tears that had begun to fall away before he could see.
Winter sat on the other side of the table from her with his own plate of food. He spent the remainder of dinner trying to make her laugh by telling her silly stories. He mostly succeeded, but as the dinner went on, he could see the illness start weighing on her once again.
She gave him another strained smile as he cleared the table. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead as he passed her. Winter paused at the sink, looking back at his wife. The fact her head didn't immediately snap around to look him when he started quietly watching her was a testament to how sick she must have been.
Winter crossed the kitchen quickly, helping his wife to her feet. He wanted to carry her, to scoop her up in his arms and keep her safe. But he knew better than offered that. Instead, he kept close behind just in case she were to falter.
Autumn dropped down onto the bed, rolling over to curl into the blankets. Winter wanted to let her rest, but he knew that she would be pissed if he let her fall asleep without doing any of her night routine. Thankfully, she wasn't fully asleep. She was fading in out, but it was easy enough to wake her.
"My love, shower or bath?" Winter asked softly, rubbing her back softly. Autumn's face scrunched up in thought. She turned her face away from his to cough again.
"Bath, please." She mumbled softly, her voice sounding even worse. Winter could tell that the fever she had earlier had come back with vengeance.
Winter nodded, picking her up into his arms. She whined softly at the change in position but quickly settled in against him. He wanted to countine holding her when he saw how peaceful she looked, pressed up against him, but he knew he couldn't. He placed her on the counter, praying that she could stay upright for a few minutes.
He turned on the water, making sure it was at the perfect temperature before helping her undress and into the bath. Winter pressed another kiss to her forehead, Autumn smiled softly before her hand shot out.
"Stay?"
Winter smiled softly at her. How could he say no to a question like that?
"Of course, my love. Always."