I know, I like, disappeared off the face of the planet for two months. I am SO sorry. I have been unbelievably busy and could find hardly any time to write. But I finished this in the end. :) I say we should all look on the bright side: this moment did not occur in the MIDDLE of a story, just during a one-shot. At least I didn't leave you all in suspense, right? You don't all hate me, right? I'll pull out the puppy dog eyes if it helps.
I'm not too happy with how this one turned out. Since it's mostly just Roger and Nathan, the story consists of mostly actions, so I'm sorry if it gets boring at times. I tried.
Major thanks to my friend, Kim, who came up with the title. :)
I'm in a hurry to just get this darn thing posted, so I'm skipping the beta-reader part for now, so there may be some mistakes, sorry.
Also, I have a new poll on my main page for those of you who care. It pertains to what I'll be writing over the Summer.
Enjoy. :)
"I'm leaving," Mimi announced, grabbing her purse and swinging it over her shoulder. She walked over to Roger and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
She, Maureen, Joanne, and Jodie were going window shopping to have some girl time. Collins was taking another little trip of his, this time he and one of his college co-workers decided to head out to Ohio to visit Cedar Point and some of the other theme parks around there. Mark was at work. This left Roger home alone with Nathan.
"Are you sure you're going to be ok?" she asked, looking slightly apprehensive about leaving her boys home alone.
"Mimi, it's only a few hours. I can take care of myself and a three-year-old for that long. We've been through this." Roger loved Mimi, but she tended to be slightly over-protective at times.
"Ok, then I'm leaving. Joanne's cell number is on the refrigerator…"
"I know that, Mimi, I'm the one who put it there," Roger interrupted, remembering back to when he had had to leave Mimi home alone while she recovered and wanting her to have someone to call if she need to.
"Ok. Fine. I'm just making sure you know everything in case there's an emergency." She stood still for a little while longer, deliberating whether she would really go or not.
"Mimi, get out of here," Roger said in a jokingly serious tone. Mimi smiled.
"Fine. I'll be home around six." And she turned around and was out the door.
Roger finished up his bowl of cereal and went over to the sink to clean it. He usually didn't like doing the dishes, but if he didn't then eventually Mimi did and he didn't want her having to strain herself while she pregnant. Despite her constant reassurances of nothing ever happening to someone who was four months pregnant and did the dishes. He still didn't want her to have to do too much.
It wasn't long after Roger sat down on the couch, bored and deciding to read the newspaper, that he realized something wasn't quite right. He looked at the clock. It was after 10:00. Nathan was usually up by now. In fact, he was usually up before everyone, still used to the strict schedule he lived under with his grandmother. He had been waking up later and later everyday, getting more adjusted to their schedule, but he never over-slept anyone. He usually waited until the second the clock struck 8:00. Then he would jump up onto Roger's and Mimi's bed and wake them up. How had Roger not noticed his usual morning wake up call until just now?
It was as he was thinking this over that a pitiful cry alerted him to the fact that the child was still in bed.
"Daddy, I need you!" he heard Nathan cry from his room. Roger got up off the couch and ran into Nathan's room to see what was wrong.
"What? Nathan, what's the matter? Are you ok?"
He was still lying in bed and he didn't look very good. He was very pale, with rosy spots on his cheek and he looked… sick.
"I don't feew vewy good…" he whimpered and Roger walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed by him, reaching his hand out to feel his forehead. He felt very hot.
"Uh-oh. Um… How, exactly, do you not feel good?"
"My tummy huwts and I'm aww hot and my head huwts too."
"Ok…" Roger sat there trying to think of what to do if Nathan was sick, which seemed to be the case. He decided it would probably be best to take his temperature. "Nathan, I'll be right back."
He spent ten minutes rummaging through their cupboards, trying to find a thermometer. He tried to remember when the last time they used it was and could only think of when Mimi had come back from the hospital and was still slightly flu-ish. He walked into their bedroom and found it in one of the drawers of Mimi's nightstand. He grabbed it and washed it off in the sink before returning to Nathan's bedroom.
