Gloves
"Chuck, I'll be right there, okay?"
"Okay," Chuck desperately whispered.
Chuck had woke in the middle of the night with a horrible migraine. She pressed her fingers against her temples, hoping that the pain would somehow magically go away.
Ned hurried back with the pain relievers and a glass of water and carefully placed them on the night stand next to Chuck, backing away before she could move her hand towards him.
It was all Ned could do to watch Chuck suffer so, without being able to brush back her hair, or hold her hand.
"Thanks, Ned," Chuck pathetically answered. She rested her head back on the pillow, and Ned carefully moved to his bed beside her.
He watched her so intensely, so intimately.
Then suddenly Chuck clenched up, as if the pain had struck her hard, and reached to grab Ned's hand.
Ned instinctively pulled it away as fast as he could.
A guilty lump formed in his stomach.
"I'm sorry," Chuck said, her eyes closed, now placing her hand back on her throbbing head.
"You don't have anything to feel sorry about," Ned comforted her.
It was times like this when Ned hated himself.
He hung his head in shame.
"I didn't want to pull it away."
Chuck briefly smiled.
"I know."
Ned smiled too.
Then he thought of something.
He went into the kitchen and pulled out the two pairs of gloves that Chuck used for beekeeping.
"Do you think you could open your eyes?"
Chuck's eyes fluttered open as she looked up at her childhood sweetheart.
She held out her hands, and Ned dropped the gloves.
They both slipped them on, and Ned picked up Chuck's blanket, moving the top up just under her neck.
"Good?" Ned asked.
"Yes," Chuck replied, snuggling into the warm blanket.
Ned sat on the edge of his bed once more, relieved at seeing Chuck finally getting sleepy again.
Then she held out her hand to him again, but his time not in pain.
She was smiling.
Ned brought her hand up to his face, and rubbed it ever so softly against cheek.
He breathed in the smell of the leather from her gloves, being glad to be able to hold or smell anything that was Chuck.
Then, to Ned's surprise, Chuck pulled her hand back.
She brought her glove up to her lips, kissed it, then placed it on Ned's lips.
"Good?" Chuck asked.
Ned rested his cheek, once again, on Chuck's glove.
"Yes," Ned ardently whispered.