AN: Because when you have a lot of Captain Swan feels + Colin looking like well-Colin appearing on your tumblr dash, the fluff muse is in full drive. Inspired by the episode, Flu Season, from Parks and Rec. Any and all feedback is appreciated and welcomed.
Her face flushed with a growing fever, her button nose all scrunched up from the sneezes he hears coming from her office every couple of minutes, and her little body bundled by her puffy sheriff. She's a stubborn lass, indeed, not accepting that she's sick and needs to go home from work. With the flu that's taken over Storybrooke, he's surprised that with her abysmal diet of breakfast food and sugar combined with a complete lack of vegetables and fruit, she didn't contract the circulating bug any sooner.
All day, he's tried convincing her to take the rest of the day off and head home, but with no luck. She's been sitting at her desk in the sheriff's office with the rest of the staff crowded into one room, barricading themselves from her sneezes and sniffles. Her constant protests of feeling fine and that this is just allergies are not convincing anyone, especially him. Right now, all he wants to do is send her home and take care of her. To make her the Jones' family specialty: chicken noodle soup, place a warm compress on her head, and tuck her cozied up with her blankets and little duckling stuffed toy in bed.
Her stubbornness is wearing away at his patience, and for her he has a larger threshold than for others. He decides to try once more to convince her that she is indeed sick with the flu, even if he has to listen to her howl at him that she is Emma Swan and she's immune to all forms of sickness. As he walks over to her office, he can hear three consecutive sneezes and her yelling out to the rest of the office that it's just allergies. He chuckles to himself- her bullheaded ways are one of the reasons why he's fallen completely in love with her. Once he gets there, he feels the air in the room tighten and his body is engulfed in warmness. He looks over at her and she's bundled up even more so than earlier- blanket, the jacket, a scarf around her neck and she's still shivering, while he's dying of the constricting heat surrounding the room. She glances up as he enters the room, "I think it's a little chilly in here," she tells him in order to explain her outfit.
"Swan-" he begins to say when she cuts him off.
"I'm not sick!" she cries out before a chill passes through her body underneath all the layers.
"SHE'S SICK!" David yells from across the office, behind his office door. "GO HOME, EMMA!"
"THEY'RE ALLERGIES!" She yells back, glaring at David, petulance written all over her face.
She turns to Killian and tries to smile past the grimace, "Just allergies, Jones. I took some meds and well, I threw them up. And then I took a second dose, and well- I threw that up as well. But, I took a third dose and I'm keeping it down. I'm getting better." Her attempts to sound optimistic are endearing, but she's not fooling him.
He places his hand on her forehead and to no surprise, she's burning up. "You're burning up, Swan."
"You're burning up, Jones!" She quips back, as she leans back into her chair, arms outstretched. She's clearly proud of herself for that one and he has to bite back a laugh, to maintain his ground that she's ill.
"Swan, go home. Please, I'm begging you." He's resorted to begging- if that's what it takes so that she'll leave the office and stop tormenting the others. He can hear echoed yells coming from behind him in David's office.
"Jones, I have a town hall meeting I've gotta run in a half hour. If this doesn't go well, I won't be able to get the support from the town for the new group home, and I made this promise to those kids. I cannot go home."
He caves, again to no surprise because he's found that with her, he's like an unskilled poker player- he folds early. "Fine, but I'm taking you to the doctor. Who's your doctor?"
On the way to the hospital, she went over her notes for her proposal for the new group home with him, punctuating every point with either a cough or a sneeze. Once they arrive, he hands her over to Victor, after telling him all the symptoms that she's experienced this past day. She scowls at him as he reveals all, but he's willing to take those glares if it means getting her the meds and rest she needs to feel better. He communicates silently with his eyes to Victor to watch out for Emma for she's a sneaky one and his friend nods in agreement. Before the nurses lead Emma away, he grabs her hand and asks her gently to listen to the doctors and nurses. She brushes him off with a half-hearted yes and reminds him again about how he needs to emphasize that the construction for the group home won't affect other businesses, but will provide employment opportunities. He gently shakes his head at her adamancy; he shouldn't expect anything less from Emma, especially with how important and close to her heart this project is for her.
