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“Dammit Jim!”
Jim was startled awake by the sound of Bones groaning from... Somewhere. He sits up and blinks a few times in the darkness to try to clear both his vision and his head. Although he was having a hard time getting his bearings, hearing Bones’ retching from where he now pinpointed as the bathroom, his thoughts focused sharply.
He was sick. He had the flu, as he had for the past couple days. Although he was over the whole vomiting part now, he was still weak, tired, sore, and all those other pleasant things that come with having the flu. He remembered heaving a sigh of relief when Bones said it was just a normal flu, and not some horrendous alien disease he might have picked up on their last away mission. And judging from the ever-so-pleasant sounds coming from the bathroom, it sounded like Bones was now sick, too.
Jim shuffled around the corner from their bed into the bathroom, wasn’t surprised at what he found. Bones was sitting awkwardly on the white tile floor, head pressed against the rim of the toilet bowl, breathing heavily. Just by the looks of him, Jim could tell he knew exactly how Bones was feeling - it wasn’t too long ago that he was there himself. The churning stomach, the burning throat, the shit-tasting mouth, the overall crappiness of it all; it sucked. Jim quietly padded over to Bones, sitting with his back against their Jacuzzi jet bathtub, and reached out his hand to gently rub Bones’ back.
Meanwhile, Bones leaned up and wretched a few more times into the toilet bowl. Nothing seemed to be left in his stomach, so nothing came out except for a mixture of strangled sounds and groans. He put his forehead back on the toilet seat, breathing deeply in an attempt to steady himself. After a few minutes, he reached up, flushed the toilet, and shifted himself so he was leaning half on the bathtub behind him and half on Jim, whose hand had shifted to his shoulder in a welcomed attempt at comfort.
“I can’t believe you got me sick,” Bones rasped after a few minutes. Jim chuckled lightly, thinking to himself I’m not. After all Bones had done for him during the past few days, all the time they’d spent together, in such close proximity, it was no surprise the bug had spread from Jim to Bones. But instead of replying, he pulled his arm off of Bones’ shoulders and cradled Bones’ cheek in his hand. Jim had a feeling he himself was running a bit of a fever, but Bones’ was worse, and he leaned into Jim’s cooler hand. After a moment, Jim began to get concerned - Bones was way too hot. It might have just been his protective instinct, but he decided he better not risk Bones’ brain for convenience’s sake, and he hauled himself to his feet.
“Come on, Bones,” Jim said softly, reaching down and lifting his sick best friend up and slipping an arm around his hips to keep him up. They make a pit stop at the sink on their way back to bed, where Jim grabs a cup and fills it with some mouthwash. He hands it to Bones, who obediently accepts it, and holds it up to his mouth with a shaky hand until Jim guides it back. He swishes the burning minty liquid around his mouth, glad he was getting rid of the disgusting vomit flavor that remained in his mouth. He spit it out, rinsed out his mouth once more, and brought his arm around Jim’s shoulders to give him better balance. With Bones leaning heavily on him, they made their way back to their bed, slow and steady, like Bones had done for Jim just a week ago. He gently lowered Bones onto their bed, setting him on top of the covers and pulling off his long sweat pants, leaving him in an old undershirt and his boxers.
Bones felt Jim pull off his sweat pants, but he didn’t object. In fact, he relaxed a little with the feeling of the cool air directly upon even more of his burning skin. He was vaguely aware of hearing Jim’s footsteps heading back to the bathroom, and the sound of running water echoing through their apartment. The next thing he knew, Jim’s concerned-but-exhausted face was above him, fingers gently pushing his eyelids closed. He then felt a cool, wet towel being laid over his eyes and forehead. He sighed a little, and didn't get a chance to thank Jim before he felt himself dozing off again. He felt Jim roll into bed beside him just before he nodded off, and he wasn't surprised. Although this was the first time they’d slept in the same room for a couple days, as Jim had obviously been sick. Since Jim was the sick one, he had gotten the bed (and therefore the bedroom) while Leo had volunteered to take the couch. It hadn’t been a bad arrangement, but he had missed the comfort of Jim in the bed next to him. He knew, in the back of his mind, that they would probably wake up in the morning intertwined in one way or another, but, at that moment, he was too tired to even think about that extensively. The sound of Jim’s steady breathing, combined with his own exhaustion, lulled him to sleep almost immediately.
