2. the state or an instance of being sick; illness.
3. nausea; queasiness. 4. A defective or unsound condition.
Illness (sometimes referred to as ill-health) can be defined as a state of poor health. The mode of being healthy includes, as defined by the World Health Organization, " ... a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"
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Reading the definition did little to make Velma feel any better. It just made her feel worse. So bad that she was at the point that she was reading the dictionary to try to take her mind off of the feelings inside of her.
Upset stomach, dizziness, stuffiness and the such were her problems. And this darn little sniffle that wouldn't go away no matter how many tissues she had been using. Even though she had a waste basket nearby her bed, it was not big enough to contain her growing mound of tissues that grew out of the depth of the trash bin and erupted out of it like a run away volcano.
"Achoo!" She squeaked and then grumbled. On many occasions she had been told she had a cute sneeze, but hearing it so often recently it was getting on her nerves no matter how 'adorable' it might sound to others.
"Achoo Achoo Achoo!"
Another round sounded off as she brought up yet another tissue to her face to try to contain it all. The poor tissue gave it's all, but still couldn't hold up to her attack. The fallen solder joined it's companions in the waste basket as Velma discarded it and went for another one. Hitting bottom, her searching grew frantic as she knew she would not do well with no tissues nearby.
"Need something?"
Calling in a soft voice from the door, Fred was standing with another box in his hand. Velma moved to get up, but Fred quickly crossed her room to push her down and hand over the box.
"You are supposed to stay in bed." He chided her. She struggled a bit against his hand but didn't have the energy to fight him and just snapped up the box in a huff. Grumpily ripping off the top of the box, she scrambled her fingers to draw out another soft Kleenex to catch another round of sneezes. Pulling the top a bunch came after the one she claimed and drifted about the box. Had she not been in such a unhappy mood she might have cared more, or moved to organize them.
"Heh, you sound so cute." Fred smiled, as she shot him a look of daggers. He got up and moved out of the way of her weak willed swat. She just wasn't feeling up to snuff to be able to aim right, not that she wanted to hurt him anyway.
"Man, you must not be feeling good, you missed." He apparently noticed too.
"Mrrr..." Velma huffed and grumbled. He was being far to cheery for her to be able to withstand too much at once. It was like when you just wake up and then are exposed to a bright and shiny morning sun. It was almost as bad to make her want to roll over and hide from his chipper attitude.
She sniffled and felled two more tissues before she noticed he hadn't moved. He was just standing there, watching her as she was adding to her growing pile of diseased ridden tissues into an over flowing bin.
"Yes?"
"Hm?" Fred seemed un-effected by her questionable tone. Almost happily oblivious that she was sick and he was taking a risk just being near her room let along in there just standing around.
"Are you waiting for something?" She was starting to get annoyed. She wouldn't mind him just standing around normally, but not feeling good made her a bit grouchy and she also didn't want him getting sick.
"Nope. Why?" He asked almost to innocently, a smile on his face. Though it was a soft smile, not really anything behind it beside a grin towards her.
"...Stop looking at me." She turned away and bit her tongue. She really didn't wanted to snap at him, but she really wasn't feeling good. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but his level look was making her feel off and on display for some reason. He seemed to drop his smile and his brows moved together in concern. He started to move close to her when he was close enough to hear her muffled voice through the tissue.
"... Sorry."
"Hm? Sorry for what?" He asked.
"Sorry for being snippy." She admitted, a bit louder then her previous smothered apology through the Kleenex.
"Nah, don't worry about it, I know sometimes when people get sick they don't feel well and say things they might not really mean." He said sitting down at the edge of the bed. Reaching out his hands graced her forehead. She was burning up and his brows nearly crossed in worry.
"You really should lay back and rest." He told her with care in his voice. With her head that hot she needed to rest as much as she could. "Let me get more blankets."
Raising to his feet, he disappeared before she could even complain. She only managed to flutter the tissue she had in one hand in his general direction before he as gone from the room.
Suddenly the room felt a lot emptier and quiet. Even though they had not been doing much, Velma felt uncomfortably alone as she lay there straining to wait for him to come back. Agonizingly silent second passed before the padding of his socked feet returned as he shuffled along carrying a bunch of blankets. He was quick to start piling them on. The first blanket was ok, maroon in color and rather pleasant once added to her own blanket. The second blanket she was happy was laying more on top, since it was rather scratchy in the fibers.
And the last blanket she had to stifle a chuckle. It was one of Fred's favorite blankets, an old 1983 He-man blanket that was decorated with mostly white color and heads of the various characters with respecting logo for 'Masters of the Universe' above He-man and the others had their names around them. It was very clean for a blanket that was rather old and well used. Maybe that was why Fred had liked it so much, since it was rather soft and comfortable.
With great care, he put all of the blankets upon her and promptly buried her under all the coverlets. True, she knew that a way to break a fever is to use a lot of blankets but she didn't feel all that hot to herself. Was she? Bringing up a hand to her forehead she found that she might feel warm, but that wasn't to bad.
Gently taking her hand, his felt a lot cooler then her own. Maybe she was hotter then she thought.
"Nuu nuu... Put that back under there." He tucked her arm back into the blanket mass and proceeded to pin her down into the bed. "You should rest and get some sleep. Once that fever breaks maybe then you can do more reading."
He held up the dictionary she had claimed before. He wiggled it for emphasis and patted the top of the bed.
"Sleep well you. I'll see you when you get up." Moving away from the bed, he gave her a little wave before leaving the room with her dictionary.
"Hey... You took my Dictionary..." She muttered and tried to move. Though Fred had stuffed the blankets in such a way into the bed that she was thoroughly pinned to the bed. Well, with her lack of energy and Fred's skillful tucking he must have learned form his military uncle, she wasn't going anywhere. Sleep was as good of an option she was going to get now.
Settling into a more relaxed position under the covers, she took a deep breath in and caught a whiff of something that smelled rather nice. It was a 'Fred Smell' coming off of his blankie. The kind of natural smell certain people had that was subtle enough to not be anything possibly offensive, but oddly had a calming effect on certain people. Breathing the smell in, she found it wasn't all that bad. Sighing, she shifted a little and fell asleep with the smell of Fred accompanying her to blissful slumber away from her being sick.