He arrives fifteen minutes early to the town hall meeting and greets Mayor Mills as he begins to set up. He's received at least five calls from Emma while in the office from her hospital room phone with different additions or amendments she's made to her presentation. Finally, he just unplugged his office phone, hoping that she would take the message. That's why he shouldn't be surprised that after leaving her in the care of Dr. Whale, she's found a way to escape under their watchful eyes.
Five minutes before the meeting is about to start, she wanders in, slightly dazed, her eyes glassy as she tries to make her way to the front of the room. He walks over to meet her and she smiles all goofy at him, asking him for doubloons to pay the taxi driver. Rather than being upset that she defied him as well as hospital procedure, he's more worried about how he's going to convince her to sit this out so that she doesn't make a fool of herself out there. He grabs some money from his wallet, enough to give to the taxi driver, and hands it over to Ruby to run out and give to them. Once he looks back to where Emma was just standing, he finds her facing the wall, giving a speech, reminiscent of one he heard from Princess Diaries (she forced him to watch it, and he's man enough to admit that he thought it was a very good movie). Before he can lead her to a seat or trick her into sitting this one out, Mayor Mills calls Emma forward to begin the presentation.
Emma smiles over at him, a genuine Emma smile- the kind that he finds himself getting lost in, the kind that makes his heart doing a stupid little pitter-patter dance, the kind that causes him to grin widely like a bumbling fool, before she makes her way to the podium. He waits with bated breath for the nonsense to begin spilling from her mouth, but it never comes. Instead, she delivers her presentation flawlessly, going through each point with articulated poise and confidence. Her performance is exemplary that no one in this room could even guess that Emma was a sniffling, wheezing mess just a couple hours prior.
He can see that she has won the audience over, any doubts or concerns they had about the project have been wiped away, and that all plans will move forward for the group home. He's amazed at her- every day he's finding another reason to add to his list. As she winds down the presentation, he can see that her facade is starting to crumble and that the medication they must have given her to feel better is slowly starting to wear off. She manages to finish her report and he takes over the questions from the audience portion. As she steps off the stage, he gives her a smile, wanting her to know how proud he is of her, but her eyes are squinted trying to hold in her sneezes. Adorable, he thinks. He motions to Ruby to take her back to the hospital, knowing that Ruby will make sure her boyfriend keeps a better eye on Emma this time.
After the presentation and talking to Mayor Mills who tells him to set up a meeting with her secretary to go over contracts, he quickly runs home before he heads back to the hospital. Armed with a quickly made, but still delicious tupperware of the Jones' chicken noodle soup, along with her stuffed duck, some vapor rub, and her favorite- mini waffles from Granny's. He finds her asleep in the hospital bed, the flushness still covering her cheeks, but not as prominent as it was before. He places his surprises for her on the table next to her bed and sits down in the chair beside it. She turns over to face him, her eyes still full of sleep, as she asks, "What did they say?"
Ordinarily, he would tease her and ask her what she was talking about to rile her up, but his excitement and pride for her prevails. He leans forward, germs be damned, and grabs her hand in his, "You did it, love. You needed to get approval from at least 10 members of the board. And you got all of them."
Her smile illuminates her face and he knows that if she wasn't feeling so lousy, her excitement would be more pronounced. She leans her head against their entwined hands, "What goodies did you bring for me?"
He brings over the soup (which she thanks him for until she sees that he's brought her waffles which prompts her to promise him a million kisses once she feels better), places some of the vapor rub gently on her chest (not too much, she reminds him, but he already knows), and she softly squeals when she sees that he's brought her stuffed toy companion. He can see the medication is kicking in again as her eyes start to flutter and she snuggles deeper into the pillow, so he fluffs the pillows and tucks her in. He places a kiss on each of her eyelids as well as her forehead.
As he's about to move back to his seat, she grabs his hand, "Thank you Killian, we did it. She says, her last thought before sleep is about to overtake. He kisses her knuckles, "No, my love- you did it."