This wonderful fic came to mind while watching a Homicide episode of the little boy who was kidnapped. I thought, "Hey! How about having Maria get kidnapped and be my ol' evil self to cause them both drama!" With help from a very good friend with ideas and much needed logic with some shit in this, I'm going to be a drama llama now! Maria Frank is my own creation while John Munch belongs to Law and Order: SVU.

"Stay down and just take this, okay?" Maria carefully demanded as she held out a tissue box for her partner and lover, John, to take. For the past week, he had developed a cold that rocketed to a full-blown flu. Not only was he miserable and whiny, he was also sneezing and coughing every second. Reaching for her thermometer, she held it near his mouth and waited for him to finish sneezing before slipping it under his tongue. "Just relax for me, John," Frank whispered softly, sitting down next him and softly ran her fingers through his ruffled hair.

Rolling over with a groan, he stared right ahead and fought to not cough while she took his temperature. He felt like he was on his death bed with dark circles under his eyes, very pale complexion and warm to the touch, his brown eyes were red, stiff and sore joints, and not able to keep anything down - including any medication she gave him to try. Exhaling a painful breath, he closed his eyes at the feel of a cool cloth wiping his forehead and reached a clammy hand out to touch Maria's back. Reaching back and taking a hold of his hand, she tightly smiled down at him as she waited for the two minutes to be up before checking.

Looking at her watch and seeing it was up, she pulled it out and looked at it sighing. "Well, you are out of commission for a while, baby." She sadly explained. "You're temperature is now up to one hundred and one degrees there, spike. You're not going anywhere for a while until this fever breaks and you stop worshiping the porcelain God."

"I'll work on that," John mutter hoarsely, his hand flying up to cover his mouth while he coughed a terrible dry cough. Grabbing a disinfecting wipe, Maria quickly wiped his hand, wrist and her own hands. "Going to work today or going in late?"

Nodding her head slightly, she tucked the corner of the comforter around his shoulders and said, "Yeah, I should head in. Fin and I are going to be staking out for The Pro Rapist." A man was going through the quieter and darker sides of the city and attacking prostitutes who had a certain body type. So far, five of the victims walked into the department with bruises and gashes from their attacks and it had frozen all the known locations where the women worked. It's been two weeks and they had very few leads to do the women being afraid and hiding at local shelters. "I'll check on you around my lunch hour, okay?"

Munch nodded as he slowly began to drift off with the cloth on his forehead. "Got my bucket?"

"Your bucket is right here in case you can't make it to the bathroom in time." She answered and pointed to the dark plastic trash bucket with a grocery bag in it just in case. Twice, he didn't make it to the bathroom in time and, twice, she had grabbed it in time to save his rugs. "I'll bring home some Gatorade and see if you can keep a small sip down. You need the electrolytes since you're getting dehydrated, Johnny-boy."

"Uh-huh," Was all he could say as he drifted off and sank deeper into the pillows she had around him for his joint pains, along with joint pain ointment she had rubbed in after she helped him with a shower. Maria had sat him down on the bed and soothing rubbed the ointment on his joints to help with the stiffness and soreness he felt ever single time he moved. Thankfully, the shower had helped release the pain around his eyes and he was no longer groaning every time he blinked.

Turning on the A/C on low and turning on the fan above the bed, Maria wanted him to be as comfortable as possible and wanted to cool his body down as much as possible. Under the comforter, she had ice packs wrapped in towels on the hottest spots on his body and she would only allow him to lay down in his boxers as his scrubs would have caused more heat. Hearing a small snort and more dry coughing, she turned to see he had jolted himself awake and stared up at her with a moan. "The air conditioner is on low so you won't get cold too quickly. If you really, really need me for something, here's your cell phone and I fully charged it last night for you. A sleeve of crackers in case you want to attempt to eat something, cold water for the same reason, and the heating pad is right here," She patted his side table and he eyes moved to see where the sound had come from. "I know you didn't quite hear what I just said, so I wrote down everything with a black marker so you can read it without trying too hard."

"Thank you," He whispered and sighed at the contact of her hand on his neck. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Maria smiled and then added, "I'm not going to kiss you, though. Last thing I need is your flu, baby."

"How's the patient?" Fin asked as they headed to the unmarked car and caught the keys she tossed to him.

