Sunday night, I didn't get to sleep very long.
Flynn woke me at too-early o'clock. He clutched my hand and leaned over me. His face was white. "I-I don't feel good...I-I...can I lie down here? I'm s-so sorry."
"Are your teeth chattering?" I gasped, jumping up.
"I'm clammy and feel like I'm going to throw up...my head's throbbing and I feel practically like I'm gonna, like, die or something.." when he saw my hand fly up to my heart, he said, "No, not...not literally die...I just need to lie down.."
I told him to sit and wait a couple seconds. I jumped from our 'deck' to the chair and made it. I clambered around onto the trunk at the foot of the bed and found a couple of Tangled Fan's old shirts I knew weren't in use anymore.
It was all I could do to drag them back, but I did, and quickly folded the one up to make a bed.
I took him and eased him back around to lie down onto the makeshift bed.
I tucked the shirt around him and tried to hide my shaking hands. Us dolls didn't normally get sick, and if we did, it was usually really serious. I didn't want to disturb him, so I went over to sit by the alarm clock.
Allie was getting pretty good at sleeping all night, but Hallie started crying. I picked her up and held her close up against my chest, and watched Flynn out of the corner of my eye. I tried so hard not to cry, but I was terrified. Tangled Fan wasn't in her room right now, or I'd get her and try to help him.
When Hallie stopped crying and drifted off to sleep, I heard Flynn say my name softly.
I sat beside him. "What, honey?" I whispered.
"Lay down...you'll n-never get any s-sleep like th-that."
My heart pounded. His voice was really faint and gravelly. My voice shook. "I'm fine. I don't want t-to disturb you."
He shook his head, and I silently let some tears spill down my cheeks. It was dark and his eyes were squeezed shut anyway. He felt so sickly, but he still was concerned about me. When I realized that, I almost sobbed, but suppressed it. Biting my lip, I smoothed a hand over his clammy forehead, but then I went to stand. He clutched my hand with surprising strength, despite his shakiness.
I don't really know why I didn't want to lay down beside him. I mean, we are married and everything, and the normal thing would be to do that, but it seemed way too awkward to me...but when he gave a pleading 'please', I carefully lowered myself down beside him, resting one hand on his chest and the other around his shoulders. I gave him a kiss on the cheek and tried to calm myself down. I let a few tears out, silently, and hoped he didn't know I was crying.
I couldn't go to sleep. I was shaking all over in fear. Finally, I heard the door crack open, and I leaped up.
I ran to the 'deck', arms wrapped around myself, and explained what was wrong to Tangled Fan. She nodded, and I wondered how she could keep her cool. If she was married, she might understand!
Tangled Fan clicked the lamp on.
Flynn's hand flew up and he turned his face away. "Good grief...too bright!"
"Mmmhmmm." Tangled Fan sounded like she'd figured out a mystery. "Feeling like you're gonna puke, and just feel like you're gonna keel over in general?"
He nodded silently. "And..my head's killing me."
"Migraine." She said simply. "You dolls can get them once in awhile. Usually from not getting enough sleep or something, once in awhile. If you're still sick by morning, I'll give you something for it. Now, for now, what we'll do is this." She left for a few seconds, but then came back with some sort of paste, and rubbed it on his temples, then gave him a teensy dose of Pepto-Bismol, scrubbed the paste back off, and said it should start to alleviate the symptoms within a half an hour, but if it didn't work, she'd figure out a dosage of human migraine medicine for him.
When she left, she left the light on and told me to keep an eye on him. Suddenly remembering the kids were trying to sleep, I found a box and set it so that it would block the light, but I could still get to them easily if necessary.
When I finally returned to him, he seemed to be feeling a bit better, and had tossed his 'covers' off, and was sitting up.
I walked over to him, stood in front of him, and asked if he was feeling better.
"Yeah." Though his voice was still gravelly, he gave a slight smile, but then it faded. "Your eyes are red."
I mentally kicked myself. "Uh...bloodshot, yeah."
"No...red, like crying-red." He told me. "I'm sorry if I scared you."
"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. I'm so, so sorry...you probably got it from sitting up sleeping, didn't you? Oh my gosh, it's all my fault.." I put a hand over my mouth. But then I straightened up and told myself that I needed to take care of him, not stand there, all weepy.
He stared at me and held out a hand. I didn't take it.
Instead of taking it, I went over to him, knelt down, and grabbed him into a kiss. I was still shaking and my heart still beating so hard I wondered if it would burst out of my chest. Finally, I pulled away and touched my forehead with his. "From now on, you sleep normally and don't sit up sleeping, okay?" I whispered.
His skin was beginning to feel less clammy and cold-sweaty. He didn't pull away from my face to whisper, "But you'll get woken up if I get up to tend to the babies."
"I'll get up too, then! They're not so bad now." I reluctantly drew my head away from his. "How're you feeling?" I touched my hand to his cheek.
"Substantially better. Thank you." He reached to brush the hair I hadn't even noticed was in my face, and I felt the urge to kiss him again, but I didn't want to seem weird. I was just soooo relieved he was okay!
I sat down, but reached around to put my arms tightly around him. He put an arm loosely around my waist, and I loosed a shuddery sigh, trying to stop shaking. He must've been feeling better, because he held me tight to his side. I whispered in his ear quietly until he finally drifted off to a more peaceful sleep. I stayed up for awhile longer, making sure he was really alright, before I allowed myself to sleep too. My shaking subsided eventually, and my heartbeat went back to normal. Giving him a small kiss on the forehead, since he was asleep anyway, I reached over and clicked the lamp off and laid with my head on his chest, listening to his heart and his slow, steady breaths, which were much different than his erratic, frantic, 'I-don't-want-to-puke' breathing just two hours before.
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