Author's note: Thanks so much to Larkafree2, Maknatuna, Maddy Love Castiel, Quiet Crash, Nicolene B, LadyGrelka, yet again, LeeMarieJack, SummerMistedDragon, Sandra Marques, Greeting'sAndSaltations, Alexandra Mills and Rude Americano for last chapter's reviews!
Not yet beta-read.
"I thought newspapers took away whatever little faith in humanity you managed to build up," Nadine stated with a slight grin when the picture of Lucifer with the morning paper in his hands greeted her upon entering the kitchen.
With all the more or less strange things Lucifer developed a liking or dislike to over the months, Nadine had to admit that she could understand his view on newspapers. Most of the reports were of negative things, making them sound even worse than strictly necessary in a lot of cases, and what so-called human interest stories there were, were sappy enough to make someone gag.
However, Nadine would never understand or support Lucifer's opinion on Spongebob Squarepants. Though it was pretty funny that Lucifer couldn't even blame his fondness of the program on Gracie, because Gracie for her part was pretty indifferent to the show.
"They do," Lucifer replied seriously and without looking up from the newspaper.
It might have been a worrying statement, if not for the fact that passing Lucifer by Nadine could clearly see that he was in fact only reading the cartoon pages. So the devil wasn't looking for an excuse to go back to hating all -except for one- humans, he simply was a Garfield fan. Nadine had reached a point where that wasn't even too surprising anymore.
What was surprising was that Lucifer automatically reached for two sugar cubes to put into Nadine's coffee when she put the mug on the kitchen table though. The sugar bowl was on the table next to Lucifer, but still...
"Mommy," Gracie mumbled as she shuffled into the kitchen. She didn't even have to cough up a lung for her mother to know that something was wrong. Not that Gracie had much of a say when it came to coughing at the moment.
Nadine immediately went to check on Gracie, which gave Lucifer the chance to turn to Samandriel and give his younger brother a glare. Granted, it was a half-hearted glare, because in all honesty Lucifer had started to really think of Samandriel as one of his beloved brothers a while ago, but the glare was still necessary.
"How could you let this happen?" Lucifer asked in a clearly accusing tone, that wasn't quite as harsh as it could have been. Still, Samandriel was the guardian angel of the house so to say, so he should have seen the first signs of illness in Grace and put a stop to them immediately!
"I have been told to keep things as normal as possible around the house," Samandriel explained patiently. It wasn't too surprising for Lucifer to accuse Samandriel of things now and then and the seraph had gotten used to it. It helped that Samandriel now knew that Lucifer simply expressed worry by first throwing accusations around and only then dealing with the problem at hand.
"And this is..?" Lucifer groaned, looking over to Gracie who was being fuzzed over by her mother. It was normal for Gracie to come bouncing down the stairs, complain halfheartedly about having to go to school and then chatter on about what she wanted to do in the afternoon. It was normal for Gracie to be healthy. Period.
"Yes, it is," Nadine answered before Samandriel could say anything, "Samandriel is here to help us with things we cannot handle on our own. This we can handle."
There was a moment in which Lucifer and Nadine's eyes met and entire unspoken argument about the situation happening between them in just a second. Lucifer knew he wasn't going to win this one though. Of course, Nadine would be more than willing to let Samandriel fix anything that was in any way threatening and she would ask the angel to fix Gracie's sickness if it got worse. As things were, Nadine had made up her mind and wasn't going to give in. She was a stubborn woman that one, Lucifer had to give her that. In all honesty, it was one of Nadine's qualities he really valued.
"Are you trying to get yourself infected now?" Lucifer frowned deeply when Nadine kissed Gracie's forehead before straightening up again.
"The skin of lips is thinner than on hands," Gracie explained between sniffles, "'S better to take the temperature like that."
At least that was what Gracie's mother always told her. It also helped that kisses always made everything better, but the explanation sounded logical enough. Her mom was very good at knowing just how high Gracie's temperature was before the thermometer came out too.
