This is my first Oneshot, so please review. Hopefully this will help me get the rest of my stories going, je.
Disclaimer: You know the drill, I own nothing, I only imagine I do.
She was cold, really cold.
Her deep sleep fought tenaciously against the cold, not willing to give in to the urge of waking up and finding something warmer to cover her body. She brought herself to a tight fetal position, trying to warm the space she was sleeping in, the light cover and sheet pulled tight around her.
Slowly sleep began losing the fight, bringing her slowly awake; she couldn't understand why she was so cold, and why she didn't have something warmer on. Consciousness began seeping through her brain, suddenly fully awake.
"What the hell?" She let out exasperated at the fact that her sleep had been interrupted. She sat on the bed without letting go of the covers. Her foot touched the wooden floor, but quickly drew it back. It too was cold.
"Haven't these people ever heard of carpeting, or at least a fricking rug?" She muttered under her breath. She waited a couple of second for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, finally spying her slippers at the end of the bed. She crawled on her bed until she had reached the end of it, quickly slipping her feet in her cold, but soon to be warmed slippers.
What was going on? She asked herself, if memory served her right they were at the end of March, spring had already officially started and the weather had been nice, even warm.
A cold whisp of air made its way through her covers, reminding her of why she was up. Jonathan and Martha had left for Metropolis for his check up, and had stayed the night. She knew, had Martha been here, the heater would have been on a while ago, thus dispensing her the trouble of having to get up.
Clark woke up from the sound of feet dragging down the wooden steps, at times like these he really cursed his keen hearing, turning around in the couch and covering his face with a pillow. He let out a sigh when he heard the footsteps stop at the feet of the couch. He thought that if he pretended to sleep she would go away.
She reached forward and tugged at his feet.
"Smallville, wake up." He didn't budge, she tugged harder
"What do you want?" He mumbled.
"Its freezing, where's the heater? Or at lest tell me where I can find some warmer covers."
"The heater is on the back porch, do you want me to turn it on?"
"Nah, I think I can manage just fine, go back to sleep." She started towards the back of the house. Wishing she could have his skin, which was obviously unaffected by the change in the weather.
She turned on the light before going outside and opened the door to find the reason behind the low temperature. White flakes fell silently to the already heavy layer of snow on the floor. She blinked, she had heard of freak storms, but this was ridiculous.
She walked slowly towards the edge of the porch, to get a better view, memories of better times when her mom was still around engulfed her, forgetting her state of coldness for a while. She was about to lean on one of the posts of the porch, when her fluffy slipper got stuck on something she couldn't see, the inertia in the movement obliging her to take a step barefooted on the icy edge of the porch.
"Oh no" She managed to say before her foot slipped and she lost control of her body, she tried to grab onto the pillar, but that movement only made her loose the other slipper as well. She fell butt first on the porch, her leg twisted underneath her, only for it to slip as well sending her flying over the edge and into the deep snowy floor, hitting her back hard against the wood of the porch.
The pillar shook lightly and she looked up at the snow that had gathered on the roof and held her breath.
The snow moved slightly but stayed on the roof. She let out a sigh.
"Are you okay?" Clark had run out, the door slamming hard behind him.
"Oh sh-"
A curtain of snow fell promptly on top of her already hurting body.
He ran towards her, quickly pulling her up from the snow that had fallen on top of her.
"Did you really have to slam the door Smallville?" She gritted out, her lips quickly turning purple. She tried to push him off, but as soon as she tried to stand up pain seared through her, making her reach for his arm.
Without a word he put one arm under her legs and swept her up, their eyes locking in the dark for a second. She shivered and pulled her face against his chest, finding it so warm she involuntarily held on tighter to snuggle as much as possible to him.
He glanced down at her, an amused look on his face. A shiver went up his spine, and he knew it wasn't because of the cold. He shook his head and headed inside.
I should have told her where the covers where. He reprehended himself while he filled a bowl with cold water. He added some ice and reached for a towel.
