Penny began to shiver; the draught in the hallway chilling her to the bone even though her head was warm with fever.
"You need tea and warm bed. You feel better in the morning." Frieda soothed then stifling a yawn herself.
"Do you seriously think I'm going to sleep after that film?" Penny asked. She sat thoughtfully for a minute and looked at the floor. "Although you did such a good job nursing me that I might be able to sleep...if you stay..."
Frieda looked at Penny with wide eyes. Piercing brown eyes filled with so much emotion that Penny found it almost overwhelming.
"Because you know I am still sick...you're a nurse... and I'd feel a lot less afraid of Casper if you were here to protect me." She added trying her best to pull her most angelic face.
"I cannot." Frieda replied seriously looking at Penny with an intense expression on her face. "I do not have my toothbrush." She added finishing once again with a dazzling smile.
"It's lucky I have a spare then." Penny replied getting up from her position on the floor and pulling Frieda up gently. She led her into the flat and closed the door then tenderly took Frieda into her arms and kissed her.
"If I get this cold, I holding you personally responsible." Frieda then told Penny, brushing the soft skin of her cheek with her thumb as she pulled away. She then let Penny lead her into her bedroom where they stood for a moment, brown eyes studying brown.
"You shower and change. I make you tea. Then we sleep yes?" Frieda said softly, running her fingers through Penny's hair. "You need to rest."
"That sounds lovely." Penny replied pulling away briefly to search through her drawers for an oversized t-shirt for Frieda to wear to bed and her spare toothbrush. She passed them to Frieda carefully and again was overcome by a sneeze.
Frieda immediately brushed Penny's hair away from her clammy forehead and kissed it gently.
"You beautiful even when you have cold and streaming nose." She whispered sincerely; her lips just brushing Penny's ear. "Now go shower and get yourself into bed."
"You're not going to leave?" Penny checked, suddenly feeling very vulnerable.
"Never. We have many years I feel. Many, many years." Frieda replied, kissing Penny on the tip of her nose.
"I hope so." Penny told her resting her forehead against Frieda's and closing her eyes, thinking just how much things had changed in one evening, but also how she wouldn't change them for the world.
"I know it. Now go...before you fall asleep on your feet. I cannot carry you. You realise this." Frieda teased; shooing Penny into the bathroom.
Penny did as she was told and forty five minutes later found herself clean, full of tea and another two ibuprofen and in the embrace of the t-shirt clad and beautiful Frieda who was carefully holding a tepid washcloth on Penny's forehead until she fell asleep.
Penny Valentine hated colds. She hated the headaches, she hated the sneezing, she hated having to battle through days where all she wanted to do was sleep; but for this cold she would always be grateful because it had brought into her life an angel; an angel who would nurse her, take care of her and protect her for the rest of their days and for whom she would always do the same without any question at all.