*************
Bones woke up a few hours later, chilled to the bone. He noticed he was still on top of the blankets on his and Jim’s bed, and he still had the now-room temperature washcloth on his forehead. He peeled off the washcloth and rolled off the bed, pulled the blankets down so he could get underneath them, and sank back into bed. He pulled the blankets up around his chin, shivering and willing himself to get warmer.
Jim woke up when he felt Bones’ familiar weight leave the bed, and he rolled onto his side to quietly watch him climb back in. Jim reached over to wrap himself around Bones, noticing immediately that he was freezing. He pulled him in tighter, tangling their legs together and pressing Bones’ shoulder into his chest. Bones rolled onto his side, pressing his back into Jim’s warm chest. Jim smiled to himself, snaking his arms around Bones’ cool stomach and holding him tight. He fell right back to sleep.
But it takes Bones a while to drift back into the realm of unconsciousness. He lay awake, able to think more clearly as the coldness left him where Jim held him. He knew he’d been getting sick for about a day. He’d even gone so far as to inject himself with some hypos for an immune system boost, but apparently that hadn’t helped as much as he’d hoped. He had still woken up in the middle of the night with a really bad stomach ache one minute, then he’d found himself sprinting to the bathroom the next.
A shudder shook his body, not from chill, but from the memory of vomiting. He had never liked it, and thought anyone who did was crazy. It was a foreign feeling to him: he hadn’t had the flu since his late teens, and when he’s upchucking from too much alcohol he’s too drunk to remember much anyway. But this memory was new; sharp, sour, acidic, and just generally shitty.
He didn’t blame Jim though, not really. It wasn’t his fault that he got sick: it was flu season in San Francisco, after all. If it was anyone’s fault at all, it was Bones’. He was the one who insisted on spending all day every day taking care of Jim. It didn’t really matter: they were planetside for repairs in between missions aboard the Enterprise, and it’s not like he had anything else to do he assured Jim multiple times a day. Even though he did have things to do, or at least things he could be doing other than take care of his best friend, he didn’t want to. He wouldn’t admit it to Jim, but there was honestly nothing he’d rather be doing than taking care of him when he was sick. The doctor getting sick himself was to be expected, but he’d been surprised by the sudden onset nonetheless.
Leo let himself zone out, and soon he was asleep once more.
******************
"Come on, Bones. Ya gotta wake up," Jim's voice dragged Leo out of his slumber, back into their bedroom.
Bones groaned and rolled over, away from the late morning sunlight streaming in their window, shoving his face in his pillow.
"There we go," Jim said quietly, leaning away from Bones and rasping a weak cough before turning back to his friend. "Come on, I need to take your temperature," he said, holding out a tricorder and poking Leo's arm with the end of it. Leo rolled over again, laying on his back, and cracking open his eyes. Once he got over the shock of the bright morning sunlight, he saw Jim's face leaning over him. Bones shifted over so Jim could sit down on the bed next to him.
Jim sat down gently and began to scan him. Normally, Leo would object, because dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, I can take care of myself, but he was too tired to do so right now. Maybe he'd harass Jim about it later. While Jim scanned him, Bones got his first good look at Jim since he'd gone to bed. Even though he didn't know how long he'd been out, he had a feeling it'd been a while. He watched as Jim took his readings, saw the exhaustion behind his red-rimmed eyes, and the pain involved with every slight movement he made. He felt bad for Jim, felt guilty for making Jim take care of him. But dammit Jim, you got me sick.
The tricorder displayed its final readings, and Jim frowned a little.
"How bad is it?" Bones asked in a rasping voice.