A half and hour earlier
She had refused to let him help her dry up, despite her swollen leg. He x-rayed it, and only after confirming it wasn't broken, did he let her stay in her room alone.
It wasn't long before a loud thud was heard, followed by a soft whimper.
"Is everything all right in there?" He had asked, worried that maybe she had broken something this time.
He heard struggling, then silence. He reached for the doorknob to go in.
"I'm fine! Just give me a second."
After almost 20 minutes the noises subsided, making him wonder if she was done. Maybe she had decided to stay in bed.
"Are you going to be okay?" He thought she really needed to put something on her leg for the swelling, and he needed to get her warmer covers.
"You can come in" came the weak reply.
He let himself in, finding her dressed in pants, a sweatshirt, thick socks and gloves. Her eyes were red, she had cried silently at the pain, but made sure she had wiped away the tears before letting him in.
"Are you going to let me help you with that leg?" He asked cautiously, biting back the urge to say something about how bad she looked.
"Fine," she said, uncontrollable shivers starting to cover her body.
He noticed her shaking and put the back of his hand to her forehead. Had anyone else done that they would have pulled away in a flash, her flesh seemed to be on fire, but to Clark it was only warmer than usual. He was surprised he even felt it, that only mean she had a high fever.
"I'm taking you downstairs."
"No, I will be fine here"
"It wasn't a question Lois." And with that she found herself in his arms for the second time that night.
"It's not like I have never had a cold before Clark, I can handle myself just fine." She tried to struggle, but not only did she discover how strong he was, but also how weak she felt.
"Scared I might take advantage of this?"
"Only in your wildest dreams Smallville." She sneered
"To kill you Lois, not to.. ugh,.. You mean my nightmares" He faked a shiver. She tried to slap his chest, but failed to inflict anything except pain on her sore muscles.
"Don't you have just medicine?" She asked as he came into the living room with the bowl and towel in had.
"We don't get sick very often around here, and besides the fact that its 4 in the morning, the snow isn't stopping, so I'm sure all the roads will be closed by morning." He explained as he pulled a chair and sat in front of the couch.
"So home remedies it is, and with Dr. Clark –" A loud sneeze interrupted her.
She closed her eyes and held her nose with a tissue for a while, her eyes watering. It was then that she felt something cool on her forehead. She opened her eyes to find a wet towel on top of her face.
"Hold this" He ordered, too tired to fight she pulled one hand to her forehead and held onto the wet towel.
"Hey!" she sat up as soon as she felt his hands reaching underneath her pant leg.
"I'm checking the damage! Will you relax!"
"No! I'll just walk it off later."
"Walk it off? Are you crazy? It's probably swollen, I am going to bandage it and you will lay back and let your body do the rest."
"When did you become Dr. Quinn? Oh wait, that was a woman, she probably did know what she was talking about." She muttered. Weak as she may feel, she wasn't just going to give in to him touching her so easily, especially since her injury was above the knee.
He gave her a forced smile and reached for his pocket, pulling a skin colored bandage.
"Lois, that's enough." His voice was low and unlike anything she had heard before. She blinked and let herself fall back on the couch, pulling the towel to cover her eyes completely.
"Pull your pants down." He ordered
"What, suddenly lost your nerve Smallville?" She didn't budge.
"You seemed perfectly capable of dressing yourself; I didn't want to underestimate you. But if you don't mind." He reached both hands up towards her waist.
She literally jumped up.
"I can do that." She narrowed her eyes, warning him to pull away.
"There." She announced after a couple of seconds of struggling under the covers. She slumped back down, one had on the towel on her face and the other on top of the covers underneath her waist.
He pulled the covers back up and took the scrunched up pant leg off the affected one, leaving the other half covered.
The knee andlower thigh were swollen, he touched softly and felt her flinch slightly, her face not giving away the pain she must have felt.
