So Sunday night ended with a nasty feeling. I woke up shortly after going to sleep, feeling really sick. I felt like my head was going to explode, and my stomach rolled. I was cold and clammy. Usually, when dolls get like this, they end up being tossed in the Dumpster. So naturally, I was terrified.
I tried to lay down, but there wasn't any space. I grasped Rapunzel's hand and patted her shoulder gently, hoping she would just move over and go back to sleep.
She looked up at me with a confused smile, which quickly faded when I asked her if I could lay down. Just move over and go back to sleep? Yeah, then I remembered this was my wife...she jumped up with a gasp, realized how sick I was, and then asked what the matter was. When I explained it, she was horrified. Then, she just tore off. I sat down and put my head between my knees, willing the nausea to go away. When she came back, she had two of Tangled Fan's shirts with her, which she folded up. She then helped me over to behind the lamp and made me lie down, and then she tenderly put the other shirt over me. I thought she'd come back over, but she just went to sit by the alarm clock. Hallie started to cry, so she picked her up and held her, I guess. I was squeezing my eyes shut and willing the painful headache to go away. Eventually, I realized that I might end up in a Dumpster by morning and I wanted my wife beside me as long as I could. I called her name once, but it ended up just a gravelly whisper, but I had more success on the second attempt. She came over quickly, sitting down and asking what was wrong.
I told her, "Lay down. You'll never get any sleep like that." Only my voice stuttered.
Her voice shook when she disagreed. "I don't want to disturb you."
I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut at the sudden zing of pain in my head from shaking it.
I heard a little gasp-y noise, and then she smoothed a warm hand over my forehead. I felt her stand to leave, and I opened my eyes long enough to grab her hand. I hated how shaky I was, but I hated even worse how shaky she was.
When she hesitated, I said, "Please?" I didn't want to elaborate on my concern.
She slipped down beside me and then I felt her arms go around me, and she kissed me on the cheek. I heard something that sounded like drops of water fall onto the shirt, and I realized she was crying. She was trembling, too.
Finally, I heard the door click open, and Tangled Fan walked in. Rapunzel jumped up and ran for the 'deck', where I heard her whispering about the situation with Tangled Fan.
I opened my eyes just as the lamp was clicked on. The light burned my eyes horribly! I held an arm up and shielded my face, exclaiming on how it hurt.
Tangled Fan seemed to know exactly what the problem was, why I had the problem (sleep deprivation), and within minutes, she'd gotten something rubbed on my face and I had downed a tiny bit of Pepto-Bismol. Whatever was smeared on my face seemed to make my headache die down a bit. She wiped it off and then left us to our own devices, after telling me that if I was still having what she called a migraine by morning, she'd give me some Excedrin. She instructed Rapunzel to keep an eye on me, too.
Rapunzel got up and situated things so that the kids wouldn't get wakened up by the lamp that was on, and then by the time she came back, I was finally feeling somewhat better.
She stood in front of me. "Feel better?"
"Yeah..." I said quietly. I tried to give her a smile, but then I realized how red her eyes were. "Your eyes are red." I felt bad that she had been so scared she'd cried.
And yet, she tried to cover it up to keep me from being concerned. "Um, bloodshot, yeah."
"No..red, like crying red. I'm sorry if I scared you."
The levee finally broke. "Of course you scared me! Dolls usually don't have a good outcome when they feel like that! I didn't want to lose you. Don't you dare ever do that again!" She thought for a second, and her face almost crumpled. "I'm so, so sorry - you probably got it from sitting up sleeping, didn't you? Oh my gosh, it's all my fault!" She clapped a hand to her mouth in horror.
I silently held a hand out, hoping she'd sit back down by me.
She didn't take it, and I wondered why for a second. She marched over, dropped to her knees, and thrust herself into me to kiss with such force, I wondered if her life depended on it. Her whole body was shaking and I could feel her heart thundering, still, so I returned the kiss, hoping to show her that I would be alright. I felt a zing of something go up my spine, which was quickly followed by a short wave of nausea, which I tried to push down, by focusing on my wife. She eventually pulled away, to touch her forehead with my still-clammy one. She told me that I wouldn't sleep sitting up again.
I protested, still touching heads with her. "But you'll get wakened up if I get up to tend to the babies."
"I'll get up, too, then! They're not so bad now." She pulled away and touched my cheek with her hand, a concerned look on her face. "How're you feeling?"
I still felt pretty crummy, but I didn't want to tell her that. And I really did feel better than I had earlier! "Substancially better, thank you." I told her. To prove it, I reached up to smooth the hair out of her face.
She started to lean in towards me, but stopped and instead, sat down the whole way.
She wrapped her arms tightly around me, and I held her gently around the waist. She was still shaking, the poor thing. She sighed, sounding like a baby who'd cried itself to sleep. We slid down the wall of the shelf and just laid there. She was shaking so hard, so I tightened my grip around her.
"I love you. So, so much. I might not act as affectionate, but I love you...I was so scared..I'm sure you were, too...I wish I'd stop shaking, I'm probably bothering you! I feel so bad this happened to you. You know..." she kept whispering in my ear until I nodded off. I still felt her, however, when she set a small kiss on my forehead, turned the light off, tightened her grip around me - if that was even possible - and laid her sweet head down on my chest. And then I was out.
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