Nadine nodded along with her daughter's explanation, before she patted Gracie's back and announced, "Okay, you go back to bed. I'll call your school and then bring up some breakfast."
Gracie coughed once more before she went to grab Lucifer's hand and drag him upstairs with her. The good thing about being sick was that somebody had to stay with her and read stories to her or otherwise entertain her and Gracie was determined to get the most out of this cold she could. Not that Lucifer wouldn't do what she wanted him to do usually, but still.
"'S not so bad, Luci," Gracie stated as they made their way upstairs, squeezing her angel's hand reassuringly, "I get to stay home from school 'til I'm all better."
Lucifer considered all that with a thoughtful expression and then nodded. Maybe the situation wasn't all bad. Grace sure seemed to think that everything was half as bad. At least they could use the extra time to get further into the world of Harry Potter.
"Ya can maybe talk to Mandy, if I'm still sick for the weekend," Gracie concluded with a grin as she opened the door to her bedroom.
"You can bet on that," Lucifer replied automatically. Weekends were for having fun and relaxation, not for being sick after all. Besides, they had plans to go to the zoo.
"I brought tea!" Gracie announced in a much too upbeat tone as she opened the door to Lucifer's nearly completely darkened bedroom. A flick of the light switch caused a deep groan and what were most likely mumbled profanities from Lucifer, but Gracie wouldn't demand money for the swearing jar under the circumstances.
"I brought tea!" Gracie repeated, holding out the steaming mug for Lucifer, who only just opened his blanket cocoon up enough to even look at her.
"I don't like tea," Lucifer replied in a very nasal tone, due to a thoroughly stuffed nosed. Tea was flavored hot water and Lucifer didn't like his water warm or flavored. Unless it was properly flavored like in coffee or with orange juice or something alike.
"I also brought the cartoon pages," Gracie sing-songed, waving a part of the newspaper in front of Lucifer's nose and then hopping on the bed when Lucifer scooted over to make place for her. "So Jon is saying..."
Lucifer allowed Grace's reciting of the cartoon pages to lull him back to sleep after a while. To be fair, Nadine said she would not say anything about Lucifer asking Samandriel to heal him, but Lucifer's pride didn't allow him to ask for angelic assistance when Gracie could live through the same without complaining.
The next time Lucifer opened his eyes Nadine was standing in front of him with yet another cup of that blasted tea. To her credit, she also brought what had to be a cool glass of water with her. That one Lucifer could use.
"At least this time you get to ride it out inside the house, huh?" Nadine asked with a crooked smile, as she watched Lucifer untangle himself from the sheets and reach for the water. It was also more than likely that the pain that came with the common cold was nowhere close to the pain Lucifer had been in after falling and dealing with his body starting to shut down on him.
"It is preferable," Lucifer commented after he took the time to sniffle dramatically. Gracie taught him that the good thing about illnesses was that there was always someone around to take care of the sick one and favors were granted much more easily during such times. Not that Lucifer had a favor to ask of Nadine just yet, but maybe he would think of something later.
"Doesn't feel like you have a fever," Nadine commented, after she held the back of her hand against Lucifer's forehead for a moment.
"What did I do to offend you now?" Lucifer groaned, trying to give Nadine an unnerved look that didn't quite come out as planned. If anyone told Lucifer that he ended up looking more like a kicked puppy he would deny it with all he had, but the description was still fitting.
"What?" Nadine asked ineloquently. Where did that conclusion come from? She hadn't said anything that could lead Lucifer to believe that she was mad at him, had she?
"Clearly the ineffective method of measuring temperature is good enough for me," Lucifer retorted trying and failing to put all the righteous indignation he felt into his voice.
Nadine frowned for a moment, before the meaning behind Lucifer's accusation hit her. With anyone else Nadine would have suspected a rather stupid try at a pickup line, but Lucifer was clearly honestly hurt, thinking that she didn't deem him worthy of the best care. A fond smile spread over Nadine's face as she leaned in to press her lips against Lucifer's forehead for a long moment.
