Peppermint Tea
When Kate tried to shut her eyes and relax, she couldn't, for she was certain she could hear distant voices. It took her almost another full minute in her sickly state that what she heard was music being played by her neighbor. Christmas music to be specific.
Caskett Christmas Meet-Cute. Pre-show AU
Kate Beckett moaned as she was pulled from sleep and became acutely aware of the searing discomfort in her throat, the tightness in the muscles of her shoulders and neck, and the sensation that her cheeks and forehead were jammed with twelve million cotton balls.
Being sick was the worst—particularly at that time of year. Yes, Christmastime illnesses were always unfavorable, but getting sick over finals week? That was the cruelest fate of all.
No matter how nauseous, stuffed, or generally miserable she felt she had to show up to turn in her paper and had to sit for her exam. Her grade would more than likely be an utter disaster, but she had no choice; her illness didn't give a damn what important things she had to do that week. Her paper was due in two days and the exam was the day after. She supposed that was the better order as it would give her an extra day before she had to be in a classroom writing out answers in a petite blue book for several hours, but she did not think it was possible to complete her paper without spending several hours in the library first.
What a disaster.
As the pulsating throb in her temples intensified, Kate moaned and rolled over on to her other side. Maybe if she just took one more nap she would feel good enough to get up and at least organize the notes she had for a little while.
When Kate tried to shut her eyes and relax, she couldn't, for she was certain she could hear distant voices. That wasn't really surprising given that the walls of that apartment had the approximate thickness of cardboard, but the voices were louder than normal and oddly melodic. It took her almost another full minute in her sickly state that what she heard was music being played by her neighbor. Christmas music to be specific.
Groaning, Kate reached for a spare pillow to flatten over the top of her head and thus muffle the sound, but that also robbed her of what little oxygen she could intake through her mouth with her nose impossibly stuffed; she would never fall asleep in that state. With a grunt, she chucked the pillow on the floor and glanced at the bedside clock. It was three in the afternoon, a perfectly reasonable hour to be listening to music, but it just seemed so loud. Why did it have to be so loud?
With great effort, Kate forced herself to sit up in bed, thinking that maybe she could nap on the couch since it would be over two hours until her roommate and best friend, Maddy, returned home from her job. She sat for a few minutes trying to muster the energy to stand, but when she did, the room began to spin and she had to immediately sit back down. After hanging her head between her knees for several minutes, she tried again, and successfully made it the two steps away from her bed to the door, which she opened slowly.
Kate blinked rapidly at the harsh light from the main room of the apartment. With her hand against the wall as an anchor, she shuffled her way towards the microscopic apartment kitchen, which thankfully wasn't more than ten steps, because her feet felt weighted down with lead. Knowing clear liquids would aid in her recovery, she grabbed a water bottle and took several sips, but then found herself shivering. God, she was a mess.
Abandoning the bottle on the counter, she then shuffled ten more steps towards the lumpy second-hand couch and collapsed against it. Resting her head against the sofa back was definitely a relief, yet she was still shivering. She knew this was in part due to her illness, but she also felt genuinely cold. She gazed around, hoping to find a throw blanket draped over the back of the couch, but there wasn't one. Kate cursed under her breath at the realization that she had to get up once again. In that moment she had never been more annoyed with the best friend who had coerced her into living in that so-called "amazing" two bedroom with an "excellent" location. While Maddy had been right about the location, Kate questioned everything else.
In the six weeks since she moved in, Kate had awoken with icicles for toes more often than not. They also had continued problems with the hot water in both the kitchen and bathroom despite weekly calls to the building's super. Considering that over that time the library had been more like her second home, Kate didn't mind all those issues too much, but she knew when she mustered the energy to take a shower that evening, she would not find relief from the hot water clearing her sinuses; at best it would be lukewarm.
As she shuffled her way back to her bedroom, Kate wondered if moving in with Maddy had really been the best decision to make. Her parents had insisted that they did not mind one bit if she stayed with them until she graduated law school, but she had been her stubborn self about it and insisted that she needed to be on her own, taking the world by storm.
Though she intended to simply grab the blanket off her bed, Kate instead did a face-plant onto the mattress and squirmed around until she lay with her head on the pillow once more. Only then did she hear the Christmas music again. Damn; thanks to her illness she had entirely forgotten about her original purpose for getting up.
Fed up with the jolly noise pollution, Kate decided her best course of action was to go next door and politely ask her neighbors to turn down the music. Hopefully they would take one look at her, realize she was near death's door, and take pity on her. Hopefully.
Deciding that she cared more about her personal comfort than her appearance, Kate grabbed the top blanket from her mattress and wrapped it around her shoulders to wear as a makeshift covering for her pajamas so she did not have to change when going out into the hall. She then stuffed her feet into her fuzzy boots, grabbed her keys from her nightstand, and hoisted herself from bed with great effort.