"Ok, Nathan, I need to take your temperature, so open your mouth." Nathan opened his mouth very slightly and Roger slipped the thermometer in and held it there until it beeped. His temperature was 100.2. That definitely wasn't good.
He set the thermometer onto Nathan's nightstand and tried to think of what he was going to do. He had no idea how to take care of a sick toddler. Especially by himself. Just as he was thinking this, Nathan lurched forward and threw up all over the bed, the front of his pajamas, and Roger's shirt. Then he started crying.
Roger just sat there and tried not to panic. He had no idea what to do. He awkwardly reached for Nathan, managing to pull the boy closer to him, so he could attempt to calm him down without getting more vomit on himself or Nathan.
Finally, Nathan's crying gave way to hiccupping sobs and he quieted down. Roger still wasn't sure what he should do. He thought back to when he was younger. He helped Marie, their cook/nanny, raise his younger sister, Rebecca, and so he tried to think back to what they would do when she was sick. First thing on the agenda was probably to give him a bath, to wash the vomit off of him. So Roger picked him up and carried him into the bathroom.
After Nathan was sitting in the tub, surrounded by bubbles and playing with some bath toys Mimi had bought for him at a thrift shop, Roger decided to clean up the mess Nathan had made. He stripped all the sheets and the comforter off the bed and threw them in a pile onto the floor, bunched up so he wouldn't get the vomit anywhere else. Then he took his own vomit-ridden clothes off and added them to the pile before pulling some cleaner clothes on. Then, he grabbed some cleaner and scrubbed at the floor, trying to clean everything up.
"Daddy, I'm bowed and I wanna way down! I'm tiwed!" He heard Nathan calling as he was half-way through cleaning up the area.
"Ok, " Roger said, walking back into the bathroom, "First, we have to actually get you clean, then I'll let you lay down, ok?"
Nathan nodded weakly and began pulling his bath toys out, setting them in the little bin next to the tub.
Roger sighed at how pitiful he looked as opposed to the up-beat and cheerful kid he usually was. This was going to be a long day.
After Nathan was clean and out of the tub, wrapped in a towel to dry himself off, Roger remembered that there was nothing on his bed. And Roger still wasn't finished cleaning it all. So, where the hell was he going to put Nathan?
Roger tried to remember, once again, what Marie had done with Rebecca. Rebecca's bedroom had been on the second floor of the house and Marie was always in the kitchen on the first floor, so she would bring Rebecca down and put her in the back living room, so she was closer if she needed anything. This also suited Rebecca just fine, as there was a TV in the back living room and not one in her bedroom.
Roger finished drying Nathan off and put some new pajamas on him before carrying him over to one of the chairs in the main room and setting him down.
"Ok, Nathan," he said, setting him down, "I'm going to set a bed up on the couch for you, ok? Just stay here for a few minutes."
Nathan nodded weakly before situating himself so he was laying down on the couch and closed his eyes.
By the time Roger got the bed made up, Nathan had fallen asleep, half falling off the chair. Roger smiled slightly and bent down to pick him up, setting him gently onto the couch and covering him with a thin sheet so he wouldn't get over-heated. Then he went to finish cleaning up his room.
Roger was just finishing up when Nathan called for him again.
"Daddy, I'm bowed." Roger walked back into the front room.
"Well, Nathan, what do you want to do? You're sick you can't go out and play or anything."
"May I pwease watch a movie?"
"Sure, what do you want to watch?" Roger walked over to the small collection of children's movies Carla had given them.
"Wion king! It's my favowite!" He looked slightly happier now. Just as Roger was sticking the movie in, Nathan spoke up again, "Daddy, aww the wight is huwting my eyes."
Roger looked over at him as "The Circle of Life" began playing.
"Nathan, I don't think I can do anything about that…" He trailed off after looking at the pitiful look on Nathan's face. He let out a sigh and then stood up, walking over to the cupboard to pull out all the sheets. He looked back at all the windows that were in the room and sighed again. He hoped they had a ladder somewhere around here.
An hour later, Roger had all the windows in the loft covered up, with the help of every sheet in the pantry and massive amounts of tape.