"No, still no fever," Nadine proclaimed after clearing her throat a little awkwardly, still smiling at Lucifer though.
Lucifer nodded contently and leaned back into his pillows. If this went like it did for Gracie he would feel much better the following day already and if he didn't Nadine would have to check his temperature again. Actually, that part of being sick had been quite nice.
"You're unreasonably stubborn in this, commander," Otheos stated with a raised eyebrow that Michael could only describe as mocking. Not that Otheos ever called Michael 'commander' unless he wanted to mock him in the first place.
"If Lucifer can stand this and call it a learning experience, so can I!" Michael insisted once again, before he had to reach for the box of tissues to blow his nose once more. In all honesty, Michael was mostly just curious what exactly could be a learning experience about being sick. So far he didn't see any upsides to feeling like he had been run over by a truck... or fallen a couple thousand feet into the sea just to nearly drown while making it to dry land. The second comparison was fitting for the most part as Michael could attest from his own experience.
"No chance, Otheos," Hope commented with a shrug as she passed the guard by, a bowl of chicken soup in her hands, "I tried to bait him with sex and that didn't work."
Both Michael and Otheos groaned at that statement. Otheos because he still was of the opinion that his guarding position didn't mean he had to know about Michael's sex life and Michael because he didn't think that anybody had to know anything about their sex life. For some reason Hope seemed to like to overshare in that regard, not only with Otheos either. The only good thing about that was that she never had any complaints to make.
"I still don't see what the learning experience here is and I will not-" Michael was rudely interrupted by his urge to sneeze, but he was sure he had made his point clear anyway.
Otheos rolled his eyes and left the room. Clearly his angelic abilities were not needed here and Hope was there for everything else, so he could go back to his room and play a couple rounds of darts.
"Maybe the learning experience is that it's quite nice to be pampered now and then," Hope guessed with a patient smile as she set the soup bowl down, fluffed up Michael's pillow and arranged the blanket around him when he sat up, "But clearly I'm already pampering you so much on an average day that you don't see the lesson here."
Michael's face scrunched up in consideration. In fact, he was thinking so hard that he only noticed something was off when he opened his mouth to accept the spoon Hope was holding out for him for the third time. "I can do that myself."
"Just dialing up the pampering a notch," Hope grinned, but gave up the spoon readily when Michael reached for it.
"This is good," Michael commented after a few moments of silence, "Is it a family recipe?"
"If you're asking, if my aunt used to make chicken soup for me when I was ill, then yes," Hope answered with a small smile, "If you wanted chicken soup the way I got during my childhood, I'd have had to hand you a dollar and tell you to go buy a packet."
"You'll have to show me how to cook this, so I can make some when you're ill," Michael stated with conviction, abandoning his soup in favor of wrapping his arms around his wife.
"I'll gladly show you how to cook chicken soup," Hope replied, leaning into her husband's embrace, "But next time I'm ill, I'll tell Otheos to heal me asap."
Michael still didn't really know what the big learning experience Lucifer talked about was supposed to be, but he had to admit that he had learned something that day.
"Nobody said this was part of the 'learning experience'!" Gabriel spat -quite literally- once he was able to lift his head a little further away from the toilet bowl.
Sam continued rubbing Gabriel's back as he steadied his fiancé. The way Gabriel's entire body was trembling made it look all too likely that he could lose control over his limbs and fall to the floor or bang his head on the toilet bowl. Sam wasn't going to take any chances here! Not to mention that Gabriel was feeling awful enough without having to go through all this by himself.
"Can I call Cas now?" Sam asked, trying not to sound like he was actually saying 'I told you to call Cas right after you woke up covered in sweat and shivering'.
Gabriel nodded, trying to give Sam a grateful smile just before he had to retch into the toilet again. Screw learning experiences!