All in his Head
Quick note to say that like most of my stories, this isn't strictly canon. There's no Dawson, Shay's alive and well, Cruz is still on Truck and Matt's TBI never happened. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed seeing it in my head.
Sick
Kelly was sitting at the island counter in the kitchen he had shared with Matt for almost a year. He had the radio on and there was a fresh mug of coffee in his hand, he was idly flipping through the latest copy of Firefighters Monthly, glancing out of the window to their small back yard ever so often. There was a small knot of worry in his stomach, there had been for a couple of days, but when he heard the jets of the shower start, the knot eased a little and he took a sip of of his drink.
When Matt appeared, hair damp and clothes smelling like the fresh linen detergent he preferred, Kelly smiled. "You look so much better," he greeted, beaming.
Matt raised his brows. "Oh, now that I've showered for the first time in forty-eight hours?"
"Because you're smiling," Kelly said.
"Well, I don't feel sick anymore, no wonder I'm smiling," he retorted.
"Herrmann will be happy you can still compete in that boxing match," Kelly told him as he stood up to pour Matt a mug of coffee.
"I'm happy I can still do that! It's not for a few weeks anyway, I'll be fighting fit, and worst case, I could have just thrown up on my opponent," he teased.
"Well enough for work tomorrow?" Kelly asked him.
"Of course," he responded, gratefully accepting the warm drink from Kelly as they both sat down.
"Of course," Kelly repeated with an eye roll.
"I saw that," he announced indignantly.
"Wasn't hiding it," Kelly retorted, chuckling.
"I just hope you don't catch whatever I had," he said seriously, thinking how close he and Kelly had been over the last couple of days. He'd been throwing up almost non-stop to start with, until there was nothing left and dry heaves had wrecked his body, unable to breath through his stuffy nose and barely able to drink the water Kelly forced down every few hours.
"You probably ate something funny," Kelly suggested.
"Oh, yeah, that pasta was cracking jokes at me before I ate it the other day," he teased, eyes sparkling with mirth.
Kelly chuckled. "You are feeling better."
"Were you worried about me?" Matt asked him, smiling.
"Of course I was, you idiot!" he exclaimed.
"I was only a little sick," Matt responded.
"You're never sick!"
He shrugged self-deprecatingly. "Thank you for looking after me," he said, as if it wasn't something he'd expected.
"It's part of the whole boyfriend package," Kelly explained, amused.
"Still; thank you…"
Kelly just smiled, moments like that tore at his heartstrings, there were always small reminders showing him how they'd had very different lives growing up.
Roll call was over and done with fairly swiftly the next morning. Matt strolled into the common room after hanging back, speaking to Boden about having his rig sent in for its annual service in a few weeks; it would be falling on his watch. He wasn't pleased about it, Boden had sympathised but there was nothing either of them would be able to do about it, Matt just hoped they didn't get the same old replacement rig they'd been given before.
He was lost in his own thoughts as he headed over to the coffee pot. He groaned inwardly when he realised a fresh pot needed making, annoyed at the person who'd finished it before him. The rule was to make another pot when it was empty, he gritted his teeth and said nothing though, it was only a minor inconvenience.
"You're not infectious, are you, Lieutenant?" Herrmann asked when Matt sat down opposite Kelly with his coffee. News of his illness had spread like wildfire once Kelly had informed Shay.
"He better not be," Kelly spoke, glancing up from his magazine
"I did tell you to sleep in the spare room," Matt said. He was desperate to take a sip of his coffee but he knew it would be scolding hot. Another reason that whoever had finished the pot should have made more.
"Ah, nope, nope, nope, no bedroom talk!" Herrmann announced, shaking his head. Otis and Cruz looked at him with amusement.
"How much action do you think we got up to?" Matt asked him uncharacteristically open. "Not being able breathe through my nose and throwing up every half hour isn't exactly the sexy look I tend to go for, Herrmann."
Kelly let out a snort of laughter at Herrmanns awkwardness and went back to the article he was reading.
"You're still doing the boxing match, right?" Herrmann asked him.
"I wasn't on deaths door," Matt retorted. "I was barely sick."