"Hey, buddy, how you feeling?" Roger asked, walking over to the couch to check on Nathan.
"I'm thiwsty. Can I have some watew pwease?"
"Uh… I'm not sure water's the best thing right now. It might make you sicker." That was one thing Roger remembered. Whenever he or Rebecca got sick, Marie would never give them water. It always resulted in a tantrum from Rebecca, since she loved water and demanded to have it whenever she was thirsty. Instead of water, Marie usually gave them some 7-Up or Vernors. Roger walked over to the fridge to see if they had any. They, of course, had none.
Roger looked over at Nathan laying on the couch, cuddling is penguin and watching the movie. As he watched Nathan gave a small, pitiful cough. With a resigned sigh Roger walked over to the door.
"Nathan, I'm going to run downstairs to see if the Abramoviches have any 7-Up, ok?" he said, slipping his shoes on. Nathan nodded feebly and then went back to watching his movie.
Roger ran down the stairs and knocked on the door, trying to make his trip as short as possible. He heard some shouting inside between Tricia and Lizzie about who should answer the door. Evidently, Tricia lost.
"Hey, Roger," she perked up immediately when she saw it was Roger, "What's up?"
"Do you guys have any 7-Up or Vernors?"
Tricia stared at him blankly for a moment. "Um… I think so… Why?"
"Nathan's sick and he's thirsty and I can't give him water because it'll just make him throw up again."
"Oh, ok. Hang on a second, I'll ask Mom." But instead of walking into the kitchen area, she just turned around and shouted towards its general area. "Mom! Do we have any 7-Up or Vernors?!"
"I don't know, Tricia. Come in here and check!" she shouted back, "And don't shout through the house!" Tricia rolled her eyes and turned back to Roger.
"Be right back." She disappeared for a moment and came back with a two liter of 7-Up. "Here you go. And Mom wants to know if you need any medicine or thermometers or bath stuff or anything."
"No, it's fine. I'm just letting him rest. He just has a fever and a stomach ache." At least, Roger hoped that's what it was. It didn't seem more serious than that, but he wasn't sure.
"Ok, then. Mom'll most likely send Emil up to check on him when he gets home. And if you need anything you can just come down here and ask."
"Ok, thanks."
Roger finally returned to the loft to find Nathan asleep. He let out a slightly exasperated sigh. Nathan couldn't drink anything when he was asleep. Roger walked over to the kitchen area and put the 7-Up in the fridge, feeling guilty about sighing. It's not Nathan's fault he had the flu.
Roger got himself a cup of water and sat down at the table, thinking. It was almost 1:00. Mimi would be home around 5:00. She would be much better at this than he was. He was just wondering what he should do until then when Nathan woke back up.
"Daddy!" he shouted from the couch, not knowing Roger was five feet away. Roger stood up and walked over to sit on the other end of the couch.
"What's up, Nathan?"
"I'm stiww thiwsty. May I haff some watew pwease?"
"Nathan, I told you, you can't have any water. But I have some 7-Up for you. DO you want to try some of that?"
"Gwandma says I'm not awwowed to haff pop." It had been two weeks and Nathan still wasn't fully used to the fact that he was living with Roger and Mimi now, not visiting. What his grandma did and didn't allow meant nothing in the loft.
"Then I guess it's a good thing you're here, huh?" Roger asked with a smile, trying to lighten the dark mood that always come about at the mention of Nathan's grandma.
Roger walked over to the kitchen area and poured some 7-Up into one of those little sippy cups with the smiley face on them. He and Mark ahd had a discussion about them a while back about what the cup was supposed to be. Mark was certain it was supposed to be the kool-aid guy, Roger thought the cup company was just trying to be creepy. He had to remember to ask Carla next time she called; she was the one who had given them the strange cups.
"Here you go, buddy." Roger handed Nathan the cup and Nathan stared at it while holding it in his tiny hands.
"What is it?" he asked, when he finally decided he couldn't identify the liquid inside. Unsurprising, since the cup was red and the lid was white. There were no spaces for him to see into the cup except for the hole in the lid for him to drink out of.
