"Water?"
Blair lifted the pillow that she had over her head and found Dan Humphrey standing at her bedside with a big glass extended to her. Blair moaned and put the pillow back over her head. Who the hell had let Humphrey into her bedroom?
"Get out."
Her skin was dry and hot and her mouth was parched and actually that glass of water looked really good, but she was too annoyed to take him up on his offer. She heard Dan laugh, muffled through the pillow.
"Well, you can't be that sick if you're still that feisty."
Blair lifted the pillow again and leveled a glare at him.
"I'm sick." she moaned the went back to hiding under her pillow. She heard Dan turn and walk out of the room, and Blair went back to feeling pitiful and miserable and all around sorry for herself.
"Gatorade?"
What the hell? She'd been woken by him saying her name over and over and his fingers pushing at her shoulder and Blair thought maybe Dan should do some research and he'd discover that people who are sick need rest, not annoying muppet haired boys who kept bugging them about fluid intake. She groped around for one of the pillows on her bed that wasn't currently over her head and tossed it in the general direction of his voice while she muttered expletives that included his last name and 'Brooklyn' and something somewhat incoherent about how he should go back.
"It has electrolytes," Dan sing-songed, smiling, and by this time Blair had figured out that Dorota had something to do with this and she made a mental not to fire her or at least punish her by making ridiculous requests for a week. Once she felt better.
"Just because you're my boyfriend doesn't mean you're my nursemaid," Blair growled from under the covers and she tried to hide the fact that she was shaking from chills, and refused to even lift up the pillow and glare at him this time.
"Chicken soup."
The next time Humphrey invaded her den of sickness he sounded entirely self-satisfied with what he'd brought to offer her. Blair pulled the overs that she'd bunched around her face to keep warm and found him standing at the end of her bed balancing a tray and on it was a steaming bowl of Dorota's chicken soup, and it actually smelled kind of good.
"Really? Chicken soup?" Blair grumped, her hair matted from being in bed for days and she was sure she didn't smell good, and why didn't Dan just go and let her suffer in solitude? Why did he have to play the ubermench boyfriend at this exact moment? "How about something that can actually help, like Tylenol or some IV fluids?"
"It's nice and salty," Dan offered. Blair rolled her eyes, pulled on her sleep mask, turned over and ignored him.
She slept the rest of that afternoon and into the night, and at some point she woke up in the darkness and every joint in her body ached and she moaned a little. Then he was there, his hand stroking her brow and he was saying something about her feeling hot, and he pressed a couple tablets into her hand then helped her take a drink of water.
"Thank you," Blair murmured as she pulled the covers up and curled into a ball, shivering, waiting for the medicine to kick in.
Filtered sunlight woke her in the morning and Blair blinked a little, stretched and realized that she actually felt better. He skin didn't feel like it was burning up, it was sweaty and clammy like her fever had broken overnight and her mouth wasn't as dry. She looked around with bleary eyes and rubbed them a little and then she saw Dan. He was stretched out in the chair, eyes closed, feet propped on an ottoman that Blair thought had come from the den downstairs, his head tilted to the side, looking a little rumpled and lot sexy, as he snored softly and Blair realized he'd been there all night. And she smiled.
He'd stayed with her.
~fin~