He reached in his pocket again to pull out a small can of ointment her mother used on her dad for sprains and muscle pains. Her skin was filled with goosebumps from the fever. He smiled slightly and rubbed the ointment softly onto her red skin.
Lois stayed silent, much to his surprise. He decided to finish as quickly as possible to not push his luck. He massaged the smelly lotion-like ointment softly, trying not to hurt anymore the sore muscles underneath his strong fingers.
He began bandaging from underneath her knee and made his way up to her lower thigh, marvelling at the fact that she had long enough legs to have a lower middle andupper thigh.
Stop, he chided himself, this is Lois. And with that he cleared his head and finished his task.
He carefully put her leg back into her pants and pulled as high as he had bandaged, pulling the covers down to her toes.
"You can pull them back up." He said as he stood to put everything away.
When she didn't move or answer he stopped and noticed the shivers had gotten worse, her eyes tightly closed, she had let the towel go and both her arms were underneath the covers.
He went to the kitchen and then to the bathroom, where he found the thermometer. He walked up to her and opened her mouth slightly to put it in. She pressed her lips together, letting him know she hadn't fully lost consciousness.
He carefully brought her pants up to her waist without moving the covers. She shifted slightly.
A loud beep broke the silence and he pulled the thermometer out of her mouth. The screen read 104.
He grabbed the towel and submerged it in the water, tightly wrenching the excess off before putting it on her forehead.
She looked so vulnerable, it stirred something inside him. He then realized how many barriers she had put around herself. Not once had she heard her complain of physical or emotional pain, she complained, but never about something too close to her being.
This night alone, she had complained about him slamming the door, causing the snow to fall on her, but she didn't even pronounce an 'ouch' or mentioned she was cold.
It was then he realized her annoying personality was nothing but a mask, hiding her true self.
He stared at her with new eyes, not yet knowing what to make of the new information, but knowing things would never quite be the same, at least not on his part.
The sun was hitting her eyes, she pulled the fluffy overthrow over her face, uncovering her feet.
"I got it" she heard Clark say and a couple of seconds later the light was gone. She sat up slowly, her head felt heavy, her whole body ached,and she felt like she had woken up from a very long and bad dream.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, sitting in the chair besides the couch.
"Like a truck ran over me three times, then screeched its tires on me."
"You don't have fever anymore, but you still need to rest." He went to the kitchen.
Lois stared at him like he had grown wings all of a sudden. Why is he being so nice to me?
"Where you up all night?" taking care of me? She finished the sentence in her mind.
"Shh, just drink this okay"
"What is it?"
"It's a tea my mom used to make for my dad when he got sick."
"Nice story. Did she ever give it to you?" She took the tea and sat up, Clark helped her with the pillow. She looked at him, but didn't say a word. She sipped the hot liquid silently, making a face as the bitter taste.
"I didn't get sick very often," Lois raised her eyebrow "But yeah, I did, it tastes horrible doesn't it?"
"Like hell" she took a deep breath and took another sip.
"So you have been there" He grinned.
She narrowed her eyes, any remark she could have made drowned by the hot liquid in her mouth.
"I'm kidding you know."
What? He caught her off guard, swallowing hard she looked up only to find a smile that usually followed an uncomfortable silencebetween them.
He stared at him for a while, at a complete loss of words. A cold and his change in attitude towards her were too much for her body to take.
"The sun is out and it's melting the snow." He changed the subject, not ready to let her know he had come to understand her a little better that night.
But now her curiosity was piqued. She set the cup down and sat up on the couch.
"What is going on Smallville? And don't say nothing cuz – wait a minute." A memory from the night before night springing in her mind: she looked under the covers. "Did you?" her eyes narrowed dangerously.
She had forgotten the subject, for that he was grateful, and for the fact that she was too weak to throw herself on him in an angry fit: and it started again, the fight, the bickering.
He knew it would take a long time and a lot of work for her to let him see the real her, and for some reason he was willing to stick around to make sure it happened.
After all he might gain a good friend at the end of it all.
THE END