"It's 7-Up." Nathan still stared at Roger, uncomprehendingly. "It's a lemon-lime-type drink. It tastes really good and it won't make you throw up." Nathan still continued to stare at him. "It's good. Trust me."
That seemed to be enough for Nathan. He lifted the cup to his mouth with a slightly martyred expression on his face and took a quick sip. His eyes lit up and he immediately took another, longer drink from the sippy cup. Once he had finished he held the cup back out to Roger.
"Daddy, it's all gone. Could I have some mowe pwease?"
"Sure," Roger said, smiling and taking the cup from him.
"Daddy, can I watch another movie pwease?" Nathan asked once Roger had handed the now-full cup back to him.
"Sure, what do you want to watch?"
"I don't cawe."
Roger put in 101 Dalmatians and then decided he should probably do some laundry and wash Nathan's sheets, as well as their clothes.
"Nathan, I'm going to go do some laundry, ok? I'll send Tricia up to watch you."
Nathan just nodded feebly before returning his attention to the movie. Roger threw the dirty sheets and clothes into a laundry basket and walked down the stairs. He knocked on the door of Tricia's apartment and was greeted immediately with the teen opening the door.
"That was fast," Roger commented, taken aback.
"Mom told me to be ready if you ever knocked and needed anything. So, what do you need?"
"Could you just run upstairs and keep an eye on Nathan for me while I do some laundry? I'll only be across the street and it'll only be for about an hour."
"Ok. Sure." She looked slightly apprehensive at taking care of a sick child be herself.
"I just put a movie in, so he should be good until I get back. I just need you to be there in case he needs something else, like a new movie or more 7-Up or something."
"Ok. What do I do if he gets worse?"
"I'm sure he'll be fine. But, if he does, then go downstairs and get your mom, ask her to watch him for you and then come get me."
"Ok." She sounded slightly more confident about the situation.
"I'll be back in about an hour, hour and a half." He turned and continued down the stairs. He heard Tricia yell to her mom where she was going and then sprint up the stairs to his apartment.
Roger had no idea how much detergent he was supposed to put in, or even if it was a good idea to wash sheets, pajamas, a shirt, and jeans in the same load at the same time. Mark or Mimi were always the ones who did the laundry. If neither of them had time to, then Jodie would usually help out or sometimes her mom would offer if she and Tricia were heading down there anyway. So, in the end, he just threw everything in the same washer and just dumped some detergent in before setting it for its longest setting-there was a lot of fabric in the machine.
Then he sat back and wondered what he should do next. It didn't seem like there was much that he could do. Just sit back and hope Nathan got better. Put a movie in when he felt like it, give him something to drink when he was thirsty, make toast if he was hungry. In a lot of ways it was like when Mimi got back from the hospital last Winter. Only Nathan didn't complain about feeling like a burden and insisting he could do everything himself.
The buzzer abruptly went off, jolting Roger out of his thoughts and he took the clothing out and stuck them in the drier. He, once again, had no idea what to do. He decided to set it on the longest setting again- there was a lot of fabric and it felt very wet. This turned out to be a bad idea later, however, when he pulled them out and discovered he had shrunk Nathan's pajamas and his shirt. Oh well, he had been meaning to get rid of those pajamas, anyway-they had Care Bears on them-Care Bears. The things Carla bought the kid…
"Ok, Tricia, I'm done. You can go home now," Roger said, entering the loft.
"But it was just getting to the good part!" she protested. Roger set the basket down and walked over to the TV to find Tricia had put in Aladdin, another of Nathan's favorites.
"I would let you stay, but your mom told me to tell you that she has to go out to get some milk and she wants you to watch Lizzie and Preston." Tricia made an odd hissing noise and then bounced off the couch, heading for the door. "Thanks for your help." Roger called after her.
"Any time!" she called back.
"Hey, buddy, how are you doing?" Roger asked, walking over to the other side of the couch. He sat down, exhausted.
"Fine." He had a little more color back in his face, but he still sounded feeble. Roger reached across the couch to feel his forehead. He didn't feel burning hot anymore.
