Sick Days
AN: Short story written for a prompt fest, the prompt was Hurt/Comfort.
Relena came to a stop outside Heero's door, a set of keys in her hand as she reached up to knock on its surface. A strong sense of worry gripped her heart, no matter how hard she tried to tell herself she was jumping to worst-case scenarios too quickly.
It had only been a couple of days since Heero had been taken from her security detail to look into something for Une. The fact that he hadn't answered her calls or been seen in that time shouldn't rightly cause her to panic. Heero had often been one to disappear when taking care of something, but he'd always been reachable if she needed him.
She knocked again a little louder, and waited impatiently, ears straining to hear if he was moving on the other side. Unwilling to wait any longer, Relena inserted the key to into the deadbolt and unlocked the door.
"Heero?" she called as she pushed the door inwards. The apartment was dim, the only lighting coming in from the hall behind her, and a slight streamer of sunlight from a mostly closed curtain across the room. "Heero?" she called again, reaching for the light switch by the door. "Are you home?"
There was no immediate answer, but Relena heard a distinct thump from down the hall, where Heero's bedroom was. Shutting the door behind her Relena quickly made her way down the hall to his door. "Heero, are you alright?" she asked pushing open the door and carefully peeking into the dark room.
"Who's there?" a gravelly voice asked over the sound of a gun cocking.
Relena remained very still and non threatening. "Heero," she said his name clearly, "it's me, Relena..."
"Relena?" he asked, and the confusion in his voice set her heart to pounding in her chest.
"Yes," she assured, hesitantly opening the door a little wider to let some of the light from the living room spill across the bed and floor. She noticed immediately that Heero wasn't on the bed, the blankets and sheets made a trail down over the far side. And that's where Relena saw a flash of dark eyes and the glint of the gun he was still cautiously holding.
"Are you alright?" she asked, unable to keep the extreme worry out of her voice. "I've been trying to reach you, didn't you hear the phone ring?"
Heero looked at her for one more cautious minute before twisting away and falling back against the side of the mattress. "It broke," he huffed.
Alarm bells were going off in Relena head as she switched on the overhead light and saw Heero flinch at the brightness. Pulling out her phone, Relena called up Sally's number and impatiently waited for the doctor to answer. "Relena?" Dr. Po said after the third ring. "A little early in the day, isn't it?"
"I'm at Heero's apartment," she said as she stepped closer to the bed where Heero sat on the floor. "Something's wrong with him, can you come?"
"I'll be there in ten minutes," Sally assured without bothering with needless questions.
Hanging up the phone, Relena's eyes noticed smears of red on the disheveled sheets, and she dashed the last few steps to kneel down at Heero's side. He blinked up at her, his features flushed with evident fever. "What happened?" she asked touching his face with her cool fingers.
Heero leaned briefly into the touch, "I lost focus..." he breathed.
Relena palmed his cheek, alarmed at the heat radiating off him. "Where?" she asked eyes searching for the source of the blood.
"I don't remember the cross streets..." Heero muttered, looking at her with confusion.
Her worry ratchet up another notch at Heero evident disorientation. She prayed it was just the fever and not something worse. Relena took his face in both hands, forcing him to look into her eyes. "No, where are you injured?" she clarified, trying to offer him a reassuring smile.
Heero gestured towards his left side, and Relena could see blood staining his shirt and shorts. As gently as she could Relena lifted the hem of Heero's shirt, looking at the rough bandaging job he'd done. "Why didn't you come in?" she asked in shock, and decided to leave the bandage in place until Sally arrived.
"I've been trying to reach you for two days," she said then, trying to keep control of her emotions. She'd feared the worst, but what she was faced with wasn't necessarily that. "Why would you just stay here and let infection set in?" she asked bewildered, her hands returning to his fevered face. Relena knew Heero didn't much care for seeking medical attention for every little bump or scrape, but she'd thought him more responsible than this.
Heero gave her an attempt at a flat look, ruined only slightly by the flush to his face. "Wound didn't cause the fever," he huffed with a pained grunt as he shifted slightly, "fever caused the wound..."
Relena stared at him, opening her mouth to demand to know what he meant, when she suddenly heard the front door open. "Relena?" Sally called.
"In here," she returned, feeling a strong sense of relief when she saw the doctor come into sight from down the hall.
Sally took in the scene with a professional calm, moving immediately around the bed to kneel on Heero's other side. "What happened?" she asked lowering her medical bag on the floor beside her.
"I'm not sure yet," Relena admitted, as Sally's palm reached out to rest on Heero's forehead. The former pilot tried to shake her off, but Relena captured his right hand before he could try and swat her away. "I think his side's infected..." she said and saw Heero's eyes narrow at that.
"I told you," he began, but Sally stopped him by placing a thermometer under his tongue.
"Don't talk," she told him firmly, pushing up on the bottom of his chin. "It'll mess up the reading."
