I haven't written in such a long time and I asked for prompts in my Give Your Heart a Break 'verse, seeing as I just finished my BScN and completed a long placement in the Operating Room.
Rofro05 prompted: Blaine taking care of a sick Kurt.
This fic is based in the Give Your Heart a Break 'verse and I suggest you read it first. But otherwise, if you love sick fic just as much as me, you can read it as such! Just keep in mind, Blaine is a nurse on the Cardiology Unit and Kurt is a Cardiac surgeon (and they are married).
Word count: 2200
The first thing Blaine hears when he walks through the door of the apartment is the sound of retching. Blaine has to shake his head and blink a few times because he isn't entirely sure that he's actually home right now and that maybe he fell asleep at work. He had just finished working an incredibly busy shift at the hospital; his fourth shift in a row. Normally his patients on the cardiac floor are strictly admitted for cardiac reasons (heart attacks, chest pain, post-cardiac surgery, irregular heart rhythms) without much overflow of patients who have a multitude of general health issues. He doesn't really deal with a lot of people vomiting (which is a major plus), however he had a patient today who was throwing up from the pain medication she was being given to help with her post-surgery pain.
For a second he really thought he was that deliriously tired from his day that he was now imagining things, but as he starting taking his coat and shoes off, the sound continued. Blaine immediately felt a hard pang of concern and followed the sound to his and Kurt's master bathroom. His poor husband was slumped on the bathroom floor right next to the toilet, shivering and pale. His normally flawless hair was limp and dishevelled and there was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead.
"Oh, honey," Blaine said, rushing to kneel down on the floor next to Kurt. "What's going on?" He immediately pressed a hand to Kurt's forehead and then to his cheeks. "How long have you been sick for?"
Kurt weakly shuffled closer to his husband and rested his head in his lap. "I started feeling queasy in the car on the way home and as soon as I walked in the door I had to rush into the bathroom and puke. It just hit me all of a sudden, I was fine all day," he moaned weakly. "I was starving after I finished surgery today, went against my better judgement and got one of the premade sandwiches they have in the cafeteria…"
"Which has questionable food at best," Blaine finished. "This is why make our lunches ahead of time, babe." Blaine ran his fingers through Kurt's damp hair, already thinking about the things he needed to get at the store to help Kurt cope with this awful stomach bug. Ginger ale, Gatorade, soda crackers, soup….maybe apple sauce?
"I know, B, I let my hunger get the best of me and now I'm paying for it," whined Kurt, pouting. Blaine almost leant down to kiss Kurt's pouty lips, except Kurt was suddenly and clumsily lurching off his lap to hover over the toilet and violently throw up before he could do so.
Blaine winced in sympathy, as Kurt continued to gag and throw up into the toilet. Kurt wasn't the type of person who appreciated physical comfort as he was being incapacitated, so Blaine got up to get a cold glass of water for his husband, along with a cool, damp washcloth to cool his flushed cheeks.
When Kurt was finished, he slumped back onto the floor, groaning about how sick he felt. "I don't think I have anything left in me, Blaine," he whimpered. Blaine leant down next to him, handing him the washcloth and the glass of water. "Take small sips," he instructed gently. "How many times did you throw up?"
"Maybe 6 or 7, it was just bile this time." Kurt wiped his face slowly with the washcloth, appreciating the cool temperature on his heated, sweaty face.
"Poor thing," said Blaine, leaning over to press a kiss to Kurt's forehead. "Do you think you're about done throwing up now? You definitely don't look comfortable in those clothes. I can help you into the shower so you can get freshened up." Kurt nodded in agreement and with Blaine's strong grip around his waist, stood up slowly. Kurt swayed for a moment as he stood up straight, but Blaine made sure to keep a firm grip around his waist until he stopped swaying. Blaine directed him to hold onto the counter while he popped over to the shower and turned the water on.
He turned back towards Kurt who was fumbling with the buttons on his dress shirt. Kurt must have been the only doctor he knew who came to work dressed to the nines, only to change into the hospital issue green scrubs and stay in them until he was done for the day and was heading home. Blaine batted Kurt's clumsy fingers away from the line of buttons down his shirt and began to unbutton them himself.
"I could have done that, you know," said Kurt grumpily, unwilling to accept the help. "I've done it a million times."
"Yes honey, I know you have, but you are weak and exhausted and sick. Just let me take care of you, okay? Plus at the rate you were going with those buttons, the water would be running cold."
"Yes Nurse Blaine," said Kurt, rolling his eyes. Blaine laughed at the comment and continued to help Kurt undress until he was naked, shivering in the cool air of the bathroom. Blaine ushered him quickly into the shower and closed the glass door behind him.
"You know, under better circumstances, we could be having awesome shower sex right now," shouted Kurt, wanting to be heard over the pounding of the water.
"Maybe if I weren't scared of you either puking on me or passing out on me. I'll pass," replied Blaine. "Will you be okay if I leave for a few minutes? I'm just going to grab you a fresh towel and some clean PJs."
"I'll yell for you if I need help, okay? I'm fine. I'm not even looking at you and I know you're worrying…" teased Kurt.
"I think I'm allowed to worry about my husband, who has maybe been sick two times in the five years we've been together. I know how you get when the roles are reversed, so don't even talk Kurt Hummel-Anderson."