"Could be worse," Jim replied in a similarly gravelly voice. Upon getting a look from Leo that prompted him further, he added, "You're sick, but you're not going to die. The tricorder indicates increased temperature and white blood cell levels. Nothing else, though, which I guess is a good thing."
Bones rolled his eyes. He knew that much already. That was obvious. He was pretty glad Jim at least knew how to use a tricorder, though. He sighed, and sat himself up in bed.
“What else do you want, Jim? That couldn’t have been all.”
“Nope, that was all I really needed.” Jim said, somewhat dejectedly. He didn’t really want to bug Bones, especially when he was sick, but he was kinda bored and missed his best friend. When Bones shot him that look again, though, he admitted, “I’m tired of being alone. You’ve been asleep for hours and I’m bored. So... Can I get you something?” Jim asked, trying so hard to be helpful but unobtrusive it was almost funny.
Leo couldn’t help but crack a little smile. He pulled his legs to his chest, and groaned. He had been ok when Jim woke him up, but now he was starting to hurt. He slowly lowered his legs over the side of the bed, sitting hunched over next to Jim and sighing before hauling himself to his feet. Jim followed suit, making a superhuman effort to not appear to be in pain, but failing. Bones led them over to the couch where he promptly collapsed into the nest Jim had been making over the past couple of days. Jim followed, but before he fell into their nest he grabbed a couple hypos of aspirin off the side table. When he sat down, Bones had already closed his eyes again, trying to get comfortable. He hypoed Bones’ neck, earning him a weak swat at his hand and a grumbling doctor. A moment later, that same grumbling doctor took the other hypo from his friend and injected it in Jim’s neck. He wasn’t afraid of Jim having an allergic reaction, though, because he had made sure that Jim wasn’t allergic to the aspirin before giving it to him the first time.
The aspirin helped relax their sore muscles, and soon they both resigned themselves to taking just a quick nap.
***************************
Jim awoke a while later, when Bones had a cough attack in his sleep. This particular cough attack woke the two of them up, but Bones fell back to sleep within seconds. Jim, on the other hand, didn’t want to go back to sleep.
Instead, he got up and made his way to the kitchen. He shuffled his bare feet across the white tile floors in a daze, and found himself in front of their fridge. Sniffling, he grabs a container of the soup Bones made for him yesterday and divides it up into two bowls. He heats it up and heads over to their nest again, grabbing a couple extra boxes of tissues and 2 bottles of electrolyte-infused water for good measure.
By the time he finished gathering all the things he thought they would need, Jim was freezing again. Shaking by the time he got back to where Leo had cocooned himself in their blankets, Jim tossed the extra tissues, blankets, and drinks in the general direction of the closest side table where their soup was sitting, and pried the blankets out of Bones’ grasp. He slid himself inside the bundle of blankets on their corner couch, and inserted himself next to Bones, pressing their bodies together in an attempt to share the warmth. He wrapped his arms around Leo’s torso, nuzzling him in the neck and entwining their legs together.
Even encased in heat like that, it took awhile for Jim to get warm again. Then, all too soon, he was hot. He disentangled himself from Bones’ sleeping grasp, and kicked off the covers. When Leo stirred in his sleep, curling in on himself, Jim realized that he had taken all his covers off of him, too. So he tossed the blankets back over Bones’ now shivering form, and scooted away on the couch, towards where their now room-temperature soup was sitting on the side table. He made himself eat a few bites before he gave up eating: he wasn’t hungry, but he knew that he needed to eat to get better.
The remote was sitting tantalizingly close to him, and after a moment’s deliberation, he decided to turn on a movie. Jim found a movie he’d been meaning to see for a long time on one of the old rerun channels: the first Harry Potter. He tried to keep the volume low, so he wouldn’t disturb Bones too much, but he didn’t think it worked too well. Within a few minutes, Bones was sitting up, a duvet wrapped around his shoulders, watching the screen intently. Jim passed him his soup without prompting, and Leo took it without question, only glancing at Jim for a moment before fixing his gaze back on the screen.
