Bernie had been ignoring the tickle in her throat for days, and she'd blamed her reddened nose on the cold weather, but Serena wasn't going to let it drop. For days, she had kept a close eye on her girlfriend and made sure that she wasn't overreacting but when she woke up one Thursday morning to find Bernie sniffling and coughing desperately, she knew it was time to mention it.
"You can't go in to work today, you'll give all the patients your infection - you simply can't, I won't let you!" Serena exclaimed as the pair of them got ready for work, with Serena taking every article of clothing that Bernie grabbed out of her hands and placing them out of the blonde's reach until the contents of the wardrobe laid on the bed in a heap. "Get back in to bed, you're sick!"
"Serena, I'm fine! I've worked with worse, you know full well that I would admit it if I didn't feel that I was up to working! You can't stop me from going in!" Bernie's words might have been somewhat convincing were her tone not weakened by her uneven breaths and sniffling as she spoke.
"I can and I will. I'll take your car keys to work with me so that you can't drive yourself in." Serena argued assertively, maintaining control of the conversation with reason that she knew Bernie would only debunk.
"I'll get the bus." Bernie countered.
"You most certainly will not!"
"Try me!"
"Get back in bed now, Bernie, I swear!"
Eventually, after a lot of persuading, Serena conceded that Bernie could come in to work but only if she resigned herself to the office for the day and didn't see any patients directly. Bernie knew that it was the best bargain she was going to get, so she conceded that it was a good idea and focused on the fact that she had at least been given some leeway, compromise could be worked with but the stubborn and immovable Serena that was most prevalent could not be reasoned with. Bernie grinned widely, never happier to be going in to work, and threw on clothes haphazardly before grabbing her handbag and hurrying for the car, determined to be inside of it before she could sneeze again and change Serena' mind.
"I don't know why you're making such a fuss, it's only a cold!" Bernie exclaimed as she sneezed again, excusing herself before proceeding to rant on about the fact that she was fine and she didn't want to be mollycoddled.
"Bernie, you are sick, accept it. Stop complaining and blame yourself for exposing yourself, it's not my fault that you never take the correct precautions against infection, considering we are doctors! You are impossible and I don't know how on Earth I put up with you so well but you should count yourself lucky, you whiny madam!"
"I didn't ask for this, in fact while I quite expressly said that i was fine without special treatment and that if you would just stop treating me like every sneeze brings me one step closer to death, then this would all be a lot easier for the both of us." Bernie pointed out as the pair of them got out of the car and headed for the hospital entrance. "I'm going to the office, make sure to wear a gas mask when you come in because I've obviously contracted TB again!"
"Very funny, ha! I'll bring you a coffee when I get a chance, and there's a cardigan in my bottom drawer, put it on because I don't want you getting a chill on top of all of this."
Bernie huffed sarcastically before bumbling off to the office, staring at the forsaken heap of paperwork and grumbling as she rounded the desk and opened Serena's bottom drawer. Despite the fact that she felt fine, and she didn't need the cardigan - the smell of Serena was comforting to her, and while she wouldn't admit it, she liked the way Serena insisted on looking after her despite how much it frustrated her. As she wrapped the woollen garment around herself, she lifted it to her nose and inhaled the scent of pine and clean air that was so intimately feminine and inherently Serena.
As Bernie forced her way through the morning, she caught Serena's voice outside the door and quickly shoved all evidence of her illness - the box of tissues, the paracetamol packet, and the Vicks - into her top drawer eagerly and painted a wide, healthy smile on her face as the brunette walked through the door with a disgruntled expression.
"Everything okay, Serena? You look a bit on edge." Bernie speculated, forcing the attention away from herself though the bitter nasality of her tone gave her away somewhat. "I can come and help out if you need me."
"Bernie, don't test me. I have had the worst morning in history and I don't need you nattering on about jeopardising not only your health, but the health of our patients, out of sheer pride. No one cares if you give gun-yielding terrorists the sniffles, but this isn't Kabul anymore and here we are civilised human beings who take days off sick! There's no need to be so gung-ho about the fact that you've got a bloody chest infection, you're not Actionman you know?! Have some bloody tissues!" Serena exclaimed as she flopped in to her own seat, yanking open her desk draw and throwing the Kleenex box violently at Bernie's head. "Why are you so bloody stubborn?"
"I'm stubborn?! It's my health - you're the one who won't let me get on with my life because I sneezed a couple of times. Who knew that there was something that Marcus did better at?! At least he could stop picking holes in everything I did." Bernie retaliated spitefully as she caught the box of tissues and slammed them down dramatically beside her, internalising her amusement at the situation somewhat.
"He also let you get blown up, so I don't think we're going to idolise the useless sap. If you let me mollycoddle you until this passes, we'll see about getting an animal - NOT a cat, because you sneezing for the past couple of days has been impossible and I refuse to deal with it twenty four hours a day for the next 15 years, maybe a goldfish." Serena offered, trying to bargain in the knowledge that she was never going to win an argument purely with force, there was too much intrinsic obstinance in everything that Bernie did.
"You are not going to bribe me with a goldfish, Serena. I'll just go home and get a cat of my own!" Bernie pointed out, struggling to hold back her own laughter at the ludicrous nature of her words.
"We live together, you can't hide a cat from me Bernie!" The brunette exclaimed, knowing full well that Bernie had the same ability to hide anything, as she did to tidy anything away. "Reminder that you couldn't hide my birthday present which was literally the size of a dormouse - you cannot raise a cat in our house secretly."
"I'll get a new house, for me and the cat! You can join us when you've accepted that cats are not optional." Bernie claimed boldly, immediately retracting her statement in the knowledge that she couldn't survive two minutes without Serena…not even on a practical level. "Ha, like I'm gonna move out - I can't make scrambled eggs or turn the dishwasher on, the cats will have to wait until you've reached senility."
"Oh charming, so not too long then?!" Serena retorted indignantly, bitter that Bernie wouldn't see reason over something so minor. "Will you please stop being such a child and take some paracetamol?"
Bernie eyed her guiltily, swallowing thickly as she reached in to the drawer and drew out the already opened pack of painkillers. Serena simply scoffed before standing up and stalking out of the room smugly and Bernie rolled her eyes as she accepted the fact that she was never going to win against someone quite as stubborn as Serena.
The afternoon dragged and Bernie headed home early, having done all of the paperwork that she could bear to face, while Serena stayed until the end of her shift. Serena left at five o'clock almost to the minute and drove home quickly in the hope that she would be able to chastise her girlfriend for the fact that she'd been wrong about her own abilities, but her arrival home took a much sweeter tone.
"Bernie?" Serena called softly as she headed through to the living room after hearing the noise of the television. "Oh, darling."
Upon the sofa, Bernie was curled up in to a ball with their duvet wrapped around her, and a reddened nose from where she had been constantly blowing it all afternoon. Her eyes were shut and her breathing was a little wheezy as she slept uneasily, her neck at an unnatural angle as she had obviously nodded off while trying to fight off sleep. The TV was playing Friends re-runs and there was a mug of cold tea at the foot of the couch, companioned by a pile of crumpled tissues, and it was obvious that Bernie really had been putting on a brave face about how she had been feeling.
Serena eased her down the sofa, untucking her feet so that she was spread the length of it, and carefully lifted her head to place a cushion underneath it. Placing a gentle kiss on Bernie's slightly clammy forehead, she smiled and gingerly made her way out of the room, switching off the television as she passed it and leaving Bernie to sleep.