Blaine waited for a reply over the noise of the water running, but all he heard was a brief chuckled. Shaking his head, Blaine left the bathroom and headed to their shared walk-in closet. Blaine grabbed a clean pair of boxer briefs, Kurt's comfiest plaid pyjama pants and his own, well-worn Nursing School sweatshirt that he knew Kurt liked to snuggle with when he was working night shifts. He piled the clothes on a nearby dresser and headed outside into the hall to grab a towel from the linen closet along with an empty bucket, just in case. Before heading back into the bathroom, he did a quick inventory of their pantry and fridge, smiling when he managed to find almost everything he thought Kurt would need to help recuperating from this awful bout of food poisoning. He was even surprised at random bottle of ginger ale that he found sitting among the piled up cases of diet coke. Kurt must have bought it to make punch a while ago and never got around to it.
Blaine set his gathered supplies on the kitchen counter before fetching two glasses from the cabinet. He filled one with cold water and the other with ginger ale. He grabbed a spoon and started stirring the ginger ale vigorously, trying to make the pop flat. His mom had always done this whenever he was home sick with a stomach bug and he never forgot it. The only thing he couldn't find in the pantry was some Gatorade, which really wasn't much of a surprise. While the two of them tried to work out on a frequent basis, they never worked out hard enough to need some sports drinks to replenish their electrolytes. Dehydration was super common with food poisoning and stomach bugs so he would try to get Kurt to drink some fluids instead of immediately running out to buy some. He knew if Kurt continued to throw up he would probably need to run out to CVS, but otherwise he should be okay with water and hopefully the ginger ale would help settle his stomach. Either way they had Gravol in the medicine cabinet to hopefully make Kurt feel a little better, or at least make him drowsy enough to fall asleep. Really, the only thing you could do in these types of situations was to wait it for it to pass. And they would, together.
Blaine brought the drinks into the bedroom and sat them on Kurt's bedside table, moving the stack of Vogue magazines and that novel Kurt had been working on for the past six months (reading in bed was pretty much impossible because Kurt was either too exhausted to even get through a page, or they were occupied otherwise), to make room. He grabbed the stack of clean clothing and fresh towels and brought them into the bathroom, pausing to take a peek at the shower stall. Through the frosted glass doors, he saw a vaguely Kurt shaped blob possibly sitting on the shower floor.
Panic suddenly flooded through him. The floor of the shower wasn't a very large space and definitely would be uncomfortable for Kurt's long limbs. He couldn't imagine why Kurt would be sitting down there unless he felt like he was going to pass out. He rushed over and yanked the door open. Kurt startled at the interruption and the rush of cold air into the steamy shower stall.
"Blaine….it's cold," he whined, curling closer into himself.
"Why are you sitting on the floor? God, I thought you passed out or something," said Blaine. He reached out a hand to Kurt, encouraging him to grab it and pull himself up off the shower floor.
"I felt a bit dizzy and my legs were tired, it was so nice and warm in here that I didn't want to get out, so I just sat down."
"Okay, well, I think it's time to get out now, unless you want your fingers to be permanently pruned. I brought your favourite PJs and my school sweatshirt for you. I'll grab your towel, just a sec." Kurt smiled and nodded in agreement. Blaine hopped over to the bathroom counter to grab the towel and shook it out so he was holding it out like a blanket of sorts.
Kurt shut the water off in the shower, but waited until Blaine was right outside to step out of the stall. As soon as he did, Blaine wrapped him up carefully in warm towel, squeezing him gently.
"Thanks honey," Kurt murmured. He stepped out of Blaine's light embrace to quickly dry himself off. Blaine helped Kurt with his pyjamas and quickly enough they were slowly shuffling into the bedroom. Blaine popped over to the bed to un-tuck the covers and throw a few decorative pillows of the bed before guiding Kurt to get under the covers.
"Blaine do you think you could go back to work for a sec, grab some IV fluids and an IV kit? I really need to operate tomorrow, I don't have time to be pushing back CABGs, it feels like I barely get enough OR time in the first place and…" Kurt trailed off, finally noticing the look of utter bewilderment and exasperation on his husband's face.
"That's enough, Dr. Hummel," said Blaine, sardonically. "There's no way in hell that you are performing a surgery that takes at least six hours on a good day. I mean, unless of course you feel comfortable possibly fainting into an open chest or maybe even puking behind your mask? No, just no. Stop being such a difficult patient. I'm off tomorrow and I promise I'll take care of you all day so you are in tiptop shape for Thursday morning rounds okay? Just let me."
Kurt nodded meekly and surrendered to snuggling under the comforter and sinking into rows of soft pillows on their bed. Blaine found Kurt's bag sitting near their bedroom door and fetched his husband's phone and tablet, handing them over to Kurt. "I'm sorry honey, I'm not trying to be harsh, but even award-winning surgeons get to call in sick, okay? You have to take care of yourself before you can even think about taking care of others."
"You're right, I know. I'm sorry. That was pretty ridiculous of me," said Kurt. "I would never let one of my residents operate if I knew they were up sick all night."
"Well, let's hope you aren't going to be up sick all night," said Blaine, leaning over to kiss Kurt's cheek. "I'll get you some gravol. Try drinking some of that ginger ale, too. Hopefully it settles your stomach a bit. And I want you to call whoever you need to call to make arrangements for tomorrow okay?"
"Okay," said Kurt. "And when they ask I'll just tell them I'm being taken care of the best nurse and the best husband in all of Ohio."
"That's right," said Blaine, smiling widely. "Love you, K."
"Love you too, B. Thanks for taking care me of me."
"I always will, even if you are being the most stubborn patient ever. I guess the old adage is true…"
"And what's that?" asked Kurt.
"Doctors make the worse patients."