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"Jeremy, can I just grab that…?" Christina asks, reaching around him. She overestimates how hard she needs to push off the wall in order to reach the desired object.
"Sorry," she laughs when she collides with his shoulder.
She expects him to laugh it off with her, tell her it's okay, and possibly (probably) even apologize himself. He doesn't do any of those things. Instead, the sound he makes is one she's unfamiliar with. It almost sounds like a whimper, or maybe a seethe? But that can't be right…
She looks him over, her brow furrowing slightly. "You okay?" She asks, trying to keep her voice light and calm. They're still extremely close together, and she swears she can feel heat radiating from him. "I…"
Christina frowns, and without further hesitation, presses a palm to his forehead. "I think you're running a fever."
She sees Victor and Reid turn their attention to them almost simultaneously. Jeremy opens and closes his mouth, clearly unsure of what to say.
"Are you feeling okay?" Reid asks, abandoning his task and floating over to them.
"Yeah… um, maybe not?"
Christina frowns. He had seemed perfectly fine before. Victor opens the diagnostic medical kit and hands Christina a thermometer. She turns it on and aims it at Jeremy's forehead. It beeps emphatically at her seconds later.
"Woah… okay," she winces upon seeing the reading. "101.4… what's going on, Jere?" She scans him again to be sure, but the reading doesn't change.
"I don't know, I really didn't notice anything until now…" she raises her eyebrows, glancing back at Reid and Victor who are wearing similarly skeptical expressions.
"You have a fever of 38.6 and you didn't notice?" She converts the number to help him understand how crazy he sounds.
"I don't know, I thought it was normal!" She shakes her head, now thoroughly confused.
"What did you think was normal?" Reid probes. "It's cold… or maybe I just feel cold? And my ears feel weird, but I thought that was just part of being in space…"
Christina purses her lips, "Victor, can you hand me the-?" He places the otoscope in her hand before she can even finish her sentence.
"Does one ear feel more painful or 'weirder' than the other?" She asks, attaching a speculum to the tip of the otoscope. "Maybe the right?" She nods, motioning for him to turn to the left.
He winces when she fits the otoscope into his ear. "Does that hurt?" She asks, turning the light on. "Is it not supposed to?" If she wasn't so focused on trying to diagnose him, she would give him the blankest stare imaginable to convey her incredulity. She simultaneously hopes that he's joking, and knows already that he is completely serious.
"Jeremy, your wife is a doctor, how do you not know these things?" Reid says, sounding as baffled as she feels. "It's been a while!" Jeremy tries to defend himself.
"Okay, even so… how are you so oblivious?" Victor asks, his eyes wide. Jeremy doesn't seem to have a response, so Christina goes ahead and makes her diagnosis. "In my unprofessional opinion, I would say it's an ear infection."
She removes the speculum and grabs a clean one. "Can I look in the other ear to see if it's only on one side?" She asks him and he nods.
"What are you seeing?" Reid asks, tilting his head. "Inflammation mostly… along with the fever and pain.. how's your hearing?" She puts the otoscope and thermometer back in the diagnostic kit and grabs a separate pouch to search for ear drops and Tylenol.
"Fine…? Maybe a little bit muffled actually… on one side." He points to the right side.
"I'll call it in," Reid says, moving towards the console. "Are you sure you feel fine?" Christina asks, looking at him with concern etched across her features.
"Yeah, I mean apart from the minor things I mentioned…" Christina nods, but purses her lips.
The worry doesn't go away, even after she's helped him with the ear drops and handed him some Tylenol.
—
"Jeremy, how does it look from your end?" Victor asks absently, scrolling on the laptop in front of him.
"Jeremy…?" Reid questions when Victor doesn't get a response. Christina looks over to where Jeremy had been working next to her.
His eyes are closed and his body is slowly drifting in her direction. She grabs his arm, briefly afraid that he's not breathing, but he is. She can tell because just as she's thinking that, he snores quietly. She pouts sympathetically, looking back at Reid and Victor as they start to realize what happened.
"Should I wake him?" She whispers, feeling conflicted.
"Hmmm, we can let him sleep, but we should check his temperature again to see if Tylenol helped at all." Victor says, digging the thermometer back out of the medical kit.
"Agreed… I don't care what he says: an ear infection and a temperature that high? He's got to be feeling pretty shitty… he needs the rest." Reid says, pulling Jeremy's sleeping bag out of storage.
This time when Christina scans his forehead, it reads 100.8/38.3. She shows it to her crewmates before pushing it back over for Victor to stow.
"I think he's definitely sweating it out…" Christina says, wiping a few beads of sweat from his forehead before they can separate and go floating around the cabin.
"Poor guy…" Victor says, gently dragging him by the shoulders over to where Reid is holding the sleeping bag open. It's awkward and takes effort from all three of them, but they are eventually able to get him settled into a sleeping bag, tied down so he doesn't bump into them (or any critical equipment) while they work. It's a testament to how tired Jeremy's body that he doesn't stir at all throughout the process.
—
"Hmm…" Christina turns around when she hears Jeremy hum sleepily. She watches him for a few moments to see if he's actually waking up, or just stirring.
"Nana?" He asks, looking around for a moment before finding her gaze. "Hey…" she says with a soft smile. He's been asleep for almost four hours.
"How are you feeling?" She asks, moving closer to him. "Mmm… is it possible that I feel worse?"
She frowns sympathetically. "Yeah, you're probably due for another dose of Tylenol… unless you wanna try Ibuprofen?" He nods at the second option.
She turns to get it for him, but Victor beats her to it once again. "Can you drink some water for me?" Reid asks, holding one of their water packets up to his mouth until he obediently sips from the straw.
Victor pushes over the painkillers and Christina helps him take the pills— it's a little harder to do in zero gravity.
"We'll get you fixed up, buddy…" Christina promises, ruffling his hair.
Jeremy looks around at his crew, still half-dazed from fever and sleep. Victor is stowing the first-aid kit; Reid is tucking the water sachet into his sleeping bag so he can access it without exerting himself, and Tina is pushing his hair away from his sweaty forehead like a concerned mother.
"I love you guys," he murmurs, "And I'm sorry…"
Christina pouts, it's a sweet feverish sentiment, but she doesn't want him to feel like this is his fault. "We love you too, but you have nothing to be sorry for, okay?" She says, making eye contact with him.
He nods, his eyes starting to droop. Reid notices it and rubs his shoulder as he speaks softly, "Get some rest, Jeremy… we've got everything covered. You just focus on feeling better."