They watched the movie in silence, not thrilled with the special effects, but entranced in the story. When Bones’ wet sniffling became nearly constant, Jim tossed a new tissue box at him. He blew his nose with a honking sound, annoyingly so, but Jim couldn’t complain. Leo’d put up with it from him for a couple days now, and it wasn’t like he could help it, so Jim said nothing. They actually managed to watch most of the movie, between bouts of sneezing, coughing fits, and nearly continuous nose blowing between the two of them.
By the end of the movie, both their noses were bright red and their eyes were red rimmed and glassy, but they were smiling. During the credits, Bones spoke up for the first time since he woke up, stripping himself of his shirt in the process.
“Jim? Did you put that on on purpose?” He asked, his voice raspy.
“Nope, it was just on. I had heard of it before, and I’ve been meaning to watch it for years, but I didn’t pick it out especially. Why?” Jim asked in a similarly raspy voice, tossing Bones another bottle of water.
“Cause I really liked it, that’s why. What’s on next?”
“I don’t know, let me check... The next one, I think.” Jim replied, looking at the title screen that just popped up on the screen.
“How many are there?” Bones asked curiously.
“Let’s look.” Jim said, pulling a PADD from the side table and looking up Harry Potter. “Apparently, it’s a series of 7 books and 8 movies from the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It’s one of those classics.” Jim read off of the results his search brought up.
“8 movies?” Bones asked incredulously. “That’s gonna take forever!” he exclaimed.
“Then it’s a good thing we have all day. And all day tomorrow. And probably the day after that, too.” Jim said with a smile.
Getting cold again, Jim got up and clambered over the growing pile of used tissues to get to his lovers side. He crawled under the blankets, taking off his shirt and tossing it aside before he cuddled up next to Bones. Their warm chests pressed together as Jim rested his forehead against Bones’. He smiled as he looked into his eyes, and pressed a soft kiss on his lips. Bones smiled and ran his fingers through Jim’s hair soothingly, and they just laid there, together, until they heard the credits come to an end. They looked up at the screen together as they heard the theme song start again, more than ready to get on with the story.
About half an hour in, Jim heard Bones moaning lightly, drawing his attention to him.
“What’s up, Bones?” he asked quietly.
“Hurts,” Leo replied quietly, but not prying his eyes away from the screen.
“Where?”
“Head, stomach, back, everything,” Bones replied miserably.
“Here,” Jim said, moving a pillow down to where Bones’ feet were and sitting up. “Lie down on your stomach,” he commanded. Bones looked at him quizzically, but obeyed nonetheless. The next thing he knew, he felt Jim straddling his lower back. And before he could say anything about this definitely not being a good time for sex, he felt Jim’s hands sinking into the muscles on his back. “Just relax, Bones. I’m not going to do anything stupid,” Jim said, a smile audible in his voice.
So Leo listened, and let Jim do his thing. He worked out some of the tension in his shoulders, before making his way down to his lower back. Somehow, Jim managed to ease away the pain entrapped in his muscles. Jim even stroked his hand through Leo’s hair a few times, and tried rubbing light circles on his scalp to alleviate the pain. He kissed the junction between Bones’ neck and shoulder when he was done, and lay down next to him to watch more of the movie.
So when Jim started moaning quietly during the next movie, Bones felt he was justified in massaging away the pain in Jim’s shoulders and back.
And that’s how they spent their day, cuddled together, blankets continuously moving from around their shoulders to around their feet and back again, watching the classic Harry Potter movies. Massaging away pain, getting wet towels for their foreheads, and taking turns getting whatever else they may need from the kitchen.
And, even though Bones really didn’t like being sick, and neither did Jim, they were both happy that they had someone to suffer through it with. They were very glad to have each other.
The day drew to a close, and the first Harry Potter movie started again on the bright screen. In the darkness, illuminated solely by the light from the movie, lay Jim and Bones, their legs intertwined and arms wrapped tightly around each other, snores mingling together in the cool air as the movie continued on through the night.