"You're never sick," he responded.
Kelly smiled but didn't look up.
"I'm still gonna thrash PD for us, don't worry, Herrmann," Matt told him, resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
The alarms rang out a few moments later, calling for Truck 81 and Ambulance 61.
Matt never ended up drinking the coffee he'd made. It didn't go to waste though; Kelly had swapped it for his own empty mug not long after Matt had left the common room.
Matt closed the back of the ambulance doors, and watched as it sped off in the direction of the hospital. It had been a quick extraction; a singular vehicle had collided with the foundation of a bridge. The victim seemed well enough but Shay and Rafferty decided it was best to get her checked over, and she'd agreed, leaving 81 to clear up the scene so the road could be reopened.
He started the clean-up process with the rest of his crew, he'd always been one to set a good example, but annoyance rippled through him when he saw Otis and Cruz standing still from the corner of his vision. He stopped what he was doing and look over to them; they were standing by the edge of the road, chatting and laughing.
"Hey! You two! The city's not paying you to stand around chatting!" he called over to them, fed up that he was having to do some of the work they should be doing. He was their lieutenant after all.
He turned his back to them and knelt down again to pick up part of a bumper when he heard them sniggering, saying that Matt couldn't function without any coffee in his system. He dropped the bumper and turned to them.
"I heard that!" he yelled, scowling.
Otis and Cruz shared a confused look but carried on with the clean-up.
By the time they arrived back at the firehouse, Matt was thoroughly annoyed with his whole crew, and despite how he wished to shower and changed, he got them all doing an hour of ladder drills once they'd taken off their gear. Kelly and the rest of Squad, along with Engine, had been sitting out on the apron in the sun, watching them hard at work, cracking jokes at Matt's demands until Boden came by, hinting that it would do them some good to do some drill practice as well.
Matt had always had headaches, ever since he could remember, and they were the one thing he'd happily swallow down some painkillers for, having learnt that they'd never just go away on their own. They'd interfere with his mood and concentration, sometimes they were worse than usual, but they were never as bad as the blinding pain he felt when he woke up at home a few days later.
He groaned involuntarily, waking Kelly from his light sleep.
Kelly rolled over as he woke. "Baby?" he croaked out wearily.
Matt just moaned.
He pushed himself up and was peering down at Matt now, heart racing. "Matty… what's wrong?"
It took all the effort in the world but Matt managed to lift his arm, moving his hand to his forehead, keeping his eyes scrunched shut the whole time.
"You have a headache," Kelly said in realisation, keeping his tone hushed. Quickly, and quietly, he got up, and closed the curtains that were usually just for decoration over the blackout blinds, blocking out the small bit of light that was creeping through the edges. He then tiptoed across the wooden flooring, stepping over the board that creaked, and opened the door so there was just enough space to creep out without letting too much light in.
He returned with some strong prescription painkillers, barely used and probably a little past their best before date, from when Matt had managed to dislocate his shoulder a couple of years ago. He offer Matt the pills along with the fresh glass of water he'd brought, helping Matt take them as he kept his eyes closed, and had struggled to sit up.
Kelly remained lying by Matt's side as the painkiller slowly but surely started to kick in, he stroked his bare arm soothingly, hoping it was providing some comfort.
Matt's eyes eventually fluttered open, he gazed wearily at Kelly for a while before speaking. "Hi," he began, smiling.
"Hi," Kelly repeated, smiling back at him.
"Sorry about that," Matt responded, referring to the bother he thought he'd caused when he'd woken in pain.
"We all get headaches," he said. He knew there was never much point in telling Matt there was no need to apologise for things that were out of his control.
"Should I make us breakfast in bed?" Matt asked.
Kelly shook his head. "No."
"No?"
"I'll do it," he responded.
"I don't want you to move, you smell really good," Matt responded.
"You would have had to move if you made breakfast," he pointed out.
"Yeah… well, maybe breakfast can wait. You look amazing right now..." Matt replied huskily.
"Only right now?"
"Always," Matt said.
"That's more like," he responded, leaning in and giving Matt a gentle kiss.
TBC