Chapter Text
pete wakes up to somebody leaning over her and shaking her side. she squints up at the face of the person who woke her up.
patrick’s bottom lip is caught between his teeth, and he looks like he’s going to bite right through it if he continues for much longer. pete decides not to let this happen, and she sits up and cups her boyfriend's face in her hands. “What’s wrong?”
it takes about 3 and a half seconds before there are tears streaming down patrick’s face, and he starts to hiccough. pete stands up to turn the light on and find some tissues, and when the lights in the bedroom finally flicker on, patrick manages to get out “i’m really sorry” in between hiccups.
she finds the tissues on the nightstand - where they usually are anyway - and offers them to patrick. he takes them and uses a couple to scrub at his eyes, but in the end they just get balled up in his fists.
pete doesn’t see the blood on the sheets until patrick kicks angrily at the duvet and it falls uselessly onto the wood floor. she immediately pulls her boyfriend over into her lap and lets him shove his face in the crook of pete’s neck and cry some more. “you’re okay,” she whispers and rubs his back. “you don't need to be sorry.”
“i ruined the sheets,” patrick hiccoughs in argument. “everyone’s going to be mad at me.”
this leads to more insistent sobs, until pete pushes patrick back slightly and holds onto his shoulders with her hands. “hey, hey, i’m not mad at you, okay? i’m not mad.”
patrick sniffles again and looks at her skeptically. “promise?”
“i promise.” pete presses a kiss to the tip of patrick’s nose and hugs him again until his sobs cease to somewhat less-insistent hiccoughs. she wraps her boyfriend’s arms around her neck and his legs around her waist and carries him to the bathroom.
patrick sits cross legged on the floor while pete runs hot water in the bath tub with strawberry scented bubbles. they usually all help each other out with this sort of thing, but joe and andy are out of town for the weekend visiting some friends in florida, so it’s just the two of them back home.
once the bath water is up far enough, pete helps patrick strip down and into the tub. “i’m going to throw the sheet in the wash real quick,” she tells him. “i’ll be right back.”
patrick only whimpers in response, so she kisses the top of his head before going back into the bedroom and stripping the sheets off of the bed. pete sprays them quickly with the stain remover, and then carries them into the laundry room and throws them into the wash.
when pete returns to the bathroom, patrick is staring miserably into space. he’s moved the bubbles to cover up his breasts.
pete grabs the cup the keep at the bathroom sink for this exact situation and fills it up with warm water. she sits on the edge of the tub and pours it gently onto patrick’s hair. pete does thus a few more times until his hair is nice and wet and then squirts shampoo into her hands and starts scrubbing at his scalp.
patrick leans into the touch and lets pete wash his hair, because god knows he needs somebody to take care of him right now. his datefriend washes the soap out of his hair, and then pete picks up the loofa on the sink and puts a floral-scented shower soap on it. she helps patrick start scrubbing.
he has to close his eyes for a lot of it, and pete understands.
when patrick is finally cleaned up, pete helps him change into his favorite pyjamas and carries him to the couch in the living room. she covers him in blankets and grabs a tub of chocolate ice cream and a spoon from the kitchen. pete returns to heft boyfriend to find him going through netflix, searching for movies. she trades him the ice cream for the remote and puts on one of their favorite films.
pete crawls under the blankets and wraps herself around patrick. she lets him rest his head on her chest.
“thanks,” patrick manages to whisper before falling asleep halfway through the movie.