Getting into the passenger seat beside him, Maria sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "He's one sick puppy, for one. He's not even able to keep anything down at the moment and is very dehydrated."

Fin shook his head sadly and turned a corner to the direction of where their stake out was going to be. "Nothin', huh?" Maria replied with a no and he sighed. "Well, hopefully Munch man won't be that sick for long and I don' need you to get it either, baby."

"Nah, we'll see though. I've been sleeping on the couch and changing the sheets, comforters and pillow cases every day once I get him in the shower. I want to limit the amount of contact he has with it as much as possible and I want zero contact with it." She held up her hand and made an 'O' with her thumb and forefinger. "Nada, zippo and zilch. I caught him flu from last year and we were both miserable masses of puking guts, fighting over the trash bucket and toilet. It wasn't a pleasant fight at all, either." She said, as Fin chuckled at the idea of them fighting over something to puke in. "What?"

"Nothin'...just the image of you two fighting over something like that is beyond funny in my mind, kiddo." She playfully punched his shoulder and softly snorted. "Hey!"

"You're such a pain in the ass sometimes, Tutoula." Maria chuckled to herself and looked out the window to see a light drizzle starting. "A light drizzle for the start of our day... Go figure."

Fin shook his head as he turned to a free parking spot five feet from a known prostitute location the perp had been hanging around. "It's not like our days are perfect after all. This drizzle is nothin' compared to that blizzard you and I stood out in while under cover last winter. 'member that?"

"Oh, do I!" Frank grinned and slipped low in her seat to get comfortable. "I had the terrible case of the sniffles for weeks and John wouldn't sleep facing me until he was sure it was gone. I got bored looking at the back of his head after a while."

"That white hair and big ol' ears? Damn, girl. How is it none of his marriages worked out while being with you has?"

"Because we're both cops and understand each other." Her lips pulled into a small smile. "Not to mention I can take on his whining with black Helicopters. I'm not big with that, but I let him vent it out or he'll kick me all night long in his sleep from venting dreams. Those are a bitch and a half." Hearing her phone ring and pulling it out to see it was John calling, she gave Fin a look before answering. "Hey, sweetie. What's the matter?"

"I wanted to check on you..." She heard him pull away from the phone and gave a hoarse cough before he came back. "Stake out going all right?"

"Johnny-boy, you're a sick puppy and you're asking me if I'm okay? Sweetie...," She paused for a moment before continuing. "We started the stake out ten minutes ago and Fin and I are doing just fine. How are you feeling?"

John snorted into the phone and pulled away to sneeze several times. "You've been gone for an hour and I'm still the same...Already had to make a run to the bathroom, too."

"Oh, no," She sighed heavily into the phone and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Did you at least eat something so you had something to bring back up?"

"Yeah, I tried a few crackers and that's as far as I went."

"Good, that will give your system something to take in before you upchuck. I would like for you to take in some protein, but your system isn't taking any of that at all, so Gatorade might be your only choice. I'll pick up a six-pack of berry flavored Gatorade when I come home for my lunch, okay?"

"All right then."

"I have to get back to watching out for our perp, so go back to bed with some more ice packs I bought and brought over from my place and curl up with them. Is the air conditioner helping?" She heard him mutter a yes and the sound of the freezer door shutting. "That's my boy. I'll see you later, baby." Closing her phone and slipping it back into her pocket, she pulled up a pair of binoculars and looked around for the slightest detail that was out of line. "I'm glad he's checking up on me, but he's the one who should be resting."

"He cares even when he's pukin' up a lung," Fin sighed out as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched their area in question. "Why'd he do that?"

"Because he cares, Fin. Simple as that," She replied, shifting her eyes to glance at him before looking back out. "He gets shot in the ass and worries for my safety instead. He knows I can take care of myself - I'm not used to someone caring for me when I'm ill -but he doesn't want me to get hurt or anything close to that. What are you? Ever considered keeping a relationship to be as strong and John and I?"

Fin shrugged as he took the binoculars from her hands and looked out as well. "Thought about it, but I consider myself a loner and having a relationship here or there. If I can ever find a way to settle down, I would take that chance."

Huffing softly at what he had said, Maria settled down lower in her seat and watched their location.