"I'm going to take you temperature again, ok?" he said, getting back up, "Do you want anything else?"
"No, thank you."
Roger retrieved the thermometer from Nathan's bedside table and re-took Nathan's temperature. 99.3. Still high, but lower than it was earlier. That was good. Roger sat back down on the couch and set the thermometer on the table.
"You sure you don't need anything else?" Roger asked.
"No. Wiww you watch the movie wif me?" Nathan looked at Roger with that pitifully adorable look he always used whenever he wanted some extra dessert or to stay up later. Roger couldn't help but smile at how cute he looked.
"Sure." Nathan crawled across the couch and position himself in Roger's lap, leaning his head against Roger's chest. Roger wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his back soothingly.
"I wuv you, Daddy," Nathan murmured, snuggling closer. Roger smiled and kissed him on the forehead.
"I love you too, son."
Mimi hadn't intended to come home with anything, but Maureen and Jodie refused to let her leave the maternity section of Kohl's without her letting them buy her this adorable shirt that there was no way she would be able to wear for another two to three months.
"I'm home," she announced, sliding the door open. She was immediately assaulted with darkness and had to wait for her eyes to adjust to the sudden non-light in the loft. "What's with the darkness?" she asked.
She walked farther into the loft to find Roger lying on his back on the couch, asleep. Lying in top of him on his stomach, was Nathan, still in pajamas. Roger had one arm draped protectively over Nathan, the other was hanging off the edge of the couch. Mimi couldn't help but giggle a little at the two. They looked so adorable.
Then she looked around the loft to discover that every window was covered in sheets. What the hell were they doing while she was gone?
"Roger," she said softly, shaking his shoulder lightly to wake him up, "Roger, why are there sheets covering the windows?"
"Because the light hurt Nathan's eyes," he mumbled back, trying to wake up.
Mimi laughed out loud.
"Aww, did Nathan make a slave out of you today?" Roger was fully awake at this point and he immediately shushed Mimi.
"Nathan has the flu," he said quietly, sitting up and carefully laying Nathan back on the other end of the couch.
"Awwww. He was sick? And I wasn't here. I just left and went shopping with my friends. I feel horrible." Roger walked over to Mimi and pulled her into a hug.
"Don't feel bad. Everything was fine," he murmured into her hair. Truth be told, he felt much better now that Mimi was here to help, although it didn't look like help was much needed at this point.
"Well, I want to feel useful, so I'm going to go make him some of my mom's special soup. It always made me feel better as a kid when I was sick." She gave Roger a quick peck on the cheek and walked over to the kitchen area. Roger grabbed the remote and shut the TV off, before following her.
"So, how was your day?" he asked.
"Better than yours, apparently. I'm so sorry for leaving."
"Mimi, I kicked you out, remember?" Mimi laughed.
"True. I still feel bad, though."
"It's ok. Just make some awesome soup and you'll be forgiven. Maybe."
Mimi shot him a mockingly-angry look and he winked at her, causing them both to laugh.
"Nathan is asleep and his temperature is back to normal." Roger announced, crawling into bed next to Mimi. "Thank God, I don't think I could take another day of this."
"Was it really that much work?" Mimi asked, laying her head on his chest.
"No, but the anxiety I definitely could've lived without. I haven't helped take care of a sick child in years, let alone taken care of one by myself."
"Well, I think you did a great job. Better than I would've, since I have absolutely no idea how to take care of kids. I was the younger one, remember?"
"I guess I'm better at this parenting thing than I thought. Maybe I actually can do this."
"See? I told you. You're a great father." Mimi gave him a quick kiss. "You need to stop doubting yourself."
"You're right."
"I know I am. I always am, remember?"
Roger laughed and gave her another kiss.
"Of course, how could I forget?"
But Roger was finally starting to agree with Mimi. He actually could do this parenting thing.
I hate that ending but, like I said, I just wanted to be finished with this one. My next story might not be up for another week or two. i have two finals this week. panics, but, After that, I'll only have two actual finals my finals week, so I should have more free time.