With sheer determination and the desire for a restful sleep fueling her, Kate managed to make it out of the apartment at an almost normal speed. Then, using her hand against the wall as a guide, she shuffled her way towards the next-door apartment and tapped her knuckles against the door. She waited for two minutes, but when no one came to the door she realized that perhaps they could not hear her knock over the music she aimed to complain about. Mustering all the strength she felt she had in her upper body at that moment, she lifted her hand once more and pounded the end of her fist against the door.
Thankfully, that time the door opened a minute later and a brown-haired, blue-eyed man appeared in the doorway. Despite the haze of her sickness, Kate did feel she recognized the man from the hallways and the mailroom of the apartment building but was not sure they were ever formally introduced. As she did not feel up to friendly conversation, she got right to the point. "I can hear music."
"Hi, um, hello…what—what did you say?"
Realizing that she probably mumbled, Kate shut her eyes and took a deep breath to muster a little more strength, though her brain was feeling fuzzier the longer she stood upright. "I can hear your Christmas music through the wall and I'm trying to sick—sleep."
"Wha…oh, I'm sorry; do you live next door?" the man asked as several crinkles formed in his brow.
"Yes. My room—my bed. Against your apartment. Christmas music. I…sorry." She grunted when she finally had to lean her shoulder against the doorframe of his apartment when her knees began to shake. "I'm sick."
She watched an expression of recognition appear on his face. "Oh I see—you're home sick, trying to sleep, but your bedroom must share a wall with my office. No problem—I'll turn the music down. I'm sorry; I didn't realize how loud it was."
"Thank you," she breathed out, but did not think she yet had the strength to move again, so she remained propped up against the doorway.
Leaning back against his open door, the man gave her a pleasant smile and said, "I'm Rick, by the way; don't think we ever met. You moved in recently right?"
She nodded. "Kate."
"Well, it's nice to meet you Kate and I hope you feel better. If the music still seems too loud, just bang on the wall or something, okay?"
"Okay. Thanks."
Kate took in as deep a breath she could without coughing and then slowly began the return trek to her apartment. By the time she reached her bed, she felt she could barely stand upright one second longer, so she collapsed on the mattress, boots still on. She lay there for a minute before reaching down, pushing the shoes off, and curling up against her pillow once more. She didn't even notice how quiet it was; she fell almost immediately to sleep.
Several hours later Kate awoke feeling reasonably better. Her head still felt stuffed and her temples throbbed but sitting up in bed did not make her feel like she was going to pass out, so that was progress. After using the bathroom, she wandered out to the kitchen in search of some soup to heat up for her dinner and spotted Maddy seated at their small kitchen table eating out of a Styrofoam takeout container.
"Hey, feeling any better?"
"Maybe just a little. How was work?"
"Fine. Oh, the neighbor guy dropped that off for you."
Kate placed her can of soup on the counter beside the stove and then took two steps out of the kitchen so she could see Maddy's face. "Who dropped off what?"
"The neighbor guy dropped off that," Maddy said, thumbing towards the small pile of goods at the opposite end of the table. Curious, Kate slowly approached and found a box of peppermint tea, a bag of soothing cough drops, and a small handwritten note that said, "Feel better, Kate; Happy Holidays."
Kate was still trying to process what her brain was seeing when Maddy added, "Why would he have done that? Do you know him?"
"No," she said, turning to her roommate. "We, ah… a few hours ago I woke up and he was playing Christmas music loudly and I couldn't fall back to sleep, so I asked him to turn it down. He obviously saw that I was sick. I guess he…he did this…"
Maddy wrinkled her nose as she shut the lid on her takeout container. "That's creepy."
"Wha—why?" Kate squeaked out, not seeing why the kind gesture could be dubbed as "creepy." Not necessary—sure. But it wasn't as though he'd brought her underwear or something else invasive; it was tea and cough drops.
"Well, I'm pretty sure he lives with his girlfriend for starters—I see some snooty looking red-head going in and out of there a lot. Plus, it's just…if that's the only time you've ever talked to him, it's weird," Maddy said, gesturing towards the gifts.
Perhaps it was her muddled sick-brain talking, but Kate disagreed. She collected the items and said, "Well, I think it's nice." Then, as she walked with them back to her bedroom, she thought for the first time that her new apartment might not be so bad after all.
A/N - thank you for reading & Merry Christmas!
I would also like to note that this was started/outlined about 3 years ago and was supposed to be the beginning of a longer fic. Since my writing muse is DOA, that did not materialize, but it might, some day, because I really like the idea I have.