Work Text:
Bobby’s never really been a man who subscribed to the toughest parts of masculinity. You really can’t be an ice skater and a macho man, they just don’t go together. It’s in this fashion that he thinks that he doesn't have to always have to be 100% around his new wife. She knows he’s human, she knows this was not intentional, but he still feels awful. Like, actually laid up in bed awful. And sure, maybe he was feeling pathetic. And sure, this was reminding him of the accident and withdrawals, but he didn't have any brain power to deal with that. So, he laid in bed. Poorly. Athena came home from the night shift to see her husband still in bed at 10 AM.
Michael was always getting the man flu, she thought it was the same until she realized he wasn’t playing, fever burning his forehead from the inside out. It was bad. She almost called Hen to come over to do a once over, something she wasn't taking off the table yet. She looks at her husband, his normally baritone voice deeper and rawer than yesterday, scratching his throat as as he greets her, unable to even roll over with his back.
She immediately drops whatever dumbass thing she was going to say, and goes over, wondering how she can help soothe her new husband. His face pinched in pain he cannot hide no matter how hard he tries. They’ve talked about sickness before, how to deal with the days Bobby’s back aches and he wants so damn badly to take a pill that will ruin him. They've talked at length about the accident and his addiction that she can recite the story to others verbatim. She knows how to deal with Michael when he was sick: put him on the couch, give him cold medicine, ice packs, wet rags, take care of the kids, and ply him with lots of soup until it’s over. With Bobby, it’s harder. He’s been on his own for so long, he doesn't know how to let others in, especially not for the odd times he ends up actually getting sick and not just sneezing his way through a shift.
Bobby felt withdrawal was penance for the suffering he caused others, there's no penance here.
Athena ends up texting Hen to make sure she’s not missing anything though after being a mom of fifteen odd years, she hasn’t missed anything.
She draws him a bath of warmer water for his back, with a cool rag for his forehead. It works like a dream and he finally relaxes. He ends up crying at some point that night, exhausted, relieved, and still feeling awful mentally because of everything. She makes a note to bring up some of this stuff in the coming weeks, how he’s not less of a man for needing help in the bath or for crying in relief when his back finally let up. She also brings up how he deserves comfort and care. That despite everything he’s still deserving of good things . A conversation she’s had with him before and will definitely end up having again with him. They make a better sick day plan for him, including the kids to varying degrees depending on if they’re in the house. It works out for them in the end, bringing them closer together. Happy ending, enough anyways.