Author's Note: Child of a Broken Dawn and I had a bit of a competition. Enjoy the sweet fruit of it.
Charles Addams owns the Addams name, Lucas is Andrew Lippa's and the kids are the products of the giant headcanon created by Eryn and I.
"Wednes, are you sure you don't need anything?" Lucas asked his wife cautiously from their bedroom door. It was the first time in over 18 years of marriage that he'd seen her sick, and he still wasn't quite sure how she was taking it. According to WebMD, her symptoms indicated pneumonia, which would be worrisome if his wife wasn't, well, his wife. It did indeed explain why this was the first time she'd ever appeared sick after ten years of kids bringing home the flu and the common cold from school.
"I'm fine. I have my tea." She said up to the ceiling. "Now get out of here before you make the kids late for school." She ordered, as normally as possible, what with the mass amounts of mucus in her nose and throat. Lucas looked at the nearest clock, and nodded.
"Come on kids, let's go!" He called up the stairs.
"I've been saying this for almost ten minutes." Fifteen-year-old Nell pointed out. "But no worries, my first class is only college-level math. Big whoop." She added sarcastically in the process of slinging her bag over her shoulder. Her father pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Please spare me the attitude this morning." He all but begged her. She rolled her eyes and poked her head into her parents bedroom.
"You okay, Mom?" She asked.
"No, I'm not." She croaked. Nell nodded and turned back to the stairs.
"Brats! Hurry up!" There instantly was the sound of four feet stampeding on the floor above. Lucas went back into he and Wednesday's bedroom and leaned over her.
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay home with you today, Di?" He whispered.
"I'm sure. This will probably blow over soon." She said up to him. "And promise not to call my mother?" Wednesday gave her husband pleading eyes.
"I promise." He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "I'll see you this afternoon." She nodded and he turned back to their door when their two youngest children were waiting.
"Is Mommy going to die, Daddy?" Little Melanie asked Lucas, her blue eyes wide, and threatening tears. Lucas leaned down and helped her into her winter coat.
"Of course not. She just has the cold that you had last week." He reassured his five-year-old. This answer seemed to satisfy her, and she looked in at her mother.
"Get better, Mommy!" She called to Wednesday, and bounded for the front door, her father and brother, who had remained silent thus far, followed closely behind.
"Class is in five minutes. I wrote myself a note." Nell said to her father and held up a piece of folded notebook paper.
"I don't approve." Lucas said as he walked past her and out to their car.
"I know." Nell said as she put the note in her pocket and got in the passenger side. As soon as Lucas backed out of their driveway, his son decided to speak up.
"Mom has pneumonia." He started. Lucas gave him a warning look through the rearview mirror.
"What's pneumonia?" Melanie asked her brother.
"Erik, don't." Lucas said to the nine-year-old.
"It's like a cold….but it kills you." He said ominously to his little sister. Her eyes widened in fear.
"Daddy…" She said to Lucas.
"Erik Gomez Charles Addams-Beineke, stop scaring your sister!" He said to his son.
"Well, she does have pneumonia. I saw your WebMD page." Erik defended. "And just look at all of the people that have died of it! Marlon Brando's awesome son, the bassist from Chic, Freddie Mercury!" Erik continued to name off people, and Melanie burst into tears.
"Mommy's gonna DIE!" She yelled, and continued to wail for the duration of the car ride while Erik went along with his rant, and Nell began to sing along to her iPod. It took all Lucas had not to bang his head against the steering wheel.
Grandma, I hope you're happy, because I will finally admit that I think your herbal remedies probably did prevent stuff like this. Wednesday thought to the spirit of her long-dead grandmother, who was probably back at the old mansion with the rest of the ancestors. Assuming Grandma wasn't in fact just a homeless person, like her parents sometimes believed. In that case, she probably still was with the ancestors, because you have to be an honorary Addams to live in their attic for so long.
Wednesday continued to muse, and sip tea for a good hour or so. Wishing Lucas was by her side like the last time she'd been sick, wishing Nell would come talk to her about her new favorite book, wishing Erik was here to play some Beethoven for her, even wishing Melanie would come bedazzle a pattern on one of her old dresses.
The wishing stopped as soon as the front door opened, and shouts of,
"Give it back, Erik!"
"No!"
"Daddy, Erik took my card!"
"Ow!"
"Then don't take Melanie's stuff!" Yes, Wednesday loved her three children dearly, but she sometimes wished they had a volume control.
"What's going on here?" She heard her husband interject.
"Erik took Melanie's card." Nell explained.
"So Nell pushed me into a door!" Erik added.
"I think it was fair!" Melanie said.
"Erik, you shouldn't have taken your sister's card, and Nell, violence is never the answer." Lucas attempted to lecture his kids.
"I'm sure that's what the creator of Care Bears said." Wednesday couldn't help but chuckle at her oldest daughter's remark. The girl in question happened to pass the open door a few seconds later, with one of her friends in tow. "Hi Mom." She said quickly, not caring to stop. Wednesday heard her friend ask,
"What's wrong with your mom?"
"She has Pneumonia." Nell said nonchalantly as the girls went up the stairs.
"What?!" The other girl asked in alarm. Wednesday didn't hear any more of their conversation, because Melanie came bounding into her room, and jumped up onto her bed.
"You're alive!" She exclaimed and threw her arms around her mother's neck. Wednesday ran a hand through her daughter's recessively blonde hair.
"Of course I am." She said. The two were shortly joined by Erik, who carried a sticky note.
"I made you a card in school today." Melanie said enthusiastically and produced a piece of pink construction paper covered in glitter that said, "Get Well Soon Mommy!" in Melanie's handwriting. Despite her daughter's questionable artistic choices, Wednesday genuinely smiled.
"I love it." She said and kissed her daughter's forehead. Content, Melanie curled up at her side.
"I made you a card, too!" Erik said and gave his mother the sticky note, on which he wrote, "Good, You Didn't Die!" along with a drawing of what Wednesday assumed was a stick figure version of herself holding a crossbow. While she knew that her son had made this just now, in about twenty seconds, she appreciated the gesture.
"Thank you, Erik." She kissed him as well, and he jokingly rubbed his forehead like he was going to get the plague. Wednesday looked up to find Lucas staring in with a grin on his face.
"Watch it, or I will give you my germs as well." She jokingly threatened. He smiled and stepped closer.
"I'll take my chances." He said and lightly kissed her on the lips.
"EWWW!" Erik yelled and ran out of the room while Melanie giggled and followed him.
"We've had worse days." Wednesday said, and her husband nodded in agreement.
"Sickness is nothing." He put the cards from the kids on the bedside table. "And if I do get sick, I'll be right here." He added and laid down next to Wednesday.
"Then in that case, come here and let me contaminate you." Wednesday said as sexily as possible through her sore throat and plugged nose. Lucas smiled and kissed her again.
"I don't care if you've already gotten a room, just please close the door while I have company, you nasties!" They heard their eldest daughter call from the hallway before their door was slammed shut. Lucas broke the kiss.
"Yes, I think a day alone tomorrow would be marvelous." Wednesday smiled deviously, turned away, and sneezed.
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