"Hn..." Heero still managed to grunt around the offending object.
When it beeped, Sally withdrew it and glanced at the numbers, "103.1..." she muttered to herself. "Have you taken anything for it?"
Heero shook his head with a wince, clearly wanting to push the doctor out of his personal space, but Relena wasn't going to stand for that. She needed to know he was okay, needed that reassurance that only Sally could offer. "Help me get him back on the bed," Sally said then, "so I can take a look at this wound."
For his part, Heero tried to pull his legs under him, but with the tangled sheets on the floor it was difficult for him to find purchase. Heero hissed as they got him up onto the mattress, his skin feeling much too warm as Relena guided him further onto the bed.
Relena moved to sit beside him on the rumpled sheets, both for moral support and to keep him there if he tried to protest again, while Sally maneuvered his legs, so he was laying prone. The doctor reached into her bag and removed a pair of blue gloves quickly slipping them on her hands before she moved to pull back Heero's bloodied shirt.
"It's not infected," Heero defended, trying to push himself up on one elbow, but both Relena and Sally each with a hand on a shoulder forced him flat again.
"Let her take a look," Relena said firmly.
At the same moment Sally said, "I'll be the judge of that." She gave Heero her best no nonsense look before peeling back the tape and gauze.
From her vantage point beside Heero, Relena winced at the sight of the gash. She tore her eyes away to focus on Heero's face, and her left hand brushed back his thick bangs before she rested her palm against his forehead. He shivered slightly as he looked at her with fever-bright eyes, before they darted to Sally, whose fingers were probing around the wound. Relena winced again, only seeing it through the corner of her eye, and could hear Heero's breath hitch a little but he gave no other signs of pain.
"He's right," Sally said finally, pulling clean dressing from her medical bag, "there's no infection here."
Heero made to try and get up again, but Relena kept him pinned with a surprising amount of ease. "Then what's causing the fever?" she asked worriedly. She knew the doctor wasn't about to just walk away, however much Heero's current expression said that's just what he wanted.
Sally finished taping the new bandage in place, and stripped off her bloodied gloves before reaching for Heero's neck. "My guess?" the doctor began, palpating the glands on either side of Heero's throat, "he's caught something his body's fighting off." Heero tried again to bat Sally's hands aside, but he only made it so far as the doctor taking hold of his left wrist to check his pulse.
Relena began to breathe a sigh of relief at Sally's diagnosis, but found herself thinking back to what Heero had said. She felt tears of relief springing into her eyes as she looked down at Heero, her expression growing accusatory for having caused her such worry. "Preventers has sick days for a reason, Heero," she told him with a sigh, feeling shaky as her fears were finally relieved.
The doctor chuckled softly at that. "Here," Sally said, pulling a small blister pack of pills from her bag, "take two of these, they'll help with the fever." She looked pointedly at Relena, "every four to six hours until the fever breaks." Sally shifted her gaze back to Heero. "You're off duty until this clears," she told him bluntly as she began gathering her supplies. "And I want to see you again when it has," she added for good measure.
Heero sighed a frustrated sounding breath, "You fuss too much," he muttered not nearly under his breath.
"That's an order, Yuy," Sally told him firmly, but her stern expression soon relaxed into a smile. "We fuss because we care," she added with a wink before moving to leave the room.
Relena drew a breath, looking down at Heero who was pushing himself up onto one elbow. "Don't scare me like that," she told him fiercely, reaching across the bed for the glass of water on the night stand.
"Wasn't my intent," Heero told her dryly, seeming much more alert than when she'd first enter the room.
Passing the glass of water to Heero, Relena took the blister pack of pills from his hand. She suspected he wouldn't do anything with them without her insistence. Popping them free, she placed two small pills in Heero's free hand, and had to eye him pointedly until he reluctantly took them.
Relena took the empty glass from his hand and climbed off the bed. Quickly making her way into the bathroom, Relena turned on the cold water and searched out a washcloth to soak under the tap. After also refilling the glass with water, Relena came back into the room to find Heero was still sitting up in bed.
"C'mon, lay down," she encouraged, placing the glass on the night stand before sitting on the edge of the bed. Relena reached for Heero's left shoulder, trying to guide him back into that position so she could drape the cold cloth on his forehead.
Heero resisted, "I'm not helpless," he countered, but there was no heat to his words. If anything he sounded slightly amused. Relena trailed the cold cloth across the back of Heero's neck, causing him to shiver visibly, as she smiled at him.
Relena pushed his shoulders back towards the bed, her lips lightly brushing against his as she laid him out again. "No one said you were," she breathed, and settled the cloth on his brow, pressing it there and feeling another shiver course through him. "But despite what you might think, it's nice to be fussed over sometimes." She smiled down at him, seeing Heero finally begin to relax. She was determined to show him the benefits, while she could.